Political Quotes

“My friend from Idaho is entirely correct. I think in recap we have to say about this motion, first, the motion proposes that the Congress of the United States act in a profoundly unconstitutional manner. Second, it proposes that we add to the Constitution of the United States language which no serious person could ever consider ought to be a part of our fundamental document of Government. Third, it proposes a course of action which is irresponsible. We are dealing with a general principle that budgets ought to be balanced. Obviously, if Congress and the States put that in the Constitution, everyone--Presidents, Democrats, Republicans-- together will have to work to meet that constitutional obligation. The details of one particular method of reaching that goal, when there are a multitude of such matters, should play no role in this debate. But, fourth, it seems to me it was designed to hide what many must have known would be the President's total and abject failure to come up with an alternate method of reaching this goal without a constitutional amendment. We now know that the alternate method is never to have a balanced budget--in fact, never to get the budget deficit significantly below $200 billion a year.”