Political Quotes

“The problem, I say to my friend is--using the Brooklyn Bridge as an argument--if in fact we did not want to live up to what Senator Hatch said was our constitutional obligation and duty--and I take for granted we would all try to do that. But assuming that we did not, there would be no reason that you could not have a law that would require some private entity to buy the Brooklyn Bridge and work out some arrangement with the Federal Government. So we have to rely on the good faith of those constitutional officers, which we are, to follow what is the law. I mentioned earlier today that the Reid amendment, I believe, will have all the teeth that the Simon amendment has. Both amendments rely on future Congresses to abide by their oaths, to uphold the Constitution. The Simon amendment relies on future Congresses to define the new term limit on the debt of the United States held by the public. The term is nowhere defined in the law now. The debt limit is defined in title 31, section 3101 of the United States Code. It is an entirely different concept. What prevents the use of creative accounting to define the new limit? What prevents the Congress from defining certain types of borrowing out of the new limit? The answer is the sworn duty of Senators and Congressmen to uphold the Constitution is what would protect that. The answer is the same for my amendment.”