From senate.gov:
A constitutional amendment to balance the budget is imperative if we
are to provide continuity of fiscal responsibility, and ensure we never
return to the recklessness of the past and present. 
It's time Congress
passed the amendment and gave the states—and "We the People"—their say.The
last time the Senate considered a balanced budget amendment was on
March 4, 1997—and it failed to pass by one vote. On that day 14 years
ago, the nation's outstanding debt was $5.36 trillion. Today it is $14.3
trillion, or nearly three times that amount.
It's time Congress
passed the amendment and gave the states—and "We the People"—their say.The
last time the Senate considered a balanced budget amendment was on
March 4, 1997—and it failed to pass by one vote. On that day 14 years
ago, the nation's outstanding debt was $5.36 trillion. Today it is $14.3
trillion, or nearly three times that amount.
Whatever
happens when President Obama meets with congressional leaders of both
parties at the White House today, no long-term solution is on the table
for the spending habits in Washington that have endangered the
prosperity of future generations. With our federal debt exceeding $14
trillion—nearly 100% of our gross domestic product—fiscal calamity is
jeopardizing our standard of living and undermining our national
security. And President Obama recently requested that we add an additional $2.4 trillion to our debt.
There
has to be another way, and there is. Republicans in the Senate are
united in our concern about our nation's fiscal future. Before we
consider saddling our children with even more debt, we must enact
significant spending cuts and enforceable caps on future spending.
For the long term, to prevent both this Congress and its successors from hijacking the promise of American prosperity, we also need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, like the one we and all 47 Senate Republicans have introduced.
The
American people who will vote on such an amendment understand the basic
financial rules that Washington has been breaking. In the real world,
if a household brought in $44,000 annually but spent $74,000 by
borrowing $30,000 each year to sustain its spending habits, such
behavior would be considered reckless and irresponsible.
Nonetheless,
the federal government is doing exactly that on an unimaginable scale,
running historic deficits in excess of a trillion dollars for three
consecutive years and borrowing 40 cents for every dollar spent. Our
government has balanced its budget only five times in half a century.
The U.S. currently spends an astounding $200 billion per year just to pay interest on its debt,
an annual amount projected to reach nearly $1 trillion by 2021. Money
spent on debt-interest payments is money not invested in our economy,
jobs, infrastructure or education. Economists Carmen Reinhart and
Kenneth Rogoff have found that gross debt levels above 90% of GDP slow
economic growth by 1% per year. First-quarter GDP growth this year was
already abysmal at 1.9%. At that rate, China would surpass the U.S.
economy in size even before 2016, the year recently forecast by the
International Monetary Fund.
If
Congress increases our national debt ceiling next month without
permanent, structural budget reforms, we will signal to taxpayers and
bond markets alike that Washington is still in denial. Whatever
agreement is reached, everyone will know that future Congresses are not
obligated to follow it. As a result, the only way to compel lawmakers to
maintain their responsibility forever is a balanced budget amendment to
the Constitution...