[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4322-4323]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                       BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, like many Americans, I spent last weekend 
struggling through my taxes, and I would like to know, like other 
Americans, that that money is going to be used in a responsible way and 
that we are going to move toward fiscal stability around here.
  I am the lead Democratic sponsor
of Mr. Goodlatte's constitutional amendment to require a balanced 
budget. In my opinion, the only way you are going to get Congress to 
get serious is to have a constitutional requirement that the budget be 
balanced and that the President submit to Congress a balanced budget.
  You can't pretend you are going to do it just by cutting the heck out 
of everything. It has to include revenues,

[[Page 4323]]

has to close tax loopholes and overseas tax havens and a whole bunch of 
other things that are leading to revenue losses.
  So I am introducing an improved amendment over and above that from 
Representative Goodlatte which deals with a few concerns I have about 
that one.
  This one clearly protects Social Security and Medicare. This one 
clearly closes a loophole that we can't have off-budget spending for 
military operations. We must have a declaration of war if you are going 
to exceed a balanced budget. It would require the budget be balanced 
within 5 fiscal years of passing this.
  We have been kicking this can down the road. It is not a can anymore. 
It is a mountain of debt that we are giving to our kids. We have got to 
get serious about solving this.

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