Balanced Approach – What Does It Mean?
According to the Chief Bamboozler in the Oval Office, it means “cut spending”/“Raise Revenues.” No mention of a Balanced Budget Amendment; of course that means absolutely nothing to our Congress or the fool in the White House. It obviously means nothing to the rabble-rousing, rhetoric spouting left wing sycophantic television anchored in place nitwits; Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, Kristen Welker, David Gregory, Brian Williams, George Stephanopoulos, Jon Karl and Chuck Todd.
Why does it mean nothing? Because no Balanced Budget Amendment has ever had sufficient support for passage. They came close in 1995. It passed the House but fell one vote short in the Senate. To his credit, President Clinton in his final State of the Union address, urged the Congress to continue to balance its book and erase the debt entirely. Congress has simply ignored that caveat and our debt keeps on rising.
1. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/why_conservatives_should_bork_the_balanced_budget_amendment.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_Budget_Amendment
Under Presidents GW Bush and Obama, Tax cuts and increases in military and other spending have eliminated late 1990s-era surpluses. Both the deficit and debt grew to the largest in U.S. history, although not as a percentage of GDP. In fiscal years starting September 30, 2002 and ending September 30, 2004 the deficit increased nearly 50%.
The Bush Administration and a Republican Congress cut the amount of the yearly deficit over the next several years. Bush called the outcome for Fiscal 2006 a “dramatic reduction” that redeemed his 2004 campaign pledge to halve the deficit earlier than his original 2009 target date.[16]
However, during the administration of President George W. Bush, the gross debt increased from $5.7 trillion in January 2001 to $10.7 trillion by December 2008 [17], rising from 57.0% of GDP to 74.5% of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March 2009 that under the Obama administration public debt would rise from 40.8% of GDP in 2008 to 70.1% in 2012.[18] Gross debt did rise to 84.5% of GDP at the end of Fiscal Year 2009 and to 93.5% of GDP at the end of Fiscal Year 2010. The Obama administration has overseen the highest debt, deficit and debt as % of GDP in the nation’s history.
A major increase in the public debt was the bank bailout crisis in the last months of the Bush Administration, during the 2008 presidential election cycle, and part of the larger current Financial crisis (2007–present)
The federal budget deficit, which hit a record $1.4 trillion last year, will exceed that figure this year and again in 2011, the White House predicted July 24, 2010.[19]“
3. obit
So, A ‘Balanced Approach’ is just another dance step to waltz around the problem. Congress and the Executive are deathly afraid of a Balanced Budget Amendment containing an enforcement clause which would monetarily punish Congress and the Executive for failing to balance the budget.
With scrupulously honest people in government, we would not need a Balanced Budget Amendment. Unfortunately honesty has a range of values.
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