Political Quotes

“I would like to introduce legislation to amend the U.S. Constitution to require the Federal Government to achieve and maintain a balanced budget. I have introduced in each Congress, at the beginning, a similar joint resolution during the time that I have served in the U.S. Senate. I might say that the first bill, or resolution--the first legislative act that I introduced when I came to the Senate was to introduce a bill for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced Federal budget. I believe the opportunity to adopt this legislatively and to submit it to the States for ratification is now at hand. In 1982, the Senate debated it at great length and a vote was taken and there were 69 votes. As Members of the Senate know, a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget requires a two-thirds vote. So there were two additional votes over the required number back in 1982. Since that time, we have had three votes in the Senate relative to the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. One year there was one vote shy, which was 66 votes. And then on another occasion we got 63 votes. In each of the occasions in which the Senate has acted pertaining to the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, the House has failed to pass it by the required two-thirds vote. But this time I believe the House will pass it.”