Date: 2011-11-17
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I am grateful for the opportunity to allow members of the Progressive Caucus to continue this discussion and as well to continue to educate the American public. It is worth noting that part of the discussion that occurred on the floor of the House is that we have come to this point. if I might say. through a peculiar process. Some might call it hostagetaking. but certainly it is a process that has skewed. if you will. the regular order of this Congress. This little book. the Constitution of the United States. that can fit into a document of this size. even though it is found in law books and many major largesized books in the Library of Congress. hopefully convinces the American people of the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. It is noteworthy that they did not include a balanced budget amendment in the first group of amendments called the Bill of Rights. And even as they proceeded. they took the challenge of speaking to any number of issues. the freeing of the slaves in the 13th. 14th. and 15th Amendments. giving the right to vote finally in the 15th Amendment. suggesting that there should be no obstacles to voting. They went on to the 24th Amendment to indicate that there should be no poll tax. the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. But never did they feel the necessity to talk about a balanced budget amendment. The reason. I believe. that they cast their lot on the responsible thinking of Members of Congress is because that is what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to be responsible Members of the United States Congress with no intervening body. no layered approach. no handcuffing of our deliberation. And thats what a balanced budget amendment is all about. Youve just listened to a portion of our debate. We will go on into tomorrow. mind you. taking up 5 hours of time that could be dedicated to coming together around job creation. The underlying premise of this bill. Mr. Speaker. is that twothirds of this body. twothirds of the other body. and threequarters of the States must consent to a balanced budget amendment. Thank goodness that our Founding Fathers made amending the Constitution so difficult. And that is because they wanted us to be thoughtful. So when we think of the amendments that are in this book. this little book that starts off with "We. the people." a part of the Declaration of Independence. and then the beginning part of the Constitution says that we have come together "to form a more perfect union." theyve made it that challenging so that we could be thoughtful in our moving amendments. Maybe for those of us who are in certain types of church families. whether it be Baptist or the underlying overriding general Protestant structure. we know that there are pastors. ministers. reverends. board of trustees. a board. or maybe a deacon board. there is some sort of policy board. and then there is a congregation. The reason why I mentioned the faith community is because we can get very sensitive about how our places of worship are run. how the business part of it is run. And you would wonder how many congregations would welcome the overlay of some outside entityalbeit formed by membersthat was over the pastor. that was over the board of trustees. that was over the congregation. Thats what we have done and forced ourselves to do with the intervening supercommittee that was put together by the concept of needing to raise the debt ceiling and then adding into it another hot pepper pot. and that is. of course. having to be forced to pass a balanced budget amendment. I want to refer my colleagues again to a headline in a local paper. SHEILA JACKSON LEE cant slow down the Republican balancedbudget amendment freight train. Its not necessarily because it was my name. but thats just what we have experienced. a freight train. I have no doubt that there will be a strong vote tomorrow. I am hoping that the debate will generate enough thought to cause many of my colleagues to reflect on whether or not we could. in the regular order. do some of the suggestions that have been made. Taxation of investment transactions. where many who are well vested and who have experienced the bounty of this land would be willing to contribute and to understand how we should move forward. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts. another revenuegenerator that would. I believe. increase the opportunities for reducing the debt. Getting rid of the mighty. if you will. bungled opportunity to help seniors. becoming a gigantic handout budgetary fiasco. Medicare part Dask every senior when you visit them at their senior centers. are they begging for the closing of the doughnut hole? But more importantly. are they trying to get relief from Medicare part D? Give them relief. close the doughnut hole. and you will find a huge amount of money going into the Treasury. Going back to the Affordable Care Act and implementing the public option and allowing the United States to negotiate the cost of medications. prescription drugs under Medicarejust watch the debt go down. down. down. So I want to recite. as I did on the floor of the House. the words of Chairman Ben Bernanke. the chairman of the Federal Reserve. who indicated to the Committee on Financial Services. We really dont want to just cut. cut. cut. You need to be a little bit cautious about sharp cuts in the very near term because of the potential impact on the recovery. That doesnt at all precludein fact. I believe its entirely consistent witha longerterm program that will bring our budget into a sustainable position. Nowhere did he say. Well. why dont you just do a balanced budget amendment with no thinking and not being able to deal with emergencies beyond another vote by the Congress. sometimes a majority. sometimes even longer. Mr. Speaker. a balanced budget amendment was wrong when our Founding Fathers began to write the Constitution. It was wrong as the Founding Fathers wrote amendment after amendment. It was wrong to think about it in World War II. to think about it in the 1929 financial collapse. to think about it in the conflicts of the 1950s. the Vietnam war or wars thereafter. such as the Persian Gulf. the Iraq war. and. of course. the Afghan war. Kosovo. Bosnia. Albania. Libya. and places where weve been called to act on behalf of the American people in defending our honor and democracy and protecting the vulnerable around the world. It is wrong. wrong. wrong. What the American people who voted for Members of the United States Congress are asking us to do is what the Progressive Caucus is doing: It is finding a way. first of all. to submit a reasoned budget that has seen a responsible