The debt-ceiling crisis isn’t over until Congress — particularly the House — approves the deal reached Sunday between President Obama and congressional leaders. But it appears to be headed for resolution. Though tea partiers are grousing that the agreement doesn’t cut enough spending, the tea party is the big winner. The deal cuts at least $2.4 trillion from federal spending over a decade and doesn’t include any tax increases.
A balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution may sound like a good way to ensure future fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. But some argue that it’s an invitation for judicial activism, because the courts would be the enforcers. Much as conservatives disliked the “activist” Kansas Supreme Court’s rulings a few years ago forcing the Legislature to spend more money on K-12 schools, people wouldn’t like the lawsuits, injunctions and judge-mandated spending cuts that would come with such a balanced-budget amendment at the federal level. “Which wars we fight, which veterans we provide for, whether Grandma gets her Social Security benefits — these are the choices we’d be authorizing the court to make,” Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center told the Washington Post blog the Fix. Yes, many states are required to balance their budgets, noted the Fix’s Brad Plumer, but “state laws aren’t nearly as strict as a federal balanced-budget amendment would be. . . . We’d be in truly uncharted territory.”
“The debt-ceiling debate is such a mess right now, al-Qaida is desperately trying to find a way to take credit for it.” — Jimmy Kimmel
“President Obama said that ‘compromise’ has become a dirty word. Then he told Republicans to go compromise themselves.” — Conan O’Brien
“Iowa Congressman Steve King says that if the country falls into default, President Obama could be impeached. Obama could stop that with three words: ‘President Joe Biden.’” — Jay Leno
“Kill bin Laden again.” — No. 1 among David Letterman’s “Top Ten Ways Barack Obama Can Win Over the Republicans”
