[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 53 (Tuesday, March 27, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H3176-H3182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE BLUE DOG COALITION: THE NATIONAL DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Carney). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, this evening, I rise on behalf of the 43-
member-strong, fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't know about you, but I believe the American 
people like me are sick and tired of all the partisan bickering that 
goes on at our Nation's capital. I can tell you that I don't care if it 
is the Democratic or Republican idea. I ask myself is it a commonsense 
idea and does it make sense for the people in Arkansas' Fourth 
Congressional District? Then I vote accordingly.
  What we have witnessed on this floor this evening is a lot of talk, 
and I think it is time that we speak to the facts, the facts about the 
state of our Nation and how we get out of this mess that we have seen 
be created during the past 6 years when the Republicans controlled the 
White House, the House, and the Senate.
  Let's begin by looking here at the Blue Dog Coalition poster. The 
Blue Dog Coalition is nothing more than a name for fiscally 
conservative Democrats. And as you walk the halls of Congress, the 
Cannon House office building, the Longworth House office building, and 
the Rayburn House office building, you will occasionally happen upon 
one of these Blue Dog Coalition posters reminding Members of Congress, 
reminding those who walk the halls of Congress that today, today, the 
United States national debt is $8,841,089,074,666.40.
  If you divide that by every man, woman, and child living in America 
today, every one of us, our share is $29,326.47. It is what those of us 
in the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition call the 
debt tax, d-e-b-t, and that is one tax that cannot be cut, that will 
not go away until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order.
  This evening, they have been talking about the budget for fiscal year 
2008 that will begin October 1. Let's begin by talking about the budget 
passed by the Republicans for fiscal year 2007.
  Mr. Speaker, I have got to tell you that when I came to Washington 
back in 2001, the first bill I filed as a Member of Congress was a bill 
to tell the politicians in Washington to keep their hands off the 
Social Security Trust Fund. That was back when the Republicans 
controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate. And the 
Republican national leadership would not give me a hearing or a vote on 
that bill. Now we know why. Because this year, under the budget that 
was approved last year by the Republicans for fiscal year 2007, the 
deficit, the deficit is $427 billion. That is counting the portion that 
they are borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund with absolutely 
no provision made on how it is going to be paid back, when it is going 
to be paid back, or where the money is coming from to pay it back.
  We hear a lot of talk about the national debt. It doesn't show up 
much in most public opinion polls. A lot of folks think we can simply 
print more money. Oh, how I wished it were that simple. The total 
national debt from 1789 until 2000 was $5.67 trillion. But, by 2010, 
the total national debt will have increased to $10.88 trillion.
  I know those are big numbers. They are big numbers to me. But I can 
tell you this: It is a doubling, it is a doubling of the 211 year debt 
in just one decade, in just 10 years.
  Interest payments on this debt are one of the fastest-growing parts 
of the Federal budget, and the debt tax, d-e-b-t, is the one tax that 
cannot be repealed. And every man, woman, and child in America, our 
share is $29,326.47. It would take all of us in America writing a check 
that large to pay off this debt that has been accumulated as a result 
of the reckless spending we have seen from this administration and this 
Republican-led Congress for the past 6 years.
  Well, as you can see, the current national debt, 
$8,841,089,074,666.40, again,

[[Page H3177]]

every man woman and child in America, our share of the national debt, 
$29,326.47.
  Why do I raise this issue and why is this issue so important to the 
43 members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition? 
Here is why: Deficits do matter. Deficits reduce economic growth. They 
burden our children, our grandchildren with liabilities. They increase 
our reliance on foreign lenders.
  In fact, I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we look here at 
the amount of foreign-held debt and the fact that it has more than 
doubled under the Bush administration. These numbers are in the 
billions. You can see how much was borrowed from foreigners in 2001, 
and you can see how much is borrowed from foreigners today. In fact, 
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign 
lenders to fund our government. Foreign central banks and foreign 
investors currently hold a total of about $2.224 trillion. That is, 
$2,224,000,000,000 of our public debt. Compare this to only $623 
billion in foreign holdings in 1993.
  Kind of like David Letterman and his Top Ten List, we have a Top Ten 
List of whom the United States of America has borrowed money from, we 
are talking foreign central banks and foreign investors, to fund our 
government. Since 2001, this administration and this Republican-led 
Congress has continued to pass tax cuts that primarily benefit only 
those earning over $400,000 a year. They have done so while America is 
at war. Never before have we cut taxes when America was at war. In the 
past wars, we have had a shared sacrifice; and this war the only 
sacrifice being made is by our men and women, our brave men and women 
in uniform and their families.

