deficit hAwKs 177
busing, violated the Equal Protection Clause. Eikenberry, following Gor-
ton’s example and encouragement, had resolved to argue his own cases
before the Supreme Court. The former FBI agent and state legislator won
three terms as attorney general and lost a close race for governor. In the
courtroom, however, he was no Slade Gorton, at least on that day. His
nervousness was palpable, the justices impatient. He lost 5-4. If Eiken-
berry took home a quill, it’s unlikely he had it framed.^12
withhe t deficit AcceLeRAting toward a record $100 billion for fiscal
year 1982 and the Treasury growing another year older and deeper in
debt, Gorton proved a disappointment to many conservatives. But so did
Barry Goldwater. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Dennis DeConcini of Arizona
were pushing hard to muster the two-thirds vote required for a constitu-
tional amendment mandating a balanced budget. They were getting little
but lip service from the president, who had backed away from his cam-
paign promise to balance the budget by 1984. The defense buildup was
too important; new taxes unthinkable. Hatch emphasized that the amend-
ment was flexible, allowing deficits in time of war, national emergencies
or major recessions.
“I’m a strong partisan of balancing the budget as quickly as we can,”
said Gorton, “but having made that decision in 1982 doesn’t give me the
feeling that I’m wise enough to make that decision for the year 2082, or
50 years from now, or for that matter even 10 or 12 years from now. To put
an economic theory into the Constitution is too long a jump for my taste.”
Goldwater agreed. “If we haven’t been able to balance the budget any
more than we have in the last 40 or 50 years, a constitutional amendment
isn’t going to help,” the conservative icon said.
The amendment finally passed, only to fail in the House. Four years
later, it fell one vote short in the Senate. Gorton was still opposed, of-
fended at the “cut and paste” job its proponents wanted to do on the Con-
stitution: “Compare the elegant language of the preamble. Compare the
soaring positions adopted by the Congress in the 14th Amendment....
The Constitution is no place for congressional graffiti.”^13
As the Senate began debate on the 1983 budget, Republicans were also
split on how to fix Social Security. House GOP leaders said the $40 bil-
lion in savings advocated by Domenici and Gorton was dead on arrival.
They suggested removing Social Security from the budget entirely, an
expedient the gun-shy president pronounced “interesting.”
Domenici lit another Merit, inhaled deeply and allowed that the presi-
dent’s comments “were not terribly helpful.” It was imperative to include