[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H548-H554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, this evening, on behalf of the 44 member 
strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog coalition, I rise to 
spend an hour this evening talking with you and Members of this body 
about the Blue Dog Coalition's desire to restore fiscal discipline and 
common sense to our national government.
  Over the next hour, we plan as members of the fiscally conservative 
Democratic Blue Dog coalition to talk on this floor about the Blue Dog 
Coalition's 12-point plan for budget reform. We plan to discuss our 
accountability measures, because we believe it is time to restore 
accountability, fiscal discipline, and common sense to our national 
government.
  Before I begin the formal presentation this evening, and will be 
joined by other members of the Blue Dog Coalition, I would like to take 
a moment to recognize Sergeant Marcus Wilson. Sergeant Wilson grew up 
in Dermott, Arkansas, in southeast Arkansas, in our congressional 
district back home.
  This afternoon I had the honor to go to Walter Reed Army Hospital 
where I was able to sit down and visit with Sergeant Wilson and his 
wife and his son and thank him for his service to our country. He is 
there because of injuries suffered in Iraq.
  Before that he served in Afghanistan. All of us have different ideas 
about what we should be doing with this post-war Iraq policy. But one 
of the things that I believe is absolutely critical and important is 
that as Members of this Congress, and as American citizens, that we 
remain united in support of our men and women in uniform. This evening 
I pay tribute to Sergeant Marcus Wilson of Dermott, Arkansas, and thank 
him for his service to our country and pray for him as he recovers from 
injuries he suffered in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish you could have been with me there this afternoon 
in conversations with Sergeant Wilson because he makes all Americans 
proud with his attitude, his attitude of perseverance, his attitude of 
service to our country as a soldier in the United States Marines. 
Again, I pay tribute and salute Sergeant Wilson.
  Mr. Speaker, on this day my brother-in-law leaves to go to 
Kyrgyzstan, which is the entry point for Afghanistan, much like Kuwait 
is the entry point for Iraq, for his second mission there. I hope that 
all of us will keep him and all our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and 
elsewhere across this globe in our hearts and in our prayers.
  Mr. Speaker, the underlying purpose of the fiscally conservative Blue 
Dog Coalition is to demand a balanced budget in this country. Mr. 
Speaker, it was not too long ago from 1998 through 2001 that we had a 
President named Bill Clinton, from my native State, from my home State, 
who gave us a balanced budget.
  One of the ways he did that was with PAYGO rules in place on the 
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, rules that the Republican 
leadership threw out after they took control of the House and Senate 
and the White House in 2001, the beginning of the 107th Congress.
  What we have witnessed over the past 6 years has been absolutely 
staggering, if not startling. We have seen the largest deficit year 
after year after year until we have accumulated the largest debt ever 
in our Nation's history.
  As members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
Coalition, we are committed through our 12-point plan for budget reform 
and through our accountability package to restore fiscal discipline to 
our Nation's government.
  As we begin this evening, today the U.S. national debt is 
$8,701,316,295,722.43. We ran out of room. For every man, woman and 
child in America, their share, your share of the national debt, 
$29,035.60, what we refer to as the debt tax, d-e-b-t, which is one tax 
that cannot be repealed, cannot be cut until we go away and get our 
Nation's fiscal house in order.
  If this is not startling enough, what's even more alarming is the 
fact that our Nation is borrowing about $1 billion a day. On top of 
that, we are spending about half a billion every day paying interest on 
the debt we have already got before it increases by another $1 billion 
a day. It is important that we get our fiscal house in order, that we 
return to the days of a balanced budget, that we restore fiscal 
discipline to our national government, because it is about priorities.
  Many of America's priorities, honoring our soldiers, giving them the 
resources they need to get the job done, honoring our veterans and 
providing them the services that they were promised and so desperately 
need, especially with this new generation of veterans coming back from 
Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world, the priorities in 
education, and so many other areas that are going unmet, half a billion 
dollars a day is not going to those priorities, they are going to 
simply pay interest on the debt we already got before it increases 
another $1 billion just about every single day.
  We want to do something about this. We want to effect change. We are 
sick

[[Page H549]]

