[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 15821-15827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                           BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, again, on a Tuesday evening, I come here on 
the floor of the United States House of Representatives on behalf of 
the 37-member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog 
Coalition.
  We are a group of 37 Democrats that are fiscally conservative, that 
want to restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's 
government. We are a group of 37 that are sick and tired of all of the 
partisan bickering that goes on in this Chamber and in our Nation's 
capital.
  Mr. Speaker, it should not be about whether it is a Democratic idea 
or a Republican idea. It ought to be about is it a common sense idea, 
and does it make sense for the people who send us here to be their 
voice at our Nation's capital.
  Mr. Speaker, I contend that this Republican leadership, this 
Republican administration, is not leading us down the correct path. Our 
country is not on the right track when it comes to our Nation's 
finances, when it comes to being good stewards of the American people's 
tax money.
  As you can see here on the Blue Dog Coalition poster, today the 
United States's national debt is $8,419,336,525,769.
  For every man, woman and child, including the children born today, 
every United States citizen's share of the national debt is a 
staggering $28,129. And the sad reality is that during this hour, 
during this Blue Dog Special Order, during the next 60 minutes, this 
number, the U.S. national debt, will go up by approximately 
$41,666,000.
  As fiscally conservative Democrats, we believe the time is now to 
restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. 
This $28,129 number, each citizen's share of the national debt which is 
what we in the Blue Dog Coalition refer to as the debt tax, D-e-b-t, 
that is one tax that cannot be cut. That is one tax that will not go 
away until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order. Mr. Speaker, now, 
a lot of public opinion surveys say debts and deficits do not matter. 
The Republican leadership of this Congress says that debts and deficits 
don't matter.
  Well, they do matter because we will not be able to meet America's 
priorities until we first get our fiscal house in order. What does it 
mean? It means that our Nation is spending, our Nation is spending a 
half a billion dollars a day, $500 million every 24 hours, simply 
paying interest. Interest. Not principal. Just interest on the national 
debt.
  Folks in my district back home in Arkansas, they want to build I-49, 
and I do too. We need $1.5 billion to complete that interstate that 
will connect Winnipeg, Canada, with the Port of New Orleans. It is a 
very large amount of money. If you look at it another way, if we had 
our Nation's fiscal house in order, we could build that interstate 
through Arkansas with just 3 days' interest on the national debt.
  Folks in my district want to build I-69, and so do I. We need $1.6 
billion to finish that interstate that will stretch down through 
Arkansas and through much of the Midwest, from Canada all of the way 
down through Texas. $1.6 billion sounds like a lot of money and it is a 
lot of money; but put another way, we could build that Interstate 69 
with a little over 3 days' interest on the national debt.
  Hot Springs Expressway, four-laning U.S. Highway 167, four-laning 
U.S. Highway 82, completing I-530. So many, so many needs, so many 
infrastructure needs that are going unmet, not just in Arkansas but 
across America.
  Those infrastructure improvements will create economic opportunities 
and jobs to build those interstates and other infrastructure projects, 
and they will also create economic opportunities and jobs once they are 
built.
  But those top priorities, educating our young people, ensuring that 
they get a world-class education, helping the 46 million people that 
are trying to do the right thing and stay off welfare, but are working 
the jobs with no benefits, the health care access they so desperately 
need and deserve, these are the types of priorities that are going 
unmet in America because of the lack of fiscal discipline in our 
Nation's government.
  It is hard now to believe that we had a balanced budget from 1998 to 
2001. Because year after year we have record deficits. Now, why should 
deficits matter? I have given you a few reasons. Others, the deficits 
reduce economic growth. We have seen that. People lost their jobs under 
these enormous deficits that we have seen since 2002.
  Some of them are now beginning to find jobs again, but they are 
finding jobs at a much lesser salary than what they were making when 
they lost their jobs, and often times they are finding jobs with few or 
no benefits.
  These deficits burden our children and grandchildren, because it is 
they who will be forced to pay back this out-of-control spending that 
we are seeing occur today at our Nation's capital in Washington.
  And, yes, they increase our reliance on foreign lenders who now own 
40 percent, 40 percent of our debt. The U.S. is becoming increasingly 
dependent on foreign lenders.
  Foreign lenders currently hold a total of about $2.089 trillion of 
our public debt. Compare this to only $623.3 billion in foreign 
holdings back in 1993. Who are they? Here is the top 10 list of foreign 
central banks and foreign investors that the Republican leadership of 
this Congress has borrowed money from, that this administration has 
borrowed money from in order to fund tax cuts for those earning over 
$400,000 a year.
  Japan. Our Nation has borrowed $637.9 billion from Japan. The United 
States of America has borrowed $326.1 billion from Communist China. The 
United States of America has borrowed $174.7 billion from the United 
Kingdom.
  You will really love this one, Mr. Speaker. The United States of 
America has now borrowed $102.8 billion from OPEC.

