GOP Senators: Link Budget Amendment to Debt Rise Deal

Human Events reports:

Senate conservatives are working to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) as part of the debate over a debt-limit increase.  According to Politico, Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah) is circulating a letter to other senators asking them to join his pledge to “oppose any attempt to raise the debt ceiling” until a BBA is passed by both houses.  Lee has been joined by Republican Senators Rand Paul (Ky.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), and Richard Shelby (Ala.).

Some conservatives worry that a bipartisan plan to cap spending from Sen. Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.) and Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.), the CAP (Commitment to American Prosperity) Act, may undermine efforts to pass a BBA this year.  The CAP Act would start in Fiscal Year 2013, capping spending at 25% of the gross domestic product, then ratchet down spending caps over the years 2014 through 2022.

This isn’t enough for some conservative senators, who note that spending caps have proven ineffective.  Furthermore, some complain that the CAP Act sets spending levels too high, and doesn’t even cap spending for the next fiscal year.

“Conservatives in the Senate want to do something at a fundamental level to fix the problem,” a senior Senate aide told Human Events.  “Statutory spending controls just don’t work.”