About the Common Sense Balanced Budget Campaign
The Balanced Budget Amendment Coalition Campaign (BBA Now) is a collaborative effort by over 150+ groups, and growing, to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment. We The People believe it is time to force the government to handle its budget like our families have to, by balancing it.
There is no greater threat to the American way of life than our federal debt and excessive and irresponsible government spending. It is our, the people’s, moral and economic imperative to address our debt and annual deficit spending. The greater debt that our country incurs at the government’s hands increasingly limits our economic and individual freedoms, our children’s futures, the United States’ standing in the world and our religious freedoms.
The current U.S. federal debt is approaching $14 Trillion and the 2011 annual deficit will be an estimated $1.27 Trillion. The bipartisan and highly respected Congressional Budget Office projects that our national debt will reach $19 Trillion by 2015. Our financial situation is so dire that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen that our national debt is the single biggest threat to our national security.
We believe that a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the only way to responsibly tie the government’s hands to prevent generational theft and spending. A collaborative effort of national, grassroot and campus organizations and groups created the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment.
Summary of
The Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment
H.J.Res. 1 – S.J.Res. 3
- A requirement that federal receipts and outlays be balanced every year;
- A requirement that all future tax increases must be passed by a supermajority vote in the House and Senate;
- A limitation on spending that will tie future federal expenditures to an external standard, which is 20 percent of GDP;
- Allows Congress to waive these provisions when a declaration of war is in effect, or when the U.S. is engaged in a serious military conflict which causes an imminent military threat and is so declared by a joint resolution adopted by the House and Senate and signed into law by the President. This resolution must be renewed annually.
How Do You Pass an Amendment to the United States Constitution? (And can it be done?)
There are two ways to pass an Amendment to the United States Constitution. One is to convene a Constitutional Convention and the other is through Congress.
We are trying to gain support to pass the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment through Congress and not a Constitutional Convention. To pass a Constitutional Amendment through Congress an amendment must get "two thirds" of the House and Senate to be sent to the states. It then has to be ratified by "three fourths" of the states.
Is passing the Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment possible?
Yes and Congress has come very close before. In 1995 and 1997 a Balanced Budget Amendment received ¾ votes in favor of in the U.S. House of Representatives and both times came one vote shy of receiving ¾ votes in favor of in the U.S. Senate.
