According to the US national debt clock website, the United States’ national debt is more than $18 trillion and rising. The federal budget has not produced a surplus since 2001, and since 1970, there have only been four federal budget surpluses.

Today, Ohio Governor John Kasich is traveling to multiple states to advocate for a federal balanced budget amendment. 

Budgets are nothing new to Governor Kasich; in 1997, he chaired the U.S. House Budget Committee that played a key role in producing a budget that created a surplus. In addition, Kasich took a large budget shortfall in Ohio in when he was elected and has turned it into a budget surplus.

Governor Kasich is now campaigning to make balancing the federal budget a task required by the U.S. constitution.  

According to the Columbus Dispatch, in order to move forward in the process of amending the constitution, 34 states must pass resolutions in support of the amendment and then a convention will be held to amend the Constitution. 38 states are then needed to approve the amendment.

Currently, 24 states have passed resolutions, and Governor Kasich’s travel agenda includes stops in North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.

Requiring the federal government to balance the budget seems like common sense. Businesses and families must balance their budgets, or they will face negative consequences if their debt spirals out of control. In addition, many states also are required to balance their budgets according to state laws. Why should the federal government play on a different field? 

The current debt in the United States has surpassed the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Most agree that an out of control debt (not all debt) hampers economic growth. The U.S. debt is out of control, and continuously running large deficits every year will not fix the problem.

We need to look no further than Ohio to see that when the budget is balanced, a state becomes more attractive to businesses, and the economy benefits. It is time to take a balanced federal budget seriously.

In times of recession, the government tends to increase spending in attempts to stimulate the economy and that may lead to a deficit, but during the good times, the federal government should balance their budgets to offset the loss of money during the hard times. 

A federal balanced budget is something that, according to Governor Kasich, Republicans, Democrats and Martians should support. It is time for the Federal government to put an end to reckless, out of control spending, and who better to lead the fight than Ohio’s own John Kasich.