WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) — A Republican congressman proposed a constitutional balanced-budget amendment that includes the hammer of presidential impeachment.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., offered the proposal this week, which calls for a balance budget within five years and the possibility of impeaching any president who fails to enforce the amendment.
Brooks told The Hill his Protecting America’s Solvency Act contains the teeth needed to ensure the president and Congress take seriously the requirement that spending and revenues balance.
“I have learned from experience that unless there is penalty … there is a significant risk that the executive, or for that matter the Senate or the House, won’t do it,” Brooks said.
Brooks said a balanced-budget law was not a particularly radical idea since many states operate under such restrictions.
He said the requirement could be suspended by Congress during wartime or if revenues fall short of projections in a particular year, but it would be incumbent on the White House to take steps to stay out of the red or put the chief executive’s job at risk.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
You have my vote lets start with the one in office right know !
Good thing you don’t have to be able to spell to vote.
Makes sense if applied to all elected politicians. Probably won’t pass anyway.
Your are entirely correct! “ALL” politicians. No balanced budget = no lifetime guaranteed health insurance permanently. 2nd time no balanced budget, automatic property seizure up to max of $1,000,000.
3rd time no balanced budget = lifetime pension suspension for ex congressional folks.
Why do congressional folks get to vote themselves a raise? The only way I get a raise is based off of performance…
Your entirely correct LVS, why would they vote to penalize themselves for their stupidity and ear mark and pork barrel spending??
@get-you make very good points here. I am certainly a believer in term limits and in making the politicians retire on S.S. instead of their rich pension and if the they were made to have Medicare as insurance they would certainly do more to resolve the problems. As long as they have these special benefits they will not fix the problems. Kick them all out and start over with term limits.
I would be in favor of putting all of congress under the same microscope they have the public under. Let’s start taking more and more away from them, telling them what they can and cannot do and refusing to listen to them.
Just think of all the money we’d make selling off empty buildings in Washington.
sickastupd does it hurt to be so naive to think you can take things away from our elected officials?
Gee, I don’t know. Does it hurt to be too stupid to know what a metaphor is?