Balanced Budget Amendment Research Articles

House Science Chair Lays Out Strategy

The new chair of the House Science Committee, Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), pledged last week to work with Democrats, but he warned them that R&D spending will be shaped by the fate of a balanced budget amendment now being considered in Congress. Sensenbrenner warned that failure to pass that measure, which the White House steadfastly opposes, could hurt discretionary programs like research in the long run.

The balanced budget amendment: Clarifying the arguments

From the perspective of a supporter, this paper responds to the several criticisms that have been raised to the proposed constitutional amendment to require budget balance. Economists have concentrated on the loss of fiscal flexibility. This objection is countered by reference to the political inefficacy of attempted budgetary manipulation. Lawyers have concentrated on problems of enforcement. This objection is countered by reference to observed respect to other constitutional rules.

THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT: NEEDED? EFFECTIVE? EFFICIENT?

Analysis of the balanced budget amendment, which finds it would not effectively eliminate the deficit, control spending once the budget is balanced, or stabilize cyclical economic instability. Strongly suggest the federal governments move to balance its budget.

WILL CURBS ON UNFUNDED MANDATES PROTECT STATES FROM THE IMPACT OF A FEDERAL BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT?

Previous articleNext article No AccessWILL CURBS ON UNFUNDED MANDATES PROTECT STATES FROM THE IMPACT OF A FEDERAL BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT?IRIS J. LAV and JAMES R. ST. GEORGEIRIS J. LAV Search for more articles by this author and JAMES R. ST. GEORGE Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by National Tax Journal Volume 48, Number 3September 1995A New Agenda—Old Constraints Published for: The National Tax Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789151 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref © 1995 National Tax Association. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:RICHARD GOODE THE NATIONAL TAX JOURNAL IN 1948-50 AND 1994-96, National Tax Journal 50, no.44 (Mar 2021): 707–718.https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789711

Budget-balancing efforts might harm children

Congressional efforts to balance the federal budget have left programs affecting children and pediatricians particularly vulnerable to funding cuts or elimination. Congrss failed in its attempt to pass a constitutional balanced-budget amendment in March, but congressional leaders recently approved a budget resolution, or a nonbinding framework for overall funding levels, based on their goal of balancing the budget by the year 2002.

Check bouncing and fiscal irresponsibility: Evidence of nonideological shirking by legislators

Kalt and Zupan have measured ideological shirking by legislators. Here we present evidence concerning nonideological shirking. We demonstrate that representatives with more overdrawn checks tend to be more fiscally irresponsible, with fiscal irresponsibility measured by National Taxpayer Union ratings and by representatives' voting behavior on the recent House balanced budget amendment vote.

Naive, not stupid.

