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Show MlRSpOrt by Senator arm Hatch I ir.rm t I proposed amendment that would require, constitutionally, constitution-ally, a balanced federal budget. bud-get. That amendment, I believe would restore responsibility and accountability to the spending methods of Congress. Con-gress. If Congress Insisted on new programs and increased in-creased federal spending, it would have to vote for higher taxes -deficit spending would be illegal. If those programs and the taxes to pay for them are accepted by the voters, fine. Ifnot.alotofCongress-men Ifnot.alotofCongress-men may find themselves out of work. The net result would be a budget process that takes the political ease out of deficit de-ficit spending. Instead of adding all spending programs pro-grams that seem important or politically expedient Congress would have to prioritize which programs get tax dollars, and less im -portant pork -barr ell programs pro-grams could be eliminated. Thus, Congress would be kept from bowing to every special Interest group that comes along, and instead would pay more attention to a special Interest group it too often neglects:American taxpayers. If you're out shopping and you see something you really like, there's something you would probably consider before be-fore you thought about whether it would fit the door or if It would match the drapes. You'd think, "How am I going to pay for it?" Over 90 percent of those Utahns who responded to a recent survey said financing is their first consideration when they're contemplating a major purchase. "I'd think of how much I was going to spend before I even went shopping, "said one respondent, respon-dent, Mrs. Kathy Jones of Tooele. "If you spend over your budget, you're not going to have enough for what you need." That important economic prlnciple.slmple though It is is missing from the spending practices of the United States government. Costs are often not the primary consideration when new programs are debated, according to a report on government spending practices prac-tices done by the Senate Judiciary Jud-iciary Committe. "Spending decisions have become increasingly in-creasingly divorced from the availability of revenues, "the report said. Why? It's often too hard for Congress to say no to a special Interest group that want new programs or subsidies, sub-sidies, and it's even harder to raise taxes to pay for them. So Congress takes the easy route, and pushes the government deeper and deeper into the red. Deficit spendlng,once avoided by the federal government as much as most Utah households avoid It today, is entrenched in Washington. In fact, In the past 50 years Congress has balanced the budget eight times, which Includes only once in the last 20 years. The result is a $1 trillion national debt-double debt-double what It was just five years ago that requires interest in-terest payments of $80 billion bil-lion a year. Interest payments pay-ments are now third largest Item In the federal budget. This recent history of fiscal irresponsibility is behind be-hind my strong support of a |