Like I said: DRASTIC spending cuts would HAVE TO be made to Social Security and Medicare if a BBA was passed. Children and elderly WILL starve if you right wing scum get your way. The problem is you are TOO fucking stupid to grasp the consequences of your right wing answer for everything...PUNISHMENT.
Balanced Budget Amendment: Bad for Seniors
Congress is considering several proposals that would amend the Constitution and require that annual spending levels not exceed revenue levels. This requirement would jeopardize all federal programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which would experience across-the-board cuts. Only defense spending during times of war or military conflict would be exempt from cuts.
The proposals do not make exceptions for unforeseen emergencies or economic downturns and could further harm a weakened economy. During an economic slump, government expenditures increase in the form of payments for unemployment insurance (UI), food stamps and Medicaid. These increased government disbursements are considered “automatic stabilizers.” A balanced budget amendment (BBA), however, effectively suspends the automatic stabilizers by requiring them to be offset with cuts in federal spending or tax increases, neither of which are advisable during a recession.
Most disturbing is that the BBA proposals balance the federal budget entirely through spending cuts and make it virtually impossible to do so through revenues (taxes). Since the proposals make it more difficult to raise revenues – a three-fifths or two-thirds vote (depending on the bill) is needed in both chambers – the measures are designed to protect the Bush tax cuts for the rich while balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class.
One such balanced budget proposal, H.J. Res. 1, would cap government expenditures at 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2018. To meet this goal, Congress would essentially have to enact extreme budget cuts. Among other things, such cuts would include:
(1) adopting Representative Paul Ryan’s voucher plan to privatize Medicare;
(2) raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67;and
(3) raising the Social Security retirement age to 70. It would also require cuts so harsh that many of the most vulnerable would be left with absolutely nothing:
By 2021, such a budget would reduce the following programs in half: Medicaid; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), and Supplemental Security Income.
H. J. Res. 1 aims to scale back government spending to the early 1960s level, prior to the passage of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. This rollback in government spending would not adequately capture the current and future needs of the country. Given the aging population, rising health care costs, and the legacy of two unfunded foreign wars and a decade’s worth of costly tax cuts, it is unrealistic to expect to go back to those spending levels.
The balanced budget amendments are designed to protect the Bush tax cuts for the rich, while balancing the budget on the backs of America’s seniors and the middle class!
A balanced budget amendment would result in severe cuts to Medicare!
* It would raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, voucherize the program and
impose even deeper cuts than the Ryan budget.
A balanced budget amendment would result in severe cuts to Social Security!
* It would raise the retirement age to 70
* Because the BBA would require that spending in any year be offset by revenues collected in the same year, Social Security could not use its reserves to pay benefits – even if it had balances in its trust fund, as it does today. Instead, it would be forced to cut benefit for millions of Americans
A balanced budget amendment would gut Medicaid and diminish low-income programs!
* The BBA would reduce the federal Medicaid contributions to states, thereby shifting costs on to the states, providers and Medicaid beneficiaries and seriously jeopardize nursing home and home care services for seniors and individuals with disabilities.
* By 2021, programs like Medicaid, food stamps and SSI would be cut in half.
A balanced budget amendment is bad for the economy!
* By requiring a balanced budget every year, no matter how the economy was performing, the BBA would force cuts in vital programs and spending JUST when the economy is weak or in recession - just the opposite of good economic policy.
http://www.retiredamericans.org/system/storage/24/00/0/947/fact_sheet-budget-balanced_budget_amendment_final.pdf