                              {time}  1945

  And we wonder why gasoline is now $2.89 a gallon in south Arkansas 
today. The United States has borrowed $68.9 from Korea, $67.5 billion 
from Taiwan, $61 billion from the Caribbean banking centers, $51.2 
billion from Hong Kong, $47 billion from Germany, and finally, last but 
not least, rounding out the top 10 current foreign lenders, foreign 
central banks and foreign investors that are loaning money to run our 
government is Mexico with $43.4 billion they have loaned the United 
States of America to finance this out-of-control spending.
  There are a lot of things we are going to talk about tonight. We are 
going to talk about accountability. As members of the Blue Dog 
Coalition, we are not about partisan politics, we are not about just 
criticizing the Republican leadership for this out-of-control spending. 
We are about holding them accountable just as we would hold our own 
party accountable if we saw and witnessed this out-of-control spending. 
The last time I checked, when a Democrat was in control we actually saw 
the first balanced budget in this Nation and the first surplus from 
1998 to 2001 that this country had experienced in over 40 years.
  We are also not just about accountability, but as members of the Blue 
Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats, we are also 
about offering up commonsense solutions.

[[Page 15822]]

And we are going to talk this evening about the Blue Dogs' 12-step plan 
for restoring fiscal responsibility to our government, and we are going 
to talk about our accountability legislation to make this government, 
to make the Federal agencies accountable for the tax money that they 
spend.
  We will be talking about all of these issues over the next hour, Mr. 
Speaker, but at this time, I would like to recognize a fellow Blue Dog 
member from the State of Georgia, a real leader in the Blue Dog 
Coalition on these issues, and that is my friend, Mr. David Scott.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Ross, again, as always, it is a pleasure to 
join you on the floor. And I can tell you that our folks down in 
Georgia are really, really concerned about the debt, as they are all 
across this Nation.
  I think it is important for us to really draw some dramatic pictures 
of just how devastating this debt is. And you talked a few minutes ago 
about one feature that I want to spend just a few minutes on at the 
outset before we go into some of the other areas. But I think the 
American people need to understand this issue of foreign debt, of our 
indebtedness in the hands of foreign governments.
  Now, I want to say right up front that we have no problem with doing 
business with other countries, we have no problem with having indebted 
relationships with other countries. But when you look at this sterling 
fact, you will say enough is enough. And the one glaring fact is that 
in the last 5 years, Mr. Ross, and Mr. Speaker, this President in 
collaboration with this Congress, because the President couldn't do it 
by himself, we all must take blame. But we have borrowed more money 
from foreign governments and foreign financial institutions in the last 
5 years than in the entire preceding 211 years of existence of the 
United States of America. Think about it. Since 1789 up to 2001, we 
borrowed $1.4 trillion from foreign governments.
  In the last 5 years, we have borrowed over $1.6 trillion just in the 
last 5 years. That alone is enough to scare the pants off of anybody.
  It is paramount, if we are going to say with any kind of a way in 
which we can look the American people in the eye and say we want to be 
good stewards of your money, we want to have financial security in this 
country, financial stability, then the wrong thing for us to do is to 
have this kind of indebtedness in the world.
  Now, let's look at where that indebtedness is. Up against a screen of 
what the world looks like as particularly as we look at the war on 
terror, that is of paramount concern. Where are we borrowing this money 
from? You went through the litany just now of the top ten places. They 
are concentrated in the Middle East, OPEC countries, and they are 
concentrated in the Far East, very, very volatile insecure places, and 
with countries particularly like China that is not exactly playing the 
way they need and should play as we tackle this war on terror.
  Then, if we add the oil dependency in and the energy dependence on 
the Middle East and where we are borrowing money from, coupled with 
what is happening over there right as we speak, who is it that 
apparently, as of this time, is running the Middle East?
  An interesting thing happened to me when I was in the Middle East not 
too long ago. I went up and traveled up on the Golden Heights. And if 
you go up on the Golden Heights and you go far to the outposts in that 
northeast boundary of Israel where Syria and where Lebanon are on one 
side, then you have Syria, and I looked over through the high-powered 
binoculars that the Israeli people had that we could look over the 
border. And do you know what I saw, Mr. Ross? Do you know what I saw, 
Mr. Speaker? It wasn't the flag of Lebanon that was flying, it was the 
flag of Hezbollah. That tells you something.
  The point that I am saying is not only is it against our financial 
security to have so much indebtedness in that unstable part of the 
world with some of those regimes, but it is not in the best interest of 
our national security as well.
  Now, on the other side of borrowing the money is an issue that we 
certainly need to touch upon, Mr. Ross, and that is the amount of money 
that we are spending and giving these countries just to borrow the 
money, the interest. It is the fastest growing element in our budget, 
over $185 billion just this past year we paid in interest just to 
borrow the money, which is more than what we spend for veterans, for 
education, to protect the environment, all together.
  So the point I am simply saying is that as we examine this issue, and 
like I say, I don't look at this as a partisan issue, I look at this as 
an American issue, an issue that we have all got to jump in here and 
deal with. This is the future of our country. And if we don't have 
financial security, we certainly are not going to have national 
security for long.
  Mr. ROSS. The gentleman from Georgia raises an excellent point that 
gets to our point about accountability within our government. If you 
ask a hundred different people what they think about this post-war Iraq 
policy, you get a hundred different answers.
  One of the things that I most proud of is that this time, and I think 
it is one of the painful lessons we learn as a Nation and as a people 
from Vietnam. But this time, this time we are seeing the American 
people united behind our men and women in uniform, and that makes me 
proud to be an American.
  I have a brother-in-law who spent Christmas refueling Air Force 
planes over Afghanistan. My first cousin, his wife gave birth to their 
first child while he was away serving our country in Iraq. And I am not 
one of those that believe that we can simply pull out and come home 
tonight, but I will tell you this, I do believe in accountability.
  This President, this Republican Congress, is spending $8 billion a 
month in Iraq; $2 billion a week, $11 billion an hour in Iraq. But if 
you ask this President to be accountable for it, if you ask him what 
his plan is to win the peace and eventually bring our men and women in 
uniform home, he will tell you that you are unpatriotic. And that is 
where I disagree with this President. Accountability. Accountable for 
the money, the tax money that is being spent in Iraq, and having a plan 
that will eventually bring our people home.
  I have got to tell you that in August of 2004, it is a day I will 
never forget, August 11, 2004, I went to Iraq. We had some 3,000 
Arkansas National Guard soldiers in Iraq at the time. And I talked to 
some soldiers, including some from my hometown of Prescott, Arkansas, 
soldiers that I duck hunted with, soldiers that I had taught in Sunday 
school. And in talking with these soldiers, they told me there were two 
things we ought to be doing in Iraq if we wanted to eventually be able 
to leave:
  Number one, we need to be hiring more Iraqis to rebuild their 
infrastructure, instead of sending corporations like Halliburton over 
there to do it with non-Iraqi citizens who were being kidnapped and 
oftentimes had the threat of being beheaded. They told me that Iraqi 
citizens were taking money from the insurgents to lob cheap bombs at 
our soldiers not because they believed like the insurgents believe, but 
because they needed to feed their family.
  They begged me to come back home and to let our government know that 
we needed to put Iraqis to work rebuilding their infrastructure.
  The other thing they told me was that we weren't doing nearly enough 
in terms of training Iraqi citizens to be able to take control of their 
police and military 4th. August 11, 2004.
  I am a member of the NATO parliamentary assembly. In February of this 
year, February 2006, I was at Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Ambassador to 
NATO's residents in Brussels, Belgium, and the Iraqi ambassador to the 
EU and the NATO was there. Many members of his family died under 
Saddam's evil dictatorship. I asked him the same question, and, Mr. 
Speaker, I am here to tell you I got the same answer in February of 
2006 about what we needed to be doing differently that I got from U.S. 
soldiers when I was on the ground in Iraq in August 11, 2004.
  We clearly do not have a plan. We clearly do not have the right plan 
to win the peace.

