Dianne Feinstein: “Well, for some 6 months, under the leadership of Senator Chafee and Senator Breaux, 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats sat…”

“Well, for some 6 months, under the leadership of Senator Chafee and Senator Breaux, 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats sat down around a table and said, ``look, we know we have to balance the budget. How are we going to do it, and what does each party need to do?'' Believe it or not, we produced a document that came five votes short of being adopted by this body. With five more votes, we would not have needed a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, and we would have balanced the budget within 7 years. I believe it is still possible to do succeed. I support a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. I even sponsored one, with a number of my colleagues, last year. But, in my view, if Congress does not have the will to actually balance the budget, it may, at some point, need castor oil. And that is all this amendment is.”