The country will suffer mightily if the federal government continues to be unable (or is it unwilling?) to operate with even a modicum of fiscal sanity. But a balanced budget amendment is not the way to go because fiscal sanity is not the same as a balanced budget. Dave Nicklaus has an interesting take on the analogy of the family budget.
Personally, I don't believe the doomsday scenario depicted by Nicklaus because it seems based on an immediate implementation of such a budget rather than it being phased in. But I think he's right that "(a) vote against this amendment is not a vote for profligacy, it's a vote for common sense." I certainly agree that Congress and the President need to be reigned in, but this is too blunt and ham-fisted.
