Russ Feingold: “those of us who came here in the early 1990s found an incredible fiscal mess in this country. And we believed--so many…”

“those of us who came here in the early 1990s found an incredible fiscal mess in this country. And we believed--so many of us worked on both sides of the aisle; and it was bipartisan--that without these kinds of budget rules, we never would have been able to get the deficit eliminated and actually have a surplus by the early part of this decade. That is why it is so important that we restore this statutory language and move in the direction of fiscal discipline. I do appreciate the words and the actions of the chairman of the Budget Committee. He has shown a genuine interest in trying to get these rules in place. I appreciate his commitment to work with us on a bipartisan basis to do it. I can tell you that this is not the first effort in this regard. I worked all last year with Senators from both sides of the aisle to try to figure this out. Senator Gregg, Senator Phil Gramm, and others tried every approach we could to make sure these rules would be in place. Unfortunately, it did not work. So there is no lack of willingness on this side of the aisle to work together to restore these budget rules. I think a good chance to do that is right now, on this amendment today, on a bipartisan basis to get some fiscal discipline to return. I thank the Senator from Delaware. He has been absolutely determined since he came to the Senate to help us restore these kinds of rules and have some kind of fiscal discipline.”