Grassley: Congress Will Balance the Budget ‘When We Pass a Constitutional Amendment Requiring It’

When asked if Congress will ever balance the budget, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) pointed to the proposed and long-debated balance budget amendment as the proper means of doing so.

At the Capitol on July 26, CNS News asked Senator Grassley, “The federal government collected record taxes in the first nine months of this fiscal year, but still ran a $515-billion-dollar deficit. Will Congress ever balance the budget?”

Senator Grassley replied in the affirmative, insisting that the solution to the deficit can be found in his previous legislative efforts: “Yeah, when we pass a Constitutional Amendment requiring it.”

“I voted for it three times, maybe four times,” Grassley added.

The senator is referring to the “Balance Budget Amendment,” which he re-introduces to every new Congress.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “a balanced budget amendment would add a budget rule to the Constitution that would require federal spending not to exceed federal receipts.” In other words, “the amendment would make it unconstitutional for the federal government to run annual budget deficits.”