Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Madam Speaker, this evening, as most Tuesday evenings, I'm joined by members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition as we come to the floor of the United States House of Representatives to talk about the debt and the deficit and what that means for the future of this country and how so many of today's priorities continue to go unmet because of this.

Today's national debt is $9,169,206,830,867 and some change. For every man, woman and child in America, their share of the national debt, $30,205.

As you walk the halls of Congress, Madam Speaker, as you walk the halls of the Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings, you will easily know when you're walking by the door of a fellow Blue Dog member because you will see this poster that reminds us of the national debt, as well as your share.

This evening we want to talk about PAYGO. It's an acronym for pay-as- you-go, and basically there was a lot made to do about the first 100 legislative hours in this new Democratic majority. Well, the 47 of us in the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition were proud of what we were able to accomplish in this first legislative hour under this new Democratic majority, and that was reinstating the PAYGO rules, which means pay-as-you-go. If you have got a new program you want to fund, you've got to show us how you're going to pay for it. If you want to cut a tax, you've got to show us how you're going to pay for it.

The business of borrowing money from China to fund programs and tax cuts in this country are over, and we want to thank the new Democratic leadership for their commitment, their commitment not to bring a bill to this floor that's not paid for.

At this time to talk more about this issue and a lot of talk about AMT, the alternative minimum tax is going to touch a lot more people this year. We want to protect those people. We want to make sure they're not taxed, but we also want to make sure that that bill that comes to this floor is paid for. It doesn't make sense to protect people from taxes if we're simply borrowing the money from China and then asking our children and grandchildren to foot the bill.

That's why I was very disappointed last week when the Senate voted 88-5 to fix the AMT. They took the easy way out. It wasn't paid for. The Senate's plan borrows $50 billion just for this year, $50 billion from China to pay for a fix to the alternative minimum tax. We have a plan in the House not only to fix it but to pay for it, and we voted for that a couple of weeks ago on the House floor and we're going to vote on it again this week.

And to talk more about this and what it all means for this country and for future generations is one of the founders of the Blue Dog Coalition, my friend, John Tanner from Tennessee.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee, a founder of the Blue Dog Coalition, John Tanner, for joining us this evening for this Special Order.

Madam Speaker, there's 47 of us in the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. The Blue Dog Coalition is just another name for fiscally conservative Democrats, and one of our newest members who has joined us for the 110th session of Congress, and we're just delighted to have her, is our friend Kirsten Gillibrand from New York's 20th district.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York. For those just joining us, to set the stage, Madam Speaker, the Senate, we sent the Senate an AMT fix, alternative minimum tax fix, to ensure people didn't get hit with this unfair tax, and we paid for it. They sent it back to us without being paid for. Instead, they want to borrow $50 billion from China, and that's what got 47 members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition worked up, and for a good reason.

I'm pleased to be joined by a fellow Blue Dog member from California's 20th Congressional District, my friend Jim Costa.

I thank the gentleman from California for joining us.

And, Madam Speaker, this is a Special Order hosted by the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. And at this time, as we discuss this PAYGO and AMT issue deeper and further and put it in context, I'd like to call on a former co-Chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, Baron Hill from Indiana.

I thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) for his insight on this issue.

Madam Speaker, let me make it clear that the Blue Dog Coalition wants to ensure that no additional taxpayers are liable for the AMT tax this year. Let me also make it clear that, unlike the Senate, we want a bill that's paid for. We don't want to simply borrow the money from China to fund a tax cut or to provide tax relief in this country. And that's what makes us different in this new Democratic majority from what we had in the previous Congresses under the Republican control. They have given us the largest debt ever, the largest deficit ever; and the time has come to put an end to that. And someone that understands that better than anyone is the Blue Dog co-Chair for policy, my friend Dennis Moore from Kansas.

I want to thank the gentleman from Kansas for joining us.

Madam Speaker, in the next 35 minutes, we've got a number of Blue Dogs, fiscally conservative Democrats, that have taken to the floor of the House tonight to join me in talking about the importance of PAYGO, pay-as-you-go, the kind of principle that was in place in this Chamber when President Clinton gave us the first balanced budget of any Democrat or Republican in about 40 years.

