The Insanity of the Balanced Budget Amendment

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Forums > All Posts > The Insanity of the Balanced Budget Amendment

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2011-07-31 07:21 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

As the current financial crisis was still being understood in Decemebr 2008, Paul Krugman wrote an OpEd for the NYT entitled Fifty Herbert Hoovers. Krugman stated at the time that "No modern American president would repeat the fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession."

We are still feeling the effects of that Great Recession, and Paul Krugman's words are as true today as they were in December 2008. Krugman points to the fiscal problems of the states that are forced to make draconian cutbacks in just about everything, especially education and infrastructure, because they are hostage to their own balanced budget rules.

State economies are crumbling under balanced budget rules. And Tea Partiers, blind to what is causing all the economic problems in the own backyards, want to force the same sickness onto the Federal government...a "starve the beast" mentality that will ultimately destroy America's economic might. The Modern Monetary Theorists (MMTers) are certainly looking aghast at the inflexible ideology of the far right, but even if you are not an MMTer, the balanced budget amendment makes little sense, especially in these economic times.

Herbert Hoover was wrong in 1932 and so are the Tea Partiers today. I think it's insane. Yet our elected politicians carry on, and some in the media treat it as if it's a credible solution to our economic problems.

We send politicians to Washington to make considered choices about how our government should raise revenue and how our tax dollars should be spent. Being unable to understand the nuances of how that is done for "We the People," reaching compromises as necessary with their fellow politicians, they propose instead legislation that would tie their own hands because they are not able to make those hard choices that we elected them to do. Sometimes those hard choices involve raising more revenue from those that can most afford to contribute. If that is a non starter "permanently off the table" then they should get out of the way. They are a part of the problem and not the solution.

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