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Washington • Utah's members of Congress want any deal to increase the nation's debt limit to include a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, and Utahns are the lead sponsors on bills in the House and Senate that would do just that.
But President Barack Obama and most Democrats have simply dismissed the idea as a sideshow in the larger budget debate.
"I think it's important for everybody to understand that all of us believe that we need to get to a point where eventually we can balance the budget," Obama said in a news conference Friday. "We don't need a constitutional amendment to do that; what we need to do is to do our jobs."
His comments came on the same day House leaders rallied behind a bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that would require major budget cuts and cap future spending and includes a balanced budget amendment. The House is expected to vote on the plan sometime next week.
Chaffetz defended the need for a balanced budget amendment Friday, saying: "Congress and the president have proven they have no ability to restrain spending."
The so-called "cut cap balance" bill is also sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in the Senate and has become a rallying cry for the Republican Party, which has asked Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to push the plan during his party's weekly address this weekend.
"There is only one plan to get our spending and debt under control — and it's cut, cap, balance," Hatch said. "This is what the people in my state of Utah are rightly demanding, and I will work to make it a reality."
Their plan is likely to pass in the GOP-dominated House, but it won't be so easy in the Senate, which is led by Democrats.
Obama singled out this GOP plan, which would clamp down on spending over time, saying it would result in unnecessarily painful budget cuts.
"I mean, it would require cutting Social Security or Medicare substantially," Obama said.
The president favors a plan to cut spending paired with targeted tax increases to slowly bring down the nation's $14 trillion debt. The GOP has so far flatly rejected any tax increases.
Utah's other two House members, Republican Rob Bishop and Democrat Jim Matheson, also support a balanced budget amendment and would like it to be included in a debt-limit deal. But unlike Hatch, Lee or Chaffetz, those two have not said they would be unwilling to vote for a package that does not include such an amendment.