James Traficant: “I would like to put this debate in perspective for the American people. The Constitution empowers the Congress of the…”

“I would like to put this debate in perspective for the American people. The Constitution empowers the Congress of the United States to balance the budget. But the Congress evidently cannot do that or does not want to do that anymore. So the Congress wants to empower the Constitution to balance the budget. Now, Members would think by now Congress might have learned. It started out with Gramm-Latta, then it went to Gramm-Kemp, then it went to Gramm-Rudman. Now it is going to be Gramm-constitution in a 2-minute drill no less. I say to the Congress, this is going to turn into Gramm-bankrupt. Because Congress has to balance the budget. And let us look at the facts. The American people are saying, OK, we gave the Republican Party the authority. You are in charge. You want a balanced budget. You chair the committees. Bring out the balanced budget. We know you cannot do that with a $300 billion deficit, $5 trillion debt and $300 billion of interest payments. But in 10 years from now the Constitution is going to balance the budget with $7 trillion of national debt, $500 billion in interest on that payment, but the Constitution is going to do it. It is not the Constitution, Congress. It is the Tax Code. It is not the Constitution, Congress. It is the trade laws. The President did not mention the $153 billion record trade deficit yesterday and 20,000 jobs for every $1 billion in deficit, that is 3 plus million jobs at $30,000 a piece.…”