House Approves “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act”

The House of Representatives passed the Republican bill to amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. The House voted 234 to 190 in favor of the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act”.

Democrats in the Senate have already indicated that they will not support this bill and President Obama has promised to veto it should it somehow make it through the Senate.
The Washington Post reported:

The Republican-controlled House defied a presidential veto threat Tuesday night in approving a bill to amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. But Speaker John A. Boehner acknowledged that a backup plan is needed, and a Senate GOP leader said he expects such an alternative to win his chamber’s approval.

The House voted 234 to 190 in favor of the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act,” which the White House has said will be vetoed in the unlikely event it passes the Senate and reaches President Obama’s desk. Faced with those prospects, Boehner told reporters that it would also be responsible to consider a backup plan for raising the federal debt ceiling and thus averting a potentially disastrous default on U.S. obligations.

…House Republicans insist that a constitutional mandate is the only way to impose discipline on Washington’s spending binges and avoid dangerous political showdowns like the one now pushing the country to the brink of its first default.

Beyond requiring that the budget be balanced each year, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act would require that the constitutional provision include annual spending caps and a supermajority to approve tax increases.

That plan faces almost certain defeat in the Senate, where many lawmakers are moving ahead with the compromise McConnell-Reid proposal.

Nevertheless, Boehner vowed to proceed with the bill.

“I’m not giving up on cut, cap and balance,” he told reporters. “But I do think it’s responsible for us to look at what Plan B would look like.”

Paul Ryan today discussed the “Cut, Cap & Balance the Budget” plan. It is the Republican bill to Grow the Economy and Save this Country.
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