Bob Wise: “tonight what I would like to discuss is capital budgeting an its relation to the balanced budget amendment of the…”

“tonight what I would like to discuss is capital budgeting an its relation to the balanced budget amendment of the Constitution, for one of the amendments that will be on the floor tomorrow will be the amendment that I appreciate the Committee on Rules making in order, my amendment, the Wise amendment, that says that the budget must be balanced by the year 2002. It takes Social Security off budget, and it puts in place capital budgeting for physical infrastructure. A real mouthful. What does it mean? It simply means that it permits that kind of investment that produces much more economic return than it costs. It permits investment to be included in any kind of balanced budget approach. It recognizes there is a difference between the dollar that you spend for consumption and the dollar you spend for investment. I call this the family budget amendment, because what it does is to recognize what the American family does.”