Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hoyer: Balanced Budget Amendment Would Make it Impossible to Raise Taxes

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D.-Md.) said on the House floor last night that if the balanced budget amendment Republicans are supporting is ratified and included in the Constitution it would make it “virtually impossible” to raise taxes.

“In order to pay our bills, Republicans would require us to pass a Constitutional amendment that would permanently enshrine their partisan budget priorities in law and make it virtually impossible to raise revenue,” Hoyer said.

The push for a balanced budget amendment is part of the Republican Cut, Cap and Balance plan. This plan would increase the federal debt limit by $2.4 trillion in exchange for cutting federal spending by $111 billion next year and for congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment that, if ratified, would require supermajority votes in Congress to increase taxes, increase the debt limit, or spend more than 18 percent of GDP in a given fiscal year.

Hoyer was evidently alluding to the amendment’s requirement that taxes could only be increased with a supermajority vote of Congress when he said the proposal would make it “virtually impossible to raise revenue.”

READ MORE …

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello McFly!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great idea! Can we start tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

Oh my, what an awful thing. We can't raise taxes? That would bruing ruination to the Democratic Party!

Anonymous said...

...and how is that a bad thing, Steny? Oh, right. You're a Dem. Never met a tax you didn't like!

Anonymous said...

government should not be in business. taxes are a business. if you have a surplus, youve taxed too much. if you have a shortage, its probably because the money has been going into a black hole.

Anonymous said...

REALLY.....my,my,my, we certainly wouldn't want to tie your hands so you couldn't raise taxes, now would we... poor steny.

REMEMBER 2012. keep your eyes on the prize. don't give up !!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

HMMMMMM, Balanced Budget Amendment Would Make it Impossible to Raise Taxes. sounds WIN-WIN to me.

Anonymous said...

The Feds currently borrow 37% of what they spend. You could nix all discretionary spending (even though most objective analysis says that would be terrible for the economy) and still be left with a huge shortfall close to %20 that would have to be borrowed. So the same staunch conservatives are left to cut what? The same healthcare that they soak up? Or the same bill for defense that they ring up by wanting to show how big Uncle Sam's balls are all over the globe?

Anonymous said...

Excuse me 12:15 but it is the libs who keep putting through the programs to keep the lazies who vote for them happy and jobless. You better check your facts. Its the new socialistic Obama health care that is going to soak up the hard working mans money to pay for the folks who don't have to work as long as you keep throwing money at them. Take off the blinders and stop listening to CNN (Comunist News Network) Look at things yourself, don't let them do it for you!

Anonymous said...

2:13, no blinders here. Medicade and medicare soak up some of the biggest chunks of the fed budget. So I guess all those old folks need to get off their lazy duffs huh?

Anonymous said...

well, good. best news in a while!