Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) recently told NRO that Republicans need to “draw a line in the sand” and pass a balanced-budget amendment before agreeing to raise the federal debt ceiling. In a new blog post, he uses Churchill to make his case:
To borrow from Churchill, to get spending under control, a balanced budget amendment is the worst solution except all the others that have been tried. And Congress has tried several.
Previous Congresses have attempted to restrict spending through statutory restrictions such as the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, more commonly known as Gramm-Rudman, and the Budget Enforcement Act. Both failed to control spending long-term because of each of the laws’ built-in limitations and the ease with which subsequent Congresses were able to reform, repeal, dismantle and ultimately ignore the restrictions.
[...]
Back to Churchill, several proposals have been floated as possible bargains for increasing the debt limit. Unquestionably the “best worst” solution, indeed the only one that has a real chance of permanently changing the way Washington spends money, is the Hatch-Lee Balanced Budget Amendment. It is the very nature of a constitutional amendment that makes the proposal a highly effective limitation on Congress’s insatiable appetite to spend. Unlike other statutory reforms that have failed because they needed only a simple majority to dismantle, an amendment to the Constitution would require overwhelming support from Congress and the American people to return to the country to the status quo.
I will continue to encourage my colleagues to oppose an increase in the debt limit unless and until we pass the Hatch-Lee Balanced Budget Amendment. For anyone serious about preserving the long-term prosperity of our country, it should be an easy stand to take.
You can read Lee’s letter to his colleagues here.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/266881/re-lees-limit-robert-costa
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