For Immediate Release: March 27, 2012
Sen. Dan Newberry
State Senate urges Washington to begin work on balanced budget
amendment
In an effort to stem the nation’s ever-increasing
debt, the State Senate has given approval to a measure calling
on Congress and the president to reduce spending and initiate
a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget.
Sen. Dan
Newberry, R-Tulsa, is principal author of Senate Concurrent
Resolution 33, co-authored by Rep. Glen Mulready, R-Tulsa. Newberry
said the federal government’s inability to stop adding to
the national debt is one of the greatest threats facing the country
today.
“Right now, our nation’s national debt is more than
$15 trillion and growing daily. The interest payments alone are
more than $200 billion each year,” Newberry said. “Clearly
the president and Congress lack the political will to stop spending
money we don’t have. A constitutional amendment would force
them to balance the budget and reduce spending.”
Newberry noted that Oklahoma, like most other states, has a balanced
budget mandate. However, he noted, the federal government has
not produced a balanced budget since 2001, and just last year
raised the debt ceiling to prevent the nation from facing default
for the first time in history.
“This is an unsustainable course. Every penny that is being
paid on that interest alone is money we are taking from hard-working
Americans and that much less money going into our economy,”
Newberry said. “For the sake of our children and our grandchildren,
it is time for all of us to demand a constitutional amendment
that will force the federal government to reverse direction before
it is too late.”
SCR 33 now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
