Dan Coats: “I rise today in opposition to the Reid substitute amendment. The Simon-Hatch-Craig balanced budget amendment is the…”

“I rise today in opposition to the Reid substitute amendment. The Simon-Hatch-Craig balanced budget amendment is the product of hundreds of hours of debate; thousands of hours of testimony; years of consensus building in Congress and in the States. The Reid constitutional amendment has not had the benefit of any similar careful review. Over the last several days, Members have come to the floor and expressed their grave concerns about amending the Constitution with the Simon amendment. I admit that amending the Constitution is serious business--the most serious act of which the Congress is capable. But I wonder if any of those Senators who have been reluctant to amend the Constitution will now find it acceptable to vote for the Reid constitutional amendment. And, let there be no mistake. A vote for Reid is a vote for the status quo or worse. The Reid amendment calls for the balancing of the operating expenses of the Federal Government but exempts so-called capital investments. By keeping capital investments out of the mix, the amendment creates a huge loophole that will likely cause deficits to rise. It would allow the Federal Government to fund programs to its heart's content by classifying them as capital investments and thus moving them off-budget. Moreover, the Reid substitute does not even define capital investment, and there is no commonly held Federal budget concept of this term.”