With the outcome of the debt ceiling debate still uncertain, some Republican members of Congress are touting a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution as a solution to the nation’s fiscal problems. It takes time, however, to enact a constitutional amendment.
On Mark Levin’s Monday radio program, George Mason University economist Walter Williams called the current balanced-budget-amendment push a “cop out,” at least for the short term.
“I don’t think things like you hear some of the politicians saying — ‘Well, before we have a debt limit increase, we’re going to have a balanced budget amendment,’” Williams said. “Well, that is just a cop out. A balanced budget amendment will never become law before five or six years and we’re going to be broke by then.”
Williams did, however, offer a way forward for the GOP.
“I think that since they have the power in the House of Representatives, I think that they ought to vote for spending reductions and then send it to the Senate and see whether the Senate will go along with it,” Williams said. “I doubt whether the Senate would go along with it and if they did let the president veto it.”
According to Williams, Republicans must play hardball in the budget battle — just like the Democrats did with Obamacare.
“[The Republicans] should play hardball,” he said. “You know Democrats had no problem playing hardball, you know, with this health care thing. They’re just in your face — they just voted this Obamacare. They didn’t have any problem playing hardball. I think the Republicans ought to get the guts enough to do the same thing.”