The poster is intentionally playing the deficit vs national debt increase trick.
While a current annual deficit may be lower than a previous year’s deficit, the national debt can still be rising as it has been.
Balanced budget amendment will never be passed by congress. Both sides like spending too much.
But a much better balanced budget amendment would be this:
- Within 5 years of passage of this amendment, congress SHALL pass a balanced Federal Budget.
- Immediately uppon passage of this amendment. It shall take 3/4 vote of the house and 3/4 votge of the senate to increase taxes. Any decrease in tax shall be by a 50+1 vogte.
- Under this amendment, mandatory spending is anything specifically enumerated in this constituion (examples but not limited to: national defence, congress, president, courts, post office and post roads, weights and measures). Discretionary funding is anything not enumerated in this constitution.
- Congress SHALL fund Mandatory spending before any discretionary programs.
- Congress SHALL fully fund the payment in liew of taxes to states that have federal lands.
- If congress fails to pass a budget by the start of a new budget year. If the previous years budget is expencted to exceed income, all agency’s and departments shall have cuts to bring the budget into balance. Discretionary programs shall be cut at a rate 5x that of mandatory spending.
- After passage of the balanced budget, any supplimental spending bill not covered by increased revenue MUST be offset by cuts in the regular budget – with the same 5 to 1 radio on discretionary and manadatory programs.
- (non suicide pact section). By 2/3’s vote of the house, and 2/3 vote of the senate – deficite spending may be approved for two reasons.
A: A stated, and specific national emergency. This shall be for a single budget year, and may be extended one time by the same 2/3 vote of both houses.
B: Declaration of war against a country. This shall remain in effect for a single budget year. Declaration of war spending may be extended twice by simple vote. After the third year, any “war” deficit must be approved by 2/3 vote of both the house and senate.
and yet your op talks about a balanced budget to get the deficit to zero…it seems teh dems are thne ones to get us closer to that goal as opposed to the GOP whose plan is always cut taxes but not spending
Not even close. If the root cause is found to be China of the origin it’s safe to assume the cover up will also be tied to the CCP essentially unleashing a biological weapon on the world. This trumps to minimize the impact and responsibility any bureaucrat like Fauci who rose to authority as a non-elected government hire significantly.
Wrong thread for this… but far from a safe assumption. If by unleashing you mean accidental lab escape, then Fauci’s alleged hand in creating it is significant.
The bulk of the damage is due to the existence and escape of the virus and not the after the fact coverup, so those who caused its creation and managed that lab would be at the center of a compensation arrangement.
This calculus changes if you assume intentional release by another actor, but that is not a safe bet at this point.
The snow has arrived.
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We had our fill with the dim conspiracy mongering: Four years with president Trump. And two addition years with the One Horse Dog Face Pony Soldier squatting on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bout time we return to the peoples business and Make America Great Again
Accidental or not, the lack of China to be fully transparent in terms of origin still puts China motives into serious question too. Frankly, whether or not Fauci gamed the system and thus cashing in big time by approving grants to the Wuhan lab and the like is noise to the world. He is not the first and certainly won’t be the last person to be found corrupt.
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Good observation.
Getting back to the subject of the thread, can we expect the House of Representatives, in fulfilling its constitutional obligations, adhere to our Constitution and work to actually deal with annual deficits?
If so, how would they accomplish that?
Sure they can. Just curious does the Constitution say anything explicit about a Congressional oversight role? That is something I heard Jim Jordan say today on fox news TV with Shannon Bream the GOP aims to fulfill too.
Nick. The context is confiscating the property of individuals. It is not reasonable to take the property of a Chinese citizen … because their non-elected government was “not transparent” about some biological accident. And then ignore the other governments non-transparent hand in setting up the biological accident.
If this property confiscation were to proceed, US secretive funding and direction of that lab will NOT be noise. For a Chinese citizen it will be a basis of defense. And for every other nation it will be a basis for a claim against the US.
This whole “take their money!!!” Is just so much bluster. It is a dumb dumb dumb idea.
Your thread is your about deficit. Not debt. Your own thread.
Talk about tricks.
The Chinese government responsible for not proactively communicating the origin of the pandemic spreading outside Wuhan is not disputable. As such, from a practical sense the only thing Congress can from a practical standpoint do here is make the USA and rest of the world aware of an official position here. Every country then will take it from there (sanctions, reparations, etc. as they see fit).
Getting back to the subject of the thread, can we expect the House of Representatives, in fulfilling its constitutional obligations, adhere to our Constitution and work to actually deal with annual deficits?
