Recent News
Americans for Prosperity’s Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy Kurt Couchman released a new report today setting out a path for Congress to advance a well-crafted amendment to the United States Constitution to require Congress to balance the federal budget.
US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government’s Hearing on “Examining Proposed Constitutional Amendments”
Members want change. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington and Ranking Member Brendan Boyle recently announced a bipartisan budget process reform effort.
Congress doesn’t have to balance the federal budget, nor does it try. It doesn’t pursue debt-to-GDP targets, deficit targets, or any other comprehensive budget targets.
Congress could, however, borrow a best practice from the states: line-item budgets.
Congress needs a new approach to automatic budget enforcement to replace the failed model that relies on across-the-board cuts. Instead, enforcement should help Congress budget responsibly in the first place by setting up automatic consequences that make small, repeatable, surgical adjustments to various federal programs.
