[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 19 (Monday, February 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming asked was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming. Mr. Speaker, Members of this House will soon, 
I hope next week, have an opportunity to vote on the tax limitation 
balanced budget amendment. Many of my constituents are understandably 
leery of amending the Constitution, and it is serious business. But we 
need a serious measure to alleviate our unprecedented national debt, 
$4.5 trillion.
  Government spending is out of control. High taxes burden the working 
people of this country, and future generations will continue to be 
saddled with skyrocketing deficits.
  Mr. Speaker, Government spending devours almost half of the Nation's 
income. And Americans are not getting their money's worth.
  Some say that the balanced budget amendment is just a gimmick, that 
it does not work. I can tell Members that it does work. We have it in 
my State of Wyoming, along with a line-item veto, and it does, indeed, 
work.
  It provides constitutional discipline to the legislative spending. We 
must take action now to balance the budget and to limit taxes. We owe 
it to hard-working taxpayers who send us here and to the children who 
will lead us into the future.
  I urge my colleagues to support a tax limitation balanced budget 
amendment.

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