Orrin Hatch: “What really bothers me is this argument that we have to preserve and protect Social Security by defeating the balanced…”

“What really bothers me is this argument that we have to preserve and protect Social Security by defeating the balanced budget amendment, which is the only way to preserve and protect Social Security, or at least the current Social Security system. I think if we pass this amendment, we will not only have to preserve and protect it as it is now, we are going to have to find a way of reforming it so that it will last well into the next century and take care of our children and our grandchildren as well, not just those who are living today. The only way we are going to do that is if we really get serious about it and force the Congress to do it. And the only way you are going to do that is by passing a constitutional amendment. I do not think anybody who looks at it sincerely can doubt the wisdom of what I just said. The fact is that this amendment has been around for a lot of years. It is a consensus amendment. It is the one amendment that has a chance of passing, the first amendment that has ever passed the House of Representatives, the first one and maybe the only one that will ever pass the House of Representatives, and yet we in the Senate are going to stand and block it.”