As one of Washington’s biggest advocates of the balanced budget amendment movement, Sen. Mike Lee recently outlined his vision of what the amendment should entail in an opinion piece. Lee exposed four planks of his ideal balanced budget approach. The opinion piece was published in The Hill, a Washington, D.C. publication.
Lee first would expect that the amendment “apply to all spending.” This addresses concerns that have risen over some members of Congress’ effort to water down the amendment by exempting such programs as Social Security from the federal budget that would have a constitutional requirement to be balanced.
“I have been especially concerned over a ‘Trojan Horse’ amendment that doesn’t have safe-guards,” Lee said in his weekly press teleconference. “Any proposal that would allow a simple majority vote to get out of the budget (balance requirement) would cause harm.”
The second suggestion Lee explains in his op-ed says “the amendment must cap spending at the average historical level of federal revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product.” Lee references the unbalanced spending status quo that exists in Washington stating “Over the last 40 years, revenue has averaged just above 18 percent of GDP, while spending now approaches 25 percent …”
The third and fourth elements Lee said he hopes to find in a balanced budget amendment proposal would be that a super-majority vote in the Senate and House would be required in order to raise taxes and the debt ceiling. Lee said requiring more safe-guards to Congress’ ability to raise taxes or accrue more debt will promote “Congress’ incentive to prioritize spending and use taxpayer dollars wisely.”
Lee admits he wouldn’t oppose a proposal if it failed to address all four of his suggestions, but would have trouble dismissing his first suggestion that the amendment must pertain to all federal spending.
A balanced budget amendment was up for consideration on Wednesday in the House of Representatives. The Obama Administration has expressed it will not support this amendment. The Democrat controlled Senate will likely oppose this attempt as well. This legislation is void of Sen. Lee’s third and fourth suggestions that require super-majority votes in both houses to raise taxes or raise the debt ceiling.
