Barney Frank: “I congratulate the previous speaker on the intellectual honesty of his statement when he noted that many who voted for…”

“I congratulate the previous speaker on the intellectual honesty of his statement when he noted that many who voted for the 1997 Balanced Budget Act will now be standing up here on both sides disclaiming any responsibility for its consequences. It is, in fact, inconsistent to maintain those caps but then go home and tell people how much you love community development, block grants and want to do more, and want to be for more of this or more of that. To some extent, what we are dealing with here is a matter of intellectual honesty. I believe the intellectually honest thing to do is to admit a mistake. I think what we have here is a little infallible envy. Virtually every Member understands in his heart of hearts or her heart of hearts that the 1997 Balanced Budget Act was based on inaccurate information. I must say I thought it was wrong at the time. As I get older, I learn that one of the few pleasures that improves with age is saying I told you so. I knew it was dumb then. Some of my colleagues may be later converts to it, but look at the consequences. As I told the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), I had a little sympathy for him describing this bill. As he explained it, he did a good job as he did, given what he was given to work with. He and the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan) did their best, but I thought of that story then of I felt sorry because I had no shoes and then I met a man who had no feet.”