Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment

Floor Speech

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.

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