The proposed Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011 () was a bill put forward in the
112th United States Congress by Republicans during the
2011 U.S. debt ceiling crisis. The provisions of the bill included a cut in the total amount of federal government spending, a cap on the level of future spending as a percentage of
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
, and, on the condition that Congress pass certain changes to the U.S. Constitution, an increase in the
national debt ceiling to allow the federal government to continue to service its debts.
The bill had the support of Republicans and much of the
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...
. It passed the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
on July 19, 2011, but was rejected by the President and the Senate. The Senate voted to table the bill on July 22.
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
had promised to veto the bill had it proceeded further.
History
The House passed the bill on July 19, 2011 by a vote of 234-190 and the bill was sent to the Senate for consideration. The vote split mostly on political party lines with 229 Republicans and 5 Democrats voting for the bill, and 181 Democrats and 9 Republicans voting against. Two Republican 2012 presidential candidates voted against the bill:
Ron Paul and
Michele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
. Paul did not support raising the debt ceiling as a matter of principle and Bachmann believed that "the motion does not go far enough in fundamentally restructuring the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars ...we must also repeal and defund ObamaCare
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
].".
The bill had little chance of becoming law. It was adopted by a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, but both the presidency and the Senate were controlled by Democrats, who strongly opposed the bill. Furthermore, because the bill made an increase in the debt ceiling contingent on the passage of a constitutional amendment, the bill would, in practice, have needed the support of two-thirds of each house of Congress in order to be effective.
When the bill arrived on the floor of the Senate, Democrat and Majority Leader
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
called the proposal "one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever be placed on the floor of the United States Senate." On July 22, 2011, the Senate voted to table the bill (postpone consideration of the bill indefinitely). Voting precisely followed party lines, with 51 Democrats voting to table the bill and 46 Republicans voting to bring it up for debate. One media commentator stated that: "The vote handed conservatives a chance to showcase their strategy for restricting future spending in Washington, but it faced a veto from President Barack Obama, making it more of a symbolic vote for Republicans to put their mark on deficit reduction".
Provisions
The bill provided for an increase in the debt ceiling of $2.4 trillion, the figure requested by
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
. However it tied this increase to a number of other proposals, including cuts in spending, a cap on future spending, and an amendment of the federal constitution.
Cuts in spending
The bill proposed to reduce total spending by $111 billion in FY 2012. The savings were divided as follows:
* Reduce non-security discretionary spending below 2008 levels, which saves $76 billion.
* $35 billion cut to non-veterans, non-Medicare, non-Social Security mandatory spending.
* Defense budget at President's level.
Cap on future spending
The bill proposed that federal spending would be scaled back based on the glide path for the fiscal years below as a percentage of the
Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...
(GDP):
* 2012, 22.5% of GDP.
* 2013, 21.7% of GDP.
* 2014, 20.8% of GDP.
* 2015, 20.2% of GDP.
* 2016, 20.2% of GDP.
* 2017, 20.0% of GDP.
* 2018, 19.7% of GDP.
* 2019, 19.9% of GDP.
* 2020, 19.9% of GDP.
* 2021, 19.9% of GDP.
Constitutional amendment
Supporters of the bill advocated an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a
balanced budget
A balanced budget (particularly that of a government) is a budget in which revenues are equal to expenditures. Thus, neither a budget deficit nor a budget surplus exists (the accounts "balance"). More generally, it is a budget that has no budge ...
and permanently restricting the authority of Congress to spend and raise taxes. An ordinary act of Congress cannot alter the constitution or obligate Congress to do so. However the bill was intended to encourage a constitutional amendment by requiring that the debt ceiling could not be raised unless Congress passed an amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification. The constitutional amendment foreseen by the bill was one that would:
*Require a balanced budget,
*Impose a constitutional cap on federal spending as a percentage of GDP, and,
*Require that any future tax increases be supported by a supermajority of two-thirds in each house of Congress.
References
{{reflist
External links
Cut Cap and Balance Act official homepage
Proposed legislation of the 112th United States Congress
United States federal appropriations legislation