Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, today I am reintroducing the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. When we were in deficit and when we were in surplus, I have always said, if we could adopt one fundamental reform to the way the federal government does business, this is it. The fiscal events of the last few years have again demonstrated the need for this long-term, fundamental, permanent reform.
For many Americans, one of the signs of our deep respect for the Constitution is our acknowledgment that, in exceptional cases, a problem rises to such a level that it can be adequately addressed only in the Constitution - by way of a Constitutional amendment.
From 1998 through 2001, Congress balanced the federal budget. These four budget surpluses in a row, for the first time since the 1920s, set the modern record for balancing the federal budget. The first Republican Congresses in 40 years made balancing the budget our top priority, and did what was necessary, reaching across the aisle and working on a bipartisan basis. We ran surpluses and began the process we needed to pay down the national debt. This in turn promised, among other things, to help us safeguard the future of Social Security.
Then events intervened.
A return to budget deficits was caused by an economic recession and a war begun by terrorist attacks. Even before taking office in 2001, President Bush correctly foresaw the coming recession and prescribed the right medicine - the tax relief that has bolstered the economy and has saved and created jobs. The current economic recovery, in turn, has prevented even worse federal budget deficits.
The return to deficit spending can and should be a temporary phenomenon. We are rebounding from the recession of 2001 and the body blow to the economy caused by the war with terrorism.
We must do whatever it takes to win that war. Providing for the self-defense and survival of our people and our nation is the most fundamental responsibility of the federal government. That principle has been reflected in every significant version of the Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment, in exceptions for war and imminent military threats. Historically, that principle was followed even when balancing the budget was the norm, because the U.S. government always has borrowed when necessary to fight and win a war.
Beyond that, we must keep all other federal spending under control, so that we return, as soon as possible, to balancing the budget.
In other words, the return to deficit spending will be a temporary problem only if we make a permanent commitment to the moral imperative of fiscal responsibility.
We always did, and always will, need a Balanced Budget Amendment to our Constitution.
Even in the heady days of budget surpluses, I always maintained the only way to guarantee that the federal government would stay fiscally responsible was to add a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
Before we balanced the budget in 1998, the government was deficit spending for 28 years in a row and for 59 out of 67 years. The basic law of political temptation - to just say "yes" - was not repealed in 1998, but only restrained some, when we came together and briefly faced up to the great threat to the future posed by decades of debt.
Now, the government is back to borrowing. And for some, a return to deficit spending seems to have been liberating, as the demands for new spending only seem to be multiplying again.
That is why, today, I am again introducing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution and calling upon my colleagues to send it to the states for ratification.
The amendment I introduce today is the same one I sponsored in the 108th Congress. This is essentially the same as the amendment that came within a single vote of the two-thirds necessary for passage, twice in two previous Senates. In addition, this amendment would not count the Social Security surplus in its calculation of a balanced budget. Those annual surpluses would be set aside exclusively to meet the future needs of Social Security beneficiaries.
It's a new day, a new year, and a new Senate. We have the opportunity of a fresh start and, hopefully, the wisdom of experience. Today, with the first piece of legislation I am introducing in the 109th Congress, I call on the Senate to safeguard the future, by considering and passing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution - a Bill of Economic Rights for our future and our children.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of this joint resolution, proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, appear in the Record with my statement.