Bob Wise: “next week the House will most likely take up the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. This is not an argument…”

“next week the House will most likely take up the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. This is not an argument for or against the balanced budget amendment. I have supported versions of it in the past. It is an argument, though, an appeal that this House consider the role of investment in many of the economic decisions that it must make in the upcoming months, investment particularly in our public infrastructure. Because many have said that they feel that there needs to be a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution because the Federal Government ought to have to balance its budget like families do. That is a fair analogy. Families do balance their budgets. But we also know that families borrow because there are certain things that they know they need and they consider capital investment. We all, most of us at least, borrow to buy or build a home. Very few of us can afford to lay out in one year what it costs for this kind of investment. So we figure into our monthly budgets at home how much we have to take out in debt service, in that mortgage payment. That is reflected in our family budget. We usually borrow for a car. Very few of us, particularly with today's prices, can afford a car, to pay for it cash on the barrel head. We borrow for probably the most important investment that a family will make, and that is the family's children's education. We know that that is the ticket to success for families in this country.…”