Should the Republican Congress send a balanced budget amendment to the States?

Should the Republican Congress send a balanced budget amendment to the States?


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johnwk

Gold Member
May 24, 2009
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I happen to be a firm believer in requiring our federal government to balance the budget on an annual basis. To not do so opens the door to accumulating a massive federal debt, as has happened, depriving our nation’s younger generation of their economic liberty in that they are now in debt to the tune of $127 Trillion! See You Think The Deficit Is Bad? Federal Unfunded Liabilities Exceed $127 Trillion

My personal choice for a balanced budget amendment is following what our Founders intended, and is reflected in the FAIR SHARE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT which follows.


The Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment


“SECTION 1. The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay ``any`` tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money.


NOTE: these words would return us to our founding father’s ORIGINAL TAX PLAN as they intended it to operate! They would also end the experiment with allowing Congress to lay and collect taxes calculated from lawfully earned "incomes" which now oppresses America‘s economic engine and robs the bread which working people have earned when selling their labor!

"SECTION 2. Congress ought not raise money by borrowing, but when the money arising from imposts duties and excise taxes are insufficient to meet the public exigencies, and Congress has raised money by borrowing during the course of a fiscal year, Congress shall then lay a direct tax at the beginning of the next fiscal year for an amount sufficient to extinguish the preceding fiscal year's deficit, and apply the revenue so raised to extinguishing said deficit."


NOTE: Congress is to raise its primary revenue from imposts and duties, [taxes at our water’s edge], and may also lay miscellaneous internal excise taxes on specifically chosen articles of consumption. But if Congress borrows and spends more than is brought in from imposts, duties and miscellaneous excise taxes during the course of a fiscal year, then, and only then, is the apportioned tax to be laid.


"SECTION 3. When Congress is required to lay a direct tax in accordance with Section 1 of this Article, the Secretary of the United States Treasury shall, in a timely manner, calculate each State's apportioned share of the total sum being raised by dividing its total population size by the total population of the united states and multiplying that figure by the total being raised by Congress, and then provide the various State Congressional Delegations with a Bill notifying their State’s Executive and Legislature of its share of the total tax being collected and a final date by which said tax shall be paid into the United States Treasury."


NOTE: our founder’s fair share formula to extinguish an annual deficit would be:

States’ population

---------------------------- X SUM TO BE RAISED = STATE’S FAIR SHARE

Total U.S. Population


The above formula, as intended by our founding fathers, is to insure that those states who contribute the lion’s share of the tax are guaranteed a representation in Congress proportionately equal to their contribution, i.e., representation with proportional financial obligation!



Note also that each State’s number or Representatives, under our Constitution is determined by the rule of apportionment:


State`s Pop.
------------------- X House size (435) = State`s No. of Representatives
U.S. Pop.



"SECTION 4. Each State shall be free to assume and pay its quota of the direct tax into the United States Treasury by a final date set by Congress, but if any State shall refuse or neglect to pay its quota, then Congress shall send forth its officers to assess and levy such State's proportion against the real property within the State with interest thereon at the rate of ((?)) per cent per annum, and against the individual owners of the taxable property. Provision shall be made for a 15% discount for those States paying their share by ((?))of the fiscal year in which the tax is laid, and a 10% discount for States paying by the final date set by Congress, such discount being to defray the States' cost of collection."


NOTE: This section respects the Tenth Amendment and allows each state to raise its share in its own chosen way in a time period set by Congress, but also allows the federal government to enter a state and collect the tax if a state is delinquent in meeting its obligation.


"SECTION 5. This Amendment to the Constitution, when ratified by the required number of States, shall take effect no later than (?) years after the required number of States have ratified it.


JWK


“…..with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities“. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.

If that was all the government did with tax money they would already have a balanced budget.
 
"Should the Republican Congress send a balanced budget amendment to the States?"

No.

The notion is partisan idiocy; amendments should be predicated on facts and logic, not failed, subjective rightist economic dogma.

Advocates of such an inane amendment exhibit a simplistic, naïve, and sophomoric 'understanding' of modern 21st Century industrialized societies, where it's normal and perfectly appropriate for national budgets to move from surplus to deficit and back to surplus again, depending upon events and economic conditions.

BBAs have little to do with 'fiscal responsibility' and everything to do with contriving a weapon to attack social programs and regulatory policy that don't conform to errant conservative political doctrine.
 
If you want to pay off debt and balance the budget;


-Base Federal tax for corporations at 30% of revenue.

-Raise minimum wage to $23.50/hr. Based on where minimum wage should be using 1970-2013 rise in food, shelter, and transportation.

-Eliminate all business subsidies (deductions/write-offs/write-downs) except for employee expenses which are deducted dollar-for-dollar on all city, state, and Federal taxes and fees with the Feds refunding city, State, and fees.

-Companies with 400 employees or less, employee expenses above the deduction are subsidized at 100% with funds usually give back to the States.

