Tillie K. Fowler: “I rise in support of a strong balanced budget amendment. The House debate on the 1995 budget last week confirmed once…”

“I rise in support of a strong balanced budget amendment. The House debate on the 1995 budget last week confirmed once again our need to halt Congress' terrible addiction to deficit spending. Unless we do, we will give our children, and our children's children, a future with little hope for economic prosperity. The debate today carries with it significant ramifications. Amending the Constitution that has served this Republic well in so many ways for 205 years should not be taken lightly. But a review of our spending patterns for the last 6 rac{1}{2} decades provides powerful arguments in favor of this strong medicine. The Federal Government has run a deficit for 56 of the last 64 years. Our Nation is nearly $5 trillion dollars in debt. The interest we paid on the accumulated debt last year was almost $300 billion. I should note that some special interest groups are using fear tactics to scare senior citizens on this issue. The balanced budget amendment does not mean our seniors need fear a reduction of Social Security or other benefits. In fact, our current policy of borrowing from the Social Security trust fund to finance our debt represents the greatest threat to the fund's solvency. Mr. Chairman, our runaway spending represents a danger to the future prosperity of our Nation and to all Americans. A balanced budget amendment will require sacrifice, but without it we will never achieve fiscal sanity.”