[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF A 3-PART BALANCED BUDGET CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

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                           HON. BOB GOODLATTE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 5, 2011

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to re-introduce legislation that 
will amend the United States Constitution to force Congress to rein in 
spending by balancing the federal budget.
  We have a spending addiction in Washington, D.C., and it has proven 
to be an addiction that Congress cannot control on its own and which is 
bringing dire consequences. We have gone in a few short years from a 
deficit of billions of dollars to a deficit of trillions of dollars. We 
are printing money at an unprecedented pace, which presents serious 
risks of massive inflation. Our national debt recently surpassed an 
astonishing $14 trillion and continues to rapidly increase, along with 
the waste associated with paying the interest on that debt.
  Our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, warned of the 
consequences of out-of- control debt when he wrote: ``To preserve [the] 
independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with 
perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, 
or profusion and servitude.'' Unfortunately, it increasingly appears 
that Congress has chosen the latter path.
  Our current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, issued a similar 
warning when she recently declared: ``I think that our rising debt 
levels [sic] poses a national security threat, and it poses a national 
security threat in two ways. It undermines our capacity to act in our 
own interest, and it does constrain us where constraint may be 
undesirable. And it also sends a message of weakness internationally.'' 
Despite these warnings, Congress has refused to address this crisis.
  Congress' spending addiction is not a partisan one. It reaches across 
the aisle and afflicts both parties, which is why neither party has 
been able to master it. We need outside help. We need pressure from 
outside Congress to force us to rein in this out-of-control behavior. 
We need a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution.
  That is why I am introducing this legislation, which is a common 
sense, 3-part balanced budget Constitutional amendment. This bill would 
(1) amend the Constitution to require that total spending for any 
fiscal year not exceed total receipts; (2) require that bills to raise 
revenues pass each House of Congress by a 3/5 majority; and (3) 
establish an annual spending cap such that total federal spending could 
not exceed 1/5 of the economic output of the United States.
  The bill would also require a 3/5 majority vote for any increases in 
the debt limit.
  The legislation provides an exception in times of war and during 
military conflicts that pose imminent and serious military threats to 
national security.
  Our federal government must be lean, efficient and responsible with 
the dollars that our nation's citizens worked so hard to earn. We must 
work to both eliminate every cent of waste and squeeze every cent of 
value out of each dollar our citizens entrust to us. Families all 
across our nation understand what it means to make tough decisions each 
day about what they can and cannot afford and government officials 
should be required to exercise similar restraint when spending the 
hard-earned dollars of our nation's citizens.
  By amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget, establish 
measurable spending limits, and make it harder to raise taxes, we can 
force the Congress to control spending, paving the way for a return to 
surpluses and ultimately paying down the national debt, rather than 
allow big spenders to lead us further down the road of chronic deficits 
and in doing so leave our children and grandchildren saddled with debt 
that is not their own.
  49 out of 50 states have a balanced budget requirement, and it is 
time that the federal government had one too.
  Our nation faces many difficult decisions in the coming years, and 
Congress will face great pressure to spend beyond its means rather than 
to make the difficult decisions about spending priorities. Unless 
Congress is forced to make the decisions necessary to create a balanced 
budget, it will always have the all-too-tempting option of shirking 
this responsibility. A Constitutional balanced budget requirement, 
combined with the spending and tax limitations in this legislation, 
will set our nation's fiscal policies on the right path. This is a 
common sense approach to ensure that Congress is bound by the same 
fiscal principles that guide America's families each day.
  I urge support of this important legislation.

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