[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 25 (Monday, March 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H707-H708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        OMISSION FROM THE RECORD OF FEBRUARY 26, 1997, PAGE H643

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            SOUTH DAKOTANS AND THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the floor this 
morning by talking a little bit about my recent trip to South Dakota, 
and over the course of the President's recess I had the opportunity to 
spend 9 days in my home State, much of which was spent traveling around 
the State and listening to the people of our State talk about the 
issues that are important to them. One of the things that I attempted 
very much to discuss during the course of my travels was the upcoming 
vote on the balanced budget amendment.
  Now, it is interesting to note that already the radio ads are running 
in my State attacking me for supporting a balanced budget amendment 
and, again, trying to scare South Dakota seniors against this important 
issue and trying to generate opposition that is based upon a divide and 
conquer type of strategy and approach, and it is interesting as I was 
traveling around the State, and I would stop in cafes across South 
Dakota and raise this issue, and people, as they listened to the radio 
ads, would have questions about how in fact this would affect important 
programs like Social Security. It was always amazing to me, as I 
explained to them that the balanced budget amendment as it is drafted 
can be overridden by a three-fifths vote of the Congress, and now takes 
60 votes in the Senate to do anything, that 60 votes could override 
this amendment, and 290 votes in the House, and when I explained to 
them that in fact a balanced budget amendment would not in any way 
depart from the current budgetary agreement of Social Security; in 
other words, the fact that Social Security trust fund surplus is 
already being applied to hide the deficit, they would be surprised; and 
I went on further to explain that in this country each year we spend 
$148 billion to pay the interest on the amount of money that we 
borrowed.
  When they heard the facts, they were like: ``I didn't realize that,'' 
and, ``This really is important. This is something that we should do.''
  Now I have not been in Washington for all that long, but it is clear 
to me from the time that I have been here in Washington; you know, we 
are falling all over ourselves these days, patting each other on the 
back over getting the deficit down, and frankly the deficit has been 
coming down as the economy has been performing well, but still, a $126 
billion deficit this year is $126 billion that goes on to the $6.6 or 
$5.4 trillion debt, and in fact, even if the President's budget is 
adopted, which I question that it will be, and even if his economic 
assumptions are accurate, the debt at the end of the 5-year period in 
the year 2002 is $2.6 trillion.
  Now that is $26,000 for every man, woman, and child in America, and 
furthermore, a kid born in America today will spend $200,000 over the 
course of their lifetime just to pay the interest on the money that we 
have borrowed. And when you put that in that context, you realize that 
this vote is really a vote about the future of this country and what we 
are doing to the next generation of Americans, and I believe profoundly 
that, as we debate this over the next couple of weeks, that this is the 
most important vote that we will make for the future of America, and I 
would like to think that this body, the Congress, could make those 
decisions, but frankly, it has proven over the years that it cannot. In 
fact, the President's budget, what is supposed to balance the budget by 
the year 2002, in fact puts 73 percent of the savings after he leaves 
office.
  We have proven that we do not have the political courage to make the 
decisions to get out country on a sound fiscal track, and so I would 
ask the Democrats and the Republicans, people from both sides of 
the aisle--I know many of the Democrats who ran in this last election 
year, and many of my Republican colleagues, as well as freshmen, ran on 
support of a balanced budget amendment, and it is too important to the 
future of this country.

  I have a strong commitment to Social Security; most of the Members of 
this body do; and I will not do anything in my support for a balanced 
budget amendment that does in any way diminish that strong support. But 
this is not about Social Security. It is about the future of this 
country. And if we do not do something, we not only will not have any 
money for Social Security, but for every other program that we have in 
America today.
  And so this is a vote for our kids, this is a vote for our families, 
this is a vote for the future, and as the debate begins in the next few 
weeks, and I would certainly hope that the Senate will have the votes 
next week to pass a balanced budget amendment, and if they do and it 
comes over to the House, that we will work together as Republicans and 
Democrats, because this is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, 
this is an American issue, and it is critical to the future of this 
country that we do the right thing for our kids.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, despite all the ads that may be running out 
there, I hope that in this vote that we will take in the next few weeks 
that this body will serve our country well and serve

[[Page H708]]

our kids well and enact a balanced budget amendment that will bring the 
fiscal discipline to this Congress, to this country, that we have 
lacked since 1969, which is the last time that we balanced our budget.

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