[[Page 15823]]

  Tomorrow in this very Chamber, we will hear a speech from the Prime 
Minister of Iraq. I am anxious to hear that speech. I also want him to 
know that we stand with his country; we want to see a democracy work in 
Iraq, we want to see an end to terrorism in Iraq. But if we are going 
to send $8 billion a month to that country, our government must be 
accountable for it, and his government must begin to work harder toward 
trying to win the peace and restore stability in that war-torn, in that 
terrorist-torn region.
  So what could we do with the $8 billion a month that we are spending 
in Iraq? One month and 3 days of what we are spending in Iraq would 
fund the missile defense system budget for the United States of 
America. 12 hours of the money we are spending in Iraq would fund for 
one year the commodities supplemental food program for the poor and 
elderly in this country. We could secure all commercial planes with 
missile defense systems. And if you believe we are safer now than we 
were pre-September 11, 2001, you are kidding yourself. They are 
screening our suitcases, but they are not screening the freight that 
goes in the belly of those planes; and, as I understand it, half of the 
belly of the plane is filled with freight. We could secure all 
commercial planes with missile defense systems with 5 weeks of the 
money we are sending to Iraq.
  With 5 weeks worth of money that we are now sending to Iraq, we could 
provide health insurance for all 9 million children currently without 
it. With 3 weeks of the money we are sending to Iraq, we could double 
the number of Navy ships we are buying in fiscal year 2007 from 6 to 
12. In 4\1/2\ months of the money we are sending to Iraq we could 
restore cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in the President's fiscal year 
2007 budget. In 3 weeks, the amount of money we are sending to Iraq 
would pay to secure all public transportation systems in this post-9/11 
era. In 9 days, 9 days of the money we are sending to Iraq could 
eliminate the VA health care premium increases in this year's budget 
for America's veterans. And, 5 days worth of money that we are sending 
to Iraq could provide all, all United States ports with radiation 
detectors.
  Now, I am not saying don't send the money to Iraq. As long as we have 
got troops there, I am going to support them, and I want to make sure 
they are properly taken care of and got the equipment needed to do the 
job. I am talking about this administration being accountable, because 
these other priorities that I just listed will continue to go unmet 
until we get our fiscal house in order, until we have a plan to win the 
peace and bring our troops home from Iraq. These are the type of 
priorities that are going unmet, and that is why we are here tonight to 
talk about accountability.

