Orrin Hatch: “I suggest that the American people are about fed up with the profligacy of Congress. They see us just spending this…”

“I suggest that the American people are about fed up with the profligacy of Congress. They see us just spending this country right into bankruptcy. They see no real curtailment. They have seen a series of legislative approaches that were supposed to solve this problem, all of which bite the dust the minute 51 percent of the Senate and the House vote otherwise. It is clear that for all the good intentions that we have had through the Harry Byrd amendment, the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation, and the current approach toward budgeting, nothing has worked because there is no mechanism in the Constitution that requires us to make priority choices among competing programs. It is really difficult because I see all over Capitol Hill today people from all over the country, from every State, arguing for their own special interest.”