The U.S. just hit $39 trillion in debt. Here’s the constitutional fix that Congress won’t touch
On March 18, the U.S. House voted 211–207 to advance a Balanced Budget Amendment — far short of the two-thirds majority required to pass it. The same day, total federal debt surged past $39 trillion, or 125% of GDP. That’s up from $5.7 trillion, or 55% of GDP in 2000. On March 19, the Trump administration confirmed plans to seek up to $200 billion in supplemental funding for its war against Iran.
In the face of such numbers, the U.S. House of Representatives failed on March 18 to pass a proposed Balanced Budget Amendment, and the Trump Administration announced its plans to seek major supplemental funding for as much as $200 billion to support its war efforts against Iran.
America has been adding to its record debt at record rates, and Congress has become addicted. Absent a change in course, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that Uncle Sam’s debt will soar to 175% of GDP in 30 years. And those projections were made before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began.
If that’s not bad enough, the federal debt is just the tip of Uncle Sam’s financial iceberg. Total liabilities and unfunded social insurance promises exceed $125 trillion. That is a stunning 3.2 times higher than the current federal debt. Despite the federal government’s fiscal time bomb, the U.S. Congress and the President remain with their heads in the sand.
The Swiss model Washington rejected
The U.S. House’s failed Balanced Budget Amendment proposal (H. J. Res. 139) was based on a modified version of the Swiss Debt Brake, a constitutional amendment that was passed in a Swiss national referendum with overwhelming support in 2001.
The Balanced Budget Amendment proposal would limit federal spending to an average of federal receipts over a three-year period, adjusted for population increases and inflation. Its primary object is to achieve a primary budget balance––a balance of receipts and expenditures, excluding interest payments. The legislation includes a release valve that would be triggered by a supermajority vote in Congress for declarations of war and other selected events. Since Switzerland adopted its Debt Brake, the country’s federal debt has remained below 30% of GDP — a stark contrast to America’s trajectory.
While the balanced budget amendment proposal failed, it did properly recognize, in our view, that only a constitutional amendment can force current and future Congresses to restore and sustain fiscal sanity. The problem is that, given the current political environment, there is virtually no chance that Congress will revisit the Balanced Budget Amendment. Therefore, it is time to let the states initiate a change to the U.S. Constitution via the utilization of Article V of the Constitution. Such a fiscal amendment to the U.S. Constitution would ensure fiscal sanity.
The constitutional backdoor that’s been waiting since 1979
Our nation’s founders recognized that Congress might be unwilling or unable to propose a path forward for needed constitutional amendments. Therefore, the founders provided a second way to propose constitutional amendments. Specifically, if two-thirds of the states file an application for a convention to propose one or more amendments to the Constitution, Congress is mandated to call the convention. Importantly, unlike the Convention in 1787, this would be an amendments convention, not a convention to rewrite the Constitution.
Shockingly, about three years ago, we at the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation (www.FFSF.US) discovered that there were enough active state applications for a single-issue convention to propose a fiscal responsibility amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, the required number of applications has existed since 1979 and remained in limbo because the U.S. Congress has failed to act. In September 2025, our findings were confirmed by none other than the National Federalism Commission, an official interstate governmental body.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R–TX) has sponsored H.C.R. 15 to right this congressional wrong. However, it looks like Congress plans to stiff the states and fail to discharge its express and mandated constitutional duty.
The time has come for one or more state attorneys general to sue Congress for failing to act. If the states fail to do so, they will effectively be mooting the states’ rights to propose amendments under Article V. The time for the states to assert their constitutional rights is now! The future of America’s fiscal health is at stake.
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