Yes, the so-called “Super Committee” failed. Politicians and pundits alike are shocked, dismayed, disappointed, outraged, mystified, perplexed, flabbergasted, and worse.
The failure got significant press coverage, and rightfully so. In the Enquirer’s story yesterday, they quoted me as saying, among other things, “You can never go wrong in underestimating what Congress is going to be able to accomplish.” Unfortunately, it’s true.
But something significant also happened last week that didn’t get nearly as much coverage. The House of Representatives failed to garner the necessary two-thirds vote to pass the Balanced Budget Amendment. With a $15 trillion national debt, and having to borrow 43 cents of every dollar now spent in Washington, one might logically ask, how could this possibly happen.
Here’s the answer. The last time Congress voted on a Balanced Budget Amendment, 16 years ago back in 1995, virtually every Republican voted for it (including me), and this time virtually every Republican voted for it (including me). But since passage of a Constitutional Amendment requires a two-thirds vote, it required a reasonable number of Democratic votes as well. Back in 1995, 72 Democrats voted for passage (35% of them) – and it passed. This time only 25 Democrats (13% of them) voted for passage – so it failed. (Of course back in ’95, even though passing the House, the measure failed in the Senate by ONE vote, and that’s why we’re still fighting the battle to this day – and why the national debt went from $4 trillion back then to $15 trillion today.)
As I’ve consistently said over the years, I wish Congress would show the necessary fiscal discipline to balance its budget each year (just as American families have to do) without the need to amend our Constitution. But history clearly shows us that just won’t happen.
So over the next year, leading up to the critical 2012 elections, when you hear President Obama, who pushed for the creation of the “Super Committee” and the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Commission, and then proceeded to abandon both of them; and when you hear the Democrat leadership in Congress, who, having supported a Balanced Budget Amendment back in 1995, fought it this year, remember what they did last week. They killed the one thing that would have REQUIRED fiscal responsibility in Washington. They killed the Balanced Budget Amendment.
They are counting on you forgetting. Don’t.
