Tea Party coalition forming to push for balanced budget amen
WaveCameCrashin
Posts: 2,929
I hope we could all agree on this.. 
http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/19/tea-p ... amendment/
A new Tea Party coalition is in the works, The Daily Caller has learned, to begin an organized push for an amendment to the constitution requiring that the federal budget be balanced every year.
One activist describes the effort as the logical next step for the movement that burst onto the scene early last year in response to government bailouts and stimulus packages.
The coalition, named BBA Now, as in Balance Budget Amendment Now, plans to officially unveil its three-year plan in September, director of coalitions Kellen Giuda said in an interview. Part of the campaign includes petitioning 2010 congressional candidates, as well as presidential candidates in 2012, to sign a pledge in support of the effort.
A balanced budget amendment restricts the government from spending more than its projected revenue every year, except for in times of war or a national emergency.
BBA Now was formed out of “ReAL Action” the 501(c)4 arm of the Renewing American Leadership organization, whose honorary chairman is Newt Gingrich and whose mission is to “preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.”
More than 80 groups have signed up to be part of the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment Campaign coalition. National groups, like Americans for Tax Reform and Young Americans for Freedom, have joined, as have various local grassroots groups like the Baldwin Alabama Tea Party and the Bel Air Tea Party Patriots, for example. College Republican groups from across the country have also added their names to the list.
“It’s the issue we can kind of all get behind,” Giuda said, noting that he’s met very few Tea Party activists opposed to the idea of an amendment. “This is exactly why me and so many others got involved.”
The amendment envisioned by the coalition includes three pillars: ending the annual deficit by requiring a balanced budget, limiting federal spending to no more than 20 percent of the country’s GDP and requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote in Congress to raise taxes.
Ken Hagerty, the vice president for policy at Renewing American Leadership Action, said the super-majority requirement to raise taxes was added to the proposed amendment because “traditional BBAs have open back doors that the bad guys have learned to fill with taxes.”
“But we’ve also learned that even that is not enough, because the federal government is now consuming more than 27 percent of the GDP and rising,” he said. “It won’t do us a lot of good to balance the budget at a level that leaves us with a Euro-socialist economy.”
That’s why the amendment also includes capping federal spending at no more than 20 percent of GDP, the postwar historical average over the last 65 years. “That’s hardly draconian. But it’s enough to assure that we keep our republic,” Hagerty said.
A handful of Republican senators—Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma—reportedly will push for a constitutional amendment when they return from the August recess. “We’ll bring that back between now and the election,” DeMint told The Hill earlier this month.
A spokesman for DeMint did not immediately return a request for comment on the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment Campaign.
Dr. Larry Sabato, professor of political science at the University of Virginia who wrote about the balanced budget amendment in his book “A More Perfect Constitution,” downplayed the chances of the proposed amendment being successful. “Constitutional amendments are extraordinarily difficult to ratify,” he said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/19/tea-p ... z0xALsI9B5
http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/19/tea-p ... amendment/
A new Tea Party coalition is in the works, The Daily Caller has learned, to begin an organized push for an amendment to the constitution requiring that the federal budget be balanced every year.
One activist describes the effort as the logical next step for the movement that burst onto the scene early last year in response to government bailouts and stimulus packages.
The coalition, named BBA Now, as in Balance Budget Amendment Now, plans to officially unveil its three-year plan in September, director of coalitions Kellen Giuda said in an interview. Part of the campaign includes petitioning 2010 congressional candidates, as well as presidential candidates in 2012, to sign a pledge in support of the effort.
A balanced budget amendment restricts the government from spending more than its projected revenue every year, except for in times of war or a national emergency.
BBA Now was formed out of “ReAL Action” the 501(c)4 arm of the Renewing American Leadership organization, whose honorary chairman is Newt Gingrich and whose mission is to “preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.”
More than 80 groups have signed up to be part of the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment Campaign coalition. National groups, like Americans for Tax Reform and Young Americans for Freedom, have joined, as have various local grassroots groups like the Baldwin Alabama Tea Party and the Bel Air Tea Party Patriots, for example. College Republican groups from across the country have also added their names to the list.
“It’s the issue we can kind of all get behind,” Giuda said, noting that he’s met very few Tea Party activists opposed to the idea of an amendment. “This is exactly why me and so many others got involved.”
