Accountability in Government Act of 2006

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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 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.

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.

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 bluedog@mail.house.gov. Again, you can e-mail us at bluedog@mail.house.gov.

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.

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. 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. 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.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the 37-member strong, fiscally conservative, Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, I rise this afternoon to discuss our Nation's debt.

As you can see here, Mr. Speaker, today the United States national debt is $8,413,298,480,959 and some change. If you divide that enormous number by every man, woman and child, including those babies being born today, every United States citizen's share of the national debt comes to the tune of $28,120.

In the Blue Dog Coalition we have coined the phrase ``the debt tax,'' not to be confused with the death tax or estate tax. The debt tax, D-E- B-T, is one tax that cannot go away until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order.

That is what the Democratic, fiscally conservative, 37-member-strong Blue Dog Coalition is all about trying to restore some commonsense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. As you walk the halls of Congress and as you walk the halls of the Cannon and the Longworth and the Rayburn House Office Buildings, you will come across these posters which signify that you have walked by the door of an office of one of our fellow Blue Dog members.

We are concerned about this because, Mr. Speaker, from 1998 through 2001, this Nation had a balanced budget, and yet under this administration and this Republican-led Congress, we have seen record budget deficits, the largest deficits ever, ever in our Nation's history.

In 2004, the deficit was $412 billion. In 2005, it was $318 billion. In 2006, it was $372 billion, and in fiscal year 2007, it is projected to be $350 billion, one of the largest deficits ever in our Nation's history.

One of the first bills I filed as a Member of Congress when I got here back in 2001 was a bill to tell the politicians in Washington to keep their hands off the Social Security trust fund. The Republican leadership in this Congress refused to give me a hearing or a vote on that bill, and now we know why, because the real deficit projected for fiscal year 2007 is not $280 billion or $350 billion, depending on whose numbers you want to believe. It is really $545 billion. So where does the difference come about? It is because this Republican Congress and this administration is counting the Social Security trust fund, and that is wrong.

When you and I go to the bank to get a loan, our banker wants to know how we are going to pay it back, when are we going to pay it back, and yet this Republican Congress continues to give us the largest budget deficits ever in our Nation's history while borrowing money from the Social Security trust fund with no provision being made on how or when that money will be paid back.

Where is it going come from? They cannot tell us. When is it going to be paid back? They cannot tell us. Social Security has kept over half the seniors in America out of poverty. It is time for this Republican Congress to keep their hands off the Social Security trust fund.

Now, why is this debt so important? Total national debt from 1789 to 2000 was $5.67 trillion.

Let me repeat that. From 1789 until 2000, the total national debt was $5.67 trillion. But by 2010, the total national debt will have increased to $10.88 trillion. This is a doubling. This is a doubling of the 211-year debt in just 10 years.

Another reason that deficits should matter, Mr. Speaker, is because interest payments on this debt are one of the fastest growing parts of the Federal budget, and the debt tax, D-e-b-t tax, is one that cannot be repealed until we get back to the days of a balanced budget.

Not only is our Nation borrowing $1 billion a day; this number is going up by about $1 billion a day. Our Nation is borrowing $1 billion a day. More important than that, our Nation is spending a half a billion dollars, $500 million, every single day simply paying interest on the national debt that we already got before it goes up another billion dollars a day.

I represent a very poor district in Arkansas. We have a lot of hope in creating economic opportunities by building new highways. We need $1.6 billion to complete Interstate 69. It sounds like a staggering number until you think about it. If we did not have this debt, we could build Interstate 69 with 3 days' interest on the national debt.

Mr. Speaker, our government will spend more money in the next 4 days paying interest, not principal, just interest on the national debt, than what it would cost to completely build Interstate 69 through Arkansas.

Interstate 49 will also be critical to creating economic opportunities and jobs for my district. We need $1.5 billion to finish it. Again, a staggering number until you think about we are spending $500 million every 24 hours simply paying interest on the debt we already got before it goes up another billion dollars today.

We could complete Interstate 49 with just 3 days' interest on the national debt. Hot Springs, Arkansas: We need about $200 million to complete the expressway around Hot Springs. $80 million to get it up the hill, and up the mountain and another 100 to 200 million to get it back down and totally completed. $80 million would be nice. $200 million would be better. We could complete the Hot Springs Expressway with just a few hours' interest on the national debt.

El Dorado, Arkansas, the largest town in my district not located on a four-lane highway, desperately needs four-lane access. We could four- lane U.S. Highway 167 for about $400 million. Put it another way, we could four-lane U.S. Highway 167 from Little Rock to El Dorado and connect on down to Louisiana to I-20 with less than 1 day's interest on the national debt.

Interstate I-530, $200 million to complete that project that is also under construction. A lot of money. But just a few hours' interest on the national debt. In fact, Mr. Speaker, we could build 200 brand-new elementary schools every single day in America just with the interest we are spending on the national debt. We cannot meet America's priorities as it relates to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, we will spend, we will spend more money in Iraq in the next 8 hours than we will spend on research and development of bio-refineries in the next 365 days.

Health care, education, making the kind of advancements to our Nation's infrastructure that we so desperately need, the kind of investments that we saw under Roosevelt with the WPA program to help get us out of the Great Depression, or with Eisenhower with the interstate program, these kinds of priorities for America will continue to go unmet until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order.

That is why as a member of the Blue Dog Coalition I am here to talk about this debt, and this deficit, because America has many priorities. Many priorities that continue to go unmet as our Nation continues to borrow $1 billion a day, as our Nation continues to spend half a billion a day, $500 million a day, simply paying interest on the national debt. Meanwhile, America's priorities continue to go neglected.

Now why should deficits matter other than all of these reasons I have already given you? Deficits reduce economic growth. We all know that. Look how much better the economy was in the 1990s when we had a balanced budget. Deficits burden our children and our grandchildren.

It is wrong for us to borrow money from other countries to give tax cuts to people here earning over $400,000 a year and leave our children to pay the bill. How would you like to go to the bank and tell your banker you want to borrow money to build this new house, but you are not going to pay for it, you are just going to leave the bills for your children? You know, Mr. Banker, I have got two wonderful children. I am going to make sure they get a wonderful education, grow up, get a good job. They are going to pay for this house. The banker would try to have you locked up as being mentally insane.

Yet that is how we are running our country today. In fact, deficits do matter because they increase our reliance on foreign lenders, foreign lenders who now own over 40 percent of our debt. Where is this money coming from that we are borrowing? 40 percent. As we know, some of it is coming from the Social Security trust fund with no provision on how or when it is going to be paid back.

Well, where is the rest of this debt coming from? We are borrowing $1 billion a day. Where is it coming from? Is it coming from your hometown bank? I do not think so. It is coming from foreign central banks and foreign investors.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, the United States of America is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign lenders to fund our lifestyle, which is give me tax cuts if I make over $400,000 a year, borrow the money from China and let my kids worry about paying it back. That is the way this Republican Congress is running America.

Foreign lenders. Foreign lenders currently hold a total of more than $2 trillion of our public debt. Compare this to only $23 billion in foreign holdings back in 1993. The top 10 list. The top 10 current lenders. America continues to pass tax cuts for folks earning over $400,000 a year with money that we are borrowing, because we are borrowing $1 billion a day, with money they are borrowing from whom? Here is the top 10: Japan, The United States of America owes Japan $640.1 billion; China, $321.4 billion. As my friend and a founder of the Blue Dogs, Mr. Tanner, has so eloquently stated and pointed out before, if China decides to invade Taiwan, the United States of America will have to go to China to borrow more money to defend Taiwan.

The United Kingdom, $179.5 billion; OPEC, imagine that. We wonder why gas is approaching $3 a gallon. Our Nation has borrowed $98 billion from OPEC to fund tax cuts for folks in this country earning over $400,000 a year.

Korea, the United States of America has borrowed $72.4 billion from Korea;

Taiwan, we have borrowed $68.9 billion; the Caribbean banking centers, $61.7 billion; Hong Kong, $46.6 billion; Germany, $46.5 billion. And are you ready for this? Rounding out the top 10 countries that our Nation borrows money from to fund our out-of-control deficit spending to the tune of $1 billion a day, we have now borrowed $40.1 billion from Mexico.

