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After the first round of the contentious debt limit fight, congressional Republicans are redoubling their efforts to push through a so-called Balanced Budget Amendment as a solution to the country's financial woes. Last week, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told GOP House members that the best thing they could do during the August recess was to sell the BBA to their constituents. Republicans have even suggested that Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of US debt from its sterling AAA rating would not have happened, or could be reversed, if a Balanced Budget Amendment were passed.
This weekend the head of S&P, John Chambers, publicly dismissed that idea as foolhardy when he said passage of a BBA would hurt, not help, America’s creditworthiness. Chambers, S&P's managing director, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that a balanced budget measure “would just reduce your flexibility in a crisis”:
BLITZER: Would it be important or not that important for Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution?
CHAMBERS: In general, we think that fiscal rules like these just diminish the flexibility of the government to respond. Also, when Congress has a long track record of trying to bind itself with various rules…But when push comes to shove, they don't bind very much. So even if you had a Balanced Budget Amendment, you'd have some questions about it's credibility, and it would just reduce your flexibility in a crisis.
Watch it:
Chambers also said it could take as long as a decade for the US to regain its AAA rating, spurning GOP suggestions that a hasty and drastic revision to the US Constitution could automatically fix the downgrade. The Republican plan would require a balanced budget for each fiscal year and cap spending at 18 percent of GDP.
As Chambers said, a balanced budget amendment would tie government's hands and render it unable to take corrective measures during a recession. By slashing spending and mandating “perverse actions in the face of recessions,” it would greatly damage America's already weak economy — which is why five Nobel Prize-winning economists have denounced the idea.
Holding Trump accountable for his illegal war on Iran
The devastating American and Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of Iranians, and the death toll continues to rise.
As independent media, what we do next matters a lot. It’s up to us to report the truth, demand accountability, and reckon with the consequences of U.S. militarism at this cataclysmic historical moment.
Trump may be an authoritarian, but he is not entirely invulnerable, nor are the elected officials who have given him pass after pass. We cannot let him believe for a second longer that he can get away with something this wildly illegal or recklessly dangerous without accountability.
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