[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 14, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H963-H969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Drake). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. ROSS. Madam Speaker, on behalf of the 37-member strong fiscally 
conservative Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 fiscally conservative 
Democrats that have a common goal, and that is to restore some common 
sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government, and on behalf 
of the Blue Dog Coalition, I rise this evening as I do every Tuesday 
evening to discuss the debt, the deficit, the budget and accountability 
within our government because I believe, as Members of Congress, 
Members of this body, we were sent here by the American people to be 
good stewards of our tax dollars.
  I grew up at Midway United Methodist Church just outside of Prescott, 
in Hope, Arkansas. Heard a lot of sermons growing up about what it 
meant to be a good steward. And what I learned growing up at Midway 
Methodist Church about stewardship I believe also applies to being good 
stewards of our tax dollars.
  And, Madam Speaker, I rise this evening because today the U.S. 
national debt is $8,270,385,415,129 and some change. Again, that is a 
lot of numbers, and sometimes I get them a little confused. 
$8,270,385,415,129. For every man and woman and child in America, 
including those being born right now, each individual in America's 
share, every man, woman and child's share of the national deb, comes to 
some $27,000 and some change.
  It is hard to believe now, but from 1998 through 2001, we had a 
balanced budget in this Nation. And yet for the last 6 years, this 
administration and this Republican Congress have given us the largest 
budget deficit ever, ever in

[[Page H964]]

our Nation's history. It is time to restore some common sense and 
fiscal discipline to our Nation's government, and it must start with 
accountability.
  Madam Speaker, we all, our heart goes out to all the people that were 
impacted as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Our heart 
goes out to so many people who lost their home and literally everything 
that they owned. It has been 7 months since that storm, and yet there 
are still so many things that are not happening the way they should 
within this administration and within FEMA, and one of those things is 
happening in my back yard.
  I grew up in Prescott, Emmett and Hope, and went eighth through 12th 
grade at Hope public schools, graduated from Hope High School in 1979. 
I will be back there this coming Monday evening to keynote their annual 
chamber of commerce banquet.
  But shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency showed up at the mayor's office at city hall in Hope, Arkansas, 
saying this. They showed up and they said, you know, Mr. Mayor, you 
have got this old World War II Army airport facility at your airport, 
these inactive runways, inactive taxiways, inactive tarmacs; and we 
want to use this as a FEMA staging area. And we are going to have 
manufactured homes, these 60-and 80-foot-long manufactured homes, 14-
foot wide, two and three bedroom fully furnished manufactured homes 
coming and going, coming into the staging area at the airport, these 
inactive closed military runways from the World War II days; and then 
they will be coming in, they will be going out.
  Well, Madam Speaker, they came and they came and they came and they 
came and they came, but they never left.

                              {time}  2300

  Well, now some 300 have left. 10,777 brand new, fully furnished 
manufactured homes arrived at the airport in Hope, Arkansas, with the 
theory being that they would all be stored on these inactive runways.
  Today about 25 percent of them are stored on these inactive runways. 
75 percent of them are stored in a pasture. In the past I have referred 
to it as a cow pasture. And the mayor down there in Hope reminded me 
there have not been cows in that field in a long, long time.
  But the point I am trying to get across is 75 percent of these 
manufactured homes are just sitting there on grass. Someone told me the 
other day to start calling it a hay meadow. 75 percent of them are just 
sitting there on the grass.
  In fact, Madam Speaker, if you have ever wondered what 10,777 
manufactured homes look like, that is just a sampling of them with an 
aerial view. This is the active runway at Hope. These are the inactive 
runways. As you can see, they tried their best to store them on them, 
but then they ran out of room.
  If you wonder why I call it a cow pasture, this gives you a pretty 
good close up view of it. There is your barbwire fence. There is the 
pasture. And there is the manufactured homes just sitting there. These 
were actually parked in my home town of Prescott waiting to get into 
the FEMA staging area in Hope.
  Now in all fairness, when I raised this issue there were 10,777 
manufactured homes sitting in Hope, Arkansas. They have since moved 300 
of those to Louisiana. 300 out of 10,777, which obviously if you do the 
math means we have still got 10,477 manufactured homes sitting in Hope, 
Arkansas at the airport and in this pasture, this hay meadow.
  And what is appalling about that is that 7 months after this storm in 
the middle of winter, in places like Pass Christian, Mississippi, there 
are still people living in tents, living in tents at a time that we 
have 10,477 brand new fully furnished manufactured homes sitting in 
Hope, Arkansas, 450 miles from the eye of the storm
  To put it another way, if you stack them end to end, they will 
stretch from Texas to Mississippi. There are $431 million worth of 
manufactured homes sitting at the airport. I was down there with the 
Democratic Leader of the Senate, Senator Reid, and Senator Pryor just 
this past Saturday urging FEMA once again to get moving, urging FEMA 
once again to get these manufactured homes to the people that need 
them.
  What does FEMA say? Well, we will not put them in a flood zone, we 
will not put them in a floodplain. And under a normal situation, I 
would say that makes sense. But the reality is, that everybody that 
lost their home that needs a home, their land is in a flood plain.
  And surely to goodness FEMA knew that before they purchased 10,000 of 
these brand new fully furnished manufactured homes. So what is FEMA's 
response? FEMA's response is that this week they have awarded a bid, 
just in the last few days at least, they have awarded a bid, and they 
are beginning to gravel, they are beginning to gravel 170 acres of this 
pasture land, costing the taxpayers $4.2 million, so that they can 
continue to store these manufactured homes out of fear that sitting on 
the pasture they are eventually going to begin to sink.
  Madam Speaker, that is an example of the lack of accountability 
within our Government. That is how our Government, this Republican 
Congress, this President, is spending our tax money. And all I can tell 
you, Madam Speaker, is all it takes is an executive order of the 
President to require FEMA to locate these 10,477 manufactured homes to 
the people who need them who lost their home and everything they own in 
Louisiana. The President can do it with one signature on one piece of 
paper.
  But since he has refused to do that, I am proud to share with you 
that I have written a bill, introduced a bill into this session of 
Congress, that would basically require FEMA to get moving, to require 
FEMA to temporarily locate these to the people who need them in 
Louisiana.
  Finally, the most important part of this is that these manufactured 
homes are not permanent housing, they are temporary housing for 18 
months. What is worse? To have these 10,477 manufactured homes spread 
over multiple flood plains in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, or 
have them all sitting there in this pasture at the airport in Hope, 
where there will be a tornado watch or a tornado warning every 10 days 
for the next 3 months.
  This area is commonly referred to as Tornado Alley. My home county is 
one county over. We had tornado watches just this weekend. This is an 
example of how taxpayers are fed up with our Government. This is an 
example of the lack of accountability in our Government
  And as a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 fiscally 
conservative Democrats, we rise this evening to ask the President, to 
ask this Republican Congress, to exercise some common sense and good 
judgment and join us in trying to get FEMA to get these manufactured 
homes out of Hope and to the people who so desperately need them.

