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."
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."
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