                              {time}  2000

  We are not here to argue theories over whether we should or should 
not be in Iraq. We are here to talk about accountability. That is a lot 
of tax money we are sending to Iraq every hour.
  I am happy to yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Absolutely correct, and as we cannot talk about 
accountability, we cannot talk about the budget financial 
responsibility, national security without examining where we are in 
Iraq at this time.
  And we cannot do it for the obvious reason that the American people 
are expecting us now to ask the questions and to finally stand up as a 
Congress and do what the Constitution and the Founding Fathers laid out 
the Congress to do. They laid out the Congress to do two essential 
things. One was to determine how our tax dollars are appropriated, all 
of that starts here, and the other is oversight, and we have not done a 
good job of oversight.
  That is one of the reasons why the American people, in many ways, are 
very frustrated. We have not asked the tough questions. Some of us have 
asked the tough questions but not enough of us, and I am so thankful 
for the Dubai incident because that opened up everybody's eyes to 
really see. When that Dubai incident happened and all of the sudden we 
were going to turn over port security to the United Arab Emirates, a 
country in which we knew from our intelligence that terrorist financing 
was emanating from, a country that owned Dubai, that owned the company 
which we know was sending nuclear fusion material into Iran, and that 
did have direct financial relationships through their connecting 
financial centers in terrorist financing with al Qaeda, all of this 
came to our attention.
  When the administration said we are going to turn our port security 
over to a company owned by this country, it woke us all up; and 
finally, in a bipartisan way, we stood up and we rejected. That, to me, 
was a turning moment when Congress stood up and said let us be the 
Congress.
  So I think that Congress has a responsibility, definitely under the 
Constitution, to conduct oversight of the executive branch. We failed 
to conduct meaningful investigations of allegations of serious waste, 
fraud and abuse, much of what you talked about with Halliburton, and 
the people are expecting us to do this.
  Now, in the situation in Iraq, and let me just digress for just one 
moment, because I agree with you, President Bush is very good at 
saying, well, if you do not agree with me, you are weak on national 
security or you do not care about the war on terror. Nobody, there is 
not a Congressman in this place that stands stronger for national 
security, defense and support of our military than you and me and our 
Blue Dog Coalition. Our record speaks for itself.
  I have been to Iraq. I have been to Afghanistan. We all have been 
there to see about our soldiers. We know and we care, but the question 
has to be asked now, What are we doing there? What is the mission?
  I mean, when we decided to go in, I was not here to cast that vote. I 
was the first class of Congress to come in after it was decided, but 
the decision was made to go because we had evidence that came to us.
  Colin Powell went before national television and went before all of 
us and laid it out. We took them at their word. We took them at their 
word that Saddam Hussein had the capacity and demonstrated evidence of 
having weapons of mass destruction, that there was evidence that there 
was a direct link and relationship between al Qaeda. It was there. It 
would have been foolhardy for anybody to stand up and say you do not 
care about security to ignore that.
  We took the administration at the value of truth and we supported 
that to go in. We sent our troops into harm's way. We discovered there 
were no weapons of mass destruction. Okay. Job done. Should have been 
complete. Fine. Let us head on out of here. We have done the mission.
  But then the mission changed, on the dime. It then became we have got 
to get Saddam Hussein. Well, our soldiers went to work, did a 
remarkable job, found him in a hole and pulled him out. Mission 
accomplished. We were there. Then the mission changes again. We have 
got to rebuild the country. We have got put democracy in place. We have 
got to have free elections.
  Well, our soldiers went to work. They did not go over there to 
nation-build. They went over there to find weapons of mass destruction, 
but they become nation-builders. We got in there. Now all of the sudden 
we are into a civil war. We are into a situation there, terribly trying 
to climb out.
  We have got to solve this situation, but Congress has got to roll up 
its sleeves and play a clearer role and a more definitive role in how 
the American taxpayers' dollars, how we are being good stewards of 
their tax dollars in national security and financial security and all 
that we do.
  I want to just comment on, if I may, for a moment on the 
responsibility in terms of getting fraud and abuse and mismanagement of 
the taxpayer dollars out in the open. I just want to share a couple of 
points here. One is in fiscal year 2005, auditors of 19 of 24 Federal 
agencies could not routinely produce reliable, useful and timely 
financial audit information according to the General Accountability 
Office.
  In fiscal year 2003, $25 billion of taxpayers' money went unaccounted 
for

[[Page 15824]]

