Cliff Stearns: “I will not yield. Let me just say that going back 220 years, our Founding Fathers had the foresight to mandate a…”

“I will not yield. Let me just say that going back 220 years, our Founding Fathers had the foresight to mandate a two-thirds majority vote on certain priority issues. This is something not brand new we are bringing to the Congress here in April 1996. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and John Jay would be turning over in their graves if they saw that we had a $5 trillion debt in this country. James Madison, a vocal supporter of majority rule, argued that the greatest threat to liberty in a republic came from unrestrained majority rule, and that is why they proposed two-thirds majority for conviction in impeachment trials, expulsion of a Member of Congress, override a Presidential veto, quorum of two-thirds of the States to elect a President, consent to a treaty, proposing constitutional amendments. There were seven of these that were already in the Constitution when they wrote the document, and since then three more. I submit that to prevent any further debt, we must pass this resolution.”