Civil Rights Coalition Opposes Balanced Budget Amendment

The Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights is again opposing efforts in Congress to pass a
balanced budget amendment (BBA) to the Constitution.

In a letter sent to House members today, Wade Henderson,
president & CEO of The Leadership Conference, and Nancy Zirkin, executive
vice president of The Leadership Conference, write that a BBA “would be disastrous
for the economy as a whole and for the communities we represent.”

Henderson and Zirkin warn that the BBA would:

require extreme spending cuts precisely when the
economy is at its weakest. … As a result, the BBA would tip a
struggling economy into a recession and would keep it there for a protracted
period of time. Its requirement also would virtually guarantee that in the
event of any shortfall, the budget would be balanced on the backs of people who
can afford it the least.

The letter also refers to a recent study by Macroeconomic Advisers estimating that if a BBA was currently in effect for the 2012 budget, unemployment would double to 18 percent,
putting another 15 million Americans out of work.

Urging House members to vote against H.J.
Res 2 or any other proposed BBA, Zirkin and Henderson end the letter by reminding them that:

In
short, a balanced budget amendment is a recipe for making recessions more
frequent, longer, and deeper, while requiring severe cuts that would harshly
affect seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, homeland security
activities, public safety, environmental protection, education and medical
research.

The full
letter is below and available
as a PDF download.