Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Congress cannot absolve itself of the responsibility to balance the budget by passing a constitutional amendment. Congress has an existing constitutional duty to control the purse. If Congress has the will to balance the budget, it can do so. If it does not have that will, no constitutional amendment can be a substitute. We knew that in 1996, which I believe was the last time the Senate seriously evaluated a balanced budget amendment. While we did not pass the balanced budget amendment, we did adopt budgets and policies that created the first surpluses in decades, enabling the United States to begin to reduce its debt load. Unfortunately, that fiscal sensibility was washed away by irresponsible, unfunded Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and two unfunded wars. Once again, we find ourselves in a deep fiscal hole. We can and must dig ourselves out of it, as we did in the 1990s, by taking a balanced approach, restoring revenues, and making sensible spending cuts. But that is not a constitutional question. That is a political one. Can we, as a Congress, pass the tough measures needed to restore fiscal discipline? I have proposed a seven-point plan for reducing the deficit. Bipartisan commissions have proposed making spending cuts and increasing revenues and realistic folks from all parts of the political spectrum agree Congress needs to address revenues, as well as spending, if we are to achieve real deficit reduction.…”