and tired of all of the partisan bickering that goes on in our Nation's 
capital. As members of the Blue Dog Coalition we don't care whether it 
is a Democrat or Republican idea. We ask ourselves if it is a 
commonsense idea and does it make sense to the people who sent us here 
to be their voice.
  We have pushed, for 6 years we have asked the Republican leadership 
to reinstitute the PAYGO rules on the floor of this House, and for 6 
years they turned a deaf ear to us. We are really proud that this new 
leadership, the Democratic leadership, has listened to the Blue Dog 
Coalition. In the first 24 hours of the 110th session of Congress, we 
saw the new Democratic leadership on this floor institute rules that 
reinstated PAYGO, which is the first step in returning to a balanced 
budget and putting an end to deficit spending.
  This evening, Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be joined by a former 
cochair of the Blue Dog coalition, a real leader within our group from 
the State of California (Mr. Cardoza). At this time I yield to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza).
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from 
Arkansas for his leadership on the Blue Dog Coalition. I know you are 
talking tonight about the Blue Dog 12-point plan for fiscal 
responsibility. I am just so grateful to the gentleman from Arkansas 
for all his work on this.
  I want to report to the House and to the country and to all of my 
colleagues in the Blue Dog Coalition that today in the Rules Committee 
for the first time we dealt with some issues. Actually, the PAYGO 
discussion came up, since our Speaker and the House reinstated PAYGO 
and the Democrats took over the Congress. In fact, today, we are going 
to be in just a few minutes having a reportable rule that will talk 
about the reduction and the interest rates that Americans will be soon 
paying on student loans.
  In that discussion, it was ironic, because in the opening session 
where we debated the PAYGO rules, the Republican Members of Congress, 
or a number of them, criticized the Democrats saying we were not doing 
real PAYGO. Today in the Rules Committee, when the PAYGO rules in fact 
capped some of what we would like to do, we will not be able to do 
everything we want to do for student loans right out of the chute, but 
we will do a significant amount; but we did it under the PAYGO rules 
and we are doing what we can do under the PAYGO rules.
  There was criticism that we weren't doing enough, that we should have 
done more, and we really didn't need to pay for it. We live by the 
spirit and the letter of the law of the PAYGO rules that we put in 
place on day one. In fact, we will have a good bill tomorrow that will 
limit the PAYGO rules. So it is ironic on day one they were criticizing 
us that we were not going to do real PAYGO. Then we live by the spirit 
and the letter of the law and they criticize us that we should have 
done more and not pay for it.

                              {time}  2000

  So, Mr. Speaker, I just came down here to point out that irony; to 
talk about how effective the PAYGO rules are that are already being put 
in place and how I think it is a tremendous testament to the work of 
all the Blue Dogs in the coalition that we have made this impact on the 
Congress, and we will continue to do so.
  I yield back to my colleague from Arkansas, and thank him again for 
his work.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for 
joining us this evening as a member of the fiscally conservative Blue 
Dog Coalition to talk about the need to restore common sense and fiscal 
discipline and accountability to our Nation's government.
  On the accountability front, Mr. Speaker, under the United States 
Constitution Congress has an obligation to provide Congressional 
oversight of the executive branch. Congressional oversight prevents 
waste and fraud, it ensures executive compliance with the law and 
evaluates executive performance.
  What we saw, Mr. Speaker, for the last 6 years is a Congress that 
failed to uphold its constitutional duty to provide oversight of the 
administration. Rather, what we saw was a Congress that provided a 
rubber stamp.
  The 110th Congress will be different. We will uphold the Constitution 
of the United States of America and we will provide oversight of the 
executive branch, as the founders of this country wrote into our 
Constitution. The reason we are doing that is because when Congress 
does not do that, it abandons its responsibility by failing to conduct 
meaningful investigations of allegations of serious waste, fraud, abuse 
and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for this Congress to hold this administration 
and the Pentagon accountable for how your tax money is being spent in 
Iraq. Let me be clear about it: As long as we have soldiers in harm's 
way, we will support our men and women in uniform. As I mentioned 
earlier, my brother-in-law is in the U.S. Air Force, and today is 
headed from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, to 
Kurdistan, where he will be serving for the next few months, if not the 
first year. My first cousin is in the U.S. Army. His wife gave birth to 
their first child while he was in Iraq.
  This war has impacted all of us across this country in one way or 
another. I have had 3,000 National Guard soldiers, brave soldiers from 
Arkansas, spend more than a year in Iraq. I e-mailed today with a 
soldier from my district in Iraq. Make no mistake about it, as long as 
we have men and women in uniform in harm's way, we will support them 
and ensure that they receive the resources they need to get the job 
done.
  But that should never be confused with holding the administration, 
the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, accountable for how this 
money is being spent. We are sending some $9 billion a month, with a B, 
of your tax money to Iraq. The last report I got, it was some $57 
million a day to Afghanistan. It is time that this Congress held this 
administration and the Department of Defense accountable for how it is 
spending your tax money in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the 
world.
  Additionally, Mr. Speaker, it is time that we hold this new Iraqi 
government accountable. They must be accountable for their actions. If 
we are going to put soldiers in harm's way, if we are going to have 
soldiers dying and becoming injured and returning home without arms and 
legs and with other injuries that forever change their life, it is time 
we hold this new Iraqi government accountable for what they are doing 
or not doing in Iraq.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, it is important, it is absolutely critical, 
that we stop this nonsense of passing supplemental after supplemental 
in funding for the Iraq war when we know that this is a long-term deal. 
It is time for the President to quit playing games with the American 
people, to stop this nonsense of passing supplements. It is my 
understanding he is going to ask for billions more in a supplemental 
just days, if not weeks, before the budget comes out for fiscal year 
2008. It is time to make the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan clear to the 
American people, provide a level of transparency, and include it in the 
budget.
  This is what we are talking about when we are talking about restoring 
accountability to our national government. Once we demand 
accountability we will see these deficits begin to disappear.
  When I was a small child growing up, I always heard it was the 
Democrats that tax and spend, and yet I come to Congress and we have 
got for 6 years a Congress that is controlled by Republicans in the 
House, the Senate and the White House, a country controlled by the 
Republicans, and what do they give us? They gave us the largest deficit 
ever in our Nation's history, year after year after year, in fact, the 
largest deficit ever. $413 billion in hot checks occurred in 2004; in 
2003, it was $378 billion in hot checks; in 2005, $318 billion; in 
2006, $296 billion in hot checks.
  It is time to restore fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. 
It is time for this government to have a balanced budget once again, 
because where is this money coming from? It is not only coming from 
taxpayers, but we are spending more than we are taking in. It is coming 
from foreign central banks and foreign investors. In fact, this 
administration has borrowed more money in 6 years from foreigners than 
the previous 42 Presidents combined.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be joined this evening for this 
discussion