In Jane Mayer and Jill Abraham's (1994) new book, Strange Justice, Anita Hill and a longtime friend, flying into Washington for Hill's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, begin to realize that they are of their league. The friend and Anita have begun to sense that his supporters will do anything to defend Thomas from slander but that no one is going to protect Anita Hill. Anita actually expects Thomas to agree with her on at least some of the facts; it never dawns on them that the hearings be a political free-for-all. Over the Potomac approaching National Airport, her friend declares, feel like we're a couple of stupid farm girls: Naive, Hill said, correcting her, I was reading Strange Justice on November 8 as the electoral returns came rolling in, and I was feeling very stupid. I had not yet recovered from the ignominious demise of health care reform in September, when I felt suddenly broadsided by this new political agenda. It threatens to break many deeply held contracts Americans have with their government. Both the Congress and the statehouses have experienced a thunderous stampede to the right. The Republicans won a majority in both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years; the Democrats had held a majority in both chambers in no fewer than 17 of the last 20 Congresses. The House has shifted from 256 to 178 in favor of the Democrats to 230 to 208 in favor of the Republicans, a gain for the Republicans of 49 seats. The balance in the Senate shifted from 56 Democrats and 44 Republicans to 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, a gain of nine seats for the GOP. The Republicans also gained 9 governorships for a total of 30 - their first majority since 1970. These governorships now include seven of the eight largest states, gubernatorial clout that could shape the electoral college in 1996. Republicans also picked up 481 seats in state legislatures, winning control of 19 new legislative chambers. They now control both chambers in 19 states, Democrats control both in 18, and in 12 states the chambers are split (Nebraska's unicameral legislature is nonpartisan) - the first time in 60 years that state legislatures have had such parity (Rosenbaum, 1994). Some say that the seeds of this Republican victory, especially in the South and in rural areas, were sown in the gains achieved by the civil rights, antiwar, feminist, environmental, and gay rights movements. The theme that has now come to dominate the political landscape is the refrain that government is not only not the answer to our problems, government is the problem. The reader will have to make his or her own judgment as to whether this is naive, stupid, or otherwise. NEW CONTRACTS IN AMERICA On September 27, a number of Republicans proposed a new Contract with America, to be passed within the first 100 days of the new Congress: legislation to fight crime, reform welfare, restrict child pornography, reform product liability laws, impose term limits on Congress, and give the President veto power over individual items in spending bills. Mainly, however, it proposed a constitutional balanced budget amendment and wholesale tax cuts that would drastically reduce federal revenues. The tax cuts - on capital gains, families with children, corporate investment, retirement savings, and social security benefits - would generate severe revenue losses costing about $40 billion a year in the first five years. Thereafter, the costs would soar to about $80 billion a year. In addition, the deficit reductions would require cutting another $140 billion a year. All in all, the contract knocks about $200 billion a year out of a $1.5 trillion budget (Contract's Brutal Arithmetic, 1994). Agreeing on the details of such draconian cuts will not be easy. Proposals by Republican representatives John Kasich (OH) and Gerald Soloman (NY) in the last Congress spelling out far lesser cuts failed to obtain Republican support. …

Federal Budget Balance: Tonic or Toxin? Fiscal Irresponsibility: The Balanced Budget Amendment of "Contract with America"

Continuous federal budget deficits and a rising public debt have been presented in terms that have produced mounting dissatisfaction with government. One solution offered to deal with this discontent has been a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget. In a working paper, Charles J. Whalen presents a historical review of balanced budget legislation, including the constitutional amendment proposed in the Republican Contract with America. He outlines the arguments in favor of and against such legislation and concludes that such an amendment would be both politically and economically misguided. In light of this conclusion, Whalen offers an alternative direction for federal budgetary policy.

Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment as a Budgetary Reform Idea: The View from Public Budgeting Researchers

This study examines public budgeting researchers' views on the proposed balanced budget constitutional amendment. Focusing on the amendment's viability and adoptability, the study shows that the experts do not consider the balanced budget amendment a viable reform idea. The study further reveals that the experts' views on the balanced budget amendment are significantly correlated to their personal characteristics. Implications concerning the results of this study are discussed.

The Viability of Economic Policy and the Priorities of Economic Policy

As a policy maker, Keynes had most influence in the operation of the excess demand, over-full employment war economies of the First and Second World Wars. Discussion of the viability of policy has instead concentrated on its success or failure in postwar conditions in which Keynes played no active part. Indeed, there is very little by way of specific policy recommendation in the General Theory, aside from the proposition that increased expenditures, from whatever source, will have a positive impact on output and employment in conditions of excess capacity. Indeed, what is classified as conventional Keynesian policy often represents little more than the positive relation between govermnent expenditures and national income, or in more sophisticated versions something closer to Abba Lemer's idea of fiscal federalism in which fine-tuning expenditure and tax policy can stabilize the level of aggregate demand at full employment. Neither position represents Keynes' views on economic policy matters. Modem discussions of govemment expenditure policy thus seem to have broken loose from any theoretical linkage to Keynes' work and tend to ignore the postwar expenence of applying economic policy. In this respect the question of viability is not so much whether govenment expenditure is capable of influencing output, or prices, or some combination of the two, but the belief that in current conditions the priority in policy should be to reduce outstanding goverunent debt by means of govenment budget surpluses; the fact that export surpluses are often an associated priority in order to replace govemrnment spending suggests continued acceptance of aggregate expenditure theory. Rather than rejecting the viability of Keynesian policy, this represents a reversal of policy priorities and by definition precludes the use of expenditure policies to stabilize output and its full employment potendal. While postwar govemments enshrined the policy priority of full employment income and output in legislation, current debate concerns balanced budget amendments.

