Political Quotes

“I would like to turn for a moment to the subject of a balanced budget amendment in this overall context that we are debating unfunded mandates, and soon we will be debating the balanced budget amendment because the Joint Economic Committee held a hearing this morning and took testimony from both House and Senate Members on their proposals for achieving this goal. When we talk about the Federal Government achieving a balanced budget without passing the costs on to the State and local governments in the form of unfunded mandates, the question of course, arises, how are we going to do it? In fact, some people, some Members of the Senate, have challenged those of us who support a balanced budget amendment as to how it is going to be done. They say be specific. Of course, we have said, 'You say we don't need a balanced budget to achieve balance. So why don't you tell us how you would do it? Why don't you be specific? You have had 40 years in the case of the House of Representatives and you have not gotten the job done. Give us a chance and we will do it.'”