  Now for the rest of this hour, we are going to be talking about 
accountability. We are going to be talking about the debt, we are going 
to be talking about the deficit, we are going to be talking about the 
budget.
  Madam Speaker, I am extremely pleased this evening to be joined by a 
real leader within the Blue Dog Coalition, someone who has been elected 
the co-chair for administration within the Blue Dog Coalition, the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).
  Mr. MATHESON. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Ross. And I am 
always pleased to join follow Blue Dogs on the floor of the House of 
Representatives to talk about the issue of fiscal responsibility, and 
also about accountability, which go hand in hand.
  The Blue Dogs have made a point of trying to make sure that people 
understand the magnitude of the debt. Mr. Ross showed the slide that 
showed over $8 trillion of debt. If we divide that among every man, 
woman and child in this country, that is over $27,000 for everybody.
  And the accountability issue that we have talked about, let's just 
take that as one issue to talk about now. Because the Blue Dogs have 
promoted what they call their 12-point plan that will lead us back to 
fiscal responsibility.
  One of the points has to do with accountability. See the example Mr. 
Ross gave where you have money being wasted and you wonder what is 
going on, that is indicative of a broader problem within the Federal 
Government.
  So many agencies within this Government are unable to offer a clean

[[Page H965]]

audit of their books. It is pretty remarkable when you think about it. 
Businesses would be out of business if they ran this way. And so under 
the Blue Dog 12-point plan, we think you have to put a structure in 
place that will force fiscal responsibility, one of the planks of the 
12-point plan says that if there is a Government agency that cannot 
give you a clean audit of their books, their funding is frozen at the 
previous year's level. No increase for inflation or anything else.
  In other words, we are going to create a strong incentive for the 
people working in that Government agency to make sure that they can at 
least give you a clean accounting of their books. That is what we 
should all want. That is what we should all demand quite frankly as 
citizens of this country.
  There is nothing Republican or Democrat about this issue. That is 
just basic accountability. It is the taxpayers' money. They ought to be 
able to have an answer when they ask the question, how is it being 
spent?
  And there are too many agencies within this Government who today 
cannot give you an accurate answer. And it adds up to a lot of money. 
The most recent year for which we have cumulative data was in 2003. And 
the Federal Government does not know where over $24 billion was spent 
in that year; $24\1/2\ billion, roughly speaking, is unaccounted for 
during that year.
  That is enough to fund the entire Department of Justice. And we do 
not know where the money is. I find that amazing. So that is one of the 
12 points that the Blue Dogs have offered as a legislative package that 
we think will help restore some fiscal sanity to the Federal system.
  You see, when you take a look at it over time you see deficits occur, 
and you see certain actions to try to correct that. That is one of the 
best lessons we all learn if we are in our own household or own our own 
business, and we saw a year where we lost money, in other words we 
spent more than we would take in, we would take actions to correct 
that.
  You do not see that happening right now in Washington. That is a 
concern for me. And in my tenure in Washington, I am in my sixth year 
here now, I have become convinced that we need to put rules in place, 
you need to create a structure that forces everybody to be fiscally 
responsible, forces the Congress and forces the President both to be 
fiscally responsible.
  And that is where this 12-point plan comes into play. The 
accountability plank is the first plank I talked about. There are a 
couple of others that are real straight forward that I would like to 
mention as well. One is we believe that there ought to believe a 
balanced budget amendment in the Constitution.
  Forty-five States have such an amendment. They seem to be doing 
pretty well in that regard. We think that the Federal Government ought 
to have that sort of requirement as well. So there is a structural 
requirement for balanced budgets.

