Political Quotes

“first, I express my gratitude to the majority leader for graciously arranging at the end of the business time for me to address the issue at hand, and that is the proposed constitutional amendment to balance the budget. I, like all of my colleagues, do not know a single Member of this body who disagrees with the proposition that we ought to be balancing the budget or getting us close to it and as quickly as we possibly can. I don't think there is any debate about the desired goal shared by everyone in this Chamber and the overwhelming majority of Americans in this country for a balanced budget. They do, I think, Mr. President, share this goal for wise reason. I was asked the other day in a classroom in my home State of Connecticut by students, ``Why is balancing the budget, why is there so much talk about that? What is the importance of that?'' Maybe we take for granted that everyone understands the answer. We talk about it as if it were an end in and of itself, rather than the implications of a balanced budget for our Nation and, for that matter, people who live beyond our Nation. The reason is that balancing the budget is not a goal in and of itself. It is what it does, what it creates, and that is, of course, a sound economy and an expanded economy. It creates jobs in the country and opportunities for people that wouldn't otherwise exist if we were operating with a mountain of debt that forced the U.S.…”