[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1130
                  THE BALANCED BUDGET ENFORCEMENT ACT

  (Mr. VISCLOSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, the budget resolution is just around the 
corner and it is time to put the money where our mouths are and 
actually balance the budget.
  Our deficits have left us with a debt of $4.7 trillion or $47,000 per 
taxpayer. Our yearly interest payments on the debt exceed $200 billion 
or $2,000 per taxpayer. This reduces wage rates, destroys jobs, and 
mortgages our future.
  To start balancing the budget today, Mr. Stenholm and I have 
introduced the Balanced Budget Enforcement Act. This bill will force us 
to make the tough decisions to balance the budget in 2002.
  Unlike past attempts to balance the budget, this bill holds 
everyone's feet to the fire. There are no loopholes. Everything's on-
budget. And all smoke-and-mirror projections will be checked by a 
nonpartisan Board of Estimates at the beginning and end of the annual 
budgeting process.
  Mr. Speaker, everyone says they want to balance the budget, but we 
have not even come close. I have been in Washington long enough to know 
that the Balanced Budget Enforcement Act will work. If we are really 
serious about balancing the budget, the House will include this bill in 
the budget resolution.

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