[so_real]

Better than a BBA, would be a law that simply capped federal spending at 18% of GDP.

It's short, sweet, simple, and easy to enforce. I could sign on for that. Minor tweak: the GDP should be a prior three year average to prevent the use of future year "estimates" to inflate spending levels as is done today in budgeting. For example, surge-level defense expenditures were projected over the next ten years as a baseline for making budget cuts. Reductions from that imaginary base line were called "savings", even though the surge is over and that money would never have been spent in the first place. We have to insist on a known average to prevent such phantom numbers.

[EternalVigilance]

The Thomas Jefferson Amendment is much better:

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution ... taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Letter of November 26th, 1798)

[kevao]

Minor tweak: the GDP should be a prior three year average to prevent the use of future year "estimates" to inflate spending levels as is done today in budgeting.

Good catch.