Kent Conrad: “I have come to the floor to commend the Senator for what I think is an excellent amendment, precisely the kind of…”

“I have come to the floor to commend the Senator for what I think is an excellent amendment, precisely the kind of amendment we ought to consider and we ought to support today. Mr. President, the Senator from Nebraska has offered an amendment which says simply and clearly and powerfully, that if we are going to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, something that I support, that we ought to match our words and our deeds. That is precisely what the Senator from Nebraska has put before this body. Mr. President, that is what the underlying legislation is all about. Matching words with deeds. Holding Congress accountable. Having Congress follow the laws that it writes. Nothing could be more important with respect to a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution than that we actually start to write a balanced budget. Not just pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and then do the same old thing and not start to actually balance the budget. The easiest thing in the world is to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and then do nothing to start balancing the budget. I cannot think of anything that would be more destructive of public trust than to engage in that kind of cruel public hoax.”