Political Quotes

“When the Reagan administration deficits began, I proposed, along with Senator Grassley and Senator Kassebaum--and he mentioned this earlier--that we freeze every single solitary program in the Government, anything the Government had to do with, every single solitary one, that we not spend a penny more, not even accounting for inflation, than we spent the year before. Although I wrote the plan with my two Republican colleagues, we received very little support from either side of the aisle. I think our high-water mark 3 years later was 38 votes. I also supported the Gramm-Rudman process that has been much maligned here in the Congress. It has not worked, but I argue that absent that things would even be worse than they are today. Gramm-Rudman put caps on the amount of deficits allowed and required a balanced budget. But the requirements changed every year, and the only constant in the process was the annual increase in the national debt and the guarantee of annual deficits. Those are not the only things that we have tried. Over 10 years ago, I offered my own constitutional amendment to balance the Federal budget--and you might expect me to say, parenthetically, I think it was a superior document to the one we are about to vote on this year. Up through my vote for Senator Reid's balanced budget amendment last year, I have held that this is an issue worthy of constitutional consideration.”