                              {time}  2310

  Secondly, we think as Blue Dogs that we ought to put in mechanisms 
that force you to pay for new programs. So if you got a new program 
that costs a certain amount of money, you have to pay for it by taking 
money away from something else. And if you have a new tax cut that 
costs money, you have to pay for it somewhere else.
  By the way, this is not a new idea, this concept of pay as you go for 
new programs. That set of rules or standard existed in the Federal 
Government. It started in 1990 during the first Bush administration. 
Congress passed this legislation. The first President Bush signed it 
into law, and that created this structure where there was more 
accountability, where you paid for new programs. Unfortunately, after 
all the success of that, they expired in 2001, those budget rules; and 
since then we are going without them. And the Blue Dogs have introduced 
legislation every year to try to move ahead with that type of budget 
enforcement mechanism in terms of pay as you go, but we have not been 
able to get a vote on that.
  So that is another point of the 12-point plan, be responsible, pay 
for new things, find another place to pay for it. Live within your 
means. It is a concept that all of us can relate to. That is the way we 
approach things when we sit down around the family dinner table and 
talk about our own household budget. And if you are a small 
businessman, you figure out that you have to live within your means, 
and you make your adjustments and you make your decisions.
  Until we put that structure in place here in Washington, my concern 
is we are not going to have people making those decisions. So I am, as 
I said, always pleased to join my Blue Dogs colleagues in the House of 
Representatives to have a discussion about how we can move ahead with 
fiscal responsibility, what it is going to take.
  Here is the thing I find in politics these days. It is easy for 
people to talk about the problems. We are here tonight offering a 
solution. We are offering a plan that helps us get away from this 
pattern, this unending pattern of increasing debt, and that is the kind 
of thing that I think folks in this country want from their elected 
officials. They want ideas and they want solutions. And that is why I 
think this 12-point plan merits everyone's attention, and I think this 
whole issue of fiscal responsibility is one that ought to bridge across 
party lines because this is doing what is right for this country, not 
what is right for one party or the other. This is the right thing to do 
for this country. It is the right thing to do for all of our citizens. 
It is the right thing to do because every man, woman and child, as I 
said earlier, right now owes over $27,000. And we owe it to them and we 
owe it to future generations to make sure that we do not have an ever-
increasing obligation of debt.
  I am going to continue to participate in this conversation, but right 
now I am going to turn it back over to Congressman Ross. I appreciate 
his leadership in managing this hour discussion on the House floor. 
Congressman Ross, I look forward to continuing this discussion about 
moving ahead with the fiscally responsible country.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Utah, and the gentleman from 
Utah raises a couple of good points. First and foremost is that as 
members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition, 37 members 
strong, we are sick and tired of all the partisan bickering that goes 
on at our Nation's Capitol. It should not matter if it is a Democratic 
idea or a Republican idea. It ought to matter that it is a commonsense 
idea and does it make sense for the people that send us here to be 
their voice in our Nation's Capitol?
  I see these Democrats that vote 98 percent of the time with the 
Democratic Party, and I see these Republicans that vote 98 percent of 
the time with the Republican Party. And I submit to you, you do not 
need a brain to do that. And I do not think that is why people sent us 
here. I think they sent us here to look at the issue and to judge it on 
its merits and whether it makes sense for the people back home.
  There is a lot of criticism that goes on in this Chamber, a lot of 
people that criticize each other and each party. We are here tonight to 
point out that there is a problem: the largest budget deficit ever in 
our Nation's history. The largest debt ever in our Nation's history. 
More importantly, as the gentleman from Utah pointed out, we are here 
this evening to offer up our plan, our plan for a budget reform, our 
plan, a 12-point reform plan, for curing our Nation's addiction to 
deficit spending.
  The gentleman from Utah raised two of 12 points very eloquently. One 
of those is require agencies to put their fiscal house in order. Again, 
that is just a commonsense idea. But as the gentleman said 16, 16 of 23 
major Federal agencies cannot issue a simple audit of their books. 
Worse, the Federal Government cannot account for $24.5 billion it spent 
in 2003. Government auditors should be doing a better job of tracking 
taxpayer dollars, and the Blue Dog Coalition proposes a budget freeze 
on any Federal agency that cannot properly balance its books.

  Another point the gentleman from Utah raised was requiring a balanced 
budget. As he pointed out, 49 States in America require a balance 
budget. I served for 10 years in the Senate in Arkansas. We were 
required to provide for a balanced budget. My wife makes sure that we 
have a balanced budget at the Ross household in Prescott, Arkansas. And 
our banker requires us to have a balanced budget at our family pharmacy 
that we own back home in Prescott, Arkansas.
  As members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we support a constitutional

[[Page H966]]

