Balanced Budget Veto Amendment
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The Balanced Budget Veto Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution put forth by the Libertarian Cato Institute, with the intention of establishing a self-enforcing mechanism to reduce Deficit spending.
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[edit] Text of the Amendment
The full text of the Balanced Budget Veto Amendment reads:
Section 1. For purposes of this article, the budget of the United States for any given fiscal year shall be deemed unbalanced whenever the total amount of the debt of the United States held by the public at the close of such fiscal year is greater than the total amount of the debt of the United States held by the public at the close of the preceding fiscal year.
Section 2. If the budget of the United States is unbalanced for any given fiscal year, the President may separately approve, reduce or disapprove any monetary amounts in any legislation that appropriates or authorizes the appropriation of any money drawn from the Treasury, other than money for the legislative and judicial branches of the United States Government, and which is presented to the President during the next annual session of Congress.
Section 3. Any legislation that the President approves with changes pursuant to section 2 of this article shall become law as modified. The President shall return with objections those portions of the legislation containing reduced or disapproved monetary amounts to the House where such legislation originated, which may then, in the manner prescribed under section 7 of Article I for bills disapproved by the President, separately reconsider those reduced or disapproved monetary amounts.
Section 4. The Congress shall have the power to implement this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 5. This article shall take effect on the first day of the next annual session of Congress following its ratification.
Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by Congress.
[edit] Intent
According to the Cato Institute's Policy Analysis #487, current Balanced Budget Proposals contain no enforcement mechanism and favor increased taxes over spending reduction. As a Libertarian organization, the Institute prefers a method which favors reduced spending and minimizes opportunities for circumvention.
