Should there be a balanced budget amendment?

[iiibbb]

perhaps with allowances for incurring debt during national crisis.

[EFerrari]

1. We don't need one. The Grand Dragoness has promised to balance the budget.

Maybe on her lover's back -- it's hard to tell, you betcha!

[Warpy]

2. Not until this crisis has stabilized

and we have progressive tax system back.

Otherwise, it's just carte blanche to starve the peasants in good times and bad.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. No.

[MNDemNY]

4. Fuck, NO!

[iiibbb]

5. To those who say "no" ... how can we justify?

How can we justify continuing to have a government that spends beyond its means?

[cyberswede]

7. in a word: Keynes

for instance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian

Keynes's theory suggested that active government policy could be effective in managing the economy. Rather than seeing unbalanced government budgets as wrong, Keynes advocated what has been called countercyclical fiscal policies, that is policies which acted against the tide of the business cycle: deficit spending when a nation's economy suffers from recession or when recovery is long-delayed and unemployment is persistently high—and the suppression of inflation in boom times by either increasing taxes or cutting back on government outlays. He argued that governments should solve problems in the short run rather than waiting for market forces to do it in the long run, because "in the long run, we are all dead."

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Well, that's a problem isn't it? Just because Congress can't...

stop spending by itself doesn't mean an amendment will help. Or not make things worse. Start with just what

Right now there is a vast amount of spending "off budget" that rarely gets a serious look. CIA black ops, Social Security, the Iraq war, and all sorts of other goodies aren't actually in the budget and are accounted for by some inscrutable federal system that would be felonious if any private enterpreneur tried it.

The bastids even change the fiscal year on the fly when they see some big bills coming so it looks like the books are balanced.

(Yeah, Clinton did have a "balanced" budget, but balanced most of it by hiding money with many of the usual tricks, and he still had the debt hanging over his head and the simple deposits vs. checks written never balanced if looked at with beady CPA eyes, but Congress is a bunch of lawyers, not accountants.)

So, if you tried it, first you have to decide just what "balanced" means, then you have to figure out what to do with the imbalances already there, and then you have to have an escape valve in case we get into another war or recession.

Bottom line-- such an amendment wouldn't really stop them from spending when they want to, but would give them an excuse not to spend on stuff they didn't really want to.

[napi21]

6. No. Balanced budget mandates work just fine in properous times,

but many many of the states that have them are now in serious trouble and are having to cut some very important programs because of it.

[Booster]

9. They'd only laugh at it.

[JonQ]

10. Yes

with the option to take out a short term loan in a pinch (with a high approval rating in the house and senate). If we're in a crises that requires more money to be spent then raise taxes. If it's not important enough for that then it isn't important enough to drive us in to bankruptcy.

[dtotire]

11. Definitely Not

What is important is the size of the debt we owe to foreigners. If the debt is owed to Americans, the interest paid stays in the country. If the debt is owed to foreigners, the entire country is poorer. Foreigners now control over twelve TRILLION dollars of our assets, and this means have a balance of payments deficit of more than $700 billion or more than $2300 for every one of us. When Reagan became president, we were the largest creditor nation in the world, now we are the largest debtor. The foreign debt is what we should try to pay off.

[Odin2005]

12. No. Deficits are needed for charging up the economy during downturns.

In an ideal world you would cut taxes and increase spending during downturns and then raise taxes and cut spending during booms.