http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns111710.php3
Nov. 17, 2010 / 9 Kislev, 5771
How To Control Congress
By Walter Williams
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Let's assume that each of our 535
congressmen cares about the destructive impact of deficits and debt on the
future of our country. Regardless of party, congressmen face enormous
lobbying pressures and awards to spend more and little or no pressure and
awards to spend less. The nation's founders would be horrified by today's
congressional spending that consumes 25 percent of our GDP. Contrast that to
the years 1787 to the 1920s when federal government spending never exceeded
4 percent of our GDP except in wartime. Today, federal, state and local
government consumes 43 percent of what Americans produce each year. The
Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation computes that the average taxpayer is
forced to work from Jan. 1 to mid-April to pay federal, state and local
taxes. If he were taxed enough to pay the $1.5 trillion federal deficit,
he'd be forced to work until mid-May.
Tax revenue is not the problem. The federal government has collected just
about 20 percent of the nation's GDP almost every year since 1960. Federal
spending has exceeded revenue for most of that period and has taken an
unprecedented leap since 2008 to produce today's massive deficit. Since
federal spending is the problem, that's where our focus should be.
Cutting spending is politically challenging. Every spending constituency
sees its handout as vital, whether it's Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid recipients or farmers, poor people, educators or the military. It's
easy for congressmen to say yes to these spending constituencies because
whether it's Democrats or Republicans in control, they face no hard and fast
bottom line.
The bottom line that Americans need is a constitutional amendment limiting
congressional spending to some fraction, say 20 percent, of the GDP. That
limit could be exceeded only if the president declared a state of emergency
along with a two-thirds vote of approval in both houses of Congress. Each
year of a declared state of emergency would require another two-thirds vote
in each house.
During the early '80s, I was a member of the National Tax Limitation
Committee's distinguished blue-ribbon drafting committee that included
notables such as Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, Paul McCracken, Bill
Niskanen, Craig Stubblebine, Robert Bork, Aaron Wildavsky, Robert Nisbet,
Robert Carleson and others. We drafted a Balanced Budget/Spending Limitation
amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Senate passed that amendment on
Aug. 4, 1982, by a vote of 69 to 31, two more than the two-thirds vote
required for approval of a constitutional amendment. The vote was
bipartisan: 47 Republicans, 21 Democrats and 1 Independent voted for the
amendment.
It was a different story in the House of Representatives. Its leadership,
under Tip O'Neill tried to prevent a vote on the amendment; however, a
discharge petition forced a vote on it. While the amendment was approved by
a majority (236 to 187), it did not meet the two-thirds required by Article
V of the Constitution. The vote was again bipartisan: 167 Republicans, 69
Democrats. The amendment can be found in Milton and Rose Friedman's "Tyranny
of the Status Quo."
The benefit of a balanced budget/spending limitation amendment is that it
would give Congress a bottom line just as we in the private sector have a
bottom line. Congress would be forced to play one spending constituency off
against another, rather than, as it does today, satisfy most spending
constituents and pass the buck to the rest of us and future generations in
the forms of federal deficits and debt.
The 1980s discussions settled on giving Congress a spending limit of 18 or
20 percent of our GDP. I thought a 10 percent limit was better. When queried
by a reporter as to why 10 percent, I told him that if 10 percent is good
enough for the Baptist Church, it ought to be good enough for Congress.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Brooks Isoldi, editor
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