Why a Balanced Budget Amendment Is Doomed To Fail - For Now

Given the nation's dire fiscal situation, Washington's inability to get the federal budget under control, and polls consistently showing a solid majority of Americans in favor of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget (which would require Congress and the President to make deficit spending the exception rather than the rule), passage of such a law seems like a slam-dunk.

Yet a balanced budget amendment was handily defeated last week by the House of Representatives - the very body that demanded a BBA vote by both chambers as part of the debt-limit deal. And I suspect that most members of Congress, even many who voted for it, are pleased that it failed.

Self-preservation is a natural human tendency, and for members of Congress, spending is viewed as central to survival (i.e., reelection). Congress fiercely guards its power of the purse, and binding budget rules are a threat to that power. So while Congress loves to tout rules that sound tough, it also loves to write those rules with plenty of loopholes and the assurance they can easily be circumvented. Requirements to reduce the deficit in the 1980s? Congress scuttled them when faced with tough spending choices. Spending limits? Congress evades them by invoking "emergency" or other special status provisions for outlays beyond the limits.

Regrettably, Congress' willingness to break the rules of budget restraint is on display again. Just a few months out from the debt-limit stand-off - and an historic downgrade of U.S. debt by S&P - many in Congress are vigorously opposing, and suggesting how to stop, possible spending cuts that wouldn't even be triggered until Fiscal Year 2013. As Sen. John McCain recently said in reference to the debt-limit deal's spending sequester - which would be triggered only if the supercommittee fails to produce: "Congress is not bound by this. If something is passed, we can reverse it."

Those who oppose fiscal restraint play into this deeply ingrained desire to spend by using critiques of specific proposals to portray all amendments as unworkable, or even dangerous. Meanwhile, fiscally conservative legislators like Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who preferred a "stronger" BBA than the one voted on by the House, appear to believe that any constitutional balanced budget amendment is better than the status quo.

The result is gridlock that won't be broken unless Congress faces external pressure to act. Of course, the most powerful form of external pressure is public opinion, which legislators seldom ignore. But as the current situation demonstrates, it's not enough for the public simply to tell pollsters they support a constitutional balanced budget amendment; there has to be intensity in that support. For this to occur, Americans will need to have a far greater understanding of why constitutional budget rules - such as a BBA - are the only means of truly controlling federal government spending.

The argument is simple: Congress has constitutional authority over the rules of its proceedings. In other words, it makes the rules, and it can break the rules. The depth and scope of budget-rule abuse by both parties is exhibit A. The relative permanence of a constitutional rule, coupled with the threat of court intervention in the federal budget, provides the enforcement that Congress is unable to achieve on its own.

Once the public understands the need for constitutional budget reform, those who truly want spending restraint will need to make the case for what an ideally crafted rule looks like, and why anything less has no place in the U.S. Constitution. If enough progress is made educating voters and policymakers about the need for well-designed, effective constitutional rules, I think we'll see a much more honest debate on the merits of such rules, and a great deal more pressure from the electorate for Congress to adopt the only means of real budget control.

As we are witnessing in Europe, fiscal irresponsibility has dire consequences for a nation. The focus of world markets is still Europe, but once the crisis in Europe is resolved, attention may well turn to the United States. The markets will want to see that the U.S. has taken credible steps toward addressing its own debt problems. Constitutional budget reform is a good place to start.