amendment to require a balanced budget every year except in times of 
war or a national emergency. The Blue Dogs believe a balanced budget 
amendment is the only way, the only way to ensure fiscal discipline in 
Congress. The Blue Dog balanced budget amendment would require a three-
fifths vote of both the House and Senate to increase the debt limit or 
to waive the balanced budget requirement. In addition, the Blue Dog 
balanced budget amendment protects Social Security from benefit cuts 
and forbids increases in Social Security payroll taxes in order to 
balance the budget.
  Let me repeat: our amendment protects Social Security from benefit 
cuts and forbids increases in Social Security, payroll taxes in order 
to balance the budget.
  Madam Speaker, again, the Blue Dog Coalition, who are we? We are 37 
members strong. We are a group of fiscally conservative Democrats who 
are trying to offer up some common sense, some new direction, and some 
leadership on fiscal issues in this Congress.
  Madam Speaker, if you have any comments or questions for us, I would 
invite you, Madam Speaker, to e-mail us at BlueD[email protected]. That 
is BlueD[email protected].
  At this time in this Special Order on the budget, the debt, the 
deficit, and the manufactured homes in Hope, Arkansas, a good example 
of a lack of accountability in this administration and this Republican-
led Congress, I am pleased to call on the co-chair for communications 
within the Blue Dog Coalition. Someone that has been elected to a 
leadership position in the Blue Dog Coalition. Someone that I have a 
great deal of respect for, and that is the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Cardoza).
  Mr. CARDOZA. Thank you, Mr. Ross. It is great to be here again with 
you as we talk about the fiscal challenges that face our country.
  I was glad to hear you talk about how the Blue Dog Coalition has 
tried to, in a bipartisan nature, work with the other side of the aisle 
to bring about some fiscal responsibility. In fact, the Blue Dog 
Coalition sent a letter to the Speaker and to the President asking for 
a bipartisan working group to try and get to the bottom of balancing 
the budget and dealing with this fiscal irresponsibility. We have yet 
to hear from the President. We would certainly like to sit down with 
him and discuss our ideas to bring fiscal accountability to our 
Nation's government.
  As moderates and fiscal hawks, the Blue Dogs are just trying to do 
the right thing for America. We are trying to get engaged in a real 
debate on fiscal responsibility because we need to return honesty and 
accountability to our Nation's finances.
  I am deeply concerned with the continued deficit spending and the 
complete disregard for fiscally responsible policies and really a 
fundamental dishonest budget process. The President's proposed $2.7 
trillion budget will decrease domestic spending, yet still leave a 
massive $355 billion budget deficit for this fiscal year. But the $355 
billion is not the whole story. The President's figure deliberately 
leaves out the cost of the effort of Iraq and Afghanistan and the 
potential future costs of rebuilding of the gulf region and fixing the 
alternative minimum tax that is plaguing more and more middle-class 
Americans every year.
  All of these issues that were left off the budget are all known costs 
that will drive up the deficit more than what has been stated in the 
President's document.

                              {time}  2320

  Some would say that the President's budget is a nice break from 
reality television. The President's budget does nothing to make the 
Federal Government more accountable for taxpayer dollars.
  Every year, the President issues two vital budgeting documents, the 
budget and the financial report of the United States. You have heard of 
the first but probably not of the second, and why is it completely 
ignored? The budget is widely distributed to every Member of Congress 
and the national press. The financial report, however, is distributed 
to fewer than 20 Members of Congress with no press release.
  The budget says that the deficit is $319 billion in 2005, but the 
financial report says it was $760 billion, over twice as large as the 
budget that was distributed to all Members of Congress. The difference 
is that the budget uses a cash-based accounting which only the smallest 
businesses of America use because it hides future obligations, thus, 
painting a potentially unrealistic and misleading picture of the 
Federal Government's overall performance.
  According to David Walker, the comptroller of the General 
Accountability Office, his statement was that it is painting a 
potentially unrealistic and misleading picture of the Federal 
Government's overall performance.
  The financial report of America uses accrual accounting, the method 
required by law for every business in America with revenues over $5 
million. The financial report takes into account future obligations of 
the Federal Government and presents a clearer, more understandable 
picture of Federal finances.
  So when Mr. Ross is talking about the problems in our budget process, 
that is one of the things that the Blue Dogs want to highlight is that 
the true deficit, as you have on your poster down there, is $760 
billion for 2005, double what was in the President's budget.
  The Blue Dog coalition believes that both the House and Senate should 
use a more realistic financial report number for its budget, rather 
than budget numbers that we talk about because it is a truer 
accounting, and this is not even taking into consideration some of the 
other spending like we know we are going to have to spend to take care 
of some of the problems in Katrina and some of the devastated areas of 
the gulf coast.
  I really appreciate you taking me down to Hope, Arkansas, to the 
airport down there a few weeks ago to see these trailers. I do not know 
if you have talked about them tonight since I just came down on the 
floor.
  Mr. ROSS. Oh, yeah.
  Mr. CARDOZA. The reality is that there is nearly $1 billion in 
trailers throughout Arkansas, half a billion dollars in your district. 
It is really wasted. Those trailers should be used for folks who are in 
flood zones and need them, not sitting sinking in the mud in Hope, 
Arkansas. So I appreciate you highlighting this fact once again.
  I appreciate those in the gallery being able to see the pictures of 
just wasted tax dollars, $1 billion in your home State, and thank you 
for having me here tonight, once again, and for leading this hour, and 
I will be happy to engage with you as we go on.
  Mr. ROSS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, and 
to clarify, it is about half a billion dollars. I believe it is about 
$431 million worth of manufactured homes sitting there in that pasture 
at the airport.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I believe if you take all the 20,000 throughout the 
entire State of Arkansas, it is about $800 million.
  Mr. ROSS. Some of those are in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, several staging areas, but by far, 10,477. When you were 
there, there were 10,777, and the good news is 300 have left. There is 
still 10,477 manufactured homes, brand new, fully furnished sitting 
there in a pasture at the airport in Hope.
  The Inspector General had indicated they were sinking in the mud. Not 
true. Our farm families can just tell you, we have just faced the worst 
drought ever. Our farmers are used to 50 inches of rain. We did not get 
25. We are not sinking in the mud yet. Instead of getting them off the 
pasture before winter weather sets in and spring weather sets in and 
they do begin to sink, instead of getting these homes to the people who 
need them, FEMA's response is we are going to spend $4.2 million 
graveling, graveling, 170 acres out here so they will not just sit here 
on the pasture like they are doing right there.
  Again, people like this in places like Pass Christian, Mississippi, 
continue 7 months later to live in a tent while our Federal Government, 
this administration, has 10,477 brand new, fully furnished manufactured 
homes sitting at the Hope airport in Hope, Arkansas.
  I am convinced there is a lot more wrong with FEMA than Michael 
Brown, its former director, and I can tell you that if I was President 
of the United States I would be finding me a new FEMA director.

