Santorum: 'Abysmal' tax deal highlights need for balanced-budget amendment

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is pushing for a balanced-budget amendment as a solution to the issues facing the nation's economy. 

"Following last week's abysmal attempt to avert the fiscal cliff, it is critical that Congress make passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution their first priority before any additional fiscal reforms are considered. Congress and the President have proven they do not have the will or the ability to limit the size and scale of an overreaching bloated federal government," he said in an email sent out by his nonprofit, Patriot Voices.

The balanced-budget amendment is a proposal occasionally pushed by conservative Republicans as a way to reduce the national debt and improve the nation's economic health. It would require that any budget passed by Congress not spend more than the government brings in in revenue.

Santorum argues that a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, if passed when he was senator for Pennsylvania in 1995, would have "prevented the mess we find ourselves in today." 

Spending should be capped at 18 percent of gross domestic product, he wrote in the email. 

Santorum called for a balanced-budget amendment shortly after a deal was reached to avoid the impending tax increases and budget cuts known as the "fiscal cliff." But the amendment, though backed by a number of conservative Republicans, is unlikely to make any headway in Congress.

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