Dear editor:
The Republicans' balanced budget amendment is a constitutional amendment that cannot be allowed to become a part of our Constitution. It would destroy our entire economy.
It's one thing for a state or a person to balance their budget, but what happens when we have a national disaster that requires federal support like all the back-to-back super hurricanes last year? We just leave people to die? What happens when we have a severe depression, which this could well trigger. Do we leave people to die in the streets?
Of all the despicable things the Republican Party has stooped to in order to gain and retain power and do the bidding of their corporate masters, this has to be the lowest of the low. If anyone thinks this would benefit the United States, I want what they're smoking.
For one thing, Social Security is on the verge of needing to tap into their huge trust fund, which was created to handle the baby boomer generation and is invested in U.S. Treasuries, which is a part of the national debt. This would prohibit Social Security from doing that because Congress would have to borrow to pay SS and this amendment does not allow for that. So it would trigger a massive benefit cut, unless they raised the contribution rate or lifted the cap on contributions to make up for the shortfall which Republicans have refused to do.
This "amendment" includes a waiver to borrow during times of war, but seems we're always at war or in a cold war or suffering a national threat ever since World War II, so it is by no stretch of the imagination to understand that they really do not want to ever have to actually "balance the budget," but are doing this purely to build political capital and to kill Social Security, something they've been trying to do since its inception and can't do directly.
Call Congress now and tell them no on the amendment that is currently being debated in the House.
Judith Zitko
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 04/14/2018