                              {time}  2250

  I know this. My brother-in-law is currently stationed in the Middle 
East in the United States Air Force. This war has affected all of us in 
one way or another, and I know the kind of toil that takes, not only on 
him but his family back home at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, 
Washington. Yet we have seen this administration, this Republican-led 
Congress, up until January pass tax cut after tax cut that primarily 
only benefits those earning over $400,000 a year.
  Where is the money coming from? We haven't had a surplus. It has 
come, first, from raiding the Social Security trust fund. After they 
have gotten all the money they can suck out of it, they have gone to 
foreign investors and foreign central banks. Here is the top 10 list.
  Japan: Our Nation has borrowed $637.4 billion from Japan to fund tax 
cuts for people in this country earning over $400,000 a year.
  China: $346.5 billion.
  The United Kingdom: $223.5 billion.
  OPEC: Now we understand why gasoline was approaching $3 a gallon last 
summer. We have borrowed $97.1 billion from OPEC to fund tax cuts in 
America for folks earning over $400,000 a year.
  Korea: $67.7 billion.
  Taiwan: $63.2 billion. My friend John Tanner, one of the founders of 
the Blue Dogs, said it best when he said our country is in such a mess 
that if China does decide to invade Taiwan, we will have to borrow even 
more money from China to defend Taiwan.
  The Caribbean Banking Center: $63.6 billion.
  Hong Kong: $51 billion.
  The United States of America has borrowed $52.1 billion from Germany 
to fund our government.
  And get a load of this: The United States of America, our country, 
has borrowed $38.2 billion from Mexico to help fund tax cuts in this 
country for folks earning over $400,000 a year.
  Those are the facts, not rhetoric, as we have heard.
  Well, the Democrats are now in the majority, and it is now our 
responsibility to offer up a commonsense budget that puts America's 
children and families first again. Yes, we are doing it without raising 
taxes. In fact, we are proposing tax cuts. We are proposing a fix to 
the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is now eating away at middle-income 
families all across this country.
  I think it is important to note that for the first time in 40 years, 
and this is not a partisan thing, President Clinton was born and grew 
up in Hope and Hot Springs Arkansas, two towns I am proud to represent 
in the United States House of Representatives. I am a 1979 graduate of 
Hope High School and live some 16 miles up the road from there now in 
Prescott, Arkansas, which is where Holly and I are raising our 
children.
  But if you think back with me, it was President Clinton who gave us 
the first balanced budget in this country by a Democrat or a 
Republican, either one, in about 40 years. You can see that the debt 
added under President Clinton was $1.6 trillion. We actually had a 
balanced budget from 1998 through 2001. Then the debt added under 
President Bush so far, $3.9 trillion. This is an accumulation of gross 
national debt in trillions of dollars, the difference that we have 
seen.
  How did that happen? Well, in the Clinton years, when we had the 
first balanced budget in about 40 years, one of the ways it happened 
was by the House of Representatives implementing what is known as the 
PAYGO rules, which means pay-as-you-go, something that we do at the 
Ross home in Prescott, Arkansas, something that we do at our small-town 
family pharmacy that my wife, who is a pharmacist, and I own, and 
something most families in America and most businesses in America 
adhere to. Pay-as-you-go.
  Yet for the past 6 years, those rules were abolished on the floor of 
the United States House of Representatives. The PAYGO rules were not in 
effect, and we saw the largest deficit after the largest deficit after 
the largest deficit in the history of this country, which has totaled 
into the largest debt ever in our Nation's history.
  I am real proud of the new Democratic leadership, because the 43 
members of the fiscally conservative, Democratic Blue Dog Coalition 
went to the Democratic leadership and said we are in the middle, and we 
believe we are where America is and it is important to us that you 
govern from the middle, and they have.
  There was a lot of talk about the first 100 hours, and we did a lot 
of good things for the American people in the first 100 hours. We did a 
lot of good things for children, we did a lot of good things for 
working families, and, yes, a lot of good things for seniors. We 
cleaned up the mess in Washington by passing ethics reform. We raised 
the Federal minimum wage for working families. We passed legislation to 
allow our government to negotiate with the big drug manufacturers to 
bring down the high cost of medicine for America's seniors. We did a 
lot of good things in the first 100 hours.
  But the most significant thing we did early on, one of the first 
things we did in the first few hours of the 110th session of Congress, 
is we adopted PAYGO rules on the floor of the United States House of 
Representatives, meaning pay-as-you-go.
  It means if you have got an idea for a program you want to fund over 
here, you have to show us how you are going to pay for it. You have to 
show us what you are going to cut over here.
  Now, some Republicans seem to think that means that the way you pay 
for new programs is raising taxes. We saw the largest deficit ever in 
our Nation's history, year after year. We saw the largest debt in our 
Nation's history ever. And we saw all this money that the Republican 
leadership and this administration was borrowing from foreign central 
banks and foreign investors to fund tax cuts and to fund programs.
  They were so out of touch that they forgot the idea that you could 
actually cut programs to fund programs, cut programs that don't work to 
fund programs that do.
  You don't have to raise taxes to fund programs. You do away with the 
programs that do not work. You want to talk about waste? There is all 
kinds of waste in our Federal Government. I have about $400 million 
worth of waste sitting in a cow pasture at the airport in Hope 
Arkansas.
  In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, one the first things FEMA did 
was order tens of thousands of brand new, fully-furnished mobile homes. 
They brought many of them, 10,777 at one time, to the airport in Hope, 
which had these inactive tarmacs and runways that were World War II 
era, and they thought it was a wonderful place to have a so-called FEMA 
staging area.
  The idea was they were going to come through there on the way to the

