Political Quotes

“I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, since 1995, when this amendment was last on the floor, we proved we could balance the budget without a balanced budget amendment. But a balanced budget is not the highest goal. The highest goal is prosperity, a full employment economy; and that requires a balanced budget over the business cycle. It requires that in good times we have a surplus and pay down the deficit. But then in recessions, you should have a deficit to spur the economy; you should spend money to spur the economy to get out of the recession. To try to balance the budget by cutting spending during a recession is to increase unemployment, is to guarantee that every recession becomes a depression. Just look at what's happening in Germany, which was in pretty good shape until they elected a government that enacted austerity to try to balance the budget. Their economy is tanking. The same thing in Great Britain. The second point I want to make is that when we talk about balanced budgets in the States, they have a separate budget for operating expenses and for capital budgets. Here, this balanced budget amendment would say we should never borrow money for anything; the Federal Government should never borrow money. That's insanity economically. It means we have no money for our bridges, roads, highways, et cetera.…”