Charles Skelton: “I want to vote for a balanced budget amendment tonight, but I cannot do it in all good conscience should the Shuster…”

“I want to vote for a balanced budget amendment tonight, but I cannot do it in all good conscience should the Shuster substitute pass. I suppose in speaking for a balanced budget, on the one hand, and against the Shuster substitute, I could bring to the attention of this body how it cuts into education, those young people that are the hope of the future, how it cuts into the fight against crime, how it cuts veterans and those people who are now reaching the age where they need veterans' help in hospitals, and how it cuts into agriculture, which is the very heart of the district that I represent. Mr. Chairman, it cuts drastically into the national security of our country; $5.65 billion. That is over a billion dollars a year; that is the equivalent of 50,000 troops cut per year. So, Mr. Chairman, I speak on the subject this evening that has been avoided in this debate, and that is of national security and of that lone soldier who is out there standing on top of the hill in Bosnia because his Commander in Chief sent him there. We want to encourage him. We want to keep him trained. We want to take care of his family. And when he returns, we do not want him to have to go back on additional unnecessary deployments because of the lack of fellow soldiers. Cutting into national defense is cutting into the basic insurance policy of America. We cannot allow that to happen.”