RUBIN WARNS AGAINST BUDGET AMENDMENT.Byline: David E. Sanger David E. Sanger — born on July 5, 1960 in White Plains, New York — is White House correspondent for The New York Times. A 1982 graduate of Harvard College, Sanger has been writing for The New York Times The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Opening a campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment that would require balancing the federal budget, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) is an American banker who served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton Administrations during a time of peak performance for the U.S. economy. said Thursday that he planned to warn Congress today that it was on the brink of making ``a terrible mistake'' that would pose ``unacceptable economic risks to the nation.'' In an interview in his office, Rubin acknowledged that sentiment in favor of the amendment, which was defeated by only one vote in the Senate last year, appeared to be building on Capitol Hill. ``This will be an uphill battle Uphill Battle was an metalcore band with elements of grindcore and noisecore. The group was based out of Santa Barbara, California, USA. History Uphill Battle got some recognition releasing their self-titled record on Relapse Records. ,'' said Rubin, who has been the administration's most outspoken opponent of a constitutional limit. But he insisted that ``those who count the votes say the outcome is still uncertain, and it is monumentally important that the balanced budget amendment Balanced Budget Amendment is any one of various proposed amendments to the United States Constitution which would require a balance in the projected revenues and expenditures of the United States government. not be put in place.'' In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee The U.S. Senate established the Committee on the Judiciary on December 10, 1816, as one of the original 11 standing committees. It is also one of the most powerful committees in Congress; among its wide range of jurisdictions is investigation of federal judicial nominees and oversight of today, Rubin said that he would affirm the administration's commitment to balance the budget by 2002 - but that he would also warn of ``the many, many risks'' of enshrining such a balance in the Constitution. A constitutional amendment requires passage by two-thirds of both houses, and then by three-quarters of the state legislatures A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: But there is still debate among Republican proponents of the amendment over which chamber should take up the issue first. Those proponents also hope to use the prospect of a vote as leverage in their negotiations with the White House over the next budget. President Clinton has no formal role in the approval or rejection of constitutional amendments, though Rubin said Thursday that his testimony would be ``the first public discussion of the very powerful reasons the balanced budget amendment would be a terrible mistake and something we should not do.'' The first public discussion in recent months actually came from Clinton, who gave a winding talk in mid-November in which he seemed at times to acknowledge that passage of the amendment would be hard to stop. Though Clinton expressed some misgivings then, he did not muster any strong language, leading Rubin to correct his boss gently the next day. In his testimony today, Rubin said he would stress that if the amendment was in force, an economic downturn could quickly ``turn into a recession, and a recession into something worse.'' ``The problem is that if the nation does in fact get into a recession,'' he said, ``we now have automatic stabilizers Automatic Stabilizer An economic policy or program that increases or decreases automatically to offset the current economic trend without government assistance. Notes: An example of such a policy would be unemployment insurance. that go into effect that can increase demand in the government sector to offset declines in the private sector. What the balanced budget amendment would require is that during a recession we would have to raise taxes or cut spending to put ourselves back in balance. And that could exacerbate the recession.'' |
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