US Deficit as a Percent of GDP, 1900-2010

In order to work as beneficially as we are envisioning it might, this amendment would also require the coexistence of congressional term limits, that great impending reform (see TermLimits.org) that has made halting progress in some state legislatures, but remains blocked in our federal bodies for now. When we limit a congressperson’s term to twelve years, as in the most popular proposals, that aligns them less with special interests, their parties, and extending their own political careers, and more with their own best judgments. Along with campaign finance reform, and an accompanying set of limits on the amount of time one can spend as a lobbyist before or after a political career (8 years seems reasonable there, for a total of 20 years in politics at any level, which really should be enough for any aspiring do gooder or autocrat) more politicians can more easily choose to live the Founder’s ideal of the citizen politician. Twenty years of political service, preceded by academic training or work experience would allow a level of professionalism, but not so much that corruption and cronyism become dominant. Add in a big increase in the representativeness of our democracy in the legislature, via the addition of hundreds more short-term politicians in the House, a reform that Congress can do without any constitutional amendment, and we could even do something about our toxic lobbyist to politician ratio, which is greater than 700 to 1 now (see No Place for Amateurs, Dennis Johnson, 2001) at the Federal level.

If we had the Buffett Deficit Amendment without these accompanying reforms, politicians might never be willing to run deficits, as they would have too much to lose by doing so. That might result in a government too fiscally hamstrung for its own good, as there are times when all of us need income beyond that which we can get via voluntary debt and credit (loans, bonds, etc.). But there also needs to be a cost to coercive borrowing of the state from the public and from the future, and a more rapid renewal of our political base seems to me a particularly simple and natural consequence. In particular, given the increasing frequency of deficits in recent years, and the increasing unaccountability of government, such an amendment seems to me like common sense.

Why do we need to have such a severe consequence? Isn’t deficit spending sometimes good, as it can lead to surpluses later? Yes it is, but as Keynes argued, countercyclical spending is best done from money that has been previously saved for a rainy day. Deficit spending is spending of last resort, spending money that doesn’t exist. And without some break on it, irresponsible voters in once-wealthy nations may increasingly push their politicians into it, until the national debt cripples their future and their standing in the world. We’ve seen this recently in Greece, Spain, Italy, and we are now seeing it in the US.

Let’s conclude with the following anonymous internet saying, commonly misattributed to the 19th century Scottish politician, historian, and democracy critic Alexander Tytler. Ask yourself what else other than bankruptcy and financial disaster (which may well happen to us, if saner heads don’t prevail) would form a systemic check and balance against our runaway debt, if we don’t eventually develop some kind of Deficit Amendment:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, [which is] always followed by a dictatorship [of sorts].”

Amen, Mr. Anonymous. If you like this idea, please consider taking five minutes to create an account and vote for the Buffett Deficit Amendment at aGreater.US. This site is a promising early effort at using an online process to uncover and rank bipartisan bills, particularly those with a fiscally conservative, socially liberal focus. The site lists several other potential bipartisan bills, and unfortunately most of them aren’t yet well written or referenced, but they are doing their little part to help the 99% to bring an actionable bipartisan agenda to the 2012 election. I recommend reading the following bills and if you like them, giving them your vote as well. If you find any others there you like, let us know.