Balanced Budget Amendment Goes Down

Despite the support of 25 moderate Democrats, an effort to add a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed in the House on Friday.

The 261-165 tally meant that the bill fell 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

(Click here for a full breakdown of the vote)

The failure is a blow to conservative House Republicans, who secured a guaranteed vote on the BBA back in August during the debt limit negotiations. Though faced with a White House veto threat and slim odds that the measure would clear the Senate, Republicans were encouraged by some polls showing favorable public support for it.

Following today’s vote, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) said lawmakers missed a “critical opportunity to right our wayward fiscal ship.”

With the nation running a projected deficit of $1.4 trillion this year, Republicans argued that a BBA was necessary to prevent a full-blown debt crisis from occuring.

The Amendment would have required a three-fifths majority in Congress to approve future deficit spending except during times of war. 60 percent of lawmakers would have also been needed to raise the nation’s statutory debt limit.

Four Republicans voted against the measure —  Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), David Dreier (Calif.), Louie Gohmert (Texas) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.). Drier said Thursday that although he supported the BBA passed by the House in 1995, he had since changed his mind. “I was wrong,” he said yesterday on the House floor.

Meanwhile, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), described the bill as “dangerous.”

“The U.S. Congress cannot balance the budget by enshrining in the Constitution economic uncertainty and brinksmanship,” he said.

Though a number of Democrats bucked Hoyer in supporting the measure, enough voted against it to ensure its defeat, prompting House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to react.

“It’s unfortunate that Democrats still don’t recognize the urgency of stopping Washington’s job-crushing spending binge,” he said.

“The House had an opportunity to put an end to Washington’s out-of-control spending, and it is unfortunate that Democrats who supported this measure in the past chose not to today,” added House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)