WASHINGTON In a purely symbolic vote, the House has shot down a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced federal budget, a hot-button issue for Tea Party activists and many conservatives.
The amendment actually passed the Republican-controlled House by a 261-165 vote Friday. But that was 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to approve an amendment to the Constitution.
Had the measure passed it would have gone to the Senate, where prospects were even bleaker. Three-quarters of the state legislatures would also have to approve the legislation before the amendment became law.
Only 25 Democrats broke ranks with and the party leadership to back the balanced-budget measure.
Reaction predictably followed party-line dogma. The House had an opportunity to put an end to Washington s out-of-control spending, and it is unfortunate that Democrats who supported this measure in the past chose not to today, said House Majority Leader (R-Va.)
Democrats countered that a constitutional amendment would require devastating slashes in federal spending, including draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other safety-net programs for the elderly and disadvantaged.
Cuts of that magnitude would also be well in excess of the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts a congressional supercommittee must find by next Wednesday, a task considered increasingly unlikely by Capitol Hill insiders.
, the House s second-highest Democrat, voted for a similar amendment 16 years ago but reversed course Friday, arguing that the GOP talks a strong deficit-cutting game but created the huge budget deficits laid on President Obama s doorstep.
Republicans have been fiscally reckless, Hoyer said, refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy or cut government programs to finance two wars and a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
- with News wire services
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