Civil and Human Rights Coalition Says Balanced Budget Amendment Would Be 'Disastrous'

July 29, 2011 - Posted by Ron Bigler

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights today urged lawmakers to oppose a proposed balanced budget amendment being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a letter to House members, Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference, and Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference, warned that H.J.Res.1, H.J.Res.2, or "any other proposed balanced budget amendment (BBA) ... would be disastrous for the economy as a whole and for the communities we represent."

The BBA, Henderson and Zirkin write, would tie the hands of lawmakers and

require a balanced budget every year, regardless of the state of the economy. While it punts on the specifics, it would require extreme spending cuts precisely when the economy is at its weakest and government revenues are at their lowest, preventing the government from resorting to countercyclical policies right when they are needed most. As a result, the BBA would tip a struggling economy into a recession and would keep it there for a protracted period of time.

The proposed BBA under consideration in the House is "even more extreme than other versions of the BBA," they added, and

would require a supermajority of two-thirds in each chamber to increase revenues, and would drastically reduce government expenditures overall to 18 percent of GDP, a level not seen in decades. Taken together, these provisions would force massive if not devastating cuts in many of our most important governmental functions and programs, cuts that have clearly not yet been fully thought out by proponents.

The letter concludes by urging House members to oppose any balanced budget amendment as either a "free standing proposal or as a prerequisite to raising the debt ceiling."