carl curtis was a -- quite elderly at that time, and he had been trying to do a balanced budget amendment for probably 20 years at that time. this is back in the 1970's. but he came to me in the state legislature in oklahoma and he said i have got an idea. he said the argument they use against a balanced budget amendment is the states, 3/4 of the states will never ratify it. so he said let's preratify a budget-balancing amendment. he was kind of a genius. he came to me. i happened to be the first state that he came to. he said will you take this on as a project? so we actually in my state of oklahoma, we're the first state in the history to preratify a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. it was really kind of fun. and then others -- it was so popular that others started doing it, and we got right up to the 3/4 and didn't quite get over that. but that's something that took place. it took place many years ago. so this is something we know is not easy, something that's difficult to do, but now we have another chance. it's the first time we have had a chance where a majority of the

i remember so well way back in -- oh, the 1970's i was in the state senate in oklahoma when carl curtis, a wonderful gentleman from nebraska, he was a senator, had been a senator for quite some time, he was the perennial author of the balanced budget amendment but he never could get it through but he had an idea. he came to me in the state of oklahoma and he said you know, inhofe, we have been trying to get this balanced budget amendment for a long time and the excuse they use is you're never going to get the required number of states to ratify it. he said i've come up with an idea. we will get 3/4 of the states to preratify a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. to the constitution. that's kind of an ingenious thing. why don't you be the first state? so i did and we passed by resolution in my state of oklahoma in 1975 i believe it was a ratification of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution that didn't exist. that's kind of neat. and we actually got up to almost three-fourths of the states and some of the other forces knocked it down. at's how long we've been doing t

decades ago when i was in the state legislature there was a senator from nebraska named carl curtis.e came to me one day and said i've been trying to pass a balanced budget amendment here in the united states senate for decades. the argument they used against it is the states will never ratify it. he came wup this idea, let's preratify a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. that sounded great to me and so i introduced a resolution in the oklahoma state senate preratifying, which we did, a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. that was kind of fun. we came within two or three staeufts doing this. -- three states of doing this. we wouldn't be here today with the problem we're facing. when you look at this and say it's going to be difficult, it's not difficult. but i believe the only way we're going to be able to pull this thing off and really resolve the problem is to do something about a balanced budget amendment. so we have proposed one. it's out there. senator hatch, i know, is active in this. we're all looking at it. and during peacetime the amendment would requi

i remember so well way back in -- oh, the 1970's i was in the state senate in oklahoma when carl curtis, a wonderful gentleman from nebraska, he was a senator, had been a senator for quite some time, he was the perennial author of the balanced budget amendment but he never could get it through but he had an idea. he came to me in the state of oklahoma and he said you know, inhofe, we have been trying to get this balanced budget amendment for a long time and the excuse they use is you're never going to get the required number of states to ratify it. he said i've come up with an idea. we will get 3/4 of the states to preratify a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. to the constitution. that's kind of an ingenious thing. why don't you be the first state? so i did and we passed by resolution in my state of oklahoma in 1975 i believe it was a ratification of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution that didn't exist. that's kind of neat. and we actually got up to almost three-fourths of the states and some of the other forces knocked it down. that's how long we've been doing