Asa Hutchinson: “I will respond briefly to my good friend, the Senator from Wisconsin, regarding the political will and courage for the…”

“I will respond briefly to my good friend, the Senator from Wisconsin, regarding the political will and courage for the Senate, House--the Congress--to simply balance the budget. We heard that in the State of the Union Address: "Pass a balanced budget and the President will sign it." We have heard that referred to repeatedly from the other side of the aisle. I stand next to 28 years of budget books, over 50 volumes that I think bears mute evidence to the lack of political will and courage in Congress and the evidence that we simply won't do it without constitutional discipline. In 1986, my brother, who now serves in the House of Representatives, was running for this body, the U.S. Senate. The balanced budget amendment the previous year had been defeated in this body by one vote. So that was a very big political issue in the campaign that year. Over and over again it was said, "We don't need the balanced budget amendment. We simply need the courage to do it." So now, 11 years later, with over $1 trillion in additional debt, we hear those same recycled arguments brought before the U.S. Senate again.”