Bill Description: HCR 25 serves as an application by the State of Idaho to call a “Convention for proposing Amendments” under Article V of the United States Constitution, strictly limited to proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the States for Ratification.
Rating: -1
Note: The Idaho Freedom Foundation has reviewed and rated five Constitutional Convention resolutions over the past two sessions dealing with the Constitutional Convention. HCR 25 is a duplicate of the balanced budget language of SCR 115 of 2024 which was also rated a -1.
Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?
The broader concerns about an Article V Convention are speculative and even if the outcome of the convention were the simple adoption of the balanced budget language, we would still have serious concerns with it.
There are several major problems with this proposed amendment. To start with, it does not define what a national emergency is for the exception for a balanced budget.
But more importantly, it assumes that the problem is one of balancing the federal budget without regard to distinguishing between the growth of spending and the growth of revenue.
The modern federal revenue peak was 20% of GDP in 2000 at the height of the “Dot Com,” boom. Yet according to data sourced from the Congressional Budget Office, revenues for the period 2026-2030 are projected to be 18% percent of GDP and outlays 23.6% which equates to more than $9.4 trillion of additional deficits. The current federal spending level is unprecedented in the nation’s history absent times of war or financial crisis. And this means that unless Congress cuts spending by at least $9.4 trillion over the next five years – for example, taxes will have to be increased beyond anything known in the history of the country.
In no single year in U.S. history has federal revenue exceeded 20.5% of GDP. 1944 was the peak year, during the height of World War II and top marginal income tax rates then were over 90%.
This proposal opens the door to a massive federal tax on sales and various forms of consumption, along the lines of the European system or an income tax increase.
Keep in mind that the legislature in 2026 will have to vote on whether to accept $295,405,200 from federal funds for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). This is incremental spending, meaning these dollars are increasing the already massive federal debt of over $38 trillion. We wonder how many legislators will vote for accepting the borrowed rural health funds and vote for a call for a balanced budget amendment.
There is also the very real risk that the hope of a future Article V Convention will continue to bleed time and resources away from more practical and immediate solutions to cut spending that states receive from the federal government. States have far more power than they exercise. None, however, have been willing to risk a loss or reduction of federal dollars in order to cast off the burden of federal intrusion.
(-1)
