Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. The chief proponent of the amendment says we have to have this constitutional amendment. We simply have to force ourselves to balance this budget. We need something that will force us. We need something that will give Members of both bodies the courage to make hard choices. So this little piece of paper here is what we need to give us the courage, something that will force us to balance the budget. Now, why? Why? Why do we need that? Well, we will not be able to do it by statute because Senators get around statutes. They amend statutes. We saw that in the Gramm-Rudman years. We saw that under Gramm-Rudman. We set targets and then we amend those statutory targets with new ones. So we cannot depend on Senators to balance the budget unless we have a constitutional amendment that forces them to--forces them to. Do not depend upon them to pass statutes and balance that budget. They will amend those statutes. They will get around the statutes. But a constitutional amendment will force us. How does the constitutional amendment say that this mandate in section 1 will be enforced? Section 6 of the amendment says: Congress shall enforce---- So the Congress is going to enforce it. Congress shall enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.”