Melvin Watt: “I have not heard anybody come here who has not expressed a commitment to a balanced budget. But the American people…”

“I have not heard anybody come here who has not expressed a commitment to a balanced budget. But the American people should know that it is really the debt, the national debt that is the drag on us. So a balanced budget is not going to get us there. It is going to take a series of surplus years to start the reduction in the national debt. I want to come at this from a slightly different angle because the real problem that I have with the balanced budget amendment... is that they jeopardize my right to have an equal vote in this institution. Every amendment that is coming before this body has a three-fifths majority of some kind in it. Everything that I stand for tells me that my vote and the votes of my constituents, based on constitutional principles, ought to be equally valued. So I cannot support a constitutional amendment that says to me that next week or next year or in the year 2002 somehow my vote in this body is going to be less valuable than another Member of this body. This three-fifths majority devalues my vote.”