Proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROKITA. I thank the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a cosponsor of this bipartisan bill in full support of it.

Rarely do we have a chance in this body to make fundamental difference. It's so easy, as I've learned in a short 10 months, for Members of this body to say ``no'' instead of taking a personal responsibility to make the tough decisions that need to be made. This morning we have that chance. I don't think this chance will come closer in our orbit for a very long time.

If we can pass language out of this House this morning, the Senate has to vote on it. The Senate Majority Leader cannot table it. And because it's a constitutional amendment, it has nothing to do with the President. He can't veto it. He doesn't have to sign it. It goes right to the States.

And why is that so important? Why is that so different? Because finally the people of this country, of the State of Indiana, of my beloved Fourth District, will have a chance to tell us, by ratification of this amendment, whether or not they want to live within their means instead of passing their bills from the Federal Government--spending that's occurring here, $8 billion to $12 billion a day more in debt--whether they're done passing it on to their kids and grandkids. And I believe, speaking specifically to those of us who represent senior citizens, that most of them have grandchildren, and they don't want their bills passed on to them.

Those that say no today, those that say no today are really saying no because they don't want to lose control. They don't want the people to decide. They'd rather have that in their hands. They'd rather keep kicking that heavier and heavier can down the road so that citizens like this, Teddy and Ryan and their kids, can pay the bill.

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Mr. ROKITA. That's what this is about.

Ladies and gentlemen of this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, there are two constituencies out there. Mr. Posey from Florida said it well. We're robbing Peter to pay Paul. And why that works around here is because Paul can vote for us.

I ask every Member here today: Who stands for the constituency that can't directly vote for the next election? Who stands for their constituency that doesn't exist yet but will?

Because of the decisions that are made here on this floor in this Federal Government in this town where too often up is down and down is up and black is white and white is black, we don't represent the constituency. We don't prioritize the right constituency at the right time. This is a chance to do this. This is a chance to not let us have that out anymore, to make us have the tax fight, to make us have the cut spending fight, but not allow the option of kicking the can down the road to make people who aren't here today pay for it.

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