During consideration of the Budget Resolution for fiscal 2022 (Senate Concurrent Resolution 14), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered a substitute amendment that would replace the budgetary levels in the resolution with new budgetary levels that would gradually reduce the deficit in order to achieve a budget surplus in fiscal 2026. “Five years ago, I offered a similar amendment,” Paul noted. “Had my amendment been adopted, today the budget would be balanced. Instead, we continued to borrow money, money we don’t have, and now our debt is rapidly approaching $30 trillion.”
The Senate rejected Paul’s alternative amendment to balance the budget on August 10, 2021 by a vote of 28 to 71 (Roll Call 338). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because continuing the federal spending spree will ultimately result in fiscal disaster, and most of the spending in the budget is for programs not authorized by the Constitution’s enumerated powers.
