Lateefah Simon

Mr. President, this is a sad day in the history of our Nation. We have narrowly missed the opportunity to give generations to come a brighter future. Presented the chance to break our addiction to economic gluttony, by the narrowest of…

I would be pleased to respond, because George Washington operated this country very frugally. Then, in his Farewell Address, George Washington warned do not get the country into debt. We followed that advice, really followed it up until…

let me just say if we were to rephrase this, I would say the first paragraph we are talking about ``among the federally created programs'' would have language that is more clear. If my colleague from California wants to vote against the…

But one of the things those who founded our Government talked about is taxation without representation. And one of the reasons that Thomas Jefferson favored a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is he said one generation should…

I will take your word it is nine rather than eight. But the point is, this is not something startlingly new. Those provisions are in to prevent Government abuse. And I think we have had Government abuse.

Let me add that the treaty was signed in Paris in May. In those days you did not find out what had happened for a while. When word got to Washington, DC, in July--and I apologize to my colleague from North Carolina--when word got to…

All right. And the reality is we do not know--when we come to September 30, we do not know what the deficit is, or what it is precisely.

We have built into this the flexibility to take care of the kind of unknown kind of situations that you are talking about.

I do not want Social Security to be in that situation. I want us to feel an obligation to make sure that we fund Social Security.

Is it not true that there are eight provisions in the Constitution right now requiring a supermajority?

let me just add, we have a contract not only with people who are on Social Security today. We have a contract with those three groups that Senator Feingold mentioned in the future. And how is the Social Security trust fund protected? It is…

I believe we do have a contract with people who have signed up for Social Security. As a matter of fact, I do not remember when it was, but about 10 years ago, when I introduced a balanced budget amendment, I had an exemption for Social…

Let me go over this again. The recommendation of several people, including Alan Greenspan and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Fred Bergsten, a recommendation that I concur in, is that we build in about a 2-percent surplus when…

First of all, as he knows, I have great respect for him. He is an extremely valuable Member of this body. I will tell you what I think is the error of the Senator's assumption here. First, we can build in, as has been recommended by former…

the administration has come under much criticism lately for its alleged failure to provide leadership on issues that are important to the nation. The 1996 Immigration Initiative announced by the administration this week, however, belies…

if we had changed the language so it just says ``debt'' instead of ``publicly held debt,'' there would be questions about that. Our intent is clear. When my good friend--he is my good friend--from Michigan implies that we are not going to…

I think those terms are fairly clear. We had testimony on that very question from the former Attorney General of the United States, Bill Barr, who believes that language is very clear.

I want to slightly differ with my friend from Idaho in that I think, to the President's great credit, in 1993, he did come forward with a program to move that deficit down. The problem is that was a brand new President in a honeymoon…

So this talk that when we raise the minimum wage, we are really just helping the teenagers of people who are well off, that really is a myth and has no substance in fact?

Since the bottom fifth in terms of income in our country get 43 percent of the benefits from this, is it not true that if we were to raise the minimum wage as is suggested in this legislation, along the lines of what the Senator has just…

I want to touch on one other point, and then I will be leaving the floor here. The question has been mentioned about capital budgets, and that States have capital budgets. Now, frequently, States have to. But I also have to add, and I say…

Let me finish responding to your question and the question of the Senator from Tennessee. The third option is that we build in, as we have discussed in committee, because you cannot balance everything down to a dime, that in a $1.6…

it seems the obligation to have a balance at the end of the fiscal year--I would have to say someone might have a point of order at some point. If someone wanted to launch a $100 billion program, and that clearly would create a deficit…

Data Resources, Inc., says if we adopt this, we are going to create 2.5 million more jobs in this country.

We do agree, however, that we have to do it, and we need the discipline of a constitutional amendment to force us to do it. I would differ also with respect to my friend when he talks about the heavy tax burden. I am not suggesting that we…