approach to addressing the needs of revenueraising and belttightening. What it is also asking is. as the Progressive Caucus is doing. drafting a major omnibus jobs bill that will incorporate a wide range of initiatives. many not costly initiatives. that will bring about jobs in America not only for those languishing 2 and 3 years unemployed but for our wonderful college graduates and others that are coming out of the institutions of higher learning. But as Dr. Jeffrey Sachs said. We have even more challenges because. although we all point to college graduates and going to institutions of higher learning. maybe I should wake up America and let you know that we have some of the lowest numbers of college graduation rates probably in the history of America: white males at 34 percent. African Americans somewhere under 20. and Hispanics 11 percent. So the balanced budget amendment is not going to invest in the human resources of America. Its not going to answer the question in our competitive reach as we compete around the world. Its not going to respond to the numbers of Ph.D.s that India is now producing. probably in years to come more so than people in the United States. or the number of masters and Ph.D.s in China. Our reach in competition is way beyond our borders. But everyone knows that Americas marketability is our genius in invention and manufacturing. our genius as it relates to prescription drugs. our genius in medical science and medicine. our genius in Silicon Valley and the little Silicon Valleys that are springing up around America. Our genius. for example. in the MD Anderson Cancer Center located in Houston. Texas. the fourth largest city in the Nation. magnificent research occurring in that institution. seeking a viable 21stcentury. 22ndcentury cure for this devastating disease. but also branching out for creative thinking in the next generation of research. That is the genius of America. We are not broke. and were certainly not broke in our genius. Let us be reminded as we debate the balanced budget amendment that our corporations are flush with cash. Our banks are flush with cash. and countries around the world are eager to have us hold their money in the framework of loans that are being made to us. If they wish to loan to anyone. they are eager to loan to the United States. Why? Because they believe their cash is safe. So it is important that we are thoughtful in the idea of a balanced budget amendment and why now. Why are we doing a balanced budget amendment in the course of the need to do. as Dr. Sachs has said. longterm. systematic changes in how we do business in the United States of America? So just take a fact sheet on the question of the balanced budget amendment. It came about because we went to the brink of raising the debt ceiling. something that had been done many times since President Eisenhower. going forward to Presidents thereafter. many times under Bush I. the 41st President of the United States. many times under the 42nd President of the United States. William Jefferson Clinton. many times under the 43rd President of the United States. And lo and behold. an African American President ascends to the Presidency. voted on by the American people. and the debt ceiling becomes a crisis in the making. And. frankly. the pundits. economists around the world indicated it was not the question of raising the debt ceiling. It was the debacle shown around the world that the Members of Congress were not allowed to get their business in order. They were not allowed to debate this in a reasoned manner. They were strung and strangled by voices that are driven by outside party politics. in this instance the Tea Party and those who adhere to pledges governed by Mr. Norquist. So it is important that a constitutional debate be separated from the entrenched political views that would disallow a thoughtful discussion. We could have raised the debt ceiling with a thoughtful discussion. but it came with not strings but ladened with heavy steel. bricks tied to our arms and body as we walked slowly and dragged down. So we have a supercommittee. With great respect for those working. I have the greatest respect for our colleagues and wish them well. We have the requirement of a balanced budget amendment. a constitutional discussion dragged down by the requirement that youre not going to get the debt ceiling raised. Youre not going to be able to pay the bills for our seniors and our soldiers on the battlefield if you didnt hang with all of this weight to carry forth an instruction that really is not done thoughtfully. So heres what we get with the balanced budget amendment. We risk default by the United States by requiring a supermajority to raise the debt limit. It destroys 15 million jobs and doubles unemployment to 18 percent. If enacted in fiscal year 2012. nonpartisan economists with Macroeconomic Advisers. LLC. estimate that enactment of a balanced budget amendment would eliminate 15 million jobs. double the unemployment rate to 18 percent. and cause the economy to shrink by 17 percent. Remember what I said. dragged down by steel anvils tied to our legs and arms. our ankles. around our necks. This is what we will be doing tomorrow. This is what the vote will entail tomorrow. It harms seniors by cutting Medicare and Social Security and veterans by reducing their benefits. even though Social Security is solvent until 2035. requiring a thoughtful decision of how we go forward. And even though there are ways to eliminate waste. fraud. and abuse from Medicare without cutting providers. we want to go with a balanced budget amendment which could result in Medicare being cut by about $750 billion. Social Security $1.2 trillion. and veterans benefits $85 million through 2021. How many of us joined our neighbors in celebrating Veterans Day last Friday? I did. We went to the Veterans hospital and shook the hands of bedridden veterans and promised them. by giving them cards of cheer. that we would not in any way cut their benefits. These cuts will result in draconian cuts. worse than the Ryan GOP budget. It opens the doors for courts to interveneand the gentleman from Illinois may want to comment on thisin Federal budget decisions by placing the balanced budget amendment into the Constitution. It will generate enormousin fact. there will be a line to the courthouse on constitutional challenges on cutting Pell Grants and cutting food stamps and cutting housing and cutting veterans benefits. as I said. And then. of course. more than 270 organizations representing people that are the most vulnerable have begged us to unshackle the steel anvils from our legs and arms and do the peoples business. I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from Illinois.