By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) didn’t waste any time on Tuesday, Save Jerseyans, kicking off the 114th Congress by pitching a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.
“Many states, including New Jersey, are required to balance their state budgets, yet the federal government continues to spend more than it takes in,” said Lance in a statement. “A balanced budget amendment would be a major step in placing our Nation on a glide path toward fiscal restraint and bringing greater economic certainty to help create the jobs we so desperately need.”
The actual details as reported by Lance’s office:
- “A three-fifths vote for any increases in revenue and the debt.”
- “That the President submit a balanced budget to Congress.”
- “Exceptions to these provisions are provided in which a declaration of war is in effect.”
Rep. Lance isn’t new to the balanced budget fight, one which Ronald Reagan popularized among conservatives but never realized during his tenure as president. As a state legislator, Lance frequently railed against borrowing without voter approval and, in 2004, Jim McGreevey over it. The 2008 “Lance Amendment” required voter approval for future borrowing.
“In 1995, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a balanced budget amendment by a 300 to 132 vote. Yet it failed in the U.S. Senate by a single vote,” Lance added. “Twenty years later, as our Nation faces an $18 trillion debt, I put forth a proposed constitutional amendment that will require Congress to make the tough decisions necessary to balance the budget for taxpayers today and for future generations.”
What say you, Save Jersey budget hawks?
