Proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, our Constitution is certainly the greatest governing document ever created by man. It's the bedrock foundation for this, the United States of America, the greatest nation on Earth.

Mr. Speaker, our Founding Fathers, in their genius, provided us with a way to amend the Constitution to deal with a changing world. James Madison, who, of course, is widely seen as the Father of the Constitution, once said that ``A public debt is a public curse.''

In 1995, this House passed a very similar balanced budget amendment to the one that we are considering today. The amendment received 300 votes in this House, but fell just one vote short in the United States Senate.

Since that time, Mr. Speaker, our national debt has grown by over $9 trillion, yes, $9 trillion, including nearly $4 trillion in new debt in just the last 3 years, and today the debt is over $15 trillion. And the fact of the matter is that our public debt has become the public curse of which Madison warned us.

The American people understand that this level of debt is not sustainable, and that is why they overwhelmingly support this balanced budget amendment. Today we have a choice, Mr. Speaker. Do we answer the call of the American people and embrace fiscal responsibility, or do we continue the status quo of more spending and more borrowing and more debt?

It's time for this Congress to use the tools our Founding Fathers gave us, Mr. Speaker, to amend the Constitution to save further generations from the shackles of unsustainable debt. I would urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense amendment to balance our Federal budget.

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