Richard Gephardt: “Members of the House, I rise in opposition to the Stenholm amendment. I want to give my regard to the gentleman from…”

“Members of the House, I rise in opposition to the Stenholm amendment. I want to give my regard to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Stenholm, who has been tireless in this effort and has been completely consistent in his voicing his concern about our deficit situation. The gentleman not only presents amendments of this kind, but, in the Committee on the Budget and on the floor, he votes for measures to cut the deficit, which is sometimes not the case. But in his case, he is entirely and always completely consistent. Let me talk about this in terms of its principles. I think the principle of an amendment is not a good idea, because I do not think and I do not think that most Members think that we can or should balance our budget each and every year no matter what. Everybody wants exceptions to a balanced budget amendment; war, recession. I believe, and I think Members probably believe, that if the economy is not working right, there is really no way to balance our budget, there is no sensible way to make that happen. In fact, the more we try to balance it, the more we will get it into unbalance.”