The Voice of Young Conservatives Blog

Today the House of Representatives will vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution. It’s not mere hyperbole to say that this is perhaps the most important vote for the future of our generation.

Passage of the Amendment would put an end to Washington’s newfound addiction to deficit spending, an addiction which threatens the fiscal health of the United States. But today’s bad habits will have enormous impacts on young adults who will feel the sting of higher taxes or the pain of reduced government services. Washington has given young adults little reason not to fear this ominous future. In 2011 our budget is more than twice as large as it was in 2001 and our $1.6 trillion deficits is the size of the entire budget of 1982.

Unfortunately, many Democrats, who seem perfectly happy to fritter away the wealth of future generations, are dead set on defeating the bill.

Sadly, the partisan divide that now exists over a Balanced Budget Amendment didn’t always exist. In 1995 a BBA which closely mimics the one that will receive a vote today, passed through the House of Representatives by a vote of 300 to 132 before falling one vote short in the Senate. Included in those numbers were 72 House and 14 Senate Democrats.

“The issue of a balanced budget is not a conservative one or a liberal one, and it is not an easy one,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer at the time, “but it is an essential one.”

“I am absolutely convinced that the long term consequences of refusing to come to grips with the necessity to balance our budget will be catastrophic . . . [T]hose who will pay the highest price for our fiscal irresponsibility, should we fail, will be those least able to protect themselves, and the children of today and the generations of tomorrow,” Hoyer concluded.

At the time Hoyer said that the national debt stood at $5 trillion, a level that would be a dream scenario in today’s Washington. Nevertheless, he understood that unless steps were taken, young adults would pay the price.

Rep. Hoyer is now the Minority Whip in the House, making him responsible for keeping his party in line with Democratic leadership (read: Nancy Pelosi). With a BBA once again coming to the floor, Hoyer has completely flip-flopped.

“What I said in 1995 I absolutely agree with today,” Hoyer recently told reporters. “Unfortunately, I did not contemplate the irresponsibility that I have seen fiscally over the last nine year, or eight years, of the Bush Administration . . .”

With regrets to the 1995 version of Rep. Hoyer, it seems the issue of balanced budgets is a conservative issue. If his recent comments are any indications, liberals have abandoned the idea to instead coalesce around the strategy of blaming Bush (and completely ignoring three years of historic deficits under Obama).

Democrats’ decision to completely abandon the support for a BBA couldn’t come at a worse time. In 1997, the year of the last BBA vote, the national debt was $5.36 trillion. Today it is $14.4 trillion and climbing. Back then our annual deficit was $21.8 billion. Today, that’s less than the average weekly deficit being run under the Obama Administration.

Our growing debt, the fiscal collapse of Europe, our sustained economic malaise – none of it has been enough to derail Washington’s thirst for more spending. Indeed, despite the so-called new era of fiscal responsibility, the federal government is still spending money faster than they did last year!

The inability to rein in deficits is likely driving the overwhelming popularity of a BBA. A recent CNN poll finds that 74 percent of Americans, including 63 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents, support passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment. It’s a law that not only brings together parties, but also generations. Indeed, a whopping 73 percent of 18-29 year olds favor a constitutional balanced budget requirement.

Today’s vote could literally change our generation’s future from one filled with debt to one defined by opportunity. Call your lawmakers and let them know you support a BBA by following THIS LINK.