Political Quotes

“It would encourage inaccurate estimates, and all of the estimates going over the past 10 or 12 years, as I showed on the chart earlier, are off. Some revenue estimates are overly optimistic, others are not. Some outlay estimates are overly optimistic, others are not. The point being that they are always off, one way or the other. To depend upon estimates is a very weak reed upon which to lean. So the people are going to be chagrined and disappointed. We are being given wiggle room, may I point out to the Senator, when we can use estimates, when the Congress can use estimates under section 2. The President is not being given that wiggle room. There is a section in this amendment which says that the President shall send up a balanced budget. It does not say anything about using estimates. So the President is being ordered to do something that is far different from what his responsibilities are under the Constitution. He is being ordered to say, whether you like it or not or whether you believe it or not, you have to send up a balanced budget. Now, from time to time around here some of us have voted the President should send up a balanced budget. The truth of the matter is we played politics when we did that. We tried to point out no President has ever sent up a balanced budget in the last several years, so we played politics. Well, that was a statute. This is the Constitution.”