Balanced Budget Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I want to briefly draw attention to a resolution that the conference of Republican Senators and Senators-elect adopted yesterday, one that I think fits the times we are living in, one which has seen historic levels of Federal spending and debt and deficits, as well as unsustainable debt that will be inherited by our children and grandchildren, unless we take responsibility for it.

This resolution, I think, would demonstrate the seriousness that we would have as a Congress to get our Nation's fiscal house in order. This resolution reads:

It is Resolved by the United States Senate Republican conference:

That a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution is necessary to restore fiscal discipline to our Republic;

That a Balanced Budget Amendment should require the President to submit to Congress a proposed budget prior to each fiscal year in which total federal spending does not exceed total federal revenue;

That a Balanced Budget Amendment should include a requirement that a supermajority of both houses of Congress be necessary to increase taxes;

That a Balanced Budget Amendment should include a limitation on total federal spending.

I thank the 20 Republican Senators and Senators-elect who cosponsored this resolution and the members of the conference who voted to adopt it. Let me share with you a few factoids that I think will demonstrate the compelling nature of this joint resolution and constitutional amendment.

In fiscal year 2010, our deficit was $1.3 trillion or 8.9 percent of the gross domestic product. That is actually down from 9.9 percent in fiscal year 2009, but certainly nothing to celebrate. The Congressional Budget Office baseline estimates that Federal deficits will average $605 billion each year through 2020, and the budget that the President submitted to us this year, itself, if implemented, would call for an average of $1 trillion of deficit each year for the next 10 years.

We know that the Budget Act passed by Congress, signed by the President, requires the President of the United States to submit his budget by the first Monday in February. I can tell you that I am anxiously awaiting to see in that budget proposal submitted by the President by the first Monday in February his commitment to fiscal discipline--now particularly since the American people have spoken so loudly and clearly about their concerns over reckless spending and endless debt.

We know a balanced budget amendment actually works, because virtually every State in the Nation has one, including my State of Texas. Only the Federal Government has no requirement of a balanced budget and can spend huge deficits and borrow money it does not have. No family in America, or small business, when income goes down, can continue to spend at the same level. They have to live within their means. So should the U.S. Government.

We also know that a balanced budget amendment is popular with the public. A recent referendum held by Florida voters showed that 71 percent approved a nonbinding resolution supporting a balanced budget amendment. We have had votes in the Senate on this not that long ago. I believe it was in 1997, so I will let you judge whether it was long ago. Sixty-six Senators at the time voted in favor of a balanced budget amendment or 1 shy of the two-thirds necessary, including 11 colleagues on the other side of the aisle, demonstrating the bipartisan support for a balanced budget amendment.

It is important to note that at that time, when 66 Senators voted on a bipartisan basis for a balanced budget amendment, the deficit was only 1.4 percent of GDP. Today, it is 8.9 percent. I think if a balanced budget amendment was a good idea--at least in the minds of 66 Senators--in 1997, it is even a better idea today. So I hope colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join with me to offer ideas on drafting this joint resolution.

Of course, as you know, under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, a constitutional amendment can emanate from Congress itself with a two-thirds vote or it can be the result of a constitutional convention. Under either circumstance, three-quarters of the States would be necessary to ratify it. I think if Republicans and Democrats can listen to the voice of the American people and get behind a joint resolution, it will restore some of the public's lost confidence in our ability and our willingness both to heed their voice and also live up to our responsibility.

I think a balanced budget amendment would be a big step forward in the cause of fiscal discipline but, of course, not the only step. As the cochairs of the President's debt commission have already indicated, we need other measures. One that caught my eye they called a ``cut and invest committee,'' charged with trimming waste and targeting investment. They noticed a good example at the State level, in my State of Texas, where we have a sunset commission that requires, every 10 years, every State agency to go through a process to determine whether the programs and the agency itself continue to have good reason to exist at the spending levels authorized.

We need something such as that, which will provide a tremendous ability for us to have additional tools to contain costs and avoid wasteful spending. To that end, I have put forth a model of the bill of the Texas sunset commission, called the United States Authorization and Sunset Commission Act. I urge my colleagues to take a look at that, and I can assure you that, come January, when we have a new Congress, I will offer that legislation.

I yield the floor.

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