Orrin Hatch: “This motion would alter the constitutional amendment and make it into a statute. I do not know if we need to say…”

“This motion would alter the constitutional amendment and make it into a statute. I do not know if we need to say anything more because we are debating a constitutional amendment. The distinguished Senator from Arkansas is very ingenious. He is a great friend of mine; I appreciate him, but this motion very simply says, ``We do not need a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.'' Now, I insist that we do when you look at these 28 years of unbalanced budgets. I hate it when people come in here and say, ``Let's just do it.'' I have heard that throughout this debate. ``Let's just do it''--the very same people who basically have never done it the whole time they have been in the Senate. That is not quite true because Senator Byrd was here, I suspect Senator Kennedy was here and maybe some others. Frankly, many of these people, I have never heard them ask: Where is the money coming from to pay for these spending programs? This motion says we can guarantee the fiscal discipline necessary to make balanced budgets the rule rather than the exception simply by enacting statutory changes to the Budget Act. As I said, I do not doubt that my colleague believes this and that he is sincere in offering this motion, but I must say that the proponents of this motion are dead wrong.”