<P> President Bill Clinton did not support a constitutional amendment, but in his 1992 campaign, he called for balancing the budget through ordinary fiscal policy . He came into office facing a large deficit . Clinton signed into law the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which attacked the deficit by raising taxes . Beginning with the 1998 budget year, during his second term, the federal government ran a yearly budget surplus through FY 2001 . During the Clinton administration, there was an official surplus of $419 billion during fiscal years 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 . </P> <P> However, it has been argued that this official balanced budget only constituted a surplus in the public debt (or on - budget), in which the Treasury Department borrowed increased tax revenue from intragovernmental debt (namely the Social Security Trust Fund), thus adding more interest on Treasury bonds . In effect, the four year alleged' surplus' was only in public debt holdings, while the National Debt Outstanding increased every fiscal year, the lowest being a $17.9 billion deficit in FY2000 . Meanwhile, Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) such as GNMA, FNMA and FHLMC continued to borrow and spend an extra $543.6 billion over and above their previous 3 years . GSE debt instruments are classified as US Government Securities, but are not officially part of the Federal Debt total . </P> <P> In 1994, many Americans viewed reducing the deficit as one of the most important public policy objectives . To that end, in that year's Congressional election, Republicans campaigned against Clinton's tax increase and took control of both the Senate and the House . The Republican - led Congress immediately engaged in a battle with President Clinton culminating in a vetoed budget and a brief shutdown of the Federal government . Despite negotiations disagreement remained on the pace of spending cuts . Ultimately Republican concessions differed little from what was attainable without shutdown . One provision of their "Contract with America" campaign document called for a balanced - budget amendment . In 1995, such an amendment passed the House of Representatives and came within one vote of passing the Senate . </P> <P> In his final State of the Union address, Clinton said the United States should continue to balance its books and pay off the debt . </P>

What is the purpose of the balanced budget amendment enacted by these states