On the recordJuly 22, 2011
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of things going on right now. One of them should be the business of the country. This body this week passed what many have said was truly historic. A truly historic bill passed the House of Representatives. It was not exactly what I wanted. I thought there was too much in it in the way of debt ceiling increase. I thought there was not enough in the way of budget cuts. But what we found in the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill was that it included a provision that, before the debt ceiling would ever be increased again, we would have to have a constitutional amendment pass the House of Representatives with two-thirds and pass the Senate with two-thirds, which would not send it to the President for him to veto, as apparently he wants to do, but it would send it to the States directly. There's no provision for the President to sign a constitutional amendment after it passes the House and Senate with two- thirds of the vote. It goes to the States. If three-fourths ratify it, it's a part of the Constitution. {time} 1230 But in order to get the debt ceiling raised, we would have to have a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution pass the two-thirds in the House and Senate.…
