U.S. State Secretaries of State

Oh, I like the word discipline. I like it. I like the word discipline. I have no problem with the word discipline. Let us discipline ourselves now. Let us not wait until we garble and scar the Constitution waiting on some magic discipline…

I have many reasons for opposing the constitutional amendment to balance the budget. I am not against amending the Constitution. I have voted for five amendments to the Constitution since I have been in the Senate.

The framers saw a need for amendments at some point in time, so they provided a way to do that in the Constitution itself. But I am opposed to amending the Constitution to write fiscal theory into it, fiscal policy. I am also opposed to…

May I suggest to both of my good friends, the Senator from Idaho and the Senator from Illinois, why do we not just quit talking about the balanced budget amendment and get on with balancing the budget? The President has proposed an $83…

I point out to the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, who perhaps has not read the 12th amendment lately, that that is what that amendment is all about. There is no Vice President.

The courts are going to decide that. It does not make any difference what my intent is or what the intent of the House Member was who was addressing himself to that question, or what he intent of any other Senator is. It is the court, and…

Yes. That is just the question. Why subject this country's security to the necessity of a supermajority vote when the Nation's very life is in danger, the security of the American people are in danger, the security of the troops in the…

But now we are going to be in a very different situation if this Constitution is going to be amended. And it will not be amended for just a year or so; it will be changed from now until kingdom come, unless the American people and Congress…

This Senator is saying simply that the Congress ought to continue to be involved under the present Constitution which has provided very well for congressional actions to meet all emergencies that have occurred throughout the 206-year…

Let me ask the Senator. Suppose the President needs a new tax. Suppose he needs to raise taxes to meet that serious military conflict, that serious military threat to the United States. Suppose he needs to increase taxes. Then what? Would…

For 206 years it has not been required that there be a majority of the whole number in each House to pass a resolution.

So I want to say to my friend, as Napoleon might have, he would say let us stick with the question. Let us stick with section 5. That is the question that has been raised this afternoon, in the main, on this floor. So, is the Senator…

When the Senator is around here long enough he may find himself confounded. If we get into a situation where the Nation's security is in the balance, we may all feel confounded by the necessity of acting expeditiously, because we have the…

The invasion of Haiti started. The President called it off--in midair, almost. I was not supportive of that invasion.

There was not any approval in the case of his invasion of Haiti. The invasion actually started.

What they are, in essence, saying is that you have to have 51 votes in the Senate--no matter how many take a walk; you have to have 51 Senators, not including the Vice President, who would be willing to stand up and vote for a resolution…

What it also means is that in a situation such as the distinguished Senator from Maryland has raised--and he has focused on a section which I am going to reach a little later, but he has done it much better than I would have done it. What…

Let me tell the Senator, 175 votes could defeat it; two- fifths could defeat it.

Well, there is enough to go around, but in the case of the 1993 budget deficit reduction package, I would shift the blame in large measure, to those who did not support that deficit reduction package. They sat here in the Senate. They sat…

Senator, ``You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense.'' The Senator spoke of the omnibus continuing resolution. I have a little grandson who would say, ``Do you know what?'' Well, do you know what? On that…

Well, President Carter did. President Carter once submitted a balanced budget. I sat right over here in room 211. I was then the majority leader of the Senate. I sat over in room 211 on a weekend, brought my little paper bag, with some…

But the President, Mr. Reagan, never once submitted a balanced budget to the Congress.

The Congress reduced Mr. Reagan's budgets in some of those years, in some of the Reagan years. Going back to 1945, the accumulated requests of all the Presidents exceeded the accumulated appropriations by the Congress--exceeded the…

Number one, the Senator has stated that all of the Reagan budgets were dead on arrival. I call the distinguished Senator's attention to the fact that some of those budgets were subjected to a vote in this body or the other body or both and…