Byron Dorgan: “I say this. My proposal is a proposal to similarly require a balanced budget. I think there is merit in that discipline.…”

“I say this. My proposal is a proposal to similarly require a balanced budget. I think there is merit in that discipline. But I would say this. When we alter the Constitution to require a balanced budget, I want to do it in a way that really requires that this debt clock that you brought to your hearing that day stop, dead stop; not a slow creep, but a dead stop. No more debt for your kids, my kids, no more debts for this country, so we can start paying down the debt rather than continue to increase the debt. I do not want to create a shell game here where we say, let us have a giant feast because we have balanced the budget, and then have someone, some little kid point up to that debt clock and say, ``Gee, Daddy, why is the debt clock still increasing, because Senator Hatch or Senator so and so said we balanced the budget?'' I say you and I do not have a disagreement about what we ought to be doing. We ought to balance the budget. Nor do we have a disagreement about whether there is merit to have put it in the Constitution. We have a very big disagreement about the $3 trillion in the next 20 years or so in Social Security surpluses, deciding that we ought to take those out of reach and save them for the purpose we said we are going to save them for. We have great disagreement about whether or not that is a gimmick or whether that is important for the future of this country. That is where we disagree.”