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90_SR0017
LRB9001622CBcbA
1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The annual federal budget has not been balanced
3 since 1969, and the federal public debt is now more than $5
4 trillion, or $20,000 for every man, woman, and child in
5 America; and
6 WHEREAS, Continued deficit spending demonstrates an
7 unwillingness or inability of both the federal executive and
8 legislative branches to spend no more than available
9 revenues; and
10 WHEREAS, Fiscal irresponsibility at the federal level is
11 lowering our standard of living, destroying jobs, and
12 endangering economic opportunity now and for the next
13 generation; and
14 WHEREAS, The federal government's unlimited ability to
15 borrow raises questions about fundamental principles and
16 responsibilities of government, with potentially profound
17 consequences for the nation and its People, making it an
18 appropriate subject for limitation by the Constitution of the
19 United States; and
20 WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States vests the
21 ultimate responsibility to approve or disapprove
22 constitutional amendments with the People, as represented by
23 their elected State Legislatures, and opposition by a small
24 minority repeatedly has thwarted the will of the People that
25 a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution should be
26 submitted to the States for ratification; therefore, be it
27 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
28 OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge that the Congress of
29 the United States expeditiously pass, and propose to the
30 Legislatures of the several States for ratification, an
31 amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring,
-2- LRB9001622CBcbA
1 in the absence of a national emergency, that the total of all
2 federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal
3 year may not exceed the total of all estimated federal
4 revenues for that fiscal year; and be it further
5 RESOLVED, That said constitutional amendment should
6 prohibit appropriations and estimated revenues from being
7 reconciled through means of a tax increase; and be it further
8 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
9 forwarded to the President of the United States Senate, to
10 the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United
11 States, to each member of the Illinois Congressional
12 Delegation, and to the Secretary of State and the presiding
13 officers of both Houses of the Legislatures of each of the
14 other States in the Union.