Bob Wise: “First, his first point on the recession waiver: The gentleman regrettably has not read fully the text of our amendment…”

“First, his first point on the recession waiver: The gentleman regrettably has not read fully the text of our amendment, because what it says is that you can waive the provisions of the balanced budget amendment in only two circumstances, and only two; one of which is in case of military conflict, the second in case of recession, defined as two quarters of negative growth. Then it requires a majority vote. There is no automatic waiver. I might add, it is my impression reading the other amendments, certainly the Stenholm amendment and, I believe, the gentleman from Arizona's as well, that you can waive the provisions of the Balanced Budget Act at any time with 60 percent of the vote, a supermajority. We say you can waive it for only two circumstances. In terms of the Keynesian economics--I never have pronounced that very well--in terms of Keynesian economics, the reality of the situation is that recession is when administrations, Republican and Democrat, recognize they need to do some increased spending to get the economy moving.”