Now Let’s Get Serious on the Budget

The House of Representatives scored a knockout in holding back the necessary nine votes to pass a dreaded constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget. The Senate appears to have abandoned its effort for such an amendment, too.

That’s the good news. But President Bush is not happy with the defeat. This is to be expected, though the House voted correctly and in good conscience. The decision came after weeks of uncertainty about whether Congress would pursue the ill-conceived amendment as a political cop-out in an election year. So much ado was a distraction from the immediate problem: the staggering $4.1-trillion national debt.

Now Washington must find the political will to come up with a deficit-reducing budget. Bush and Congress already have the power to do that even without an amendment. The pressure is on Democratic leaders to draft a solution.

House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-Wash.), who led a last-minute charge against the amendment, and Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) have asked House Budget Committee Chairman Leon Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) to come up with proposals within a few weeks to tackle the explosive growth in mandatory spending programs.

The House wisely decided not to use the Constitution to put a straitjacket on government. A balanced-budget amendment could have put fiscal decisions in the hands of the courts and meant huge spending cuts and tax increases. Now, some right moves on the budget, please.