Now, Mr. Speaker, when an American family sits down around the dinner table to pay their bills and budget for their household, they include all of their family obligations, their mortgage, their car payment, their credit card bills, their education expenses, you name it. Those hardworking folks take into account the cost of a 4-year education for their children, not just for one year of it.

They take into account their car payment, and how many years it is going to take to pay for that car, not just to drive it for a year. When they mortgage their homes, they take into account how long and by what means they will be able to afford their housing, not just live in it for a year.

And you know what, Mr. Speaker, they expect the same from their government. And yet as we can see, July 11, today, Los Angeles Times editorial entitled ``Another Mission Accomplished,'' I am not going to read all of the editorial, but the first two paragraphs are worth reading:

``The release of the White House mid-session budget review is an annual event normally marked by a few wonkish observations and the routine updating of various spreadsheets, not by a full-dress Presidential dog-and-pony show.

``President Bush plans to preside today, with Members of Congress and invited guests in attendance. By all indications, including his own, in his weekly radio address last Saturday, he plans to turn this into a celebration just in time for the fall campaign.

``This is proof, if anyone still needs it, that this administration is desperate for something to boast about. On Mr. Bush's watch, triple- digit budget surpluses have turned into annual triple-digit budget deficits. There is no information in the mid-session report to alter that utterly disparaging fact.

``Yes, the report is expected to project that this year's deficit will be somewhat less gargantuan than last year's, probably somewhere between 280 and $300 billion versus a $318 billion shortfall in 2005. That is not much to crow about.''

That is an editorial that appeared today in the Los Angeles Times entitled ``Another Mission Accomplished.'' It goes on. But the point is that this administration is so desperate for some good news that they are having a celebration to celebrate that our Nation is not going to borrow $318 billion as it did in 2005; it is only going to borrow between 280 and $300 billion in fiscal year 2006. Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that our Nation borrowing nearly $1 billion a day is nothing to celebrate.

Now, contrary to this administration's rhetoric in light of these new numbers touted today, we have yet to get government spending under control. Instead of talking about 1 year, we should have a real plan to deal with the realities of our long-term debt and deficit, just like American families do for their financial obligations.

A perfect example of this is how we are handling our obligation in Iraq. I believe we all support our troops. I hope we do. I have got a brother-in-law who spent Christmas refueling Air Force planes over in Afghanistan. My first cousin's wife gave birth to their first child during his service in Iraq. We honor all of those who have and who continue to serve our country in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Where I disagree with this President is on the point of accountability. This President, this Republican Congress, is sending $279 million of your tax money to Iraq every day. And yet if you ask him to be accountable for it, if you ask him for a plan on how that money is being spent and how it will win the peace and ultimately bring our men and women in uniform home, he will tell you you are being unpatriotic. That is where I disagree with this President.

We just entered our fourth year in this war, and I believe if we are going to send $279 million of your tax money to Iraq every day, this administration and this Republican Congress should be held accountable for how that money is being spent.

But we are still finding it piecemeal; we are still excluding the cost of the war from our annual spending process. We are passing a number of supplemental appropriation bills to pay for it that mask the war's true cost. It is time, it is past time that this administration be up front with the American people and include these important costs in their annual budget estimates.

Only then, Mr. Speaker, only then will we be able to celebrate a real decline in deficits. Again, Mr. Speaker, the U.S. national debt as of today is $8,413,298,480,959 and some change.

For every man, woman and child in America their share is $28,120. What is staggering is that by the time we conclude this hour on the floor today, the U.S. national debt will have risen to the tune of more than $41,666,000.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Allen Boyd, one of the founding members and one of the real leaders of the fiscally conservative 37-member strong Democratic Blue Dog Coalition as we continue to talk more about the debt and the deficit and accountability. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Boyd.

I thank the gentleman from Florida, one of the leaders of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, for joining us this evening and addressing part of the Blue Dog's 12-point reform plan for curing our Nation's addiction to deficit spending. And these are just 12 commonsense ideas that we offer up,

and yet the Republican leadership refuses to give us a hearing or a vote on these ideas.

One of them is simply a balanced budget. Forty-nine States require a balanced budget. I can assure you my wife requires a balanced budget at the Ross home in Prescott, Arkansas. Most bankers require businesses to have a balanced budget. And this is just another commonsense idea we have.

Another of the 12-point plans for budget reform simply says, ``Ensure that Congress reads the bills it is voting on.'' Now, we can't pass a law to make Congress read the bills it is voting on, but I can promise you this: When this Congress votes on 500-plus-page bills and gives the minority, our side of the aisle, less than an hour to read the bill before we vote on it, I can promise you that Members of Congress cannot read every word of every page of every bill before they are being forced to vote on it.

We saw that happen, for example, with the Medicare prescription drug bill, now estimated to cost $720 billion over the next 10 years. It went to a vote barely a day after the final version of the 500-plus- page bill was made available for Members of Congress to see and read.

What we propose, as members of the Blue Dog coalition, is that Members of Congress should be given a minimum of 3 days to have the final text of legislation made available to them before there is a vote. Another commonsense idea.

I want to thank again the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd) for joining us and raising some of these things, because we are not here just to say Republicans are bad. We are here to say we are tired of all the partisan bickering that goes on in our Nation's Capital. It shouldn't be about whether it is a Republican idea or a Democrat idea; we want to see some commonsense ideas.

And we are not here just to criticize. We are here to hold the Republican Congress accountable, but we are also here to offer up a solution to this problem, and that is why we have written this 12-point plan for budget reform.

At this time, I am pleased to introduce one of the newest members of the Blue Dog coalition, who has contributed greatly to our calls of trying to restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. Before I do that, though, Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments or concerns of us, I hope you will e-mail us at bluedog@mail.house.gov. Again, Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns of us, I would encourage you to e-mail us at bluedog@mail.house.gov.

And at this time, I am now pleased to turn this over to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Bean).

I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee, one of the founders of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, Mr. Tanner, for offering up this bill. Again, another example of how the Blue Dogs are not just pointing fingers. We are holding the Republican Congress accountable, but we are not just criticizing them. We are offering up solutions, and this is another commonsense solution to restore accountability to our government.

A lot of people may not know this, but the Government Accountability Office reported that 19 of 24 Federal agencies were not in compliance with all Federal accounting audit standards and could not fully explain how they had spent taxpayer money appropriated by Congress. This bill that the Blue Dogs and Mr. Tanner have introduced will hold these Federal agencies accountable for how they spend your tax money, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I will yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd).

The gentleman raises an excellent point. As you can see here, these are manufactured homes. You would think that they would be in Louisiana or Mississippi or someplace where people lost their homes and everything they owned as a result of Hurricane Katrina. And you would have thought, well, the hurricane was last August, and this is July, so we are coming up on the first anniversary, and you would think they would have by now gotten to the people who have been left homeless from these storms.

Yet they have remained parked, you can see, in this cow pasture here, or hay meadow here, or whatever you want to call it. There is the barbed wire fence, and the grass, and the pasture land, and 10,777 of these manufactured homes. These are 16-foot wide, 60-foot long, and almost a $500,000,000 worth of mobile homes sitting at the Hope Airport in Hope, Arkansas.

These trailers, 10,777 of them, arrived late last year. Today, we still have 9,959 of them. That is a close-up view. You have to see this. Hopefully, Mr. Speaker, you can get a good look at this. That is an aerial view. They are being parked at the airport in Hope, Arkansas.

That is not all of them. Lord knows, there is not a lens wide enough to get them all. But we still have 9,959 brand-new, fully-furnished, totally unused mobile homes that were designed to go to storm victims following Hurricane Katrina that are parked 450 miles from the eye of the storm at an airport in Hope, Arkansas.

Now, if that is not enough, FEMA is spending $250,000 a month, $25,000 of that is going to the city to park them there, but the rest of that $250,000 a month is going for security and all the maintenance and all the stuff that is required to store them there. And on top of that, FEMA's response is not to get them to the people who need them, FEMA's response is, oh, my goodness, the inspector general is right. When a big rain comes, they are likely to sink in this hay meadow. So now FEMA is spending another $7 million laying gravel on nearly 200 acres of land.

This is the kind of lack of accountability within our government that we are trying to get at with this bill Mr. Tanner and the other Blue Dogs have introduced.

I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner).

