Support Spending Limit Amendment To The Constitution

Floor Speech

Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, Federal spending is out of control, and the American people know it. Our Nation is facing a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. In the past 5 years, Federal spending has climbed from a historic average of 20 percent of the American economy to nearly 25 percent today, and it is rising.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the first 5 months of this fiscal year, the Federal Government ran a deficit of $655 billion, keeping the country on track for a record $1.6 trillion deficit this year.

After years of trying to rein in Federal spending under Republican and Democrat administrations, the American people want fiscal discipline and they want new ideas. That is why Congressmen JEB HENSARLING, JOHN CAMPBELL, and I introduced the Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Under our amendment, absent a declaration of war or a two-thirds vote in the Congress, Congress would be required to adhere to its historic percentage of the economy.

For the last 60 years, we have only taken 20 cents on the American dollar out of this economy. It is time we put that limit in the Constitution of the United States. If we fail to act, our children will be less free, less prosperous, and less secure. It is time for a spending limit amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

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