Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise today to advocate passage of the balanced budget amendment, a measure which will fundamentally change the…”

“I rise today to advocate passage of the balanced budget amendment, a measure which will fundamentally change the direction our Government has taken in the last 25 years. Mr. President, if the people of this country said anything last November, it is that we should change the course of this country. The most important thing we can do to show the American people that we heard their call and that we are acting on it is to pass this balanced budget amendment. During the last 25 years, Congress has become desensitized to the enormity of the fiscal and moral harm its habitual deficit spending is causing this country. Those of us who support the balanced budget amendment believe that, contrary to the thrust of many arguments that we will be hearing in the next few days, weeks, or even months, budget deficits of this magnitude are not the norm. With the exception of deficit spending during wartime, this country grew to be the most powerful on Earth while enjoying increasingly high standards of living without spending excessively. But during the last few decades, we have accumulated a national debt of $4.4 trillion, nearly $18,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. In fact, every child that is born today owes $18,000. That is not a birthright; that is a birth-wrong. Our per capita debt has increased more than sevenfold in the last 18 years.”