[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 28, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H432-H438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   BLUE DOG COALITION AND THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Davis of Kentucky). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Ross) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about our budget, 
to talk about our debt, to talk about our deficit.
  As a member of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
Coalition, a group of 37 fiscally conservative Democrats, we are here 
as a group to hold our government accountable for the reckless 
spending, the record deficits, and the lack of fiscal discipline that 
we see in our Nation's government these days.
  A good example of that, Mr. Speaker, can be found in my district, in 
fact, in my hometown where I grew up and finished high school, Hope, 
Arkansas. As you may know, we had the most costly natural disaster ever 
in our Nation's history hit us about 6 months ago, that of course being 
Hurricane Katrina.
  Mr. Speaker, let me tell you that my heart goes out for the victims 
of Hurricane Katrina, many who remain homeless today. I am real proud 
of the people of my congressional district, the 4th District of 
Arkansas, who opened up their arms and their homes and their 
communities. Some people referred to them as evacuees. We called them 
our neighbors, our neighbors from Louisiana and Mississippi who came to 
Arkansas to seek refuge.
  A few weeks, perhaps a couple of months, after Hurricane Katrina, 
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, showed up at city hall 
in Hope, Arkansas, and explained that they were aware that Hope owned 
an old World War II airport, airfield and accompanying pasture, and 
they understood that many of those runways were now inactive. And they 
proceeded to explain how they were buying some 20,000 manufactured 
homes, and they wanted to use the old World War II airport, the 
inactive runways at the airport there in Hope, Arkansas, as what they 
called a FEMA staging area, and that manufactured homes and they would 
be coming and they would be going, going to the people who lost their 
homes and everything they owned in Louisiana and Mississippi.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, they did come. Here is an aerial photo of what has 
come to Hope, Arkansas. According to FEMA's most recent count, 10,777 
manufactured homes have come to this so-called FEMA staging area in my 
hometown where I grew up, Hope, Arkansas. I now live some 16 miles from 
there in Prescott.
  I have been there, Mr. Speaker. I have seen these 10,777 manufactured 
homes. They came. But not a single one left, not one. Not one home left 
for the people they were intended for. To put it another way, it is 
$431 million worth of manufactured homes sitting in a cow pasture in 
Hope, Arkansas.
  Now, originally what FEMA had intended to do was use this as a 
staging area and homes would be coming and homes would be going. They 
would have room for them on these inactive runways. But today only 25 
percent of them sit on these inactive runways. As you can see, many of 
them, in fact 75 percent of them, are sitting in cow pastures around 
the airport.
  If you were to stack these manufactured homes, a few of them are 80 
feet long, most of them are 60 feet, if you were to stack them end to 
end, they would stretch 172 miles. They would stretch from the Texas-
Arkansas border at the Red River all of the way to the Arkansas-
Mississippi border at the Mississippi River.
  These manufactured homes, every single one of them, are fully 
furnished, beds, mattresses, box springs, dining room, sofa, end 
tables, coffee tables, fully furnished. Yet at the same time, FEMA has 
announced that they are planning on March 1 to evict, or in early 
March, they plan to evict some 12,000 people from hotel rooms, and yet 
FEMA is sitting, sitting on 10,777 brand-new, fully furnished 
manufactured homes. They are just sitting on them at the Hope airport 
in Hope, Arkansas, some 450 miles from the eye of the storm.
  Stanley McKenzie is from the New Orleans area. I have been talking 
with Stanley. Stanley is one of the victims of Hurricane Katrina who, 
some 6 months after the storm, remains in a hotel room in Monticello, 
Arkansas. Stanley and I talked this evening. Stanley explained to me 
that he did not want to be in a hotel room. He wanted to be in a 
manufactured home and has a location in Monticello to put one of these 
manufactured homes which are being stored about 2 hours west of 
Monticello.
  And yet FEMA says he cannot have one. FEMA says he cannot borrow one 
for the next 18 months, as the program calls for.
  They do not give these things away. They let people use them for up 
to 18 months, which is a whole other issue; that being, FEMA says the 
18 months start from the date of the Federal declaration, not the date 
that the people actually receive the home. So every one of those 10,777 
homes have an expiration date on them. The date does not begin, the 18-
month window for people to live in them while they try to sort through 
their life and find a place to live after losing everything they own in 
Hurricane Katrina, does not start from the time they receive a home, it 
starts from the time of the Federal declaration.
  So each day those homes sit at the airport and at the pasture in Hope 
is a day that no one can ever live in them. So I am calling on FEMA to 
revise their policy for the 18 months to begin at the time in which 
people are able to actually obtain one of these homes.
  Now, what they tell Stanley is, he cannot have one, even though he 
has

