Orrin Hatch: “No, no, it gives us the flexibility to do whatever we want to do, but we have to stand up and vote to do it by…”

“No, no, it gives us the flexibility to do whatever we want to do, but we have to stand up and vote to do it by supermajority votes. If you want to increase the deficits, you have to stand up and vote by a supermajority to do it. If you want to increase taxes, you can do it, but you have to vote on a constitutional majority of both Houses, to do it. That is a considerably different situation from what we have today where there are no constraints and, in many cases, or some cases that are very important, at least over the last 21 years, no votes. It has been done in the dead of the night, to use a metaphor, a metaphor that is all too real. These budget volumes are real. These are not mirages. These volumes are actually real. They represent 28 years of unbalanced budgets, 8 years longer than I have been here, and I see many, many more in the future if we don't pass this balanced budget amendment.”