[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 24]
[House]
[Page 32029]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                CONSTITUTIONAL BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. BUCHANAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BUCHANAN. Madam Speaker, the congressional leaders this week want 
to raise the Federal debt ceiling $1.8 trillion. The current debt in 
the country is over $12 trillion.
  When I first came here 3 years ago, I introduced a constitutional 
balanced budget amendment. I hear up here the last 3 years that the 
Democrats are the problem, the Republicans are the problem on the 
spending. They're both the problem. In the last 50 years, they've only 
balanced the budget five or six times, yet 49 out of 50 Governors have 
to balance the budget.
  Our State of Florida has had a tough cycle in terms of revenues. 
They've cut expenses. Families are cutting expenses. Small businesses 
in our communities are cutting 20, 30 percent in expenses, yet we're 
raising expenses 12 percent.
  The time is now. We almost had a constitutional balanced budget 
amendment in 1994. That's the only thing that's going to solve the 
problem. We need to act today as Democrats and Republicans and do 
what's right for America and Americans.

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