The Five-finger plan to get out of this debt mess...

The current debt ceiling crisis continues today, with the Congress (mainly the Republicans) sending plan after plan (especially their well-thought out plan to "Cut, Cap, and balance") up, only to be shot down by the Democrats and President Obama, who threatens to veto any bill the Republican-controlled House sends up, despite him whining on TV on Monday, 7/25 that both sides need to compromise.

Now, Obama is threatening not to pay out Social Security, Medicare, and military pay/benefits after the August 2 debt ceiling deadline, claiming the government doesn't have money to pay them.  Let's debunk this scare tactic to grandma and grandpa as well as our soldiers right now.  The President and Treasury Secretary (tax-cheat Geithner) have the power to make payouts from available funding.  According to reports, the government takes in around $220 billion per month in tax revenues.  They can pay out social security (around $80 billion), interest on the debt (another $80 billion) and the remainder (around $60 billion) will take care of Medicare/Medicaid and the military, but nothing for the "pet projects" and overseas aid.  The actual amount of outlays per month for the government is in the neighborhood of $500 billion.  Can you see a problem here?

The country is tired of all this debt that has been run up (and while both parties are responsible, Obama's debt has equaled that of his 43 predecessors combined and is more than double the debt when George W. Bush left office) and demands action, which is why the Democrats were routed in the 2010 mid-terms.

Seeing all this, I (borrowing a phrase from the show Big Brother), propose a "five-finger plan" to help this country get out of this mess.   All of these are to be Constitutional Amendments to avoid the endless lawsuits by affected liberals that will come if these were just laws, and I know Congress would never consider it because it makes too much sense, but, here goes... 

1)  Amend Article I, Section 7 to require the country have a balanced budget each fiscal year, that a budget be proposed by April 1 of each year for the upcoming fiscal year (that starts in October), no loopholes be permitted to go 'round the requirement

Effect:  This will prevent the country from continually racking up debt by balancing its' books--remember, 49 of 50 states (sorry, Washington State) require their state budgets be balanced, so why not the federal government?  Further, this will require a budget be proposed early in the session so we don't have these government shutdowns because Congress failed to act on their requirement to have a budget in place.

2) Amend Article I, Section 7 to permit the President to have a line-item veto, to strike from budget bills items that are ridiculous and unnecessary, which would then require a two-thirds majority of both houses to override.

Effect:  This will stop the pork-barrel spending cold.  Can you imagine a congressman having to vote to override a veto for a project dealing with the lifespan of a tadpole or a "bridge to nowhere", then having to stand for re-election with that on their record?

3) Amend Article I, Section 7 to require the government maintain an emergency fund for genuine national emergencies (such as 9/11 or natural disasters such as hurricanes/tornadoes/floods) that would be set aside in the budget (1% of total anticipated revenues).

Effect: Most states already have a "rainy-day fund" that is used in the event of a state emergency, why can't the government have one?

4) Amend Article I, Section 8 to include in the clause dealing with the public debt that any budget surpluses incurred be used to pay down the debt first, then use for the emergency/rainy day fund.

Effect: This will ensure that any higher revenue will go to paying down the debt first instead of higher entitlement or pork-barrel spending.

5) Amend Article I, Section 7 to require a two-thirds majority of each congressional body be required to raise any taxes.

Effect: The two-thirds requirement will prevent Democrats from immediately wanting to start talking tax increases we don't need.  For those who argue the wealthy should pay more, I submit that even if you tax them at 100% of income, that won't even scratch the surface of the $14 trillion debt we have.  Where do you think the rest of it will come from?

By going the constitutional amendment route, this also takes Obama out of the equation, as the President has no say-so in constitutional amendments.  The government can't seem to get a plan in place, how about this one?  If these are passed by the requisite 2/3 majority and sent to the states, I'm sure we can get the 38 required states to allow this to happen.  If not, there's always Article V that allows 34 states to propose a convention to consider amendments to the constitution.