Jon L. Christensen: “over the course of the last week, the American people have seen a great deal of discussion in the Chamber about book…”

“over the course of the last week, the American people have seen a great deal of discussion in the Chamber about book deals. They have seen partisan posturing and parliamentary tricks designed to slow down if not halt completely the course that we have set out to make the Contract With America the people's agenda. Mr. Speaker, this is the only book that we should be talking about, the ``Contract With America.'' I was noticing on page 23 of this book that it talks about the balanced budget amendment and the line-item veto. ``Isn't it time we hold Congress accountable?'' it says. It goes on to say, ``Just as every American sits at the dinner table, and as they do, they balance their own books, they balance the budget of a family, a business, it's time that the American people hold Congress accountable to balancing the books.'' This week we will be taking up the balanced budget amendment, a piece of legislation that is long overdue. We have already started giving the voters of America what they said they wanted in the Contract and now it is time to focus on the job at hand and get on with the people's business. As a freshman Member of the 104th Congress, I was sent here by the people to make real change, to make this happen for the first time in 40 years. Let us not continue backsliding toward politics as usual, but let us give the American people what they sent us here to do, and, that is, to pass a balanced budget amendment.”