[[Page H3178]]

Gulf Coast. They all came, but they never went. This was 2005, and 
these mobile homes never got to the storm victims of Hurricane Katrina. 
At last count, FEMA has 8,420, 8,420 of these brand new, fully-
furnished, not camper trailers, we are talking about mobile homes, 16 
foot wide and 60 foot long, just sitting there. Just sitting there.
  To try to get them to the homeless on the Gulf Coast, I raised the 
issue with the Inspector General at FEMA back in late 2050, saying, Mr. 
Inspector General, Mr. Director of FEMA, Mr. President, if you don't 
move these mobile homes off this cow pasture, they are going to start 
sinking and it is going to destroy them. I did that to try to get them 
off high center and get them to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

                              {time}  2300

  You know what they did? Mr. Speaker, do you know what they did? They 
showed up. They didn't move them. They showed up with $7 million. FEMA 
showed up with $7 million worth of gravel to put under them. This stuff 
is so crazy you can't make it up. And they continue to sit there today.
  So the Republican leadership needs to understand when we talk about 
paying for something, when we talk about cutting programs that don't 
work and use that money to pay for programs that do, we are not talking 
about raising taxes, we are talking about identifying waste, like the 
$400 million, the more than 8,000 brand new, fully furnished mobile 
homes sitting there in the cow pasture at the airport in Hope, 
Arkansas.
  That was one of the first things that happened on the floor of the 
House at the Blue Dog's insistence, as this 110th began under the new 
Democratic majority. And I am proud of this majority for listening to 
the 43 of us. It was one of our 12 points that I spent the last 2 years 
on the floor of the House talking about for meaningful budget reform. 
It was one of the first things implemented on this floor which will 
help us get back to the days of a balanced budget and a surplus, which 
is very, very important for a lot of reasons that we will discuss.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we look at the facts. The 
debt when President Bush took office, $5.7 trillion, the debt today 
$8.8 trillion. The debt added so far under the Bush Administration, 
$3.1 trillion, the debt projected at the end of the Bush Presidency is 
$9.6 trillion, the total Bush increases to the debt, $3.9 trillion. 
Deficits without the Social Security surplus. The OM budget deficit for 
2007, $427 billion. The OM budget deficit for 2008 under the 
President's budget, $451 billion, one of the largest deficits ever in 
our Nation's history.
  The cost of debt service. This is why it matters to every man, woman 
and child in America. The net interest for 2002 was $170 billion. You 
can see what's happening here. The net interest for 2008 is projected 
to be $261 billion. What does that mean? That means our Nation is 
spending three-quarters of a billion dollars a day simply paying 
interest on the national debt before we borrow another billion dollars 
today. Every day, our Nation starts off owing three-quarters of a 
billion dollars in interest payments.
  Let me tell you why that matters. Because the interest payments on 
the debt are dwarfing other priorities. The red is the amount of money 
we are spending of your tax money, Mr. Speaker, paying interest on the 
national debt.
  We talk about our children and how we love them and how we value 
their education. Look at how much we are investing in education in this 
country. Again, the red demonstrates the amount of money we are 
spending in a year paying interest to the national debt, which 
continues to go up to the tune of about $1 billion a day. The light 
blue reflects how much we do, as a Nation, value education. It reflects 
how much we are spending in a year educating our children.
  The green. Oh, we talk about how we support our men and women in 
uniform on the floor of this House. And I hope every Member that gets 
up and says that does. You know, money speaks louder than words. Look 
at our priorities. The green represents the amount of money our Federal 
Government is spending on veterans, including a new generation of 
veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Look how that compares 
to the red, the amount of money we are spending simply paying interest 
on the national debt.
  And this new buzz word ``homeland security.'' Oh, we all take our 
belt off and take our shoes off and go through all that at the airport, 
and we feel safer. Are we? Look at the purple. Look at how much we are 
investing in homeland security. Look at how much we are investing as a 
Nation under the President's budget, all of this is under the 
President's budget in keeping America safe, and look how all those, 
education, veterans, homeland security compare to the amount of money 
our Nation is spending paying interest on the national debt.
  I represent a district about half of Arkansas, and about half of that 
is in the Delta region, one of the poorest regions in the country. We 
have a lot of hope in that region that someday I-69 will be completed. 
I-69 is an interstate that was announced in Indianapolis 5 years before 
I was born. I am 45. With the exception of about 40 miles in Kentucky 
and a few miles in Tennessee, none of that has been completed south of 
Indianapolis. Just to complete the Arkansas section that can create 
economic opportunities and help the Delta region realize an economic 
revival with will take some $1.6 billion. That's a lot of money we 
don't have as a Nation. Why? Because we are spending it paying interest 
on the national debt, a debt that continues to go up under 
these Republican policies and under this administration's budget.

