Cut, Cap and Balance Act

The proposed Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011 (or HR 2560) was a bill put forward in the 112th United States Congress by Republicans during the 2011 U.S. debt ceiling crisis. The provisions of the bill included a cut in the total amount of federal government spending, a cap on the level of future spending as a percentage of GDP, and, on the condition that Congress pass certain changes to the U.S. Constitution, an increase in the national debt ceiling to allow the federal government to continue to service its debts.

The bill had the support of Republicans and much of the Tea Party movement. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives on July 19, 2011, but was rejected by the President and the Senate. The Senate voted to table the bill on July 22. President Obama had promised to veto the bill had it proceeded further.

The House passed the bill on July 19, 2011 by a vote of 234-190 and the bill was sent to the Senate for consideration. The vote split mostly on political party lines with 229 Republicans and 5 Democrats voting for the bill, and 181 Democrats and 9 Republicans voting against. Two Republican 2012 presidential candidates voted against the bill: Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann. Paul did not support raising the debt ceiling as a matter of principle and Bachmann believed that "the motion does not go far enough in fundamentally restructuring the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars ...we must also repeal and defund ObamaCare [the Affordable Care Act].".

The bill had little chance of becoming law. It was adopted by a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, but both the presidency and the Senate were controlled by Democrats, who strongly opposed the bill. Furthermore, because the bill made an increase in the debt ceiling contingent on the passage of a constitutional amendment, the bill would, in practice, have needed the support of a supermajority of two-thirds in each house of Congress in order to be effective.

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