A First Step Toward Fiscal Sanity

In one of the first bright moments of this current debate over the federal budget and the national debt, the U.S. House of Representatives tonight approved the Cut, Cap and Balance Act by a vote of 234-190. This important legislation does three things:

Cut Spending. If enacted, this legislation would immediately begin to address the deficit by cutting $111 billion in spending from the budget this year. While this is clearly not enough to solve the issue completely, it is a real first step and, more importantly, it is immediate and not subject to the whims of future Congresses.

Cap Spending. Next, the legislation would slowly begin to ratchet down the amount of spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP). Spending would be capped at 22.5% for 2012 and would decrease to 19.9% by 2019.

Balance the Budget. Finally, this legislation would require the Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution before authorizing the $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase that the President is seeking. Under the terms approved by the House tonight, the Balanced Budget Amendment would have to be signed by the President and sent to the states for ratification before the debt ceiling increase would take effect.

While this legislation is merely a first small step toward addressing the moral crisis surrounding our federal budget, it is at least a start. The House of Representatives should be commended for again being the one segment of government to put forward and pass a serious budget plan. Now the question becomes whether or not the Senate and the President will follow suit.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to live within our means, and to focus spending priorities on those things that are most needed rather than those that are politically expedient. Tonight could be a first step toward that goal if the Senate and the President will finally agree to this rather fundamental concept.