Orrin Hatch: “We are not. If we pass this through the Senate--hopefully, within the next week or so--by the requisite two-thirds vote…”

“We are not. If we pass this through the Senate--hopefully, within the next week or so--by the requisite two-thirds vote, and it passes through the House by the requisite two-thirds vote, that is a notice to everybody in these two bodies that we better start hustling to get a real balanced budget by 2002, where all of us know that the only part of the President's budget that really counts is next year's budget. It is not the budget as extrapolated out to 2002, especially since 75 percent of it is balanced in the last 2 years after he leaves office. No, it is this next year, and each year thereafter. If we passed this and it is submitted to the States, I can't predict what the States would do. I believe they would ratify this amendment if we have the guts to pass it through both Houses of Congress. And if they ratify this amendment, then, by gosh, I have to tell you that I think the game will be over. We will not be able to do this anymore. There will have to be rollcall votes under the same terms.”