My family paid $7K for my uncle’s funeral. My cousins were poor, but then renovated their kitchen. Should I ask for it back?

‘We bet on the wrong horse’: I co-signed my nephew’s $55K student loan: He has no degree and no job. What should we do?

Some wealthy Americans are already prepping their finances for a Joe Biden presidency — here’s how

Capitol Report

And now for something different: Democrats call for balanced-budget amendment

‘Blue dogs’ say both parties need to talk, but there’s no stomach for it

A bevy of lawmakers in Congress alarmed by soaring deficits are calling yet again for a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget — but this time it’s Democrats.

The so-called Blue Dog Coalition of moderate Democrats on Tuesday endorsed an amendment that would require Washington to balance the budget except in case of war or recession.

“At a time when we face $1 trillion annual deficits, and both parties punt on even trying to pass a budget blueprint, we need to consider a new structure to force fiscal discipline,” said Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah. “With this bill, I’m saying let’s stop ignoring the issue and start talking about how to address it.”

Fine sentiment, of course, especially with the U.S. national debt at a record $22 trillion and rising. Yet the proposal is sure to suffer the same fate as every other balanced-budget bill in the past decade proposed by conservatives. It won’t go anywhere.

Read: Goldilocks economy? No. But steady job gains, low inflation to keep recession at bay

For one thing, the White House and the Republican-led Senate have shown little real interest in trying to balance the budget, especially after President Trump in 2017 signed the biggest tax cuts in 31 years. Most conservatives would balk at the deep spending cuts that a balanced budget would entail.

Read: Is the tax code fair? Trump tax cuts trigger biggest partisan rift in 20 years

Party leaders in the Democratic-run House, for their part, have no interest in a constitutional amendment that they view as a conservative attempt to tie the hands of future congresses and limit how much they can spend.

Many young, left-leaning Democrats even contend that budgets don’t matter — a controversial idea known as modern monetary theory. They want to boost spending to address what they see as a host of societal ills.

The Blue Dogs occupy a small niche between the two parties and they’re just a rump of the Democratic party. The group only has 27 members now — seven of whom won Republican districts in 2018. That’s down from a high-water mark of 54 right before Democrats got smashed at the polls in 2010.

Read: Ex-Fed insider accuses Trump of trying to pack central bank with political allies

By contrast, the Progressional Congressional Caucus has almost 100 members and the rest of party skews quite liberal, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Blue Dog members themselves aren’t always united, either. A handful voted for a similar balanced-budget amendment in 2018 sponsored by the then-ruling Republicans, but almost a dozen voted nay.

The U.S. is on track to record a roughly $897 billion deficit in the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 31, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit totaled $779 billion in 2018 and $665 billion in 2017.

The last time the government ran a surplus was in 2001.

See original version of this story