The constitution is not a sledgehammer. it embod-ies broad principles of government and enduring national values. As such, it commands deep public respect and even reverence. There's a temptation to think that its power and mystique can bludgeon public opinion into convenient consensus on hard issues. It can't, and the exercise shouldn't be tried. The balanced-budget amendment—to be debated by Congress this week—promises just such a popular conversion. The proposal is a very bad idea. You should not confuse balancing the budget, which in general is desirable, with the undesirability of using the Constitution to do it. Just because the Constitution requires a balanced budget does not mean that the budget will be balanced. If an amendment were regularly flouted, then the budgetary impasse would become a constitutional crisis. "The first principle of a conservative should be: don't muck with the Constitution," says constitutional scholar Robert Goldwin of the American Enterprise Institute.
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