|  Home  |  Site Search  |  Tax News & Views  |

Balanced Budget Amendment Defeated

Thursday, June 6, 1996

Deloitte & Touche OnLine

The Senate rejected 64 to 35 the balanced budget amendment (HJRes 1). Supporters were three votes short of the required 67 to pass a constitutional amendment. GOP senators hoped the defeat would score political points for Dole.

"Liberal politicians have won again" by defeating the amendment, which requires the President and Congress to balance the budget, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on the Senate floor after the vote.

The amendment was "defeated because there are tax and spenders here today that don’t want to balance the budget," Hatch continued. "This is not going away. We are going to have to put fiscal discipline into the Constitution or the deficit is not going to go away."

Health Reform Limbo: Senate Democrats and Republicans continue to spar over health-insurance-reform legislation, particularly over the controversial medical savings account provision.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said on the Senate floor he will attempt to add the Senate-passed language on the MSA issue to other bills on the floor. The Senate version of the bill does not provide for MSAs, but the House version included a provision establishing the accounts.

Meanwhile, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who is vying for the Senate Majority Leader position, tried and failed to get the Senate to appoint conferees to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills. Senators and House members have been meeting informally on the issue, but a formal House-Senate conference has not been convened.

Republicans are trying to reach an agreement on the bill prior to Dole’s June 11 departure from the Senate. If the bill passes expeditiously, Dole would gain a political victory just as he is departing office. For the same reasons, Democrats are opposing movement on the bill.