BBA falls short in House
By Norman Leahy | Friday, November 18th, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaThe House of Representatives took up Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s balanced budget amendment proposal and fell 23 votes short of passing it. That may not necessarily come as a surprise. what does, though, are some of the groups mustered to oppose the idea, and the grounds upon which they urged a “no” vote. For example:
…Democrats pointed to a letter from some 275 labor and other mostly liberal groups saying that forcing spending cuts or higher taxes to balance the budget when the economy was slow “would risk tipping a faltering economy into recession or worsening an ongoing downturn, costing large numbers of jobs.”
We can only imagine what they might think will happen when the super committee punts, and a sequester trims a smidgen off the top of all federal spending. And interesting, too, to see the opposition to higher taxes.
Or consider this:
Democrats also cited a report by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimating that, if there is not an increase in revenues, the amendment could force Congress to cut all programs by an average of 17.3 percent by 2018.
Circumstances may dictate that happen by 2017 anyway.
Nevertheless, here’s how Virginia’s worthies voted:
Yeas: Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman, Wolf
Nays: Connolly, Moran, Scott
Interestingly, one of the handful of Republicans to vote against the measure was Paul Ryan. His reasoning?
“I’m concerned that this version will lead to a much bigger government fueled by more taxes,” Ryan said in a statement. “Spending is the problem, yet this version of the BBA makes it more likely taxes will be raised, government will grow, and economic freedom will be diminished. Without a limit on government spending, I cannot support this Amendment.”
Interesting.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.
We're 75% there! Thank you to everyone who has so far contributed! Just $2000 to go!
Comments
6 Responses to "BBA falls short in House"
based on alot of what i read about this particular bill, Paul Ryan might indeed have a good point.
HOWEVER, how can anyone go on record as against a balanced budget? why wouldn’t this be political suicide? (perhaps in a saner world it would be)
As a conservative and a constitutionalist, I am surprised more Republicans didn’t vote against the BBA. It was easy to violate, would launch a plethora of nice new taxes, offered extremely timid spending reductions and had no federal spending cap. If it passed and was ratified, this toothless, tax-hungry proposal simply wouldn’t balance anything. Well, now Goodlatte can go back to talking about conservatism while voting for more debt and spending, as he has been doing for the past dozen or so years.
Now, I’m just an old country lawyer. I do hope that someone can enlighten my woeful ingnorance.
Why wasn’t this very, very, important and Goodelatteish amendment sent to the states while George W. Bush was President and Republicans had majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House?
It would have been interesting to see what the tax rate would be if this had passed. Since the deficit cutting super committee can’t seem to find anything to cut, I can’t imagine what the scene would be if the whole House or Senate took up the measure.
Todays cuts are tomorrows increases.. The problem is that we need an amendment to force hands to do what is in our best interests and the fools on the hill can’t and won’t do it any other way. The bill aint perfect enough to win enough all the blue dogs but it would be a whole lot better than the shit sandwich the fools on the hill are about to feed us.
Pass a bill saying we get to screw Obama to a crucifix on the mall if it does not pass.. I dont trust nails. As long as he can spend more this hopey changey nightmare will continue.
America you are screwed! We need a former governor who has balanced a budget before to fix this and Romney aint it, Perry aint it. I propose we fire McDonnell and redeploy him as a potus candidate.
I’m opposed to the Balanced Budget Amendment because it would tie the hands of the federal government during times of emergencies like when we are engaged in war. Think back to WW2; if our government had not been allowed to spend beyond its means, we might have lost that one.
The BBA is a wonderful idea during normal times, however times are not always normal and we need only look back on history to see just how often abnormal happens.
Leave your response