Duncan Faircloth: “I first want to comment on the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. It seems to be an amendment with the primary…”

“I first want to comment on the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. It seems to be an amendment with the primary purpose of stopping cutting and spending in this country. The balanced budget amendment and the unfunded mandates are closely tied. We have not even passed the balanced budget amendment and yet we are saying what great damage it is going to do to the States. We are, in effect, planning the funeral during the birth. We need to wait and see. For 30 years, that I am well aware of, we have passed law after law after law--this Congress has--that has had an irrevocable and permanently damaging effect upon the fiscal condition of the States, counties, and cities of this Nation. New taxes, new rules, and new mandates and not one time have we ever made a study, or I have even heard it suggested, that we let the States, the citizens of the counties know what we are going to do to them. For 30-plus years, we simply did it, and then it hit and they had to figure out a way to cover it. There has not been a local budget that has really been accurate in this country in 30 years, because every year, particularly the counties have had to go back and increase taxes to take care of the mandates that we have placed on them. Now, all of a sudden from the other side of the aisle, it becomes absolutely necessary that we do a definitive fiscal analysis of what effect this might have upon cities and counties and States.”