Gerald Ford

What I want to know is, is there any way to prevent a majority vote from using the Social Security trust funds as a part of reducing the deficit for balancing the budget?

Is there anything to prevent a majority from voting to include Social Security trust funds in the operation of the budget of the United States?

Well, once an amendment to the Constitution has been ratified by the States, is it not the responsibility, then, of this body and the House to implement, by law, that amendment?

I believe the Senator would agree that once a constitutional amendment is passed--and it will not take years to pass the balanced budget amendment--once a balanced budget amendment is passed and it amends the Constitution, then it is this…

But you would be able to use the funds held in trust, for example, T-bills, to balance the budget according to the budgetary professionals on your side.

By ``IOU's'' you are talking about T-bills that are paid to constituents like you and me. We might be down to the E bonds or the smaller ones but the T-bills are the IOU's in there, and we have by law sold them or loaned that money to the…

No, you quoted others saying ``looting,'' and now the Senator from Wyoming is using the words ``IOU's'' for T-bills. It is just a matter of how you express yourself.

We never got an answer from the junior Senator from Oklahoma as to whether Senator Nunn's amendment was in the last one. He says they are identical, and they cannot be identical if Senator Nunn's amendment was included. It would not have…

And it is the same question you asked the Senator from North Dakota. The reason we did, they were excluding Social Security. We had a firm commitment they were excluding Social Security. Now we have a guarantee that you are going to use…

I regret, once again, the junior Senator from Oklahoma has resorted to a personal attack and distortion of my record on the balanced budget amendment.

The only question I was concerned about is that originally we had four or five individual votes and then that would have been included in a total package, with the coupling of maybe a poison pill or two there, that the President may not…

Rather than have four or five votes and then have a vote on the whole package, including the coupling as the Senator said, that we could have the stand-alone votes--I think we are very close to making some kind of agreement.

I do not want my service station operator to be jumped on when we say you did not get the 4.3-cent reduction tomorrow or next week. It is at the rack. So I am trying to protect them. My figures--and I always stand corrected because…

I said--and I regret that he misunderstood me--that we have the right to offer an amendment or amendments--I said plural--and that we wanted to be sure that the consumer received the 4.3 cents and not the big oil companies that he…

Would the Senator say that includes collective bargaining and wages and hours worked and things of that nature under your proposal?

The Senator says this is the first time that we have ever used gasoline taxes for the general fund.

You want to talk about the President. There was a history of a $300 billion deficit when President Clinton took over. It is now $140 billion, down 4 consecutive years--4 consecutive years--after you built it up over almost $5 trillion. You…

I apologize for taking so much time here, but I think what we are getting into is important. There is no way under the 4.3-cent gasoline tax any assurance that the consumer will get it. So all we ask is let that proposal stand alone and we…

But I like the team concept of working together, making the assembly line work better, put out a better product, make more profit for the employer. But if you take this out, if you pass this bill, as I understand it, as my lawyers tell me…

But 96 percent of all businesses now, I understand, have the team concept, but what they do is try to improve the assembly line, to try to improve, so that the nuts and bolts ought to be here on the right instead of on the left. The Ranger…

So I will not object. Why do we need to change the law when these people you are talking about now are on a team?

I believe, honestly and sincerely, that he knows how to operate to be sure that Social Security funds are not used. He says he only wants to use them for calculation. He does not touch the fund, the taxes; he does not touch anything. If…

I understand that. But we do know that if the leaders would make a decision and give us the time for a stand-alone vote on it, these two items would not be on the immigration bill. And as we have seen both sides do in the past, you take an…

The Senator from Wyoming understands better than most why the minimum wage amendment is being placed here. That is about the only place we can get a chance to do it. He understands that well. And also the sense of the Senate on the…

I believe the majority leader made a mistake. I think he realized he made a mistake. And we should not attempt to gag anyone here on the Senate floor.