Let me just say again in response, we will take a look at whatever is suggested. We felt the judicial amendment was not necessary, but just to make sure, because there are genuine concerns, as you have expressed and others have, I think we…

The answer is a little complicated. But, first of all I do believe that in a real recession we can get the 60 votes. We got 60 votes for unemployment compensation extension on an emergency basis because of the problems that we have had…

What a great lift this would be for housing, construction, industrial investment--everything.

First of all, I agree with everything my colleague from North Dakota says in terms of Social Security. I think it was a mistake when we got a unified budget. We talk about this being the 25th anniversary of balanced budgets. In fact, in…

And I will get into the court matter on my time. But the reality is you have to have some form of estimates. And the way that becomes tough--in fact, according to the Senator from West Virginia, too tough--is it takes a three-fifths…

If I may respond, first, this changes the dimensions of what you do in the Budget Committee. We are not dealing simply with a statute. The Senator and I took an oath when we stood up there to protect the Constitution. This is now part of…

Judge Bell basically says he does not think this would be a great problem. We do have, very clearly, the ability to determine who has standing. We can say there has to be 30 Members of the Congress, or whatever, so there would not be a…

My colleague is absolutely on target. The cases are very rare. There have been a few, but they are rare indeed. So the combination of that experience, plus the other amendment should really preclude any problem along this line.

Let me tell you the rationale. First, originally, when I drafted my first balanced budget amendment, I included that, interestingly. The reality is that we do have a surplus at this point right now in Social Security. I would like to…

Yes, I will oppose the amendment. I have great respect for Senator Dorgan who, on a number of things, has shown real insight, including standing up on the issue of intangible assets, which is one of those issues someday somebody is going…

The figure that the Senator is using is a figure that Senator Fritz Hollings points out we should not use, and that is net interest. There is no area of Government where we subtract the earnings before we calculate the interest. So that…

I have a letter from Charles Bowsher, the Comptroller General of the United States, dated February 18, in which, among other things, he says the deficit problem, of course, has not gone away, the forces for escalation of the deficit are…