  As I said earlier, we are spending three-quarters of a billion 
dollars a day simply paying interest on the national debt. Give me 
about 2 days interest on the national debt, Mr. Speaker, and I can 
build I-69 through Arkansas and create all kinds of jobs and economic 
opportunities and help this poor Delta region recognize an economic 
revival.
  On the western side of my State, folks have been waiting since I was 
a small child for the completion of Interstate 49. It, too, can create 
jobs and economic opportunities and open up the western side of 
Arkansas and complete the first north-south corridor through the middle 
of our country. I need $2 billion to complete I-49 in Arkansas. It's a 
lot of money, but it's about 3 or 4 days interest on the national debt.
  We need new public schools built in this country for our children to 
be able to receive the very best education possible. We could build 
about 200 brand new elementary schools every single day in America just 
for the interest we are spending on the national debt.
  My point, Mr. Speaker, is that America's priorities, education, 
veterans, homeland security, roads, infrastructure, are going to 
continue to go unmet until this Nation gets its fiscal house in order. 
That is what the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition is 
all about. We are about restoring fiscal discipline and common sense to 
our government.
  This week, the Democrats are going to offer a budget that is fiscally 
responsible. Our budget adheres to the PAYGO budgeting rules that I 
talked about earlier and provides a commitment to the compensation of 
statutory PAYGO requirements. Our legislation, I should say legislation 
that was passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President 
Bush, has increased mandatory spending by $262 billion over the last 5 
years. The PAYGO rule, as applied to mandatory spending increases as 
well as tax cuts, will enforce much greater spending restraint than the 
Republicans passed over the last 5 years. And I have gone through the 
details of why in my presentation earlier.
  The Democratic budget meets the President's levels of spending for 
national defense, very important to me and members of the Blue Dog 
Coalition. We've got to have a strong national defense. Our brave men 
and women in uniform are doing whatever we ask of them; and as long as 
they are willing and able to do that, it is our duty and our obligation 
to provide them the resources that they need to do their job as safely 
as possible. And it is also our duty and obligation to them to ensure 
they receive the health care and veterans benefits that they have 
earned as this new generation of veterans return from Afghanistan and 
Iraq. And the Democratic budget increases homeland security funding 
levels.

[[Page H3179]]

  The Democratic budget reaches balance, a balanced budget by 2012, and 
provides for greater deficit reduction than the President's budget over 
5 years. Total spending in 2012 will be 18.9 percent of GDP, exactly 1 
percent lower than it will be this year and lower than it has been in 
any year since 2001. And, yes, that's Democrats offering that budget, a 
commonsense budget to restore fiscal discipline to our Nation's 
government. This is a lot different than how the other side tried to 
explain it.
  Our budget provides accountability. If there is one thing our Nation 
needs as a government, it is to restore accountability to our 
government. Defense auditors estimate that more than one of six dollars 
they have audited for Iraq is suspect, including $2.7 billion in 
Halliburton contracts. The Democrat budget assumes substantial savings 
from more efforts by the Defense Department, with increased 
congressional oversight, to root out wasteful spending, building on 
just-passed reform legislation to reduce waste in Federal contracting.