according to the Treasury Department. That unreconciled money could 
have been used to fund the entire Department of Justice for a full 
year, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation, not a liberal 
foundation. This is the Heritage Foundation. They stated this point.
  Mr. ROSS. I should have provided the gentleman a copy. There is good 
news. You mentioned the 19 of 24 Federal agencies could not produce a 
clean audit. That number has actually changed. There is good news. The 
General Accountability Office now reports that 18, not 19, 18 of 24 
Federal agencies have such bad financial systems that they do not even 
know the true cost of running some of their programs. Yet, as we know, 
Republican leaders in Congress did not force these agencies to fully 
account for how the money was being spent before doling out billions 
more in taxpayer dollars to the same programs.
  In the Blue Dog Coalition, we have a bill to deal with that. We have 
a bill to deal with accountability. We have a bill that says if, Mr. 
Secretary, if your Federal agency cannot produce a clean audit, you 
should go back to the Senate for reconfirmation hearings. We are trying 
to get to the root of this problem by passing legislation that requires 
accountability, accountability within our government.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to mention just one other 
point, too, that I think we need to bring out and that is government 
contracting under the Bush administration. We cannot be fearful to do 
our jobs. We get out here and we run every other year and we tell 
people we are going to go up there and do the job of a Congressman.
  As I mentioned, there are two things we have got to do: make sure we 
are good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and then do the oversight. 
Well, here is what our oversight has pulled out.
  Between 2000 and 2005, the value of Federal contracts increased by 86 
percent, from $203 billion in 2002 to $377.5 billion in 2005. This 
growth in contracting was over five times faster than the overall 
inflation rate and almost twice as fast as the growth in other 
discretionary Federal spending over this period; and as a result of the 
rapid growth in procurement spending, nearly 40 cents of every 
discretionary Federal dollar now goes to private contractors, a record 
level, and Federal procurement spending is highly concentrated on a 
few, just a few, large contractors with the five largest Federal 
contractors receiving over 20 percent of the contracting dollars 
awarded in 2005.
  The fastest growing contractor under the Bush administration has been 
Halliburton. Federal spending in Halliburton contracts increased over 
600 percent between 2000 and 2005.
  All I am saying, Mr. Speaker, is we have got to look and examine how 
the taxpayers' dollars are being spent. I mean, you are talking about 
24 cents out of every dollar we make we are spending. Ought not we ask 
these serious questions? Ought not we do the people's business of 
making sure how their money is being spent?
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Scott), an active member of the fiscally conservative Democratic 
Blue Dog Coalition for joining us this evening.
  I might point out here that on July 11, President Bush, with a lot of 
fanfare, announced that the deficit for 2006 was not going to be $300 
billion. With a lot of fanfare, he announced that it was only going to 
be a projected $296 billion, which is still the fourth largest deficit 
ever in our Nation's history.
  Our largest deficit ever occurred in 2004. It was $413 billion. The 
second largest ever occurred in 2003; it was $378 billion. The third 
largest deficit ever in our Nation's history occurred in 2005; it was 
$318 billion. And now this administration is announcing with a lot of 
fanfare and a lot of excitement and a lot of enthusiasm that the 
deficit for fiscal year 2006 is now only projected to be the fourth 
largest ever in our Nation's history, $296 billion. Even the Los 
Angeles Time did an editorial on this entitled: ``Another Mission 
Accomplished.''
  At this time, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Tennessee 
(Mr. Cooper), our cochair for policy within the Blue Dog Coalition, our 
think tank part of the Blue Dog Coalition, if you will, my friend.
  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friends from Arkansas and Georgia 
for their leadership in the important Blue Dog Coalition, as we are the 
centrist group in Congress. We try to do the right thing, whatever the 
parties say. We try to do the right thing for the American people and 
the American taxpayer.
  The gentleman has been a particular leader showing the tragic waste 
around the town of Hope, Arkansas, the thousands and thousands of 
trailers lined up there, the clear mishandling of taxpayers' dollars, 
but I would like to bring up for the Speaker and for the American 
people tonight a new book that is pretty remarkable.
  It is called ``The Broken Branch,'' and the subtitle is, ``How 
Congress is failing America and how to set it back on track.'' This 
should be available in most all bookstores around America. It is not a 
Democratic book. It is written by a scholar, Norm Ornstein, who is at 
the American Enterprise Institute which, if anything, is a Republican 
think tank. Another coauthor is Thomas Mann, who is at the Brookings 
Institution, which bills itself as a nonpartisan think tank. Some of 
our friends might call it Democratic, but this is a thoroughly 
bipartisan book.
  What it does is list the many ways that this institution needs to 
change. That is what I think Blue Dogs are all about is bringing that 
needed change to this institution because, under Republican leadership, 
as the authors of this book point out, things are clearly not working.
  The gentleman has pointed out quite eloquently that the deficits are 
clearly out of control. We seem to have no clear policy in Iraq. There 
are so many things that are not allowing our great Nation, the greatest 
Nation in the history of the world, there are so many things that 
Congress is not doing to allow America to live up to its potential, to 
allow our families, our kids and grandkids to live up to their 
potential.
  We, Blue Dogs, we want things to work. We want things to work right. 
We want taxpayer dollars to be spent wisely, and this book is an 
important read because it lists it in a nonpartisan fashion. This book 
is called, ``The Broken Branch.'' It is Oxford University Press. It 
lists hundreds and hundreds of ways that the Republican leadership has 
failed the American people.
  So I want to encourage everyone to take a look at this. Do not take 
our word for it. Read it in the bookstore. Get it online. See what is 
really happening in Congress because, sadly, our TV stations, our 
newspapers are simply not reporting all this. They are spending way too 
much time trying to entertain us or affirm what we already think, but 
this book tells us the truth about Congress and how we need to change.
  So I thank my friends from Arkansas and Georgia for yielding, and I 
will chime in at a later point in the debate.

