The time has come for a balanced budget amendment

Republicans captured Congress in the 1994 midterm election by campaigning on the need for a balanced budget amendment when the federal deficit was only $203 billion.The Congressional Budget Office reported last Thursday that the federal deficit reached $1.2 trillion after only the first 10 months of the fiscal year.

The fact we are having this heated debate is evidence that we have reached critical mass with a massive intrusive Federal government that taxes us to death, and has a blank check to borrow whatever the difference is between what it spends, and what it takes in. Common sense should tell us this is a recipe for disaster, and in fact that disaster has already begun to play out.

When we had these budget compromises in the 1980s and 1990s, spending was reduced, taxes were raised, and the crisis was kicked down the road, but only for a short period of time. Over time, the tax increases always remain, but the spending begins to increase almost as soon as the deals are finished. A constitutional amendment is the medicine for Washington's spending ailment.

We have witnessed an unprecedented spending binge from this administration. Even in the face of a failing economy, rising unemployment, and a growing mountain of debt for our children and grandchildren, this administration still demands a blank check to waste money on failed welfare programs, a failed economic stimulus program, a health care bill that keeps driving up costs, and no one understands, and continues to shove it's disastrous green energy initiatives down our throats. Instead of a serious discussion about our budget, Obama gives us talking points, and threatens us if we fail to raise the debt limit for his reckless irresponsible administration.

The whole idea of the Debt Ceiling is for the Government to explain it's spending, and for the American people to ask what are we getting for our money ? In the case of the Obama administration we are getting unprecedented spending levels for welfare and entitlement programs that are rife with massive fraud, and waste, class-warfare against the business class, stifling over-regulation, the end of our manned space program, an irresponsible, piecemeal approach to defense spending cuts, with no oversight, and no discussion, higher unemployment, a stalled economy, and continual cries for more money.

Obama owns this mess, he isn't cleaning up Bush's mess, he is only creating a bigger mess. He is using the recession, and the crisis to advance his own political agenda, which has been a Franco-German welfare state, and it has been disastrous for our country and the economy. Obama hasn't caused runaway government spending, but he sure has kicked up into the stratosphere.

2010 midterms gave us fresh hope.This amendment will demonstrate we are taking action. If conservatives across the country can stand behind this, we may have a chance of getting it through. That’s what it is going to take.

Amending the constitution is an arduous endeavor. Not only would both chambers have to pass an amendment, but 38 state legislatures would have to ratify it. More likely this year,may be an agreement to grant the president “enhanced rescission” the ability to target wasteful spending via a line-item veto.

Personally, I think that a vote on a balanced-budget amendment is one of the demands we should exact for a vote on the debt ceiling. The current effort to enact a balanced budget amendment is not going to go away. Cut, Cap and Balance, is driven by the very real predictions that our nation is heading for bankruptcy.

There is growing realization that the only way to get the spenders in Washington to stop spending is to give them no choice.