Political Quotes

“I want deficit reduction and I am willing to work for it. That is why I supported the President's deficit reduction package in the last Congress. But while I have stood up for real deficit reduction, what I am not prepared to do is to write into the Constitution language that is more likely to lead to disillusionment and constitutional crisis than to a balanced budget. I see five flaws in the proposed amendment. First, the proposed amendment would not balance the budget, it would just say that a future Congress has to pass a law to enforce a balanced budget. Why wait? Unless and until we make the tough choices needed to cut spending or raise revenues, we will not have a balanced budget, whether or not we pass the proposed constitutional amendment and whether or not the States ratify it. We will instead have passed what could turn out to be a cynicism-deepening illusion. The proposed constitutional amendment says that starting no earlier than 2002, Congress has to have a law enacted which enforces a balanced budget. Why wait? Why wait to do the hard work of passing implementing laws and doing the actual budgeting? That's a dodge which allows some to say we are cured before we have taken the medicine. It puts a giant loophole in the Constitution to cover over congressional weakness.”