At this time I would like to call on a former co-Chair of the Blue Dogs from the State of Tennessee, someone that has helped lead this effort and who brings a lot of insight to this issue, the former co- Chair for policy of the Blue Dogs, and that's my friend Jim Cooper from Tennessee.

I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee, former co- Chair of the Blue Dogs, for joining us and in being a part of standing firm on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of PAYGO.

Some people may say, what's this business all about? Well, the House passed a bill to provide tax relief for millions of people, and it was paid for. We sent it to the Senate and they didn't like it; so they sent it back unpaid for. Their idea was to borrow $50 billion from someplace like China to pay for it.

Well, we're going to send it back again, probably tomorrow, Madam Speaker, with another pay-for. And some people are maybe saying, ``Huh? So how are you going to pay for it?'' Well, it's not glamorous, but it makes sense to me. We're going to pay for it by closing loopholes allowing hedge fund managers to defer compensation in offshore accounts. There's no reason why the Senate shouldn't be able to join us in supporting that. It pays for it instead of borrowing the money from China and provides the tax relief that we need for middle-class working families all across this country.

I would like to call on a former cochair for communications of the Blue Dogs, my friend from California, a member of the Rules Committee, very involved in this whole issue, and that's Dennis Cardoza.

I thank the gentleman from California, who has contributed greatly as the former cochair of the Blue Dogs and now a member of the Rules Committee.

The reason all of this is so important is because of this: Today, the U.S. national debt, $9,169,206,830,867, you divide that by every man, woman and child in America, and your share, Madam Speaker, is $30,205.

Since President Bush took office, the gross national debt has increased by nearly $3.5 trillion, $3.427 trillion. That's $41.54 billion per month. That's $9.57 billion per week. That's $1.37 billion per day. That's $56.93 million per hour. That's $948,907 per minute. And that's $15,815 per second. Any way you divide it out, Madam Speaker, for a country boy from south Arkansas, that's a whole lot of money. And this group, the Blue Dogs, fiscally conservative Democrats, are trying to restore common sense, accountability, and fiscal discipline to our national government. And right in the middle of it all is my friend from Louisiana, a fellow Blue Dog member, Charlie Melancon.

I thank the gentleman from Louisiana. And as our friend John Tanner from Tennessee has said so eloquently, this administration, this President has borrowed more money from foreigners than the previous 42 Presidents combined.

Since President Bush took office, our Nation has borrowed $1.23 trillion from foreign sources. That's a big number. Let's break it down. That's $15.45 billion per month. That's $3.54 billion per week. That's $505.6 million per day. That's $21.07 million per hour. That's $351,113 per minute. And that's $5,852 per second.

So, Madam Speaker, that's why we're here. We want to restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our national government. We want to put an end to this reckless spending and this debt and this deficit, and to help us do that is my friend from Ohio, new member of the Blue Dogs, serving his first term in the 110th session of Congress, Zack Space from Ohio's 18th congressional district.

I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his insight.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Indiana, Brad Ellsworth, from Indiana's Eighth Congressional District. A new member of the Blue Dogs in the 110th session of Congress, Brad Ellsworth.

I thank the gentleman from Indiana. Madam Speaker, if you have any questions, comments or concerns you can e-mail us, Madam Speaker, at bluedog@mail.house.gov.

The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Space) was saying that he didn't have his calculator with him, but he knew it was a lot of interest that had been paid. This year we have paid $239 billion in interest on the national debt. That is close to $1 billion a day, without a calculator. But with a calculator, and to put it in perspective, the same amount we would pay for any of the following, stocking every family in America's refrigerator for 7 months, filling every U.S. gas tank, and that is not easy to do this these days, for 10 months, filling every American's gas tank for 10 months at today's gas prices, providing 4 years of in-state public tuition for 10.2 million students. I have a daughter in college now. I can appreciate that one. Paying 1 year of salary for 8 million new teachers. We could do any one of those things, Madam Speaker, with the amount of interest we have paid on the national debt this year.