                              {time}  2310

  You know, the Constitution of the United States of America gives 
Congress the duty, the authority to provide oversight; and for the past 
6 years this Republican-led Congress has been nothing more than a 
rubber stamp for whatever this administration wants. That is not what 
the framers of our Constitution envisioned. I am not suggesting, Mr. 
Speaker, that we go on a witch hunt or start issuing a lot of 
subpoenas. But what I am suggesting is that it is time for this 
Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty and responsibility of 
providing oversight. And we have started doing that. No more flying 
into Washington on Tuesday and out on Thursday. You are seeing a new 
Congress that is cleaning up the mess, that is coming in on Monday and 
staying to Friday, rolling up their sleeves. And, yes, not just voting 
on the floor of the House, but meeting in committees and providing the 
oversight as required by the Constitution of the United States of 
America.
  Also under the Democratic budget, the House committees will conduct 
performance reviews to make sure that government programs are working, 
and work to eliminate, yes, the Democratic budget will work to 
eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending. Similar efforts saved 
billions of dollars under the Clinton administration which gave us the 
first balanced budget by a Democrat or a Republican in some 40 years.
  The Congress will save millions of dollars by investing in efforts to 
identify and eliminate wasteful spending and improve government 
efficiency. Our budget addresses the permanent AMT reform. You heard 
the Republicans tonight talking about the Democratic budget is going to 
raise our taxes. We are not raising anyone's taxes. In fact, our budget 
calls for a permanent fix for the alternative minimum tax, commonly 
known as AMT, to provide tax relief, yes, tax relief, for middle-class 
families, without increasing the deficit, and reaffirms support for 
extending middle-income tax cuts consistent with the PAYGO rules, pay-
as-you-go.
  The Democratic budgets includes a deficit neutral reserve fund that 
provides the framework necessary for permanent AMT relief for America's 
middle-income working families. While our plan to permanently reform 
AMT is a revenue and deficit neutral approach, the President's budget 
calls for a temporary 1-year fix and contributes to the already out-of-
control deficits. Well, providing a permanent fix to the AMT will 
prevent millions, yes, millions, of hardworking Americans from facing a 
devastating tax increase this year.
  The Democratic budget, our budget, will cut taxes for America's 
working families. President Bush's failed tax policies have left us 
with a debt of nearly $9 trillion. In fact, Mr. Speaker, as you can see 
here, again I will remind you, today the U.S. national debt: 
$8,841,089,074,666.40.
  Well, in taking a revenue and deficit neutral approach to reforming 
the AMT, our budget is taking a measured and responsible approach to 
cleaning up the fiscal mess in which our Republican predecessors have 
left us. Over the past 6 years they have done these things, and now we 
have asked for a chance the clean them up, and we are in the process of 
doing that.
  The Democratic budget meets the needs of veterans. Very important. 
Our budget meets previously unmet needs for veterans by increasing 
discretionary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs from $36.5 
billion to $43.1 billion. That is a $6.6 billion increase over fiscal 
year 2007. That is an 18.1 percent increase over last year, and a $3.5 
billion increase, or 8.9 percent over the administration request for 
fiscal year 2008. Over the 5-year budget, the Democratic budget 
resolution includes $32 billion more to protect the health and well-
being of our men and women in uniform than does the administration's 
request. And, yes, we owe it to our brave men and women in uniform, a 
new generation of veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And, 
as a Nation, we had better be there for them and provide them the 
health care and the resources that they need, because they are there 
for us doing what our Nation is asking of them.
  The additional funds will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to 
provide excellent health care, keeping up with the high rate of health 
care inflation, and the continuing increases in new veterans entering 
the VA system. In fiscal year 2008, Mr. Speaker, the VA will treat 5.8 
million patients. Yes, America is at war, and we need to recognize it 
and we need to properly fund the Veterans Administration to provide the 
health care and the needs of our new veterans coming home from Iraq and 
Afghanistan.
  Our budget addresses the Veterans Administration's repair and 
maintenance backlog in the wake of a VA report that outlines 1,000 
specific problems at VA facilities around the country. That is no way 
to honor our veterans. We have got to fix these 1,000 specific problems 
that have been outlined by the Veterans Administration, not only at 
Walter Reed, but all across this country.
  Our budget increases efforts to address mental health, post-traumatic 
stress disorder, and traumatic brain injuries. The Democratic budget 
also rejects the Bush administration's proposed enrollment fees and 
near doubling of prescription copayments for America's veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, in the last half of this hour I want to visit more about 
this budget that may very well be on the floor of this House on 
Thursday. Our budget provides for a strong national defense. Our budget 
provides for robust defense funding levels while targeting resources on 
the most pressing security concerns. It increase funding for veterans 
health care and services by $5.4 billion above current services. The 
Democratic budget provides more homeland security funding than the 
administration and provides funding for the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations. Yes, we are going to fund the bipartisan 9/11 
Commission recommendations that should have been done several years 
ago.
  In the area of health care, our budget accommodates an increase of 
$50 billion to expand children's health insurance to cover millions of 
additional uninsured children. Mr. Speaker, we have 48 million people 
in this country without health insurance. This is America. We are the 
leader of the free world, and we have got 48 million people in this 
country that don't have access to health care. And who are these? Not 
the people who don't want to work. If you don't want to work or can't 
work, you qualify for Medicaid, which is a health insurance program for 
the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.
  These 48 million folks, who are they? Ten million of them are 
children. Children. And the rest of them are people that are trying to 
do the right thing and stay off welfare and they are working the jobs 
with no benefits. We want to expand children's health insurance to 
cover the millions of additional uninsured children in this country.
  Education. The Democratic budget provides a 2008 program level that 
is $3 billion over current services for education, training, and social 
services, which includes funding for No Child Left Behind programs, 
special education, and aid to help students afford college. Now, this 
idea of No Child Left Behind was a great concept, but it has become 
nothing more than an unfunded mandate for our local school districts, 
and it has forced our schools and teachers to spend all their time 
teaching to

[[Page H3180]]

a test instead of teaching our children how to learn.
  This No Child Left Behind business is so messed up, Mr. Speaker, that 
we are spending the whole school year teaching a test, and then giving 
the children the test in March on everything that they were supposed to 
learn through May. It is my understanding the reason they give the test 
in March on everything they are supposed to learn through May is they 
have got to do it early, as in March, so that the people that grade the 
tests can get the results back by October so the school district will 
have it to write a report that is due in September on how they are 
going to make the school better.

