Russ Feingold: “we are doing something very unusual here. We are working on a constitutional amendment. We know that has not happened…”

“we are doing something very unusual here. We are working on a constitutional amendment. We know that has not happened many times in our history, and so when you deal with a constitutional amendment, you have to take an even tougher attitude about what you are doing. I think you have to consider that two different things can happen, obviously. One is that the amendment may be defeated which, in this case, I happen to prefer. As we go through the amendments, we also have to be responsible about the amendments we put on, because whether I like it or not, this may become the law of the land, part of the Constitution. So the amendments that are offered become particularly important. What we are doing here is to decide whether or not this balanced budget amendment should become the law of the land and possibly a straitjacket and a problem for a Federal Government from which it will be very difficult to extricate ourselves. So it is in that spirit that I address the amendment of the Senator from Nevada.”