The amendment envisioned by the coalition includes three pillars: ending the annual deficit by requiring a balanced budget, limiting federal spending to no more than 20 percent of the country’s GDP and requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote in Congress to raise taxes.
Ken Hagerty, the vice president for policy at Renewing American Leadership Action, said the super-majority requirement to raise taxes was added to the proposed amendment because “traditional BBAs have open back doors that the bad guys have learned to fill with taxes.”
“But we’ve also learned that even that is not enough, because the federal government is now consuming more than 27 percent of the GDP and rising,” he said. “It won’t do us a lot of good to balance the budget at a level that leaves us with a Euro-socialist economy.”
That’s why the amendment also includes capping federal spending at no more than 20 percent of GDP, the postwar historical average over the last 65 years. “That’s hardly draconian. But it’s enough to assure that we keep our republic,” Hagerty said.
A handful of Republican senators—Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma—reportedly will push for a constitutional amendment when they return from the August recess. “We’ll bring that back between now and the election,” DeMint told The Hill earlier this month.
A spokesman for DeMint did not immediately return a request for comment on the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment Campaign.
Dr. Larry Sabato, professor of political science at the University of Virginia who wrote about the balanced budget amendment in his book “A More Perfect Constitution,” downplayed the chances of the proposed amendment being successful. “Constitutional amendments are extraordinarily difficult to ratify,” he said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/19/tea-p ... z0xALsI9B5
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
One of the biggest culprits of our overspending the last 8 years would fall under "times of war"... All this bill would do is cut entitlement spending and give the defense spending a free pass. I'm fine with cutting federal spending, but we gotta do it across the board.
Even if this bill passed, by the time it got through both houses, there would be so many freakin' carve outs and loopholes, that it wouldn't be worth anything.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
if the tea partyers don't mind cutting from the military, i could agree with this push.
I, for one, am for the amendment process... but, for the granting of rights.... not stupid shit like defining marriage or stopping idiots from burning flags.
As for altering our Constitution in order to do something that can be done... with hard work, cooperation and compromise on the part of our elected representatives... I question how effective this would be. Especially considering, the 'unless of an emergency clause'.
...
American HAVE to come to the realization that shit costs money. Money comes from taxes. Hell, we got into 2 wars and how much did your taxes go up? We bailed out the financial business and averted a full scale depression... and how much have you taxes increased? Please, tell me... because, mine didn't go way up.
You can't have stealth attack aircraft, laser guided anti-missle systems or 20 foot high electrified border fences without paying for it. When are people going to understand this?
Hail, Hail!!!
is the tea party for or against cutting from the military?
And paying the Army (National Guard) to stand guard on this side of a 2,000 mile expanse of a 20 foot high fence?
..
The only way we can afford it without raising taxes would be to hire illegal immigrants to build the fence and have illegal immigrants guard it so no illegal immigrants will hop it.
Hail, Hail!!!
Ha.
I didn't think the right could become more idiotic after 8 years of Bush, but they appear to be getting much much worse.
but I guess after Bush you prop up Palin there is only one way to go.
I think you would find that a lot of people would prefer to pay the army to stand guard on the border as opposed to occupation.
What is idiotic about wanting a balanced budget?
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Nothing is idiotic about wanted a balanced budget... we can all agree on that, but in practice is where things get idiotic.
You can get any group of 100 people together, and probably all 100 would say that they want to decrease government spending... But you'd have 100 different opinions on what should be decreased from where and how much.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
That line of thinking is a problem as well though, I realize that people have different opinions on how to get things accomplished, but does that make them idiots if you don't agree? I realize you didn't write it, but doesn't that make no sense...if I disagree with you, does that mean I have the right to call you an idiot? Absolutely not
edit*** I also get the irony of talking about idiots and then using a sweet double negative to describe the situation.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Interestingly enough, out of the top 50 countries with the highest military expenditures, only a handful spend more then 4% of their GDP on military.
Saudia Arabia - 8.2%
Israel - 7.0%
United Arab Emirates - 5.9%
Signapore - 4.1%
Oman - 7.7%
Iraq - 5.4%
Hmm. No wonder I have yet to plan any vacations to the middle east.
Anywho, I think the plan for a balanced budget would have to include massive military cuts.
it be the first place i would look