Balanced Budget Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. I thank my distinguished colleague, my senior Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch, for his leadership on the balanced budget amendment over the years. He has been a consistent and stalwart advocate for the cause of amending the Constitution in such a way that restricts Congress's ability to engage in deficit spending.

It is the practice of perpetual, reckless deficit spending that has created this almost $15 trillion debt we are now dealing with. It is this practice of perpetual, excessive deficit spending that has fueled the expansion of the Federal Government far beyond the limits the Founding Fathers had in mind and far beyond the natural limits this government can handle.

It is important to remember we are now spending through the Federal Government more than 25 percent of our annual GDP. More than one-quarter of every dollar that moves through the American economy is consumed by Washington. This is a problem. This is a problem, and it is, unfortunately, not something that is at all consistent with where we have been historically as Americans.

We have to remember that for about the first 140 years of our Republic's existence under the Constitution, our Federal spending was nowhere near this high as a percentage of GDP. Between 1790 and the early 1930s, the Federal Government tended to spend between 1.5 and 4 percent of GDP every single year, year in and year out. There were two blips, two exceptions--one during the Civil War and one during World War I and its immediate aftermath. But after those cycles passed, we went right back to where we had been before. That started to change in the 1930s and we have been on a gradual upswing almost ever since then to where we are now above 25 percent.

But it gets worse. By the year 2035, we are predicted to be spending almost 34 percent of gross domestic product by the Federal Government every single year. As a result, the Federal Government will be commanding a very substantial portion of the American economy. That makes every American less free. The more government spends--the more money it has access to and the more it borrows on our behalf--the less free we become, the less individual liberty we have to spend our money, to use our resources, to devote our lives to the pursuits we choose.

That is why the cut, cap, and balance pledge is necessary to support individual liberty and to protect our most basic freedoms, because it will protect us from the inexorable growth of the government.

We are at an important time in American history. We are at a time when we are being asked to extend our debt limit once again; a time when we are being asked to say: Yes, we are going to give the Federal Government authority to borrow even more money against our unborn children and grandchildren. This is a problem.

One reason we are willing to sign this pledge is that we are willing to say: OK. We have been put on a path with government spending at this rate. We can't halt that spending immediately. We are willing to consider raising the debt limit but if and only if certain conditions have been satisfied to make sure this doesn't continue in perpetuity. We need cuts. We need some kind of significant cuts to our spending right now. We need some kind of statutory spending cap to put us on a gradual glidepath toward a balanced budget. Most importantly, we have to amend the U.S. Constitution so as to say this will not continue in perpetuity and future Congresses will not be able to do what Senator Hatch referred to a minute ago, which is exempt itself out of statutory spending caps once it has adopted them.

We can't bind future Congresses to cut $2 trillion over the course of a decade or more because we can't command future Congresses to do what we want it to do unless, of course, we amend the Constitution, which is why we have to do that right now. This is essential to economic progress in America. This is essential to economic well-being and to individual liberty in America.

I would love to talk with anyone who wants to about this. I have invited Utahans who may be in town and I invite anyone within the sound of my voice, here or elsewhere, to join me in my office this Wednesday--today--and every Wednesday at 3:30, when we have what we refer to as a JELL-O bar. Utah consumes more JELL-O per capita than any State in the Union. We serve up JELL-O and we will talk about the cut, cap, and balance pledge.

Thank you very much.

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