Rep. King promises to push balanced-budget amendment next year

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Wednesday said he would resume his push for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in the 113th Congress.

King told KMEG in Sioux City, Iowa, on Wednesday that if President Obama has his way, the national debt will rise above $20 trillion, "probably $24 trillion in debt, and I don't think he intends to back off."

"The House's job is to slow it down, stop it if we can, make the case to the American people that we need to go back to the Constitution and fiscal responsibility," King said. "And I'm going to push this balanced-budget amendment and do my best to get this thing pushed through the House and the Senate."

Several Republicans and a few Democrats proposed balanced-budget amendments in the 112th Congress, including two proposals from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), both of which King supported.

One of Goodlatte's proposals, H.Res. 2, won a majority of support in the House in November 2011, but it failed to attract the two-thirds majority needed for passage of a constitutional amendment.

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