[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 176 (Thursday, November 17, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7723-H7724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                LET US PASS A BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Garrett) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of a 
balanced budget amendment, and some would say it's the only solution to 
our current fiscal crisis.
  Statesmen throughout the history of our Republic have stressed the 
importance of fiscal responsibility, but it's the voice of Thomas 
Jefferson that, I think, we must pay particular attention to.
  Thomas Jefferson bore the burden of debt throughout his entire life, 
and some historians have argued that Jefferson's personal experiences 
influenced his thinking about the public debt as well. Jefferson 
inherited a significant amount of debt at the young age of 31, and some 
say his own spending added to that and worsened his financial condition 
personally during his life. When he died, he, unfortunately, passed his 
debt on to his descendants, which is exactly what this Federal 
Government is doing now to future generations today.
  So, if the Federal Government says that it's so concerned about the 
welfare of our children and the next generation and the next 
generation, then we should be taking the time right now to address this 
staggering public debt that our children and our grandchildren will 
stand to inherit if our leaders here in Congress fail to have the 
courage to--what?--cut spending and to balance our budget and to live 
within our means.

[[Page H7724]]

  Jefferson had a moral message to the future public servants in this 
regard. He believed that those who are entrusted by their constituents 
to represent them, as he said, ``shall consider themselves unauthorized 
to saddle posterity with our debts and are morally bound to pay them 
ourselves.''
  Jefferson expanded on this message in a letter he wrote to James 
Madison in 1798. He said, ``Neither the representatives of a nation, 
nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond 
what they may pay in their own time.''
  Still writing to Madison, he explicitly endorsed a balanced budget 
amendment, stating, ``With respect to future debts, would it not be 
wise and just for a nation to declare in its constitution that neither 
the legislature nor the nation, itself, can validly contract more debt 
than it may pay within its own age.''
  So what would Jefferson think about where we are in this country 
today?
  The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, has projected that 
maintaining all of our current spending would eventually require that 
the middle class in this country would have to have a tax rate of 
almost two-thirds of all their income--63 percent--and that the small 
businesses in this country would have to see their tax rates skyrocket 
up to 88 percent in order to cover all the spending.
  These numbers have a real impact on the lives of individuals, on 
families, and on businesses. So, if Congress were then to keep on 
spending and have to raise taxes as much as the CBO has prescribed, 
Congress would do what? Congress would basically doom our families to a 
crushing tax burden, and this would smother the ability of businesses 
to expand and, therefore, to create jobs.
  See, the economics of all this is very clear. If we refuse to address 
our spending problems, tax rates are going to have to rise, and they 
will rise in such a manner that would commit future generations to a 
tax burden to pay for--what?--the spending of today.
  So we now, as often is the case, stand at a crossroads. We can 
continue to do as we have done in the past, which is to overspend and 
borrow and put this burden on our children, or we can do something 
else. We can demonstrate our commitment to a balanced budget by making 
it the supreme law of the land in this country.
  Let me conclude then with a final quote from Jefferson:
  ``To preserve the people's independence, we must not let our 
government load us up with perpetual debt. We must make our selection 
between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.''
  So let's make Jefferson's dream a reality. Let us pass a balanced 
budget amendment.

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