Orrin Hatch: “this is the only balanced budget amendment that has ever passed the House of Representatives. It is the only one that…”

“this is the only balanced budget amendment that has ever passed the House of Representatives. It is the only one that has a chance of passing both Houses. All of the unanimous consent requests in the world are not going to bring up an amendment that will be acceptable to both Houses, except this amendment. Everybody knows that. For these people to bring up another amendment at this late date is just a subterfuge. There have been six Democrats who before have always voted for the balanced budget amendment but have been using the Social Security pretext as a charade to cover their backs. Last year, every one voted for Clinton's 1997 budget that does not protect Social Security in the way they want it protected. I do not think they argued with the President to get that in there. The fact is, it is a charade. I hope everybody knows it. Not only did the Clinton budget of 1997 not balance in the year 2002, under CBO's more cautious economic and technical assumptions. Without Social Security receipts and assets and deficit calculations, it would have been $184.5 billion out of balance in the year 2002. It is just phony. Without Social Security's receipts and assets in deficit calculations, the Clinton budgets would never balance. The fact is the Republican budget would be balanced by the year 2005 without Social Security.”