The Blue Dogs

Floor Speech

The Blue Dogs -- (House of Representatives - February 3, 2009)

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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be on the floor tonight with my fellow Blue Dogs, and we were just going to make some remarks and talk about the Blue Dogs' concern with fiscal responsibility in previous Congresses and in Congresses going forward.

Over the long haul, the Federal budget has been in a downward spiral with the national debt growing faster than the economy. With this grim fiscal outlook, it is more important than ever that Congress and the administration work together in a bipartisan manner to address the needs for long-term fiscal sustainability.

Back in this 1990s, under the administration of Bill Clinton and with the cooperation of the Congress led by the Blue Dog Coalition, PAYGO rules were put into statute, put into law that required that the Congress of the United States pay for that which they wished to spend. So no new spending could be appropriated and spent without the author or the party or the group that wanted to propose new spending finding a means or a place to cover the cost.

About 8 years ago, the PAYGO rules were abolished out of statute, and since that time and in the period of 8 years, the Government Accounting Office in the projections for 10 years out showed that the budget was estimated to have a surplus of $5.5 trillion in the next 10 years. As I stand here today with my colleagues, we are now projecting an excess of $10 trillion deficit. That's a $15.5 trillion swing.

And if you actually looked at government accounting, or if you looked at accrual accounting rather than government accounting, you will find that--those of you that are in business out in this country will know that a $56 trillion deficit projected is the real number.

Because of the deficits that exist in so many programs, entitlements and others, we have spun ourselves or spent ourselves into a hole that will take us quite a while to climb out of.

I have one grandson. His name is Jack, and he's 2 1/2 years old. For Christmas, I got one of those video frames that changes the pictures out. And it is one of the greatest things that my family could have given me because Jack's there every day to remind me of the reason why I need to be here, why the Blue Dogs have continued their attack on the budget, why they have continued the march and the drumbeat of PAYGO and fiscal responsibility when neither side of our Congress would face up to the facts.

If in fact we are to leave them a good world, we need to face up, just like every American does, to the bills that confront us; and we can't spend more than we take in. We need to, as was done back in the 1990s, go back to statutory PAYGO, live within our means, make sure we have the money to pay for those things which are good for our country--not squander the future for our children and our grandchildren--but to make sure that their future has a potential to be a bright one, as mine was, because of my parents' and my grandparents' efforts during their time.

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You know, one of the ironies is that some four-and-a-half years ago, or five-and-a-half years ago now when I made the decision to run for the vacated seat in the Third District of Louisiana, which is of course the coastal district that was hit by both Katrina and Rita and then subsequently this past year by Gustav and Ike, we have a lot of foreigners showing up on the shores of Louisiana these days. I ran, of course. People referred to Democrats as tax-and-spend Democrats.

One place that I always thought that I had some relationship to Republicans was in fiscal matters, and ironically after getting here and finding out the situation of our deficit and its continuing to grow. I've learned too that we as Democrats or my predecessors as Democrats may have been tax and spend, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will go down in history I believe as borrow and spend. You can't continue to print money and continue to elevate the debt on this country.

And particularly when you look at the debt of this country as we stand here today, in 8 years this deficit has grown to a size that is larger than all the cumulative deficits for all administrations from George Washington to the start 8 years ago. That's amazing.

The fourth largest item in our budget is the interest that we pay on the money that we borrow. Forty percent of the debt that we owe, the people that hold the treasuries and the bonds for this country's future are held by China. I wonder why we're so nice to our friends in China.

So, as we move forward, we need to look at a fiscal policy, but we also in a time that is unparalleled, we have to be looking at what do we do to preserve the economy.

This bill, as we've talked about that's presently moving through the Congress, is not a perfect bill. I, in fact, voted for the substitute presented by the Republicans. I don't know that I can agree with either of the bills as being a perfect bill, and no one, because of the nature of the animal we're dealing with, can say that the problems will be solved.

If you go back to 1929 when the market collapsed, 2 years later Roosevelt was elected. Between that time, the Congress and the administration in Washington said the markets will correct themselves; we need not do anything. Roosevelt came into office, started the CCC, the WPA. People talk about socialized government. That was probably as close as you will get to it. Checks were paid to people for work that they did, but they managed to put food on the table, however scarce. They managed to have a roof over their head, to clothe their children, to be able to continue going forward. It was not a glorious time. It was one of the blackest times in our history.

But by--I hate to say this--by coincidence a law came toward the end of the 1930s, and as a manufacturing country we got our economy going back. And then after World War II we got out of that, laws were passed by this Congress, enacted by this Congress, signed into law by the President that had preceded us that would have protected America and America's economy, had all the regulatory agencies been doing the job that they were supposed to have been doing through these periods of time.

There's been a movement towards deregulation, and I'm for deregulation, but when you put together people and money you breed greed. And what we have caused here was the greed of people and not just in this country. We are faced with a worldwide situation, one that resembles what happened in the period of 1929 into the 1930s.

And after listening to my parents through the years, talking with my grandparents as I grew up, I don't think that I want to be labeled a person who did nothing, a person who said the market will correct itself, a person who said they will fend for themselves, a person who leaves a debt that my children and grandchildren and my friend's children and grandchildren will never ever be able to repay if we don't start the march in the right direction this day, in this Congress, in this administration, in this city, in this great country.

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I thank my friend from Florida, and in closing, let me just say there's an expression that you will hear in Washington, and it's called kicking the can down the street and refers to one party or another party or one administration or another administration or one politician or another politician taking the issue and just moving it down the road and trying to avoid having to face the hard issue of picking it up and resolving what the issues need to be.

We can no longer, as a government of this great country, kick the can down the road. We need to pick it up. We need to face the issues. We need to do it in a bipartisan way. We need to go back to regular order, take bills the way they used to be, where people debated them, they negotiated them. And a good deal or good bill has always been, in my mind, one where both parties either leave unhappy or both parties leave happy. When one party leaves happy and the other one isn't, then it's not a good deal, and it particularly is not a good deal for the great American citizens that put up with what has gone on through the decades.

We need to reform the way we do our business by going back to regular order, by making sure that there's transparency in our government, that people that are in this body have an opportunity to participate in the legislative process and pass bills that can muster votes from both sides of the aisle. Then we can say we're starting to act like American citizens and American politicians should.

So with that, Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity for the Blue Dog Coalition to be here tonight.

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