[[Page H550]]

by the cochair of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
Coalition, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Boyd.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend Mr. Ross 
from Arkansas for leading this discussion.
  Mr. Speaker, for 10 years now I have been in the Congress, and for 
all of those years, and specifically the last 6 years, the Blue Dogs 
have been taking to this very floor almost on a weekly basis to discuss 
this issue of deficit spending. For those last 6 years, the Blue Dogs, 
as Democrats, have been in the minority party and able to do little 
about the deficit spending in terms of the final legislation that was 
passed. But things have changed now, Mr. Speaker, and I am not sure 
that the country realizes how tough this job is going to be.
  We have created a horrible fiscal mess over the last 6 years, which 
has been described by my friend from Arkansas, Mr. Ross, with the 
deficit spending. Many of the decisions that have been made on this 
House floor and in the Senate in the last 6 years it seems like were 
without regard to the long-term economic health of the country and 
deficit spending.
  So I think the task before us is a task that is going to be very, 
very difficult, and it is going to affect all aspects of what we do 
here in the next few months as we begin to try to develop a budget and 
then a spending plan, an appropriations plan, for how this country will 
organize itself and perform the functions that should be performed as a 
government.
  We know what those are: National security, transportation, education, 
environmental protection. We have a farm bill coming up that has to be 
reauthorized this coming year. All of those items are going to run 
right head on into the red ink that has been displayed here and talked 
about by Mr. Ross.
  There are going to have to be some very, very tough decisions made. 
It is not going to be easy. There is going to be a lot of sacrifice on 
the part of the American people, just like we did in the nineties when 
we found ourselves in a similar situation. So, I just want to tell the 
American people, viewers, our listeners tonight, that it is going to be 
tough and it is not going to be easy.
  The first thing we need to do, obviously, as Mr. Ross talked about, 
is make sure that the dollars that we take from the American people to 
fund the programs that we need are spent wisely and they are accounted 
for and they are not wasted. He has talked a lot about that, 
particularly in terms of the Iraq war situation.
  We have to put in place accountability standards. But we also have to 
put in place some tools that we can use to get us into balance in the 
long run. It is not going to be easy. Many of the things that we want 
to do, that we are interested in, such as the farm bill, such as 
education spending, such as environmental protection, that we have 
neglected over the last 3 to 4 years and that we need to deal with are 
going to run directly into conflict with these issues.
  So I think it behooves us to remind the American people that it is 
going to be a tough, tough task, but it is one that in terms of the 
long-term health of this country is extremely critical. It is critical 
that we don't spend more than we take in.
  I remember when I first came here I attended a press conference with 
some folks who were advocating a balanced budget amendment to the 
Constitution. A Member of this House showed up who I wouldn't have 
expected would have been at such a press conference, because he was 
what we might consider a little bit on the left side of the political 
spectrum. When I asked him later on why he was there, he said, 
``Listen, Allen; unless we get our spending, our deficit spending under 
control, we don't have money to spend on the priorities that I want to 
spend them on, education, environmental protection, health care and 
those issues that make America such a great country.''
  So I think that is important to remember and remind our listeners 
that we are spending a huge percentage, maybe in excess of 15 percent, 
of every dollar, every tax dollar that we take in, on interest to 
service the Federal debt that we are carrying, a debt that is 
approaching, as we have been shown here tonight, $9 trillion. We have 
to get that number under control. We have to stop the increase in that 
number.
  That is the first step, stop digging, stop making that number bigger. 
Let's figure out how to balance an annual budget. We know we can't do 
that in one or two years. It may take a 5-year plan, a 3-year plan or 
maybe even a 7-year plan. If we get our heads together and work across 
the aisle in a bipartisan way, and we have a divided government now, we 
can do that. We can work together, just like we did in 1997 when we 
stopped the bleeding, so-to-speak.
  So, I am here to support my friend from Arkansas, Mr. Ross, in his 
leading of this discussion, and thank him for his leadership on this 
issue, and remind my constituents back home and the American people 
that this is not going to be easy. This is going to come in conflict 
with many of the things that we feel like we need to do as a country. 
But it is critically important for the long-term economic health of 
this country that we do stop this deficit spending, and I am proud to 
be a part of the Blue Dog Coalition, which has advocated this for so 
long.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida, a real 
leader in the fiscally conservative movement, cochair for 
administration in the Blue Dog Coalition, for his insight this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments, questions or concerns for us, 
you can e-mail us at [email protected]. That is 
[email protected].
  Mr. Speaker, we are often asked how we got the name Blue Dog 
Coalition if we are just simply a group of fiscally conservative to 
moderate Democrats. Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, ironically, after the 
Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, we were a group, which I 
wasn't yet a part of, I came here in 2000, but the conservative-
moderate movement in this Congress was a group of Democrats that, you 
have heard the phrase ``yellow dog Democrat,'' well, the Democrats to 
our left were choking us blue and the Republicans to our right were 
choking us blue, and we found ourselves in the middle, which is where 
we believe America is and where we are trying to bring our country, or 
at least our Congress as we try to restore fiscal discipline to our 
national government.
  But on this accountability measure, if you think with me, Mr. 
Speaker, no business in our country could succeed financially if it 
failed to fully report to its shareholders on how it is spending its 
money. However, that is exactly how our Federal Government has been 
operating for the past 6 years. This administration is not telling its 
shareholders, the American taxpayers, how it spends the money coming 
into our Nation's capital.
  In 2004, $25 billion of Federal Government spending went absolutely 
unaccounted for, according to the Treasury Department.

