Lloyd Bentsen: “I have to come down here and oppose this amendment and oppose the Barton amendment. I have to tell my colleagues, I am…”

“I have to come down here and oppose this amendment and oppose the Barton amendment. I have to tell my colleagues, I am not going to discuss it from a constitutional perspective because I am not a lawyer. I, like some of my new colleagues from the other side, came from the private sector. I am a banker. This is a new business to me to be involved in. When I look at the arguments that are before us, I think we see a little transparency. Speaker after speaker who has come down for this amendment has come down to talk about how the States balance their budgets. The cities balance their budgets. The Federal Government should do the same. But I would offer for the Record something from the National Association of State Budget Officers, which shows the percentages of State budgets that come from the Federal budget. So, again, as I said yesterday, I do not think we are being honest with the American people when we are talking about this issue. We are not being honest about what the procedure is in this amendment.”