Arlen Specter: “I support the constitutional amendment for a balanced budget because I firmly believe that the Congress needs to develop…”

“I support the constitutional amendment for a balanced budget because I firmly believe that the Congress needs to develop discipline through a constitutional amendment to live within our means. When the Senator from Arkansas talks about some of his efforts on spending cuts, I supported the Senator from Arkansas when he fought valiantly to have a substantial cut in the space station last year and the year before and the year before that. I believe had this constitutional amendment been in effect the effort by the Senator from Arkansas to cut the funds of the space station would have carried. As long as the Congress may engage in deficit spending, then it is always easier not to cut the expenses and to let one more item go through on an appropriations bill. However, if we were bound to balance the budget so that every time we authorized money for an additional expenditure we had to raise taxes, then I think the expenditures would not be made.”