I think because they really have no commitment to curtailing spending at all and just want to keep the show running as long as they can. Most states have state constitutional obligations to balance budgets, in fact I have a good friend who works as key player at the Rhode Island budgetary office and I asked him rhetorically, why he needs to balance the budget and he simply replied: it would be illegal not to. This got me thinking, obviously Washington is too broken and moribund to be fixed but at the state level, many things could be done. All states could join Rhode Island in balancing their budgets. Ultimately, I think Washington's decrepitude will give way to more local, federalist style government anyway, and the US government was originally intended to have decentralised power, so, what is your take on the concept of a balanced budget amendment?