                              {time}  2015

  The Bush administration was unable to determine where the money had 
gone, how it was spent or what the American people got for their tax 
money. Even worse, the Republican-controlled Congress at the time 
failed to hold the executive branch accountable for this omission. 
Again, a rubber-stamp Congress year after year. The 107th Congress, a 
rubber-stamp Congress; the 108th Congress, a rubber-stamp Congress; the 
109th Congress, a rubber-stamp Congress; the 110th Congress, no more 
rubber-stamp Congress.
  You are going to see a Congress that upholds its constitutional duty 
given to it in the Constitution of the United States of America to 
provide oversight. That does not mean go on witch hunts. It means do 
our job that we have been elected to do in providing oversight and 
accountability on how the American people's tax money is spent.
  In fact, in 2005, the General Accountability Office reported that 18 
of 24 major Federal agencies had such bad financial systems that they 
do not even know the true cost of running some of their programs. Yet 
the Republican-controlled Congress at the time did not force these 
agencies to fully account for how money was being spent before doling 
out billions more of your tax money, Mr. Speaker, to the same programs.
  Clearly, Congress year after year has failed to ask the serious 
questions

[[Page H551]]

about the Bush administration's fiscal irresponsibility and record-high 
deficits 4 years in a row and have now pushed the Federal debt to 
nearly $9 trillion.
  The time has come to hold this administration accountable for its 
reckless behavior here at home, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and 
other parts of the world. You are going to see this 110th Congress do 
that under the leadership of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue 
Dog Coalition.
  I believe Congress must act now to renew its constitutional 
responsibility to serve as a check and balance for overspending, waste, 
fraud and financial abuse within the executive branch. Wasteful 
government spending has forced the national debt to its current record 
level; and future generations, our children and grandchildren, have to 
pay that bill. Future generations will have to pay back with interest 
the money the Federal Government is borrowing from other countries due 
to this administration's fiscal recklessness.
  The time has come to restore commonsense and fiscal discipline to our 
Nation's government. As members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we have a 
plan to restore accountability to our government and we have a 12-point 
plan for budget reform.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to a new Blue Puppy, if you will, 
a new member of the Blue Dog Coalition from Ohio (Mr. Wilson).
  Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise to point out some of the 
issues why I believe I was elected by the people in Ohio to come to 
Congress to help with the deficit spending and the problems that we 
have.
  How we have gone from a surplus in 6 years to a record deficit under 
this administration, I believe that is why we had the turnout at the 
polls that we had this year.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the American people are concerned. They are 
worried about the amount of money that is being spent on interest, on 
the money we owe on this deficit. They are concerned about the money 
that is being taken away from the education of our children. They are 
concerned about the money that is taken away from the health care of 
our families because of the interest that is paid on this debt.
  It is just irresponsible; and at this point, Mr. Speaker, every man, 
woman, and child in this country owes $29,000 in this deficit budget 
that we have, or lack of budget that we have.
  There has to be a change, and I truly believe that is what the people 
in America said all across America when they changed the face of 
Congress. It is now that we need to be responsible for what is going 
on.
  I believe that by being a member of the Blue Dogs that I have the 
honor of being one of the frontrunners in asking for fiscal 
responsibility and demanding that we know what we are buying before we 
go forward and we know what we are paying for and that we use PAYGO in 
such a way that we do not start buying new things until we figure out 
how we are going to pay for them.
  I believe that is one of the pledges that I and many of the new 
Congressmen that have come to this body made to the people that we 
dealt with on the campaign trail on a regular basis. We are concerned 
about what is going on.
  It concerns me, Mr. Speaker, that people in this administration have 
said there is nothing to be concerned about with the deficit, that what 
has been spent, it will take care of itself. I believe that all of us 
know that that is not really how it works.
  I know myself, as a small businessman, I have to be concerned that my 
