[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, when our forefathers met in Philadelphia in 
1787, their goal was to write a Constitution based on limited 
government that provided for the current and future needs of our 
country. But beginning with several Supreme Court decisions in the 
1920's and going right up through the present, that concept has been 
turned on its head. As a result, we have seen the Federal Government 
grow to almost a quarter of our gross national product. This is far 
beyond what the founders could ever have imagined. Fueling this 
unconstitutional expansion of the size and power of the Federal 
Government has been deficit spending, which unfairly asks future 
generations to pay for the Government spending binges of today.
  But on January 25, we are going to have a historic opportunity to 
reestablish constitutional limits on the power of the Federal 
Government when we vote on the balanced budget amendment. As Thomas 
Jefferson clearly sought in 1798, ``If there is one omission I fear in 
the document called the Constitution, it is that we did not restrict 
the power of Government to borrow money.'' Let us correct that next 
week.

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