Tony Thurmond: “I rise today as we draw to a close the debate on this historic opportunity to adopt Senate Joint Resolution 1, the…”

“I rise today as we draw to a close the debate on this historic opportunity to adopt Senate Joint Resolution 1, the balanced budget amendment. This debate is about much more than an amendment to the Constitution, as significant as that is. It is about taking action once and for all that will control the size and scope of the Federal Government. I have been deeply concerned during my years in the Senate over the growth of the Federal bureaucracy. The first $100 billion budget in the history of the Nation occurred in 1962. This was almost 180 years after the Nation was founded. Yet, it took only 9 years, from 1962 to 1971, for the Federal budget to reach $200 billion. Then, the Federal budget continued to skyrocket; $300 billion in 1975, $500 billion in 1979, $800 billion in 1983, and the first $1 trillion budget in 1987. The budget for fiscal year 1996 was over $1.5 trillion. With this voracious congressional appetite for spending has come deficit spending. In the past three decades, the Federal Government has run deficits in every year except one. During the 1960's, deficits were averaging around $6 billion per year. The following decade, the 1970's, saw deficits rise an average $36 billion per year. In the last decade, the 1980's, deficits continued to rise and averaged $156 billion per year. So far, in the 1990's, deficits have averaged $259 billion per year.”