The Clock is Ticking on a Balanced Budget Amendment

A 28^th Amendment to pass a balanced budget amendment would likely pass as 70% of Americans want such an amendment. Here R. Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane give you all the details. You find out that since 1975, 32 states have already petitioned for its adoption, leaving only two more states needed to pass a 28^th amendment. President Obama has run federal debt up to 100% of GDP! The clock is ticking.

But tighter ropes may be needed. Perhaps a 28th Amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget. While this idea may appear radical, it is favored by about 70 percent of Americans.
The amendment may be forced on Congress, given that 32 states have petitioned for its adoption since 1975, two states shy of the constitutional trigger.

In 1982, 1995 and 2011, some version of balanced-budget legislation passed one but not both chambers of Congress. Those early amendment drafts had many critics, both Democratic and Republican, and many of their criticisms were valid. Successive versions became more of a small-government litmus test than a solution. Let’s fix that.

If our goal is to “balance” instead of just “starve” the federal beast, the amendment will trust voters to choose the amount of government it wants so long as the sticker price is honest, and there will be as many Democratic senators on board as Republicans. Here are three practical modifications that Congress should consider in a new balanced budget amendment.