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Speaker 1: Hey's Brian Thomas. Welcoming back to the fifty five Casey

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Speaker 1: Morning Show. And what a great idea he's got Senator

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Speaker 1: John Houston, who has introduced, Oh my god, I've been

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Speaker 1: dreaming about this my entire political life, a balanced budget amendment.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Senator Houston. It's great having you on.

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Speaker 1: I had a conversation the other day with think it

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Speaker 1: was vv Ramaswamy or I can't remember specifically who I know,

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Speaker 1: Donovan and Neil from Americans for Prosperity, And I said,

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Speaker 1: you know, Donovan, I my entire political life, which began

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Speaker 1: maybe when I was around a junior in high school

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Speaker 1: or something, I've been dreaming of a balanced budget amendment.

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Speaker 1: It sounds so common sense. We have to run our

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Speaker 1: households on a balanced budget, at least most of us

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Speaker 1: who were financially prudent. Anyway, How can you argue with this?

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Speaker 1: How could this possibly bear a political stripe? It sound finance?

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Speaker 1: Does this one have any hope? Because this kind of

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Speaker 1: thing's been tried over and over again, So.

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Speaker 2: I think so? Like I think so? Because so so

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Speaker 2: let me just set the stage here, right, because this

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Speaker 2: is this is my you know, I worked in state government.

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Speaker 2: In state government, we had to balance the budget. So

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Speaker 2: your mentality going into the budget process when you work

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Speaker 2: in state government is Okay, it's got to add up,

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Speaker 2: it's got to balance right like that. You just you

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Speaker 2: don't have the concept that that's not going to happen.

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Speaker 2: But at the federal level, because it doesn't have to happen,

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Speaker 2: no one even thinks about what the consequences are of

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Speaker 2: overspending because it's just what they do. And after spending

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Speaker 2: a little time here now, I realized that that it's

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Speaker 2: not going to get fixed until we force a solution.

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Speaker 2: And so the balanced budget amendment that I'm working on

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Speaker 2: proposed is not something where it says, hey, you passed

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Speaker 2: this and then the next year it's going to be

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Speaker 2: balanced and we're going to We're gonna have ten years

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Speaker 2: to get there, right. You got to get there over time,

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Speaker 2: because there's no way you can get the votes for

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Speaker 2: this if you don't phase it in. But I also

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Speaker 2: know this that I've talked to many people in my

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Speaker 2: life who have said I'm willing to do with I'm

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Speaker 2: willing to take less from the government, I'm willing to

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Speaker 2: give more to the government. But they don't trust the

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Speaker 2: fact that it will actually do anything, because we're not

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Speaker 2: forced to have a balanced budget. So if you want

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Speaker 2: to get people to make the sacrifices necessary, you have

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Speaker 2: to prove to them that you will do you will

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Speaker 2: act responsibly, and the only way you can prove it

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Speaker 2: is with a constitutional amendment.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's save me from myself, because you know all

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Speaker 1: the promises of fiscal responsibility. We've been hearing that for

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Speaker 1: years and on both sides of the Ledger, more so from

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Speaker 1: the Republican side, because it's been typically been part of

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Speaker 1: the Republican platform to engage in fiscal responsibility, and yet

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Speaker 1: we get stabbed in the back by the very Republicans

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Speaker 1: who articulate and argue about fiscal responsibility when they bring

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Speaker 1: back the projects to their state when they get an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to do so, which is not necessarily fiscally responsible.

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Speaker 2: It is exactly right, but nobody is forced to do it.

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Speaker 2: Like if you if you could eat as much as

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Speaker 2: you want, and you know, then you eat as much

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Speaker 2: as you want, if you would never act, if you

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Speaker 2: didn't have to exercise to be healthy. If you can

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Speaker 2: eat as much as you want, you do it. But

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Speaker 2: in government at the federal level, that there's no discipline,

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Speaker 2: there's no mechanism to force the discipline, and without it,

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Speaker 2: eventually the discipline will come when people will no longer

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Speaker 2: allow us to borrow money, or they'll jack up the

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Speaker 2: rates that you have to that you're going to have

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Speaker 2: to pay to borrow money, and that'll be a catastrophe.

