Rich Neal: “for the seventh time since Republicans assumed the helm of this institution, we are taking up a constitutional amendment…”

“for the seventh time since Republicans assumed the helm of this institution, we are taking up a constitutional amendment on tax increases. If I said it once, I have said it 10 times, or at least seven times; this is the wrong amendment. Why do we not channel our energies into simply balancing the budget? That is the responsible position to take. Do you know what? We could pass a balanced budget here without any difficulty whatsoever. The country would be better off. Let us talk about the ``gimmickry of the week'' that we witness here time and again. Remember not long ago when we had a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that they were all hollering about on the other side? Well, it strikes me as being odd that we were able to balance the budget without disturbing the Constitution. Why we are back to deficit spending in large measure is because of the tax cut. That is why we are here today. The President has proposed $48 billion more for defense. He is going to get much of what he wants. He has proposed $38 billion for homeland security. He certainly is going to get much of what he wants. In this institution our response is, ``Let us cut taxes, the estate tax. Let us move to an artificial gimmick on raising taxes in this institution.'' Well, let us say very easily today that perhaps the Director of the Budget had it right. He now says, a presidential employee, by the way, that moving the government back into balance by 2005 ``is very iffy.…”