Bill Text: FL S1142 | 2012 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Federal Balanced Budget Amendment

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Failed) 2012-03-09 - Died in Budget [S1142 Detail]

Download: Florida-2012-S1142-Comm_Sub.html

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       Florida Senate - 2012                             CS for SM 1142
       
       
       
       By the Committee on Judiciary; and Senator Hays
       
       
       
       
       590-02069-12                                          20121142c1
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to propose to the states an amendment
    4         to the Constitution of the United States that requires
    5         the federal budget to be balanced each year.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, a balanced budget amendment to the United States
    8  Constitution has been proposed in the United States Congress,
    9  and
   10         WHEREAS, as of December 30, 2011, the national debt was
   11  more than $15.2 trillion, a cost of more than $48,500 for each
   12  man, woman, and child in the United States, and it is growing at
   13  an alarming rate, and
   14         WHEREAS, for the 2011 fiscal year, the Congressional Budget
   15  Office reports a federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, or a
   16  national deficit equal to nearly 10 percent of the country’s
   17  entire economic output, the third-largest share of entire
   18  economic output this country has experienced since 1945, and
   19         WHEREAS, the total national debt outstanding exceeds the
   20  current gross domestic product of the United States, as of
   21  January 2012, and
   22         WHEREAS, this spending has created national security
   23  concerns that the total interest expense on the debt due by the
   24  Federal Government for Federal Fiscal Year 2010 alone,
   25  approximately $414 billion, is almost eight times greater than
   26  the 2010 fiscal year budget of the Department of Homeland
   27  Security of $55.3 billion, and
   28         WHEREAS, equally as concerning, foreign-owned debt
   29  accounted for approximately 31.5 percent of the total federal
   30  debt as of May 2011, and foreigners are, therefore, in a unique
   31  position of authority with respect to the United States, and
   32         WHEREAS, credit agencies have already downgraded the
   33  nation’s AAA credit rating due to the size of its indebtedness
   34  and these very large federal budget deficits, deficits that
   35  could potentially further destabilize government finances and
   36  financial markets, and
   37         WHEREAS, millions of people in this country have made
   38  difficult choices discerning between wants and needs and have
   39  taken the responsible steps to curb personal spending in these
   40  difficult economic times, NOW, THEREFORE,
   41  
   42  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   43  
   44         That the Florida Legislature respectfully petitions the
   45  Congress of the United States to propose to the states an
   46  amendment to the United States Constitution that requires the
   47  federal budget to be balanced each year.
   48         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   49  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   50  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   51  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   52  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.