At this time, I would like to introduce another gentleman from Tennessee who is very active in the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, another member who is not afraid to come to Washington, stand up and say he is a conservative Democrat, and that is my friend, Mr. Lincoln Davis from Tennessee.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Bean), and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd) for joining me for this Special Order this evening.

Mr. Speaker, we are here to demonstrate that if given the opportunity as Democrats, we are prepared and ready to lead this Nation. We are prepared to lead this Nation in restoring fiscal responsibility and accountability to our government. We are not just here to point out what is wrong with this Republican administration and Republican Congress. We are here to offer up real commonsense solutions to fix these things.

We have talked about them in the last hour, the 12-point reform plan for curing our Nation's addiction to deficit spending through budget reform. We have talked about Mr. Tanner's bill, House Resolution 841, to require congressional hearings when a Federal Office of Inspector General report documenting fraud, waste, abuse or mismanagement in the government results in a cost to the government of at least $1 million.

We have talked about the need for other ideas that we have that we are advancing, like the idea of the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) with H.R. 5315, a bill that would require a Federal agency to produce an audit within 2 years that complies with the standards established in the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996. If they can't do that, the Senate would hold reconfirmation hearings on any Cabinet-level official whose agency cannot fully account for its spending within 2 years.

Mr. Speaker, this past hour has been about accountability. It has been about our government being accountable for every tax dollar it spends.

Mr. Speaker, as members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we are ready, willing and able to lead this Congress if given the opportunity.

I appreciate the gentleman making that point. We would welcome Republicans to join us. We would welcome an opportunity for Republicans to give us a hearing and a vote on these bills that we are trying to submit to restore some fiscal discipline and commonsense to our national government.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by commenting about a

previous 5-minute speech given by Mr. Taylor of Mississippi, and I want him to know how much I appreciate his representation of his district and sharing with the House some very vital and important information. As he mentioned, we will be considering legislation that will be dealing with the issues that he pointed out.

Mr. Speaker, again, we are glad to be here, the 30-something Working Group, to come to the floor with the help of so many of our colleagues. Tonight we have a special guest, Mr. Ryan.

Well, reclaiming, sir.

I am glad to be with Mr. Tanner and also his colleague from Ohio, Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Mr. Tanner of Tennessee has really been the leader in the House as it relates to accountability, as it relates to working with Mr. Spratt on pay-as-we- go. He was around when we balanced the budget and we did some of the things that we needed to do on behalf of this country.

So we are so glad he is here tonight to share with the 30-something Group and also with the Members of the House on what we should be doing versus what we are doing right now.

I yield to Mr. Tanner.

If you would yield a moment, Mr. Tanner, I can tell you right now that there are a lot of things we should be doing, or the Republican majority should be doing but they are not doing, and we don't have the opportunity to do it because we are in the minority.

Again, it is good having you and Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, especially from the Ways and Means Committee, talking about the accountability and the ways and means of doing things. I am glad that you have this bill filed. And I am happy to know about it, because I am writing here a note to my folks that I need to be a part of this, because that is what we are talking about here almost every night, accountability, with these Inspector General reports stacking up.

As you also know, Mr. Tanner, the head person of the GAO has this working group moving around the country talking about what is happening in this government, the lack of accountability, the lack of oversight. Mr. Ryan and I met with him in the office. And this is bipartisan conservative and ``liberal groups'' going around. They have come together on behalf of the country because all this money is being spent with very little accountability.

Mr. Tanner, I am pulling this information from the Heritage Foundation, which is one of the most conservative foundations in Washington, D.C., if not the leading. In fiscal year 2003, $25 billion of taxpayer money went unaccounted for according to the Department of Treasury, again a third-party validator.

Basically they are saying that $25 billion can fund a full year at the Justice Department, according to the Heritage Foundation. So this is real money that is missing. Taxpayers dollars can go into funding an entire Justice Department, which has a number of employees and is charged with carrying out a great deal of responsibility on behalf of the American people.

Mr. Ryan, there is a chart which shows the priorities of the majority, and I wish you would share that chart.

I know this is along the line of accountability, and I think this chart is a testimonial to the lack of accountability and the spending that has been going on in this House by the Republican majority. I think it is important when you say a charitable House of Representatives as it relates to the policies coming out of the White House, this is what happens. $1.05 trillion has been borrowed in the last 4 years, which is record-breaking in many ways, and historical in the wrong ways as it relates to what the President and the Republican majority has done.

And the $0.1 trillion over 224 years borrowed from 42 Presidents, that is all they were able to muster up. World War I, World War II, a number of other conflicts, the Great Depression, still record-breaking and borrowing money in an irresponsible way.

Mr. Ryan also mentioned who is buying all of this debt. I am not blaming the American taxpayers. They don't have a voting card. They have representatives up here, but they don't have a voting card. Japan has borrowed $682.8 billion of our debt and counting. They own a piece of the American apple pie, and it pains me to see these countries over the silhouette of the continental United States, but this is exactly what's happening, and this is the way we need to break it down.

China, $249.8 billion of the American apple pie, not because of the American people, but because of the Republican policies.

I am glad you are here to share that information, and you are 110 percent right.

The U.K., $223.2 billion.

The Caribbean, $115.3 billion.

Taiwan and counting, $71.3 billion of our debt.

Again, this is not the American taxpayer, this is what a charitable Congress has done with the President's policies.

And you let some individuals tell it on the other side of the aisle, they will say we are doing great.

For the first time in the history of the country, these countries have had their hands in the pockets of the American taxpayer, and having us pay with interest. Like Mrs. Jones mentioned, it is like borrowing on a credit card.

OPEC nations, you are talking about Iran, Saudi Arabia, a number of the countries that many Americans have questions about, oil-producing countries, they are in on the game. Not only are we paying through the nose for petroleum, they own $67.8 billion.

Germany, $65.7 billion; Korea, $66.5 billion; and Canada, just north of us, $53.8 billion. They are in on this feeding frenzy. And the reason why we have this silhouetted Continental United States and the American flag, we want to get back to this.

Mr. Speaker, we are the only party here in this Chamber, including, we would add, the one Independent that actually votes with the Democrats on this side. If we want to get back to a debt-free America, then we have to go on pay-as-you-go policies, which just today, just today, just today, Mr. Tanner, just today, Mrs. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, there was a vote on this floor to move in a pay-as-you-go policy, and the Republicans voted against it. United voting against paying as you go. That means if you are going to spend the money, you have got to show where you pay for it. And still that policy is not in place.

And, Mr. Tanner, I know that you have worked day in and day out. I have watched you here on this floor. I watch Mrs. Tubbs Jones in Ways and Means talking about, if we are going to do it, what are the means? How are we going to do it? And it is continuing to be placed on a credit card.

We usually use old charts, but today I think it is important for us to say that just today, on this floor, Republicans continue to move in the direction, I would say the leadership, continues to move in the direction of allowing these countries to have their hands in the pockets of the American taxpayers.

And it goes simultaneously with the two pieces of legislation that you have shared with the Members and the American people today, House Resolution 841, that you have offered and also Mr. Cardoza's legislation as it relates to House Resolution 5315, that talks about this kind of accountability, forcing the Congress to carry out section 1, article I of the U.S. Constitution, which is boiler plate.

Thank you, Mr. Tanner. We definitely appreciate your contributions. And I like this whole generational mugging piece. You are going to hear that again. That is a great one. And it is so good, Mr. Ryan, to have Members of the Ways and Means Committee here, because they hear this constantly, and the policies are passed through that committee as it relates to how we tax Americans, corporations, what have you. And to see the waste on the other side of the ball, on the government, which we are supposed to oversee, and make sure that those dollars that are being collected from the American taxpayer or the American corporation or whatever it may be, that it is spent in an appropriate way and that we are accountable for it.

Sure I would yield.

Mr. Ryan, I think, and also Mrs. Tubbs Jones, I think it is important that we look at this issue of the irresponsibility of the Republican majority. They are being very irresponsible. And to say that that is fine, we will give you what you want, of course, Mr. Speaker, I think we are going to see more of that kind of action by the Republican majority to say that, oh, we are with you, even if we are running the country into the ground.

We know better. We know that we have foreign countries that we are borrowing from because we can't even borrow from ourselves anymore because we have done such a bad job. We know we have raised the debt ceiling time after time after time again. Meanwhile, we come to the floor and say our policies are working.