                              {time}  2015

  Mr. ROSS. I welcome you both to continue with me in this dialogue in 
this Special Order on restoring fiscal discipline and common sense and 
accountability in our Nation's government.
  Since President Bush took office, the amount of foreign held treasury 
debt, we talked about it earlier, Mr. Scott, but I think it is 
important to note, that since he took office, the amount of foreign 
held treasury debt has more than doubled, increasing from $1 trillion 
to $2.1 trillion. Put another way, this administration has borrowed 
more money from foreign central banks and foreign investors than the 
previous 42 presidents combined.
  Unlike deficits in earlier years, I think it is important to note 
that current deficits have been primarily financed by foreign 
investors, with the rise in foreign-held debt equaling three-fourths 
the increase in publicly held debt since the start of the current 
administration. The rise in foreign held debt is troubling because it 
makes our

[[Page 15825]]

economy beholding to foreign creditors and foreign investors and 
foreign central banks and, yes, foreign countries, and represents 
another financial burden passed on to our kids and grandkids, our 
children and grandchildren.
  Foreign held debt is fundamentally different from domestically held 
debt since the interest payments on foreign held debt flows outside the 
United States and reduces America's standard of living.
  As you can see here, the amount of money that was being borrowed from 
foreign countries in 2001, during this Republican leadership in the 
House and Senate, was $988 billion. It has gradually gone up to a 
whopping, for fiscal year 2006, a whopping $2.66 trillion.
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) and then Mr. 
Cooper.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I just want to mention quite quickly, because I 
want the American people to understand that while we as Democrats are 
here and we are critiquing, we are providing the results of this 
oversight.
  And when you look at the front page of the USA Today on yesterday, 
they reported an interesting fact. They said that the Federal 
Government is now spending 20.8 cents of every dollar we make, of every 
dollar produced in this country, the Federal Government is spending 
20.8 cents. That has increased in the last 5 years. That percentage was 
only 18.5 percent in 2001.
  This is serious business. And I am here to tell you that when you get 
out in the District, when you get out to my folks down in Georgia, they 
are concerned about their money. They are concerned about what we are 
doing up here to bring down this debt and bring some accountability to 
the finances of this country. We can't have this runaway train. We 
can't have this debt being held in the hands of foreign governments the 
way it is. We can't continue to be borrowing all of this money and 
laying it on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. This is 
not our money. It is the people's money. We have to start treating it 
much better.
  Now, what are we going to do about it? And I think the American 
people are probably saying, okay, we are listening to those Blue Dogs 
down there and they are talking about President Bush and the 
Republicans, but what are they going to do. Why don't we hear from you 
and see what you are going to do about this.
  Well, I want to offer and let the folks know that we Democrats are 
offering to do a couple of things. I want to draw attention, so that 
the American people will know, that we in the Blue Dog Coalition have a 
proposal that will restore accountability. It is contained in House 
Resolution 841 by our good friend from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), and it 
will require congressional hearings. Because remember what I mentioned 
at the first. We have two basic functions here, one is oversight and 
the other is tax allocation.
  So within 60 days of an IG report that identifies waste, that 
identifies fraud, that identifies abuse, that raises a red flag of 
mismanagement of more than $1 million, we immediately trigger 
congressional hearings. Let us get it before C-SPAN. Let the people 
know. Let us put the spotlight on it. Let us immediately say, whoa, 
whoa, this is wrong here. Let us have hearings on this and let us have 
oversight and insight into this issue.
  When the GAO names an agency high risk for mismanagement, that is 
cause for a hearing so that we can open that up and find out what is 
going on. You can't stick your head in the sand. That is bad 
management. That is not oversight. That is not taking care of your 
money. If your credit card runs up, mom and pop down home, they have to 
watch that. Red flag comes up, mom and pop are going to sit down at the 
kitchen table and say, wait a minute, we have to rein in some stuff 
here. Where is this money going; why is this happening. If mom and pop 
around the kitchen table back in Georgia can do this, surely this 
Congress must do it and be responsible for the money.
  At least twice a year to have hearings to review the Office of 
Management and Budget's performance based review, called program 
assessments rating, part two.
  Then we have another bill, H.R. 5315, by our friend from California, 
Representative Cardoza, another distinguished member of this Blue Dog 
Coalition, called Accountability in Government Act of 2006. It will 
require that each Federal agency produce an audit within 2 years that 
complies with the standards established in the Federal Financial 
Management Improvement Act of 1996.
  Why pass the Act in 1996 as a tool if we are not going to use it? 
Congressman Cardoza is saying let us pull it out and let us use it. Let 
us have a measuring device.
  Secondly, that the Senate should hold reconfirmation hearings on any 
cabinet level official whose agency cannot fully account for its 
spending within 2 years.
  We have had agency after agency come before us. I am on the Financial 
Services Committee. We have the Treasury Department come, we have HUD, 
we have all these agencies coming before us that we are accountable 
for, and time and time again, I ask them the question, where did this 
money go? Do you have a measuring system in there? Do you have 
accountability? Well, no, Congressman, we just don't have it.
  We have to hold everybody's feet to the fire and bring financial 
security back into America's government.
  Mr. ROSS. People ask us all the time, if the Democrats are put in 
control of this body, what are they going to do differently? These are 
two commonsense Blue Dog Coalition-backed proposals about how we will 
restore accountability to the Federal Government.
  At this time, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper) to 
spend time on this or any other subject we are talking about this 
evening.
  Mr. COOPER. I thank my friends Arkansas and Georgia.
  Another Blue Dog proposal for reform that is extremely important, 
because it would do a lot to fix our entire fiscal situation, to get 
our budget balanced again, and that proposal goes by the name of pay as 
you go. It is a very simple concept. Every household back in our 
districts has to follow it. Because if you don't have the money, you 
can't spend it. You might be able to borrow a little for a little 
while, but sooner or later, you have to pay the bill. That is the same 
principle America should be run on.
  It is not just us saying it. The former chairman of the Federal 
Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, said that that would be the single most 
important reform America could undertake. The single most important 
reform, and we Blue Dogs are championing it. We, as Democrats, are 
championing it, and yet the Republican majority in this House has 
prevented that reform from even coming up for a vote.
  Now, this isn't theoretical or experimental thinking that Chairman 
Greenspan is proposing, this pay as you go proposal, this idea that if 
you want to spend more money on a program, fine, but get money from 
somewhere else to pay for it. Or if you want to cut taxes, fine, get 
money from somewhere else to pay for the tax cut. This proposal was the 
law of the land in America from 1990 to 2002. For 12 years, from 1990 
to 2002, the pay-as-you-go proposal worked and worked well in America.
  Most historians agree it was the single most important factor during 
that era that helped America live within its means so that we could 
have a stronger Nation for our kids and grandkids. And former Federal 
Reserve Chairman Greenspan even remembers the day that the Republicans 
allowed the pay as you go proposal to expire, and that day was 
September 30, 2002.
  September 30, 2002, the end of that fiscal year, was a dark day in 
America, because the 12 years of fiscal restraint that we had had, the 
12 years of living within our means, the 12 years of kitchen table 
budgeting were then over. And, basically, all hell broke loose when 
that happened. Because suddenly there was no restraint. You could spend 
anything. Earmarks and other things exploded.
  That is going to be a terrible fiscal headache, a nightmare for our 
kids and

