GOP tries to ease base’s ire with budget amendment

“Congress had an opportunity to exercise fiscal discipline, and they blew it.” Tim Phillips Americans for Prosperity

WASHINGTON – The Republicanled House of Representatives will vote this week on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, an effort to quell anger from conservative activists who say Congress presides over a ballooning debt and out-ofcontrol spending.

Lawmakers return to Washington after a two-week recess, during which many fielded complaints from constituents unhappy with the $1.3 trillion spending bill Congress passed last month. President Trump grudgingly signed the measure but vowed to never again support such a massive spending bill.

“I had people calling me up saying, ‘I’m done, I quit, I’m not voting. I’m totally fed up,’ ” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. He and dozens of other conservatives voted against the legislation and railed against GOP lawmakers who supported it.

Voting on a balanced budget amendment could calm some of the ire, though the measure is not popular with everyone on the right, and it’s unlikely to pass the Senate.

“If lawmakers think they can use a balanced budget amendment as a fig leaf of fiscal responsibility after just voting for such an irresponsible spending bill, they should think again,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity. “Congress had an opportunity to exercise fiscal discipline, and they blew it.”

Democrats said the push for a balanced budget amendment is a political ploy — and a hypocritical move from Republicans who passed a tax cut law projected to add $1.5 trillion to the debt. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, blasted the bill as “an open assault on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.” Those programs could be subject to cuts to balance the budget.

House members are all up for reelection in November. Some Republicans said the best way to win is to hold votes on GOP campaign promises, even if those measures have little chance of becoming law.

“I look at this as much more than a showboat, but actually putting some teeth in it and putting some people on record,” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chair of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus of more than 150 House members.

Walker helped GOP leaders win enough votes for a budget bill last fall, in exchange for a promise that the House would vote to balance the budget. He said this week’s vote on a balanced budget amendment has been in the works for a while and is not a direct result of the voter pushback over the spending bill — though he acknowledged the base outrage adds to the urgency.

The measure the House will consider this week, introduced by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, would amend the Constitution to say Congress can’t spend more than it takes in in federal revenue, unless three-fifths of both the House and Senate vote to do so. Congress could achieve the balanced budget through spending cuts or by raising taxes, though the latter step would also require a three-fifths vote in both the House and the Senate. Similarly, Congress could not raise the debt ceiling without super majority votes.

That’s where the problem lies for many fiscal hard-liners, such as Andrew Roth, vice president of government affairs for the Club for Growth. Roth said a balanced budget “has to be solved through spending cuts.”

“It looks like a way for Republicans and Democrats to tax their way out of all of this spending that they’re doing, rather than having hardwired spending caps,” Roth said of the budget proposal.