With the latest financial crisis in America ever present in the minds of some and totally ignored by others (and sadly those that should be paying attention) new talk of a balanced budget amendment is raising it's head yet again. This is total political hype and haymaking and belongs in the area of things to be laughed at and made fun of and here is why. A balanced budget amendment like term limits and debt ceiling limits is a sign of weakness in the individuals that wish to have them. They are also not realistic solutions to very real problems.
Let me explain. Say you had a weight problem and were trying to get your weight back under control but your will power, resolve, and commitment to diet and exercise were just too great for you to handle. What do you do? Well the first thing I would do is pass a law that would not allow my bathroom scale to go over 200 lbs. I know for a guy my size that that is still considered overweight but really 200 lbs. is only a little overweight and wouldn't put me in the category of obese.
Of course the law of gravity (which wasn't written by me and for some reason can't be vetoed by me) is conspiring against my newly written law. But wait, there is a solution, I will buy a new scale for my bathroom, one that only goes to 200 lbs. In fact let's pass another law that says that no one can manufacture or purchase or own any bathroom scales that allow readings greater than 200. Just think of the spurt to the economy we will have from everyone having to replace all those old scales. And this rule applies to everyone equally because we care enough about you that we don't want anyone to weigh more than 200 lbs.
Oh but wait, what about the lineman who play for the Packers? Sports fans are not going to be please when they open their stat sheets only to find that their team is so evenly matched up with the opposing team with every player on the offensive and defensive line at an average weight of 200 lbs. Perhaps we should create an exemption for locker rooms. But then what should the new limit be for locker rooms? And should that be all sport locker rooms or just those of football players? Would the local fitness gym count?
And what about size? Should a 7 foot person be held to the same 200 lbs. limit, and should there be a lower limit for people under 5 feet tall? What if someone bought a metric scale, would a 200 kilogram limit apply?
I could go on and on but you quickly see how silly this stuff can get and this really is how some of our laws get created, especially the ones that shouldn't be laws in the first place as the bathroom scale represents. It is not in the charter people, it does not belong.
As I have stated before many of our laws are created to prevent you from doing or having something that I don't want you to have or do. Term limits where created as a way to remove a candidate that someone else didn't agree with but didn't have enough influence to remove with a legitimate alternative. You would think that common sense would prevail from the majority but as is too often the case common sense is not that common. How else do you explain the reelection time after time of (insert name here but contain yourself to the top 20 that come to mind)? Of course you have to think that if the people continue to put (insert name) back in office then they fully deserve what they get. And if the people of (insert state) wish to be represented by (insert name) then that is their right and I as a member of (insert other state) should have no say in it other than to make sure I am represented by someone who better expresses my viewpoint than (insert name).
Well that is all fine and dandy for the actions of others but what about for yourself? The key words is action and for self. When it comes to being a grown up and an individual we somewhere along the way begin to take responsibility for our own actions, which includes the outcome or consequences of those actions. Some of those consequences are automatic and consistent. If I jump up in the air, I will return to earth (there is that law of gravity again). There are certain rules we all must abide whether we know them or not. We can not impose our will over them just by saying they are not so. And if we say that we weigh 200 lbs. when we do not that is called a lie or at the very least a deception meant for others but mostly for self.
So if it is not a law or should not be then what is it? A GOAL. We can have a goal to have a balanced budget. The proposed law is an attempt to force an action to obtain the goal but it is a forced action and goal both of which are poorly defined, stated and acted upon. The debt ceiling was made into law in an effort to control an out of control government. It is not effective in that it has not made any headway in that regard. Because of it's failure to constrain the government fiscally it has been rewritten constantly to change the total debt limit more times than the number of years it has been in existence. It is like passing a law that says I can not weigh more than 200 only to rewrite it the next day at 201 and the next day at 202 and the next day at 203 and so on and so on and so on.
The other factor that comes into play with these types of legislation is the exemptions. They totally negate the effect you were after by introducing the loopholes by which you can ignore your own rules. We will have a balanced budget every year except when we can't, like during times of war or times of peace or times of famine or times of recession or times of emergency such as tsunamis or floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or depressions or election years or any time one of our neighbors has one of these problems. Oh yeah, and I will never eat chocolate again, unless I have a craving for some that can only be resolved by the ingesting of some form of chocolate.
Getting the idea.
We are the ones that are responsible for achieving our own goals, and we are the ones responsible for defining what those goals are and what rules we will give ourselves to obtain those goals. We then measure our success by how well we achieve our goals or how well we are progressing towards achieving them.
Our elected representatives are put in those positions to fulfill the will of the people. How successful they are is measured by how well they fulfill the will of the people they represent. If the people wish for a balanced budget, a debt ceiling, or a term limit, they do not need a special law enacted. They must take the action to find and elect a representative that will work on their behalf to reach these goals. They must then communicate their desires (goals) and monitor the progress of their representative to see that they are still their representative. If they really wanted a balanced budget then they would pass a balanced budget and with integrity only pass legislation that supported fiscal responsibility.
If we really wanted a balanced budget we also would be willing to accept nothing less. This means not accepting the handouts and entitlement programs that have been used by politicians for years to buy your votes and influence our support.
Just as we know what actions we must take to obtain a healthy weight, politicians know what actions they must take to obtain a healthy fiscal position with which to maintain a strong nation. If they don't, they don't belong there. If they know what they should do but they prefer not to act for their own reasons then they don't belong there. If they are not willing to act towards reaching our goals, simply put, they do not belong there.
If we are not willing to act to obtain our goals then we should not be surprised in the least when our goals are not met. All worthy goals take effort especially if you desire a worthy outcome. And you don't have to have a law written to make it happen. Just do it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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