[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]


    THE TAX LIMITATION BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION

  (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today is a historic day. We are 
going to consider the tax limitation balanced budget amendment to the 
Constitution.
  No one, perhaps except President Clinton and some of his senior 
economic advisers, seriously questions whether we should balance the 
budget anymore. The question is how to do it.
  In the Contract With America, the Republican majority says we should 
balance the budget with a three-fifths requirement to raise taxes, and 
put the emphasis not on raising taxes but on cutting spending. Why is 
this?
  If we look at Federal spending over the last 40 years, there has been 
no year in which Federal spending went down. Every year Federal 
spending has gone up. In the years that we have had major tax 
increases, and we have had 16 major tax increases in the last 30 years, 
Federal spending has gone up and the deficit has gone up also.
  Therefore, the American people want a real change. They want a tax 
limitation balanced budget amendment that puts the emphasis on 
balancing the budget by cutting spending, not by raising taxes.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will vote for the Barton-Hyde-Dade-
Geren balanced budget amendment to the Constitution with the three-
fifths requirement for a tax increase.

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