Richard Zimmer: “I rise in support of the Stenholm-Smith balanced budget amendment. Our constituents are angry at Congress because…”

“I rise in support of the Stenholm-Smith balanced budget amendment. Our constituents are angry at Congress because Congress seems unable to do what every family has to do, what every business has to do, indeed what every State government has to do, and that is to live within our means. The public interest in balancing the budget is overcome by the multiplicity of well-focused, well-funded private interests which have their own specific agendas. Professor James Buchanan of George Mason University recognized this phenomenon. He won a Nobel Prize in economics for explaining why individual members of Congress find it in their individual political interests to be fiscally irresponsible even when they recognize it is not in the public interest. However, you don't have to be a Nobel laureate to understand the problem. Opponents of the balanced budget amendment say it is no substitute for the honest choices that need to be made to pare back government spending and close tax loopholes. But, just last week, the House proved once again that it lacks the political courage to make tough choices by rejecting an alternative budget proposal that would have balanced the budget within 5 years without raising taxes.”