Senator Rand Paul has said he's going to filibuster about the debt ceiling. His goal? To trade an increase in the debt ceiling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a balanced budget.
I think that every time the press reports on someone's proposed amendment to the Constitution, it should also be reported that we almost never amend the Constitution in this country. The last time we did it was in 1992 — an amendment of little consequence or controversy that basically said that if Congress votes itself a pay raise, that raise doesn't take effect until the next Congress.
Want to know how long it took us to pass that one? Well, as I said, it passed in 1992. It was first introduced on September 25, 1789 and I did not mistype that. The amendment before that, which lowered the voting age to 18, was passed in July of 1971. It only took four months from the time it was formally introduced to the time it was passed…but we discussed and debated it in this country for at least a decade before that.
The first ten amendments are known as The Bill of Rights. Those are those ten rules that some like to set aside when they're worried about hijackers or Communists. They were ratified on December 15, 1791. That was a little over 219 years ago. Since then, we've passed seventeen more, which averages out to one every twelve or so years…so yes, we are overdue for a new amendment. But you wanna know how many are proposed each year by elected officials and other prominent government folks and pundits? Do you? Well, so do I. I'm going to guess it's a few hundred thousand. Someone proclaims, "We should pass a Constitutional Amendment that says blah blah blah" and then they get a bit of press because it sounds like they've actually done something…and then nothing ever happens.
Nothing will happen with Rand Paul's proposal. If it did, it would take years to hammer out the language of such a thing and everyone would lobby it to make exceptions for their pet areas. Democrats and Republicans could spend the rest of their lives and their kids' lives too, just debating under what circumstances, if any, taxes would or could be raised to achieve this balanced budget. Remember: A Constitutional Amendment requires approval by two-thirds majorities in both Houses of Congress. These days, I doubt if you could get a two-thirds majority in both Houses on the question of whether or not ice cream is yummy.
Someone needs to do something about the debt ceiling soon…like, in the next few weeks. I'm not saying an amendment of that sort would be good or bad. I'm just saying it's not going to happen…certainly not by the time we need to act and probably not at all. The press should have reported Paul's announcement the same way as if he'd said, "I'm going to filibuster until Martians start delivering pizza." That's about as likely to happen.