Cord Byrd: “here is the mirage, right here. This is the mirage, this amendment to the Constitution. The Senator says that we should…”

“here is the mirage, right here. This is the mirage, this amendment to the Constitution. The Senator says that we should write two or three more supermajority requirements into the Constitution. It already requires eight, including the three amendments--five in the original Constitution and three amendments, 12, 14 and 25. Now we are going to write some more in. This is going to head us more and more in the direction of minority control--minority control. This is a republic, which uses democratic processes. This is a representative democracy, a republic for which it stands. A republic. I just close by saying this amendment is a real gimmick--a real gimmick. It is not going to cause us to balance this budget any more than if we didn't have it; may even make it more difficult to balance the budget. Moses struck the rock at Kadesh with his rod. He smote the rock twice and water gushed forth and the people's thirst and the thirst of the beasts of the people were quenched. This amendment is not the rock of Kadesh. You won't be able to smite that amendment. The waters of a balanced budget are not going to flow from that piece of junk. I say that with all due respect to my friend. But that will not work. That's the long and the short of it, and it is misleading the people. It is misleading the people. The amendment doesn't require us to balance the budget, it only requires us to balance the estimates. So there we go again.…”