Fifteen Trillion Dollars and Counting: No Easy Constitutional Solution

You can guess that freshmen congressmen have experiences similar to those of first-year college students. They get teased, have a lot to learn, and need to determine their role. Freshman Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) began his new position by targeting deficit spending. His weapon of choice: amending the U.S. Constitution.

In late 2011, the national debt passed the $15 trillion mark for the first time, rising $1 trillion that year. The debt doubled from $7.5 trillion in 2004, swelling $4.5 trillion since 2008.

With noted interest from other senators and congressmen, including Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), Sen. Lee sought to propose a constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA), with the goal of preventing Congress from settling on an annual budget that spends more than it receives. Of course, a BBA might sound good to many people (up to 83% of Americans in one Gallup poll), but actually amending the Constitution would be among any politician’s greatest challenges—or accomplishments.

Constitutional amendments are rare. In has been 220 years since the Bill of Rights was ratified under President George Washington. Since then, the “Law of the Land” has been amended just 17 times, or approximately once every 13 years. Moreover, 12,000 amendments have been proposed, meaning that less than one in 700 is actually ratified.

Another problem for Sen. Lee is that his BBA idea is not original, and every prior BBA proposal has failed. Over the past 30 years, at least 10 attempts have been made in Congress to propose a BBA for three-fourths of the states to ratify, as required by the Constitution. Several attempts came close to passing—twice falling only one vote short in the Senate, and sometimes getting through one house, but not the other.

Key factors preventing passage of past BBAs have included weak provisions for enforceability and the possibility of sky-rocketing taxes “in order to balance the budget.” Some argue that the judicial branch may have to step in to break up political fiscal stalemates unless a fail-safe BBA were adopted.

Balancing the budget and eliminating the debt are dissimilar, as Sen. Lee himself acknowledges. Congress has a hard time cutting spending, let alone balancing the books for long enough to shrink the debt to manageable levels. A workable BBA could just be the first step toward a solution.

Despite these challenges, many aspects of the BBA issue are in Sen. Lee’s favor. First, a BBA may pass precisely because of the exploding national debt in recent years. Political demand for change, even imperfect change, is increasing. Popular rhetoric surrounds the BBA, too. Proponents argue that since families and states have to cut back in hard times and balance their budgets, Washington should as well.

Also, Sen. Lee can likely count on bipartisan support. While Republicans traditionally champion BBA efforts, a number of Democrats have voted “aye” in each case, too. In addition, a bipartisan “BBA Caucus” swelled to more than 60 congressional members in the first year after its inception.

Ultimately, principles are on the side of the BBA supporters. Limited spending, debt, and taxes are virtues that ring loud and clear in the hearts of millions of Americans. Hardships in life are seldom resolved quickly or easily. But every resolution begins sometime. Maybe $15 trillion is enough to convince this country’s leaders that the time has come. If so, then obstacles and odds aside, Utah’s freshman senator might get the last laugh after all.

Please intercede for all of your elected officials, both at the federal and state levels. Legislative bodies across the nation will be part of any possible constitutional process. Pray that they support policy that is morally and fiscally sound, and that they do not succumb to the temptations that surround them each day.

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(Originally published by The Presidential Prayer Team.)