                              {time}  2320

  And they call it No Child Left Behind. It needs some serious fine 
tuning, and we need to put an end to this unfunded mandate and fund 
this program and fund our children's education.
  Well, the budget, as I mentioned, also will provide aid to help 
students afford college. The Democratic budget increases funds for Head 
Start and child care.
  Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, that we live in a country where we get 
to choose where we work, where we worship, whom we marry. One of the 
few things in life we don't get to choose is who our parents are. Some 
children get really lucky. I did. Some don't. But as a Nation, I 
believe we have a duty and an obligation to be there for all children. 
And, Mr. Speaker, if we will invest in their education, in Head Start 
funding, if we will invest in the early years of a child's life, we can 
turn them into a productive, lifelong citizen of this country. Compare 
that to turning our backs on them and spending $25,000 a year 
warehousing them behind bars. The choice is easy for me, and that 
choice is reflected in our Democratic budget.
  Well, the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition in the 
past has had to write our own budget. Why? Because the Republican 
leadership wouldn't give us a seat at the table. They wouldn't listen 
to our ideas. They would not include our ideas in their budget. This 
year the new Democratic majority leadership invited the Blue Dog 
Coalition, the 43 of us that are fiscally conservative Democrats, to 
sit at the table and to help draft a commonsense budget that reflects 
our values, our priorities, and restores fiscal discipline to our 
Nation's government. We asked for several principles to be included in 
this budget, and I am pleased to tell you, Mr. Speaker, that the budget 
that will be on the floor of this House on Thursday includes all six of 
the provisions that we asked for. Again, we are in the middle, America 
is in the middle, and as you can see, we are ensuring that this new 
Democratic majority governs from the middle.
  Here are the six points that we asked to be included in the budget, 
and they have been: Number one, as we mentioned earlier, the Democratic 
budget adheres to the House pay-as-you-go, PAYGO, rule, a principle 
long advocated by the Blue Dogs as a solution for putting an end to 
deficit spending and reducing the nearly $9 trillion national debt. 
Republican budgets over the past several years included a net total of 
hundreds of billions of dollars in new mandatory spending. By contrast, 
this budget includes a net total of zero dollars in new mandatory 
spending. Due to its adherence to PAYGO rules, any increases in 
mandatory spending must be offset elsewhere in the government. That 
means cut programs that don't work. Don't borrow more money from China 
and Mexico. That key provision is included in the budget that will be 
on the floor of this House, the Democratic budget, on Thursday.
  The second thing we asked for and got in this budget: The Democratic 
budget provides a commitment to the extension of statutory PAYGO 
requirements, a tool that was instrumental, as I mentioned earlier, in 
the return of the budget surpluses during the 1990s. Our budget 
resolution puts the House on record as endorsing an extension of the 
statutory version of PAYGO, pay-as-you-go, rules, which proved 
instrumental in bringing the budgets from large deficits of the early 
1990s to the budget surpluses achieved by the end of that decade. We 
have now passed PAYGO as a rule in the House, and now in this budget we 
are endorsing it as law.
  Number three, we asked for and received in this budget a provision 
for a strong national defense. The budget provides for a strong 
national defense and ensures that the protection of all Americans is 
the number one priority of our Federal Government. The preamble of the 
Blue Dog Coalition talks about fiscal discipline and talks about a 
strong national defense. It was important to us that we matched the 
funding request in the President's budget and provide increases in 
homeland security funding levels, and we have done that. The Democratic 
budget does that. It targets these resources to our most pressing 
security needs, and the budget includes an increase over the 
President's request for veterans health care and homeland security. 
That is the third point.
  The fourth point that we asked for and got included in the budget: 
Unlike the President's budget, the Democratic budget is fiscally 
responsible and realistically reaches balance in 2012. Our budget puts 
an end to irresponsible deficit spending and has a better bottom line 
than the President's budget over 5 years by $234 billion and therefore 
accrues less debt and waste, fewer resources on interest payments on 
the national debt. Our budget holds the line on mandatory spending 
levels, putting our country back on the path toward fiscal 
responsibility.
  The fifth thing we asked for and got in the budget, Mr. Speaker, 
provides for fiscally responsible tax relief. The budget calls for a 
permanent fix, not temporary, but a permanent fix, for the alternative 
minimum tax, AMT, to provide tax relief for middle-class families 
without increasing the deficit and reaffirms support for extending 
middle-income tax cuts consistent with PAYGO, pay-as-you-go, rules.
  And, finally, number six, the last thing we asked for and got 
included in the budget: The Democratic budget contains tough program 
integrity measures to crack down on wasteful spending while ensuring 
that legitimate recipients of Federal funds and law-biding taxpayers 
are not penalized. That is what our new Democratic budget does. It will 
be on the floor of this House on Thursday.
  Here is the alternative. This is what has been proposed by the 
President in his budget: The Bush administration has turned a projected 
10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion into a projected 10-year 
deficit of $2.8 trillion. Under the last 6 years of fiscal 
irresponsibility, America's national debt has increased 50 percent to 
nearly $9 trillion, or $29,000 for every American. About 75 percent of 
America's new debt has been borrowed from foreign creditors, making our 
fiscal integrity a matter of national security. The national debt is up 
$3 trillion since 2001, and it will soar to more than $12 trillion by 
the end of 2012. President Bush has now borrowed more money from 
foreign nations than the previous 42 U.S. Presidents combined. Let me 
repeat that. This administration has borrowed more money from foreign 
central banks and foreign investors in the past 6 years than the 
previous 42 Presidents combined. You want to talk about a threat to our 
national security, there is one.
  Well, the President's budget continues on the same fiscally 
irresponsible course. Under the President's budget, America's national 
debt will grow by $3 trillion over the next 5 years to $11.5 trillion, 
more than twice the size of the debt that the Bush administration 
inherited. Under the President's plan, deficits continue for the next 5 
years. The deficit would increase by $24 billion in fiscal year 2008 if 
not for a growing Social Security surplus that is used to mask the true 
nature of the President's deficits. With honest and realistic 
accounting, under the President's budget, we have a deficit projected 
to rise to $464 billion by 2016. To hide this fact, the budget omits 
enormous costs, including the full cost of fixing the alternative 
minimum tax and the full cost for the Iraqi war, which is now costing 
us as taxpayers some $12 million an hour.