The Health Security Act and academic medicine

The speaker emphasizes the importance of academic medical centers in providing the foundation upon which the excellence of the American health care system is built. The challenge of health care reform is to preserve what is best about that system and to fix what needs to be changed. The most important aspect of the president's health care reform initiative (the Health Security Act)--and one that the president insists upon--is universal coverage with comprehensive benefits. But many areas of the reform package are negotiable. The speaker then discusses health care reform issues that are of concern to academic medicine: the proposed new source and magnitude of future federal funding for academic medical centers; the need to resist efforts to cap the rate of growth of Medicare and Medicaid rather than to reduce the rate in the context of overall health care reform; and the dangers of the balanced budget amendment to health care reform and academic medical centers. Next, the principles of the president's plan are explained: security (i.e., universal coverage with comprehensive benefits); savings (i.e., a more efficient health care system); simplicity (i.e., moving toward a single claim system and other ways to eliminate unnecessary paperwork); choice (for patients and for physicians regarding insurance plans); quality of care; and responsibility (of individuals for their own health care, of professionals for various decisions about health care; and for the financing of health care, a proposed employer-employee system). The speaker closes by reviewing the history of past administrations' efforts to reform U.S. health care: all these failed because of the efforts of the defenders of the status quo.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

What Ends Recessions?]: Comment

Previous articleNext article Free[What Ends Recessions?]: CommentJohn H. CochraneJohn H. Cochrane Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by NBER Macroeconomics Annual Volume 91994 Sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/654236 Views: 184Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1994 The National Bureau of Economic Research and The Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Michael McLeay and Silvana Tenreyro Optimal Inflation and the Identification of the Phillips Curve, NBER Macroeconomics Annual 34 (Mar 2020): 199–255.https://doi.org/10.1086/707181John H. Cochrane What do the VARs mean? Measuring the output effects of monetary policy, Journal of Monetary Economics 41, no.22 (Feb 1998): 277–300.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3932(97)00075-5CHARLES L. WEISE SEVERITY OF ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS UNDER A BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT, Contemporary Economic Policy 14, no.22 (Apr 1996): 26–40.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1996.tb00611.x

Entrepreneurial Budgeting: An Emerging Reform?

The process of government budgeting has changed significantly in the 20th century, beginning with the introduction of executive budgeting in the 1920s. Since the 1950~~ a relatively major reform has been proposed about once each decade in an effort to overcome some of the perceived deficiencies of incremental line-item budgeting-performance budgeting in the 1950~~ pro- gram budgeting in the 1960~~ and zero-base budgeting in the 1970s. In the 1980~~ there was a growth of what might be called "automatic control budgeting" in which voters and policy makers tried to impose statutorily prescribed formulas on revenues and expenditures, the most notable examples being Proposition 13-type laws, Gram-Rudman-Hollings, and the movement for a fed- eral balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.1

A companion to the United States Constitution and its amendments

Indispensable, thorough, and easy to use, Vile's single-volume commentary covers constitutional development from the Founding Fathers to President Clinton's Impeachment Trial. Reflecting on important developments like the Clinton impeachment, the balanced budget amendment, gay marriages, and the Violence Against Women Act, Vile's updated book will prove invaluable to those studying the United States Constitution. Designed to help students understand the Constitution in all of it splendor and subtlety, Vile introduces key events of the founding era, the Declaration of Independence, and the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention. The Constitution and its amendments are explored section by section, along with pertinent historical events, laws, and cases. Students new to constitutional law, American politics and American history will find Vile's book an authoritative starting point, quickly and easily placing the Constitution's sections and amendments in a wider context, and leading them to other important issues and texts. Those already familiar with Constitutional issues will be able to make use of the book as a reference guide, able to lead them at a glance to landmarks in the U.S. Constitutional history and development. Each chapter concludes with a bibliography of key books and cases useful for further study. Appendices include a glossary, a table of the 50 most important cases, and the texts of the Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

Economists Oppose Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Economists Oppose Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Instrument choice, political reform and economic welfare

The purpose of this paper is to formally examine the effect of placing constraints, such as the line-item veto or a balanced budget amendment, on legislative behavior. There are two basic findings that emerge from the analysis. First, constraints on one type of instrument, such as spending, will in general result in more widespread use of other kinds of instruments, such as regulation. Second, it is naive to conclude that constraints on legislative behavior will promote economic efficiency and/or reduce the growth of government. The primary contribution of the paper is to suggest how changes in the political environment can affect instrument choice, economic welfare, and the size of government.

