To the Editor:
It is true that a child can balance the federal budget. It is a simple mathematical problem. Here is what we need, here is what we have, and subtracting what we have from what we need gives us the revenue gap.
Word problems like this begin as early as first or second grade. Jeffrey Dorfman shares how this simple word problem remains the same at the University of Georgia in a 2013 Forbes article.
Those chomping at the bit to pass a balanced budget amendment, first introduced in 1936 and failed 15 times, are advised to review history more closely. John Cogan, Stanford University professor and former director of Office of Management & Budget, provides an insightful review of federal budget balancing and opens the key to the common problem.
In our personal lives we are a committee of one or two that determines how best to balance our budgets. Remember – “Don’t assume that money solves all problems.”
There are people who have won the lottery or inherited millions and died broke or poor. There are people who were born into poverty who have risen up in life, earning substantial and comfortable incomes such as Sonia Sotomayor and Abraham Lincoln. Others, like Andrew Carnegie, believed it was a sin to die rich and gave away 94 percent of his wealth before death. It is safe to believe all elected officials are able to add and subtract.
Historical evidence shows a centralized process of one budget committee works. The current system of 15 committees – a decentralized process – runs up debt. Congress began, 1799-1885, centralized budgeting in balance, deviated 1886-1921, and returned in 1922-31 successfully balancing the budget during those times.
Defining a balanced budget as taking in more revenues than is spent, we find five recent balance years – 1969, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Those who push for an amendment know it sounds good, but historical facts prove it is not the solution. The solution is a centralized single committee budget process. It is time to return to a centralized process that effectively balances our nation’s budget.
