[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11375-11376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IT'S TIME TO BALANCE OUR BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, only in Washington can you hear people 
say that it's irresponsible to balance the budget. I actually heard 
Democratic leaders on TV this weekend complaining that it would require 
a supermajority vote to raise taxes on the American people but only a 
majority to cut spending.
  Well, maybe some people have been in Washington too long to realize 
it, but the American people want to tie Washington's hands and make it 
easier to cut spending than raise taxes. They want to cap the growth of 
government. They want to require a balanced budget.
  For decades we've heard excuses for why Washington's special and 
shouldn't be forced to balance its budget. It's time to tell those 
people that their scare tactics are over. This is a new day. In America 
the people are sovereign, and today the people demand accountability. 
They demand a responsible, constrained government. They demand a 
balanced budget. Clearly Washington is never going to choose

[[Page 11376]]

to balance its budget; so the people demand that we force it to.
  Forty-nine out of fifty States have some form of a balanced budget 
amendment. If 98 percent of the States know this is a wise plan, why do 
Washington politicians fight tooth and nail against it? The answer is 
plain and simple: power. They will try to scare the American people any 
way they can to avoid losing power over this massive, bloated 
bureaucracy. They will say today that they must have this power or else 
they can't keep taking care of people. They will try to scare seniors 
to continue their unrestrained power to borrow. They say they will 
manage their borrowing power wisely; they will restrain themselves.
  Well, talk is cheap, and I've heard this same line for decades. What 
matters are results. How have Washington politicians been managing 
their borrowing power? One number will tell you: $14.3 trillion--the 
amount of our debt today.
  A balanced budget amendment is essential because the government has 
shown time and time again that until we restrain its spending with 
fiscal handcuffs, the problem will continue. President Obama has only 
made our spending problem worse by adding $3.7 trillion to the national 
debt in just 2 years. The President has spent more money in less time 
than any other leader in American history.
  Last week President Obama told Republicans, ``Don't call my bluff.'' 
Well, I for one think this game has gone on long enough. The power 
needs to be restrained. As Lord Acton famously said, ``All power tends 
to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.'' Today we fight back 
against this corruption of absolute power. Today we stand with the 
American people. Today we vote to return the power to the people.
  We invite President Obama to get on board, oppose this runaway 
spending, and pass a balanced budget. Five years ago he agreed. On 
March 16, 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama stood in the well of the 
Senate and said, ``The fact that we are here today to debate raising 
America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.'' He spoke of the 
``commonsense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues.'' 
But then 5 years down the road, unfortunately, President Obama is 
singing a different tune. He has demanded more borrowing authority with 
no strings attached. When his own party voted against that proposal a 
few weeks ago, he started telling us that we must raise the debt 
ceiling and called our commonsense budgeting reforms ``gimmicks'' and 
``radical.''
  Well, here's what I'm hearing from people in Missouri, my district. 
That's where common sense is:
  Here's Reggie from Adrian, Missouri: ``Raising the debt ceiling is 
like handing five more credit cards to someone who has already maxed 
out 50 other credit cards and then sitting back and saying you fixed 
the problem. How dumb would that be?''
  Here's from Michael in Sedalia: ``Don't give in. As a veteran 
receiving a pension, I continue to stand behind you and the House 
leadership in expecting meaningful spending cuts before raising the 
debt ceiling without raising taxes. Taxpayers don't like what's going 
on, and we aren't going to sit by and watch anymore.''
  Here's from Margaret from Lake Ozark: ``A minimum of $4 billion over 
10 years is a drop in the bucket. We also need a constitutional 
amendment since our leaders can't seem to stop spending and do the 
right thing. Do the right thing now.''
  Here's from Judy from Warsaw, Missouri: ``The very idea of increasing 
the debt limit to get us out of trouble is absurd. You cannot borrow 
your way out of trouble. Deal with it. Cut the pork.''
  Mark from Camdenton, Missouri: ``We have always had to live within 
our means, and it is time for the government to do the same. We can't 
have everything we want. The government needs to be reduced. I do not 
think my children and grandchildren should pay for our lack of 
responsibility.''
  Larry from Conway, Missouri: ``This is a turning point in history.''
  I agree. Let's do the right thing. Today let's pass Cut, Cap, and 
Balance.

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