Don Nickles: “first, I wish to congratulate my colleague and friend, Senator Dorgan from North Dakota, for his statement. Especially…”

“first, I wish to congratulate my colleague and friend, Senator Dorgan from North Dakota, for his statement. Especially his statement in which he said he was going to vote for the Reid amendment and that, if it should not pass, he intends to vote for the Simon amendment. I happen to prefer the Simon amendment. It is my intention to vote against the Reid amendment in favor of the Simon amendment. But I want a balanced budget amendment to pass. I think it is vitally important that we take some steps today and tomorrow to make it pass. I also wish to compliment my friends and colleagues, Senator Simon, Senator Craig, Senator Hatch, and Senator Thurmond, for their leadership on this issue. Senators Hatch and Thurmond I have had the pleasure of working with for some time, and they have been diligent in their efforts to try to pass a constitutional balanced budget amendment. We did pass it on the floor of the Senate, I believe, in 1982 by a couple of votes. We have tried a couple of times subsequent to that and have been short a couple of votes. My guess is, Mr. President, this will be a very close vote and, in all likelihood, will be decided by one or two votes. So every single vote is important. This is probably one of the most important votes that we will cast this year. It is interesting to note the significant history of this debate.…”