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Speaker 2: Then that will be a crisis. Actually, the balanced budget

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Speaker 2: amendment I'm proposing is the easy way. The hard way

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Speaker 2: will come when we eventually can no longer borrow money,

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Speaker 2: and then it will be catastrophic. The change, the rate

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Speaker 2: of change will be catastrophic to people. They won't be

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Speaker 2: able to adjust it. What I'm proposing as a phase in.

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Speaker 1: Well, that phase in that glide path, as it's quite

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Speaker 1: often referred to, is not tearing the band aid off.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to experience the media pain. But you're

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Speaker 1: exactly right. Their failure to engage in fiscal responsibility is

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Speaker 1: bringing about that very crisis. We won't have creditors anymore.

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Speaker 1: The Fiat currency, it runs in jeopardy of becoming worthless

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Speaker 1: and valueless, like it has in so many other countries

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Speaker 1: that have run down this road and just run the

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Speaker 1: printing press thinking it's gonna work out and everybody's gonna

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Speaker 1: be fine. No, you need a wheelbarrow full of money

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Speaker 1: to buy a loaf of bread. How many times does

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Speaker 1: that happen? And yet it seems that everybody just ignores

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Speaker 1: that painful, obvious reality. I mean, we do not have

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Speaker 1: a lock on the default currency, with crypto out there

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Speaker 1: and other currencies maybe perhaps more financially managed better, maybe

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Speaker 1: backed by something by goal like gold or something. I

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Speaker 1: don't know, but we've just been blindly relying on that

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Speaker 1: this is going to go on into perpetuity when it

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Speaker 1: clearly cannot.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, as in preparation for this, I've

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Speaker 2: looked at how hard this will be to do. Do

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Speaker 2: you know that they're other than China? There's not another

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Speaker 2: So let me back up. We have over a trillion

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Speaker 2: dollars in interest payments a year in the United States

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Speaker 2: on our national debt thirty eight trillion. A trillion dollars

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Speaker 2: a year more than that go to interest in the

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Speaker 2: national debt. You know, there are only two countries in

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Speaker 2: the world who have a budget over trillion dollars, that's

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Speaker 2: the United States in China. But in context, the size

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Speaker 2: of the problem that we have. And you know, people

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Speaker 2: on the left have said, well, we just need to

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Speaker 2: tax the billionaires. Right. Do you know if you confiscated

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Speaker 2: all the money of every billionaire in America, you still

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Speaker 2: have a national debt that's over thirty trillion dollars and

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Speaker 2: then nobody to tax for your free grocery stores. I mean, seriously,

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Speaker 2: this is a problem that we have to treat with

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Speaker 2: the urgency it deserves.

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Speaker 1: Well, you get one bite at the apple with a

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Speaker 1: confiscatory there with a tax like that, because if you

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Speaker 1: acquire and take all of the billionaire's assets one year,

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Speaker 1: they're not going to be around next year to make

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Speaker 1: any more money.

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Speaker 2: But I'm just trying to use it as an it's

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Speaker 2: a well taken this is not going to You're not

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Speaker 2: going to get there just by taxing the rich. You

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Speaker 2: can't even come close to paying off the debt by

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Speaker 2: taxing them by confensating all their money. So it's it's

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Speaker 2: just it's just it's time we got to do this.

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Speaker 1: And as so many other Western nations are learning, you

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Speaker 1: go ahead and go down that path. The rich figure

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Speaker 1: out a way to leave the jurisdiction and take their

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Speaker 1: money and go elsewhere. Now, the one component of this,

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Speaker 1: it's balance the budget check, no problem, reasonable glide path

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Speaker 1: to reach the balance check. We've talked about that a

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Speaker 1: little bit concern I have, and I think you can

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Speaker 1: understand why I have. It is the accept in emergencies part.