[[Page H433]]

got a place to put it, because he has got a place to put it in 
Arkansas, that he would have to move back to Louisiana in order to be 
able to use one of these manufactured homes for 18 months. And they say 
that they will not put them in Louisiana because FEMA refuses to put 
these manufactured homes in a flood zone.
  Well, you know, I have got news for FEMA. Everybody that lost their 
home and everything they own, there is a reason for it. They lived in a 
flood zone. And so they are saying, if you want to get a manufactured 
home, FEMA says we will let you use one for up to 18 months, but you 
have got to provide land. And people who own land own land in what? A 
flood zone.
  And FEMA refuses to place these temporarily in a flood zone for 18 
months, and yet they have amassed 10,777 of them just sitting in a 
pasture in Hope, an area that is prone and will probably be under a 
tornado warning about once every 10 days for the next 3 months.
  It is time for FEMA to get their act together. And they are now 
saying that they are going to move some of these, some 300 to 400 as I 
understand will be moved from Hope, some 450 miles from the eye of the 
storm, to Louisiana. That is good. But they also announced they are 
getting ready to move another 2,200 homes into Hope on top of the 
10,777 we already have.
  I am asking FEMA to move all 10,777 of those homes out of Hope and to 
the people who need them, people who lost everything they owned in 
Louisiana and Mississippi as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
  The last response I got from FEMA was, the travel trailers work 
great. They put out 72,000 travel trailers and are getting ready to put 
out 10,000 more. They have purchased another 10,000 travel trailers.
  If that is not enough, they are now accepting bids. They are getting 
ready to spend between $6 and $8 million laying gravel, on up to 290 
acres at the airport in this cow pasture at Hope, Arkansas. There have 
been reports that these manufactured homes are damaged, that they are 
sinking. Not yet, but it is true that they are literally sitting in a 
pasture, or at least 75 percent of them are sitting in a pasture.
  And that is what they look like. You can see the fence, the cow 
pasture. They are just sitting there in a pasture, some 10,777 
manufactured homes sitting in a pasture, when we have got 12,000 
families about to be evicted from hotel rooms all across this country 
by FEMA.
  It is time for FEMA to get its act together. And my response and my 
plea to FEMA is, you know, do not spend $6 or $8 million laying gravel 
in a cow pasture. Let us get these manufactured homes to the people who 
need them, to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
  Now, I raise this issue because as a member of the fiscally 
conservative Blue Dog Coalition, we have a 12-point plan for budget 
reform. One of those plans is to require agencies to put their fiscal 
house in order.

                              {time}  2145

  Mr. Speaker, I believe it is time for FEMA to put their fiscal house 
in order. There is a lot of talk about the President's budget. As you 
may know, Mr. Speaker, the President has submitted to Congress a $2.8 
trillion budget. This budget provides us with the largest budget 
deficit ever in our Nation's history for the 6th year in a row. $423 
billion in red ink; $423 billion in deficit spending. Compare that to 
fiscal year 2006 when the budget deficit was $318 billion.
  The current national debt today, just a few moments ago, was 
$8,251,355,000,000. For every man, woman, and child in America, 
including those who have been born since I got up here this evening, 
each person's share of the national debt is $27,674.
  With each passing year this President and this administration and 
this Republican Congress have given us the largest budget deficit ever 
in our Nation's history.
  It is hard to believe now, but in 1998 through 2001, President 
Clinton gave this Nation its first balanced budget in about 40 years. 
In 2001, we had a surplus and every year since we have had a deficit, 
not only a deficit but the largest deficit ever in our Nation's 
history.
  Mr. Speaker, the total national debt from 1789 to 2000 was $5.63 
trillion. But by 2010 the total national debt will have increased to 
$10.98 trillion. This is a doubling of the 2011 year debt in just 10 
years.
  Interest payments, this administration, this Congress is borrowing 
nearly $1 billion every single day; $260 million every day going into 
Iraq; $33 million every day is going to Afghanistan. Other money that 
we are borrowing is going to pay for tax cuts for those earning over 
$400,000 a year. But if that is not enough that we are borrowing some 
$1 billion a day, we are also spending about a half a billion dollars a 
day simply paying interest on the national debt. That is what we call 
the debt tax, D-E-B-T; and it is one tax that cannot go away until we 
get our Nation's fiscal house in order.
  A half a billion dollars a day going to pay interest on the national 
debt. Give me 3 days' interest on the national debt and I can build I-
49 through Arkansas. Give me another 3 days' interest and I can build 
I-69 through Arkansas. I could build 200 brand-new elementary schools 
every day in America just with the interest that we are paying on the 
national debt.
  Mr. Speaker, if that is not enough, if that is not enough, this 
President, this administration, this Republican Congress in 5 short 
year has borrowed more money from foreign central banks and foreign 
investors than the previous 42 Presidents combined.
  At this time I would like to recognize the co-chair of the Blue Dog 
Coalition, Congressman Dennis Cardoza of California, who just happened 
to have been on the trip with me to Hope, Arkansas, to see those 10,707 
manufactured homes just sitting in that cow pasture and 450 miles from 
the people that really need them in Louisiana and Mississippi.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Thank you very much for recognizing me, Congressman 
Ross. It is truly an honor to be your friend and to have traveled with 
you to your district recently. It was a shame that we had to witness 
what we did when we witnessed those trailers sitting there, a 
government expenditure of nearly half a billion dollars with no person 
in America being benefited by that. It was really an outrage.
  I am so pleased that I serve with you as a member of the Blue Dog 
Coalition. I am very pleased I am one of the Blue Dog co-chairs.
  The Blue Dogs are a group of 37 conservative Democrats who are 
committed to fiscal responsibility and reforming the broken budget 
process in Washington. Our top priority is fixing the gross 
mismanagement of our Nation's finances. As moderates and fiscal hawks, 
the Blue Dogs have tried to reach across the aisle and engage in a real 
debate for fiscal responsibility.
  The 2006 budget is something of a sham. We need to return to honesty 
and accountability in this budget. I am deeply concerned with the 
continued deficit spending, the complete disregard for fiscally 
responsible policies and a fundamentally dishonest budget process.
  The President proposed, as you said, Mr. Ross, a $2.7 trillion budget 
which will decrease domestic spending a bit, yet leave massive $355 
billion deficits. This $355 billion is not the whole story, though.
  The President's figures deliberately leave out the cost of our 
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the potential future cost of 
rebuilding this gulf region that we have talked about tonight that is 
in so dire need of our work. It also leaves out a growing problem for 
Americans and that is the alternative minimum tax. All these costs are 
going to drive up the deficit even further.
  The President's budget is a nice break from reality TV, but it is a 
harsh reality for our Nation; and it does nothing to make the Federal 
Government more accountable to taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Ross, I just want to thank you again for your leadership and 
taking us down there and for having the gumption to bring camera crews 
down there and expose this national tragedy of these trailers in your 
district. I just hope that FEMA will listen to our pleas from that day 
when we talked about what needed to be done, what should be done. I 
applaud your efforts in this area and thank you for being such a worthy 
advocate for our Nation's fiscal policies.
  Mr. ROSS. I appreciate the gentleman from California for his 
leadership as co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition for joining us this 
evening for this

