House rejects balanced budget proposal

Associated Press ^ | 11/18/11 | AP

[campaignPete R-CT]

ronPaul is out campaignin’. So he did not vote.

Wasn’t even close.

[griswold3]

Was just thinking the same thing. Just look at the EU. Their charter has strict rules about sovereign debt. Did anyone follow the letter of the law?

No penalty. NO LAW.

[baiamonte]

They are all a bunch of liars. We’re never going to get rid of that bunch of cheats, thieves and pick-pockets.

[campaignPete R-CT]

261-165
8 not voting

needed about 290 to pass.

[Gaffer]

Boner is very happy he didn’t disappoint his golf partner...

[ctdonath2]

Privatize social security and medicare. Shutter all federal health, education, housing, banking, environmental, welfare, agriculture, industry, commerce, space, R & D programs, etc, and return them to the states and the PEOPLE per the constitution. Bring our troops home and cut the fraud, waste and fat from the defense budget.

That is exactly what should happen.

That is exactly what must happen.

The pressure for Congress to NOT do that is enormous.
The only way Congress will do that is if their incumbency is in grave peril. Alas, a majority of voters want the status quo because they're making easy money off the deal; hard to argue against bread & circuses.

There will be a collapse, a lack of cash flow; it's the only way to do what must be done.

[paul51]

they can't even do a budget so expecting them to do a balanced budget is far fetched anyhow. The best thing to do would be to confiscate all their ill gotten gains and either send them home or jail them

[cableguymn]

Doesn’t matter. We don’t need an amendment to be responsible.

If we need an amendment to be responsible then no amendment is going to help.

---

bingo!

Doesn’t CA have a balanced budget amendment? Hows that working out for them?

[Paradox]

From what I saw, this version of the BBA wasn’t that good anyway. The one this summer put limits on spending and taxation based on total GDP. The one rejected today did no such thing, which would have just meant more taxes and no limits on spending. Not a good solution.

This bears repeating, I had posted earlier in this thread that you can always raise taxes to balance a budget. I know many conservatives, over the years, have opposed various versions of a BBA. A bad BBA is worse than no BBA at all.

[VRW Conspirator]

They can’t balance the budget, period, lest they get ousted...all of them.

The other part of the equation is for the economy to grow with more people having jobs and more revenue for the government as a result. IOW, the $1.3 trillion shortfall will shorten drastically. Cuts are still needed but it will not have to be as drastic.

[ph12321]

If Ryan & Gohmert voting against it, there’s more to the story....

[johnthebaptistmoore]

I, also, believe that it’s too late, already, but I really want to be proven wrong, please. The November 2006 election convinced me that the U.S. is screwed, already, and it has proven true, ever since.

[topfile]

I'm proud of my Rep. Bob Goodlatte. His bill was responsible.

I don't understand why Paul Ryan voted against it.

[Fu-fu2]

I knew we were screwed when Clinton got re-elected.....

[Hiddigeigei]

I don't understand why Paul Ryan voted against it.

See comment #49 by Paradox. The Wall Street Journal had an editorial a day or so ago saying that Boehner had so watered down the original bill in order to get democrat support, it would be used as an excuse to raise taxes.

[ctdonath2]

The other part of the equation is for the economy to grow

Problem is the budget is legislated to increase the baseline by as much or more than any reasonable GDP increase. Until they eliminate the annual increase to the baseline (remember, every "cut" they discuss is above-and-beyond this baseline growth rate), we can't even grow out of it.

GDP growth for decades has been around 2%. Short of wildly optimistic explosive growth, we can't grow our way out of the deficit.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

“U.S. Conservatism” was screwed, ever since The New Deal came into existence.

[katiedidit1]

do you have the roll call vote?

[illiac]

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll858.xml

[newzjunkey]

Democratic critics said a balanced budget requirement would result in drastic cuts in Medicare and other social programs when economic downturns put the budget out of balance.

What happened to all that tough talk and decades of attacks on Republican deficits?