On Friday, Congressman Rudy Yakym (IN-02) issued the following statement after reintroducing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution as his first piece of legislation in the 119th Congress:
“I am reintroducing this Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment as my first bill in this new Congress because there is no more important mission over these next two years than reining in runaway spending and getting our $36 trillion and growing national debt under control. Our unsustainable debt is the single greatest threat to our economic prosperity and the next generation’s ability to achieve the American Dream, and we need to address it before it’s too late.
“Under President Trump and unified Republican government, this Congress has a great opportunity to get our debt under control by getting our government to exercise the same kind of fiscal discipline that Hoosier families I represent back home in Indiana do every day.
“Restoring fiscal responsibility is one of the main reasons I ran for Congress in the first place, and I will never stop fighting for policies that deliver a brighter future for all our citizens.”
Rep. Yakym Balanced Budget Amendment Provisions
- Under Rep. Yakym’s Amendment, our total national debt could not exceed 130% of GDP for the first year the Amendment is in effect. Then, for each following fiscal year the limit would drop one percent until the national debt cannot exceed 120% of GDP.
- Prior to each fiscal year, the President must send to Congress a proposed budget for that fiscal year and the subsequent five-year period in which the total national debt does not exceed the debt-to-GDP limits.
- The Amendment can be waived by a three-fifths vote of both houses of Congress, or during times of war and military conflict.
Rep. Yakym’s Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment can be viewed here.
Yakym’s bill is H.R. 37. It doesn’t have any cosponsors.
