Sixth District Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte is continuing on his quest to get Congress to do its part to amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget.
“When I introduced these bills two years ago, the national debt had topped an unprecedented $14 trillion,” said Goodlatte. “Today, the national debt has soared well past a staggering $16 trillion. This rapid increase in debt and four consecutive trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits are clear signs that Washington has a serious spending problem.”
Goodlatte voted for several unbalanced budgets during the administration of George W. Bush, a Republican, in the 2000s decade. Bush and the Republican-majority Congress added more than $4 trillion to the national debt after inheriting federal budgets that had been in balance in the final years of the Bill Clinton administration.
Goodlatte’s amendment would require the president to submit a balanced budget to Congress and require a three-fifths majority vote of Congress to increase the debt limit, except in times of national emergency.
“A constitutional amendment will force Congress to eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending and make the decisions necessary to balance the budget and eliminate the federal deficit,” Goodlatte said.
The amendment effort fell short of getting the two-thirds vote in the House necessary for passage.
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