December 14th, 2011
12:13 PM ET
11 years ago
Balanced budget amendment fails in Senate
Washington (CNN) - The Democratic-controlled Senate on Wednesday rejected two proposed versions for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution - a setback to GOP leaders and conservative activists who say the measure is necessary to end the federal government's spiraling deficit spending.
A Democratic version opposed by Republicans fell on a 21-79 vote. Then a Republican version also failed to get the two-thirds majority required with a 47-53 vote.
FULL STORY
What Orrin Hatch meant to say, "we are tax cutting and spending on wars that will lead to bankruptcy."
Big suprise with Harry Obama in charge.
The balanced budget amendment cuts hundreds of thousands of jobs! I know they are public jobs that republicans don't like (of course except for their own government jobs), but it is not the time to be cutting so many jobs when so many people are already out of work. This is a bad bill, especially in this climate. How do republicans plan to create jobs while cutting them at the same time? Most republican policies nowadays make no sense at all!
Also Mr. Hatch, lets not forget who got us into these two wars based on lies from your buddies Bush and Co. and were not payed for!
"How do republicans plan to create jobs while cutting them at the same time? "
You have to start by understanding what GOPers include in their definition of "job." To them, living on a corporate plantation...errrr, campus...and receiving nothing but food, shelter and clothing in exchange for 14+ hours per day, 7 days of week of manual or other labor is a perfectly legitimate "job." What's more, to their way of thinknig, they're sympathetic to the 1%'s view that even in such a utopian situation, you would STILL constitute a burden on your owner....errrrr, employer.
Why do politicians always insist on putting the cart before the horse? They do the dumbest stuff like: cutting revenue before cutting spending, increasing spending before increasing revenue, or increasing spending and cutting revenue.
My point is simple. Don't they think they need to balance the budget [or least come close to it] before they start passing amendments to the US Constitution? I know the ignorant will read this and assume that I am against balancing the budget, so those few I say I bring it.
As it should. A balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution would be a massive burden if there were some national calamity- especially given that all the Republicans will NEVER raise taxes. It would be eons getting through the state legislative processes- and likely would fail there. The ruinous effects of slashing government spending would achieve Republican goals of completely crashing the U.S. economy with massive unemployment.
I think we need to be blunt here. The GOP/TP does not care about the deficit. It is simply a tool for them to remake America into something they are more comfortable with. Say, the era of the 1880s Robber Barons, where the rich could do as they damn well pleased the poor had the graciousness to work 80 hours 7 days a week and die at an early age without benefits or any sort of support from their government or corporate masters.
Rudy is right- after aggressively driving the deficit up (under Reagan, Bush I & especially under Bush II), NOW, suddenly Republicans fear debt and deficit. Rather than actually working for the American people, and creating the jobs they promised (still waiting...), they want toimpose rediculous austerity- knowing full well the damage it will do to the economy and what is left of the middle class. Economists are saying the government must SPEND first.
Whatever did we do to Republicans for them to hate America so?
@ Sniffit
"You have to start by understanding what GOPers include in their definition of "job." To them, living on a corporate plantation...errrr, campus...and receiving nothing but food, shelter and clothing in exchange for 14+ hours per day, 7 days of week of manual or other labor is a perfectly legitimate job."
I sure would love to see what kind of proof you can provide that even remotely suggests what you said is true.
Riddle me this you Joke[R]s: how come there were no "Balanced Budget Amendment" votes a few yeasr ago when the [R]s owned both the Congress and the presidency and our debt was sprialing upwards?
More posturing by the GOP to appease the T-B loons
Democrat ignorance is once again on full display in here. We need more private-sector jobs and fewer public-sector jobs. Public-sector jobs are a drain on the economy because taxpayers(i.e. republicans & independents) have to bear the full cost of those employees including benefits. The democrat's economic philosophy is that all democrats should work for the government and everyone else should work for the "evil" private-sector so that they can pay for their outrageous salaries & benefits.
Reid would never pass a balanced budget because Obama wants to continue with his runaway spending, ansd indeed everything he does is designed to allow him to continue to spend, spend, spend.
Hey [R]:
- anti-union
- anti-worker
- anti-minimum wage
- anti-unemployment insurance
- anti-restriction on corporate election bribery
- anti-bank and Wall Street regulation
- anti-OSHA
- anti-Social Security
- anti health care
- anti-poor
- anti-middle class
Uhhh...does that do it for you Beavis, or do you want me to recite further [R]ightwing malignancies?
