[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 24 (Friday, February 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S1787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, the long and often thoughtful debate over 
the balanced budget amendment is now drawing to a close. It is also 
apparently drawing to a regrettable unsuccessful end unless a sudden 
flash of enlightenment takes over the minds and hearts of one or more 
of the opponents to this amendment.
  Nevertheless, I believe it appropriate for every Member of this body 
to state his or her reasons for support or for opposition to the 
amendment. While I have done so in part, at least in the past, I should 
like to share with my colleagues some of my thoughts on the subject.
  Mr. President, from my perspective, perhaps the single most important 
reason for voting in favor of this constitutional amendment, for 
including a requirement making it considerably more difficult to spend 
money that we do not have, is a moral or ethical one.
  Mr. President, we living today, representing the people of our States 
today, simply do not have the right to spend money to undertake 
obligations which we collectively are unwilling to pay for, thereby 
consuming whatever goods or services Government provides to us today 
and sending the bills to our children and to our grandchildren. Mr. 
President, that is simply the wrong thing to do. We should not engage 
in that practice at all, and it is a simple disgrace that we have now 
engaged in it in each and every year for almost three decades.
  Now, I am aware of, and I subscribe to, the positive economic impacts 
of balancing our budget. It is clear to me, as it is to most, that it 
will mean lower interest rates which, in turn, make it easier for young 
people--for all of our people--to purchase a home, an automobile, a 
college or university education. At the same time, a balanced budget 
provides more economic growth and, thus, greater opportunities, again, 
for all of us, but particularly for generations just moving into the 
work force. These are important arguments. These are goals that we all 
ought to see. But I believe that the balanced budget amendment would be 
imperative even if we were not able to prove in our own minds the 
economic benefits of the amendment. For the reasons that I have just 
stated, it is wrong for us to spend the debt and to send the bills to 
those who are not represented here, who, Mr. President, in most cases, 
have not yet been born.
  In this long and leisurely and thoughtful debate, we have been given 
dozens of reasons not to pass the amendment. Dozens of scarecrows have 
been raised: We can't respond to a military emergency that does not 
involve a declaration of war. We can't respond to a physical disaster. 
We can't build our infrastructure. Social Security, or some other 
program, may be hurt by a balanced budget constitutional amendment.
  Mr. President, first, as someone interested in the history of our 
country, I am reminded by the recitation of these objections to nothing 
so much as the case against adopting the Constitution in the first 
place in 1787 and 1788. These arguments stem, just as did those 
arguments more than two centuries ago, from a fear of the unknown. But, 
Mr. President, those fears must be weighed against the actual, tangible 
history of the last half century. And that actual, tangible history 
shows us that, regrettably, we do not, without some constitutional 
constraints, balance our budget. In fact, in my mind, each one of those 
threats is more likely to become reality if we don't balance the budget 
than if we do.
  A balanced budget will provide a far stronger economy for the support 
of Social Security, a far stronger framework for the building of our 
infrastructure, and a far stronger structure within which we can 
provide for the education for our young people than does the present 
system, which threatens all of these things by the accumulated burden 
of the debt, added to each year by the amount of its annual deficit. So 
the very threats that are causing Members to vote against this 
constitutional amendment are more likely to come true if they are 
successful than if they are not.
  Mr. President, this may well be the most important single vote that 
we cast during the course of this Congress. It is our duty, whether the 
constitutional amendment passes or not, to produce for the people of 
this country, for our colleagues, a budget which is balanced in fact. 
And it is clearly possible--though history gives very little cause for 
optimism--that we may do so in the absence of this amendment. At least 
this debate has led to lip service on the part of the President of the 
United States and almost every Member of this Congress to the 
proposition that we should do so. But to see to it that not only we do 
so, but that our successors do so, that we break the mold of the 
history of the last decades, the passage of this amendment is 
absolutely essential.
  I am pleased that all of my colleagues on this side of the aisle plan 
to vote in favor of the constitutional amendment. I hope that a sudden 
flash of enlightenment on the other side of the aisle will help us to 
get the necessary 67 votes.
  Mr. REID addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada is recognized for 15 
minutes.

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