[[Page H434]]

discussion of the budget, the debt, and the deficit. I appreciate your 
traveling to my district and witnessing something that is absolutely 
reprehensible. To have 10,777 brand-new manufactured homes, fully 
furnished, sitting in a cow pasture in Hope, Arkansas, when FEMA is 
getting ready to evict 12,000 people from hotel rooms in this country 
and their only response is, well, we are not going to put them in flood 
zones and everybody that needs them lives in a flood zone so we will 
spend 6 to $8 million putting gravel on the cow pasture so we can store 
them for a future natural disaster.
  That is the craziest thing I have ever heard of, and that is the kind 
of example of how we must require agencies to put their fiscal house in 
order and to get their act together. That is part of the 12-point plan 
for meaningful budget reform that is being offered up by the fiscally 
conservative Blue Dog Coalition.
  I recognize the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott), a fellow Blue 
Dog, my friend.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you so much, Mr. Ross. It is always a 
pleasure to come and be a party to our efforts here on behalf of the 
Blue Dog Coalition as we work very hard to try to bring some reason and 
sanity to this whole issue of our budget, our obligations, our 
responsibilities to the people of this country, and our allies and 
partners around the world.
  I have just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan on an 
extraordinary trip. And I went firsthand so that I could see exactly 
what it was like on the ground, where I could talk to our soldiers, 
where I could be there with them, where I could also talk to the 
generals and see what was going on.
  As I got there, it was very interesting for me to have one 
extraordinary experience. We went into Camp Victory, and I ate dinner 
with our soldiers. And this solder grabbed me and hugged me so tight. 
It is a moment I will never forget as long as I live. As he was hugging 
me, we both were in tears and he said to me, Congressman Scott, when I 
am hugging you, it is like hugging a piece of home.
  I can tell you I will never forget that.
  Mr. Ross, do you know what crosses my mind as we look at that 
situation with the debt? It is that that soldier that hugged me, those 
soldiers that are going out and giving their lives every day on the 
battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, their salaries are being paid for 
by borrowed money from Communist China, from Japan, from foreign 
countries. As a matter of fact, 90 percent of every dime that we are 
spending in this country today for our government to carry on its 
business is being borrowed from foreign countries.
  Mr. ROSS. If the gentleman would yield, you make a very valid point. 
I have a chart here to demonstrate the fact that I mentioned earlier, 
this administration, this Republican Congress has borrowed more money 
from foreign central banks, from foreign investors in the past 5 years 
than the previous 42 Presidents combined.
  You want to talk about something that is critical to our national 
security, you let these foreign countries like China and Japan and 
OPEC, you wonder why gas prices are so high. If we let these countries 
continue to buy our debt, they are going to have a huge influence on 
our monetary policy. There you can see Japan, this is as of November 
2005, it has gone up since then. Japan, $682.8 billion of our loans 
that they own. China, $249.8 billion; United Kingdom, $223.2 billion; 
Caribbean, $115.3 billion; Taiwan, $71.3 billion; OPEC, $67.8 billion; 
Korea, $66.5 billion; Germany, $65.7 billion; Canada $53.8 billion.
  To put it another way, if China decides, as my friend and founding 
member of the Blue Dog Coalition says so eloquently, we are in such a 
mess right now that if China which is loaning us money, if China 
decides to invade Taiwan, we will have to borrow even more money from 
China to defend Taiwan. That is the situation our Nation is in today as 
we continue to borrow about half the debt, which is running about a 
billion a day which means we are borrowing about a half a billion 
dollars a day from foreign central banks and from foreign investors to 
fund tax cuts in this country for those who earn over $400,000 a year.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. And when you mention those tax cuts, the other 
terrible stab at the American people is that to make these tax cuts 
permanent means to borrow more money from these countries on top of 
what we are borrowing. And to offset those tax cuts in the Federal 
budget, the President and the Republican administration is advocating 
cutting the very programs that the people of America need and are 
hurting for.
  You mention Katrina in your district. I am from Georgia. We are the 
third largest recipient of evacuees from this terrible, terrible, 
terrible tragedy. But the fact of the matter is that we are not 
responding to the needs of the American people when we look at this 
budget and the cuts: $19 billion cuts to student loan programs; over 
$200 million just from the first phase to child care programs, for the 
seniors. On top of that, the cuts that hurt the most to me at a time of 
war is the cut to our veterans to offset for the tax cuts.
  The point that I think we want to bring home to the American people 
tonight is that we have a terrible situation that is ratcheting at the 
foundations of our country and that is a lack of financial security and 
a lack of financial responsibility. The architect of our financial 
system was none other than Alexander Hamilton, and Alexander Hamilton 
it was who laid out the credit system, laid out the debtor system. He 
said, woe it will be to us in the future if we become dependent on 
foreign sources to finance our government. He was adamant about that.

