On the recordDecember 13, 2011
I express my appreciation to the Senator from Maine for her leadership on the balanced budget amendment issue for so long now. This is a fight that people have fought for so long that some have become very cynical about whether we will actually ever act in a responsible fashion to deal with the runaway debt our country continues to accrue where about 40 cents out of every dollar being spent today is out of borrowed money. We know this is not just a theoretical problem, it is very real. When we look at what is happening in Europe, with countries engaged in sovereign debt crises that have made promises they cannot afford to keep, the day of reckoning has come to Europe. The day of reckoning for the United States may not be far behind. I think it is really important to lay a few foundational points. Let me start with the preface of the Constitution of the United States of America because what we are talking about doing is amending the Constitution--something we have only done 27 times since the founding of our country. But the Constitution of the United States starts this way: We the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.…
