An American Promise
● A Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution, with appropriate exceptions for times of war and recession.
● A line-item veto, to give the President a fighting chance to eliminate pork and earmarks.
● A limitation on federal spending, to 20% of GDP.-
*** About We Elected You ***
Have Your Say!
- John Lumbard on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- Chris Curley on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- John Lumbard on How to Fix the Health Care Mess
- Did Government Agencies “Raid” Social Security “Coffers”? « Joejolly’s Weblog on “The Debt The Government Owes Itself For Raiding Social Security”
- John Lumbard on The Antidote
- Gen Y on The Keepers of the Flame
- Chuck Bailey on Amendment Filed. Call Your Congressman!
- Phoebe Addington on Party On!
- FaGaurlwal on Incentives Rule!
- James Schaefer on The ENTIRE Government Runs on Borrowed Money
Topics
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Constitutional Amendment Archive
Senator Udall (D – Colorado) Speaks
By John Lumbard.
Republicans are threatening to shut down the government over $100 billion in spending cuts---remember when that was considered big money?---while Democrats try to turn the event to their political advantage. Wouldn't it make more sense to take a stand on principle and a permanent change for the...
Read More The Grand Bargain
By John Lumbard.
In the weeks before the 2008 elections Barack Obama mused that the nation needs to strike a "grand bargain" if it's going to balance the federal budget. You won't give up your benefits and tax breaks unless I give up mine, and the same can be said...
Read More The Scott Adams Challenge
By James Schaefer.
Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, recently had a feature article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled "How to Tax the Rich", and he asked readers to think up incentives that might allow our biggest taxpayers to feel a bit better about dropping hundred-thousand-dollar checks into the ravenous maw...
Read More Amendment Filed. Call Your Congressman!
Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) have introduced a Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution that---are you sitting down?---includes a 20% of GDP cap on federal spending! It requires a 3/5 vote of both houses to run deficits or overspend, but in other respects is very much like a bill...
Read More Incentives Rule!
By John Lumbard.
In December the Boston Globe ran a front-page story on the “dangerous incentives” created by a program that offers cash to the parents of children taking psychotropic drugs for ADHD and other behavioral conditions. The number of children on these drugs has predictably swelled, and a program...
Read More Hair of the Dog
By John Lumbard.
Unemployment claims are down. The trade deficit is rising. The Fed is printing money. A new cut in payroll taxes (less FICA taken out of your paycheck) and an extension of unemployment benefits will mean growing federal budget deficits---and a big new stimulus for the economy. We’re...
Read More Three Cheers for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility!
By John Lumbard.
The President's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility will release its findings on December 1, but recently the two chairmen--Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles---took the extraordinary step of releasing a "draft" of the "Co-Chair's proposal". It's an end-run around the dissenting voices in the commission, and a clear statement that...
Read More Postponing the Pain
Economist Charles Wheelan writes occasionally for Yahoo Finance, and he's always terrific. In a recent article he suggests that the President extend the current graduated tax structure, with a plan to balance the budget in 3 or 4 years (when the economy is stronger) by cutting spending and adding consumption taxes...
Read More Letter To A Congressman
By John Lumbard.
Dear Congressman;
In high school we all learned that our Congress has the power of the purse. Our legislators have other powers and responsibilities, but their most basic duty is to ably manage the monies that they extract from reluctant and disillusioned taxpayers and voters. They have failed...
Read More Tax Brackets and Balanced Budgets
By John Lumbard.
Washington has abruptly backed away from a proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle and low-income taxpayers, while bumping the rates for higher-income taxpayers back to the levels of the 1990s. Both parties were using the debate to score political points---they were trying to box their opponents into positions...
Read More