Statement by Pat Meehan on Need for a New Year’s Resolution from Congress to Balance the Budget, Eliminate Wasteful Spending

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January 6, 2010

Given the current economic situation, many families across the country made New Year’s Resolutions to spend more pragmatically, to balance their household budgets, and to reduce their credit card debt. Congress needs to the same thing and make a resolution to eliminate its own wasteful spending, to balance the federal budget, and to eliminate the federal deficit.

The current leadership in Congress has put our country on a path toward fiscal ruin, amassing a one year budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2009. This is not a sustainable path for our country. The free-spending ways of the current Congress is running up a massive bill that will be shouldered by our children and grand-children. Because Congress cannot live within its means today, future generations will pay for their excess in the form of higher taxes, greater inflation, a weakened dollar, and enormous IOU’s that will need to be paid back to China and other foreign countries.

If elected to Congress, I will for the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One such proposed amendment has garnered significant interest and support in Congress: H.J.Res. 1, a Joint Resolution introduced by Congressman Bob Goodlatte. The amendment:

• Prohibits outlays for a fiscal year (except those for repayment of debt principal) from exceeding total receipts for that fiscal year (except those derived from borrowing) unless Congress, by a three-fifths roll call vote of each chamber, authorizes a specific excess of outlays over receipts.
• Requires a three-fifths roll call vote of each chamber to increase the public debt limit.
• Directs the President to submit a balanced budget to Congress annually.
• Prohibits any bill to increase revenue from becoming law unless approved by a majority of each chamber by roll call vote.
• Authorizes waivers of these provisions when a declaration of war is in effect or under other specified circumstances involving military conflict.

While I do not take the process of amending the U.S. Constitution lightly, it has become clear that Congress is incapable of living within its means or exercising the necessary fiscal restraint,” said Meehan. “49 states have similar balanced budget requirements for their state legislatures – most spelled out within state constitutions. We need the same requirement on the federal level.

While both parties deserve blame for the skyrocketing national debt, the problem has grown worse under the Democrat-led Congress. Over the past two years, Congress has increased spending through the appropriations process by 16.8 percent totalling $157 billion – a figure that excludes stimulus and entitlement spending. In contrast, real-family incomes dropped by 3.6 percent in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available.

If you agree with me on the need to balance the federal budget, please sign on to my petition to Congress calling for the introduction and passage of a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2011 and the approval of the Balanced Budget Amendment.

We need to let Congress know that it is out of touch with the concerns of the American people. We need to change the way Congress operates, and that includes requiring them to make the tough decisions on government spending and begin to exercise fiscal restraint.

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I agree, Pat.  Congress should make a New Year's Resolution to introduce and pass a balanced budget for FY2011 and cut costs, and spend less in 2010.