Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, cautioned against “phony” spending reform in an op-ed for The Hill on Tuesday, noting that the recent debt-limit deal requires that Congress vote on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
“If Congress is serious about dealing with our fiscal crisis, it will oppose efforts to pass a phony, watered-down version of the balanced budget amendment and will instead send a strong spending restraint to the states for ratification,” Lee writes.
In order to truly rein in spending, Lee argues, a balanced budget amendment must do four things:
- “It must apply to all spending,” including spending on Social Security and other entitlements, Lee writes.
- It “must cap spending at the average historical level of federal revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product,” in order to make sure spending does not outpace revenue
- It “must require a supermajority vote in both houses of Congress to raise taxes.”
- It “must require a supermajority vote in Congress to raise the debt limit.”
“All 47 Republican Senators have cosponsored legislation, SJ Res 10, which contains all four of these protections,” Lee writes.
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