1.   Any balanced budget amendment has to have some exceptions and some implementation provisions.

2.   But Mr Hurd said that the amendment would have no effect and that the Government would ratify the treaty anyway.

3.   Armey said such an amendment will have trouble winning a two-thirds majority vote in the House.

4.   At the same time, Barton said the amendment has little support in the Republican-controlled Congress.

5.   At the very least, this suggests any credible amendment would have to be extremely complex.

6.   A balanced budget amendment could have huge side effects, notably higher unemployment, less unemployment insurance and deeper and more painful recessions.

7.   A balanced budget amendment has broad popularity, but like a lot of other poll bait, it sounds good only until you think about it.

8.   But it seems to me that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has limits, just as the First Amendment and all the other amendments have limits.

9.   But now the amendment has many takers.