Balanced-budget amendment falls short in House

WASHINGTON—Republicans fell short of the twothirds support needed to send a balanced-budget amendment to the Senate on Thursday, but they succeeded in getting a roll call vote that can be used during the midterm campaigns to criticize Democrats as lax on fiscal discipline.

The 233-184 vote followed four hours of debate that centered on the growth of entitlement programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as how balancing the budget would affect the economy.

“The debt has risen as a result of having to pay for entitlement programs that are of indefinite duration and difficult to reduce over time,” said the measure’s lead sponsor, House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va. “The debts we are incurring under entitlement programs will burden multiple future generations.”

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2017, federal spending on everything other than interest payments on the debt totaled $3.7 trillion, with mandatory benefit programs eating up 68 percent, leaving a much smaller share for discretionary spending on programs ranging from defense and border security to biomedical research and education. That figure rises to 74 percent in a decade under the latest Congressional Budget Office outlook.

Social Security and health care spending, including Medicare, Medicaid, the 2010 health care law and the Children’s Health Insurance Program account for more than 80 percent of mandatory spending on average, CBO said.

Democrats countered that such a restrictive provision would destroy social safety net programs.