Balanced Budget Amendment
Floor Speech
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Mr. HATCH. Madam President, today we are beginning what might prove one of the most consequential debates in American history. The American people are demanding that Congress debate and pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. They are going to get that debate, and I am confident that if Congressmen and Senators listen to their constituents, the citizens of this Nation are going to have the opportunity to ratify a balanced budget amendment this year. All 47 Republican Members of the Senate are of one mind on the need for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We have listened to our constituents who are pleading with us to take action that will permanently resolve our debt crisis and keep us from getting into this situation again.
The situation is a disaster. We all know the numbers: three straight trillion-dollar-plus deficits; $14.5 trillion in debt and rising every day; $62 trillion in total liability that this government owns. Since Democrats last passed a budget--that was over 790 days ago--our national debt has risen by $3.2 trillion, and now the administration is asking for more.
We simply cannot do this anymore. Madam President, 100 percent of our tax revenues are spent on mandatory spending and interest on the debt. Every other penny is borrowed. The money is simply not there to finance a government of this size, and everyone knows this, although not everyone will admit it. They know deficit spending and skyrocketing debt have come to an end. Our Nation's current debt-to-GDP ratio is 95 percent. Countries with debt above 95 percent of GDP have growth that is 1 percent below normal, resulting in a loss of 1 million jobs. Our debt is a lead weight around the neck of the economy.
But in the current negotiations over the debt limit, the administration insists that it is Republicans who, by refusing to pass an increase of the debt limit that does not include meaningful efforts to address our fiscal situation, are holding back the economic recovery and undercutting the stock and bond markets. This has things exactly backward. The markets understand that our long-term deficit projections are moving toward a full-blown debt crisis. The markets understand that we are currently on the glidepath to Greece. The markets would respond like gangbusters to spending cuts, spending caps, and a balanced budget amendment that brings our long-term fiscal problems under control.
I am more convinced than ever that a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is essential if we are to right our fiscal ship. This is not the first time we have been down this road, but the stakes could not be higher this time, and the amendment could not be better designed to address the crisis. Our amendment is not just an amendment for fiscal balance, it is an amendment that takes on the root cause of our current debt crisis; that is, government spending. Our amendment requires a balanced budget. It establishes a spending cap of 18 percent of GDP, and it establishes supermajority requirements for tax increases or future debt-limit increases.
We will hear a number of tired arguments against the BBA. Its opponents will say the amendment is not properly vetted. We have been talking about the balanced budget amendment for decades, and if we had passed it back in 1997, when it fell by 1 vote short of being sent to the States for ratification, we would not be in the mess we are in today.
They will say it stacks the deck by requiring spending cuts rather than tax increases to balance the budget. This is an issue I will address at length, but the American people understand the solution to a spending crisis is not to give the government more money to spend, especially this government.
They will say a balanced budget amendment is unnecessary and Congress just needs to do its job. But we have heard this over and over before, and the American people know that waiting for Congress to balance the budget and shrink the size of government without a constitutional amendment is less fruitful than waiting for Godot.
They will say the spending cuts required as a result of this BBA will hurt children and the elderly. But the real harm to our children will be when we hand them a future of national indebtedness and dim economic prospects, and the real harm to the elderly will be the coming bankruptcy of the Nation's entitlement programs--the guaranteed result of the President's failure to lead on entitlement reform.
Finally, they will say the Constitution should not be amended. I agree that it should not be amended lightly, but the Founders themselves expected that changing circumstances and national emergencies would demand amendments to the Constitution from time to time.
The American people understand that this is one of those times. In this country, the people are sovereign, the Constitution is their Constitution, and they are demanding that Congress pass a balanced budget amendment and send it to them and the States for ratification.
My hope is that the party of Thomas Jefferson will listen to their constituents and follow their founder's lead, keeping faith in the people and their good sense and stewardship over the Constitution.
Later this summer we will vote on a balanced budget amendment. God willing, this fall the people in the States will start down the road to ratification.
I am proud to be joined this morning by several of my colleagues who have been critical leaders on the balanced budget amendment. Each brings a unique perspective to this debate, and I think it is great that they are standing up to lead on this issue.
I yield 5 minutes to my colleague, the junior Senator from Kentucky. He is a remarkable spokesperson for limited government, and I am glad to have him on my side in the coming fight for the balanced budget amendment.
Mr. PAUL. Madam President, the balanced budget amendment is interesting when you look at polls and ask the American public: Do you approve of what Congress is doing? Do you approve of congressional action? Do you think they are doing a good job? It is actually 14 percent to 15 percent of the American public who think we are doing a good job. The other side of that equation is, you ask the American public: Do you think a balanced budget amendment would help Congress do a better job? It is 75 percent to 80 percent of the American public who think we would do a better job if we had a balanced budget amendment.
I don't think this is a partisan issue. I would ask the Senator from Utah--and perhaps an opinion from the Senator from Texas--do you think this should be a partisan issue or do you think this goes beyond partisanship, and can we get the Democrats to understand this isn't a Republican-Democratic issue but really an issue for the good of the country?
