By: Creighton H.C.R. No. 18
 
 
 
 
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         
         WHEREAS, For much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the
 
  United States has operated on a budget deficit, and it is estimated
 
  that the deficit for 2010 was $1.3 trillion; and
         
         WHEREAS, The higher the deficit, the more the government must
 
  spend on paying interest on the debt; compounding the problem is the
 
  use of deficit spending, which becomes a responsibility for future
 
  generations of Americans to assume without their consent; and
         
         WHEREAS, Congress has attempted to set budgetary restraints
 
  for itself in the form of a balanced budget amendment; the proposal
 
  won wide support in 1995, failing by only one vote in the senate;
 
  and
         
         WHEREAS, This growing burden of public debt is a threat to the
 
  nation's economic health, and action must be taken to restore
 
  fiscal responsibility; a balanced budget amendment would require
 
  the government not to spend more than it receives in revenues and
 
  compel lawmakers to carefully consider choices about spending and
 
  taxes; by encouraging spending control and discouraging deficit
 
  spending, a balanced budget amendment will help put the nation on
 
  the path to lasting prosperity; now, therefore, be it
         
         RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas
 
  hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
 
  propose and submit to the states for ratification an amendment to
 
  the United States Constitution to provide for a federal balanced
 
  budget; and, be it further
         
         RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official
 
  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
 
  the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
 
  senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
 
  Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
 
  resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
 
  memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.