Dear Senator:
On behalf of the National Taxpayers Union’s (NTU’s) 362,000 members nationwide and our 2,100 members in the State of New Hampshire, I urge you to pass House Concurrent Resolution 40 and renew the state’s call for a limited Article V convention to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment for ratification. The House passed HCR 40 by an overwhelming majority. If the Senate follows suit, New Hampshire will join at least 17 other states in exercising their constitutional prerogative to put our country on the path to fiscal sanity.
A Balanced Budget Amendment would enshrine in our Constitution a principle that our Founders simply assumed and abided by: the federal government should not spend more than it takes in, absent a specific, genuine emergency. Unfortunately, decades of fiscal mismanagement have proven that Congress as an institution is no longer capable of restraining itself, and that durable constitutional safeguards must have a role in limiting government. Washington has run deficits during 45 of the last 50 years.
Moreover, in the past decade, we’ve seen an unsustainable acceleration in spending driven by such factors as the creation of a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and increased program expansions in defense and education. The picture becomes even more bleak when one adds so-called “crisis response” spending – such as the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 or the $862 billion “economic stimulus” bill of 2009. For just this year, the Congressional Budget Office projected an annual deficit of $1.1 trillion, roughly the size of the entire accumulated national debt in 1982.
Given this abysmal history, it becomes clear any solution to our spending crisis must come from outside Washington, D.C. Thankfully, the Constitution allows state lawmakers to exercise certain powers to prevent a catastrophe due to federal excesses. As we wrote in “Why You Must Lead the Congress” over two decades ago:
The Founding Fathers had no way of predicting the current irresponsible spending policies of the federal government. Yet although they could not foretell the future, they were men of great wisdom. They did foresee the possibility that Congress might fail the people. It is for that reason that Article V of the U.S. Constitution enables the states to amend the Constitution.
Our members hope you will recognize this fact and pursue the most rational and safe option now by enacting an Article V resolution for a limited convention of the states to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment. Please contact us with any questions you may have or information you may require in your deliberations. Above all, however, please do not allow this historic opportunity for reestablishing fiscal responsibility to slip from your grasp; for the sake of current and future generations of taxpayers, the time to act is now.
Sincerely,
Brent MeadState Government Affairs Manager