We know that there are things we should not be doing because you are working every day or you are running your business every day. You may not be paying attention to everything that is going on. Not only are we elected but we are paid to watch out for your best interest and also for future generations' best interests. And they are doing it.

And I think that the paradigm shift as it relates to the American people paying attention to what they are doing in a way, from a fiscal way, I think, will take place between now and November.

And so what is so unfortunate about this whole situation, Mr. Speaker, is that we are supposed to be responsible policymakers on a bipartisan basis. And that is not happening right now. That is just not happening. The American taxpayers are getting mugged, knocked down and kicked by this Republican majority and the rubber stamp, or the rubber- stamp Congress, Republican majority that is here.

Now, one other thing I want to mention here, which I think is very, very important, just today, Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, we don't have to go back, Mr. Speaker, to weeks or months or 2 years ago or 3 years ago. We had a pay-as-you-go provision here. Individuals decided not to take it up.

We had an opportunity to raise the minimum wage on behalf of the American taxpayers. The Republican majority rejected an opportunity to raise the minimum wage for everyday working Americans.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Ryan, one of the Republican leaders said, I haven't voted in 25 years, Mr. Speaker, to raise the minimum wage. And if he would have had his way, the minimum wage would still be $3.35 versus $5.15.

I am so glad that my State joined 21 other States in raising the minimum wage. Meanwhile, we are still here with chisel and hammer in hand as Neanderthals on the Republican side of the ball and saying, oh, we don't have to raise the minimum wage. We are so indebted to the special interests that we don't even want to bother them of having an American public that is able to pay the rent or pay for their house mortgage or to be able to put gas in their tank. We are so invested in the K Street Project, we are so invested in so many other things that we are willing to allow these individuals to suffer.

But guess what? Those are the same individuals that are making America America. And there are millions of Americans that are there.

And so what is very, very unfortunate here, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that the Republican majority is still boasting about, you know, we are in charge. We are going to continue to keep our foot on the necks of everyday Americans that are going in, punching in and punching out every day, 5 days a week, sometimes 6, because they have to work overtime; those Americans that know what it means to take a 15-minute break in the morning and a 15-minute break in the afternoon, and a solid 30 minutes of lunch, if they get that, and they better not be a minute late. Those kind of individuals, I think, are going to go to the polls this November and say, no more. They are going to go to the polls and say, we are willing to fight for the kind of accountability that we need from this government.

I am so proud, Mr. Speaker, of the 30-something Working Group and the Members that come down here and the Democratic Members that file legislation on behalf of the American people, not on behalf of the Democratic Party, not even on behalf of the Democratic Caucus, not on behalf of our leadership, but on behalf of the individuals that they represent who woke up early one Tuesday morning and voted for representation in this U.S. House of Representatives, and I must add, Mr. Speaker, the only Chamber that you have to be elected to, that you can't be appointed to. All due respect to the Senate, but Senators can be appointed by Governors. If a Senator was to say, hey, you know, I have had enough. I want to go home, I want to take care of my grandkids, a Governor can appoint a Senator.

But in democracy, in this Chamber, in the U.S. House, if one Member were to say, hey, I want to take care of my grandkids, I want to spend more time with my kids, they have to run for office. They have to run for office, and they have to be replaced by the people.

So we have a greater responsibility. We have a greater responsibility than the White House, than the Senate or the Supreme Court, when you look at the three branches government, to the American people.

The oversight, House Resolution 841, and Mr. Cardoza's legislation that calls for the calling in those administrators that are not accountable to taxpayers' dollars, these are the kind of bills that we must pass.

One thing I can say, Mr. Ryan, which is so very important on our side of the ball of saying we want to take this country in a new direction, is the fact that we said we will increase the minimum wage. We will make our country more energy-independent within 10 years. We will implement the 9/11 recommendations to be able to make sure that we can fight terrorism here and make sure that local communities have what they need.

These are not ``if'' or ``if we get around to it'' statements. These are statements that we said wholeheartedly that we would carry out.

The last point, anybody who wants to get this information as it relates to an innovation agenda: housedemocrats.gov. Right here, this is what it looks like. You can download this information. Again, safeguarding, making sure that we have the real security here in America, our Democratic plan: housedemocrats.gov. And, again, here as it relates to the working group that we have dealing with investing in the Midwest versus the Middle East: housedemocrats.gov. Mr. Ryan said all of the charts that you see here tonight you can get on housedemocrats.gov/30something.

Mr. Speaker, I do not even waste my time anymore, as a Member of this House, talking about working in a bipartisan way because the only way we can work in a bipartisan way, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, and you know because you are the most senior Member on the floor right now, is that the majority allows it to happen. The majority calls the conference committee, and this happens a lot in the Ways and Means Committee.

A lot in the Ways and Means Committee. They will have about tax law, about accountability or what have you, trying to find the ways and the means of bills that come through that committee, and the Democratic Members are not even called. A conference report comes to the floor, and they have not even seen it. Not that they weren't willing to sit down with the Republican majority, saying, We want to work with you and see how we can work in a bipartisan way. They don't even get the notice for the meeting. So the meeting takes place, it comes to the floor, and the rules that are in the House rules, it smacks the theme of the rules and also the spirit of the rules and the rules, period, about the minority party's being informed about these meetings.

So one thing that our leader has said: When we take control, there will be a bipartisan spirit in this House, and we will work together with the Republican minority, if the American people see to it.

Reclaiming my time, it is very interesting. And, Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Tubbs Jones, I think you hit the nail right on the head in talking about the reality of serving in this Republican majority right now, what is not only happening to the Members of this body on the minority side and the one Independent that is a part of this House, but also what is happening to the American taxpayer. And accountability is on our side. We balanced the budget. The bottom line is there wasn't a deficit. There were surpluses as far as the eye can see when the Republican majority took over. And now we find ourselves in a fiscal crisis.

And I want to share this information and make sure, Mr. Speaker, that all the Members, hopefully, go back to their districts and, before they see an increase in the interest rates of student loans, to share with their constituents, and we are sharing it with our constituents, to consolidate their loans before July 1, because afterwards they are going to be paying, I believe, a 2 percent increase in interest rates and climbing, not because the companies said they want to go up on the interest rate, but because the Congress allowed these companies to go up on the interest rate, meanwhile providing more tax breaks for the superwealthy Americans that are here.

So as we continue to speak, we are not here speaking into the Congressional Record, Members, just to say we want to be on the record about what is happening to America. We are saying that we are ready, set, go. We have our chinstrap buckled and our mouthpiece in. Since football season is coming up in August, let it be known that we are ready to hit the field. We are ready to hit the field on behalf of the American people; not willing hit the field on behalf of Democrats, not willing to hit the field on behalf of just children, but on behalf of all the American people. That is Republicans, Independents, Green Party.

If you are not even voting, and you are so mad, and you are tired of this mess here in Washington, DC, we are doing this for you. We want to make sure that this democracy that some talk about that we are fighting in foreign lands to guarantee a democracy over there, we want to make sure that we can celebrate a democracy right here, making sure that individuals do not have to find a way out of no way, and making sure that we come up with ways that we can become energy-independent and not just running around here saying, well, we need to go to war in foreign lands to be able to attract oil when we have resources right here.

Mr. Speaker, the last time the minimum wage was raised, it was a zero impact on businesses. Zero impact. So when folks are saying if we raise the minimum wage, people are going to go out of business, please. Okay? And when folks start talking about, Well, I am here to protect the business community, the last time I checked, there were individuals that went to vote to elect me and everyone else here to the United States Congress, to the House of Representatives. I didn't see major corporations going up with a voting card saying, I am representing corporation one, two, three, and I am here to vote on behalf of Kendrick Meek for Congress. There were individuals that voted for us.

So, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, I think you are 110 percent right, just not on behalf of the people of the great State of Ohio, but on behalf of the American people. People are working every day, but they cannot even put gas in their tank. How can you live?

Oprah just did a story on this as it relates to individuals that are making minimum wage. And they put individuals who were making above the minimum wage on a minimum wage, and they could not survive.

I was just looking for this, and I am so glad that I found it because I think it is important to be able to share the facts where they are. Third-party validators, Mr. Speaker, once again, there is just a line of them as it relates to the things we bring up.