spending does not overcome my income, and I realize the government has 
to live within those same means. We have to be sure that what we are 
doing is the right thing for the people in America, and even though it 
has been reckless and we find ourselves in a difficult situation, it 
starts with this 110th Congress, that we move forward to try to do 
responsible things for the people in America.
  I believe that starts with thinking about what money could be 
directed to the education of our children. I cannot stress enough the 
fact of the money that is being taken away from programs that will 
improve people's lives in America because of the debt we have. For that 
reason, we feel that fiscal responsibility is a major thrust of this 
110th Congress, and we believe that the Blue Dog Coalition is one of 
the leaders in what is going to happen in the future.
  This is the difference, Mr. Speaker, that we make sure that new bills 
are going to fit the budget of what we have. We are not going to just 
be radical in spending money and not caring about what is in the future 
and what we need to do.
  I am happy, Mr. Speaker, to be part of this Blue Dog Coalition and to 
be a new Member of Congress to try to bring about fiscal 
responsibility, and I look forward to working with the other 43 members 
of the Blue Dog Coalition to bring about this result.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio, and we 
welcome him to the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and 
appreciate his commitment to restoring accountability, commonsense, and 
fiscal discipline to our national government.
  A lot of times when people think of conservative Democrats, they 
think of the South; and you will find with the Blue Dog Coalition that 
we come from every region of the country, Arkansas, Ohio, Long Island, 
Burbank, Florida, California, and everywhere in between, and we share a 
common value, and that is, to be responsible stewards of the tax money 
that is sent to this capital and to ensure that we leave this country 
just a little bit better than we found it for our children and 
grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, what brings us here this evening is, as this poster 
demonstrates, the national debt, $8,701,316,295,722 and some change. 
Again, you divide that number by every man, woman and child in America, 
everyone's share of the national debt is $29,035. A lot of money, a 
number we need to pay down by going back to the days of a balanced 
budget, as we had in this country from 1998 through 2001.
  Mr. Speaker, as you walk the Halls of Congress, it is easy to detect 
when you are walking by the office of a Blue Dog member because you 
will see this poster as a welcome mat by their door to constantly 
remind Members of Congress and the American people of the national 
debt. This number, unfortunately, not only changes daily but will go up 
some $40 million during the hour that we are on the floor this evening 
discussing this crisis.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ROSS. I would yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman tell our 
viewers what that number was 6 years ago when the administration 
changed, when the new administration came in in 2001.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I guess a good way of putting that was the 
total national debt, not just 6 years ago, but the total national debt 
from 1789 to 2000 was $5.67 trillion. Today, it is approaching $9 
trillion; and by 2010, it is estimated to total more than 10 and 
approaching $11 trillion. Put it another way, it is doubling, a 
doubling of the 211-year debt in the past 6 years.
  The reason the debt should matter, Mr. Speaker, is because interest 
payments on this debt are one of the fastest growing parts of the 
Federal budget, which means less money for education, less money for 
veterans benefits, less money for health care, less money for roads, 
and on and on and on.
  So deficits do matter. Deficits reduce economic growth. They burden 
our children and grandchildren with liabilities. They increase our 
reliance on foreign lenders who now own a sobering 40 percent of our 
debt.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, 
and that is the point. Over the last 6 years, we have increased that 
national debt by over $3 trillion. That is the tune of about a half a 
trillion dollars, $500 billion per year. That is after we include all 
of the surpluses that we might collect in the Social Security trust 
fund or any other Federal employee retirement trust fund, such as our 
military retirees.
  So we have a very serious problem that we have got to deal with. I 
mean, most of us who have been in business understand that you cannot 
continually deficit-spend year after year after year without damaging 
your businesses. Eventually, your banker pulls the plug on you.
  The gentleman made reference to the fact that we are borrowing this 
money

[[Page H552]]

