[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 6, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H221-H222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ENSURING BALANCED BUDGETS EVERY YEAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Schaffer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, one of our greatest accomplishments of the 
105th Congress was providing Americans with the first balanced Federal 
budget and the first budget surplus since 1969.
  Now that we have proved we can balance the budget, it is time to 
ensure that we always balance the budget every year by enacting the 
Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution during the 
106th Congress.
  As we know, the Balanced Budget Amendment's chief advocate and 
sponsor, Mr. Dan Schaefer, retired at the end of the 105th Congress 
following many years of distinguished and committed service to our 
country. It is my belief that we could not have finally balanced our 
books this year, for the first time in a generation, without the 
tireless efforts of Mr. Dan Schaefer in bringing this issue to the 
forefront of American political dialogue. It is for this reason that I 
am particularly proud he has asked me to carry on the fight for a 
constitutional amendment requiring the government's books to be 
balanced every year.
  The Balanced Budget Amendment will lower interest rates and make 
mortgages, car loans, and student loans more affordable and available, 
annually saving the typical American family $1,500.
  It will end waste and pork by requiring Washington to honestly and 
realistically identify needed and unneeded Federal programs and 
spending.
  It will protect our children and grandchildren from the burden of 
paying for Washington's inability to budget responsibly.
  The Founding Fathers of this great Nation understood and believed the 
Federal Government must not spend beyond its means. Thomas Jefferson 
said, ``We should consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity 
with our debts, and morally bound to pay themselves ourselves.'' 
Clearly, we have strayed far from this advice.
  The Federal government's spending has built an enormous national 
debt, now exceeding $5.6 trillion. When this debt is divided among all 
men, women, and children in the country, each of us owes over $20,000. 
If a business lost $1,000 a day, it would take 15,000 years to 
accumulate our current debt. Unfortunately, beyond these stunning 
statistics is an even more unbelievable but all too real fact: Our debt 
is growing by $4,500 every second.
  The economic rewards for ensuring a balanced budget would be 
significant. Many prominent economists predicted that interest rates 
would remain steady, and possibly drop even further, if the budget was 
always balanced. This could result in annual savings of at least $1,200 
on an average home mortgage, $200 on a typical student loan, and $180 
on an average car loan. While these savings might seem small in the 
world of congressional budgets, to the American family they would lead 
to more opportunities and a better life.
  Although we have demonstrated more responsibility in balancing our 
books, we must look to the future and guarantee a strong, solvent 
Nation for the next generation.
  The moment has come for Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment 
and embrace lasting fiscal accountability. Again, the words of Thomas 
Jefferson offer guidance: ``To preserve our independence, we must not 
let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.''
  Like the disastrous economic decisions that ultimately led the 
colonists to revolt against an unreasonable bloated and bankrupt 
government, Washington has allowed itself to grow beyond its means, 
spend without reason, and fall dangerously in debt. All the while, the 
Federal Government has increasingly burdened the hardworking, honest 
citizens of this country to support its reckless habit. Washington has 
fallen prey to the same traps and rationalizations, and is on a path 
that can only lead to ruin.
  To quantify this historic perspective, we must only look to the 
dramatic growth in Federal spending which has caused the current 
national deficit crisis. As Senator Orrin Hatch outlined in 1995, the 
first $100 billion budget in the history of our Nation occurred in 
1962, more than 179 years after the founding of this great Republic.
  However, once Washington acquired the habit, it quickly lost all 
sense of reality. The first $200 billion budget came only 9 years 
later, in 1971; the first $300 billion budget came 4 years later, in 
1975; the first $400 billion budget, 2 years later in 1977; $500 
billion in 1981; $700 billion in 1982; $800 billion in 1983; $900 
billion in 1985, and the first $1 trillion budget in 1987. The budget 
for 1998 exceeded $1.7 trillion.
  Is there any question we have a spending habit? Yet opponents of the 
Balanced Budget Amendment claim there is no problem. They repeatedly 
point to the statistically insignificant slowdown in the growth of the 
debt as though we have solved our problem. That is like telling an 
unfortunate person struggling with addiction they are cured if they 
manage to avoid their habit an extra second out of a 24-hour day. 
Clearly, we have only begun to grapple with this obsession.
  We are, however, not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. By 
approving the Balanced Budget Amendment, the 106th Congress can join 
those who put patriotism and responsibility above personal gain and 
short-term satisfaction, as well as honor the past and protect the 
future from unreasonable spending.
  The Balanced Budget Amendment is rooted in, and preserving, the 
fundamental American values of:
  1. Integrity--It will instill credibility and principle to budget 
negotiations and the federal government.
  2. Children's future--Passing the BBA is a vote for our children's 
economic freedom.

[[Page H222]]

  3. Families--Approving this amendment will improve the economic 
health and stability of America's families.
  4. Economic strength--The BBA will stabilize Washington's budgets and 
the national economy, enabling us to rein in our monstrous national 
deficit.
  The strength of the Constitution can ensure a responsible budgetary 
framework, saving us from being swallowed by accumulating debt. The BBA 
will improve and protect our economy, our families and our children.
  I am following the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson, who said, ``I wish it 
were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution * * * an 
additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of 
borrowing,'' by introducing the Balanced Budget Amendment, along with 
Reps. Stenholm, Castle, and a large and growing bipartisan group of 
Members.

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