  The gentleman from California pointed out the real United States 2005 
deficit is $760 billion and explained how we

[[Page H967]]

come up with that. Again, the deficit for 2005, based on a cash-basis 
accounting is $319 billion. We do not need to make it any worse than 
that. I mean, that is one of the worst budget deficits ever in our 
Nation's history. Again, it is hard to believe we had a balanced budget 
for the first time in 40 years from 1998-2001, but we did.
  In 2005, on cash-basis accounting, which is what our government, our 
Congress, this administration, uses when it comes to the budget, the 
deficit was $319 billion. When we say the real United States deficit 
for 2005 was $760 billion, that is based on accrual accounting.
  Again, it was former Senator John Glenn when he was a Member here in 
the United States Congress that passed the law that said the Secretary 
of Treasury must issue a financial report of the United States 
Government every year. Again, when they issued the budget, the budget 
is delivered with a lot of fanfare to Capitol Hill. You see it on the 
news and read about it in the paper and hear about it on the radio. 
Thousands of copies are delivered. There is at least one copy 
delivered, usually several, to every congressional Member's office.
  But when it comes to the financial report of the United States 
government, only about 20 copies are delivered to Capitol Hill, and 
that is because this administration, this Republican Congress, does not 
want you to know the truth about the debt, the deficit and the budget.
  Now, do not take our word for it. This is David Walker, who is the 
Comptroller General of the United States General Accountability Office. 
What did he say: The current financial reporting model does not clearly 
and transparently show the wide range of responsibilities, programs and 
activities. It provides a potentially unrealistic and misleading 
picture of the Federal Government's overall performance, financial 
condition and future fiscal outlook. That is David Walker, and 
obviously, as I indicated earlier, he is the Comptroller General of the 
United States General Accountability Office.
  Now, when we talk about instead of using cash base accounting and 
accrual base accounting, what is all that about, well, I can tell you 
our government, our Congress, demands every business is required to use 
the accrual method of accounting if the business has inventory, if the 
business is a C corporation, or if there are annual sales of $5 million 
dollars.
  This accrual accounting is the method that this Congress demands 
businesses in America to use, including our family business back home 
in Preston, and if I do not use accrual accounting, I am trouble in 
with the IRS and our government, and yet, our own government that sets 
these rules in place does not use this method of accounting. They use 
the cash-base accounting method which is a way for them to play games 
with the numbers and indicate that the deficit for 2005 was $319 
billion instead of $760 billion.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Madam Speaker, one of the things that my constituents 
ask me when I go home is how we got into this mess, and they say, well, 
it was just a few years ago in 1997, we actually started paying down 
the national debt. Then when Mr. Clinton left office in the year 2000, 
we were actually making good progress paying down the debt and we had 4 
years a row in balance and paying down.
  But there is one very critical thing that happened in 2001, and that 
was that the PAYGO rules were suspended. Those rules were put in place 
by a bipartisan Congress in 1997, and those PAYGO rules said that you 
had to pay for what you spent, just like we have to do in our home 
budget.

