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Stop Arizona Call for BBA
On Thursday, January 12, 2012, a bill,
House Concurrent Memorial 2007,
was introduced in the Arizona House. Bill HCM 2007 requests that the
Congress of the United States: “expeditiously pass and propose to the
legislatures of the several states for ratification an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States requiring that, in the absence of a
national emergency, the total of all federal appropriations made by the
Congress for any fiscal year not exceed the total of all estimated
federal revenues for that fiscal year.”
However
noble this proposed effort to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to
the U.S. Constitution might be, it would be unlikely to improve the
state of the economy.
A
call to balance the budget could go ignored due to a “national
emergency,” such as a war, like the current U.S. wars in Afghanistan,
Iraq, and other military operations throughout the Middle East and
Africa, or some other crisis. In this event, spending would continue to
increase and the budget would remain unbalanced.
A
BBA could also create the conditions binding Congress to raise taxes,
in the event that spending increased with insufficient or no cuts made
in the budget. Most calls for a BBA have no stipulation to prohibit the
federal government from raising taxes. There is also the possibility
that a BBA to the U.S. Constitution would be ignored, much like the
other amendments have been, especially the first ten (or Bill of
Rights).
This is not
an amendment that should be added to the Constitution. You now have the
ability to help stop Arizona from calling upon Congress to propose a BBA
to the 50 states for ratification.
Contact your State Representative and State Senator now and urge him or her to oppose the passage of HCM 2007, and if it does come to a vote on the floor to vote NAY on the bill.
Thank You.
Your Friends at The John Birch Society
