[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16848]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 ON CONSTITUTION DAY, THE WORK OF THE SENATE, AND BALANCING THE BUDGET

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise to note an interesting coincidence 
of things that are happening, and not happening, today.
  Many Americans are celebrating today as Constitution Day. At 4 p.m. 
eastern time, on September 17, 1787, the Framers of the U.S. 
Constitution adjourned the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. 
The Constitution they proposed, after deep debates and tortured 
compromise, was then submitted to the several States for ratification, 
and for the judgment of history.
  According to the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, Constitution 
Day, Inc., at 4 p.m. today, ``schools across America will be led in the 
recitation of the Preamble to the US Constitution on a national 
teleconferencing call conducted by Sprint . . . churches across America 
will be led in the ringing of their bells to honor the First Amendment, 
Freedom of Religion . . .'' and there will be commemorations from 
Valley Forge, PA, to a replica of Independence Hall at Knott's Berry 
Farm, CA.
  Little can be said, that has not been said before, about the profound 
wisdom, foresight, and faith that the Framers of our Constitution 
brought to constructing the foundational document of our Nation's 
system of government and laws.
  President Coolidge said of the Constitution, in 1929, ``The more I 
study it, the more I have come to admire it, realizing that no other 
document devised by the hand of man ever brought so much progress and 
happiness to humanity.''
  I rise to acknowledge this special day of celebrating our 
Constitution and I join all Americans in paying tribute to the patriots 
who produced it.
  For many Americans, one of the signs of our deep respect for the 
Constitution is our acknowledgment that, in exceptional cases, a 
problem rises to such a level that it can be adequately addressed only 
in the Constitution, by way of a Constitutional amendment.
  Yesterday, President Bush spoke forcefully about the Senate's failure 
to pass a budget resolution for the fiscal year that starts in just 14 
days. He called upon us to do what was needed, urgent, and responsible, 
and to do it promptly, by sending him this year's defense appropriation 
and the homeland security bill. And in all this, the need to maintain 
fiscal discipline becomes evident, as we see a return to deficit 
spending.
  For 4 years in a row, a modern record, the first time since the 
1920s, Republican Congresses balanced the Federal Budget. The first 
Republican Congresses in 40 years made balancing the budget their top 
priority, and did what was necessary to run the kind of surpluses we 
need to pay down the national debt and safeguard the future of Social 
Security.
  Today, the Federal budget is again written in red ink. The 
Congressional Budget Office's recently released budget update projects 
a $157 billion deficit for fiscal year 2002, the year about to end. If 
you don't count the Social Security surplus, the rest of the government 
will run a $317 billion deficit.
  Under current policies, CBO says the deficit will be about the same 
next year, in fiscal year 2003. But we don't know today what war 
against terrorism will demand next year. And, unfortunately, we do know 
that too many in Congress and too many interest groups are demanding 
large increases in spending for other purposes.
  This year's budget deficit was caused by an economic recession and a 
war begun by a terrorist attack. Even before taking office, President 
Bush correctly foresaw the coming recession and prescribed the right 
medicine, the bipartisan Tax Relief Act of 2001, that has bolstered the 
economy and prevented a far worse recession.
  We will rebound from the recent economic slowdown. And we must do 
whatever it takes to win the war, that's a matter of survival and of 
protecting the safety and security of the American people. Beyond that, 
we must keep all other federal spending under control, so that we 
return, as soon as possible, to balancing the budget.
  Even in the heady days of budget surpluses, I always maintained the 
only way to guarantee that the Federal Government would stay fiscally 
responsible was to add a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. 
Before we balanced the budget in 1998, the government was deficit 
spending for 28 years in a row and for 59 out of 67 years. The basic 
law of politics, to just say ``yes'' was not repealed in 1998, but only 
restrained some, when we came together and briefly faced up to the 
grave threat to the future posed by decades of debt.
  The Government is back to borrowing. And for some, a return to 
deficit spending seems to have been liberating, as the demands for new 
spending only seem to be multiplying again.
  That is why, on Constitution Day, it is important to me to be a 
cosponsor of S.J. Res. 2, and to call again for Congress to adopt a 
Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution and send it to the states 
for ratification. I also stress that this amendment would not count the 
Social Security surplus in its calculation of a balanced budget. Those 
annual surpluses would be set aside exclusively to meet the future 
needs of Social Security beneficiaries.
  On Constitution Day, I call on the Senate to do today's work: Send 
the President a Defense appropriations bill, send the President a 
homeland security bill, and pass a budget that holds the line on new 
spending. And, on Constitution Day, I call on the Senate to safeguard 
the future, by again taking up a balanced budget amendment to the 
Constitution.

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