On the recordFebruary 1, 2011
I am proud to join my colleague, the Senator from Alabama, in introducing legislation today that would amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget. The idea of requiring a balanced Federal budget seems like common sense to most American families, who have to balance their own checkbooks. And in these hard times, they wonder why the Federal Government doesn't have to do the same. In fact, the United States has only balanced its budget 5 times in the last 50 years. We heard the Senator from Alabama point out the Federal budget balanced only twice in our history. The budgets of nations are not the same as family budgets. Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, we have known that national emergencies sometimes require deficit spending. But we are fast approaching a tipping point where our debt threatens this economic orthodoxy. We are approaching a tipping point where an unprecedented level of debt--and our institutional failure to address it--risks our national security. We need to take action now to turn around our fiscal situation. By restoring responsible spending through a reasonable balanced budget amendment, we can begin climbing out of our economic hole, and, perhaps just as important, this amendment would send a strong signal to the financial markets, U.S. businesses, and the American people that we are serious about stabilizing our economy for the long term. That is a signal I believe we need to send now.
