Lamar Smith: “Americans want the Federal Government to stop excessive government spending and reduce the Federal deficit. The last…”

“Americans want the Federal Government to stop excessive government spending and reduce the Federal deficit. The last time the budget was balanced was during the Clinton administration, when Republicans in Congress passed the first balanced budget in over 25 years. Meanwhile, the Federal debt has climbed from less than $400 billion in 1970 to over $15 trillion today. Mr. Speaker, President Obama has set the wrong kind of new record. The national debt has increased faster under his administration than under any other President in history. America cannot continue to run huge Federal budget deficits. Financing Federal overspending through continued borrowing threatens to drown Americans in high taxes and heavy debt, and it puts a drag on the economy. The Federal Government now borrows 42 cents for every dollar it spends. No family, no community, no business, no country can sustain that kind of excessive spending. That is the road to insolvency. Unfortunately, this kind of bad behavior has gone unchecked for so long that it has become the norm. The Federal Government has been on a decades-long shopping spree, racking up the bills and leaving them for future generations. We need a Constitutional mandate to force both the President and Congress to adopt annual budgets that spend no more than the government takes in. Only a balanced budget constitutional amendment will save us from unending Federal deficits.…”