Six days after Buchanan died, House Republicans provided dismal (and redundant) validation of public choice theory. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., supported by Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, proposed offsetting just $17 billion of the $60 billion aid for victims of superstorm Sandy, and doing so by cutting just 1.63 percent from discretionary government spending. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said this would "slash and burn" important programs, and the measure failed because 71 Republicans opposed it.
The political class is incorrigible because it is composed of — let us say the worst — human beings. They respond to incentives of self-interest. Their acquisitiveness is not for money but for the currency of power, which they act to retain and enlarge. This class can be constrained, if at all, not by exhorting them to become disinterested but by binding them with a constitutional amendment.
George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.
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Will makes a few good points here. Unfortunately, he omits the most significant reason why a balanced budget amendment is a terrible idea: In times of recession, the government needs to step in with spending and stimulus to prevent the recession from More..
We constantly hear the GOP -- and our own Uncle Orrin -- calling for a balanced budget amendment. But when they have the chance, what do they do?
Nothing.
Why?
Because it would cramp their spending sprees. Look at More..
Republicans don't really want a BB amendment. They just talk about it. It would restrict their capacity to make war. Mike Lee is blowing smoke: the minute the GOP needs a war to satisfy its vast military-industrial base, the BB goes out the More..