The BRTP Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) Group currently has 11 members.

COMMITTEE ON BALANCING THE BUDGET

STATEMENT

While the committee realize that this topic cannot be solved by a short-term study such as ours has been, we do see our proposal as a first step to achieving the ultimate goal: a balanced budget for the United States of America, a reduction of our foreign and domestic debt, and a return to responsible and effective fiscal responsibility without placing additional tax burdens on the citizenry. We see our nation’s financial problems as a direct outcome of irresponsible spending, proliferating federal regulatory agencies, and ever-expanding entitlement programs. It is our conviction that a free market and greater personal responsibility coupled with less governmental invasion into our private lives and businesses would return our government to that set forth in the Constitution of the United States .

Further realizing that our efforts cannot entirely solve the question at hand, we advise strong consideration of the budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, known as the Path to Prosperity.

COMMITTEE ON BALANCING THE NATIONAL BUDGET

PROPOSAL

WHEREAS the Baton Rouge Tea Party, LLC, (BRTP) feels strongly that the growing national debt and yearly budget deficits are a great danger to the future of this nation,

WHEREAS the U.S. Congress has done very little in recent years to resolve the national debt nor deficit issues,

WHEREAS the BRTP desires for Congress immediately to take positive steps to both resolve the national debt and the yearly budget deficit issues,

and

WHEREAS the BRTP believes that the main cause of the national debt is a problem with outlays and not with revenues,

NOW, THEREFORE, the BRTP does hereby request Congress:

1. To pass in Congress in the year 2011 a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States ;
2. To pass a bill or amendment to the Constitution that addresses reducing the national debt in a reasonable amount of time to a level based on a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (the BRTP firmly believes that the national debt should not exceed 20percent of the GDP );
3. To balance the budget and reduce the national debt by decreasing spending and not by raising taxes;
4. To balance the budget using methods that will not dismantle the existing Social Security or Medicare programs or place a larger burden on the truly needy of this country, and will not include additional taxes on only one segment of our society. The methods used should be fair to all citizens of this nation;
5. To pass a law stating protecting Social Security and Medicare funds which are paid for by special taxes from being used for other purposes.
6. To pass a law forbidding any act giving to members of Congress any benefits or special treatment that are not given to the citizenry at large, nor exempts its members from any laws or regulations which apply to the citizenry at large.

The BRTP proposes that Congress, in order to achieve the above, pass an amendment as follows:

Section 1. The government shall freeze spending to a maximum cap reflecting the levels of the year 2004 and shall decrease expenditures yearly for 10 years until outlays are equal to receipts for each fiscal year.

Section 2.   After Section I is accomplished, yearly receipts shall equal outlays for each fiscal year plus 10% until the national debt is paid off to an amount that is equal to the portion of the debt (in the year the amendment is passed) which is owed to U. S. citizens or U. S. –based institutions, eliminating foreign debt (about 47% of the total debt).

Section 3.  Deficits in any fiscal year must be resolved by reducing government spending and not by new taxes for a period of 10 years.

Section 4.     After 10 years taxes can be increased by Congress.

Section 5.   After Section 2 is accomplished, receipts shall equal outlays every fiscal year plus 15 % until the national debt is decreased to an amount equal to 25% of the GDP for the current fiscal year.

Section 6.   After Section 5 is accomplished the government shall continue to have yearly balanced budgets with the amount of outlays equal to receipts plus borrowing. However, the total national debt shall never exceed 25% of the current fiscal year estimated GDP.

Section 7.   New borrowing shall be completely eliminated after Section 1 is accomplished, and no new borrowing shall be allowed until the national debt is decreased to an amount equal to the amount indicated in Section 5.

Section 8.   Congress may waive provisions of this article for any fiscal year in which a declaration of war is in effect. The provisions of this article may be waived for any fiscal year in which the U. S. is engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and serious threat to national security and is so declared by a joint resolution, adopted by a majority of the whole number of each House, which becomes law.

Section 9.  Prior to each fiscal year, the President shall transmit to the Congress a proposed budget for the United States Government for that fiscal year in which total outlays do not exceed total receipts, and the. Congress MUST pass it or an amended budget prior to the start of a new fiscal year.

Section 10. The Congress shall enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation, which may rely on estimates, outlays, receipts, and GDP.  Submitted May 21, 2011

1.  Research alternative BBA proposals and present these alternatives to the BBA Group.

2.  Discuss within the BBA Group which amendment proposal is believed to be most effective.

3.  Present the BBA Group's findings for consideration by the BRTP as a whole.

4.  Evaluate best avenues for notifying state/federal representatives of our support for a BBA.

5.  Contact other Tea Party groups to encourage promotion of BBA.

Contact: lance500042@yahoo.com

submitted 02-21-11:

S. J. Res. 27:  A joint resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States (DeMint Proposal)

(Congressional Research Service Summary)

Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits outlays for a fiscal year (except those for repayment of debt principal) from exceeding total receipts for that fiscal year (except those derived from borrowing) unless Congress, by a two-thirds rollcall vote of each chamber, authorizes a specific excess of outlays over receipts. 

Requires a two-thirds rollcall vote of each chamber to increase the public debt limit. 

Directs the President to submit a balanced budget to Congress annually. 

Requires a two-thirds rollcall vote in each chamber before final adoption of any bill to increase the internal revenue. 

Authorizes waivers of these provisions when a declaration of war is in effect or under other specified circumstances involving military conflict.  

Group,

The attached (above) document is a sample of the BBA resolutions currently pending before the Senate and House.  I'm sure there are other proposals out there, but I stuck to proposals I could readily put my hands on.

At least in the Senate/House proposals, I was surprised that there wasn't more variation among them.  The two Senate proposals ("Hatch" and "DeMint") seem pretty similar.  I'm not sure how important the small variations in wording are between the two.  The DeMint version appears to take effect sooner after adoption (2 yrs vs. 4 yrs).  The Hatch version has an additional restriction on budget not exceeding 20% of GDP (unless super-majority vote). 

The main difference between the Senate versions vs. the House versions seems to be that the former require 2/3 vote for deficit spending whereas the latter only require 3/5 vote.

One big weakness (in my opinion) running though all versions is the exception for declared war or even undeclared military conflict.  It seems to me that if we are in serious military difficulty, it won't be a problem to get 2/3 vote.  I would be concerned about "wars" on drugs, poverty, etc. declared by a simple majority being used to evade the amendment.

I also worry about the lack of a clearly spelled out enforcement  mechanism in case Congress the Executive simply ignore the amendment.  I can't find it now, but I seem to remember seeing some proposal which included a clause allowing any state to bring suit against the federal government for contravening the amendment.

So where do we go from here?  Do we endorse one of the proposals currently pending before Congress (and I mean in terms of what position we take on the website)?  Do we suggest modifications to existing proposals (e.g., eliminate the war exception, add an enforcement mechanism, try to increase the super-majority vote to 3/4)?  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Lance