A Pollution Control Approach to Analysis of the Balanced Budget Amendment

Abstract. Fiscal Pollution (excessive budget deficits), in certain aspects, is like environmental pollution. In both types of pollution some, possibly most individuals would be willing to reduce their own pollution if others would do the same. In the case of fiscal pollution individuals would be willing to give up their special interest demands if others would reciprocate in kind. But as long as individuals are forced to pay for the programs of others there is little incentive to reduce their own demands. Hence, restraints on political behavior such as a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution are needed to contro excessive fiscal pollution.

The Supreme Court and a Balanced Budget Amendment: An Invitation to Strategic Avoidance

The Supreme Court and a Balanced Budget Amendment: An Invitation to Strategic Avoidance

Civil Liberties Under State Constitutions

Ask most political scientists about constitutional law, and they will tell you about the Federal Constitution and its interpretation by the U.S. Supreme Court. Examine a text on American constitutional law, and you will likely find the same tendency to equate constitutional law with the U.S. Constitution. Even the recent campaign for constitutional literacy during the Bicentennial of the Constitution altogether ignored the most obvious gap in Americans' constitutional knowledge—namely, the virtually total ignorance about state constitutions.This inattention to state constitutions and state constitutionalism is unfortunate, because state constitutions are assuming an increasing importance in American politics. They have served as the incubators for institutional innovations that are now receiving national attention. President Reagan's proposals for a balanced budget amendment and for an item veto both had their origins in state charters. Moreover, because most state constitutions can be amended relatively easily, they have provided an alternative avenue by which groups that are blocked in the legislative process can pursue political change. California's Proposition 13 is a case in point. Finally, state constitutions have furnished the basis for probably the most significant development in civil liberties law over the past two decades, namely, the rediscovery of state bills of rights as independent protections for civil liberties.

Balanced Budgets and State Surpluses: The Politics of Budgeting in Illinois

The increasing size of government budgets at all levels, recessions, and huge deficits at the national level have shifted the emphasis in budgeting away from Key's classic question, On what basis shall it be decided to allocate X dollars to activity A instead of to activity B,' and have given the balanced budget a prominent place on the political agenda. For many years fiscal conservatives had sought to make a political issue of deficits at the federal level. Given the paradigm of budgetary politics during times of prosperity, they were largely unsuccessful. The consistency and size of federal deficits, however, have made the issue a major focus of the national political agenda. The drive for a balanced budget amendment has been serious, with 31 of the 34 states needed to call a constitutional convention having passed the necessary resolutions.2 Gramm-Rudman is merely the latest attempt to achieve mechanically what seems to be unattainable politically. Will these attempts work? Or will another politics emerge the politics of budget balancing that will thwart the goal of a balanced budget? Perhaps more importantly, what indicators will be used to decide if goals have been achieved? Evidence on these questions is not lacking. States, long the experimental stations for social policy, almost all require some form of a balanced budget. Thus one way to analyze the efficacy of a balanced budget constraint is to examine the experience of states in meeting this requirement. Although states have long engaged in a politics of balanced budgets, this is not the perspective that has been used by budgeting students, who have been locked into the paradigm established by Key's question. Consequently, few hypotheses about budgeting under balancing constraints have been generated. Also, the concepts to be used in the study of a politics of budget balancing are not well developed. In fact, a search of the literature on state budgeting reveals that even descriptive knowledge is weak. A logical place to start, then, is with the workhorse of public administration theory development, the case study. This article focuses on the state of Illinois in an exploration of budget balancing under conditions of constitutional constraints. The particulars described in this study may not always apply, but they identify key issues that need to be taken into account in any comparative state analysis, the logical next step in theory building for the politics of balanced budgets.