Uhhh...you also owe 'rs' a reponse to his question.
This was only political showmanship anyway. Blaming the democrats is dumb. Republicans don't actually want a balanced budget amendment, and if they ever get 2/3 representation it won't pass, or will be heavily modified and swallowed up with exceptions.
Stop being sheep and believing politicians, then redirecting to CNN to rant from Foxnews.
rs
Rudy is right- after aggressively driving the deficit up (under Reagan, Bush I & especially under Bush II), NOW, suddenly Republicans fear debt and deficit.
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Granted, the debt increase during Gearge W. Bush's Administration's 8 years in office rose $5 trillion. In his first 3 years, Obama has matched that. But you are not worried. Someone else will pay it down, right?
R asked:
I sure would love to see what kind of proof you can provide that even remotely suggests what you said is true.
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I worked in Kuwait rebuilding the oil fields 20 years ago. That is exactly how we worked 3 out of 4 weeks per month, living in a man camp a hundred miles out in the deep desert. It was a life changing experience. I used to sleep with my best friend by my side. His name was Fred. Fred was pretty big. I first met Fred sleeping in my bunk one night. Fred was a deadly poisionous scorpion. I kept him in a cage for a pet. I used to feed him the other creatures I found at night.
good done...when you link Oil to Tax, to gain and profit to Rich, Corporate, Oil thugs this is exactly happens. GOP is full of idiots....vote all these GOP idiots out in next elections. Obama2012.
"I sure would love to see what kind of proof you can provide that even remotely suggests what you said is true."
Learn to recognize tongue-in-cheek, snarky hyperbole for what it is, please. For realz.
A balanced budget amendment would cut up the proverbial emergency credit card in case of an emergency. Could you imagine this Congress the least productive since 1995 getting emergency funding bill passed in time to prevent the auto and banking industries from collapsing. My GOD unemployment would be in the 20% range if not worse. The ripple effect around the world would have been devastating. Amazing how fast we forget. We don't need a balanced budget amendment we need balanced Congressmen.
"I sure would love to see what kind of proof you can provide that even remotely suggests what you said is true."
Learn to recognize tongue-in-cheek, snarky hyperbole for what it is, please. For realz.
Moreover, if you haven't noticed all the statistics, numbers, math, expert opinions, etc., that indicate our implementation of GOP economic daydream policies and ideology has resulted in massive redistribution of the wealth upwards, without any trickle-down as promised, and a steady shrinking of the middle class, whose salaries have remained stagnant for decades, average household debts have stagnated and standard of living has rapidly and continuously sunk, then you're simply not paying attention.
This is nothing more than political grandstanding from the GOP. The GOP has never had a problem with deficits and debt when they were running things. All of a sudden, they're deficit hawks. What makes it especially pathetic is that this mess we're currently in was caused by the GOP and years of their idiotic fiscal policies. These problems didn't happen overnight and they won't be fixed overnight.
"Granted, the debt increase during Gearge W. Bush's Administration's 8 years in office rose $5 trillion. In his first 3 years, Obama has matched that. But you are not worried. Someone else will pay it down, right?"
Just because it happened while Obama was in office doesn't mean it's not still the result of policies and problems created by the Bush regime. Continuation of the Bush tax cuts as a result of GOP obstruction and the GOP forcing it in order to get DADT repealed, START passed and unemployment extended is a great example....and your constant imbecilic attempts to blather talking points about them being "Obama's tax cuts now" shows that you actually recognize that (a) the public still blames them on Bush and the GOP and (c) they are STILL the largest contributing factor to the deficit and debt problems we're experiencing. The snow ball was already rolling and gathering mass when Obama came into office and the GOP has prevented us from stopping it.
Sniffit
Just because it happened while Obama was in office doesn't mean it's not still the result of policies and problems created by the Bush regime.
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I wish you were Obama's 2012 Campaign Manager instead of David Axelrod. That whole "It's Bush's fault" excuse was shot down in 2010 and is even weaker now. Obama will have to deliver more than excuses in 2012.
@ DumbasRocks [R]s
Sorry, your statment doesn't make any sense, nor offer any proof.
@ Rudy NYC
Your story, while interesting, doesn't provide any proof either. Does your job nowadays make you work the same hours?
@ Sniffit
Still waiting for your proof. If you're going to say something that isn't true, than by your definition, that puts you on the same level as a republican.
One more note – the R stands for Ryan. It doesn't indicate that I'm a Republican – indeed, what passes for Republicans or Democrats nowadays is laughable at best, which is why I have no political party affiliation.