[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 23 (Thursday, February 27, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H682-H683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BALANCING THE FEDERAL BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Rogan] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROGAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of both the balanced 
budget and the balanced budget amendment. It is important to 
distinguish between those two subjects because often in our debates in 
the House, we confuse the two.
  We really are talking about two individual issues. First, are we 
going to have a balanced budget? Second, are we going to write in the 
Constitution the obligation of the Federal Government to do what 
virtually every State in this country has to do, and certainly every 
family in this country must do?
  I was touched a few minutes ago by the litany of speeches from my 
colleagues on both sides when the subject of children was brought up. 
As the father of two 4-year-old twins who are sitting at a television 
set not too far from this Chamber listening to their father's maiden 
speech on the floor of this House, I certainly am very proud to be a 
dad, and am moved as a policymaker to do what is good for my children 
and the children of our country. But as proud as I am to have my 4-
year-olds able to watch me as a Member of the House address this body 
today, I take no pride in the fact that on the day they were born 4 
years ago,

[[Page H683]]

they inherited almost $175,000 in taxes that they will have to pay over 
their lifetime as their portion of the national debt. This is because 
we have failed as a nation to balance our budget.
  Children born today and children born tomorrow will have an even 
higher amount of debt that we will impose upon them if we fail in our 
obligation as policymakers.
  What is the effect of this great debt that we keep accumulating year 
after year? The effect is that more and more of our tax dollars that 
could be going for important services such as public safety, hospitals, 
infrastructure, Medicare, Social Security, and some of the key programs 
that we support on a bipartisan basis, will be drained. A greater 
percentage of what we send to Washington is going to go to pay the 
interest on the debt rather than to serve the people that we have been 
elected to represent.
  I heard a number of speakers a few minutes ago in this body talk 
about the fact that our national debt today is over $5 trillion. I 
suspect there are very few Members of this body who know how many zeros 
go after the ``5'' to make so great a number. But here is a very cogent 
example: If a person opened a business on the day that Christ was born 
almost 2,000 years ago; and if their business skills were so terrible 
that on that first day they lost $1 million; and if every day 
thereafter they lost $1 million to the present day, we would not even 
hit 1 trillion dollars.
  Yet we as a nation are now laboring under almost $5.5 trillion worth 
of debt. What does that mean in real terms? It means that every single 
day that the sun rises on this building, the American taxpayers are 
forced to pay $750 million in interest on this burgeoning debt.
  One of the bipartisan things we have been able to agree on is that we 
will balance the budget by the year 2002. If we pass a balanced budget 
in this Congress, we will not have a balanced budget in 1997. We will 
not have one for 5 more years.
  As of today, America has not had a balanced budget in 28 years. Now 
we are talking about having our first balanced budget after 33 years.
  What would it take for us as a nation to pay off this debt? We would 
not only have to have a balanced budget, we would have to balance it to 
the point where we had a $200 billion surplus. Not for 1 year, not for 
2 years, but for almost 30 years.
  We have not balanced the budget in almost 30 years. We would have to 
not only balance it, but have a huge surplus every year for 30 years to 
pay down this debt. And I use that example just to accentuate how much 
we owe as a nation and how we cannot continue to allow this debt to 
cripple our children's and our grandchildren's future.
  We owe it to future generations to be responsible. We need to pass a 
balanced Federal budget. To insure it remains in balance, we need to 
place that obligation in the Constitution. This is why I rise in 
support of these two worthy measures, and urge my colleagues to join me 
in supporting them.

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