This is a message from my Democratic Caucus Chair, who is James D. Clyburn, that is talking about priorities of the Democratic Caucus. It is not talking about something we just came up with a couple days ago, but the priorities of the Democratic Caucus and the American people. Five dollars and fifteen cents is the minimum wage. Fifty years, the last time the minimum wage has been this low as it relates to the inflation that you just spoke about. It should be $9 and some change. 1997 was the last time that the Congress raised the minimum wage. That is almost 10 years ago. It is about to be 10 years ago. Six point six million people, the number of people who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. Six point six million individuals, roughly three- quarters of minimum-wage workers, adults over the age of 20, many of whom are responsible for half of their families' income. One day it takes to be able to make money to buy one tank of gas working on the minimum wage.

Again, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, a zero jobs loss. Studies have shown that there is no evidence of jobs lost after passing a minimum wage increase.

Here is another one. Eighty-six percent of the American people support an increase in the minimum wage, and I must say 22 States have already headed in that direction through constitutional measures or legislative measures to increase the minimum wage to help their State's economy, because they know these individuals are consumers and these individuals that are on minimum wage will help their State's economy.

So I just wanted to share that information, because it is important that we share that. But again, the Republican majority is saying no. We are saying if we become the majority, if they become the minority come this

November, it is not ``if we can, we may get around to it.'' It will be one of the first things that the Democratic Caucus does. A done deal. We don't even have to talk about it, that the American people will see an increase in the minimum wage.

Let me just say this. You can go ahead and give the website out, sir, and I will close out.

I am talking to you, sir, Mr. Ryan.

Thank you, Mr. Ryan.

I want to thank Ms. Tubbs Jones and also you, Mr. Ryan, and Mr. Tanner and Mr. Taylor, who was here at the beginning finishing off his 5-minute speech for joining us tonight.

As Mrs. Tubbs Jones mentioned, as Democrats, we want to take this House in a New Direction for America. I think it is important, and we will let it be known that we will implement on day one, or days within being in the majority, if the American people see fit, a real security plan that will implement the full 9/11 Committee report, work on affordable health care, to fix not only the prescription drug law, but a series of seniors' issues as it relates to health care and also health care for the American people, from GM down to the small mom and pop business. Also make sure we have good paying jobs and stop sending jobs overseas and raising the minimum wage. Reversing all the things that the Republicans have done to Americans as it relates to higher interest rates for students and making college affordable. Also with tax deductions, and also energizing America by making sure we have investment in the Midwest versus the Middle East. And ensuring dignity as it relates to no privatization of Social Security.

With that, Mr. Speaker, it was an honor addressing the House. We would like to thank the Democratic leadership for the time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This evening I rise on behalf of the 37-member strong, fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition to discuss a grave concern of ours and that is the Nation's debt. As you walk the Halls of Congress, there is never a doubt whether you are walking past one of the 37 of us that make up the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition because you will see this poster as a welcome mat by each of our doors. As you can see from this poster, today the United States national debt is $8,346,401,298,731 and some change. For every man, woman and child living in America today, including the children born this hour, their share of the national debt is $27,905. I might add, a staggering $27,905. It is what we call the debt tax, D-E-B-T. Mr. Speaker, that is one tax that cannot be cut or eliminated until this Republican Congress and this Republican administration gets its fiscal house in order.

As members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, we are here tonight, Mr. Speaker, to talk about trying to restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. It is hard now to believe, but from 1998 through 2001, this Nation had a balanced budget and the economy was much better. People were saving more. They had good jobs. Today, for those fortunate enough to have a job, many of them have had to leave the good-paying jobs with the good benefits for low-paying jobs with little or no benefits.

It is time to get our fiscal house back in order so we can jump-start this economy, invest in alternative and renewable fuels and bring down the high cost of gasoline, ensure that our children are getting the very best education possible, ensure that health care is affordable and accessible, and ensure that we are doing right by our men and women in uniform and our veterans.

In order to meet what I believe should be America's priorities, we must first get our Nation's fiscal house in order. And we are not doing that. We had deficit spending, record deficits in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and, yes, the projected deficit for fiscal year 2007, you will hear a lot of people refer to it as $350 billion. The deficit for fiscal year 2007, a lot of people will tell you it is $350 billion, but it is not. It is not, Mr. Speaker. The real deficit for fiscal year 2007 is $545 billion.

Why the difference between the $350 billion and the $545 billion? It is quite simple. Our Government is borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund to fund this deficit, to fund tax cuts for those earning over $400,000 a year.

I am now beginning to understand why when I came to Congress in 2001 the first bill I filed was a bill to tell the politicians in Washington to keep their hands off the Social Security Trust Fund. This Republican Congress refused to give me a hearing or a vote on that bill. And now we know why. Because for fiscal year 2007 the real deficit is not $350 billion as they want you to believe, it is $540 billion, because the difference is money they are taking from the Social Security Trust Fund with no provision on when or how it gets paid back and no idea where the revenue is going to come from to pay it back.

The national debt. Listen to this. The total national debt in 1789 to 2000 was $5.67 trillion. But by 2010, the total national debt will have increased to $10.88 trillion if we continue down this path. That is a doubling. That is a doubling of a 211-year debt in just 10 years.

Interest payments on this debt are one of the fastest-growing parts of the Federal budget. And the debt tax, as I refer to it, is one tax that cannot be repealed or cut until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order.

Again the D-E-B-T tax, the debt tax, $27,905 for every living man, woman and child in this country today. That is what it would take to pay off this massive debt of $8,346,401,298,731 and, of course, some change.

Why do deficits matter? Deficits reduce economic growth. They burden our children and grandchildren with liabilities. They increase our reliance on foreign lenders who now own 40 percent of our debt.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign lenders. Foreign lenders currently hold a total of more than $2 trillion of our public debt. Compare this to only $23 billion foreign holdings back in 1993.

The top 10 current lenders, now get a load of this, think about this. We are passing law after law providing tax cuts to those earning over $400,000 a year, while cutting Medicaid, while cutting student loans. And where is the revenue coming from? We are borrowing $1 billion a day. We are spending half a billion dollars a day paying interest on the debt that we have already got, and we are borrowing another billion dollars a day on top of that.

Where is it coming from?

Japan. We owe Japan $640.1 billion.

China. Our Nation has borrowed $321.4 billion from China to provide tax cuts in this Nation to those earning over $400,000 a year.

United Kingdom, $179.5 billion.

OPEC. Imagine that. Our Nation has borrowed $98 billion from OPEC.

Korea, $72.4 billion.

Taiwan, $68.9 billion.

The Caribbean banking centers, $61.7 billion.

Hong Kong, $46.6 billion.

Germany, $46.5 billion.

Mexico. Our Nation has borrowed $40.1 billion from Mexico to give tax cuts in this country to those earning over $400,000 a year.

Mr. Speaker, I submit to you it is time for us to get our Nation's fiscal house in order, to stop the deficit spending, to pay down this debt and get back to addressing the real needs and the real priorities of America's working families, America's farm families, and America's seniors.

Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments or questions about what we are discussing tonight dealing with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and our concern about the debt and the deficit, and as we talk more about accountability this evening, restoring accountability to our Nation's Government, Mr. Speaker, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, I encourage you to e-mail us, sir, at bluedog@mail.house.gov. That is bluedog@mail.house.gov.

Now, I have laid out the problem that this Nation faces. We are not here as members of the 37-member-strong, fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition to simply criticize the Republican leadership for their failures since they took over this House and became the majority, became the ones in charge of this place.

We are here to also offer up solutions, something that I believe too many politicians fail to do. They are quick to criticize, but they are not quick to offer up solutions.

Mr. Speaker, we have a 12-point plan that will cure our Nation's addiction to deficit spending that has been laid out by the Blue Dog Coalition. We will be talking about these 12 points tonight, including a constitutional amendment calling for a balanced budget, among others; and we will also be talking about restoring accountability to our Government.

But at this time I will yield to my friend, a fellow Blue Dog, who comes to us from the State of California. That is the gentleman from California, Congressman Jim Costa.

I want to thank the gentleman from California, a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, Jim Costa, for joining us this evening.

