Issue Position: Balanced Budget Amendment

Issue Position

Washington must take aggressive steps to address our growing national debt, in order to reverse the damaging economic consequences we are experiencing as a result, and prevent the inevitable and difficult decisions that will have to be made if we do not change course. No single act of Congress would have greater impact on eliminating the country's annual deficits and reducing our national debt than a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Year after year, the federal government fails to make fiscally responsible choices. Despite overtaxing the American people, Washington routinely spends much more than it takes in. Statutory restraints, such as the failed Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation and "PAYGO" rules, have proven ineffective and impossible to enforce because simple majorities in Congress can alter, weaken, dismantle, and ultimately discard fiscal reforms.

Because the Constitution requires two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to amend, only a constitutional amendment will force Congress to make fiscally responsible decisions year after year, prioritize spending appropriately, use taxpayer money wisely, and eliminate future deficits. It is the only legislative tool that credibly guarantees permanent enforcement of spending restraints.

Updated July 21, 2011

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