J. Exon: “How in the world could a Senator from Nebraska, after reading this work by the Wharton group, support a balanced budget…”

“How in the world could a Senator from Nebraska, after reading this work by the Wharton group, support a balanced budget amendment? Well, No. 1, I have not had a chance to study this in great detail. Obviously, the organization that prepared this is a well-established, well-known, well-respected forecasting firm. I remember using their material way back 20 years ago when I was Governor of Nebraska. So they are not a fly-by-night outfit. They have evidently done a great deal of study and work. I know not what assumptions, Mr. President, they made in preparing this material because, obviously, they had to make some. It is safe to say that what the Wharton people are pointing out here, while I do not suspect it is going to have an adverse effect on Nebraska to the extent that they outline, is that the constitutional amendment to balance the budget will cause some pain, suffering, and hardship in Nebraska and every other State in the Union. Another way of saying that, Mr. President, is we have to swallow some pretty sour-tasting medicine and hope that it can cure us from the spending spree that in the last 14 years has seen a series of multibillion-dollar annual deficits that are transferred at the end of the year over to the national debt. In the last 14 years, the national debt of the United States has grown from under $1 trillion to the present level of $4.7 trillion, and it is going higher.”