The AP reports today, “The next step in the weeks-long saga over how to increase the government’s borrowing cap is to let House tea party forces try it their way. A Republican ‘cut, cap and balance’ plan set for a House vote Tuesday would condition a $2.4 trillion increase in the so-called debt limit on an immediate $100 billion-plus cut from next year’s budget and adoption by Congress of a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. ‘Let’s let the American people decide,’ said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘Do they want something common sense as cutting spending, capping the growth in government and requiring a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution?’”

And National Review Online’s Andrew Stiles wrote Friday, “What started out as the brainchild of freshmen and tea-party members — strongly supported by the likes of Club for Growth and Heritage Action — ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ has quickly become a mainstream GOP position. Conservative senators including Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Mike Lee (R., Utah), and Rand Paul (R., Ky.) introduced ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ legislation last week. On Thursday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and GOP conference chair Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) both signed on to the bill, a clear indication of the momentum building behind the proposal.”

As Sen. McConnell has reiterated for weeks, “What Republicans want is simple: We want to cut spending now, we want to cap runaway spending in the future and we want to save our entitlements and our country from bankruptcy by requiring the nation to balance its budget. We want to finally get our economy growing again at a pace that will lead to significant job growth.”

In making the case for a cut, cap, and balance plan, Senate Republicans have been arguing the need for a balanced budget amendment, which all 47 GOP senators are cosponsoring. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) explained the need for a balanced budget amendment to Townhall.com, where Elisabeth Meinecke writes, “Though the Senate GOP introduced a one earlier this year, President Obama has stated emphatically otherwise, telling Americans last week during a press conference that the country does not need a balanced budget amendment. ‘Yes, we do,’ Lee told Townhall when asked to respond to the president, adding later when talking about simultaneously raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending, ‘We can’t bind what a future Congress will do. We can pass laws that will affect this year, but there will be a new Congress that takes power in January of 2013, and then another new one that will take power in January 2015. And they will make their own spending decisions then — we can’t bind them unless we amend the Constitution to do so.’ Lee points out that the American people support the idea of a balanced budget – 65 percent, according to a Sachs/Mason Dixon poll from this year  . . . .”

And yet President Obama is still not getting the message. After the president said on Friday that “we don’t need a constitutional amendment” to balance the budget, the White House today announced on a conference call with communications director Dan Pfeiffer and top economic advisor Gene Sperling that Obama would veto the GOP cut, cap, and balance plan.

As Sen. Orrin Hatch, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in the Weekly Republican Address Saturday, “The only reason this Administration doesn’t want a constitutional amendment is because they want to keep spending the American people’s money. And the only reason congressional Democrats would refuse to pass it, is because they know the people of this country would rise up and quickly ratify it. A balanced budget amendment makes sense; its time has more than come. Now, Congress must act.”

Related:

Rasmussen Reports: 54% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law, 52% Say Law Will Increase Deficit

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