By Publius Huldah
Our federal Constitution is one of enumerated powers only. If you spend 20 minutes to read through the entire Constitution and highlight all the powers delegated to Congress and the President, you will get a complete list of the objects on which Congress is authorized to spend money. THAT is how our Framers controlled federal spending. If it’s on the list of delegated powers, Congress may lawfully spend money on it. But if it’s not on the list, Congress may not lawfully spend money on it.
Few people know of the existence of this list of delegated powers – no one in Congress seems to be aware of it. Most of what Congress spends money on is not on the list.
The solution is to downsize the federal government back to its constitutional limits.
All versions of a balanced budget amendment (BBA) fundamentally change the constitutional design – they create a new standard for spending: They change the constitutional standard for spending FROM whether the object is on the list TO a limit on total spending – where Congress may lawfully spend money on whatever they want.
Of course this is predicated on the assumption that government has any interest or intent on actually following the Constitution which they obviously do not. Unless and until outlaws are held accountable and actually punished for violating the law there is little incentive to obey said laws.