Orrin Hatch: “I thank my colleague, and I thank Senator Toomey for his work. Early this year, along with every one of my Republican…”

“I thank my colleague, and I thank Senator Toomey for his work. Early this year, along with every one of my Republican colleagues, I introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The people of Utah want this amendment. The polls show that if Congress were to pass it and send it to the States for ratification, it would have significant support across the country. From my perspective, the debate we have been having over the fiscal year 2012 budget this week--if you can even call it a debate-- exemplifies yet again the need for a balanced budget amendment. It seems like a simple thing, but the balanced budget amendment would require the President to submit and Congress to pass a balanced budget. Given the budget process over the last few years, this simple requirement takes on added significance. The fact is it has been 756 days since Democrats passed any budget, the most basic of Congress's constitutional responsibilities. And the fact is that absent a balanced budget amendment, Congress will never adopt the spending restraint necessary to restore constitutional limits on the Federal Government and the Nation's fiscal integrity. The consequences of this ineptitude reached a new low on the Senate floor yesterday.…”