The gentleman mentioned the financial report of the United States Government for 2005. You pointed out that in that the debt is really not, for 2005, it really wasn't $319 billion; it was really $760 billion. And I just want to make sure, Mr. Speaker, that you understand we are not trying to make things sound worse than they really are, or make up some numbers or anything. The $760 billion deficit for 2005 is contained here in the financial report of the United States of America, which was published by John Snow, President Bush's Secretary of the Treasury.

Now, how does this financial report say that the deficit is $760 billion in 2005 when everyone else has been saying it is $319 billion? And, again, there is no reason to make it any worse than it already is. It was already one of the largest deficits ever in our Nation's history. There is no reason to try to make it worse. But here is a little known fact that very few Members of Congress are even aware of: it is not well published on Capitol Hill.

When the budget rolls out, you will see them bringing it to Capitol Hill with a lot of fanfare. It is about that thick and several volumes. This is quietly brought to Capitol Hill, and not even provided to every Member of Congress. Why is that? Because this is true accounting.

The difference is that the budget uses cash-base accounting, which only the tiniest businesses in America use because it hides future obligations, thus painting, potentially, an unrealistic and misleading picture of the Federal Government's overall performance. That is according to David Walker, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office.

So when you do cash-base accounting, the deficit for 2005 was $319 billion. But in this financial report of the United States of America, as required by law, the Treasury Secretary has to report what the real debt is, the real deficit is, based on accrual accounting. And, Mr. Speaker, accrual accounting is something that most businesses in America are very aware of because it is the method required by law. It is the method required by this Congress to be used by every business in America with revenues over $5 million.

This financial report takes into account future obligations of the Federal Government, presenting a clearer, more understandable picture of Federal finances. So the real deficit for 2005 was not the $319 billion contained in the budget using cash-base accounting, but rather it was $760 billion as contained in the financial report of the United States Government for 2005 issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow, as required by law, using accrual accounting.

This is the same accounting method required by this Congress for businesses with revenues over $5 million to use; and if they don't use the accrual method of accounting, they are slapped with all kinds of fines by the IRS and in all kinds of trouble with the Justice Department.

So I thank the gentleman from California for bringing that to our attention this evening.

Now, as I said earlier, the Blue Dog Coalition has a plan on how to fix all of this. We have a 12-point plan for meaningful budget reform. I mentioned one of them, which is requiring a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget.

Forty-nine States require a balanced budget. Most businesses require a balanced budget. And I can assure you, in the Ross family my wife requires a balanced budget.

A second idea we have in our 12-point plan for curing our Nation's addiction to deficit spending is don't let Congress buy on credit.

Back when President Clinton gave us the first balanced budget in 40 years, we had something implemented on this House floor called PAYGO rules. Pay as you go. If you want to fund a new project, you have to show us which project you are going to cut. If you want to pass tax cuts, you have to show us which program you want to cut. In other words, pay as you go. Don't continue down this track that we are on today of running up the deficit, running up the debt, and borrowing money from China and Japan and Korea and OPEC to pay for this reckless spending.

Another thing that we are doing, as members of the Blue Dog Coalition, is we have a plan to restore accountability.

The author of this plan is a founding member of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, John Tanner, of Tennessee.

Let me just say that under the United States Constitution, Congress

has an obligation to provide congressional oversight of the executive branch. Congressional oversight prevents waste and fraud, ensures executive compliance with the law, and evaluates executive performance. However, under this Republican leadership, Congress has abandoned this responsibility by failing to conduct meaningful investigations of allegations of serious waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.

By failing to serve as a check and balance for overspending, waist, fraud, and financial abuse within the executive branch, this Republican-led Congress has failed the American taxpayer. Every 24 hours, $279 million of your tax money is being spent in Iraq. But don't ask the President to be accountable for it. He will tell you you are unpatriotic.

That is where I disagree with this President. I believe we have a duty and an obligation to be accountable for taxpayer money. The current Federal debt, as you know, is $8.346 trillion, much of which, as we talked about earlier, is borrowed from foreign countries. This President, this administration, and this Republican Congress must be held accountable for our massive Federal debt and for the $279 million of tax money that is being spent in Iraq every day. Now, as long as we have troops in Iraq, I want to support them, and I want to send money there. But I want to make sure that money is accounted for and being spent on our men and women in uniform.

American taxpayers simply deserve to know how their money is spent. They deserve answers as to why their children and grandchildren will have to foot the bill for this administration's fiscal mismanagement of the Federal budget. And, Mr. Speaker, this includes answers as to why the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to pay $250,000 a month to store almost 10,000 mobile homes, to be exact, as of tonight 9,957 of them, at the Hope Airport in Hope, Arkansas, in my congressional district, here is an aerial view of it, while many victims of Hurricane Katrina and other storms remain homeless.

It is past time for FEMA to be held accountable and provide these new fully furnished mobile homes to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. FEMA's response so far has been, oh, my goodness, they are liable to sink in this pasture. As you can see here from a better view, and you have to see this to believe it, here are the 9,957 mobile homes just sitting in a hay meadow. Here is the barbed wire fence at the Hope Airport in Hope, Arkansas.

Instead of moving them to storm victims that have been left homeless from various natural disasters, FEMA's response has been, oh, my goodness, the Inspector General is right, they are liable to start sinking in the hay meadow, so now they are spending $6 million putting gravel in this hay meadow at the Hope Airport in Hope, Arkansas.

It is time, it is time for FEMA to be held accountable for this mismanagement. No business in our country could succeed financially if it failed to fully report back to its shareholders on how it is spending its money. But that is exactly how our Federal Government is operating. The administration is not telling its shareholders, the American taxpayers, how it spends the money coming into Washington.

We have a plan to fix this. It is House Resolution 841, introduced by Representative John Tanner, a founding member of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, and at this time I want to call on Mr. Tanner to use as much time as he so desires to explain this bill, our solution, to try to address this lack of accountability in our government.

I am real proud that we are not just here to criticize this administration, this Republican Congress, but also to offer up a solution. At this time I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee.

You are so right on target with what we need to be doing as a Nation.

In 2003, the Government Accountability Office identified 26 high-risk areas for the Federal Government.

Twenty-six. Since then, only three programs have been removed from the list, and four more have been added. Clearly, it is necessary that Congress become involved to curb mismanagement in Federal agencies.

You raised a good point. In fact, to go into that a little more, in 2004, $25 million of Federal Government spending went absolutely unaccounted for, according to the President's Treasury Department. The Bush administration was unable to determine where the money had gone, how it was spent or what the American people got for their tax money, $25 billion in 2004.

Even worse, this Republican-controlled Congress failed to hold the executive branch accountable, failed to hold the executive branch accountable for this submission.

And with your bill, sir, it would require this Congress, it would require this government, to hold this administration accountable for this kind of reckless and irresponsible spending. Furthermore, in 2005 the Government Accountability Office reported that 19 of 24 Federal agencies were not in compliance with all Federal accounting audit standards and could not fully explain how they had spent taxpayer money appropriated to them by Congress.

And yet the Republican leadership in this Congress did not force these agencies to fully account for how the money was being spent before doling out billions more of taxpayer dollars to the same programs. Clearly, Congress has failed to ask serious questions about the Bush administration's fiscal irresponsibility, record-high deficits 4 years in a row, and have now pushed the Federal debt to $8.3 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments or concerns about what we are discussing this evening, and I hope you do, I hope you will email us at bluedog@house.mail.gov. I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee.

I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner) for his leadership as a founding member of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. I want to thank him for his leadership on House Resolution 841.

We have talked tonight about House Resolution 841 to require congressional hearings when there is fraud, waste and abuse and mismanagement of Federal agencies with your tax dollars.

We have also talked tonight about another commonsense solution, and that is H.R. 5315, by one of the Blue Dog cochairs, Mr. Cardoza of California, who has a real commonsense idea, and that is if you are a Cabinet head and your Federal agency that you oversee cannot fully account for its spending, you should have to go back to the Senate for reconfirmation.

So these are commonsense solutions that we are offering up. We are not here just to be critical of the Republican administration. We are here to say here is what is wrong and here are the things that we think we can do to fix it. Clearly, the time has come to hold this administration accountable for its reckless behavior. I believe Congress must act now to renew its constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance for overspending, waste, fraud and financial abuse within the executive branch of government.