-Adjust Social Security and private/public retirement and pension payments using 1970-2013 price structure.

-Remove the FICA limit.

-Back down ALL costs, prices, fees, to January 1, 2009 levels and hold them for 10 years which will eliminate inflation.

-Recall ALL off-shore investments tax free, and disallow any further off-shore investments.

-Make inversion illegal.
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.


And that is why we are now $127 Trillion in debt and why we need a balanced budget amendment. Why do you want to pass the above debt to our children and grandchildren and deprive them of their economic freedom?


JWK





We are here today and gone tomorrow, but what is most important is what we do in between, and is what our children will inherit and remember us by.

 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.


And that is why we are now $127 Trillion in debt and why we need a balanced budget amendment. Why do you want to pass the above debt to our children and grandchildren and deprive them of their economic freedom?


JWK





We are here today and gone tomorrow, but what is most important is what we do in between, and is what our children will inherit and remember us by.
I would rather not pass on the debt but the only solution is not possible in out tax averse plutocracy. The only people with the available cash to really start paying down the debt control the government and they are preoccupied with dodging their responsibility and taking it all with them when they go.
 
And that is why we are now $127 Trillion in debt and why we need a balanced budget amendment. Why do you want to pass the above debt to our children and grandchildren and deprive them of their economic freedom?

JWK

We are here today and gone tomorrow, but what is most important is what we do in between, and is what our children will inherit and remember us by.

You can make as many balanced budget amendments as you want. When you have less coming in than you have going out you'll never have a balanced budget.

As I've proven many times; If you've voted Republican in the last 40+ years, you've screwed your own children. Some epitaph.
 
"Should the Republican Congress send a balanced budget amendment to the States?"

No.

The notion is partisan idiocy; amendments should be predicated on facts and logic, not failed, subjective rightist economic dogma.

Advocates of such an inane amendment exhibit a simplistic, naïve, and sophomoric 'understanding' of modern 21st Century industrialized societies, where it's normal and perfectly appropriate for national budgets to move from surplus to deficit and back to surplus again, depending upon events and economic conditions.

BBAs have little to do with 'fiscal responsibility' and everything to do with contriving a weapon to attack social programs and regulatory policy that don't conform to errant conservative political doctrine.

What do you think happened to Greece, when their government couldn't sustain the amount of spending their citizens had expected of them?
 
What do you think happened to Greece, when their government couldn't sustain the amount of spending their citizens had expected of them?

Greece was heavily vested in derivatives. And you now know why Bush, Chaney, and Gramm can't travel to Europe.
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.

If that was all the government did with tax money they would already have a balanced budget.
Explain.


This is a small portion of wasted taxpayer money in 2014 and there are thousands more over the years where these came from.

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000

Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000

Studying how many times “hungry” people stab a voodoo doll: $331,000

Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000

Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000

Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000

Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million

Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.

If that was all the government did with tax money they would already have a balanced budget.
Explain.

There are HUNDREDS more where these came from

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000

Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000

Studying how many times “hungry” people stab a voodoo doll: $331,000

Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000

Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000

Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000

Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million

Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
When I said "funding the government" I meant all government spending. How could you think I meant something else?
 
If you want to pay off debt and balance the budget;


-Base Federal tax for corporations at 30% of revenue.

-Raise minimum wage to $23.50/hr. Based on where minimum wage should be using 1970-2013 rise in food, shelter, and transportation.

-Eliminate all business subsidies (deductions/write-offs/write-downs) except for employee expenses which are deducted dollar-for-dollar on all city, state, and Federal taxes and fees with the Feds refunding city, State, and fees.

-Companies with 400 employees or less, employee expenses above the deduction are subsidized at 100% with funds usually give back to the States.

-Adjust Social Security and private/public retirement and pension payments using 1970-2013 price structure.

-Remove the FICA limit.

-Back down ALL costs, prices, fees, to January 1, 2009 levels and hold them for 10 years which will eliminate inflation.

-Recall ALL off-shore investments tax free, and disallow any further off-shore investments.

-Make inversion illegal.

The government cannot require companies to raise their private retirement pensions without bankrupting most of those companies and/or pension funds. Raising Social Security would require a helluva lot more than removing the FICA limit. Social Security benefits are based on how much is paid in. If you require raising the limit paid in, you have to raise the amount paid out at retirement age. A temporary net gain at best.

The rest of your suggestions are equally as flawed.
 
No because Americans refuse to be taxed at a rate that would support the government, pay down the debt and have a surplus for emergencies.

If that was all the government did with tax money they would already have a balanced budget.
Explain.

There are HUNDREDS more where these came from

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000

Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000

Studying how many times “hungry” people stab a voodoo doll: $331,000

Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000

Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000

Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000

Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million

Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
When I said "funding the government" I meant all government spending. How could you think I meant something else?

When I said what government did with tax money, what do call the expenditures I listed?
 

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