Another Voice in the Wilderness
Keep this up and we could have a chorus... Senator Tom Coburn has a press release out (hat tip to Michelle Malkin). Looks like the good Senator is planning to hold hearings on the abuse of the General Welfare Clause, among other things and reexamining Constitutional restrictions. From Michelle's site...
“A body that values tradition should welcome efforts to realign ourselves with the basis of our tradition – the Constitution. Today’s modern era of pork politics and spending free-for-alls is a radical departure from our founders’ vision. Our excess is threatening the long-term viability of the American experiment. As Congress struggles to make difficult decisions about priorities we need to reacquaint ourselves with the genius of our founders and their vision of limited government. I hope this hearing will help us build a bridge back to our beginnings and founding principles,” Dr. Coburn said.
Good luck and Godspeed on that, Senator. I'd be amazed if many of your fellow Senators paid attention, but you certainly have my support. I'd love to be able to sit at home and watch these on CSpan, but being a working man that isn't always possible. My advice for a ratings grabber: Subpoena the biggest spending Republican and Democrat Senators and demand they explain themselves in light of their flagrant extravagance in the budget at taxpayer expense. What a pleasant day that would be.
UPDATE: I normally wouldn't steal directly from another blog, but RightWingNews is one of the biggest and best sources on the right and they had this very good excerpt today from Pete Du Pont's WSJ editorial and since it was related I thought it worth noting also.
"But the better solution to the huge increase in federal spending would be a constitutional amendment to hold the growth of federal spending to specific percentages of revenue unless there is a supermajority override by both houses of Congress. It is not a new idea--Delaware, for example, passed a constitutional amendment in 1980, when I was governor, to limit state government spending to 98% of revenue unless there is a three-fifths vote of each legislative house to spend more. The extra 2% goes into a Rainy Day Fund--the kind of fund that could be used for relief in Katrina-type national catastrophes. The amendment has produced 25 consecutive years of balanced Delaware budgets, a fiscal discipline that the federal government needs even more that state governments do.
Another approach is the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or Tabor, which Colorado put into place via a constitutional amendment in 1992. It limits annual state government spending to inflation plus population growth, with any extra revenue going back to the taxpayers. From 1995 to 2000 Colorado ranked first in the nation in GDP growth and second in personal income growth. Its success has generated a furious effort to allow more spending that will be on the 2006 ballot.
Amending the Constitution is not easy, but is the best solution to the long term spending challenges that have faced every modern president since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And offering it up in our troubled big spending times would energize a policy debate that America needs to have."
Way to say it. Sometimes the federal government should look to the states for answers. It should look to the states for permission to wipe its nose domestically, but that's a dream for another day. A Balanced Budget Amendment is one of those steps along with things like the Fair Tax that might eventually bring government spending back in line and eventually even start reducing it. We can only hope (and write our Congressmen til they're sick of hearing from us).
Keep this up and we could have a chorus... Senator Tom Coburn has a press release out (hat tip to Michelle Malkin). Looks like the good Senator is planning to hold hearings on the abuse of the General Welfare Clause, among other things and reexamining Constitutional restrictions. From Michelle's site...
“A body that values tradition should welcome efforts to realign ourselves with the basis of our tradition – the Constitution. Today’s modern era of pork politics and spending free-for-alls is a radical departure from our founders’ vision. Our excess is threatening the long-term viability of the American experiment. As Congress struggles to make difficult decisions about priorities we need to reacquaint ourselves with the genius of our founders and their vision of limited government. I hope this hearing will help us build a bridge back to our beginnings and founding principles,” Dr. Coburn said.
Good luck and Godspeed on that, Senator. I'd be amazed if many of your fellow Senators paid attention, but you certainly have my support. I'd love to be able to sit at home and watch these on CSpan, but being a working man that isn't always possible. My advice for a ratings grabber: Subpoena the biggest spending Republican and Democrat Senators and demand they explain themselves in light of their flagrant extravagance in the budget at taxpayer expense. What a pleasant day that would be.
UPDATE: I normally wouldn't steal directly from another blog, but RightWingNews is one of the biggest and best sources on the right and they had this very good excerpt today from Pete Du Pont's WSJ editorial and since it was related I thought it worth noting also.
"But the better solution to the huge increase in federal spending would be a constitutional amendment to hold the growth of federal spending to specific percentages of revenue unless there is a supermajority override by both houses of Congress. It is not a new idea--Delaware, for example, passed a constitutional amendment in 1980, when I was governor, to limit state government spending to 98% of revenue unless there is a three-fifths vote of each legislative house to spend more. The extra 2% goes into a Rainy Day Fund--the kind of fund that could be used for relief in Katrina-type national catastrophes. The amendment has produced 25 consecutive years of balanced Delaware budgets, a fiscal discipline that the federal government needs even more that state governments do.
Another approach is the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or Tabor, which Colorado put into place via a constitutional amendment in 1992. It limits annual state government spending to inflation plus population growth, with any extra revenue going back to the taxpayers. From 1995 to 2000 Colorado ranked first in the nation in GDP growth and second in personal income growth. Its success has generated a furious effort to allow more spending that will be on the 2006 ballot.
Amending the Constitution is not easy, but is the best solution to the long term spending challenges that have faced every modern president since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And offering it up in our troubled big spending times would energize a policy debate that America needs to have."
Way to say it. Sometimes the federal government should look to the states for answers. It should look to the states for permission to wipe its nose domestically, but that's a dream for another day. A Balanced Budget Amendment is one of those steps along with things like the Fair Tax that might eventually bring government spending back in line and eventually even start reducing it. We can only hope (and write our Congressmen til they're sick of hearing from us).
posted by Rob Beck | 6:59 AM
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