Sen. Bob Graham: “Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate my good friend and colleague from Illinois providing me this time to discuss the…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate my good friend and colleague from Illinois providing me this time to discuss the balanced budget amendment, primarily from the perspective of its significance as an intergenerational contract. But before I proceed to that, I would like to rise in defense of an American who hardly needs to be defended, the great third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. In an earlier debate, it was stated that Thomas Jefferson, had he been in attendance at the Constitutional Convention, would have proposed an amendment to the Constitution of the United States at that time very similar to the one that we are now debating. Thomas Jefferson said: I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our Government to the genuine principles of its Constitution. I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.”