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WASHINGTON -- As the nation's debt continues to climb at an exponential rate -- $14 trillion and counting -- Senator Orrin Hatch has called on Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution that would curb government spending.
Sen. Hatch is the lead sponsor of S.J. Res. 10, a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment is intended to limit the growth of government spending by forcing Congress to have a balanced budget. Additionally, the amendment would require a supermajority before any tax increase.
"Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is not just a constitutional imperative. It is essential to the long- term fiscal health of this country," Hatch said.
Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is not just a constitutional imperative. It is essential to the long- term fiscal health of this country.
–Orrin Hatch
The call for a constitutional amendment is a result of the ever-growing problems with the United States economy. In May, the unemployment rate increased to 9.1 percent, which is an increase from the 8.8 percent unemployment rate in March.
Beginning with the downturn of the economy in 2007, housing prices have continued to fall to unprecedented lows, forcing many to enter bankruptcy. Hatch informed Congress that since the economic fallout, home values have declined more than they did during the Great Depression.
Additionally, the federal government launched a QE2 -- Quantitative Easing -- which allows the government to use open market operations to buy up bonds and other financial assets to increase the nation's money supply.
"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," Hatch said. "And looming over all this is our national debt."
Hatch conveyed to Congress that federal spending has become a threat to liberty -- to the American people and to the country as a whole.
Federal spending is a threat to this nation's free men and women, slowly turning citizens into servants and stewards.
–Orrin Hatch
"The inability to rein in federal spending is effectively undermining the promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's Preamble," Hatch added. "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. The people that I serve in Utah are demanding this action, and I know that the citizens across the country are demanding it as well."
Adding to the rhetoric of the ailing economy, Hatch criticized Medicare and Social Security for contributing to failing programs bankrupting the nation.
"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 destruction of Medicare and Social Security," Hatch said. "The Democrats' commitment to the entitlement status quo is a commitment to national bankruptcy."
Hatch concluded his address to Congress by criticizing President Obama and his allies for a lack of true leadership in such a troubled state of the union.
"Our spending is out of control. And President Obama and many of his allies refuse to address this spending crisis in a meaningful way," Hatch affirmed. "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 decision for a later day."
E-mail: jfurlong@ksl.com