in some nontraditional places, if you will. The bulk of this money is 
coming from foreign countries such as China and Japan. The bulk of that 
money has been borrowed from those countries over the last several 
years, and we think that creates a long-term national security issue.
  Mr. ROSS. The gentleman makes an excellent point. In fact, I have a 
list here. I guess it is like David Letterman's top 10 list. It is the 
top 10 current lenders. These are the countries that the United States 
of America are borrowing money from, and for the past 6 years, we have 
literally gone out and borrowed money from foreign central banks, 
foreign investors to give folks in this country earning over $400,000 a 
year a tax cut and leaving our children and grandchildren to foot the 
bill to pay back these foreigners, if you will.
  But the top 10 current lenders are Japan, $640 billion; China, $321.4 
billion; United Kingdom, $179.5 billion; OPEC, imagine that one, $98 
billion. The United States of America has borrowed from OPEC to run our 
government. It is time we learned to live within our means again. 
Korea, $72.4 billion; Taiwan, $68.9 billion; Caribbean banking centers, 
$61.7 billion; Hong Kong, $46.6 billion; Germany, $46.5 billion. And 
are you ready for this? Mexico. Mexico, our Nation has borrowed $40.1 
billion from Mexico to fund this reckless spending that we have seen in 
this Chamber and in this government in the past 6 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I can assure you, this is every bit as critical to our 
national security as anything else we have got facing us today because 
it is a threat to our Nation. It is a threat to our Nation for us to 
owe this kind of money to so many foreign countries and their central 
banks and their investors.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, 
and I think the point is not lost on many of us that we are the 
greatest Nation on the face of the Earth. We have the greatest economy 
on the face of the Earth. This is a country that, with 5 percent of the 
world's population, Mr. Speaker, that is one out of every 20 people 
that exist on the Earth live in the U.S., we control 25 percent of the 
world's wealth.
  So when we have to go borrow money, certainly the countries that may 
have surpluses, they want to lend it to us, but when they see a country 
that deficit-spends year after year after year, and I suppose we have 
been spending in the red now for six consecutive years, at some point 
in time, they as lenders will begin to question the long-term health of 
our economy.
  I am not a pessimist, Mr. Speaker. I believe that we have the 
greatest economic model in the world in this country, and I think the 
American people will make the adjustments as time goes on.

                              {time}  2030

  I think the first adjustment was made back on November 7 in which the 
American people said we want a divided government, we want a more 
accountable government. We think the way we can have that is to have 
both parties working side by side in Washington with equal power.
  So the gentleman with his charts, I hope that the viewers will study 
those and understand them because they are very important charts. And 
if you were on the board of directors running a business whose 
management brought you a chart like this, it would be somewhat scary 
and you would know that there would have to be corrective action taken, 
and taken quickly.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Florida. As you can see, in 2000 
we had a surplus, in 2001 we had a surplus, and then in 2002 you can 
see what happened. And the purple demonstrates that we have been in the 
red, deficit spending year after year after year, record deficit after 
record deficit.
  I think it is important to note that what we are trying to do here is 
set the stage, explain the mess we are in, and we are not here to 
simply criticize the Republican leadership of the past 6 years; we are 
here to offer up commonsense solutions to fix this mess. I think the 
American people want us to fix it.
  As members of the Blue Dog Coalition we have tried to spend the last 
half hour framing how we have gotten to where we are, because a lot of 
people remember when we did have a balanced budget in this country. We 
want to get back to those days, and the way we believe we can do it is 
through the Blue Dog Coalition's 12-point plan for budget reform.
  Point number one is require a balanced budget. Blue Dogs support a 
constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget every year except 
in times of war or national emergency. We believe a balanced budget 
amendment is the only way to ensure fiscal discipline in Congress. 
Forty-nine States require a balanced budget. Holly Ross requires a 
balanced budget. And I don't believe it is asking too much and I 
believe the American people expect it from us to provide them a 
balanced budget with their tax money and how we run our government here 
in these United States of America.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. If the gentleman would yield. When you said 49 
States require that, many of them constitutionally, I was in the State 
legislature in Florida and under the constitution you could not deficit 
spend. And I think that is the point that my friend Mr. Ross from 
Arkansas is making, is that we don't seem to have the will to get a 
balanced budget without putting in place a constitutional amendment, 
and that is why many of us have supported that. As a matter of fact, I 
know when I first came to the House after the 1996 election, we had 
many votes on a balanced budget amendment that we took, but those votes 
stopped after January 2001.
  We really need to consider a balanced budget amendment, and I think 
it is something that you obviously have to understand that if you get a 
national emergency situation you have triggers to override it that can 
be done. But all that can be worked out constitutionally if you are 
willing to abide by fiscal responsibility.
  There are 12 points to this plan that the Blue Dogs have adopted and 
advanced to the Congress for its consideration. The second item after 
the balanced budget requirement is don't let Congress buy on credit. 
Don't let Congress buy on credit. In other words, if we are going to 
have a new spending program, then you have got to find a place to pay 
for it. And the good news is that we have made great strides in the 
last 2 weeks since Congress reconvened after the election and put in 
place a PAYGO rule in the House rules package, and we have a promise 
from the leadership of this House of Representatives that they will 
consider and put up for a vote a PAYGO statute. That would be a 
critical part to putting us back on the road to fiscal responsibility.
  Mr. ROSS. If the gentleman would yield. When we talk about PAYGO 
rules, that is an acronym used on the floor of Congress; but to a lot 
of the folks of America they probably ask, what is this PAYGO business? 
It means pay-as-you-go. It was the policy that was in place in this 
Chamber when we saw the first balanced budget in 40 years, and it went 
out the window with the Republican leadership of 2001 and we have seen 
record deficit after record deficit since then. And for 6 years we 
begged the Republican leadership to listen to us conservative Democrats 
and work with us to reinstitute this PAYGO rule, and for 6 years it 
fell on deaf ears. And I am very pleased that one of these 12 points 
for budget reform, in fact a couple of them, have now been implemented 
as a policy in the rules of this House under the new Democratic 
leadership, and I want to thank them for not only listening to us but 
heeding our call and doing it in the first 24 hours of the 110th 
Session of Congress under the Democratic leadership, which demonstrates 
that our message is getting out. People are identifying with our 
message of restoring fiscal discipline to our national government.
  But many folks on the Republican side still don't get it, Mr. 
Speaker. I will never forget when we were down here debating the PAYGO 
rule, and PAYGO means pay-as-you-go; it means if you have got some new 
idea for a new program, you have got to show us. And I watched Member 
after Member on the Republican side get up and say that it is nothing 
more than a disguise for a tax increase, because if you are going to 
have new spending, you have got to have more money. They don't get it. 
They are the party that used to believe in cutting spending, and now 
they think the only way to pay for a

