A week after the House Judiciary Committee met to consider a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, Republican House leadership has decided to drop work on the legislation. This decision was made after the September 22 committee drafting session, during which Democrats offered numerous amendments to attach to the legislation. When it came time to vote the committee did not have quorum, and nothing was accomplished.

House members in support of the Balanced Budget Amendment seem to have gotten the message that besides the fact that the amendment is widely unpopular, there are also more pressing issues for them to be debating at this time.

The amendment - which proposes a constitutionally mandated requirement to balance the budget every year - would have terrible economic consequences, which many committee members have recognized. It was even unpopular among some committee Republicans. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is quoted in a Washington Post story as saying, "We can limit deficits on our own.... We in Congress ought to be embarrassed by what has happened. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves."

For now we can breathe a sigh of relief that House members have dropped work on this economically harmful amendment. To find out more about the amendment, and why it's adoption would be costly to the U.S. economy, click here to read a Clinton-era Treasury Department memo by Brad DeLong.