If your offensive line won’t block, there’s not much point to changing your offense. It’s still going to suck.

Got this over at Think Progress, which hasn’t made a lot of progress in that regard so far. Still, they and I are in agreement disagreeing with this, but for different reasons. Sen. Mitch McConnell, talking about a balanced budget amendment and why we need it:

The time has come for a balanced budget amendment that forces Washington to balance its books. If these debt negotiations have convinced us of anything, it’s that we can’t leave it to politicians in Washington to make the difficult decisions that they need to get our fiscal house in order. The balanced budget amendment will do that for them. Now is the moment. No more games. No more gimmicks. The Constitution must be amended to keep the government in check. We’ve tried persuasion. We’ve tried negotiations. We’re tried elections. Nothing has worked.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nPCYT8A96g&w=480&h=390]

But here’s the thing: the Constitution already keeps the federal government in check. The problem isn’t the Constitution. The problem is: we’ve ignored the Constitution.

Amending the Constitution won’t mean a damn thing if we’re just going to keep ignoring it. Oh, fine, maybe something to make the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause a little more obvious in their intent. See, that’s the problem. The Founders assumed we’d be smart and honest enough to understand those clauses and their real meanings and to deny ourselves when the things we want clash with those meanings. Obviously, that hasn't been the case.

So if we’re going to amend the Constitution, maybe we should be adding a “No Idiots Clause” in there someplace.

But no matter what we do, amending the Constitution still won’t mean a damn thing if we can just ignore it or spin it whenever and in whichever direction we want.

Take it, Smitty.

Via Memeorandum.