Duncan Faircloth: “this amendment would very simply express the sense of the Senate that if we enact a balanced budget plan this year--that…”

“this amendment would very simply express the sense of the Senate that if we enact a balanced budget plan this year--that such legislation should also contain a strategy for reducing the national debt. The budget resolution we are debating today is a plan to balance the budget by the year 2002. But by the year 2002, our national debt will be $6.5 trillion. Mr. President, this debt represents a massive burden on the American people and future generations of Americans. I am deeply concerned about this debt burden that we have placed on our children, grandchildren, and children yet born. The budget resolution is a plan to end the deficit spending--which is certainly what we need. But I feel just as strongly that we need a plan to reduce this debt. It took this country nearly 200 years to accumulate a debt of $1 trillion--and in the last 16 years the debt will have increased fivefold. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue--we don't need to assign the blame--we just need to develop a solution. All this amendment would do is encourage the Senate--express that it is our sense that we develop proposals to deal with this massive debt burden.”