111TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. J. RES. 1 Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

On January 6, 2009, as it has been proposed in just about every Congress since at least President Reagan, and perhaps before. H.J.R.1, bill for a Balanced Budget, was introduced in the House of Representatives. H.J.R.1 has 157 sponsors, mostly Republicans, as it usually is.

It would make an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring the budget be balanced, like most states, to be balanced or a bill be passed by 60% of both the House and Senate.

Year after year it is rejected. What it lacks is what the Declaration of Independence calls "the consent of the governed". What it is missing is if there is not an 60% majority in both the House and the Senate, but has majority approval, that it be submitted to the People to vote on in a national referendum.

H.R.1. as it was submitted, without amendment, is as follows:

Section 1. Total outlays for any fiscal year shall not exceed total receipts for that fiscal year, unless three-fifths of the whole number of each House of Congress shall provide by law for a specific excess of outlays over receipts by a rollcall vote.
`Section 2. The limit on the debt of the United States held by the public shall not be increased, unless three-fifths of the whole number of each House shall provide by law for such an increase by a rollcall vote.
`Section 3. Prior to each fiscal year, the President shall transmit to the Congress a proposed budget for the United States Government for that fiscal year in which total outlays do not exceed total receipts.
`Section 4. No bill to increase revenue shall become law unless approved by a majority of the whole number of each House by a rollcall vote.
`Section 5. The Congress may waive the provisions of this article for any fiscal year in which a declaration of war is in effect. The provisions of this article may be waived for any fiscal year in which the United States is engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and serious military threat to national security and is so declared by a joint resolution, adopted by a majority of the whole number of each House, which becomes law.
`Section 6. The Congress shall enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation, which may rely on estimates of outlays and receipts.
`Section 7. Total receipts shall include all receipts of the United States Government except those derived from borrowing. Total outlays shall include all outlays of the United States Government except for those for repayment of debt principal.

Newt Gingrich Analysis of "Obama's" Big Government Plan

Watch CBS Videos Online

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich takes apart President Obama's ''big government'' plan to save the economy. I have to disagree with Gingrich in calling this Obama's plan. Perhaps he dare not define the President as a puppet of Pelosi.

The GOP is like a Marine with an automatic shooting at a 25 yard machinegun target. In this case, the Democratic Party is painting themselves with a bullseye and hoping everyone forgets who voted for this spending by 2010.

The problem is the Democrats has confused this sacrifice of future generations as a map for the future. If it is, they have the North side of the map pointing at the floor.

Newt Gingrich is very respectful of President Obama's abilities in this feature in terms of integrity, focus, and success. He says the President is a left wing advocate who genuinely believes in big government as a solution to America's problems rather than the private sector.

However, it would be a mistake to believe Newt Gingrich is not skeptical of this spending. Essentially, Gingrich is saying pieces of the budget are do-able. He says over it is a higher tax, weaker economy, job-killing budget that dramatically increases the power of government.

He says the $600 billion in energy taxes are a job killer. That tells us that those taxes will hamper business (means of production) recovery.

Gingrich deserves six minutes of your time to give a listen. His comments are cogent, open minded, and considerate of President Obama's perspective.

The government controlling schools and banks is like the way they run the U.S. Post Office and the Treasury. Personally, I would rather have FedEx delivering my medicine and Bill Gates of Microsoft running our Treasury.

How can you have a $3.5 Trillion Budget and claim you are going to cut the Deficit? This is a claim worthy of the Gobbels Award For Public Enlightenment.

How can taxing the "rich" who are only 1.5% of the population, provide the $533 billion reduction in deficits? How can you have reductions by removing troops from Iraq when you are going to reroute them to Afghanistan?

Gingrich is in agreement with much of the words President Obama uses. What is disturbing is the gap berween the rhetoric and the reality of the education reform and earmarks. The bill takes away school choice and has over 8,000 earmarks. Gingrich's estimate is lower than some other sources.

I think the six minutes that the video takes of him speaking is a good investment of your time.