                              {time}  2330

  And if you were to spend more money, you had to either find a budget 
cut someplace, or you had to find tax revenues to pay for it. So for 4 
years, on a bipartisan agreement negotiated between Newt Gingrich and 
President Clinton, the country lived within its means. Then in the year 
2001, those rules were suspended.
  Since that has happened, we have amassed some of the biggest deficits 
in the history of our country, all financed, or virtually all financed, 
unfortunately, through deficit spending. And that is being financed by 
foreign governments. In fact, our colleague, John Tanner, is very often 
quoted as saying that we have borrowed more money from foreign 
governments in the last 5 years than in the rest of the history of the 
United States combined.
  In fact, he is also fond of saying that if we were going to have to 
go in, if there was a war between China and Taiwan, and we went in to 
defend Taiwan like our treaties obligate us to do, we would have to 
borrow the money from China to defend Taiwan against China. That is how 
crazy this system has now gotten.
  So we can see how dangerous this foreign obligation has become for 
our country. And I thank the gentleman for highlighting the budget 
problems in his speech, and I yield back.
  Mr. ROSS. I would like to invite the gentleman from Utah (Mr. 
Matheson), co-chair for administration within the 37-Member strong 
fiscally conservative Democratic coalition to join us. And one of the 
things we talked about is we want to point out the problem, and there 
is a problem.
  Madam Speaker, if you have comments for the Blue Dogs, I would 
encourage you to e-mail us at [email protected]. That is 
[email protected]. We welcome, Madam Speaker, your comments, 
concerns, or questions.
  One of the things that we have talked about is this debt, and let me 
just say that the reason the debt should matter to you is because our 
Nation is spending a half billion dollars a day. A half billion, with a 
``b,'' dollars a day simply paying interest on the national debt.
  You know, I have got a lot of folks in my district that have been 
waiting for longer than I have been alive for I-69 to be completed 
through Arkansas. It is going to take about $1.5 billion to do that. I 
could build I-69 across Arkansas, across my district, and create jobs 
and economic opportunities with just 3 days' interest on the national 
debt. On the western side of my district, everybody has been waiting 
since I was a small child for I-49 to come through that part of my 
district, which my district is about half of Arkansas. Again, it is 
about $1.5 billion. Just with 3 days' interest on the national debt, I 
could build I-49 through Arkansas. We could build 100 brand-new 
elementary schools every single day in America just on the interest we 
are paying on the national debt.
  So it is what we refer to in the Blue Dog Coalition as the debt tax, 
D-E-B-T. The debt tax. And that is one tax that cannot go away until we 
restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's 
government. As long as we have these massive interest payments hanging 
over our head as a Nation, then America's real priorities and America's 
future will hang in the balance waiting for an opportunity for us to 
meet America's real priorities.
  Now, the gentleman from Utah indicated to us about the fact of what 
we are all about. We are not just here to criticize. We do have a 
problem. We have to acknowledge the problem, and we have to point out 
the problem; but we are here to offer up a solution. We have a plan, a 
plan for meaningful budget reform, a plan for curing our Nation's 
addiction to deficit spending.
  I would welcome the gentleman from Utah to go through the other 10 
points with us. And I would welcome the gentleman from California to 
jump in at any point, and I would love for us to just have a discussion 
here about the Blue Dog Coalition's 12-point plan.
  I yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).
  Mr. MATHESON. Well, I thank Mr. Ross. I think it is important to talk 
about the fact that you ought to have a plan. You know, you have a 
family business you own back in Arkansas, a pharmacy; and when you 
borrow money to help take out a business loan, the bank asks you for a 
plan, how are you going to pay that back.
  Right now, the Federal Government is borrowing money, and I do not 
know that there is a plan out there that has been articulated for how 
we are going to pay that back.
  Mr. CARDOZA. We haven't heard about it, for sure.
  Mr. MATHESON. And I think that is something we should expect. I think 
that is a reasonable request to ask.
  I did want to reiterate one point that Mr. Ross was making when he 
said

[[Page H968]]

why this matters. He said some people say it doesn't matter. They say, 
ah, these deficits, it is really not that big a deal, and it is okay. 
We haven't seen any huge disruption in the economy with these deficits, 
so they don't matter. Well, the Blue Dogs think they do matter. We 
think they matter for a lot of reasons.

  First of all, they matter because right now this is one of the 
fastest growing parts of the Federal budget. And so what you are doing, 
what you are doing with the Federal budget growing so fast, in terms of 
the interest component, is you are saying, you know what, we are not 
going to do other things. So there is an opportunity cost, if you will, 
or lost opportunities, where we are not going to invest in important 
programs, investing in people, in their education, and investing in 
transportation infrastructure in the country. We are crowding that out 
because interest is growing as part of our national debt.
  Secondly, you are taking away capital that otherwise might be 
invested in the private sector. It would help our economy grow. 
Instead, we are taking it in to pay back government debt here. If the 
government wasn't asking for that debt, then investors would be 
investing that much more in the private sector. Our economy could very 
well be doing better with that increased investment in the economy.
  Thirdly, I don't like to pay taxes. I don't think that anybody likes 
to pay taxes. And what we are doing is we are ensuring a tax burden for 
generations to come, probably in perpetuity, quite frankly, if we don't 
turn this thing around, in terms of the tax burdens to pay this 
interest cost.
  And, finally, the fourth reason I think we ought to be concerned. 
Actually, I will give two more. The fourth reason why I think we ought 
to be concerned about this debt is because while it hasn't happened 
yet, in the overall context of supply and demand, the more we are 
gobbling up debt and asking people to invest in debt instruments in 
this country, there is going to be an upward pressure on interest 
rates. And that is not good for our economy.
  The final point, the one that my colleague, Mr. Cardoza, raised, is 
that this country is entering a new situation they have never faced 
before in this country, and that is an increasing reliance on foreign 
government owning the debt of the United States of America. This raises 
some economic security issues we have never faced before that are hard 
to get your arms around, but I think it causes concern for all of us.
  So there are five quick reasons I offer for why you ought to be 
concerned about the debt and you ought to be concerned about deficits. 
And if you don't feel some negative impact of it immediately today, 
those five reasons I just listed all ought to be cause for concern 
about why we ought to be fiscally responsible and we ought to get our 
arms around the debt.
  I yield to Mr. Cardoza.
  Mr. CARDOZA. One of the things that you said that I want to dig in a 
little deeper to is it really precludes our options in times of crisis. 
If we were to have another September 11 hit tomorrow, and 2 weeks later 
another Hurricane Katrina hit someplace on the gulf coast, could we 
afford the $200 billion we spent after September 11 again on top of 
everything else? And would we be so willing or even able to bail out 
another gulf coast situation?
  We know that calamities are going to happen. In fact, that is one of 
the 12 points in our Blue Dog plan is to put away a rainy day fund 
because we know, as sure as the next drought or the next monsoon comes, 
the next rain storm, there will be another calamity that will befall 
us. It may be wildfires in the West or a flood in the Midwest. We have 
challenges that will continue to face our country, and, frankly, the 
world. And oftentimes the world looks to our country to solve these 
issues, like the tsunami and other things.
  But we are becoming stretched thinner all the time; and the point you 
raise, Mr. Matheson, on not being able to have the options because we 
are running out of dollars, is one that I think we have to think about 
as a country.
  Mr. MATHESON. And let me put a human face on another aspect where 
investment is being crowded out that just occurred in my office today, 
and may have occurred in your offices too. A lot of us on Capitol Hill 
had visits from families today with folks who generally have a child 
with diabetes, so it is the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. And they were 
visiting Congress to plead for investment in basic research dollars to 
help pursue both better treatments for those who have this disease and 
also looking for cures as well.

