Jim Nussle: “I do not question the motivation of any Member up here who has spoken in favor or against this particular piece of…”

“I do not question the motivation of any Member up here who has spoken in favor or against this particular piece of legislation. In fact, if my colleagues just look around the Chamber at the people who have spoken here today, these are the Hall of Famers. I would say to my friend from Delaware, these are the Hall of Famers in balancing the budget and making sure that we enforce it, and I would start with that. We have enforcement mechanisms within this budget, within the budget process currently. Are they perfect? No. We all agree that we want to improve the current budget process. Now the question that we are posed with here today is, is this the time and is this the bill? This is not the time because we are currently in the middle of the negotiations. We are currently in the middle of the process to get to a balanced budget. We do not change the rules in the middle of the game. As much as I would love to at different times during legislation, we do not make that kind of judgment right now during the heat of the battle. We have tried that in the past. Those mechanisms have never worked.”