Congress Has All The Needed Tools What A Gimmick! Every Year Congress Must Write And Adopt A Federal Budget. So Balance It, Already.

The balanced budget amendment is a feel-good gimmick. Its popularity among conservatives shows they’ve been hanging around liberals so long they swallowed one of liberalism’s snake-oil cures: the belief any problem will go away if the law bans it, regulates it and hems it in with process reforms.

The only sure result when you throw a law at a problem is more laws - and more political maneuvering to slither around them.

The current Constitution gives Congress all the power and incentive it needs. Every year Congress must write and adopt a federal budget. So balance it, already. And every two years there is an election. If voters want a balanced budget, politicians who disagree can be ousted.

Remember the last two elections? Big spenders got the heave-ho and fiscal conservatives took over their jobs.

Back when Republicans were in the minority in Congress, the balanced budget amendment was a clever ploy. Bringing it up forced Democrats to oppose it - as if there was not already enough evidence that the big spenders were saddling the next generation with debt.

But now fiscal conservatives have a solid majority, plus a president who claims to favor their cause. They don’t need the amendment.

Besides, the amendment is simplistic. It fails to allow federal government leeway for debt to finance capital outlays. Cities and states do not have a balanced budget in the same sense one is proposed for federal government. Cities and states borrow money to build everything from universities to sewage plants. Shouldn’t federal government be allowed to borrow for capital assets like airports and military bases?

The amendment would let Congress vote to override its mandate. If Congress could override for reasons like war, it could override for other reasons as well - such as a middle-class revolt when budget balancers go after entitlements like Medicare and federal pensions.

Before the states ratify the amendment they should ask how Congress, stripped of the spending option, would satisfy the politician’s lust to posture against the nation’s ills. Answer: Congress would order states and businesses to implement cures - at their own expense. Bad law, like quack medicine, has side effects.

Congress already has made welcome cuts in the deficit, and it has everything it needs to make more.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline “But Congress needs incentive”

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