[[Page 15826]]

grandkids. So that is probably the most important of all the Blue Dog 
proposals. We have had many, and the gentleman from Georgia has 
mentioned several. We have had the 12-step plan so that America could 
get off its addiction to deficit spending, much as the 12-step 
Alcoholics Anonymous program helps many people across America get off 
their addiction to alcohol.
  So these are just a few of the reforms that the Blue Dogs have been 
participating in to make us have an even stronger Nation. We are proud 
of America. We want a strong America in all respects, but America can 
be even better than it is today.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank our co-chair for policy of the Blue Dog Coalition 
Jim Cooper from Tennessee for his insight on these many issues.
  And what I am so proud of is that we are not here to be partisan, we 
are not here to beat up the Republicans. We are here to hold them 
accountable for these out-of-control debts and deficits, but we are 
also here to offer up common sense solutions.
  Mr. Scott of Georgia talked about the Blue Dog backed accountability 
plan that will hold Federal agencies accountable when they cannot 
account for the taxpayer money that we provide them to assist taxpayers 
and to run our government on. He talked about our bill to make cabinet 
level secretaries go back to the Senate for reconfirmation when they 
fail to produce a clean audit.
  Mr. Cooper talked about our plan for a balanced budget. Forty-nine 
States require a balanced budget. I can assure you my wife requires a 
balanced budget at the Ross household in Prescott, Arkansas. My banker 
requires we have a balanced budget at our family-owned business back 
home in Prescott, Arkansas. And it is not asking too much for the 
United States of America to have a balanced budget, which is one of the 
12 points that we have provided, that we have offered up, a 12-point 
plan for curing our Nation's addiction to deficit spending.
  Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments, questions or concerns about 
this special order this evening on accountability and common sense and 
fiscal discipline, I would encourage you to e-mail us, Mr. Speaker, at 
[email protected]. Again, you can e-mail us at 
[email protected].
  Let me just mention a few of the other points to the 12-point plan 
for budget reform. Don't let Congress buy on credit. Back when we had a 
balanced budget for the first time in 40 years, from 1998 to 2001, we 
had what was called PAYGO, pay-as-you-go rules, in place. Meaning if 
you had some idea for a wonderful new Federal program, you had to show 
us which other program you were going to cut to pay for it. If you 
wanted to cut taxes for those earning over $400,000 a year, you had to 
show us which Federal program you wanted to cut to pay for it. It was 
called PAYGO, pay as you go. Something that is very common to most 
Americans.
  Put a lid on spending is another idea that we have. Stop these 
massive increases in the amount of money being provided to Federal 
agencies.
  Require agencies to put their fiscal house in order, which goes back 
to our accountability bill.
  Make Congress tell taxpayers how much they are spending. Believe it 
or not, billions of dollars are spent in this Chamber without a roll 
call vote. Simply by voice vote. We want to put an end to that.
  Think about this one, you want to talk about commonsense ideas? Set 
aside a rainy day fund. We know there is going to be a natural disaster 
somewhere in these United States every year, and we ought to be 
prepared for those type of natural disasters and emergencies.
  Don't hide votes to raise the debt limit. Instead of increasing the 
Federal Government's credit card limits, instead of increasing the debt 
limit hidden in some other bill, let us have a stand-alone bill so that 
the American people know much the debt is being increased and for what 
purpose.
  Justify spending for pet projects.
  Ensure that Congress reads the bills it is voting on. Now, that is a 
good one, isn't it? We can't pass a law to require Members of Congress 
to read a bill they are voting on, or the bills they are voting on, but 
I can tell you this.

