Balanced Budget Amendment

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2012.

I'm a patriotic American, and have served on active duty in our armed forces, and honorably discharged.  There are things wrong with our nation, but that's no reason to turn against it.  Where is a nation any better than ours?

Balanced Budget Amendment.  Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  A Senator was talking in favor of that on one of the talk shows.  Talk show host Mark Levin said he’s in favor of it.    

And what would be the purpose of a Balanced Budget Amendment?  Well, obviously, to give our nation budgets that are always balanced.  What's wrong with that?  Not a thing.  I'm 100% in favor of always having a balanced budget.

"Wisdom has built its house, it has hewn out its seven pillars:  It has killed its animals; it has mixed its wine; it has also furnished its table.  It has sent out its maidens: it shouts at the highest places of the city..."  Proverbs 9:1-3

Let's shine a little wisdom on this matter.  Such a Constitutional Amendment would require a lot of work, time, and effort to obtain, and then once we had it, we would find that it doesn't accomplish the purpose.  

It's rather like passing a law that requires everyone to be good people.  We already have laws against robbing banks, but banks still get robbed.  We have laws against murder, but we still have murders.  We have laws against committing perjury, but perjury is still committed.  

If we had a Balanced Budget Amendment, it would get violated.  And then who is going to go arrest those who broke that law?  Who is going to prosecute the offenders?  How many of them would go to prison?  If you said "None," I believe you’re right.

It would be those in government who would break that law if we had a Balanced Budget Amendment, and the government isn't going to put its own in prison, especially when it would be so difficult to prove intent.

All that a legislator needs to say, if challenged on the subject, is "I voted my conscience."  Are you going to put someone in prison for voting their conscience?  

So let's spend our time more wisely than trying to do this dumb thing that sounds good but would prove to be ineffective.  You are mistaken, Mark Levin, and your Senator friend.