[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 160 (Tuesday, December 7, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8070]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A GDP SPENDING CAP

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, most Americans are looking at the events 
in Ireland, Spain and Greece with interest and horror when we look at 
how they are grappling with the problem of their national debts. Yet, 
at the same time, the United States of America has a debt which is 96 
percent of GDP. Our spending level is about 24 percent of GDP.
  Now, most States around the country have balanced budget amendments 
which keep them from going in the red. What a different picture it 
would be if our national government had a balanced budget amendment. 
There is another thing we could do, though, and that would be to 
modernize the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, which calls for deficit 
reduction targets.
  I think, however, it would be better to have a spending cap tied into 
GDP at approximately 18 percent, which would, year after year, give 
Congress a target. If we were to fail to meet that target, then it 
would have an automatic trigger of across-the-board cuts so that we 
could get to the right level of spending. We do not want to have the 
same problems as Greece, Ireland and Spain.

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