Melvin Watt: “I thank the gentleman for yielding time. I haven't heard this said since I've been sitting on the floor listening to the…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding time. I haven't heard this said since I've been sitting on the floor listening to the debate, but if anybody has said it, I want to express my agreement with them. We cannot continue to spend more year after year after year than we receive. That is unsustainable, and with that, I cannot argue. However, I disagree that we need a balanced budget amendment to make that point. I have no balanced budget amendment to operate my household. Some years I have borrowed money and gone in debt, and some years I have accumulated a surplus and paid down that debt. I'm sure that's the way every American citizen operates their life, trying to make responsible decisions and not hiding behind some subterfuge like a balanced budget amendment. Being responsible, I went into debt to go to college. It was a wonderful investment because I wouldn't be here today if I had not done that. And I paid that debt back in some years where I generated surpluses in my household--as a result of going to college. I went into debt to buy a house. It's been a wonderful investment. The house has a lot more value now than what I paid for it. It is part of my assets. And one of these days, I'm going to pay that debt off. But I'm still, if you count that, operating in a deficit situation. There are some years that I'm in surplus. There are some years that I'm in deficit. The one thing I do know, whether I'm in deficit or surplus, I count the income, and I count the expenditures.…”