                              {time}  2200

  Here we are in the 21st century, rocking and reeling from this 
unfortunate situation we find ourselves in of borrowing this exorbitant 
amount of money from foreign governments.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia and welcome him to stay 
and join us in a conversation about the budget and the debt and the 
deficit as the evening goes on.
  As I mentioned earlier, the Blue Dog Coalition is a group of 37 
fiscally conservative Democrats. What we are all about is trying to 
restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's 
government.
  For those who have questions or comments for the Blue Dog Coalition, 
we are here every Tuesday night. It is not always the same time, but 
every Tuesday night, we are here. I am here with different members of 
the Blue Dog Coalition. If you have got a question or a comment for us 
relating to the budget, the debt, the deficit or my manufactured homes 
stacked up in a cow pasture in Hope, Arkansas, you can e-mail us at 
[email protected].
  At this time, it is with great pleasure that I recognize a new Member 
of Congress, a real leader in Congress, a member of the Blue Dog 
Coalition, someone who came to Congress and said our budget, our debt, 
our deficit is out of control; I want to help restore some common sense 
and fiscal discipline. She is someone that has recently become an 
outspoken advocate for restoring common sense to our government, a new 
member of our fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, Congresswoman 
Melissa Bean from Illinois.
  Ms. BEAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) 
so much for recognizing me and letting me join my colleagues on the 
important issue of the rampant fiscal irresponsibility in this 
Congress.
  When I came to Congress, I came to bring what I thought was a real-
world business perspective to government because, in the business 
world, I spent over 20 years in the high-tech industry, but it 
certainly was not unique. In that industry, accountability is more than 
just a word. Business leaders expect to be held accountable to their 
shareholders, their customers, their employees and to their 
communities. But in this Congress, accountability is just a catch 
phrase, usually directed elsewhere. Demands to personal responsibility 
or corporate accountability abound, but rarely congressional 
accountability or fiscal responsibility.
  Instead of sticking to the motto, ``If it is worth doing, it is worth 
paying for,'' this administration and this Congress has turned the 
largest budget surplus in history into the largest deficit in history, 
with a reckless borrow-and-spend profligacy.
  For the last 4 years, our Federal Government has produced the four 
biggest deficits in history, and the estimated 2006 deficit of $423 
billion is projected

[[Page H435]]

