amendment

Misguided Amendment

Q: How many Utah state senators does it take to do the right thing?

A: One. And her name is Senator Luz Robles.

The Utah Legislature passed a resolution this summer urging Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This has been a pet project of U.S. Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, along with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, in response to recent calls for the government to live “like an American family,” and the recent push to “cut, cap and balance.”

Although fiscal responsibility is a critically important requirement for government, it is unclear that these simple statements provide real answers in the context of a multi-trillion-dollar budget mired in defense spending, the cost of the existing debt, and safety net programs that assure adherence to the American value that all of us have the right to live with a basic level of dignity and a reasonable lack of fear.

Pushing for amendments to the Constitution is always interesting in and of itself when it comes from those who like to hold themselves out for the proposition that the Constitution is already a perfect document — perhaps even divinely inspired.

To quote Scott Lilly from the Center for American Progress, “Rather than accepting responsibility for electing incompetent leaders, it is easier to blame…

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