Coalition of 247 Organizations Say ‘No!’ to Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment

by Clyde Weiss  |  July 14, 2011

A proposal to pass a balanced budget constitutional amendment “would damage the economy, not strengthen it,” says a letter to Congress signed by AFSCME and 246 other national organizations and labor unions. It also would end Medicare guarantees for seniors and slash vital services while providing tax breaks for the wealthy.

“Demanding that policymakers cut spending and/or raise taxes, even when the economy slows, is the opposite of what is needed to stabilize a weak economy and avert recessions,” the letter states. “Such steps would risk tipping a faltering economy into recession or worsening an ongoing downturn, costing large numbers of jobs while blocking worthy investments to stimulate jobs and growth and address the nation’s urgent needs in infrastructure and other areas.”

Congress could begin debating the proposed amendment as early as next week. To pass, however, it would need both House and Senate chambers to support it by a two-thirds vote. That’s 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate. As The Washington Post points out, that’s a nearly impossible hurdle, since it requires approximately 50 Democrats in the House and approximately 20 in the Senate to go along with them.

Even if it got that far, a constitutional amendment must be ratified by 37 states, where the economic downturn is even more severe than at the national level. A balanced budget requirement would mean even less federal dollars for vital state and local public services.

The coalition says passage of a balanced budget requirement is “a recipe for making recessions more frequent, longer, and deeper, while requiring severe cuts that would harshly affect seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, homeland security activities, public safety, environmental protection, education and medical research. It would almost certainly necessitate massive cuts to vital programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits and other programs” and deeper cuts than already approved in the House.

AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee calls a balanced budget constitutional amendment “nothing more than a political scheme to cut taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations by forcing cuts to vital public services to pay for unwise tax cuts for the rich.” Read his entire statement here.

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