Bill Clinton: “You know, my problems with it always were--you know, I lived under one as a Governor, and we produced 12 balanced…”

“You know, my problems with it always were--you know, I lived under one as a Governor, and we produced 12 balanced budgets, and I'm trying to get back to a balanced budget system here. My problems with a constitutional amendment were always more a question of how to manage the larger economic problems of the country. The Nation's budget is different from a State, and I just want to make sure that if we have one, it needs to be clear in terms of how--and it needs to really give us the possibility of dealing with a recession. You don't want to wind up with a Congress someday in a recession raising taxes or throwing unemployed people off health care because they're trying to get to a balanced budget. Then you could actually wind up making the deficit worse. If it sets a framework and says that in the 21st century in the economy we're going to be living in, other things being equal, we ought always to be balancing our books, I agree with that. I just don't think you--we may tie our hands more than we will achieve. So what I'm going to focus my energies on is getting the balanced budget. I don't have a vote in the Congress. My voice counts, presumably, but I don't have a vote. But I do have the responsibility to help the American people get the balanced budget, and that's what I'm going to focus my energies on.”