Just two weeks after the Republican-led Congress hastily passed a $1.3-trillion omnibus spending bill that blew up discretionary spending caps, lawmakers in the House on Thursday night will vote on a previously-rejected balanced budget amendment that would impose restraints on a spend-happy Congress.
The largely symbolic bill would prevent Congress from spending more money than it brings in annually. The vote comes on the heels of a Congressional Budget Office report this week that deficits under the all-GOP government will go up 21 percent in fiscal year 2018 compared to the previous year, and will top $1 trillion by 2020. The CBO cited the recently-passed Republican tax cuts as a contributing factor, estimating that the law would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
In order for the balanced budget amendment to become a constitutional amendment, it would have to be approved with two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress and be ratified by 38 of the 50 states. That’s not happening. But it will give members who support it the ability to go home to their districts and profess their dedication to fiscal responsibility.
Looking past the bill’s minimal support in the Senate, its odds in the House may be just as slim. An identical measure, also sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, failed on a vote of 261-165 in 2011, the 261 yea votes well short of the two-thirds threshold. Democrats, for their part, label the amendment a political stunt. If Republicans were serious about slashing deficits, argues Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, they would have put those principles into action last month, when Congress approved the hefty omnibus spending bill. And on Wednesday night, support among some Republicans appeared in doubt, prompting deputy whip Patrick McHenry to stay after votes to urge members to vote in favor of the legislation.
One of those members, Matt Gaetz of Florida, told TWS he plans to support the amendment. For the effort to fail, he said, would be “a demoralizing blow” to the cause of fiscal conservatism. Fellow Budget Committee member Dave Brat said in a statement Thursday morning that he would also vote in favor of the amendment, arguing that “it would decrease the likelihood that Congress will continue on its current path of bankrupting the United States and shackling our kids with our an unpaid credit card bill.”
Republicans who oppose the measure say such an amendment “would lead to much bigger government fueled by more taxes”—at least, that was House speaker Paul Ryan’s explanation for voting against it in 2011. (No word from Ryan’s spokesperson on whether he supports it this time around. The speaker rarely casts a vote.)
Specifically, some Republicans fear that enforcing a balanced budget amendment, requiring lawmakers to consider the far-fetched possibilities of either cutting spending or hiking taxes to reduce deficits, would ultimately lead Congress to do neither, raising spending and taxes together in perpetuity.
Apart from that, libertarian-minded members are concerned about the ease with which Congress could do away with the amendment’s spending requirements. The House Liberty Caucus noted in a press release urging opposition to the amendment Wednesday that the BBA allows for lawmakers to waive its constraints with just a three-fifths majority in both chambers.
“Amending the Constitution should not be taken lightly, and inserting an ineffective fiscal rule that’s easily waived or ignored will erode respect for constitutional constraints and will be worse than having none at all,” the statement read.
