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Politics & Government

Rep. Harris: Balanced Budget Amendment is 'Cure'

The freshman congressman discusses why he believes Democrats are to blame for the debt crisis impasse.

Rep. of Maryland's 1st Congressional District said a balanced budget amendment is the “cure” for the nation’s debt crisis dilemma.

In an interview with Patch, the freshman congressman said President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are putting their 2012 election interests ahead of the nation’s financial well-being.

“We [Republicans] were the only thing standing between what the president wanted and a downgrade,” Harris said Wednesday. “We have to stand our ground and say, ‘no.' We have to prove to the world that we are, once and for all, going to deal with our spending disorder. Washington has a spending disorder.”

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Harris said maintaining the U.S. Department of the Treasury's triple-A bond rating should be the No. 1 priority for any deal.

“I grew up believing and knowing the treasury was the most secure investment anyone could ever make in the entire world. And because of [Obama’s] spending and his refusal to consider cuts in spending and caps on future spending and a balanced budget amendment, he now is threatening the triple-A bond rating,” Harris said. “I’m not going to vote for a plan unless it clearly can maintain that triple-A bond rating.”

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The said the only way to guarantee that would be to pass a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Once the balanced budget amendment kicks in, it solves the problem forever of having to deal with federal deficits and having to come back and raise the debt ceiling,” Harris said. “If we fall from that triple-A to double-A, then the domino effect is that state’s bonds will be looked at for downgrades as well.”

Part II of the interview will be posted Friday.

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