Porter Goss: “I commend the bipartisan teamwork of the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Stenholm] and the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith]…”

“I commend the bipartisan teamwork of the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Stenholm] and the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith] on this. Obviously it is their extra efforts and special wisdom that has got this crucial debate to the House floor. Today's discussion is a direct result of the first successful discharge petition under the new rules of sunshine, the effort of the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Inhofe] that has also paid off, and I think deliberate democracy exists today, and I think this institution is better off because of it. The bottom line is though that we have not done our jobs. In fact, there has been a deficit in the Federal Government's accounts for 56 of the last 64 years, including every year of the last quarter century. These deficits have generated a national debt of $4 trillion, now on the way to $6 trillion under the so-called deficit reduction plan of the Clinton administration. It is no wonder that 7 out of 10 Americans support a balanced budget amendment. They are tired of the Washington version of Scarlett O'Hara's famous theme line when confronted with trouble: 'I won't think about that today; I'll think about it tomorrow.' Tomorrow, of course, never arrives. That was fiction; this is fact.”