Mr. HATCH. Well, that should go way beyond partisanship. If we pass it here by the requisite two-thirds vote and we pass it in the House, which we will, this will be submitted to the States, and then the States can make their determination whether or not we have a balanced budget amendment. The Democrats who hate the balanced budget amendment--some of them; in fact, most of them--all they have to do is get 13 States to defeat it. We have to get 38 States to win. Frankly, we will win this because the American people are with us. And this is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do at this time. It is the only thing that is going to get us to right this fiscal ship.
Mr. PAUL. What does the Senator say to those who say that statutory caps would work, something like Gramm-Rudman or something like pay-as-you-go? What is his answer?
Mr. HATCH. Gramm-Rudman lasted all but a year and a half, 2 years, before the same people went on a spending spree again, although it was a light spending spree compared to today. Today it is multitrillions of dollars.
I have to tell you that has never worked. We have to put a straitjacket into this matter where the Congress has to live the way 49 States have to live. There is only one State that doesn't require a balanced budget in its State constitution. Why should we have a requisite desire--not only desire but rule to have a balanced budget as well? I am convinced that we have to do it after being in the Senate for 35 years and seeing, year after year after year, people unwilling to do this.
Mr. PAUL. And I think what is interesting, if you look at this and you really look at polling data and say: Who is for the balanced budget amendment, it goes across all party lines. If you look at Independents, Democrats, if you look at Republicans, it is in the high sixties to the midseventies in the percentage of the public who would like to see this. And I think it goes hand in hand that they don't think we are doing a good enough job here and that we need more backbone, and the Constitution is supposed to be our backbone. The Constitution helps us to do a good job, to help restrain the size and growth of government.
I can't see an argument against this, and I really don't understand how a vast majority of the public can be for this and yet this body still refuses to act.
Mr. HATCH. I agree with the Senator. I think the Senator makes very good points there. Frankly, I know this body very well. I am the most senior Republican. I have been here 35 years. I have seen year after year after year excuses to go into debt, excuses to deficit spend, excuses for why they are putting our country into this terrible state of bankruptcy--just plain excuses. And, of course, they hide behind the fact that they are trying to do it for the good of the people. It is not for the good of the people. It is not good to not live within your means, and unfortunately that is what has been going on here all of the time I have been here.
Mr. PAUL. I think one of the alarming things we see is that on the course we are taking now, if we do nothing dramatic to reform the process--if we don't pass the balanced budget amendment--within about a decade, the budget will be entirely consumed by entitlements and interest. This is being driven by something beyond the control of Republicans, beyond the control of Democrats, and out of everyone's hands. It has to do with the fact that we are living longer and there are fewer young people and more old people because a lot of babies were born after World War II.
These are demographic facts we can't escape. When we look at some of the charts about what goes on with this, we see what happens if we do nothing. We see the projected debt way out here. Most of this debt problem is entitlements. We have to come together as parties. The balanced budget amendment will help us do this, but then we need to acknowledge that these problems exist and we need to come together--both parties--to figure out solutions.
I think the balanced budget amendment may well be what forces us to have a discussion. To be good legislators, we need to decide priorities instead of just adding on new program after new program. We have 80 different Federal programs that are work programs. We need to think about consolidating and minimizing government. I think the balanced budget amendment would allow us to have a discussion in this body on where we can cut spending.
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I wish to thank the distinguished Senator from Kentucky. I think he states it very well. That is the whole purpose of the balanced budget amendment. So I thank him for his cogent remarks and his erudition.
Last week, I signed a pledge that many people in this body are hearing about from their constituents. It is called the cut, cap, and balance pledge. Those of us who signed this pledge committed ourselves to significant spending cuts, a cap on government spending, and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution as a condition for supporting any increase in the debt limit. I was pleased to work with my colleague from Utah, Senator Lee, in developing a balanced budget amendment that is supported by every Republican in this body. Of course, we worked with many others as well, especially Senator Cornyn. I am now pleased to be working with him on the goals of the cut, cap, and balance coalition, a remarkable group of grassroots activists committed to getting our Nation's spending under control.
Madam President, I yield 5 minutes to my friend and colleague from Utah, Senator Lee.
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Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I thank my colleagues. I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute and to give the other side an additional minute.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HATCH. I thank the Acting President pro tempore.
I thank my colleagues. They have made some very prescient points on how important this balanced budget amendment is.
By the President's own Actuary, by 2020, our national debt will be over $20 trillion. The interest alone will be over $1 trillion. We will not have any money for the poor, the sick, and the needy because we have not lived within our means. We simply have to get spending under control. The only way to do that is to do what all these 49 States have to do every year; that is, balance our budget through a requisite constitutional amendment.
Let me make one last point; that is, I do not know why the Democrats--some Democrats--fight against this. Because literally, even if we pass it through both Houses of Congress by the requisite two-thirds vote, there is still going to be a big battle in the States, and if they hate it, they can fight it out there in the States.
I think the reason they fight it is they know if we pass it here, it is going to pass through the States very fast because almost every State knows what we have to do. Almost everybody of intelligence knows what we have to do.
I yield the floor.
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