On the recordDecember 14, 2011
I have actually voted for a balanced budget. Democrats in this Chamber and in the other Chamber voted for one and it passed. Not a single Republican voted for it. During the Clinton administration, we were able to balance the budget and start paying down the debt. A huge surplus was left to his successor and it was squandered by that administration. We should not enshrine the extreme provisions in the current proposal in our Constitution. We should not make it more difficult for Congress to respond to economic and natural disasters. Proponents of this amendment say: Let's let the courts make these decisions. Let us not transform our courts into budget-cutting bodies. They are not equipped to perform that role. Even Justice Scalia, testifying before our committee, laughed at the idea that they could do that. The Hatch-McConnell proposal will do nothing to spur economic growth or ease the partisan gridlock in the Congress. It will do the opposite. It will enshrine bad fiscal policy in the Constitution. A vote for this proposal is a vote for dramatic cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits. Partisan efforts like this may be good bumper-sticker politics, but they are bad solutions. I wish those who say they revere the Constitution would show it the respect it deserves rather than treating it like a blog entry. I urge Senators to oppose this radical and ill-considered proposal to amend our Constitution.