Wasteful government spending has forced the national debt to its current record level of $8,346,401,298,731, and future generations, our children and grandchildren, will be forced to pay that bill. Future generations will have to pay back with interest the money the Federal Government is borrowing from other countries due to this administration and this Republican Congress's fiscal recklessness.

The time has come, Mr. Speaker. The time has come to restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government. The legislation that I have described to you this evening, these are two different legislative proposals put forth by the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition that will put our Nation back on the track toward balancing the budget and restoring accountability.

Again, Mr. Speaker, the U.S. national debt, when we started this evening it was $8,346,401,298,731. And just in the past hour, as we have been discussing this financial crisis facing America, this number, this national debt has risen $41,666,000.

Mr. Speaker, our Nation is borrowing $1 billion a day. We are spending a half a billion a day paying interest on the debt we have already got.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government, and once we do that, once we do that we can meet America's priorities. A half a billion dollars a day simply going to pay interest on the national debt. In my district alone, I have got $4 billion in road needs. I need $1.5 billion to finish I-69, Interstate 69. I need another $1.5 billion to finish Interstate 49. I need $200 million to finish Interstate I-530; $300 million to four-lane 167 from Little Rock to El Dorado and beyond; about 80 to $100 million to finish the Hot Springs Expressway; and $200 million to four-lane U.S. Highway 82 from the east to the west side of Arkansas. These kinds of road projects can create jobs and economic opportunities for one of the poorest regions in the country, the Delta region, which I am proud to represent.

But before we can meet America's priorities and lift these folks up out of poverty and give them a helping hand by building the roads they need, we must first restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government and pay down this national debt and stop this deficit spending.

Thank you, Mr. Ross, and I am delighted to be here and delighted that this hour is being devoted basically to common sense.

You know, when I was growing up in Tennessee, my parents basically taught me three things about financial responsibility: one was live within your means; two was to pay your debts; and three was to invest in the future, whether it was for your retirement or your kids' college or whatever. But those were three pretty good financial guidelines, I thought. Live within your means, pay your debts, pay who you owe, and save enough to invest in the future.

Unfortunately, this government of ours, all of us, we are not doing any of those things. We are not living within our means, not paying our debts, and we are certainly not investing in the future.

I have been so frustrated because, for the last 3 years, anyway, along with Congressman Ross from Arkansas, some of us have been talking about the consequences of what is going on here. Unless one can figure out how to repeal the laws of arithmetic, folks, I am telling you, this country is getting in deeper and deeper financial trouble.

To give you some idea, in the summer of 2002, on the same tax base we have in the summer of 2006, there is now $60 billion less of the money that Congress takes away from the American taxpayer involuntarily in the form of taxation and appropriates to any administration. There is $60 billion a year less because we have borrowed, just since the summer of 2002, this Congress and this political leadership in Washington have borrowed, in your name and mine, over $1.5 trillion. And what is worse is that 75 percent of those borrowings have come from foreign sources.

I wish I was making this up. It is no fun to talk about. And as Khruschchev said, the former dictator in the old U.S.S.R., he said, an American politician will promise to build a bridge where there is no river. And part of our problem is the political leadership here in Washington is not leveling with the American people about the consequences of what we are doing in terms of hitting the Nation's credit card for not only that $1.5-plus trillion but all of the surplus money that is going into the Social Security trust fund. So we are borrowing that too. We just don't have to write interest checks to the Social Security trust funds every year.

Anyway, I was thinking about this, as a father and grandfather now, what kind of country are we going to leave our children? There are two things that come from reading of history. One is, there is no nation that is strong and free that has no infrastructure.

Our infrastructure in this country is in bad shape. Everybody knows that. Whether it is water, sewer, dykes, levees, and you can go down the list, we have serious infrastructure problems. In my home State of Tennessee, most of the county courthouses were built during the Depression, during the WPA days.

I am sure that is the same way in Arkansas and probably in Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, all over. The courthouses were built back in those days, a lot of courthouse, I betcha. But that is not the real crux of the matter.

The real crux of the matter is we have to, and only the government can, invest in infrastructure. Because, after all, that is where private enterprise can go to create the jobs, to create prosperity, so that people have water, sewers, bridges, highways, airports, whatever it may. That is how private enterprise grows, around infrastructure investment by the government.

We are not able to do that because we have, just in the last 60 months, transferred out of the tax base, not raising taxes, not lowering taxes, we have transferred out of the tax base over $60 billion a year every year that goes not for veterans, not for education, not for infrastructure, but for interest. Seventy-five percent of that $60 billion that we are writing every year in checks for interest is going overseas, not even staying in this country.

The consequences of that are twofold. One is, we cannot invest in infrastructure to keep our country in as good of shape as it needs to be for private enterprise to prosper and create jobs in a good economy. The second thing we are doing is we are depriving ourselves and the government of the ability to invest in human capital.

What is human capital? Basically, it is the ability of the citizens of this country to compete in an increasingly globalized world.

Now, the government loses its ability because of this transfer of the tax base to interest, loses its ability to make the necessary investments in public education. Public education is not important in a dictatorship. Public education is not important in a Communist country. But public education

is critically important in a democracy, because we are called on.

As President Jimmy Carter said, the highest office in this land of ours is not the office we hold, it is that of citizen. Because the citizen holds the card, the voting card, if you will, to determine what happens. They hire guys like us every couple of years or so, but the citizen is the highest office that one can hold in our country. If we deprive the citizens because we do not have the ability to invest in public education, then we are on a downward spiral, I would say.

So you have two human capital factors. You have public education, because we are called on as citizens, the highest office in our land, to not only make a decision affecting us and our immediate families but also make a decision affecting our States and our country. In order to do that, we have to be educated; and in order to maximize that participation and that ability to understand what is going on, the masses of free people in a republic like ours have to be educated so they can read, write, think and rationalize their decisions. Public education is part of this investment in human capital.

The second thing is health care. Our country is no longer able to make the necessary investment in health care.

If one reads history, as I do, one will readily understand and discern that no nation, since the dawn of civilization, has ever been strong and free with an unhealthy, uneducated population. It is simply not possible. So the consequences of what you have been talking about on the national debt are very real to the citizens of this country.

They may not realize or think so in terms of the national debt, $8.3 trillion, but don't try to make it off of me. I am trying to make a house payment, car payment, and all the other things that I have to do with my kids and everything else. So that is a big number, but that is not a number people really relate to.

What people relate to, I believe, if we adequately articulate it, is the consequences to them, every day to us, of what is going on in this town, which leads me to this House Bill 841.

It is hard to imagine this, and when I tell civic clubs that I speak to in Tennessee from time to time, they look at me aghast. They can't believe it. In the year, fiscal year 2005, the Government Accountability Office reports that 19 of 24 Federal agencies cannot produce an acceptable audit. What that means is, if you go and ask them what did you do with the money that Congress involuntarily extracted from the taxpayers of this country in the form of taxation and appropriated to any administration, what did you do with it, 19 of 24 Federal agencies can't tell you.

Now I am in business in Tennessee. Well, my brothers and I are in a family business. Can you imagine going to your comptroller or your treasurer or whoever you look to handle your money in your business and saying, here is an expenditure of $5,000, $10,000. What is that for? The answer would be, you know, I can't tell you. I don't know.

No private enterprise in America would tolerate that. Because if they did, they wouldn't be in business. They would be broke. Yet that is what the American people are tolerating in this one-party government town where Congress not only takes money away from people in the form of taxation and then doesn't even ask the administration they appropriate to what they did with it. If they asked them, they couldn't tell them.

If there is one thing that the American citizen, highest officeholder in this land ought to expect from this Congress and any other Congress, in my view, is, what did you do with the money? If you can't tell us, any administration, if you can't tell us what you did, well, you don't get it next year.

So House bill 841 that we have introduced, the Blue Dogs have introduced is basically under three circumstances, when the inspector generals in every department, and every department has one that identifies waste, fraud, abuse, so forth, right now, the inspector general reports are just laying around gathering dust, because Congress is not going to ask, what did you do with the money?

There is no oversight here. Everybody knows that. All you have to do is read the paper about the money that is flowing out of here through a fire hose. Congress isn't asking the administration, where is it going? All we hear is, well, there is a no-bid contract here, a no-bid contract there.

