On the recordJuly 19, 2011
There are some things that we want to change, and there are some things we don't want to change. One of the things we don't want to change capriciously is the Constitution of the United States of America. I think many of us think it is a corruption to the Constitution to write in provisions that say you can only balance the budget the way the Republicans want to balance the budget; you can only do it by capping things at 18 percent even if that means deep cuts to Social Security and deep cuts to Medicare. {time} 1800 We think it's a corruption of the Constitution to write into the founding document a provision that says it's easier to cut Medicare and Social Security than corporate tax breaks. That is in here. We keep hearing 49 out of 50 States. Forty-nine out of 50 States do not write those kind of provisions into their State Constitutions--a very few do--and for good reason: They're bad ideas, they're bad ideas now, and they will be bad ideas in the future which would constrain a Congress from balancing the budget in a way that reflects the will of the American people. I reserve the balance of my time.
