Dale Bumpers: “I thank the Senator. No. 1, Mr. President, as much respect as I have for a number of Members of the Senate--and we have…”

“I thank the Senator. No. 1, Mr. President, as much respect as I have for a number of Members of the Senate--and we have some very bright people in the Senate--there isn't anybody here, really, that I want tinkering with what James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and all of the rest of those brilliant people, the most important assemblage of brilliant minds under one roof in the history of the world, did. Not only do I not want anybody tinkering with it, I do not want to adopt something as sloppily crafted as this amendment is. As Senator Byrd has said time and time again, it is not even constitution-like language. It doesn't provide for a simple majority vote to unbalance the budget in case of depression. It doesn't provide for a simple majority vote in case we know we are going to war, as we did in Desert Storm. You would not have spent an extra dollar, under this amendment, to prepare for Desert Storm. You could not spend an extra dollar to have prepared for World War II, which everybody knew was coming, if it unbalanced the budget. You talk about a minority, listen to this, Mr. President. With 435 House Members, 100 Senators, if we want to unbalance the budget, it is going to require 60 percent of both Houses.…”