Petition in Support of a Balance Budget Amendment

[Fredrick Lindner]

Petition in Support of a Balance Budget Amendment

For the purpose of defending the economic stability of the United States, maintaining the economic sovereignty of the United States from foreign pressures, and to maintain the standard of the US currency in global markets, Congress shall maintain a balanced federal budget.  Federal debt is a matter of national defense and shall not be postponed for any fiscal year and must be resolved.  An Amendment to the Constitution should be introduced that includes all of the following 5 principles for federal spending. 

I.                    Congress must pass a budget for federal spending each fiscal year.  The total federal spending and outlays for any fiscal year shall not exceed the sum of receipts, fees, or other annuities for that fiscal year.  If a budget is not agreed upon, Congress shall go without pay until the budget is resolved for that fiscal year.

II.                  Congress shall not make assumptions as to the future spending or future income of the treasury.  Congress shall make all budgetary cuts and spending measures based on the fiscal year in which the budget is proposed.  Taxes, fees, and other annuities brought in to the treasury must only be available for spending on budgetary issues of that year and Congress may not propose spending cuts based on future projections of increased income. 

III.                If the sum of all taxes and fees exceed the federal spending of the fiscal year, then that money will be used to pay down the federal debt.  Where there is no debt the surplus will be reimbursed to the taxpayers. 

IV.                Congress may issue temporary debt in case of a) Declaration of War; b) Domestic Natural Disaster; c) Domestic Economic Depression.  Congress shall have a way of paying back all debt issued and all debt must be paid back in 10 years from the date the debt was first accrued.  The limit on the debt held by the public shall not be increased, unless two-thirds of congress shall provide for such an increase. Be it understood that the judicial and executive branch may not contravene this law.  Only Congress, as cited in this amendment, may change the limits as specified here.

V.                  Congress shall at no time extend benefits, salaries, or pay to any non-essential personal without a budget agreed upon by a majority of Congress.  Beneficiaries with advanced medical issues, over the age of 65, receiving food support, or military personnel are except from this withholding.

[W. Branstetter]

I have the 3 copies you are asking about.  You were there and then you disappeared and I did not see you outside.  Call me and we will work out how to get them back to you.

[Fredrick Lindner]

We had 3 of these petitions circulating at the meeting.  Did someone pick these up? 

[Fredrick Lindner]

Anyways here is the petition that the Arapahoe Tea Party Balanced Budget Committee spent so much time on developing this year.  Special thanks to Kevin Keator, Andy Peth, Samuel Young, Martin Higgins, and Keith Ulmer.  As mentioned in the original intent of the petition we want to keep our candidates accountable to balancing the budget at all levels of our government but most critically at the federal level.  Since congress continues to pass continuing resolutions every few months this debate is not over and will be back at the top of the headlines for discussion.  We would like to forward our petition ideas to all congressman, senators, and our  presidential candidates to understand the topics of what might just save this nation.