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Can A Balanced Budget Be Forced?

August 28, 2011, 10:16 pm + 6

Posted By John Liming

My Opinion And Other Stuff

I have had credit problems of my own so I can sort of understand what the Federal Government is going through right now with the money crunch and all. I learned my lessons the hard way. I didn’t budget my money and I overspent and actually went bankrupt. It was a horrible experience!

I had at least 18 credit cards and the habit of just flashing that plastic whenever I wanted something got too easy. It got much too easy! In fact, it became so automatic with me that I got into a $41,000 hole real quick. I had dug the hole myself and I found that I could not climb out of it. It took me 17 years to get my credit firmly re-established again. I do not recommend this kind of experience for anyone, much less The Fed.

So now, I guess many of our friends on The Republican side of the fence want to pass what they call “A Balanced Budget Amendment” to The Constitution of The United States– a law that would, for all intents and purposes, make it illegal for America to run deficits.

Well,folks, in my opinion, The Republicans have never yet worked out any kind of financial plan that has ever benefited the common ordinary “Man-In’The-Street” (The Joe Public types– you know, Mr. and Mrs. Everyday Main Street American…).

I am thinking that if they want this “Balanced Budget Amendment” as much as they seem to, then there must be something about it that will create a few new millionaires at the expense of The Middle Class and everyone else except the wealthy. In my opinion, if this were not true, the Right Wing Extreme wouldn’t probably have the slightest interest in a “Balanced Budget Amendment.”

Here are some of my views on why the idea of a “Balanced Budget Amendment” would put undue strain on the government and is, like most of the cockamamie ideas from the Right, completely unacceptable:

(1) If we had such an amendment and we got into an emergency situation such as war or another depression, we would need lots of additional money to get through and we would be restrained by Law from printing it or borrowing it and many would suffer or die.

(2) The government cannot control the timing of many needed expenditures such as the extra unemployment compensation needed to cope with a recessionary trend and this would be disastrous if the government were prevented from borrowing to meet emergencies.

(3) There is no way to achieve a balanced budget without such horrors as increasing taxes (The Great Republican Nightmare) or slashing the very life out of Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid.(The Great Republican Goal).

(4) A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution might very well give Supreme Court Judges power to control the budget through their ability to declare what is constitutional and what is not. We certainly do not need Judges legislating from the bench.

What is your idea about it?

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John Liming - American Liberal Times

I am an American Man, 72-years-old, and a Veteran of The U.S. Military. I have served honorably in both The United States Army (National Guard) and The United States Air Force for a total of seven years and three months active duty during what is now known as The Vietnam Era. I am a concerned citizen and refer to myself as "A Crazy Left Wing Liberal Nut Case with occasional Right Wing Conservative tendencies. I am particularly concerned and grieved about the way our beloved America seems to have become so politically divided over the past few years to the point where hardly anyone seems to be able to get along or to work together and where mutual vilification seems to be a spectator sport of some kind. I am particular fearful that we might get to the point, in our internal power struggles where we would be a One Party Nation. That, in my opinion, would be a total disaster and that is what I fear certain members of the element generally known as The "Christian" Conservative Right may have in mind.