The Republicans were in confusion from the effects of a deficit of 1.5 trillion dollar tax cuts when they passed him by. Now they are trying to make the deficit unconstitutional.
The house is scheduled to vote on a balanced budget amendment on Thursday. Although a few States require their lawmakers to adopt a balanced budget annually, the Federal government does not have the same requirement. In fact, many economists argue that this is necessary for the Federal government to go into debt for the benefit of the economy. However, balanced budget amendments are something of a white whale on the right. Many conservatives believe that this is the only way to actually make spending cuts.
No doubt the US has a lot of debt, but Democrats are quick to point out the irony of Republicans are pushing a balanced budget amendment is now: on Monday, the congressional budget office, an independent official body that measures the impact of the legislation — said that deficit spending will increase by $11.7 trillion in the next 10 years $1.58 trillion from Republican tax breaks and a consolidated invoice.
For many decades, the Republicans campaigned on reducing Federal spending and reducing the national debt. And while there is an ongoing debate among economists over how big a threat deficit, Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the White house, did just the opposite.
The bill the house plans to vote this Thursday will be one of the first steps in amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit the government from spending more than it brings into the Federal budget. Amending the Constitution requires approval by two thirds of the house of representatives and the Senate, and then it needs to be passed by three-quarters of state legislatures. Currently, Republicans hold 32 of the 50 States.
All this is very unlikely to happen. But Republicans are pushing it anyway. He reveals the deeply unpopular narrow interests to make deep cuts to everything from food stamps to health care.
Balanced budget amendments have a lot of lives
Both Republicans and Democrats have used the idea of a balanced budget amendment as a political tool for a long time.
The movement really started in the late 1970-ies, when the Republicans raised a balanced budget amendment to curb spending during the administration of Jimmy Carter. Over time, his popularity increased and decreased on both sides of the aisle. Even California Governor Jerry brown, who was running against Carter for the Democratic nomination, supported him at that time. Since then he changed his mind.
There was one more push for a balanced budget amendment after the Reagan era tax cuts ballooned the deficit. Activist groups such as the national taxpayers Union began to insist on a constitutional Convention on a balanced budget amendment to achieve this goal. These groups have continued to fight for the cause. But the amendment does not every time — in 1982 and again in 1986, and in 1995, and so on. The last time Congress voted on a balanced budget amendment was in 2011.
Now, Resp. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) gets the vote on this amendment. The amendment would ban the budget deficit, require that expenditures not exceed 20 percent of gross domestic product, and require a majority to raise taxes and three-fifths most about raising the debt limit.
The basic idea is that the government will not deter their spending (or raising taxes) by itself, and can only be constitutional amendment to force Congress to do it.
But as slate’s Jim Newell, even bill Goodlatte Congress gives the output:
In other words, legislators can add an exception for any additional costs they want something that is likely to happen, given the nature and history of negotiations costs. Such laws often easy to get around, as in 2011, when the Obama-era impasse over deficit reduction in the final account as a result of sequestration 2013. Lawmakers made sure to raise the budget every year after that.
This Republican budget of the theatre
While struggling to pass the tax cuts, the Republicans avoided talking about the deficit. Many rejected the reports from MHI, and instead offered rosy predictions of economic growth. They even took the failure to provide the tax invoice will not automatically trigger the sequester through certain large mandatory spending programs like medicare, Federal student loans and grants for agriculture in 2010, the governance deficit pay-as-you-go law.
But almost immediately after tax bill and the sequester was averted, the Republicans seemed to have remembered their long-standing concerns about the national debt and started eyeing ways to cut government spending, all targeted food stamps and medicaid, social security and medicare.
The CBO says the national debt is likely to be equal to the size of GDP in 10 years, and if Congress chooses to extend the Republican tax policies, this deficit will only grow larger. Still, under the Republican Congress, the deficit is expected to grow to $804 billion in this fiscal year, which ends September 30, approximately $665 billion more than in 2017.
And the Republicans who supported tax cuts and many who supported the bill spending 1.3 trillion omnibus, which will keep the government open until September 30 and Fund the military at historical levels now that the deficit is illegal.
Welcome to the latest development that have a year from the Republican budget of the theatre. Even conservatives who have long opposed the excess of expenditure over income (but who mostly voted for the tax bill) called the vote on the balanced budget amendment is disingenuous.
“There is no one on Capitol hill, and, of course, no one on main street that will take this vote,” Rep. Mark meadows (R-NC) told politico.
How about messaging, this vote shows unpopular part of the Republican agenda
There is no doubt that a balanced budget amendment to the bill messages, giving the Republicans a chance to go home to their constituents and say they voted in favor of the tax liability.
But as such, it highlights the part of the Republican agenda that is unpopular. To balance the budget, you can do one of two things: raise taxes or cut spending. Republicans cut last year’s taxes, and their ideas for cost reductions (reforming social programs like Medicaid, medicare and social security) are very unpopular.
In fact, when the Republicans tried drastic medicaid cuts early this year — the proposal the block Grant on the medicaid program, which ultimately cut more than $700 billion from the program over the next 10 years — he was so unpopular that it was one of the leading causes an act to repeal efforts failed in General.
Medicare and social security continued to stand next to Medicaid, as some of the most popular Federal spending programs. Earlier this year, only 12 percent of Americans said they wanted Congress to reduce spending on the medicaid program, according to a survey from the family Foundation Kaiser. In the Pew study showed that only 10 percent of Republican-leaning Americans wanted to cut funding for social security, and 15 percent wanted to cut spending on medicare.
And Democrats were quick to point that out.
“Their real goal is to end medicare, medicaid and social security as we know it,” minority leader Nancy Pelosi said.
Correction: this article previously stated amendment to the Constitution must be approved by two thirds of legislative assemblies of the States. It must be approved by three fourths. We regret the error.
Sourse: vox.com