                              {time}  2030

  The Medicare prescription drug bill, there has been a lot of talk 
about it. It is now estimated to cost well over $700 billion over the 
next 10 years. It went to a vote at 3 a.m., barely a day after the 
final version of the 500-plus-page bill was made available for Members 
of Congress to read. Now, I can promise you we cannot pass laws to make 
Members of Congress read the bills they vote on, but I can promise you 
that when you have got a 500-page bill and you give them less than a 
day to read it and study it, it is impossible to read it and thoroughly 
examine it.
  We are saying give Members of Congress a minimum of 3 days to have 
the final text of legislation made available to them before there are 
votes. And you know what, Mr. Speaker? If we have made it just fine 
since 1776 without whatever piece of legislation we are dealing with at 
the time, we will probably be okay for another 3 days. Give Members of 
Congress time to read the bills they are voting on.
  Require honest cost estimates for every bill that Congress votes on. 
Make sure new bills fit the budget, and make Congress do a better job 
of keeping tabs on government programs, which again goes back to our 
accountability legislation that is Blue Dog-backed, written by Mr. 
Tanner and Blue Dog members that we have talked about a great deal this 
evening.
  We are not here just to criticize. In fact, we are not here to 
criticize at all. We are not here to be partisan. We are here to hold 
the Republican leadership and the Republican administration accountable 
for this reckless out-of-control deficit spending, the largest deficits 
ever in our Nation's history, and they are borrowing to the tune of 
about $1 billion more. The debt is going up about $1 billion every 24 
hours, nearly half of which is being borrowed from foreign central 
banks and foreign investors. We are here to hold them accountable and 
to offer up what I call commonsense solutions.
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. And finally, Mr. Ross, we must begin to search 
and use our creativity to develop a way to put a curb, a ceiling, some 
restraint on how much we can borrow from foreign governments.
  If there is one danger down the road that this country faces, history 
proves me out, the bleached bones of civilization that go far back of 
civilizations that waited too late to curb their borrowing from foreign 
countries. You look at so many of these great civilizations that have 
gone and nations, wars that happened. What happens if China over there 
just all of a sudden wants to sell our paper to another competing 
economy? When you have so much of your wealth, so much of your 
financial security in the hands of other countries who do not have your 
best interest at heart, we are asking for trouble.
  So that is why I say, finally, we must put a curb on how much money 
we can borrow and get in debt from these foreign governments.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia for 
joining me for this lively discussion this evening as we talk about 
these issues that are so important not only to our future but our 
children and grandchildren's future.
  I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper).
  Mr. COOPER. The point that the gentleman from Georgia was just making 
about how much money we borrow from foreign countries, the American 
people need to know it is not just China we borrowed $300 billion from. 
It is also countries like Iran, another part of what President Bush 
called the Axis of Evil. They own a big part of the American debt now. 
Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez, not exactly a friendly nation. Other 
nations like the Soviet Union with whom we do not have good relations 
these days. It is incredible our dependence.

[[Page 15827]]

  And for President Bush to have borrowed more money from foreign 
nations than all previous Presidents put together going all the way 
back to George Washington, that is incredible. The average American 
back home just does not understand how much President Bush has borrowed 
from foreign nations. And that makes us terribly dependent on those 
nations. We do not want China or other countries trying to foreclose on 
America or any part of America, but that is the situation we are 
getting more into every day. We are borrowing 2 to $3 billion every day 
from foreign nations.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank both of these fine gentlemen, 
very active leaders in the Blue Dog Coalition, for joining me this 
evening.
  We raise these issues, the largest debt ever in our Nation's history, 
largest deficit ever in our Nation's history, borrowing $1 billion a 
day, spending $.5 billion a day paying interest on the national debt, 
we raise these issues because as long as we are spending $.5 billion in 
interest payments each day that America's priorities are not going to 
be met, you can see here the red is the amount of money going to 
interest in our Nation. The light blue is the amount going to ensure 
that our children receive a world-class education. In green, a lot of 
talk about homeland security. Here is the truth: not much money in 
green that is going to fund our homeland in this post-9/11 era.
  And, finally, a lot of talk about supporting our troops, and I hope 
we all do. I certainly do. But isn't the way to honor our troops, isn't 
one of the ways to honor them to support our veterans? Because we are 
creating a new generation of veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan and 
across the globe as we stand here this evening, and yet you can see 
compared to the red, the amount of money going to pay interest on the 
national debt, you can see what is going to cover the amount of money 
to fund our veterans.
  It is time our government keeps its promises to our veterans.

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