[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 15, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1363-S1365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ALLEN:
  S.J. Res. 31. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States relative to require a balancing of 
the budget; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

  Mr. ALLEN. Madam President, I rise to speak on a resolution regarding 
a constitutional amendment I am introducing today. It is the third part 
of my three-point plan to restore fiscal accountability and common 
sense to Washington. It is a resolution, in particular, to amend the 
Constitution to require a balanced Federal budget.
  The continued growth in Government, coupled with our enormous 
deficit, make a balanced budget amendment a vital tool for bringing 
this fiscal house back in order and restraining the growing appetite of 
the Federal Government to take more money from the people in taxes, and 
this is money that is coming from families, working people, from men 
and women who run their own small businesses; and also when the Federal 
Government is taking more money, it means they can be meddling in more 
things that are best left to the people or the States--if Government 
needs to be involved at all.
  The Federal Government ought to be paying attention and be focused on 
its key reasons for being created in the first place by the people in 
the States, and that is national defense--making sure the military is 
strong and that they have the most advanced equipment and armament for 
our men and women in uniform as they secure our freedom. We need a 
national missile defense system. Those are the sorts of things that are 
the primary responsibility of the Federal Government, as well as key 
research areas, whether it is in nanotechnology, aeronautics, or in 
other areas working with not just Federal agencies but the private 
sector and our colleges and universities.
  As this Senate gets to work on the fiscal year 2007 budget, our 
country's fiscal discipline and accountability must be improved. We 
have a budget deficit not because the Federal Government has a revenue 
problem; it is because the Federal Government has a spending problem. 
The Government doesn't tax too little, it spends too much. We must 
focus our efforts on spending the people's money much smarter, not 
taking more of their money because it is convenient or expedient.
  Now, to control spending, I have revived a pair of ideas that Ronald 
Reagan advocated when he was President. In Ronald Reagan's farewell 
address to the American people, he said there were two things he wished 
he had accomplished as President, and what he wanted future Presidents, 
both Republican and Democrat, to have. They were the line-item veto and 
a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
  As always, and so often, Ronald Reagan was right. That is why I have 
made the line-item veto and the balanced budget amendment the first two 
points of my three-point plan to bring fiscal accountability and 
responsibility to Washington.
  Let's start first with the line-item veto. When I was honored by the 
people of Virginia as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I had 
the power of the line-item veto. I used it 17 times. I saw how useful a 
tool that was as Governor to knock out undesirable, nonessential 
spending, or untoward or undesirable policies. It is a power--the line-
item veto--or an authority that actually 46 Governors in the U.S. 
enjoy. It is a very powerful tool to cut wasteful spending and 
undesirable programs. In fact, after you use it a few times, you don't 
have to use it as much, because the legislative branch understands 
that, gosh, he actually is going to use that power, and when it comes 
to the final budget or appropriations bills, the undesirable or 
wasteful programs or spending are not in it.
  The President of the United States, in my view, should have the same 
power I had as Governor of Virginia, and that is the line-item veto. 
Together with Senator Jim Talent of Missouri, last September we 
introduced a constitutional amendment to provide the President with 
line-item veto authority. It is high time for that. The reason we need 
a constitutional amendment is that there were times when we were trying 
do it statutorily. I would be in favor of statutory methods, rather 
than an amendment, but the Supreme Court struck down the last effort. I 
think the President, as well as the Congress, ought to be accountable 
for some of these spending items that create such controversy and are 
absurd or wasteful. By the way, we need to vote on this. If this goes 
to the States, I have no question that the States will

[[Page S1364]]

quickly ratify such a constitutional amendment because, after all, they 
give their Governors such power.
  Secondly, we need a balanced budget amendment. This is something many 
States have, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and virtually the rest of 
the States. One of the best ways, in my view, to eliminate the Federal 
deficit and limit the size and scope of the Government is to wrestle it 
down with the chains of the Constitution.
  I would also add that balancing the budget is not just a matter of 
making sure that expenditures are equal to revenue; it is about making 
sure the Federal Government fulfills its proper, focused, 
constitutional role--and not expanding into everything that is not 
necessarily a Federal prerogative, but best left to the people or the 
States. We all know that a big, bloated Federal Government stifles 
innovation, saps initiative, and reduces personal responsibility.
  The third part of my plan is a proposal I offered last week, which I 
know won't be all that popular in this Chamber, but I think it will be 
much appreciated and understood by real people in the real world.
  I have proposed legislation that provides a powerful incentive for 
Senators and Congressmen to perform their jobs on time, as people do in 
the private sector. We have a full-time legislature here and we go into 
session on January 3. One of our prime responsibilities is to pass 
appropriations bills before the next fiscal year, which is October 1. 
But it is, to me, deplorable that full-time legislators cannot get 
their job done on time by October 1. Then, of course, we end up with 
continuing resolutions, and several months later, some time after 
Thanksgiving but before Christmas, all kinds of unknown, unscrutinized 
spending occurs. It gets passed in the dead of night, thinking nobody 
will notice what is in all these appropriations bills--and actually a 
lot of people don't know what is in those appropriations bills.