to be the largest of all. As our colleague, Dennis Cardoza, just 
mentioned, we are even leaving out some of the facts.
  It would be a considerably bigger deficit if we considered an AMT 
fix, which is one that is important and will affect the constituents in 
my district who do not want to pay the higher taxes without that fix. 
It is also not including the realistic costs for ongoing operations in 
Iraq and Afghanistan.
  The American people expect more from Congress. They expect fiscal 
responsibility and common sense. They expect us to return to the pay-
as-you-go budget rules that we had enacted in the past that helped us 
establish a surplus, however briefly. It is a simple concept with a 
proven track record.
  The budget enforcement rules of the 1990s were an important part of 
getting the budget back into balance. It was done on a bipartisan 
basis. Those pay-as-you-go rules were tested and they worked. We are 
now in a one-party system, and we have thrown them out.
  Accountability in government should be more than a catch phrase, 
particularly when the national debt is now at $8.2 trillion, which, by 
the way, computes to roughly $27,000 of national debt per American.
  I spoke to some seventh graders in my district the other day, and 
they were astounded to find that each of them, their personal share of 
our national debt is $27,000. They were ready for us to do something 
about it. We need to do something about it and let them know that the 
buck stops here.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for 
joining our discussion and debate this evening.
  As we look toward the fiscal year 2007 budget that the President 
recently submitted to Congress, and this is what we are referring to 
here, the ``Fiscal Year 2007 Budget of the United States Government,'' 
I cannot help but think about the fact that over the last 4 years this 
administration has produced the four largest deficits ever in our 
Nation's history.
  The 2006 deficit of $423 billion is projected to be the largest of 
all, $105 billion larger than the 2005 deficit. The 2006 deficit, 
without the Social Security surplus, is over $600 billion. They always 
like to count the Social Security trust fund to make it look like the 
deficit is really less than it really is. No wonder that I could not 
get a vote or a hearing on the first bill I filed as a Member of 
Congress, a bill to tell the politicians in Washington to keep their 
hands off the Social Security trust fund.
  When this administration took office, it inherited a projected 10-
year surplus of $5.6 trillion. This surplus has become a $3.3 trillion 
deficit, which now brings this to a total of $8.2 trillion in deficit, 
an embarrassing reversal of some $8.9 trillion. If that is not enough, 
the fiscal year 2007 proposed budget includes cuts to education, 
Medicare, Medicaid, transportation, justice, law enforcement, housing, 
urban development, health and human services, while increasing fees 
paid by veterans and Medicare premiums paid by seniors.
  The President said in his State of the Union that he was committed to 
providing affordable health care for Americans. However, this budget 
includes increases in Medicare premiums, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, 
and a misguided plan for health savings accounts that will shift more 
of the cost of health care onto beneficiaries.
  The fiscal year 2007 budget includes tax cuts for those earning over 
$400,000 a year, but it fails to include a repair to the alternative 
minimum tax, which affects way too many middle-income people year after 
year after year after year, and should be addressed by this Congress.
  In fact, the only good news I can find in the budget is, according to 
the President's budget, we will have won the peace and brought the 
troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan by October 1. What I mean by that 
is, the President, according to his budget, has not provided for a 
single dime in funding for our operations in Afghanistan or Iraq 
beginning October 1, which obviously means one of two things: that he 
has provided us with a phony budget, one that is not meaningful; or 
that he really believes that we are going to actually have brought all 
the men and women in uniform home and completed our mission and won the 
battle and created peace and democracies in those regions in 
Afghanistan and Iraq between now and October 1.
  The Blue Dog Coalition used to offer up a budget every year. It is 
difficult for us to do that now because we refuse to provide a budget 
that is not meaningful; and it also does not make sense for us to 
provide a budget that compares apples with oranges. If this 
administration and this President would give us a meaningful budget, 
one that accounts for the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, one that 
addresses Medicare and all the other pressing issues in this Nation, 
then we could do the same.
  But what we believe must happen as fiscally conservative Democrats, 
we are tired of all the partisan bickering that goes on in this place. 
It does not matter if it is a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. I 
want it to be a common-sense idea, and I ask myself does it make sense 
for the people that send me here to be their voice and to represent 
them.
  What we believe must happen, before either party can offer up a 
meaningful budget, is, we have got to have budget reform, and that is 
what the Blue Dogs are offering up, 12 points to budget reform. We have 
discussed them in the past. If time permits, I will discuss them even 
more here this evening, but I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Scott).
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Absolutely, and just responding to your very 
eloquent description of the status quo, of the situation and the 
landscape that the American people are faced with today with a budget 
that is squarely not responsive nor responsible to the needs of the 
American people, with an administration that, quite frankly, on so many 
important issues, has demonstrated that they are completely out to 
lunch and out of touch.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  February 28, 2006--On Page H 435 the following appeared: I yield 
to the Gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price). Mr. Price of Georgia.
  
  The online version should be corrected to read: I yield to the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott). Mr. Scott of Georgia.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 

  The point is that the American people deserve better. There is a day 
of reckoning coming, and I assure you that that reckoning is coming 
this year, in the year 2006. I think this is going to be one of the 
most important elections that we have had in a long, long time, because 
all of the facts that you have just pointed out, in terms of FEMA, in 
terms of what is happening in the Middle East and here lately in terms 
of those who were asleep at the switch when the deal was cut, in terms 
of the port security, all show a considerable lack of judgment and a 
lack of responsibility to the American people.
  That has been a characteristic within this administration, especially 
in the area dealing with one of the most precious responsibilities we 
have, which is determining and being responsible for how we spend the 
taxpayers' money. For this administration in the last 5 years to have 
squandered a surplus, the facts are there. They are plain as one can 
see.
  When the Clinton administration left office, there was a surplus of 
billions and billions of dollars, and now in this last year the deficit 
has been shot up over $4 trillion. There is a reckoning for that, and I 
am here to tell you that as a Member of Congress, the American people 
are looking for Members of Congress to stand up for them and to do what 
it is we need to do, that we were elected to do. It is Congress that is 
charged with the responsibility of oversight. It is Congress whose 
decision it is, by the Constitution, to determine how the tax dollars 
are spent. That is our responsibility.
  I am here to tell you that collectively, as a body, we have not done 
our job. We need to correct that, and under the leadership of the Blue 
Dogs, we are asserting that leadership, to say bring it home to us.
  We have got the plan, pay-as-you-go. Parents, families, all across 
this country, they cannot go out here. We tell them all the time, be 
responsible. Mom and dads that are sitting at the kitchen table tonight 
scratching their heads, how are we going to pay this without money, 
they do not have the luxury of putting out a debt ceiling. They do not 
have the luxury of going and borrowing unlimited amounts from foreign 
governments for our most basic services.
  When you combine that with the trade deficit and you combine that 
with our willingness to turn our security for our ports over to foreign 
countries, and especially countries with Arab and Islamic roots and 
connections, when we are in a terrorist war with Islamic and Arabic 
countries, let it be said and let it be plain, we do not

