OPINION: Budget amendment no easy sell
Chuck Malloy
We’re hearing a lot of pros and cons these days about a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget, and the question comes down to this: Is it possible for Congress to exercise fiscal restraint without a congressional mandate?
Former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who spent nearly 30 years in Congress, says flatly that members simply can’t help themselves. A national debt that is at $34 trillion, and goes up $2 trillion a year regardless of who is sitting in the White House, lends credence to Craig’s statement. He views a convention of states, under Article V of the Constitution, as the first step toward fiscal sanity.
Craig says the system in Congress is broken, using recent votes by Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo as examples. They voted for a nearly $100 billion aid package to Ukraine and Israel, in the name of national security.
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