Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution Relative to Requiring a Balanced Budget

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the urgent need for our government to begin living within our Nation's means. We face a very grave fiscal crisis, one that threatens America today and the American dream for future generations. It demands that we get our Nation's fiscal house in order. So I am pleased the Senate is now debating a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution.

In February 1997, a month after I came to the Senate, I went to the Senate floor to urge my colleagues to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to prevent our growing debt from swallowing our future prosperity. Unfortunately, that effort came up one vote short. Since that time, our national debt has ballooned to an astonishing $15.1 trillion.

Sometimes when we deal with large numbers, it is easy to lose sense of what they mean and difficult to put them into context. What $15.1 trillion in debt means is that a child born today will automatically inherit a debt burden of more than $48,000. That debt has been largely accrued not for that child's benefit but for our own. It is difficult to imagine a more egregious example of taxation without representation than forcing our children and grandchildren to bear the future tax burden for today's excesses.

Unfortunately, as we have seen over the last decade, the addiction to budget deficits is not simply a Democratic or Republican problem. Both parties have had a difficult time showing restraint when it comes to spending. We have had Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, the Deficit Reduction Act, and the Budget Enforcement Act, and yet deficits not only persist but have grown larger. The fiscal year that ended on September 30 marked the third consecutive year in which the United States has run deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Deficits have become a part of the way that Washington does business. Spend now and let someone else deal with the consequences later.
Those spendthrift ways are catching up with us. Our skyrocketing debt has become a drag on our economy and a threat to our future prosperity. We simply do not have the luxury of putting off difficult decisions. We are consistently spending more than we take in, and by a large margin. In the last fiscal year, government outlays totaled 24.1 percent of gross domestic product--the second highest level, after 2009, since World War II. Despite the very serious warning signs that we are on the wrong fiscal course, this marks the second consecutive year that the Senate has not even bothered to pass a budget resolution.

It is progress that the Budget Control Act that passed last summer includes caps on discretionary spending, and I have worked very hard with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to put together responsible and thoughtful spending bills that live within those caps. But, as my colleagues know, the biggest driver of our long-term debt and deficits is not discretionary spending but the mandatory spending that continues to balloon on autopilot.

Like many of my colleagues, I had hoped that the so-called supercommittee, which was created by the Budget Control Act, would be able to reach bipartisan agreement to reform mandatory spending and change our fiscal trajectory. Unfortunately, that bipartisan agreement remains elusive as both parties failed to come up with a deficit reduction plan that was capable of winning a simple majority of panel members. Instead, we have automatic spending cuts that are set to kick in, which could have very serious consequences for our national defense. Again, Congress has avoided making difficult choices about our national priorities.

The events currently unfolding across the Atlantic, with European leaders scrambling to stop the debt contagion that threatens the economic prosperity of the continent, should be a clear warning signal to us of what could come if we do not stem the tide of red ink that is engulfing our Nation. We must put in place structural reforms that will permanently force Washington to align expenditures and revenues.

Every day when I enter my office building, I am reminded of the famous quote attributed to its namesake, Senator Everett Dirksen. The wry observation he offered some four decades ago--``A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money''--seems tragically quaint today. I am convinced, now more than ever, that a balanced budget constitutional amendment is what is needed to address our growing debt and deficits.

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