DeMint, Snowe: Debt Deal Must Include Budget Amendment

Politico reports:

No deal to raise the debt ceiling is complete without an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced federal budget to prevent Congress “from hijacking the promise of American prosperity, ” two Senate Republicans are arguing as a bipartisan group of congressional leaders heads to the White House on Thursday.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) say that while deep budget cuts and caps on future spending are key to warding off “fiscal calamity,” an amendment to the Constitution forcing the federal government to spend only what it has is essential.

All 47 Senate Republicans introduced a balanced budget amendment in late March, and Snowe and DeMint – who are opposite sides of the spectrum of Senate Republicans – want to see the amendment as part of any debt ceiling deal.