Tom Carper: “I printed this amendment for Senator Chafee, myself, and Senator Feingold, who have been among the champions for the…”

“I printed this amendment for Senator Chafee, myself, and Senator Feingold, who have been among the champions for the pay-go principle. I think if things are worth doing, we ought to pay for them. If it is worth investing more money in our efforts in Iraq, we ought to pay for it. If it is worth funding special education, we ought to pay for that. I think that argument goes for both meritorious causes. The thing about pay-go is that it calls for a 60-vote margin in order to bust the budget and the caps. We used to operate under these guidelines throughout the 1990s, when we went from huge deficits to balancing the budget. Pay-go lapsed in 2001. We need to restore it. One of the issues being discussed and debated now in the conference on the budget resolution is whether to reestablish the pay-go principle. It ought to be restored and reestablished. Today, rather than being denied the opportunity to offer this amendment because of the procedures we are operating under, we would be able to cite the Budget Act pay-go principles and automatically have a 60-vote procedure before us. Having said that, we are operating under a rule that will--in this instance at least--require 60 votes, so that threshold of a 60-vote supermajority will apply even without pay-go. I will vote for this amendment. I just wish we had the pay-as-you-go principle in place so we would not be denied the opportunity to offer this amendment and we could offer it routinely.”