                              {time}  2340

  That is the type of investment in public money that pays such huge 
dividends for us as a country. But growing interest expense is crowding 
out wonderful investments like basic health research. That is a 
wonderful opportunity we heard about today on Capitol Hill from 
families that are passionate on pursuing that interest. But with 
interest crowding out that the opportunity to make that type of 
investment, that is another reason to be concerned about the debt.
  Mr. ROSS. I have to give it to this President, who has managed to 
give us the largest budget deficit in our Nation's history, while at 
the same time cutting programs that are important to people, programs 
for education, programs for farm families, and the list goes on and on. 
How does he continue to do that? He proposes tax cuts for those earning 
more than $400,000 a year. I do not have many folks in my district who 
earn $400,000 a year. I have voted for tax cuts in the past. Back in 
times of surplus, before 9/11 and before Iraq and Afghanistan when we 
really had a surplus, I thought it made sense to give people some of 
their money back.
  But for us to continue to borrow money from foreign governments to 
give tax breaks may make for good politics, but it makes for bad fiscal 
policy. But what the gentleman is talking about in terms of the foreign 
debt, again the debt $8,270,385,415,129 and some change. Who owns that 
debt? Who do we owe that money to?
  Well, we owe $2.174 trillion to foreign lenders. Compare that to only 
$23 billion we owed to foreign holdings back in 1993. As the gentleman 
from California pointed out earlier, this administration, this 
President, this Republican Congress, has borrowed more money from 
foreign central banks and foreign investors in the past 5 years than 
the previous 42 Presidents combined.
  Who are they? Japan is the top 10. Japan, we owe them $682.8 billion. 
China has loaned our government $249.8 billion. The United Kingdom, 
$223.2 billion. The Caribbean Banking Center, they have loaned us 
$115.3 billion. Taiwan, $71.3 billion. OPEC, and we wonder why gasoline 
is $2.25 a gallon, OPEC has loaned our government, $67.8 billion. 
Korea, $66.5 billion. Germany $65.7 billion; Canada $53.8 billion; and 
Hong Kong $46.5 billion.
  I am very concerned about what that means to our national security as 
these foreign countries will be able to have such a tremendous and 
dramatic influence on our monetary policy. I find that appalling. I 
find it reprehensible, and I find it something that we need to correct 
and we need to correct it now by getting our fiscal house back in 
order.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California as we go 
through our 12-point plan.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Madam Speaker, I was going to say, one of the things 
that I like about being a Blue Dog and fighting for fiscal 
responsibility with the Blue Dogs, we do not just criticize but we also 
have a plan. Mr. Matheson gave the first two planks in our 12-point 
plan to restore fiscal sanity to the United States, which is to have a 
balanced budget and don't let Congress buy on credit. We call it PAYGO, 
pay as you go.
  There are a number of other things that we have like the third plank 
in our plan is to put a lid on spending, to have a freeze on additional 
spending until we can get our fiscal house in order.
  Fourth, we require Federal agencies to put their fiscal house in 
order. As you said, 16 or 17 of the Federal departments cannot balance. 
They cannot even tell you where the money is going.
  The fifth plank of the plan is make Congress tell taxpayers how much 
they are spending in the bills we pass. We do not tell taxpayers how 
much we are continuing to authorize every year.

[[Page H969]]

