Balanced Budget Movement Grows In House
U.S. News & World Report,
May 26, 2011 -
A radical play from House conservatives to trade an agreement to raise the debt ceiling in return for a spending cap, massive spending cuts and a Balanced Budget Amendment is catching fire as Tea Party members continue their push for bold action even if it costs them their job.
"In the Old World, this thing wouldn't stand a chance. But it's a whole different time," says Rep. Jim Jordan, head of the conservative House Republican Study Committee. "The situation could not be more serious and it's time for bold action."
Jordan has worked fast to collect 80 signatures on a draft letter to House leaders that lays out a plan to balance the budget in return for GOP support to raise the $14 trillion debt ceiling. [See a slide show of 6 consequences if the debt ceiling isn't raised.]
Dubbed "Cut, Cap and Balance," the Jordan plan would cut some $300 billion now in order to halve the deficit next year; impose a spending cap of 18 percent of the gross domestic product, far less than the current 24 percent, and OK a Balanced Budget Amendment for the states to ratify.
"If you've got big financial problems," Jordan tells Whispers, "you've got to change your behavior, and you've got to do some things in the short-term, some things in the mid-term and some things in the long-term."
Key to that is the long-term proposal to press for a Balanced Budget Amendment which Jordan says already has the backing of 47 GOP senators. If that would pass, he promised to put pressure on state legislatures to act. "If we actually get it through," he says, "Oh my goodness." [See a slide show of 6 ways to raise the debt ceiling.]
Some Tea Party Republicans who have staked their job on cutting the deficit are worried that the House leadership isn't going to press President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner hard enough to make cuts in the debt ceiling talks. In his letter still being circulated for more signatures, Jordan writes: "We must state unequivocally that we will not vote for a 'clean' debt ceiling increase."
House Speaker John Boehner has said the same thing but the Jordan letter provides either pressure or the help Boehner needs to negotiate with Obama's team.
And Jordan says that he's been "encouraged" during his talks with Boehner's team and Senate GOP conservatives that the Republican Study Committee's approach has a chance of being used in the negotiations.
What's more, he doesn't buy the concerns raised by the administration that the nation's financial health would take a hit if the debt ceiling isn't increased fast. "The sky is going to fall belief, well, that's going to happen in two or three years if we don't do something bold and drastic. If we're just going to tinker, if the president is going to just propose a couple wimpy things and say now let's do this small thing and raise the deficit, I would much rather have the problem now," adds Jordan.
In fact, he warns, a U.S. debt crisis is just around the corner. "But for the fact that we're the United States of America, we should have already had a crisis, because our debt to GDP ratio, deficit to GDP radio, is very comparable to the countries who had the crisis in the last few years, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland."
Jordan adds: "It's going to happen, the greatest country in the world is going to have a debt crisis if we don't do something bold and dramatic that actually begins to fix the problem. This is the opportunity and members see that."
Online: U.S. News & World Report
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