[[Page H553]]

program is raising taxes. Not so, Mr. Speaker. We are talking about 
paying for programs, paying for ideas that are good for the American 
people by cutting other programs, cutting the waste out of government.
  People say, well, there is really waste in the government? Yes, sir, 
Mr. Speaker. I have got $400 million worth of waste sitting in a cow 
pasture at the Hope Airport in Hope, AR, in some 8,000 brand-new, fully 
furnished, manufactured homes that FEMA ordered for Hurricane Katrina 
victims that never got to those victims. They still are sitting there 
in a hay meadow at the airport in Hope, AR. That is just one of many 
examples of waste. That is a $400 million example. It is a symbol of 
what is wrong with FEMA and what is wrong with this administration.
  I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wilson).
  Mr. WILSON of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond also to some of the things that 
both of these gentlemen have been saying, and that is in regard to 
putting a lid on the spending that is going on in our country today.
  In 2001 through 2003, our spending just soared. And from that point 
the Blue Dogs have been saying that we need some spending caps, we need 
to be able to evaluate what we are spending on various programs.
  The Blue Dogs feel that the purpose of holding the line on 
discretionary spending is where we need to go with fiscal 
responsibility. We feel, Mr. Speaker, that our budget needs to be held 
in place. And as was said earlier, 49 of our 50 States have budgets 
that they operate by. And I can only tell you from the State of Ohio, 
that we had a budget, and we even had a budget surplus, which was a 
savings account that we could use when there was a special need that 
came up in our State.
  And that is the kind of plan I would like to see us do in Congress as 
well, is to not only stop the runaway spending, put the lids on 
spending, but then also create a mechanism where we would have a safety 
valve if a special need came up that we needed to be able to do for the 
people by having a type of savings account that we could use, and that 
would be something that I think would be very much in order.
  Also, if I may, Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention about the 
auditing of the various programs that we have in the government. It 
just makes good sense to know how they are doing, and if they are not 
doing well we need to hold people responsible for that. That is part of 
the Blue Dog Coalition approach, is to how we can audit and test where 
we are doing well and where we are not, and certainly to limit our 
spending where we are not doing well. This is all part of the future 
and part of the fiscal responsibility that we need to be doing.
  Mr. ROSS. The gentleman from Ohio is exactly right. In fact, that is 
point number 4 in the Blue Dog's 12-point plan for budget reform: 
Require agencies to put their fiscal houses in order. Number 3 was put 
a lid on spending. Number 5: Make Congress tell taxpayers how much they 
are spending.
  Mr. BOYD of Florida. I think the gentleman has ripped off the first 
four, and actually number 5 is have Congress tell taxpayers how much 
they are spending. That seems like a novel idea, that we would let the 
public know how much of their taxpayer dollars we are spending and when 
a bill comes to the floor how much it is going to cost, and that is a 
pretty simple thing to do. Many are the times in the years I have been 
here that a few bills have come sliding through the process without any 
debate and without any disclosure about how much they might cost, and 
Members are forced to vote up or down on that bill. So we think that 
transparency is a great tool. We think that if the sunshine can shine 
on something, that is the greatest purifier to have people understand 
what really is going on.
  The sixth point of the 12-point plan by the Blue Dogs is one that Mr. 
Wilson already alluded to, and that is a rainy day fund, a contingency 
fund. Most businesses and most homes have a rainy day fund set aside so 
if there is some emergency like we have in this country on a regular 
basis, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, anything that is maybe 
unexpected that we might have to respond to as a nation, there should 
be a rainy day fund there to draw from. So that concludes the first 
six.
  Mr. ROSS. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida for helping me 
go through the first 6 of our 12 points for budget reform that we 
believe can go a long way toward cleaning up this mess here in 
Washington. And next week, Mr. Speaker, we will be going through the 
other six points for budget reform. And the gentleman is right, a rainy 
day fund makes so much sense. No more of these supplementals, which is 
another word for skirting the budget and skirting the normal 
appropriations process. We are kidding ourselves if we don't believe 
there is going to be some kind of disaster or need for a rainy day fund 
in America every year. These are 6 of the 12 points that we believe can 
lay a foundation to return to the days of a balanced budget to restore 
fiscal discipline and accountability to our government.
  A lot of people, Mr. Speaker, want to know, what is this Blue Dog 
Coalition? We are 44 members strong. But what exactly is the Blue Dog 
Coalition and what exactly do they stand for? And Mr. Speaker, if you 
have got any comments or concerns for us, you can e-mail us at 
BlueD[email protected].
  I am pleased to be joined this evening by a real leader of the Blue 
Dog Coalition from the State of Tennessee, Mr. Lincoln Davis, who in 
these closing few minutes is going to tell us exactly what the Blue Dog 
Coalition is all about and what we as fiscally conservative Democrats 
stand for.
  I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. When we talk about different 
coalitions, obviously there are many in this particular Congress, 
probably some several hundred different caucuses that deal with health 
care, deal with many different issues. But the one caucus in this House 
that deals with fiscal responsibility and a strong national defense 
basically is the Blue Dog Coalition. And when the Blue Dogs were 
established, here is basically what they said:
  We are dedicated to the financial stability and national security of 
the country, notwithstanding partisan political positions and personal 
fortunes and do hereby agree to organize a Coalition to serve the 
interests of our country;
  That government has an important and constructive role to play in 
defining an equal opportunity society built upon principles of 
individual rights and freedom and dedicated to creating conditions that 
serve the general welfare and prosperity of the people;
  That the people have entrusted the representatives of our country to 
transcend politics, personal careers and fortunes in order to pursue 
the common good;
  That a government too large and intrusive stands in the way of an 
opportunity society;
  That government must live within its allotted resources;
  That the burden of the American taxpayer should be reduced whenever 
possible;
  That government agencies are created to serve rather than to 
restrict, regulate, and punish the American people;
  That government should encourage work over idleness, personal 
independence over government dependence, and a free market which is not 
controlled, dominated, and excessively regulated by the government;