  The sixth point in the plan is we are going to require a rainy day 
fund so we set aside money for the natural disasters that befall our 
country on a regular basis.
  Number seven, and this is really important because we are getting 
ready to do this as we speak, and that is do not hide the vote to raise 
the debt limit. Right now under the rules of this House and in the 
Senate, we are going to raise the debt limit without taking a vote of 
this House on a recorded vote so each Member of Congress has to put 
their voting card in and be recorded on raising the debt limit. That is 
just not appropriate.
  Number 9 is to ensure that Congress reads the bills it is voting on. 
What a novel concept. We actually believe each bill should have to sit 
on the Speaker's desk for 3 days to give us time to prepare and 
actually know what is in legislation. It was 2 years ago that we passed 
the Medicare prescription drug bill. We got that bill 20 hours before 
we were voting on it and that bill was 680 pages, 678 pages long. I can 
tell you one thing for sure, no Member of Congress was able to read 
that bill and know what was in it. And that is probably why it cost the 
American people double what they told it was going to cost.
  The next plank is to justify pet projects. We believe that every 
earmark passed in this Congress should be justified by the Member of 
Congress that is asking. There should be a paragraph written about 
every request and that the Member should have to sign it and say they 
stand by that earmark.
  We would not have the scandals of Mr. Abramoff and all of the other 
problems that are befalling this Chamber if every Member had to justify 
their pet projects and earmarks.
  Number 10, we require an honest cost estimate for every bill.
  Number 11, be sure that every bill fits within the budget that we 
pass at the beginning of the year. We pass a budget, and we never look 
at it again. We continue to pass bills that most likely will not fit 
into that budget, so we just keep expanding the budget with every bill 
that comes through here after the budget is passed.
  The final plank is that we do a better job of oversight. Right now, 
Congress passes oversight and frankly, we never go back and look at 
what we have passed to make sure that it is doing the job that we 
intended when we passed that legislation.
  Those twelve points are just the first step in restoring fiscal 
accountability and making sure that we live within our means.
  As I said before, in September, I joined my colleagues in the Blue 
Dog Coalition in writing a letter asking President Bush to host an 
emergency bipartisan budget summit to put our Nation's fiscal house 
back in order. Unfortunately, our genuine effort to engage the 
Republicans in a reasonable discussion on the budget was brushed aside. 
We have yet to receive a response to our letter. I think even this 
White House should be able to pen a letter back to us in the months 
since we sent it to them. I know they have gotten it. We have talked to 
them about it on this floor. We have talked to our colleagues in this 
Chamber on a regular basis requesting cooperation to get together and 
work together to solve the problems facing this country, and we have 
not gotten a response.
  Mr. ROSS. As we wind down this hour that we do every Tuesday night, 
as members of the 37-member strong fiscally conservative Democratic 
Blue Dog coalition, I would like to remind you, Madam Speaker, the 
reason why deficits matter, deficits reduce economic growth. They 
burden our children and grandchildren's liabilities. They increase our 
reliance on foreign lenders who now own some 46 percent of our publicly 
held debt.
  It matters because as a Nation, at a time when we are spending half a 
billion dollars a day simply paying interest, not principal, just 
interest on the national debt, we are also increasing that debt. We are 
increasing it to the tune of about a billion dollars a day, $260 
million every day going to Iraq, $33 million every day going to 
Afghanistan, but do not dare ask how a single dime of your tax money, 
$260 million a day going to Iraq, $33 million a day going to 
Afghanistan, do not dare ask this administration how it is being spent. 
Do not dare ask them because they will say you are unpatriotic.
  As taxpayers, I think this administration has a duty and an 
obligation to let the taxpayers understand that he has, that this 
President has a plan on how this $260 million a day is being spent of 
your tax money.

                              {time}  2350

  We all want to make sure that our soldiers get the equipment they 
need and get taken care of and can get back home to their families as 
soon as possible. And the President, if he is going to spend $260 
million in a day to Iraq, he ought to give us a plan. He ought to give 
us a plan. He owes it to the American taxpayers. He certainly owes it 
to our troops.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Would the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ROSS. Yes, I would.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I just want to highlight that there is precedent to 
doing it a different way. During World War II, then-Senator Truman 
formed a commission that actually did an audit and went after wartime 
profiteers and, in fact, did a great job at getting to the bottom of 
the fact that there were people trying to profit irresponsibly on the 
backs of our soldiers during World War II. So he went in and got to the 
bottom of the overcharging and the contracting fraud and really cleaned 
up those who were trying to take advantage of the situation that the 
world found itself in.
  That is the kind of accountability that we need today, Mr. Ross, and 
I appreciate that you are bringing this up. It is not unpatriotic to 
question how our taxpayer dollars are being spent. In fact, if we don't 
waste our taxpayer dollars, then there is more money available to 
actually spend doing the right thing by our troops. Thank you for 
raising that issue.
  Mr. ROSS. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Cardoza), the co-chair of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
Coalition, for joining me this evening. I want to thank the gentleman 
from Utah (Mr. Matheson) for joining me this evening, the co-chair for 
administration within the Blue Dog Coalition.
  And, Madam Speaker, if you have got comments, concerns, or questions 
regarding our discussion this evening about the budget, the debt and 
the deficit, the manufactured homes sitting in a pasture in Hope, 
Arkansas, I would encourage you to e-mail me. B[email protected]. 
That is [email protected].
  As we finish this Special Order each week, it is a very sobering 
thing that we do. As you can see, when we started this hour, the 
national debt was $8,270,385,415,129-and-some-change. Just in the hour 
that we have been on the floor this evening discussing the budget, the 
debt, the deficit and, yes, a solution, a 12-point plan for budget 
reform, the deficit has increased by approximately $41,666,000. It is a 
very sobering thing that we do at the end of this hour each Tuesday 
night. But the national debt, 60 minutes later, is no longer this 
number here. It is $8,270,430,081,129. So, again, the deficit now, at 
the beginning of this evening it was $8,270,385,415,129-and-some-
change. One hour later it has increased approximately $41,666,000. The 
national debt now stands at $8,270,430,081,129-and-some-change.
  Madam Speaker, we will be back next Tuesday evening. Well, Congress 
is on recess next week. But the following week we will be back on 
Tuesday evening to continue this discussion about the budget, the debt, 
and the deficit. We raise these issues because, you see, my 
grandparents left this country better than they found it for my 
parents. And my parents left this country better than they found it for 
our generation. And, Madam Speaker, I believe we have a duty and an 
obligation to try and leave this country better than we found it for 
our children and our grandchildren. That is why we are here.

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