[[Page H436]]

wish to discriminate against anybody because you are Arab or Islamic.
  But does it make good judgment to turn our security over to a country 
that has had a record of financial transactions supporting terrorists 
or a country where two of the terrorists came from that attacked this 
country? That is sort of like after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 
turning over the security of Pearl Harbor to the Japanese.
  The only reason I am mentioning that is to show that the same mind-
set that allowed this to happen for our ports, the same mind-set that 
allowed the FEMA to happen, to have those trailers setting up unused in 
Hope, Arkansas, at Fort Gillem in Georgia, failure after failure of 
judgment, it is the same mind-set that has gotten us into this record 
deficit and debt. There is a reckoning.
  America's looking for leadership on this, and that leadership must 
come from us, Blue Dogs, and the Democratic Party.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia.
  I might mention part of our 12-point plan for meaningful budget 
reform, and we are still waiting for the first Republican Member of 
Congress to sign on to our bills that address these issues, but point 
number one is real simple: Require a balanced budget.
  I spent 10 years in the State Senate. Forty-nine States in this 
Nation require a balanced budget.

                              {time}  2215

  I know in our home in Prescott, Arkansas, my family and I, we sit 
around the kitchen table and work out our family budget. My wife and I 
own a family pharmacy and home medical equipment business in our 
hometown, and our banker requires us to have a balanced budget. I don't 
believe it is asking too much for our Nation and its leaders here in 
Congress to do what 49 States do, what most companies and businesses, 
large and small, in America do, and what most families sitting around 
the kitchen table struggle to do but must do and do, and that is have a 
balanced budget. That would address a lot of our problems.
  Another is don't let Congress buy on credit. The gentleman from 
Georgia mentioned earlier PAYGO. That is Pay As You Go. If you want to 
create a new program that is going to cost money, you have to show us 
at the same time where you are going to cut spending somewhere else. If 
you are going to cut taxes, you have to show us in times when we don't 
have a surplus where you are going to cut programs to pay for those tax 
cuts. It is called Pay As You Go.
  And you can see here we did not have PAYGO rules in place in this 
body, in this United States House of Representatives Chamber; those 
rules were not in place during the Reagan years. You see the red. We 
had deficits ranging from $128 billion in 1992. They hit $221 billion 
in fiscal year 1986. It was $290 billion under former President Bush in 
fiscal year 1992. And then under President Clinton we started seeing 
the debt, the deficit, come down. Finally, in fiscal year 1998, we had 
the first balanced budget in about 40 years, $69 billion in the black. 
In 1999, $125 billion in the black. The year 2000, $236 billion in the 
black. Fiscal year 2001, $128.2 billion in the black.
  Then, under this Republican-led Congress, this administration, $157.8 
billion in the red, $377.6 billion in the red, $412.1 billion in the 
red, $319 billion in the red, $323 billion in the red; and, of course, 
for fiscal year 2007, we all know that unfortunately the deficit is 
projected to be $423 billion. And that is not counting what it would be 
if they counted the Social Security trust fund. If they were to count 
the Social Security trust fund, it would be well in excess, well in 
excess of $600 billion.
  It is time to restore some fiscal discipline to our Nation's 
government. We have a 12-point plan that will accomplish that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois.
  Ms. BEAN. I thank my colleague, Mr. Speaker. It is interesting, I 
mentioned earlier that I spent some time with some seventh graders in 
my district; and when we are with these young students, as my colleague 
mentioned, they are looking to us to demonstrate leadership and to also 
act like the adults they would expect us to act like and demonstrate 
some fiscal sense.
  When I talked to them about the $27,674 of the national debt that 
they each share, they were saying, well, then, how come you guys keep 
spending more than you have? And I said, because we are not adhering to 
the rules we once did before that forced us to do that, that forced us 
to make tough decisions. And we talked about how in their family 
budgets they have to make those decisions. Sometimes going to the 
movies fits in the budget and sometimes it doesn't. But Mom and Dad try 
to make sure that they are not spending more than they have personally 
so as to avoid getting into debt. They understood what that meant in 
their families, and they were, frankly, pretty shocked.
  But it is not just the kids that are worried. I talk to businesses in 
my district, and they are very concerned. They understand that deficits 
matter. Not everybody understands it, but business people understand 
that access to capital fuels their growth; and that while at this 
moment interest rates have been kept down, that can't last forever 
while we become even more dependent on foreign capital to float our 
spending habits. So business people have concerns.
  My colleague also mentioned the debt tax, and I think that is an 
important issue that most people don't appreciate. I have one chart 
here, and I don't know if my colleague has this up there, but I don't 
think people realize that net interest is projected to be at such a 
higher rate than education spending, than homeland security spending, 
and than veterans benefits in the President's 2007 budget. And when 
they realize those are the priorities that we are making and those are 
the decisions we are making, and as more people understand this, they 
are going to become even more frustrated.
  Mr. ROSS. Very good points, and I thank the gentlewoman for sharing 
that with us.
  In this new budget the President has given us, domestic non-homeland 
discretionary spending is cut by $5.3 billion below the 2006 level and 
$16.8 billion below the level needed to maintain the purchasing power 
at the 2006 level.
  Over 5 years this budget includes reductions or eliminations in 141 
Federal programs, 91 of which are eliminated in their entirety, and 42 
programs in the Department of Education alone. That is 42 programs 
within the Department of Education that are eliminated under the 
President's budget for fiscal year 2007.
  The budget includes $77 billion in gross mandatory spending cuts over 
5 years through a combination of service reductions and fee increases, 
as we talked about, increasing deductibles and copayments and premiums 
for our Medicare beneficiaries, and increasing prescription drug 
copayments and enrollment fees for America's veterans. For America's 
veterans.
  I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that it is time for this Nation to keep 
its promises to our veterans, especially at a time when we are creating 
a new generation of veterans that are coming home from Iraq and 
Afghanistan, veterans that we should embrace and support and provide 
them the health care that they deserve and that they were promised when 
they signed up to serve and protect and defend our Nation.
  I mentioned Medicare. The President's budget calls for cuts to 
Medicare to the tune of $36 billion over 5 years and $105 billion over 
10 years. Meanwhile, Medicare part D, as we all know, is failing our 
seniors and has serious flaws in the system that must be ironed out. 
And Medicaid, in addition to last year's budget reconciliation package 
that just passed this body, budget cuts to Medicaid include $17 billion 
more over 5 years and $42 billion over 10 years. That is in the 
President's budget for fiscal year 2007.
  In my home State of Arkansas, half of the children are on Medicaid. 
Eight out of 10 seniors in a nursing home are on Medicaid. One in five 
people in my home State of Arkansas, at some point during the past 12 
months, have been on Medicaid. Medicare and Medicaid are the very 
programs we should be funding, not cutting.
  And I submit to folks that if you think Medicaid is something that 
provides health insurance for folks on welfare and that it will never 
apply to you, think again. If you have a quarter million dollars in the 
bank the day you retire, and most people where I come

