A July poll, conducted by CNN, shows that 74% of Americans are now in favor of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. It wouldn’t be surprising to see that the numbers have ticked a bit higher in August, because the debt-ceiling debate revealed that Congress is far from mustering the will to put forth a significant plan for long term deficit reduction.
This is not a partisan issue. In the months after the Bush tax cuts, polls showed that Democrats favored a balanced-budget amendment by super-majorities larger than those of Republicans. I used to have a link to that poll, but today can’t find any polls on the topic in those years—on Google or Bing. Please write if you know of one . . .
The wording of the recent (July 18 to 20) poll, item 25 on page 7, was:
25. Would you favor or oppose a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget?
Favor 74%
Oppose 24%
No opinion 1%
We’re just one small panic away from the situation that Greece got into, in which no one wanted to lend them money at interest rates below 11%. At even 10% our interest payments on our debt would be a trillion dollars, and our government’s spending would rise from $3.8 trillion to $4.5 trillion. This year we’ll collect about $2.4 trillion in taxes.
Still, this is best seen as a moral issue. Back in the good old days parents tried to leave an inheritance to their children. Are we really planning on sticking them with a gigantic debt to the Chinese? Really?
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