Political Quotes

“No. We do not. I say to my friend, he asked that knowingly. But I must tell you it is very interesting. Because the question is even more than that. It is how do you get rid of the CBO director? Whomever it is, it has to be a person. So write it into this Constitution. Right now the Senate majority leader and the Speaker of the House appoint the CBO director. He can be removed by the passage of a simple resolution by either House. What are we going to provide? Are we going to have a political way to get rid of them? Every 4 years are we going to rotate this person? It is an invitation to politicize the Congressional Budget Office, an arm of the Constitution. In terms of balanced budgets, if you concluded that you wanted a recession trigger in the proposal of the Senator of Illinois, you could include it in implementing legislation in the proposal of the Senator from Illinois as I understand if you want to write that kind of thing in. Finally, the Reid amendment would weaken the Presidency. I will have more to say tomorrow when I address the policy nature of the Simon- Craig amendment that could invigorate the power of the Presidency in enabling legislation. But this would weaken the Presidency, which I doubt over the long run will help us achieve a balanced budget amendment. In a sense, it is trivializing the Constitution by writing specific exemptions, mandates, and authorities that are better left for statute.”