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The Balanced Budget Amendment concept is fundamentally bad for America. The Joint Resolution I read

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.J.RES.2:

contains enough loopholes to neuter the entire concept. For instance, we can't spend more than we take in unless we vote to spend more than we take in or if America is at war or in a military conflict. I think those provisions will fully protect the spenders from any meaningful limits ostensibly imposed by the BBA.

Also, the President's "proposed budget" suggests that the President is the new author of revenue bills. Knowing that there are many in America with "expansive" views of the law, why won't this clause simply mean the President can decide where and when to spend money and how to raise it? Add one more member to the Supreme Court and can you be certain that such an expansive interpretation would never happen?

Considering how long a Balanced Budget Amendment would take to be enacted, I believe this is just a poltical play to shift the focus and deliver the perception of concern about debt. It does not appear to me that it will produce any results in the next 5 years. Our debt and deficits should be reduced now. This can be done because all revenue bills must originate in the house, the joint resolution notwithstanding. The House should prioritize the revenue bills, delivering first, those bills that America needs - funding for military and interest payments. All others can be argued ad infinitum.

Why not instead, shrink government. Why not make all "agencies" justifiy every $ they spend or lose it? All dollars spent on fraud, mismanagement, or outside of mission projects would be lost in the following budget cycle. All information on where the dollars went would be public and even I could mine the data to find waste. There is (or should be) no PRIVACY for public dollars or public agencies.

Why not eliminate from the Federal government all missions that don't belong there. Oil subsidies, farm subsidies, energy subsidies, Housing and Urban development, the list goes on.

Do not be fooled into supporting this red herring. It will not solve any problems and will promise to be medicinal.

a Balancedf Budget Amendment would be okay if it were a simple cut and dried arrangement with the the bugs taken out.

Politician's do not do simplicityand because of that - it would be a massive trap

Just like when President Wilson and his gang of thugs pushed an amendment to allow for the Federal Reserve during the Senate and Congresses winter break.

There will always be another slick gimme in the mess.