"Let Us Vote For A Balanced Budget Amendment" Resolution

Model Bill Info
Bill Title	"Let Us Vote For A Balanced Budget Amendment" Resolution
Date Introduced	November 29, 2018
Date Finalized	December 26, 2018
Type	Model Resolution
Status	Final
Task Forces	Model

"Let Us Vote For A Balanced Budget Amendment Resolution"

WHEREAS, since 1957 this nation has become more deeply in debt as its expenditures grossly and repeatedly exceed available revenues so that the national debt now exceeds $21 trillion and is rising exponentially; and

WHEREAS, interest on the federal debt is projected to top $1 trillion for the first time in history by 2022; and

WHEREAS, 83 percent of 8,167 recently polled registered voters spanning the political spectrum agreed that a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) should be approved by a “vote of the people” not a vote of Congress and 45 percent of them indicated they would only vote for a state or federal candidate who supported their right to vote for a BBA; and

WHEREAS, the unsustainable deficit spending is the greatest threat to our national security, Social Security and the American Dream, we firmly believe that a state-drafted voter-ratified Balanced Budget Amendment is necessary to prevent what Erskine Bowles repeatedly warns is, “the most predictable economic crisis in history”; and

WHEREAS, under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, “on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states the Congress shall call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments” and “shall be Part of this Constitution when ratified… by Conventions in three-fourths” of the states;

Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED that the legislature of [INSERT STATE] urges the U.S. Congress to call an Article V Convention for proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) and related fiscal limits. This call will be issued on the counting of 34 Article V Applications from among the more than 700 Applications already submitted by state legislatures.

Be it further RESOLVED that the U.S. Congress shall stipulate that the State Convention Mode of Ratification shall be used if a BBA is proposed by the Article V Convention. (Note: Ratification of the 21st Amendment by State Conventions was effectively a vote of the people in three-quarters of the states.)

Be it further RESOLVED that the U.S. Congress shall declare as null and void any proposed amendment that is unrelated to balancing the federal budget and shall refuse to forward any such unauthorized amendment to the states for ratification.