1- What type of bill are you making, and why?
We created a budget bill that will enact a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) policy where spending increases in one area must be offset by decreases in another area so that a budget deficit is never incurred in a given year. Also, we have provisions addressing redistributing funding after defense spending drops off which it is predicted to do soon and others dealing with social security and medicare spending. The overall goal is to add surplus funds each year to a 'rainy day' fund which can be used to decrease the national debt and fund unexpected expenses.
2- What is the main problem that you are addressing? What is the goal of the bill (as far ass addressing this problem)?
The main problem is the huge national debt that needs to be decreased, which the bill addresses. In addition, the bill addresses the need of seniors to have a secure retirement which is sustainable.
3- What was you thought process/ justification for your bill?
This bill is justified because spending needs to be closely monitored which this bill calls for and the national debt will simply grow to an even more astronomical amount if left unchecked.
4- How do you propose to enforce your bill? What steps will you take in changing from present conditions?
This bill will be enforced within each committee. The committees are responsible for ensuring that their existing policies follow PAYGO and will be checked by the budget committee to ensure compliance. Any new policy not following PAYGO may pass in Congress but will be essentially useless since none of the provisions will take place until the policy does follow PAYGO. The main change is that there will be harsher punishment for not following PAYGO which will hold Congressman more accountable for the national budget.
5- What issues did you face within your committee as far as debate between parties and members, and how was this compromised?
There were some issues of disagreement and unless a compromise could be reached, those issues were left out altogether to retain hope of the bill passing in Congress as a whole. One major issue was whether or not to cap military spending during peacetime to a certain percentage of the GDP and if so, what percentage. After discussion and a vote in the committee, this issue was left out of the final bill.
6- How did your bill begin? What were your initial ideas, and how did you mold these into a workable bill?
The budget bill began almost twice as long as the final product and included many ideas to balance the budget, decrease the national debt, secure social security and medicare, deal with spending during war and peacetime, and redistributing spending once defense spending decreases. Many ideas were cut from the final bill because we felt that the issue they addressed was out of the budget committee's jurisdiction. Other ideas were left out because of the lack of agreement within the committee on the idea or because the idea was believed too controversial and risked causing the bill to fail in Congress.
7- If it comes down to it on the floor, how do you plan on compromising or modifying your bill?
This wasn't an issue that we discussed in committee. This does not mean that this issue will not come up, but we believe that we have eliminated ideas that are too controversial to pass and have put forth ideas that have bipartisan support for the most part.
--Kirstyn Smith, Political Analyst,The Bellringer
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