The Crux Blog: Balanced Budget Amendment Would Nuke National Security

A number of campaign mailers received this season indicate support for a Constitutional amendment for a federal balanced budget. One can understand the frustration when the federal government seems unable to accomplish this.

A balanced budget is an excellent goal and many point out that several states have balanced budget amendments and they have operated under them just fine.

However, if we pass a balanced budget amendment for the federal government, we might as well surrender to the Chinese immediately!

There is one big, important difference between state budgets and the federal budget: state governments do not have to wage wars.

In order to defeat the Nazis and imperialistic Japan, the United States went into greater debt than any other time in history (based on the percentage of Gross Domestic Product.) In 1945, the federal deficit had risen to a whopping 112% of the country's GDP! *

However, THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! If we had a balanced budget amendment prior to World War 2, we would not have been able to help rescue Great Britain through Lend/Lease. We would not have been able to create the atomic bomb! In short, we would have lost the war!

We mustn't bind our hands when it comes to national security just to have a balanced budget amendment! What happens if the military needs more tanks and planes, and the Treasury is out of money?

WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO LEGALLY MANUFACTURE THOSE TANKS AND PLANES!! To allow this unintended consequence to occur is unthinkable!

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Some might argue that the solution would be a provision in the amendment for war time. However, this would not work either. The all important Lend/Lease program that saved Britain and allowed us a springboard to free the rest of Western Europe occurred PRIOR to Pearl Harbor and a war declaration by Congress. Had we had a balanced budget amendment, Lend/Lease would not have been possible.

Since World War 2, US troops have been put in harm's way on several occasions: Korea, Vietnam, and several skirmishes in the Middle East, to name a few. In fact, Congress hasn't officially declared war since World War 2. We would have not been able to fully arm our military for ANY of these post WW2 military actions.

As of 2011, the US debt was about two-thirds of the GDP. * Obviously, this percentage is too high and has to be addressed, but we certainly have faced worse in the past.

In fact, the only decade the US had consistent balanced budgets was the 1830's. We've had deficit spending in every other decade in our history. *

Let us not allow our apprehension over the current deficit affect our ability to defend ourselves in the future.

SOURCE:
* The Long Story of U.S. Debt, From 1790 to 2011, in 1 Little Chart (from The Atlantic)