Tillis, Colleagues Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Balance Budget

Tillis, Colleagues Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Balance Budget

Tillis, Colleagues Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Balance Budget

 

Senators Renew Push to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Force Annual Balanced Federal Budgets, Fight Debt

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

 

CONTACTS:

Adam Webb or Lauren Scott | (202) 224-6342

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and 23 of his colleagues recently introduced a joint resolution (S.J.Res.13) proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require the President and Congress to enact annual balanced budgets. This constitutional amendment would establish requirements for the submission and approval of annual balanced budgets, including guidelines regarding exceeding spending caps and raising taxes.   

 

“The federal debt now amounts to well over $30 trillion and, as interest rates continue to rise, so too does the cost for the federal government to borrow,” said Senator Tillis. “Congress must halt its dangerous reliance on deficit spending and instead enact economically-sustainable fiscal policies for the American people. I’m pleased to cosponsor this balanced budget amendment, which would provide a long-term strategy so we can move forward as good stewards of hardworking North Carolinians’ taxpayer dollars.”

 

The joint resolution would amend the U.S. Constitution to require:

  • Require the President to submit a balanced budget
  • Require Congress to pass a balanced budget
  • Restrict federal spending to 18 percent of the Gross Domestic Product
  • Require two-thirds majority votes in the House and Senate to raise taxes
  • Require a new three-fifths majority vote in both houses of Congress to raise the debt limit

 

S.J.Res.13 also includes certain spending waivers for use during wartime or imminent danger to national security. (Read the legislation here, along with a one-pager here.)

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  • Gordon Ipock
    commented 2025-10-31 14:24:49 -0700
    The only way to come close to balancing US federal spending is to roll back the US military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address to the nation. This would mean rolling back US global hegemony that has existed since 1991 and ending the policy of endless wars that have been fought to maintain the US global empire. Military madness IS killing our country — mostly by bankrupting it. Almost all of our existing $38 trillion debt has been generated over the past 25 years fighting wars in the Middle East, almost entirely for oil and Israel. This debt is unsustainable, causing foreign investors to reject buying US debt and sell US bonds and invest in gold. US debt and our aggressive foreign policies have provoked the rise of BRICS and the dumping of the US dollar. Congress has perhaps two years to address these problems before we suffer a financial collapse. Again, the only solution is to end our imperial wars and return to the republic envisioned by the Founders.