[[Page H437]]

from don't, and if you go in the nursing home the day you retire, not 
10, 20, or 30 years later, in less than 8 years you are on Medicaid, 
the health insurance program for the poor, the disabled, and the 
elderly. That is wrong.
  It is wrong to cut taxes for those earning over $400,000 a year when 
you have to cut Medicaid, whereas eight out of 10 seniors in my State 
are on Medicaid if they are in a nursing home. It is wrong to cut 
health care for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly to pay for tax 
cuts for those earning over $400,000 a year.

  And, look, back in times of surplus, when we had a surplus before 9/
11, before Iraq, and before Afghanistan, I voted for the largest tax 
cut in over 20 years. We had a surplus. We really were giving people 
some of their money back. But we no longer have a surplus. We have had 
9/11, we have had Iraq, and we have had Afghanistan. It may make for 
good politics, but it makes for horrible fiscal policy to borrow money 
from China to give those earning over $400,000 a year a tax cut and 
leave our children with the bill.
  No Child Left Behind is funded at $15.4 billion below the authorized 
level. And you know how things work in this town. If it were a 
Democratic idea, I would understand the President cutting it; but this 
is his plan. He came to Washington on this idea of No Child Left Behind 
and reforming education. It is his plan. He told us what it would cost, 
and now he has even cut his own program by $15.4 billion below the 
authorized level.
  Schoolteachers, parents, students, every weekend when I'm home, talk 
to me about how No Child Left Behind has failed them and failed their 
school. It is time for this Congress to properly and adequately fund 
education. Because I can tell you, as we continue to lose these muscle 
jobs to places like Mexico and China, it is the brain jobs, the jobs 
that are going to require our children to be competitive, that are the 
jobs of the future in this Nation, and we've got to better prepare our 
children for them.
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. What a great challenge and what a great 
opportunity we have at this time in history in this country to move us 
forward to the next phase, to a higher calling, to a more significant 
meaning of the greatness of this country, to build on that foundation 
that we have. But before we can do that, I agree with my colleague, we 
have got to balance our books.
  We cannot go on this way, running our government and running our 
Nation on borrowed money from these foreign governments. That has to 
stop, especially at a point when we are in the shape that we are in in 
the rest of the world. Double that with our trade deficit. Double that 
with our war on terror. Double that with our fight for petroleum and 
energy costs, which we are so dependent on foreign countries for as 
well.
  Now, you mentioned a couple of points that I think the American 
people need to perhaps home in on. One you mentioned was the veterans. 
It is so important for us to point out that these budget cuts that the 
President is offering to offset tax cuts, which he is going to have to 
borrow most of the money for, are not offset by these budget cuts. But 
the one that hurts me so much is the veterans. You pointed it out.
  Another issue that the administration is standing and blocking the 
door of is this: I was over in Iraq and Afghanistan, hugging the 
soldiers, looking at them facing death every day, sent in harm's way. 
If those soldiers get hurt, if they get a wound, shrapnel, a bullet and 
they get disability and then they have to resign from the Army and 
retire, do you know that they have to go and make a choice between 
whether they get their retirement pay or their disability? That is 
wrong. That is shameful.
  Our veterans should not have to choose. We should pass this 
concurrent receipts bill. And I might add that we have both Democrats 
and Republicans, over 300 signatures. Why hasn't that bill passed?
  Mr. ROSS. If the gentleman will yield. Let me make sure I understand 
this correctly. If you serve your country and earn a pension, but you 
also are injured while you are serving your country, then you have to 
choose one or the other? You cannot receive both?
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. That is what it is right now, yes.
  Mr. ROSS. So the gentleman is telling me that over 300 Members of 
this body have signed onto legislation to fix that?
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Yes, both Democrats and Republicans.
  Mr. ROSS. And it only takes 218 to pass a bill?
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Yes, sir.
  Mr. ROSS. And yet the Republican leadership fails to bring the bill 
to the floor for a vote?
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Absolutely. And the President of this country 
has not lifted a finger to move it. If they did, it would move. At a 
time when we are depending so strongly on these veterans, on our 
military.
  And let me just add, these are men and women who have braved this 
opportunity by volunteering. And these are men and women that we have 
to set a standard for in the future to get other young men and women to 
volunteer. Not only in terms of benefits such as this and putting their 
lives in harm's way, but our military is becoming so sophisticated, so 
technologically savvy. Our instruments, our equipment, our weapons 
systems require trained computer savvy, technically trained and 
equipped, skilled personnel that are in high commands elsewhere. So the 
least we have got to begin to pay close attention to is how we are 
treating our resources right here at home.
  The other point that you mentioned that I want to bring attention to 
is the children. And my colleague just mentioned it about our children, 
those children that you talked with in school. And I know when you 
looked in the eyes of those children, I know you had to say, what a 
shame it is that this deficit, that this budget, that this bill is 
going to have to be paid for by them. Somebody has to pay this, and it 
is our children that have to pay it.
  Ms. BEAN. It is so true. And essentially what they were saying and 
what we talked about is much like if I were to go get a credit card in 
my children's name and go out and spend money on things for myself and 
my husband but say to my kids, my daughters, when you are 18 and you 
get a job, you get to pay for what I have spent on the credit card. 
That is what we are doing with these future generations.

