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Hatch Calls On Congress to Enact a Balanced Budget Amendment to Constitution
Utah Senator Says, “Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is not just a constitutional imperative. It is essential to the long-term fiscal health of this country.”
WASHINGTON – With America’s debt over $14 trillion and climbing, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, today called on Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to rein in the nation’s ever-mounting national debt during a speech on the Senate floor. Hatch is the lead sponsor of S.J.Res.10, a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that bring down Washington’s runaway spending by requiring the government to balance its budget, limiting the growth of government spending, and requiring supermajorities for tax increases.
The following are excerpts from his speech:
On Senate Republican Efforts to Balance the Budget:
“All 47 members of the Republican caucus unified behind a single Balanced Budget Amendment, S.J. Res. 10. I was proud to work with my colleagues — individuals of varied political beliefs from across the country — to draft this amendment that announced loudly and clearly where the Senate Republican caucus stands. Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is not just a constitutional imperative. It is essential to the long-term fiscal health of this country.”
On the State of the American Economy:
“In large part due to QE2, Americans are facing higher gas prices and higher food prices that are cutting into their family budgets. And now there is increasing pressure for a QE3, which would only accelerate commodity inflation. And looming over all of this is our national debt. We have a national debt of nearly 14 and a half trillion dollars. That actually understates things. This is how USA Today calculated it earlier this week. Let me read that again so that it sinks in. U.S. Owes $62 Trillion. That is staggering. Numbers like this are frightening to the American people. They are numbers fit for a banana republic, not the United States of America. And they are numbers that demand a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
On How Excessive Federal Spending Threatens Liberty:
“The bottom line is that federal spending has become a threat to liberty. The inability to rein in federal spending is effectively undermining the promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Preamble. Federal spending is a threat to this nation’s free men and women, slowly turning citizens into servants and stewards. To restore the Constitution’s promise — and the classical liberty that the Founders sought to secure — we must amend the Constitution, and we must do it now. We must amend the Constitution by voting on S.J. Res. 10, passing it, and sending it to the people of the states for ratification. The people that I serve in Utah are demanding this action, and I know that citizens across the country are demanding it as
well.”
On Unsustainable Entitlement Programs:
“The bottom line is that some members of Congress, and certainly President Obama, cannot be trusted to control federal spending in the long term. Consider the issue of entitlement spending. Medicare and Social Security are bankrupt. The failure to put forward a plan that would address their permanent spending shortfalls is quite simply a plan for the destruction of Medicare and Social Security. The Democrats’ commitment to the entitlement status quo is a commitment to national bankruptcy.”
On Washington’s Failure to Rein in Spending:
“The experience of the last few decades and the last few weeks demonstrates the need for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Our spending is out of control. And President Obama and many of his allies refuse to address this spending crisis in a meaningful way. All they have in their bag of tricks are tax increases, but the tax increases that would be necessary to fill this deficit hole would crush the liberty and the livelihoods of the American people. Rather than doing the serious work and making the tough decisions necessary to right our fiscal ship — rather than engaging in true leadership — the President seems content to focus on the next election and leave the hard decisions for a later day.”
Below is the text of Hatch’s full speech delivered on the Senate floor today:
Mr. President, our economic situation grows more dire by the day. Our unemployment rate has gone back up to 9.1 percent. Last month, only 54,000 jobs were created. Housing prices remain in free fall. Since 2007, home values have declined by more than they did during the Great Depression.
In large part due to QE2, Americans are facing higher gas prices and higher food prices that are cutting into their family budgets. And now there is increasing pressure for a QE3, which would only accelerate commodity inflation.
And looming over all of this is our national debt. We have a national debt of nearly 14 and a half trillion dollars. That actually understates things. This is how USA Today calculated it earlier this week. Let me read that again so that it sinks in. U.S. Owes $62 Trillion. That is staggering. Numbers like this are frightening to the American people. They are numbers fit for a banana republic, not the United States of America. And they are numbers that demand a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I do not say this lightly. Our Constitution has served us well, working over more than two centuries to guarantee and extend the liberty and equal rights of American citizens. But from time to time, it has become apparent that the Constitution needs to be amended.
The Founders themselves contemplated this eventuality, giving to the people’s representatives in Congress and the people of the states the opportunity to amend the Constitution. And it has become clear that our spending situation is so grim, and the President and some members of his party are so unwilling to rectify it, that a constitutional amendment is in order.
The bottom line is that federal spending has become a threat to liberty. The inability to rein in federal spending is effectively undermining the promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Preamble.
Federal spending is a threat to this nation’s free men and women, slowly turning citizens into servants and stewards. To restore the Constitution’s promise — and the classical liberty that the Founders sought to secure — we must amend the Constitution, and we must do it now.
We must amend the Constitution by voting on S.J. Res. 10, passing it, and sending it to the people of the states for ratification. The people that I serve in Utah are demanding this action, and I know that citizens across the country are demanding it as well.
One of the first things that I did at the beginning of this Congress was introduce S.J. Res 3, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. It received the support of 32 members of the Senate. But what is really remarkable is what happened a few weeks later. All 47 members of the Republican caucus unified behind a single Balanced Budget Amendment, S.J. Res. 10.
I was proud to work with my colleagues — individuals of varied political beliefs from across the country — to draft this amendment that announced loudly and clearly where the Senate Republican caucus stands.
