This is news?
The Wshington Post says GOP Drops Work on Balanced Budget. I'm like, so? They did that almost four years ago.
GOP Drops Work on Balanced Budget
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004; Page A23The timing seemed a bit discordant last week, when the House Judiciary Committee began considering a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, just as Congress moved to pass its fourth tax cut in as many years.
A week later, the committee has not finished its work on the legislation, and the GOP House leadership has decided to drop the issue indefinitely, fearing that any spotlight on the burgeoning deficit would backfire politically.
The balanced budget amendment was a cornerstone of the Republicans' "Contract With America" 10 years ago, and halting efforts to resurrect it has underscored party divisions over a budget deficit that will reach $422 billion this year.
Last year, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) promised Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) a vote on the amendment before the House adjourns for the 2004 elections. But before DeLay could push an amendment to a House vote, Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) demanded that his panel draft the legislation first.
Last Wednesday's drafting session turned into a fiasco, members from both parties said. Democrats ridiculed the GOP majority, which has controlled Congress and the White House for most of the past four years while record budget surpluses turned to record deficits. Even some Republicans conceded that their hearts were not in it. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said he had not taken it "as a very serious discussion."
"We can limit [deficits] on our own," said Flake, a Judiciary Committee member. "We in Congress ought to be embarrassed by what has happened. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves."
