Joe Barton: “I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Speaker, almost 34 years ago, in January 1995, I stood right over…”

“I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Speaker, almost 34 years ago, in January 1995, I stood right over there, held up my right hand with my 2-year-old daughter, Kristin, took an oath to defend this country and this Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And as soon as I had taken the oath of office to be a Member of the House of Representatives, I walked over to the hopper and put in the Barton tax limitation balanced budget amendment. It was H.J. Res. 33, I believe. That was almost 34 years ago. At that time, the national debt was less than $2 trillion. Today, it is over $20 trillion. In the time that I have been in the House, we have had three or four balanced budgets on a cash flow basis, so that means we have had 30 unbalanced budgets. We have piled almost $19 trillion on our children and our grandchildren's backs with no hope to ever repay. The balanced budget constitutional amendment is not a panacea. It doesn't solve all of our problems, but it is a step in the right direction. I have a few issues with this particular balanced budget amendment. It is not as strong as I would like it to be, but I commend the chairman of the Judiciary Committee for bringing it to the floor for a vote. It is a positive first step. It is not compassionate, Mr. Speaker, to spend money we don't have and keep adding deficits that we will never repay. There is always an inexhaustible demand for more Federal dollars.…”