Unbalanced: ; Be thankful the balanced budget amendment was rejected. Here’s why: [Charleston Gazette, The (WV)]

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional balanced budget amendment. This is good news. If passed, it could have led to severe budget cuts to vital programs, such as Medicare, Social Security and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The amendment would have also ensured that future economic recessions are deeper and longer because it would force policymakers to cut spending, raise taxes, or both when the economy is already weak and in recession.

According to Macroeconomic Advisors, one of the nation's preeminent private economic forecasting firms, balancing the 2012 federal budget would have required $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. These deep cuts would have a catastrophic effect on the economy, throwing about 15 million more people to be out of work, causing the economy to shrink by about 17 percent instead of growing by an expected 2 percent, and doubling the unemployment rate from 9 percent to approximately 18 percent.

Proponents of a constitutional balanced budget amendment often claim that because families and states must balance their budgets every year that the federal government should do the same. Both are poor analogies.

Most families often do not balance their household budgets, and for good reason. For example, a family that takes out a student loan or obtains a mortgage will in essence be running a "deficit" by spending more than it earns that year. However, we know that a college education is a smart investment that pays off over the long- term and that homeownership is an important investment.

In addition, families often save money and draw down those savings in the event that someone loses a job or becomes ill. The proposed constitutional amendment would have barred the federal government from spending any money that has been saved because the government could only spend money it brings in that year.

While most states are required to balance their budgets each year, state balanced budget requirements refer to operating budgets, and not to capital budgets. State spending on land, infrastructure and school buildings is largely financed through debt. The late Senator Robert C. Byrd made this exact point in 1979 when arguing against balanced budget amendments when he said "state governments do not have such responsibilities as national defense and security" and "many states have two budgets; one for government operating expenses, which must balance, and one for capital outlay or construction projects, which need not balance."

As West Virginia historian Ray Smock recently observed, "Senator Byrd said that the goal should always be to balance the budget, but that an amendment to the Constitution 'could endanger the nation's security and economic health by its inherent inflexibility.' He did not want Congress to end up in a constitutional straightjacket that would prevent a quick response to disasters, emergencies, wars and economic down-turns."

The growth in federal deficits is a real and serious problem that needs to be addressed, but a balanced budget amendment has no place in the Constitution of the United States, and should not be used as a substitute for real leadership on fiscal policy.

The first step to reducing our country's deficit problem is to look at what is causing it. Contrary to what many believe, the recent growth in the deficit was not caused by out-of-control domestic spending, but by a weak economy, a bloated military budget, and the Bush-era tax cuts.

Over the longer-run, runaway health cost increases in our health- care system is also driving up the cost of federal health programs. As economist Dean Baker often points out, if the United States had the same per capita health costs as other wealthy nations we would have huge budget surpluses in the long-term instead of deficits. The Affordable Care Act will help control costs, but we can do more by negotiating better prescriptions drug prices, enacting a strong public option, and opening our medical system to foreign competition and freer trade.

While getting our nation's deficit under control will require difficult decisions, these decisions must be made in a thoughtful and balanced way. Instead of focusing on arbitrary ways to cut spending, policymakers need to redirect their focus to putting more people to work.

As Sen. Joe Manchin often says, "It's time to rebuild America." Let's get to work.