Orrin Hatch: “I enjoyed listening to my dear colleague from Massachusetts, and almost everyone, I think, knows of my affection for…”

“I enjoyed listening to my dear colleague from Massachusetts, and almost everyone, I think, knows of my affection for him. But we know what is going to happen if we do not do this balanced budget amendment. He and his friends are going to continue to spend us blind, which is what they have been doing for most of the last 60 years. The fact of the matter is everyone knows that this country is in real trouble and they know who has basically put the Great Society programs into effect, many of which, if not all of which, were well-intentioned--they know who has caused the entitlements to grow to now. If you put interest in the entitlements, which it should be, 72 percent of the total Federal budget, it is running out of control. And if you add in the factor that most of them do not support any type of fiscal discipline to bring the Federal Government into some sort of a balance, and now they come to us and say: Well, now that you have the balanced budget amendment on the floor, you ought to tell us how you are going to do it, knowing that we have all kinds of plans already on the boards, some of which I agree with and some of which I do not, but nevertheless budgets that would get us to balance without the draconian 30-percent cut that the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts is talking about, this 30-percent cut across the board that my friend from Massachusetts has been presenting is highly exaggerated.”