Max Baucus: “I speak in opposition to the pending amendment as it is based upon uncertainty, the uncertainty layered on top of the…”

“I speak in opposition to the pending amendment as it is based upon uncertainty, the uncertainty layered on top of the uncertainty is whether the trigger will be pulled. We cannot legislate certainty. We can only exercise good judgment. We, as a Congress, in these next years, have to decide what to do according to the circumstances at the time and exercise good judgment as to what we should do. Unfortunately, we have not been able to explore the full policy ramifications of this amendment. We have not been able to adequately debate the substance of this amendment. It is because we are in this time constraint where everything is rushed, and nobody has been able to look at the substance. There have been no hearings on this. First, you cannot and should not limit public debt management. The Treasury Secretary has to have discretion in debt management. Right off the top, we are tying the hands of the Treasury Secretary, for whatever reason he or she may want to borrow more, sell more securities, sell more bonds for domestic reasons or for international reasons. Secretary Rubin has said consistently that we should not tie debt management to fiscal policy. You should not do it. It is wrong.”