Angie Craig: “the Kennedy amendment points to a problem that doesn't exist and then solves it with a loophole. Why are we debating the…”

“the Kennedy amendment points to a problem that doesn't exist and then solves it with a loophole. Why are we debating the balanced budget amendment in the first place? Because past Congresses have built up a national debt of more than $5.3 trillion, in an abuse of their power of the purse. So what does the Kennedy amendment prescribe? It says, let's put the fox in charge of the henhouse. It says Congress doesn't have to comply with this amendment unless it wants to. It says, if Congress says it is complying with this amendment, then no one else can question that. I do believe Members of Congress take their constitutional responsibilities seriously. I do believe that most Members really would prefer balanced budgets to running up another $5 trillion in debt. But I don't believe that every particle of every possibility of independent review should be removed from this amendment. We will win the war against debt, the war for our economic future the same way we won the cold war: Not by fighting, but by being strong enough to deter. We need to defeat the Kennedy amendment to keep the balanced budget amendment strong enough to deter future fiscal abuse.”