Sen. Barrasso Wants a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution

(CNS News) — When asked whether there should be a limit on how old a president can be, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said he had not heard of such amendment being proposed, and added that he would like to see a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution “where we have to live within our means” and “can’t spend money we don’t have.”  

At the U.S. Capitol on June 22, CNS News asked Sen. Barrasso, “The Constitution requires the president to be at least 35 years old. Should there be a limit to how old the president can be?”

He replied, “You know, the Constitution was written in a way that makes it very hard to amend, although it is amendable. And pieces – you know – it has to go through a number of steps to amend it. I have not seen [a presidential age limit] yet on the list of potential amendments.”

“I mean we’ve heard about flag-burning amendments, we hear about amendments that have to deal with [a] balanced budget amendment to the Constitution,” said Barrasso. “People want to change different components of [the Constitution]. That’s not one that I heard of.”

When pressed on if he would be in favor of having a maximum age limit for the president, Barrasso, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to see a Balanced Budget Amendment.  

“When people say to me, you know, ‘Should we do this to amend the Constitution, or this, or this, or this?’ And I say if we do amend the Constitution, the one I would like to see is a balanced budget amendment … where we have to live within our means, can’t spend money we don’t have. But there’s been a list of proposed amendments. And they debate them all,” said the Wyoming senator.

The BBA proposal bans Congress from spending more than its income each fiscal year.

Debates on whether or not there should be a constitutional limit on federal spending are “nearly as old as the nation itself,” reported the Congressional Research Service.

Currently, the U.S. has a debt of $30.5 trillion, which equals over $242 thousand of debt per taxpayer, according to the U.S. Treasury.

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