Fed up with past gimmicks that haven’t slowed the growth of the nation’s debt, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee is renewing an idea the public loves but Washington hates: A Constitutional amendment to balance the budget.

“All past efforts of Congress to limit spending have utterly failed. None of the existing restraints – the Budget Act, spending caps, the debt limit, the sequester – have gotten spending under control, and we have $16.4 trillion of debt to prove it,” said Lee. “Only a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution will permanently bind Congress and force both parties to live within the nation’s means. Anything less will simply maintain our dysfunctional and unsustainable status quo.”