[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H151-H152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1420
                          BEGGING THE QUESTION

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
[[Page H152]] for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, we are hearing an awful lot of griping 
from the defenders of big government these days. With the balanced 
budget amendment on the verge of passage in the House, there are 
Democrats who still oppose this important government reform. They are 
attempting to derail the amendment by disingenuously demanding to know 
how we plan on spending each and every penny in the year 2002.
  Well, it is amazing they can look across a kitchen table at ordinary 
Americans without turning red from embarrassment. Their argument 
against a balanced budget amendment is essentially: ``We don't want to 
cut government spending. Period.''
  As American businesses continue to tighten their belts, as a American 
families watch their paychecks shrink and their children's future 
become ever darker under the long shadow of government's growing debt, 
the defenders of big government are digging in. They talk a lot about 
working families but they refuse to life a finger to save America's 
middle class from government's out-of-control spending.
  The Republican contract with America is our commitment to cut the 
size score, and cost of government. The balanced budget amendment will 
forever guarantee that Congress of the future will never again be 
allowed to spend our children into the near bottomless pit of debt we 
are in today.

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