When I introduced that amendment at the end of March, I was honored to stand by the Senate’s Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, my colleague from Utah, Senator Mike Lee, as well as my colleagues Senators Cornyn, Toomey, DeMint, Rubio and many others who took a stand for putting constitutional restraints on federal spending and restoring the Constitution’s original checks and balances.
I was honored by the support this amendment received from groups committed to taxpayers and limited government. Here is a list of just some of the groups supporting S.J. Res. 10 —60 Plus, Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Americans for Limited Government, the National Taxpayers Union, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, the Pass the BBA Coalition, the National Taxpayer Limitation Committee, the American Council for Health Reform, Grassroot Voices, and Ending Spending.
But most of all, I was honored to be serving my constituents in Utah, who told me that this was a fight worth having. I am under no illusions that this is going to be an easy fight.
The bottom line is that some members of Congress, and certainly President Obama, cannot be trusted to control federal spending in the long term. Consider the issue of entitlement spending. Medicare and Social Security are bankrupt.
The failure to put forward a plan that would address their permanent spending shortfalls is quite simply a plan for the destruction of Medicare and Social Security. The Democrats’ commitment to the entitlement status quo is a commitment to national bankruptcy. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to what the Social Security and Medicare Trustees had to say about those programs.
In 2010, Social Security ran a $49 billion cash deficit. It is now permanently in the red, with the federal government forced to use general revenues to make up for these shortfalls. The trust fund will be completely exhausted in 2036.
And what about Medicare? Not to be outdone, Medicare’s Trust Fund is now permanently in the red as well, and will be completely depleted in 2024. These numbers are jarring. They demand a serious and adult response. But what is the reaction of Democrats to these numbers? For too many, the strategy is one of Deny and Smear. Deny there is a problem. And Smear those who attempt to fix this spending crisis.
The President’s budget was a joke. His do-over budget was nothing more than a speech with some vague details. Before Memorial Day, the Senate’s Democratic Leadership busied itself attacking Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget rather than offering up one of their own.
At a time when leadership is called for, President Obama is missing in action, and complicit in the demagoguery of his surrogate at the Democratic National Committee. And there is a reason that Democrats are reluctant to offer any way forward out of this mess.
It is quite simple really. They refuse to cut spending and reform entitlements. But they also refuse to tell the truth about the tax increases that would be necessary to balance the budget their way.
The Democrats are content to be the tax collectors for the welfare state, but they will not acknowledge what this entails — massive tax increases on America’s families and small businesses.
In his original budget, President Obama proposed $1.6 trillion in tax increases on all segments of our economy. But in spite of these tax increases, his budget got nowhere close to balance.
Before Memorial Day, Democrats attacked Chairman Ryan’s budget, and offered up as an alternative roughly $21 billion in tax increases on oil companies. To borrow from John McEnroe, THEY…CANNOT….BE….SERIOUS!
$21 billion in tax increases when we have $62 trillion in unfunded obligations. When we have $62 TRILLION in unfunded obligations? What a joke.
The experience of the last few decades and the last few weeks demonstrates the need for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Our spending is out of control.
And President Obama and many of his allies refuse to address this spending crisis in a meaningful way. All they have in their bag of tricks are tax increases, but the tax increases that would be necessary to fill this deficit hole would crush the liberty and the livelihoods of the American people.
Rather than doing the serious work and making the tough decisions necessary to right our fiscal ship — rather than engaging in true leadership — the President seems content to focus on the next election and leave the hard decisions for a later day.
That is the best case scenario.
The worst case scenario is that certain liberals are content to force a full-blown fiscal crisis — one that would make the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 look like the minor leagues — and then hope that all of the pressure will be to institute a Value Added Tax that will be a permanently open spigot, filling the coffers of the bloated federal government .
Either of these scenarios is unacceptable.
The fact is, we are running out of time. The country needs to act now. Fortunately, in the absence of presidential leadership the Constitution provides an opportunity for Congress, along with the people of the states, to amend the Constitution and solve our country’s systemic fiscal imbalance even when the President refuses to do so.
Getting a Balanced Budget Amendment passed is going to be an uphill climb.
I know all too well the Democrats’ calculated resistance to serious efforts to reduce federal spending. In 1997 a Balanced Budget Amendment that I introduced fell short by just one vote in the Senate. Fourteen years later, our national debt stands at over $14 trillion, threatening our economic future, reducing our global competitiveness, and jeopardizing our national security.
Yet the resistance to a Balanced Budget Amendment is probably even stronger among Democrats now than it was in 1997.
Nonetheless, I am hopeful. If the citizens and taxpayers of Utah are in any way representative of the people in the rest of the country, it is clear that they have had enough.
The people of this country are not going to stand by any longer and wait for Congress to fix this situation. They understand that the Constitution must be amended in order to revive the Founders’ original limits on the size of the federal government.
Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is not just a constitutional imperative. It is essential to the long-term fiscal health of this country.
In the coming weeks, the fight over the debt limit is going to come to a head.
It is going to be a long hot summer.
But I am itching for a fight, and I will go to the mat for this Balanced Budget Amendment.
In this country, the people are sovereign, and it is well past time that we give them a Balanced Budget Amendment to ratify.
I urge my colleagues who have not done so already to support S.J. Res. 10, and I look forward to debating and voting on this amendment — and passing it — later this summer.
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