[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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