A few months ago the news media announced that the balanced budget amendment failed in the Senate by only two, skinny votes. The dollar immediately fell on international exchanges. It seems the world thought it was a worthy measure and was disappointed when it was dashed.
In some senses, it would have been a good idea. But its failure was hardly the end of the world. The movement behind it remained strong. Congress, on its own, went on to do some remarkable things of which pro-freedom activists remain largely unaware. Some highlights of what Congress did:
I point out these items because they prove that Congress can do a great deal without resorting to a balanced budget amendment. All it needs is the willpower -- i.e., the determination to act on principle.
You may recall that one of the reasons cited for passing a balanced budget amendment was that it would give politicians an excuse. It would give them a legal reason to avoid unbalanced budgets. If pressure groups back home protested budget cuts, a Congressman could say, "Well, pal, I'd like to keep spending for you, but my hands are tied by the balanced budget provision of the U.S. Constitution. And, hey, I swore to uphold the Constitution!
Psychologically and morally, I've always thought this was the wimps' way out. On the other hand, there are a lot of wimps in Congress! They, more than many, probably know themselves.
Now it's true that Congressmen pass measures that violate the Constitution all the time. And perhaps the balanced budget amendment would have been what the political doctor ordered. However, the prescription didn't make it out of the pharmacy. So instead of stewing -- as many activists are still doing -- it's time to ask: does Congress need an "excuse" to do what's right anymore? That time appears to have passed. It's time to move on, to appreciate that there's a new team on the field.
I acknowledge that it can be emotionally frustrating to see Congressmen blithely ignore what's so well known about the virtues of budget-control -- especially when we've seen them screw up for twenty or thirty years. But in reason, there is a positive side. The situation has changed. It's a new day in Congress. We freedom activists are getting more of what we wanted -- for real. The "willpower" problem isn't nearly as big as it's still made out to be by our more pro-statist wimpo Senators and Representatives and their cohorts in the major media.
As things stand, one of the better kept Washington D.C. secrets is that the only thing Congress would have to do to quickly bring the budget into balance, and then start running surpluses to pay off the accumulated debt itself, is freeze spending. That's it. Just freeze the budget. Don't spend anymore next year than this year. Don't raise the budget for any reason -- including inflation (which is lately exaggerated anyway).
If that simple thing were done -- an easy, any-dolt-can-understand-it freeze -- in a short time (as few as two years), there'd be no more annual deficit. If we kept doing it, we'd generate surpluses that could retire the national debt within another few years (perhaps as little as seven, according to an estimate we ran at my economics publication).
Remember, too, that outside Congress, there's another form of willpower at work. It's the willpower of the ballot box.
Just as voters threw out scores of big-spending members of Congress in the fall of 1994, so they may do it again in these upcoming '96 elections. The names of the anti-budget-amendmenteers are written down. They'll be publicized. A lot of voters will remember. And the more pro-willpower, budget-controlling people they elect, the easier this task will get. Even if there's no net change in pro-freedom, pro-budget-control congressmen, the 104th has shown that a great deal can still be done -- even in the face of the Bubba from Hell, who drags his feet kicking and screaming at every tiny slice of budget trimming.
If they are eventually enacted, will the Dole/Kemp proposed tax cuts derail the budget-control effort? No. Regardless of who is the next U.S. president, the 104th Congress and the 105th are, and will be, significantly different than the heavily statist Congresses that spent the farm to raise the budget during the Reagan tax-cut years. That was not a tax problem back then, but a willpower problem -- a failure of the statists to control spending -- not an indictment of tax cuts.
Even grinding against presidential opposition, the willpower can now be raised to control spending. What the 104th has done marks the first time in 27 years that Congress has truly trimmed federal spending -- and not just trimmed expected increases in spending. Things are pushing into positive territory.
The Founders -- those astonishingly far-sighted men of 220 years ago -- knew exactly what they were doing when they set up our system of government. It can go awry no and then, yes. Much of this century proved that. But with all its checks and balances and avenues for self-improvement, it can also straighten itself out. We're seeing such a "straightening" occur.
As hard to believe as it may be for many of us so long used to a "hunker down in the bunkers" mindset, suffering disappointment after disappointment, watching principle seem to slide irretrievably into the quicksands of expedient statism, principle IS finally coming back to Congress. Not as fast as we'd like, no. Not in as many ways as we'd like, granted. But it's heading in the right direction in ways few predicted.
I've long maintained that it's at least as important to watch for and praise the positive as it is to monitor and protest the negative. I firmly believe that, for the positive is a critical part of the objective. We should acknowledge it diligently, fanning its spirit. In that context, I toast the more sensible men and women of the 104th: "Keep it up -- and may reason and freedom's best be with you!"