Orrin Hatch: “If I can just finish? These books were created by us, these 28 years of deficits. I am saying we have to do something to…”

“If I can just finish? These books were created by us, these 28 years of deficits. I am saying we have to do something to help us to be responsible. If we do that, the President, whoever that President may be--whether that President is a supply-sider like Reagan, or not--will have to be more responsible. If we do not do it, we are going to have more of the same. I have to say it was triggered long before the Great Society programs, because we have had 58 years of unbalanced budgets in the last 66 years. So it happened even before the Great Society. But once the Great Society programs started and this move toward entitlement spending--I know my dear colleague knows that. He has to deal with it every day on the Appropriations Committee, and he deals with it very intelligently. But he is stuck because almost two-thirds of the budget is entitlements. It was not the Presidents who did that; it is us. I have to tell you, the only hope for this country to get these things under control--and I have to say I don't want my dear friend to make another mistake. He is repentant for having voted for the Reagan tax cuts. I don't think he should make another mistake that he is going to have to repent for by not voting for the balanced budget amendment. I really am still hoping I can get him to change his ways and to come across here and help get this thing done. Because he, above all people in both bodies, knows how really irresponsible the Congress has been through these years.”