I am going to bring a list of things that we have identified, $10 million to rehab an old Army base to house six people, no-bid contract. It cost $10 million to some contractor to rehab a house that holds six people.

That is what is going on under these no-bid contracts, and this Congress has totally, in my judgement, completely abdicated its constitutional responsibility to say what is going on over here.

I am going to read something in a minute that is going to even more shock people. One, any inspector general, I don't care whether it is a Democratic administration, Republican administration, Democratic Congress, Republican Congress, we have got one economy. We have got $1. We don't have a Democratic or Republican dollar bill. We have got a dollar bill that is an American dollar bill.

So we don't care. The Blue Dogs don't care whether it is a Democratic administration, Republican. This is what ought to be done on behalf of the American taxpayers who are Americans, first. They may be Democrat or Republicans. They are Americans. We are all Americans first.

What this bill would do is say when there is an adverse finding by the inspector general in any, any agency, Congress must hold a hearing within 60 days of that adverse finding so that at least we can bring it to light and the general public will know that, one, they can't find the money we appropriated to them.

Or, two, the inspector general has what they call a high-risk program. That is government talk for it means it probably is not working like we intended it to and like the people want it to. But they can't find the money for the high-risk program.

Or three, the auditor issues a disclaimer. Here is what I want to read about the department.

Four, that, basically, when they tried to audit these departments, the auditors said, look, we don't know whether this is true or not.

On the front page of the audit, they say everything you are about to read here about what these people are doing with taxpayer money, we don't know. We can't vouch for it. We make no, absolutely no assertion that any of this, what you are about to see, is true, because we can't find out from the people that Congress appropriated the money to.

I wish I was making this up, but I am not.

This is what the Office of the Inspector General says about the Department of Energy, for example. This is one. Audit work performed by the auditor identified significant deficiencies in financial management and reporting controls related to the Department's FY05 consolidated financial statements. Specifically, the Department was unable to correct previously described weaknesses and could not provide a number of supporting documents required for audit. Not only can it not produce an audit, they can't even provide a document so the auditors can produce an audit.

Listen to what they say about the Department of Homeland Security. Quote, unfortunately, the Department made little or no progress to improve its overall financial reporting during fiscal year 2005. The auditors were unable to provide an opinion on the Department's balance sheet.

Now we sit here in Congress and pass all these laws, Sarbanes-Oxley and all of this, about what private companies ought to do in terms of audit.

Here is the Homeland Security. You were just talking about 12,000 or 10,000 or 9,000 trailers at Hope Airport in Hope, Arkansas. They say, we are unable to provide an opinion. They can't even tell you. We don't even have an opinion because the books are so screwed up. This is quotes.

So House Bill 841, the Blue Dog bill, just says, when an IG report comes back like this, Congress must take action. What you have here, unfortunately, and this, again, is not partisan. I am a taxpayer. All of us pay taxes. We ought to be able to tell the American people what we did with the money we extract from them involuntarily in the form of taxes.

Here is an IG report. There hasn't been oversight on this, because Congress is not going to ask. You have a

compliant Congress, a friendly administration. Nobody wants to embarrass anybody else. So we have stuff like this that we tolerate in this town because we are all playing the political game.

I tell you, I don't know why we can't get some of our friends on the other side to join with me. What are they going to tell their constituents? We don't want to know where the money you sent us goes to? What are they going to say?

What could possibly be wrong with this Blue Dog bill for simple accountability? We took money from taxpayers. We gave it to the administration. What did you do with it? You can't tell us. You are not getting it. That is what the Blue Dog position is. I think that is where it is. I mean, I don't want to give them any more money when I don't know what happened to it.

High risk means it doesn't work.

Let me tell you about another bill that our Blue Dog friend, Dennis Cardoza, has. And we passed the Sarbanes Oxley Act about holding the CEOs of all of these major corporations accountable. Dennis has a bill that says, basically, if a Department of the Federal Government cannot produce an adequate or passable or acceptable audit within 2 years, then that Cabinet Secretary must go back to the Senate for reconfirmation as to why you can't tell us what is going on in your Department with the money that is being appropriated to your Department.

This is what would happen in private enterprise. And people tell me all the time, and I am sure they tell you, we would like the government to operate a little bit more like a business. Well, both of these bills, particularly 841, that is all we are asking is for this Congress to pass a bill that will require basically Congress to do its job and ask them what happened to the money, because Congress is the agency, is the separate but equal branch of government that levies taxes. The President doesn't tax people. The Supreme Court doesn't tax people. The Congress does. And it is the Congress's responsibility to see where it is going.

And this Congress has completely, totally failed to ask or even inquire about what is happening to the money that we are appropriating. And, really, the American people shouldn't put up with that. The more we can talk about it, I think, the more people will realize that there has got to be some changes made around here on accountability. And, again, this is not partisan. I don't care what administration is over there at the White House. Any of them ought to be able to tell us what did you do with the money, so we can either determine that it needs to be cut or added to.

When people get up and say we have got baseline funding, I say, you don't understand something. I want to cut some of this stuff that is not working. The IG reports identify government talk for high-risk programs. That means they don't work. But do you think this Congress has asked? Well, you just said it. They added four more since they cut them. And it keeps right on rolling along, money flowing out of here through a fire hose. It keeps rolling right on along.

There is one other thing I would like to mention tonight if I could. We have a bill that the Blue Dogs have endorsed that sets up an independent commission in every State to redistrict for Congress. The Supreme Court, yesterday in the Texas case, left the door open for mid- decade redistricting, which means that any State that gets all the levels of power, the Governor's office and the House and State Senate, can redistrict anytime they want to. I think that is one of the biggest threats to our process, to our Republic that I have ever heard of because I think where we are going here is a tit for tat. The Republicans did it to the Democrats in Texas, so the Democrats are going to do it to the Republicans in Illinois. Democrats did it to us in Illinois, so we are going to do it to them in Ohio, wherever, all over the country.

And you are going to see nothing but political turmoil where the ``ins,'' whoever the ``ins'' are, Democrats or Republicans, they are both ``ins,'' are playing this political game, and the people of this country are left in the dust. They are pawns on a chess board to be played with by the ``ins,'' whoever the ``ins'' are, Democrat or Republican. I think that this is one of the most misguided opinions I have ever read.

The other thing about that is this: there was a case that came from Tennessee in 1962, Baker v. Carr, and that was a case that said in the case of the State House, State Senate and U.S. House, everybody had to represent approximately the same number of people.

Now, how in the world any State legislature could reapportion Congress in 2008 based on 2000 census data and say we are complying with Baker v. Carr, in that everybody represents an equal amount of people, is beyond me. And I will tell you what you do. If you don't believe me, go pick up an 8-year-old phone book and see how many people you can call in that 8-year-old phone book or how many businesses you can call that are still there. There is no way that any legislature can comply with one person, one vote 8 years after the data was compiled.

Yet that is what the Supreme Court left open. You talk about activist judges. I just think that what they are doing is setting this country up for nothing but a political food fight while the country's needs go unattended. And this is the ``ins.'' And what we have seen over the last 40-something years, since the Baker v. Carr decision is the ``ins'' have manipulated the system for themselves. It suits all the Republicans to make Republican districts more Republican. It suits the Democrats to make the Democratic districts more Democratic. So what you have here is the wings coming here to Congress and being unable ideologically to figure out how to get along. And this is why I think we have one of the problems here, and that is the middle is disappearing where everything gets done in a free society where nobody can order anybody else to do anything.

So I wanted to mention that because we have that bill, the Blue Dog endorsed bill, that would set up independent commissions. And one of the criteria is they can't take into account where the incumbent lives. And we are asking people to give up a lot of power. I understand that. But I hope the

American people realize that they are the victims of this with the ``ins,'' Democrats and Republicans, who are in, manipulating the system for each other's benefit.

And what do we have? We have a food fight here on the floor of the House every day. And it is not a parliamentary system. It is a representative system and one, I think, as Ben Franklin said after they got through with all the Constitution, everything, said, what have we wrought? And Ben Franklin said, a Republic, if you can keep it.

We are in, I think, grave danger with what we have done to gerrymander the country. And it is the ``ins,'' Democrats and Republican, who are in that are doing it. And we are trying to change that, and the Blue Dog bill will do that. And I hope we can get some action. It will have to come from outside of this building, unfortunately. Thank you.