[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    CONGRESS MUST PASS THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT TO PROTECT THE 
                          AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

  (Mr. DIAZ-BALART asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, history puts so much in perspective and 
in context. We are going today to bring forth before this House a 
constitutional amendment to require that our Federal budget be 
balanced.
  Very prosperous countries in the past, very wealthy countries, even 
in this hemisphere, for example, Argentina, if we look at the history 
in the early part of this century, Argentina was among the most 
prosperous countries in the world. If we look now at the dilemma that 
we are faced with in Mexico, an economy that is part of NAFTA, and it 
is a very thriving economy, these instances in our recent history and 
in the recent history of this hemisphere point to the fact that fiscal 
irresponsibility can destroy even prosperous, even very growing 
economies.
  When we realize that even Keynes, Mr. Speaker, never envisioned 
permanent deficit spending, we realize that we must put our budget 
under constraints. We must put ourselves under constraints, as every 
family in America has to. We must pass this amendment to balance the 
budget.

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