Nancy L. Johnson: “my Democrat colleagues make a strange argument against the balanced budget amendment. They say do not pass it because if…”

“my Democrat colleagues make a strange argument against the balanced budget amendment. They say do not pass it because if we do, we will have to cut spending. The corollary of that is that they think it is wise to continue to increase the deficit $100 to $300 billion every year for the next decade. Two, this year the estimates are down, but Members know a well as I do it is only a couple of years until they zoom up to $400 billion a year. Yes, a balanced budget amendment will mean that we will have to cut spending, and to he extent that we do it honestly by downsizing agencies, by raising the retirement age so that Federal employees retire when the rest of the world retires, by means testing Medicare premiums, by doing sensible, realistic, honest changes in Federal public policy, to that extent, you bet we will be able to protect Social Security, health care security for our seniors, and those programs critical to the American people.”