  That is why I want to impose on Congress what I call the ``paycheck 
penalty.'' The paycheck penalty says to Members of Congress, if you 
fail to pass all your appropriations measures by the start of the 
fiscal year, October 1, which is your job, what you are paid to do, 
your paychecks will be withheld until you complete your job.
  Now, taken together, these three measures will eliminate the need to 
raise taxes to eliminate the deficit. The tax reductions enacted in the 
last 5 years have helped our country get out of recession. It has 
incented more investment, created many new jobs--in fact, 4.5 million 
new jobs--in the private sector; thereby, from all this economic growth 
and prosperity and more people working in businesses, large, medium, 
and small doing better, tax receipts to the Government have increased. 
To illustrate the point, from 2004 to 2005, tax receipts to the Federal 
Government grew at a rate of 14.5 percent, or $274 billion. This growth 
is more than twice the rate of economic growth. So the economic growth 
is strong, but the tax revenues are twice as much to the Federal 
Government. To further this point, the President's budget forecasts 
that tax revenues will grow an additional 6.1 percent, or $132 billion, 
from 2005 to 2006.
  From the tax cuts of the Reagan administration to the tax cuts we 
passed in this new century, the fact is that lower taxes stimulate 
economic growth, stimulate job creation, and stimulate expansion, which 
in turn increases revenues to the Federal Government. More important, 
low taxes make this country more competitive for investment and jobs 
here, rather than people going to invest in places such as China or 
elsewhere in the world. When people are able to keep more of what they 
earn, they spend it, save it, invest it, they may expand their 
business, and they may get more innovative capital equipment, and the 
fact is lower taxes make this country more competitive and people more 
prosperous.
  The opportunity created by Americans spending the fruits of their own 
labor, as opposed to the Government, is the path to bringing fiscal 
sanity to the Federal budget. So to avoid future pressure for 
counterproductive, harmful tax increases, and to achieve a balanced 
budget, we must make these dramatic changes in how the Federal 
Government spends the taxpayers' money: the line-item veto, balanced 
budget amendment, and the paycheck penalty for Members of Congress who 
have not done their jobs on time.
  As we closed 2005, Madam President, the Federal Government was 
responsible for a gross Federal debt of $8.2 trillion. One must ask, 
how did we get here? Consider these statistics from the last 5 years: 
Federal spending has increased 33 percent. In 2005, the per-household 
spending by our Government has grown to $21,878 per year. That figure 
is compared to the per-household tax, on average, of $19,062 per year, 
leaving an annual per-household deficit of about $2,800. The macro 
result is an annual budget deficit in the hundreds of billions of 
dollars.
  We are in a time of war, this war on terror, and enormous national 
disasters have also befallen our country in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, 
and in Florida, in the past year. That is why I am introducing this 
resolution. Even when those occur, this amendment does require the 
Federal Government to achieve a balanced budget within 5 years of 
ratification by the States. Each year, the budget deficit would be 
reduced by 20 percent, until the Federal budget is balanced. This is a 
phased-in approach, which is realistic and provides needed time for 
Congress to amend the budget and appropriations processes to provide 
for a balanced budget. I fully understand that national and global 
events can significantly affect our country's budgetary needs. Thus, I 
have included a provision that allows for a waiver in the event of war. 
However, to ensure deficits resulting from a war do not continue in 
perpetuity, the provision provides for a 5-year window following the 
end of the conflict to reduce any deficits that may have accumulated.
  Domestic catastrophes can also wreak havoc on the Federal 
Government's budget, as well as those of the States in Louisiana, 
Mississippi and, to some extent Florida, which we have recently seen 
devastated by hurricanes. To address such circumstances, the resolution 
also includes a provision that would allow expenditures in excess of 
revenues, provided three-fifths of each House of Congress approves, 
which I think Congress would have done in these situations if this were 
in effect last year and presently.
  Now the risks of budget deficits and national debt are well known: 
the collapse of the dollar, a significant reduction in national 
savings, and the inability to fund programs vital to the Nation's 
security and well-being. It also means if you are putting in more and 
more tax revenues to finance the debt, there is less money there for 
key areas such as national defense, homeland security, education, 
research in science, and also engineering. So to prevent these events, 
we need an institutional mechanism to get this overspending under 
control.
  Based on past performance, it will take, of course, a change in the 
Constitution. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, we need to bind the 
Congress with a change in the Constitution to prevent present 
Congresses from burdening future generations with perpetual debt.
  I believe all of us, if we look at it seriously and responsibly, 
recognize and grasp the seriousness of this problem. I am hopeful that 
this Senate will be able to make the difficult choices to make sure 
that the next generation of Americans is not burdened with overwhelming 
debt or higher taxes from a burdensome, large Federal Government. A 
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, I sincerely believe from 
my experiences as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, will be a 
very valuable, useful, and effective tool in making that goal a 
reality. The same applies to the line-item veto authority for the 
President. I also believe very strongly that this Senate and the other 
body, the House, can get the appropriations bills done on time by 
October 1. If not, I think paychecks ought to be withheld until it is 
done.
  So I hope that my colleagues recognize the seriousness, the 
importance, and the urgency of these responsible measures, these ideas. 
These measures include getting our fiscal house in order, protecting 
the taxpayers from tax increases in the future, and making sure this 
country is the world capital of innovation. These measures include 
investment by the private sector, more competitiveness compared to 
other

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countries because of lower taxes, Federal regulatory policies, sound 
energy policy with more development and exploration here at home, as 
well as using clean coal and advanced nuclear and biofuels and new 
technologies. We also must make sure our fiscal house is in order for 
Americans to compete and succeed in the future.
  I urge my colleagues to consider this resolution and join me in this 
effort for America's future.

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