Today, Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s career long mission of passing an amendment to the US Constitution requiring a balanced budget, died in the House. It faced even longer odds in the US Senate.
Goodlatte has championed this cause since he was elected to Congress in the 1990’s and he hasn’t give up. Even today, as his bill went down, lacking 30 votes for a required two-thirds majority, Goodlatte was optimistic. He told WSLS that the vote, even if it is a failure for the advocates of the amendment, keeps the issue alive.
I am not stating an opinion one way or the other. But, I will proclaim that there is nothing wrong with it not passing. Why? Because, amending the Constitution should be difficult. Any amendment, no matter the topic should be thoroughly debated… not over the course of a few hours, days, weeks or months. Rather, it should take years. Our founding fathers set up the system this way to make sure that we don’t amend this document on a political whim.
Perhaps Goodlatte’s amendment will eventually pass. If so, it will be because it received the necessary debate that it deserved. And at that point, we can rest more comfortably that it was the right thing to do.
Posted by Jay Warren at 10:18 PM. Filed under: main •
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