                              {time}  2330

  $2.5 billion a week it costs us, $9 billion a month.
  The President's budget cuts domestic purchasing power by $114 billion 
over 5 years. Well, the President's budget omits the full cost of the 
administration's policy in Iraq and Afghanistan,

[[Page H3181]]

which means the President will come back, as he did last week, asking 
for more emergency spending, asking for more supplemental measures, 
another way of trying to hide the true cost of the war in Iraq.
  The President's budget only provides $50 billion for wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan after fiscal year 2008, yet last week he asked for $95 
billion just to get through the rest of this year. Despite the numerous 
underestimations provided in years past and the nearly half a trillion 
dollars spent already, again he has come in and underestimated the 
amount of money that will be needed for fiscal year 2008 in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.
  The administration's budget discontinues the funding after just a 
down payment for 2009, even though the administration is increasing 
troop strengths and has no current plans to scale back operations in 
Iraq or Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, a recent CBO, Congressional Budget Office, scenario 
estimated war costs for Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on 
Terrorism, could be as much as $603 billion higher over 10 years than 
what is included in the administration's budget. The President's budget 
uses rosy assumptions that boost the bottom line. The President's 2008 
budget relies on unrealistically rosy assumptions that the economy will 
grow its way back to a budget surplus.
  For example, in 2012 it assumes revenues that are $155 billion higher 
than comparable projections made by CBO, the Congressional Budget 
Office. Without these optimistic assumptions, a claimed 2012 surplus of 
$61 billion becomes a $94 billion deficit.
  The President's budget fails to address permanent AMT reform. The 
President's budget includes only a 1 year fix for the Alternative 
Minimum Tax. This will allow the number of taxpayers affected by the 
AMT to skyrocket from 3.5 million in 2006 to 26.5 million in 2008, and 
represents a $247 billion tax increase on middle class families over 
the next 5 years. That is in the budget President's budget, a $247 
billion tax increase on middle-class families over the next 5 years.
  Forty-three members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
coalition do not support tax increases like the one found here in the 
President's budget. The AMT has been deliberately used by the Bush 
administration to mask, to hide, the cost of its tax cuts, which have 
been paid for by the middle-class.
  The AMT has also taken back a large portion of the Bush tax cuts 
promised for middle-class families. In 2001, an act provided marriage 
penalty relief by increasing the standard deduction and the size of the 
15 percent tax bracket, but it did not reduce the marriage penalty 
contained in the AMT. In essence the 2001 act did not provide marriage 
penalty relief for many married taxpayers.
  Democrats are going to fix that in the budget voted on on the floor 
of this House on Thursday. It remains unfixed, however, in the 
President's budget.
  Congress has recently enacted a series of temporary fixes that 
limited the expansion of the AMT, Alternative Minimum Tax, to about 4 
million taxpayers. But if left unchanged, next year the AMT will become 
a burden on the pocketbooks of millions of middle-class Americans.
  Well, the President's budget also includes additional hidden taxes 
and fee increases. For example, the President's budget raises taxes on 
about 30 million families with employer-provided health insurance by 
over $300 billion over 10 years. The President's plan will result in a 
growing proportion of seniors paying higher Medicare premiums every 
year by eliminating indexing of the income related premium and 
extending it to the Medicare prescription drug benefit. These proposals 
will increase premiums paid by seniors to the tune of $5.5 billion over 
the next 5 years.
  Veterans, I told you what the Democratic budget is going to do for 
veterans. Let's look at the President's. The President's budget 
proposes new enrollment fees and increases copayments for veterans 
healthcare. These fee collections will cost veterans $2.3 billion from 
2008 to 2012.
  The President's budget also imposes medical fees on TRICARE, the 
health insurance plan for military retirees under the age of 65. The 
increased fees imposed on military retirees will amount to $1.9 billion 
in 2008 and $14.5 billion over 5 years.
  The President's budget eliminates, doesn't cut, it eliminates, a $9 