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Speaker 1: And I can see, you know, our elected officials figuring

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Speaker 1: out ninety zillion ways why every year we find ourselves

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Speaker 1: in an emergency. What's the check on that political concern?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's it's a it's a two thirds majority, which means,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's a huge number to get to to break.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you would have to be a true emergence

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Speaker 2: to be able to get something like that done, meaning

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Speaker 2: like we were in a world war or something along

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Speaker 2: those lines. But you know, look, there has to be

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Speaker 2: some mechanism, sure, because I'm I'm trying to live in

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Speaker 2: the world of pragmatism, right of like what can I do?

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Speaker 2: How can I how can I be behind a balanced

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Speaker 2: budgetmendment that I have a chance of actually getting passed?

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Speaker 2: And so that's why the glide passed. That's why. That's

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Speaker 2: why because you know what someone will say, well, what

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Speaker 2: about what about if we go to war? What about

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Speaker 2: if there's a you know, a huge natural disaster, and

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Speaker 2: we need to have more money, you know, and we

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Speaker 2: have to borrow temporarily. Well, then that you have a

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Speaker 2: trigger mechanism to do that. But it's a two thirds majority.

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Speaker 2: It's a huge number to try to get to.

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Speaker 1: And of course, since we're talking about a constitutional amendment here,

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Speaker 1: which will give it the strength and the teeth that

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Speaker 1: would need absence some subsequent Supreme Court finding otherwise. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: let's assume it gets passed, you have to have it

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Speaker 1: ratified by the states. Is there enough will out there

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Speaker 1: among the states? Because when I view this whole concept,

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Speaker 1: you've dealt with the concerns about the band Aid, ripping

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Speaker 1: off of the glidepath and all that, it sounds logical,

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Speaker 1: it sounds reasonable, and I can't believe fiscal responsibility at

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Speaker 1: least taking only spending what you take in has a

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Speaker 1: political stripe. So what do you anticipate being the biggest

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Speaker 1: argument you're going to face in terms of selling this

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Speaker 1: to everyone? Are let me just say, what are the

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Speaker 1: Democrats going to say in opposition to this, assuming it

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Speaker 1: goes down the traditional political course.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, they'll have a lot of different things

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Speaker 2: that they'll say about it. But what I believe. Look,

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Speaker 2: I don't you made a really good point, like this

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Speaker 2: has been tried, it's not happened, But I do I

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Speaker 2: do believe that that now we're getting close. Like I

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Speaker 2: don't know when it's going to be, Brian, I don't

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Speaker 2: know if it's going to be in two years, five years,

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Speaker 2: ten years, But if we don't change our spending habits,

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Speaker 2: like there is a day not too and then not

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Speaker 2: too distant future where people won't loan us money anymore, right,

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Speaker 2: Like they won't buy our debt because they can't trust

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Speaker 2: that we'll actually be able to pay it off. So

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Speaker 2: I think that the convergence of those events, because nobody's

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Speaker 2: going to trust to the government to if you ask

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Speaker 2: them to make a sacrifice, and you don't have a

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Speaker 2: mechanism like a constitutional amendment forcing the discipline, I don't

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Speaker 2: think that you'll get people to make those sacrifices. So

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Speaker 2: I think that there's a chance that the States will

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Speaker 2: recognize this day of reckoning and the voters of this

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Speaker 2: country will vote to approve it. I just believe that

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Speaker 2: the convergence of events are going to allow for something

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Speaker 2: like that to happen in the next in the next

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Speaker 2: few years.

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Speaker 1: Well, when asked as an isolated question, do you believe

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Speaker 1: in the concept of a balanced budget amendment or mandating

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Speaker 1: office corresponsibility? I think most people agree percentage wise, sixty

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Speaker 1: seventy percent of American so it's a sellable point. It's

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Speaker 1: the responsible thing to do. I can only pray that

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Speaker 1: this goes forward. And I want to thank you on

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Speaker 1: behalf of the listeners and everybody else who is concerned

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Speaker 1: about what you're concerned about, for bringing forward the balance

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Speaker 1: budget and a MENMS. We'll talk about it again in

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Speaker 1: the future and I'll look forward to having you on

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Speaker 1: throughout the calendar. Your twenty twenty sixth Senator Houston, and

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Speaker 1: I also want to thank you for joining the show

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Speaker 1: today and I wish you and your entire family a very,

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Speaker 1: very merry Christmas and happy Holidays