Orrin Hatch: “It is an old expression that the time to save money is when you have it. If this economy is so good, as some of our…”

“It is an old expression that the time to save money is when you have it. If this economy is so good, as some of our colleagues are saying, Madam President, why do we not have a balanced budget. Why? Because it is easy to spend other people's money in good times and bad. That is why we need to correct Congress' spending bias with a constitutional amendment. This country has enjoyed some remarkable economic progress in the latter half of this century, and yet the United States has borrowed ever more money, despite the fact that most of those years were both peaceful and prosperous. So when people hear the opponents of the balanced budget amendment talk about needing to spend more in recessions, they should consider whether we have spent less in prosperous times. Of course, we have not. The debt has simply gone up higher and higher. It now stands at over $5.3 trillion. Let me just take a moment to illustrate just how big that is. This chart shows, if you were to lay the debt of $5.3 trillion in $1 bills end to end on a road, they would stretch 514,283,460 miles. Were you to drive to the end of that road traveling an average of 500 miles per day at 65 miles per hour, it would take you 2,818 years. You would have to drive along the road paved with dollar bills for 500 miles a day at 65 miles an hour for 2,818 years. That gives us a little understanding of how big the debt is.”