million traumatic brain injury program at a time when hundreds of Iraq 
and Afghanistan veterans are returning home needing help as a result of 
these traumatic brain injuries.
  Education. We talked about what the Democratic budget will do for 
education. Let's look at the President's. The President's budget cuts 
funding for elementary and secondary education, denying 3.2 million 
children the extra reading and math help they were promised by the so-
called No Child Left Behind Act.
  The Bush budget eliminates higher education programs designed to help 
lower income students afford college, including the Perkins loans, the 
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program and the Leveraging 
Educational Assistance Partnership Program. Approximately 1.5 million 
students would lose financial aid awards as a result of these Bush 
higher education cuts.
  Mr. Speaker, the Bush budget eliminates, not cuts, it does not cut, 
it eliminates 44 education programs, including Supplemental Opportunity 
Education Grants, Education Technology, Even Start, Ready to Teach, 
school counseling, mentoring and school drop out prevention.
  The President's budget cuts, I am sorry, it doesn't cut, it 
eliminates, 44 education programs that can help to lift up our young 
people. The President's budget cuts discretionary education funding by 
$1.5 billion, or 2.6 percent below fiscal year 2007.
  Well, the President's budget also reduces the availability of low 
cost loans for financially needy students by proposing to recall $419 
million from Perkins loan revolving funds held by 1,315 colleges and 
universities. This will be the first step toward recalling $3.2 billion 
over 5 years from these revolving funds, which are used to provide low 
income loans averaging $2,000 to financially needy students.
  The President's budget eliminates the $771 million Supplemental 
Educational Opportunity Grant Program and the $65 million Leveraging 
Educational Assistance Partnership Program, both of which help lower 
income students afford a higher education.
  Overall, Mr. Speaker, approximately 1.5 million students would lose 
financial aid awards as a result of these Bush higher education cuts.
  The Bush budget cuts funding for Head Start by $100 million. If 
enacted, this cut in the President's budget means that up to 13,500 
children will be cut from the program next year.
  There are cuts to healthcare. There are so many cuts. There are cuts 
to agriculture. There are cuts to homeland security.
  Mr. Speaker, I know as our time winds down that it is important that 
we look at the President's budget, it is important that we look at the 
Democratic budget and that we ask ourself, which one reflects our 
values, our priorities? Which one reflects America's values and 
priorities?
  I am proud that this new Democratic majority on the Budget Committee, 
under the leadership of Chairman Spratt, that they sat with us, 43 
member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and 
gave us input in helping write a common sense budget that meets 
America's values and priorities, while restoring common sense and 
fiscal discipline to our Nation's government.

                              {time}  2340

  And I hope on Thursday, Mr. Speaker, we will see this budget, this 
commonsense budget pass that does reflect our values. It relates to our 
children and education, to our working families, to our seniors and 
their security, their Social Security and their retirement security and 
their health care security, and to children, some 10 million without 
health insurance tonight.
  It is a commonsense budget that can help us return to the days of a 
balanced budget, that can help us put an end to this deficit spending, 
that can help us put an end to this reckless spending that we have seen 
for the past 6 years occur day after day on the floor of this House 
Chamber.
  Mr. Speaker, as I close this evening, I remind you that as you walk 
the halls of Congress, as you walk the

[[Page H3182]]

House Office Buildings, you will note this Blue Dog Coalition poster 
reminding every Member of Congress and those who walk the halls that 
today the U.S. national debt is $8,841,089,074,666.40. And every one of 
us, every man, woman and child in America, our share is $29,326.47.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that it is our duty and obligation to 
restore fiscal discipline to our national government; and that when we 
leave here someday we will be able to say to our children and 
grandchildren that we helped make this country a better place for all 
of us to call home.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the 43 member strong, fiscally 
conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, I yield back the balance of 
my time.

                          ____________________