                              {time}  2230

  And kids understand the injustice of that. They expect better from 
us, absolutely. And they were wishing they were old enough to vote so 
they could do something about it.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I will tell you one thing. I have just come 
back from my district and I have talked and had town hall meetings, and 
I have had opportunities to meet people at our churches, and people are 
in tune. They are tuned in to what is happening in this capital.
  I am here to tell you they are very concerned about the port security 
situation. They are very concerned about this deficit. They are very 
concerned about the failure and inaction in Katrina. This is a whole 
region of this great country that has been devastated, and the response 
has been extremely wanting. And the American people are expecting us to 
respond to that.
  Now, President Bush does not have to run again. He does not have to 
face the voters. But you do, Mr. Ross, and I do, and you, Ms. Bean. We 
have to do that. The Framers of the Constitution made it clear. That is 
one of the reasons why we in this House are, in my estimation, the most 
powerful body, because we have to go out every other year and re-get 
our contract. That gives us an awesome power. That is why this Chamber 
is more directly in touch with the American people, because we have to 
go out there every other year.
  Mr. ROSS. Every weekend.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Every year, but we are on the ballot every 
other year where they have to give their verdict.
  And, finally, Mr. Ross, you made the point concerning the deficit, 
the debt, the money we are borrowing from foreign countries. But I 
think it is important for the American people to understand that just 
the interest, just the interest that we are paying Japan and China and 
Germany and other countries in the Middle East, just the interest we 
are paying them is more than

[[Page H438]]

what we are paying for our own homeland security. And that is a very 
unfortunate situation, but it drives home the point of the very 
dangerous position that we are in. Should any of these countries feel 
that they could get us, they can get us because of our lack of 
financial responsibility and fiscal security.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for joining 
us this evening, and I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for joining 
us.
  As members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, we are 37 
strong. There are 37 of us in this town that are committed to trying to 
get our fiscal house in order, to once again have a nation that knows 
how to live within its means.
  If you have questions or comments that you want us to answer next 
Tuesday night, you can e-mail them to us at [email protected].
  At the beginning of our hour, I pointed out that the debt as of today 
is $8,251,355,000,000. That is $8,251,355,000,000. Every man, woman, 
and child in America, their share of the national debt is $27,674. And 
it continues to grow. It continues to grow. In fact, just in this last 
hour our Nation's debt has increased by $41.666 million. So, obviously, 
you see when we started an hour ago it was $8,251,355,000,000, and, 
unfortunately, it has increased to $8.293 trillion. Just another 
example of how our Nation must get its fiscal house in order.
  I think it is very appropriate that we spend a little bit of time 
changing these numbers and letting people see that in the hour that we 
have stood here talking about our Nation's debt and deficit and getting 
our fiscal house in order, we have seen the Nation's debt go up by 
$41.666 million. The debt now in our Nation $8,251,293,000,000.

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