[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
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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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