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| Coalition for Budget Integrity | |||||
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The ill-considered efforts by Congress to add a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution turns the etiquette of ships in distress on its head. One of its most serious flaws is that, instead of sending women and children to safety before others, the Amendment's consequences may drown that most vulnerable segment of our population while the lifeboats wait for folks who probably have other--and fancier--modes of transport.
The amendment's supporters would have us believe that balancing the budget and the Balanced Budget Amendment are one. But, as President Clinton reminded us in his State of the Union address, trimming spending and eliminating waste does not require a rewrite of the Constitution. Indeed, if Congress keeps doing what's its doing, without putting into harm's way bread and butter federal programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, education, and Head Start--surely we will balance the federal budget by 2002.
Much attention has been given to the threat to Social Security payments. That is because if, during a recession, less revenue is paid into the fund, benefits would be halted when the revenue pool was depleted. Conversely, if extra money accrued in any given year, the surplus could not be saved for a "rainy day," because spending it during a later year would make expenditures greater than revenues in that year. But that is not the only program that could be lost.
One of the most damaging aspects of life under the requirements of a balanced budget would be its impact during downturns in the economy. In those crisis periods, the poor and minorities are among the first to lose their jobs and the last to get them back; while the demand for unemployment benefits, food stamps Medicaid and other programs is increasing, government revenues are decreasing, renewing the deficit and creating pressure to cut spending in order to balance the budget. (It would not even be possible to increase public works projects to get people back to work and the economy moving again.)
A disproportionate number of recipients of these life-saving programs are women and children:
It has been said that a rising tide raises all boats. Unfortunately, the tidal wave that is the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment may wash America's poor women and children overboard. It is bad policy, and must be defeated.