Peter Visclosky: “I rise today to reiterate my commitment to balancing the budget of this country and to announce my reserved support for…”

“I rise today to reiterate my commitment to balancing the budget of this country and to announce my reserved support for the resolution. I support the resolution because I wish to move the budget process along, but I also feel compelled to enumerate a serious concern I have regarding the pending resolution. The targets outlined today should be enforceable and they are not. Why should they be enforceable? Let us look at the historical record. Under the 1982 budget resolution shown on the chart to my right we were told that the budget would be balanced in 1984. The green lines are targets. The red lines are the truth. The budget was not balanced. In 1985, under Gramm-Rudman 1, we were told that the budget would be balanced in 1991. It was not. In 1987, under Gramm-Rudman 2, we were told that the budget would be balanced in 1993, and it was not. In 1990, under the Budget Enforcement Act, we were told that finally the budget would be balanced in 1994, and, again, all of those green targets show a balanced budget. All of the red lines show the historical record. Today the last lines I will draw attention to would be the 1997 deal that does not even give the pretext that in the immediate future the deficit will go down. The red line shows the March CBO baseline. What do all of these budgets have in common? None contain enforcement mechanisms and never was the budget balanced.”