Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement regarding the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) Resolution (H.J. Res. 2) that is being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives later today:
"Yesterday, the national debt officially topped $15 trillion. In 1995 -- the last time Congress seriously debated the Balanced Budget Amendment -- our national debt was under $5 trillion. At that time, 72 Democrats supported this amendment, including two of the top three Members of their current leadership team. Now their leadership is playing politics and actively working to defeat it. This is not just a fiscal issue, it is a moral issue. The Balanced Budget Amendment deserves bipartisan support."
If ratified, the BBA would require the federal government to balance its budget on an annual basis, require a three-fifths vote of each chamber to increase the debt limit in the future, and prohibit any tax increase from becoming law unless approved by a majority of each chamber. It also allows waivers to these limits when a declaration of war is in effect or under other circumstances involving military conflict.