mr. chairman , democracy is sweeping the world and we should be proud that our country has become the greatest force for dignity of men and women in history .  but if you look back at history , at past democracies , you will see that many collapsed because they voted by majority to go into debt .  athenians and the french republics , the budding democracies in latin america , all collapsed in debt , which led to dictatorship .  but that should never happen here .  this is a hard line budget , because the threat to freedom is also overspending , debt and instability .  in america , the federal government made a basic promise in the 19th century to provide for the common defense .  in an age including the war on terror , this promise to defend america is very expensive .  it is expensive to send armies to afghanistan or to stand watch across the demilitarized zone in korea .  but we must do this , and we must fully support americans in uniform .  in the 20th century , the federal government made a second promise , to ensure retirement security for americans who worked hard and played by the rules .  the social security and medicare programs face real challenges as the baby-boom generation retires .  we are now expecting the number of people under social security and medicare to rise from 40 million to 90 million .  social security recipients used to live , when roosevelt created the program , an average of only 11 months , but now people are on social security on average 22 years .  so the size of meeting the retirement security promise is extremely large , in fact beyond the current means of this government .  we are commanded to be fiscal conservatives to meet the needs of our common defense and the 20th century 's promise of retirement security .  we can not start new programs , because we should honor these promises first .  some say we should borrow more , but we already borrow too much and we have seen past democracies drown in debt .  some would like us to raise taxes , killing economic growth , but we can not kill economic growth .  our growing economy right now is already yielding more tax revenue to meet the nation 's needs , but for the foreseeable future those new dollars should be used to support americans in uniform and to already honor the retirement security promises that the federal government has made .  our chairman has done a good job , a budget that stands for restraint , that continues the course of a free people being free , that grows our economy .  we could say yes to everyone .  we could say yes , and then we would be much more popular in the short run .  but in the long run there would be more debt , a smaller economy , a smaller future for our children .  i am for less debt , rather than more .  i am for more economic growth , rather than less .  i am for honoring the basic promises the federal government has made to provide for the common defense and the retirement security of older americans .  that should not be done on borrowed money , on borrowed time .  it should be done with a growing economy .  it is under this restraint , with this discipline , that this budget comes before the house , and we should honor that work .  