[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17316]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PASS THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. LANKFORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam Speaker, in my district, we disagree a lot about 
football, but we strongly agree that the Federal Government must 
balance this budget. As a freshman, I've seen firsthand this body will 
only make the hard decisions when they have to make the hard decisions.
  Though we don't agree that we need to balance the budget every time 
and every place, we do understand that, as a Federal budget over the 
course of a year, we must balance our budget. We don't do that because 
the Constitution doesn't require it. It's time to change that reality.
  In 1995 this body overwhelmingly approved a simple balanced budget 
amendment, and it required that we would balance our budget each year. 
It failed in the Senate by one vote, passed overwhelmingly in the 
House. If it had passed both bodies and been ratified by the States, 
within 10 years we would have balanced the budget by 2005. Our total 
debt in 2005 was $7.5 trillion. It is now $15 trillion.
  In just 6 years we doubled our debt. Now we stand here again debating 
if this is the best language or the best option for a balanced budget 
amendment. If we fail to pass it this year, 10 years from now some 
freshman congressman will stand at this microphone and berate the 2011 
Congress for delaying again the decision and passing on to their 
generation an even bigger debt.
  Let's build the wall around the Federal checkbook, and let's pass 
this simple budget amendment.

                          ____________________