By: Maggie
Maggie’s Notebook

Bill Smith at ARRA News Service has piece up on a plan from Senate Conservatives, including Jim DeMint (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY), to cut the deficit in a big way, cap spending at 18% and balance the budget. Cut, Cap and Balance will NOT be a part of the current debt ceiling negotiations. It will be the plan. Remember: Cuts today can disappear tomorrow, without a Balanced Budget Amendment. Did you hear Obama say today we don’t need a Balanced Budget Amendment? See a video on Cut Cap Balance below from the Republican Study Committee.

Cut Cap Balance

“We’re going to introduce a [proposal] that would give the President an increase in the debt limit,” Sen. DeMint said this morning, “but it’s contingent on cutting spending and capping spending over several years, and giving the states the opportunity to decide if we’re going to balance our budget in the next decade.”

Unlike the other alternatives, this measure puts the onus on the President to stop talking about tough choices and start making them.

For once, Congress would have a clear path forward to a final agreement that forces Washington to live within its means. Under this proposal, America’s credit limit would increase by $2.4 trillion–but only when the cuts and caps are in place, and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget is approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Tony Perkins, Washington Update.

Cut Cap Balance has it’s roots in a pledge that requires three things of the US House and Senate:

  • Cut – Substantial cuts in spending that will reduce the deficit next year and thereafter.
  • Cap – Enforceable spending caps that will put federal spending on a path to a balanced budget.
  • Balance – Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — but only if it includes both a spending limitation and a super-majority for raising taxes, in addition to balancing revenues and expenses.

Congress promised President Reagan cuts in exchange for tax increases. Those cuts never materialized. In addition to DeMint and Paul, Senators Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mike Lee (R-UT) are involved in the proposal.

Cut Cap Balance (video)