Bob Dole: “poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. That…”

“poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. That makes the Senators who want to vote for more spending and against the balanced budget amendment nervous. So instead of resolving to make the tough choices, they have put forward a balanced-budget-lite- amendment to give themselves political cover. Two weeks ago, one budget expert predicted and I quote--``There are going to be some Members who are going to have to have an alternative proposal that they can vote for in order to give them cover to come out against the Simon proposal.'' He added, ``If you just allow people to say `are you for or against a balanced budget,' you'll lose it.'' That's not Bob Dole talking--That's President Clinton's Budget Director Leon Panetta. Let's face it, this amendment is political fig leaf, and a pretty skimpy one, at that. Let no one be fooled into believing that this so- called balanced budget amendment will come anywhere close to balancing the budget. For starters, this amendment only requires that the operating budget be balanced.”