Lateefah Simon

I say to my friend from West Virginia, if we had 51 Robert Byrds in the U.S. Senate, we could do that. We do not. That is the simple reality.

I am willing to sacrifice right now, and I know the Senator from West Virginia and the Senator from Utah are, too. Unfortunately, we have 26 years in a row of history that, as a body, we have rarely been willing to do it. Oh, in 1993, you…

The Senator is correct. Economists are virtually unanimous in saying that that was a good thing. It is to the credit of President Clinton that we did that. I think history clearly shows we need outside discipline. We can even say it is a…

I said what I am required to do, if we pass this, is to sacrifice a little bit myself so they can have a better future. The GAO says if we continue down the present path we are going to have a gradual declining standard of living. But if…

let me say that there is no absolute guarantee that this will work. I think what we can virtually guarantee is if we do not pass this, we are continuing down the same slippery slope and we are not going to get things done. In 1981 I was in…

Yes. I would like to respond to my friend from Arkansas. First of all, I believe that Government can do very good things. I believe it more than my friend from Utah does. I am for a WPA program right now. I put in the Record yesterday an…

The positive elements of balancing the budget become clear in the longer run. The elimination of the deficit would relieve strain on financial markets, allowing lower interest rates and bond yields. The lower interest rates and reduced…

This is the lead story. The headline says: ``A Balanced Budget Myth Bared,'' in which the article talks about the fact that, in fact, we just do not act promptly enough to move in a recession, so to stop the balanced budget on that basis…

Mr. Bartlett writes: Without exception, stimulus programs have failed to moderate the recessions at which they were aimed, and have often sowed the seeds of the next recession. These programs have not been simply worthless, but harmful. It…

If I may respond, on the one man-one-vote case, which grew out of the State of Tennessee, there was no explicit jurisdiction claimed solely by the legislative bodies. And here we are going to claim that we have the jurisdiction. If I may…

Yes. And I will spell that out. But let me just say the Senator mentioned seniors are in the cross hairs on Social Security. Bob Myers, the chief actuary for the Social Security system for 21 years, said it is absolutely essential for the…

But my friend from Louisiana has just illustrated why we need the balanced budget amendment. It is absolutely ridiculous to be talking about a tax cut when we have these huge deficits. But we can do that because it is popular, and so we…

Yes. And we do not prohibit any kind of court involvement. But, the history of this in States that have these kind of provisions is that there have rarely been any court cases. That is the history of it. That is the history of it. The…

I just want to take 5 minutes to respond briefly to my colleague from Louisiana, for whom I have great respect. As a matter of fact, I have cited Senator Johnston as an example of why term limits are a mistake, even though he has decided…

If the Senator is expecting me to defend the Contract With America, I am not about to do that.

I do not know if she is aware that Data Resources, Inc., one of the major econometric think tanks just a few days ago came out with a statement saying, and this is in line with her talking about jobs, that if we balance the budget by the…

I would add one other point, and I think most economists are in agreement on this point here that they make. At least I have had a lot of reading on that. But the other point is where we have extended unemployment compensation--and I have…

No. We say Congress shall enforce and Congress shall implement. But we have not in terms of equity. In terms of taxation, the courts may get into a school case. There is only one case where the courts have imposed taxes on people, as far…

They are wrong. And I think, I might add, in the course of this debate the Senator will have plenty of examples of why they are wrong, and I am going to be one who will spell it out.

If the Senate should say the heck with the Constitution, we are not going to pay any attention to this--and I cannot conceive of our doing that--then it is possible in some way the courts will get involved. But it is interesting in that…

I think there are two differences. No 1, section 6, first of all, spells out ``Congress shall enforce.'' Congress shall enforce, not the courts shall enforce. Second, when we talk about equity----

It was an excellent statement and if I could respond to the question my colleague from Louisiana asked earlier about implementation language, he mentioned the 14th amendment. This amendment has two other things I think are of interest. No…

I happen to have that report here. I would just like to read this: Eliminating the budget deficit, and, if possible, achieving a budget surplus, should be among the Nation's highest priorities. Because of the accumulating burden of…

On November 14, I announced that I will not be a candidate for reelection to the Senate nor for any other office. I will be leaving with great respect for this body and with great appreciation to the people of Illinois who made it possible…

I, obviously, have not read the bill. But if we recognize the problem and work together, we can do something for the American people in this session of Congress. I commend him for his leadership.