Political Quotes

“as an original cosponsor of House Joint Resolution 103, I rise in very strong support for the constitutional amendment to balance the budget proposed by my colleague, the gentleman from the great State of Texas [Mr. Stenholm], a true cost cutter. I have had the opportunity since I have been a Member of Congress twice to vote on the balanced budget amendment. We lost the first time by seven votes in the U.S. House of Representatives. We lost the second time by nine votes. And I hope everyone, as these campaigns get hot this summer and if we fail by a few votes, which I hope we will not, will ask every candidate running for public office, where do you stand on the balanced budget amendment? The U.S. Senate just voted on it recently. We lost by four votes there. So we are very, very close. And I assure the American people that the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Stenholm] and myself, and other colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives, are not going to let this issue die. We are going to keep it alive Congress after Congress until it becomes a reality. Mr. Chairman, many Members will come to the floor to say that this amendment is not needed. Sure, we have done a pretty good job the last several years. We have brought down the budget deficits. We were running budget deficits as high as $400 billion. Now we are bringing them to the level of $200 billion.”