Where Bob Dole Stands on Balanced Budget

Our Growing National Debt is a National Crisis 

America now has a national debt of more than $5 trillion dollars. That's enough money to buy a new car for every man, woman, and child in the country. In other words, every baby born in America today starts off nearly $20,000 in debt. 

Balancing the federal budget is essential, absolutely essential, to real and lasting economic growth. In 1995, the federal government paid over $230 billion in interest on the national debt. Today, nearly 40 cents of every dollar the federal government collects in personal income taxes goes to pay interest on the national debt. We now pay nearly as much in interest as we do for all law enforcement, education, environment, energy, transportation, agriculture, and technology programs combined. And every dollar spent on interest is a dollar that cannot be spent on making our streets safer, our environment cleaner, or our schools stronger. 

During the Clinton Administration alone:

• Federal spending increased by $163 billion between fiscal year 1993 and 1996. 
  

• Domestic spending has surged 23 percent since fiscal year 1992. 
  

• The national debt has increased $840 billion -- and is expected to reach $5.48 trillion in fiscal year 1997.
  

We cannot continue to let this growing burden of debt crush the hopes and the dreams of our children and our grandchildren. That's why one of the defining objectives of Bob Dole's career in the Senate was a balanced budget. 

Bill Clinton Opposes a Balanced Budget Amendment 
As a candidate, Bill Clinton promised a national television audience that if he was elected, he would balance the budget in five years. No ifs, ands, or buts. 

Clinton broke that promise almost as soon as his hand came off the Bible. As President, Bill Clinton has fought a balanced budget every step of the way: 

• In 1995, he vetoed the first balanced budget in a generation.

• In 1994, 1995 and 1996, he led an all-out war to defeat the Balanced Budget Amendment. 

• From 1993 to 1996, he did not propose a single plan that would realistically balance the budget. 

• From 1993 to 1996, the debt has grown by $840 billion.
  

The Dole-Kemp Economic Plan Will Balance the Budget by 2002 
Bob Dole has led the Senate for decades in fighting for fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. In 1971, Bob Dole sponsored his first Balanced Budget Amendment. And last year, Dole sent the first balanced budget in a generation to President Clinton -- only to watch as Clinton vetoed it. 

In the early days of a Dole-Kemp Administration, the Balanced Budget Amendment will come once again before Congress. This time it will pass. From there it will go before every state legislature in America with the full support of the President. It swiftly will become the law of the land. A Dole-Kemp Administration will stop reckless deficit spending once and for all -- for the good of this generation and all generations that follow. 

A Deficit-Free America: Lower Interest Rates 
And the advantages for the present generation are dramatic enough. The effects of eliminating the federal deficit will be profound and immediate, felt in every household in America. Just consider interest rates. Today, interest rates are a heavy drag on our economy; they are the "stealth tax" everyone pays on top of our income tax bills. Our balanced budget plan will end that stealth tax. Interest rates will fall. According to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, this alone will: 

• Save the typical family $36,000 on an average home mortgage.

• Save the typical family $1,400 on ordinary student loans. 

• Reduce the cost of a typical car loan by $700.

A Better America 
With Bob Dole as President, the government will be forced to do what every American family does -- balance its books. A Balanced Budget Amendment will force the government to live within its means. And taxpayers will save billions of dollars through lower interest rates.