Democrats should call for a Balanced Budget Amendment.....

[kentuck]

Clinton balanced the budget. We know it can be done. Even if we don't balance the budget, we should attempt to make progress toward that goal. It is not just Democrats that are concerned about the insane spending by this Administration. Many conservatives are likewise concerned - even though it not much publicized.

But there is no reason in the world that the Democrats should not call for fiscal restraint and a goal of a balanced budget. The Republicans have put us in debt by an additional three trillion dollars in four short years! That's almost as much as we have spent on the so-called "War on Poverty" since 1965. It is insane. We need to return to fiscal sanity.

It wasn't that long ago that the Repubs threw out Bush Sr, to a large extent, because he had record deficits and everyone was frightened to death of what the consequences might be. It was the rally cry of Ross Perot and many argue tha Perot was the reason Bush Sr lost. And now, just a dozen or so years later, they petend it doesn't matter what the deficits are - we can borrow and spend as much as we want. After all, it is such a small percentage of the GDP, they tell themselves. But there is no free lunch and someone will have to pay it back. Most likely, our grandchildren. It is foolish and should be stopped immediately.

[Greeby]

1. I believe Gene Taylor tried that

Just got totally shut down by the House leadership

[enid602]

2. timing

Now would be perfect timing.

[merwin]

3. The republicans can shut it down without so much as an 'up or down vote'.

[kentuck]

4. So?

Make them take a stand. Point out their profligate spending. And the results of that spending.

[merwin]

15. That's the point, they don't have to take a stand.

Have you heard any of the media reporting on the neocons killing all of the dem's bills for Katrina help? Nope. Nobody knows about it.

[Ladyhawk]

5. Problem is, with the Republicans in charge, important programs would

be cut and the middle and lower class would be taxed.

[kentuck]

6. Is there a political price to pay for such cuts ?

Would they have the bravado to make such cuts?

[Ladyhawk]

20. We could try to mobilize behind this idea and find out.

:shrug:

You see, I'll be one of the first on the chopping block, since I get Social Security Disability. Maybe my family would finally be outraged if they had to completely take care of me. Maybe my mother would be pleased to have me completely under her thumb. Who knows? I've often thought I would rather die than be forced to live that way again.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Exactly.. All hail the military industrial complex, and screw the schools

etc

[Old and In the Way]

8. I agree...but I don't know how we get a vote by the guys running

the Republican Syndicate in Congress. That would necessarily force priorities to change and make them responsible to fix the fiscal mess that they've created.

What I want to know is what is the ultimate price Republicans will pay for adding trillions to our liabilities balance sheet? When will the bill come due and how will it impact this country?

[Telly Savalas]

9. BBA not a great idea.

The flexibility of being able to run a modest defecit at times is very useful. In the longterm, it's obviously desirable for government revenues to equal expenditures, but this isn't necessarily the case on a year by year basis. During a recession, running a small defecit to stimulate the economy can be a good thing if the government turns around and runs surpluses to pay down the debt when there's a recovery.

Also, for extraordinary circumstances like Katrina, which imposes emergency costs of a magnitude seen only once in every 50 years, it's not irresponsible to spread the payment over the course of a decade or two instead of trying to pay for all the reconstruction costs in the next couple of years.

Anyway, a balance budget amendment is an empty symbolic gesture because it dodges the question of how the budget is to be balanced. Even if such a thing passes, Congress can use loopholes and accounting voodoo to pass a defecit-ridden budget that's still in compliance with the amendment. Failing that, they'll just use the BBA as an excuse to slash social programs as Ladyhawke argues.

Rather than pushing for a BBA, the Democrats should instead make concrete proposals on how we'll actually go about balancing the budget. They should issue reports of corporate welfare, waste, and trough-feeding that can be slashed from our expenditures. They should make proposals for a truly progressive tax system. (Not just little bandaid measures like rolling back Bush's tax breaks on the rich, but moving our income tax brackets to something comparable to the rates of the 1950's and 1960's.)

Even though I disagree with your specific proposal, I do agree that fiscal responsibility can be a winning issue for us in 2006 if we work at it.

Oh yeah, an immediate withdrawal from Iraq would go a long ways towards putting us in the black too.

[serryjw]

16. Yeh....like our Wars!...they aren't and would never be part of the budget

They would have a ton of supplementals to cover what ever they wanted and pass the social programs back on to the States to cover. In theory I also believe in a Federal sales tax in place of income tax...as long as it had a 'floor' to cover the basic needs of the poor and we weren't charged TWICE as much for State tax.

[Pepperbelly]

10. It would be nothing more than the same bullshit bad policy the gop...

advocated for years. It was fucked up then and it is still fucked up. All it does is play to the peanut gallery.

[kentuck]

11. Can anything be worse than these insane deficits?

Or do you think it's not really that important?

[Pepperbelly]

12. I think that the balanced budget amendment is a gimmick

to allieviate responsibility for the deficit rather than actually dealing with it.

Want to know how to deal with it? Elect a Democrat.

[kentuck]

13. Perhaps just a balanced budget..?

No amendment. Somebody has to restore some sense of fiscal sanity. The Repubs are just waiting for a more appropriate time to push thru the estate tax cut. (So called death-tax because that sounds better than "estate"....estate sounds so rich and elitist)

[Pepperbelly]

14. agreed ...

see my position here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4810844&mesg_id=4812688

[ruggerson]

17. Yep, it's called wedge politics and it wins elections

[Vinca]

18. It seems useless for Democrats to call for anything.

The Republicans stick together come hell or high water. It doesn't matter if it's for the public good. The public doesn't count. We need a Democratic majority in Congress. Any less is unacceptable.

[pstans]

19. Feingold introduced a PAYGO ammendment last spring

that would basically balance the budget, but it got defeated.