Cord Byrd

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in an oration delivered on August 31, 1867, said: This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. As the Senate considers the proposed constitutional amendment offered by our…

this is a most felicitous time. The ides of March, so dark with shadows of Caesar's doom some 2,041 years ago, is safely past, and that welcome harbinger of the season's turn, the vernal equinox, is close at hand. On March 15, 44 B.C…

Today, we reach another milestone in the Senate's continually unfolding history. Let us pause for a minute to reflect on a fiftieth anniversary of great institutional significance. On March 17, 1947, for the first time, the Congressional…

I was disappointed to note that the United States, alone among its allies on the United Nations Security Council, vetoed a proposed resolution urging Israel to abandon its plans to build housing for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. This…

last week the Israeli leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to authorize a politically volatile housing project for Israeli settlers in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. This disappointing act has thrown into confusion the…

I should say parenthetically at this point that I voted for the balanced budget amendment in 1982. I had not thought much about it at that time. I had not studied it. But following my vote for that amendment on that occasion I decided to…

I strongly support the adoption of the amendment introduced by the senior Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Hollings]. On the face of it, it is a straightforward, simple proposition that attempts to preserve the integrity of the laws that…

I thank him for reciting this jewel by a great Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, who I believe lost the next election after he had made that statement. He may have foreseen that, but nevertheless he made the statement. It still lives, and it…

Mr. President, when the delegates gathered in Philadelphia in May of 1787, much was riding on their deliberations. No one can read the speeches and notes from the Constitutional Convention and miss the tenseness in the air as the men who…

from a practical standpoint, education is fundamental to a society interested in securing a better future for generations to come. But, on a more personal level, I can think of few things in life that provide for the kinds of pleasure…

My purpose in proposing that the 4.3 cent gas tax be placed into the Highway Trust Fund is to better enable the Congress to reverse the very destructive trend of federal disinvestment in our nation's transportation infrastructure. By…

Because that represents the major portion of the Federal debt that we owe today, the massive tax cut, the massive military buildup, and there you have it. I will repeat the figures once more and then I will take my chair. When Mr. Reagan…

Those bills come to this Senate and, under the Constitution, the Senate may amend revenue-raising bills, as in all other bills, and appropriations bills. So, let us not say that the Senate escapes its responsibility.

I sought to get Mr. Reagan to postpone the third year of his proposed 3-year tax cut until such time as we could see what the budget deficit was, until such time as we could see what was happening to the economy. No, he wouldn't do that…

Listen, the Senator is trying to obfuscate something. I am not going to let him do that.

I have been begging forgiveness for that mistake for years. But he said, as I recall, under that tax cut the revenues were increased. I hope I didn't misstate it.

Mr. President, I say that to say this: The speech by the distinguished Senator from New Jersey was one of the most thoughtful, most thought provoking, most reasonable speeches that I have heard on any subject, and particularly on the…

The tax cuts were responsible for $2.1 trillion in losses, the tax cut for which I voted. And other causes of increased Federal debt are likewise shown: Entitlements, defense, interest, and so on-- failed S&L's. But the Senator was wrong…

But the proponents of this constitutional amendment don't bother to enlighten their listeners and readers to the fact that the States have capital budgets which they don't balance every year. So now the distinguished Senator from New…

It might be well to consider how much of that massive pile of books was debt that was encountered under the Reagan-Bush administrations.

The glittering gewgaw of glorified garbage that the proponents are seeking to nail into the Constitution. But, Mr. President, my friend, Mr. Hatch, says, oh, we do not print the money. Well, that is true but that is not an answer to what…

But, Mr. President, I was guilty. I supported Mr. Reagan on his tax cut, and to that extent I am sorry.

I thank my friend. How can my friends on the Republican side--and let me say that I have great admiration for the Senator from Utah. He has stood here day after day and labored in the vineyard and carried the burden of the arguments. I…

Slightly under $1 trillion for all of the administrations down to the last minute of the fiscal year for which Mr. Carter was responsible, and then comparing that figure, which was under $1 trillion, with the massive debt of $4.316…

I was a part of the problem when I voted for the Reagan tax cut, and I have kicked myself in the seat of the pants ever since. That was----