                              {time}  2045

  That the American Tax Code should be simply structured and designed 
to create incentives for income earning, saving, and investments in 
jobs and in expanding opportunities;
  That personal responsibility is essential to the preservation of 
freedom and that government must strictly hold accountable those who 
are victims of criminal and irresponsible behavior;
  That government should be a force that affirms traditional American 
values and stands against the forces that threaten them;
  That government should always be aware that it is a creature of the 
American public, that it answers to the public for its failures and 
successes and should never be so arrogant as to use its powers to 
diminish personal rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.
  Sounds pretty ambitious, doesn't it? But in fact we hear those who 
serve in

[[Page H554]]

this House Chamber. We hear those of different party persuasions talk 
about these particular ideas and how they have enacted those.
  Let's talk about fiscal responsibility. I went back and did a little 
research. In the early 1990s, government was taking about 22.1 percent 
of gross domestic product in 1992 of the American worker's paycheck, of 
business paycheck. That is 22 percent-plus. For the next 8 years under 
the Clinton administration, we saw government reduce itself, or be 
reduced not by itself, let me correct that quickly. I have never seen 
government reduce itself, but we saw those in government, Democrats and 
Republicans, working together to reduce the spending in government to 
18.5 percent of gross domestic product as of the 2001 budget area, in 
that 8-year period of time.
  It has now climbed back up to where it is 20.8 percent, and that is 
gross domestic product. There has been more increase in spending in the 
last 6 years in the budgets of the United States than in any time in 
history other than the Great Society years of the Johnson 
administration.
  The principles I just read are ashamed of that, and those of us who 
serve here who are Blue Dogs are ashamed to say that the code that we 
have established for those of us who serve as Members of Congress of 
the Blue Dog Coalition are ashamed of what has happened in the last 5 
to 6 years. Deficits have skyrocketed. We have gone from $5.8 trillion 
in national debt to where it is a little over $8 trillion of national 
debt.
  A lot of that has been because the 12 principles that we have and 
hopefully will be putting in place in this U.S. Congress in the next 2 
years, had they been implemented and been in place, we would not have 
seen this outlandish spending, nor would we have seen the American 
taxpayer be obligated to the debt they have.
  My chief of staff just had a newborn baby who he says cries a lot. I 
said, Beecher, have you explained to him, little Willis, that he just 
inherited $29,035? That debt is going to be his to pay.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Tennessee for joining us for 
this Special Order as we talk about the fiscally conservative Blue Dog 
Coalition's 12-point plan for meaningful budget reform, what we believe 
can lay a foundation to return us to the days of a balanced budget, to 
put an end to this reckless spending, to put an end to this deficit 
spending, and as we discuss our plan for accountability.
  We are here to offer up commonsense solutions to many of the 
challenges facing this country today, Mr. Speaker. As I conclude, I 
would just remind you that the national debt as of today is 
$8,701,316,295,722. And that debt during the past hour while we have 
been on the floor of this House has gone up by an estimated $40 
million. It is time to restore fiscal discipline to our national 
government.

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