Senator Mike Lee and Senator Rand Paul on Glenn Beck
Mar 7, 2011
Senator Mike Lee and Senator Rand Paul discuss balancing the budget, oil prices, cutting spending, and Libya with Judge Napolitano on the Glenn Beck Program
Senator Mike Lee Discusses Federal Spending and Gas Prices on Freedom Watch
Mar 7, 2011
Senator Mike Lee explains how high gas prices are a result of the Obama administration's suicidal restrictions on domestic oil production.
Fox News Interview with Uma Pemmeraju
Mar 5, 2011
The voters in 2010 wanted more than $4 billion in cuts.
Why we need a balanced-budget amendment
Mar 4, 2011
As originally published by the Washington Post
Amending the Constitution is not easy, nor should it be. That the Constitution has been amended just 27 times demonstrates that the process is reserved for only the most important circumstances. Our nation's critical need to balance the federal budget rises to that level.
Any effort to amend the Constitution will start in the Senate Judiciary Committee. So far, five other Republican members of the committee, on which I serve, have introduced or co-sponsored a balanced-budget amendment.
This week, 58 senators - including all 47 Republicans, 10 Democrats and Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent - recognized this urgent need and expressed support for a balanced-budget requirement. I have put forward a proposal that would require a balanced budget every fiscal year; limit federal spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product; and require a two-thirds vote in Congress to increase taxes, raise the debt limit or run a specific deficit.
A similar measure in the House has more than 120 co-sponsors.
This is a vital issue and one on which I am committed to lead the effort in the Senate.
The vast majority of states have constitutional or statutory mandates to balance their budgets each fiscal period. Even during this tough economic climate, most states have been able to prioritize their obligations and make tough choices. The federal government should be expected to do the same.
First, a balanced-budget requirement will ensure we do not continue to drive our country further into debt by trying to do all things for all people. There are some programs we simply cannot afford, but deficit spending makes it too easy not to say no.
When Republicans and Democrats are forced to spend only what we take in, Congress will not be able to sidestep tough decisions about our national priorities.
Second, balancing our budget today will avoid even tougher choices tomorrow. Proponents of investments in areas such as education, infrastructure and energy should welcome a balanced-budget amendment because it will help make money available in the future for these priorities. Under the president's recent budget proposal, which runs a deficit every year, payments on the national debt will quadruple over the next decade, crowding out important resources.
Delaying the inevitable only increases the severity of the cuts to important programs.
Finally, a structural budget restraint is necessary to overcome Congress's insatiable appetite to spend. Both parties deserve blame for irresponsible spending. A balanced-budget amendment is the only way to ensure that Congress acts in the best interest of the country, regardless of who is in power.
Critics worry that an amendment that requires a two-thirds vote to circumvent under any circumstance may prove problematic in the case of an emergency. But history shows that in real emergencies, it is not difficult for Congress to produce a supermajority.
Three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the House passed an emergency supplemental spending bill, 422 to 0. The Senate passed it 96 to 0.
In contrast, Americans were told that President Obama's stimulus bill was a necessary response to an economic emergency. After passing on pure party-line votes in the House (246 to 183) and Senate (60 to 38), the bill failed to create the kind of job growth the president promised. The stimulus would not have passed had it been held to the standards of our proposal, which required a two-thirds vote, and that would have saved taxpayers nearly $1 trillion.
I am ready and willing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see that a balanced-budget amendment clears the Judiciary Committee and receives a full vote on the floor of the Senate. My proposal is strict, enforceable and holds the federal government to a necessarily higher standard.
Other senators have good ideas, and I am open to considering and incorporating additional proposals as long as a meaningful balanced-budget amendment remains in effect.
The federal government has run out of excuses. I agree with the president that the federal government can and should live within its means. A balanced-budget amendment will turn that rhetoric into a reality.
The writer is a Republican senator from Utah.
Senator Mike Lee discusses his vote against budget continuing resolution with Neil Cavuto
Mar 3, 2011
The continuing resolution continues to fully fund billions upon billions of dollars of wasteful government spending.
Senator Mike Lee Discusses Vote Against Continuing Resolution with Gerri Willis
Mar 3, 2011
We continue to trim the bushes while the house is on fire.
Lee to Oppose Spending Proposal
Mar 2, 2011
WASHINGTON - Today, Senator Mike Lee of Utah announced that he would vote against a proposed spending bill intended to fund government activity for two weeks. The Senator said the continuing resolution did not reflect the message the American people sent last year to make significant cuts to government spending and reduce the national debt.
"The proposal is a disappointing failure on the part of both parties to seriously address the economic meltdown we face from our massive deficit and growing national debt," said Lee. "While some have been patting themselves on the back for proposing $4 billion in so-called ‘cuts’, in reality, this bill fully funds billions upon billions of dollars in wasteful, duplicative programs that should be eliminated, reduced, or reformed.
"Support for the ‘continuing resolution’ means continuing Congress's unfortunate record of driving this country into debt. If a $1.6 trillion deficit and $15 trillion national debt do not force this Congress into bold action, then I have little patience for procedural games that kick the can an inch or two down the street.
"This is not the kind of legislation the people of Utah sent me to Washington to support and I cannot in good faith do so."
Senator Mike Lee Questions Ken Salazar in a Natural Resources Committee Hearing
Mar 2, 2011
Senator Lee questions Ken Salazar about the authority of the Dept. of Interior to designate wild lands.
Lee Delivers Maiden Speech, Urges Balanced Budget Reform
Mar 1, 2011
WASHINGTON—Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) today delivered his first official speech on the Senate floor, focusing on the need to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Lee has been a staunch advocate for structural budgetary restraints that will hold Congress accountable for how it spends taxpayer resources. The speech included a call to move past the traditional partisan divides over spending and make the tough choices to reduce the country’s massive national debt.
“In the past there has been a great debate between, on the one hand, some Republicans who have been unwilling to cut some programs - to consider in any context cuts in the area of, say, national defense. You've had others who perhaps from the other party have been unwilling to consider any cuts to any entitlement program.
“But we're now faced with a scenario in which both sides of the aisle can understand that our perpetual deficit spending habit places in jeopardy every single aspect of the operations of the federal government.
“We now face a moment when both liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, regardless of what they most want to protect most in their federal government, have to realize that what they most want to protect is placed in grave jeopardy by our current spending practices.
“I'm troubled by the fact that as we approach debate surrounding a continuing resolution, this week a continuing resolution is likely to operate for just a few weeks to keep the government funded, we're still talking about adding on an annualized basis to our national debt at $1.5 trillion a year.
“I think the American people deserve better. I know that they demand better. And some of the things that we saw in the 2010 election cycle portends something greater than what we're going to see in the 2012 election cycle. Americans want Congress to balance the budget and they want us to do something about it, more than just talking about it.
“Benjamin Franklin used to say, ‘He'll cheat without scruple, who can without fear.’ I think the congressional corollary to that might be that Congress, which can continue to engage in perpetual deficit spending, will continue to do unless or until the people require that Congress to put itself in a straitjacket. That's the straitjacket we need. That's why I'm proposing this [Balanced Budget] Amendment.”
Senator Lee has recently introduced a “sense of the Senate” amendment to a bill being debated in the Senate today that would put Members on record as supporting or opposing a nonspecific Balanced Budget proposal.
Lee’s specific constitutional amendment, SJ Res 5, cosponsored by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, includes the following three pillars: (1) requiring a balanced budget for each fiscal year, (2) limiting federal spending to no more than 18 percent of GDP, and (3) requiring a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress in order to increase taxes, raise the debt ceiling, or run a specific deficit in a particular year.