If so, how would they accomplish that?
Very confident that Congress will do their best as they were sworn in to fulfill its constitutional obligations BOTH explicit (balancing the budget) and implicit (oversight). Just seems you are being a bit disingenuous in expecting us to know exactly how this specific Congress aims to accomplish what many others prior failed to do. Wasn’t it Newt Gingrich the last speaker (GOP) to be successful in balancing an annual budget?
Your surrounded by snow 
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The constitution was changed (16th) to allow income tax.
So if they continue the income tax they are adhering to the constitution.
First of all, realistically, we must discard notions of constitutional amendments. Republicans do not and never will have 290 seats in the House nor 67 seats in the Senate, so a constitutional amendment is not happening. And even if it could be proposed, States would overwhelmingly reject it because of the direct taxation provision.
Think about it. Do I as a Governor or State Legislature want to be responsible for laying a massive State tax to pay an apportionment. Hell no. Let the President and Congressmen take the ■■■■ for raising their own taxes. Leave the States out of it. On that point alone, I would refuse to ratify such an amendment.
But going further, a balanced budget requirement in a centrally coordinated fractional reserve banking system would be catastrophic. The magic money machine feeds on government debt. No new debt = no new money or credit = a permanent deflationary cycle.
While it is possible to have some balanced budget or surplus years, such as the late 90’s under a combination of President Clinton and a Republican Congress, you cannot sustain a surplus or a balance in a coordinated fractional reserve banking system.
So it is a requirement that, prior to establishing a permanent balanced budget, you must FIRST transition from a coordinated fractional reserve banking system to an uncoordinated 100% reserve banking system with commodity currency. The new system must be completely in place PRIOR to permanently balancing the budget.
That won’t happen, short of a complete economic meltdown catastrophe.
But lets assume the catastrophe happens and we end up with 100% reserve banking, no more magic money machine.
Yes, the budget can be balanced. It will have to occur on both the backs of defense and non-defense.
I can think up tons a defense related crap to cut. Stop production of supercarriers and start retiring existing supercarriers. Start phasing out manned service warships and transition to unmanned drone vessels for surface warfare needs. Severely cut Army and Air Force end strengths, don’t have the people to fill them anyhow. Abolish the airborne leg of the nuclear defense triad. Remove our troops from Europe, the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere.
For non-defense, I would follow the general Cato recommendations to bring us to a balanced budget.
I would go past the recommendations in some areas.
For example. I would abolish the Department of Education and kill all student loan and student aid programs, all of them and abolish federal government interference in education, other than in the District of Columbia. Student aid is more harmful than helpful. The only thing I would retain is education savings accounts.
Yes, plenty to cut and a lot of obvious targets to cut. But understand defense must be pruned as vigorously as non-defense.
Summary of points to take away from this:
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Constitutional amendments are a pipedream, we must deal with the real and achievable, which is legislation only.
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The Federal Reserve and the entire coordinated fractional reserve banking system must be replaced by 100% reserve banking with commodity money prior to permanent balanced budgets.
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Defense and non-defense must both be pruned with equal vigor.
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Exactly!
BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENTAnd that is one of the reasons I found the phony offered by Representative Lauren Boebert very troubling.
If adopted, Boebert’s proposal would make it constitutional for Congress to not balance the annual budget, nor does her proposal extinguish an annual deficiency for expenditures made in excess of revenue raised from imposts, duties and excise taxes during the course of a fiscal year. That of course is not in the best interests of “we the people”, nor is it in harmony with the very intentions of our founding fathers, e.g. see:
Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Hampshire; June 21, 1788:
“Fourthly That Congress do not lay direct Taxes but when the money arising from Impost, Excise and their other resources are insufficient for the Publick Exigencies; nor then, untill Congress shall have first made a Requisition upon the States, to Assess, Levy, & pay their respective proportions, of such requisitions agreeably to the Census fixed in the said Constitution in such way & manner as the Legislature of the State shall think best and in such Case if any State shall neglect, then Congress may Assess & Levy such States proportion together with the Interest thereon at the rate of six per Cent per Annum from the Time of payment prescribed in such requisition-“
HERE is an example which carries out the founders’ intentions using an apportioned direct tax to raise $2 MILLION, and lists each State’s apportioned share of the tax being laid.
JWK
Why have a written constitution, approved by the people, if those who it is meant to control are free to make it mean whatever they wish it to mean?
