Idaho's Little, Florida's DeSantis push for constitutional amendment while supporting DOGE

Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman on Mar 24, 2025

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The U.S. national debt has ballooned to over $36 trillion, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Idaho Gov. Brad Little say they’ve had enough.

At a joint news conference Monday, they said they knew how to solve the problem: They advocated for amending the U.S. Constitution to require balanced federal budgets. Many states, including Florida and Idaho, have this requirement in their own constitutions.

The governors’ proposal involves a process — which has never been used before — in which at least 34 states could demand that Congress hold a convention to make amendments.

“It’s not something that I would do lightly, asking for an amendment to the Constitution,” DeSantis said Monday. “But we can’t keep doing the same things up there and all of a sudden just hoping that we’re going to get different results. I think we know that this is hard-wired to go in a certain direction, and at some point we, the people, have it within our power to choose a different course.”

This legislative session, Idaho lawmakers rejected a proposal for Idaho to call for such a convention. But on Monday, Little expressed his support for the idea, framing such a move as “help” to President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the federal budget through a so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk.

“So far, I think that Elon’s success has been limited to the executive branch, but I have not seen Congress willing to step up and actually make these reforms permanent,” DeSantis said. “I just think Congress as an institution, particularly over the last 20 years, has really gone off the rails. And I think the founders understood there would be a need for the states to step in and offer some reforms.”

DeSantis, Little want Congress to codify DOGE cuts into law

Little and DeSantis celebrated the work of DOGE, with Little echoing several Idaho lawmakers advocating for a similar approach in state and local government.

“We urge them and cajole them and try and get them to be more efficient,” Little said. He and DeSantis argued a federal constitutional amendment would build on Musk’s efforts.

“A constitutional amendment would make responsible federal spending practices — including those currently advocated for by @DOGE — permanent,” DeSantis said in a statement.

He said he was pushing for the amendment with his children in mind, as the country’s national debt rises.

“At what point is this just going to break our country?” he asked.

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