Cord Byrd: “Mr. President, when all is said and done, our friends on the other side of the aisle have not answered the question put…”

“Mr. President, when all is said and done, our friends on the other side of the aisle have not answered the question put to them by Senator Sarbanes. He brought up the language in Section 5 of the constitutional amendment to balance the budget: The Congress may waive the provisions of this article for any fiscal year in which a declaration of war is in effect. The provisions of this article may be waived for any fiscal year in which the United States is engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and serious military threat to national security and is so declared by a joint resolution, adopted by a majority of the whole number of each House, which becomes law. Of course, then the proponents of the amendment, not wishing to focus on section 5 and the questions asked by the distinguished Senator from Maryland related thereto, wish to talk about the seriousness of the budget deficits and the seriousness of the debt, and so on. We are all concerned about those deficits and the debt. There is no disagreement as to the desired goal to reach a balanced budget and to reduce the deficits and ultimately to begin paying the principal on the debt and hopefully reducing the interest that is paid on that debt. The proponents do not want to focus on this section 5.”