The whole point here, Madam Speaker, is we will continue, this demonstrates it right here, the reds, the amounts we are spending on interest, the light blue, or the turquoise as we would say back home, is the amount we are spending on education. The dark green is how much we are spending on veterans. And the purple is how much we are spending on homeland security.

America's priorities, Madam Speaker, are out of whack. And they are going to remain out of whack until we get our fiscal house in order. And no one understands this better than the leader of the Blue Dogs, the administrative co-Chair for the Blue Dogs who spends a lot of time on these issues, and I can't thank him enough for being here and waiting patiently all night and letting all our fellow Blue Dog members go, we have had a dozen tonight, that is a lot, to come to the floor of the House tonight to talk about these issues. We have about 10 minutes left. The gentleman from Florida, Allen Boyd, can have as much of it as he wants.

I thank the gentleman from Florida, the administrative cochair of the Blue Dogs, Mr. Allen Boyd from Florida's Second Congressional District, for being a part of this Special Order this evening, as he is so many Tuesday evenings.

What we are talking about here, Madam Speaker, is the Republican Congress, the Republican administration, after having a balanced budget under President Clinton for the first time in 40 years, gave us the largest debt ever in our Nation's history, largest deficit ever in our Nation's history, and there has been a lot of talk about all this.

Mr. Tanner was talking earlier about how this administration has borrowed more money from foreigners than the previous 42 Presidents combined. That has to be paid back with interest. And to put it in perspective, the Federal Government has sent $709 billion abroad in the form of interest payments since President Bush took office, and $155 billion in 2007 alone. The same amount would fund any of the following: The amount of money this administration has sent to foreigners to pay interest on the debt that we have borrowed from them to fund tax cuts in this country for folks earning over $400,000 a year. With the interest paid on this debt, this foreign debt, the amount of your tax money, Madam Speaker, that we have sent overseas, with that amount of money, we could have built 12,000 new elementary schools, 7,000 new veterans clinics, and I might remind you, Madam Speaker, we have a new generation of veterans coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq. And get this: We could have funded all road and bridge construction and improvements for 10 years.

It's about priorities, and it's time this Nation got its priorities in order. It's time we got our fiscal house in order. Make no mistake about it, Madam Speaker, for the second time this week we are going to send to the Senate an AMT fix that ensures that no, not one, additional taxpayer is liable for the AMT tax. Not one. Madam Speaker, we are paying for it, and as conservative Democrats we are reaching across the aisle and we are begging, we are begging Republicans to join us in doing the right thing and fixing this the right way.

I thank my friend, Madam Speaker, for yielding, and it is a great privilege to join my Blue Dog colleagues here on the House floor to talk about these issues that are of such great import to the American people and to the children of America today, because they are the ones who will be, in the end, mostly affected by these policies that we are having great debates about today.

Now, my fellow Blue Dog colleagues have spoken very eloquently and succinctly about PAYGO, what it is, how it got started, how it works, and the importance of it. Just in brief summary, I will remind our viewers that PAYGO was a principle that was first put in place in 1990 by then-President George H.W. Bush, commonly referred to around these parts of the country as Bush 41.

With a Democratic Congress and Republican administration, they began to realize the misguided policy of deficits, large annual deficits, so they did something about it. After the election in 1992, when President Clinton became President, and then in 1994, the Republican revolution where you had a

Democratic President and Republican-led Congress, in 1997, those principles of PAYGO were continued in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

In 1999, we saw for the first time in 30 years a balanced budget. And we could see surpluses, Madam Speaker, as far as the eye could see. It looked great for America at that point in time. We had money to deal with national security. We had money to fix the problems that we know exist in Medicare and Social Security, the long-term problems, which are so important. Those two programs are so important to the future of this country.

What happened? In 2001, we got a new President, President George W. Bush, commonly known in these circles as Bush 43. And this administration, along with the Congress back then, decided that PAYGO wasn't a good idea because they couldn't do the policies of their tax cuts they wanted, as much as they wanted to do and live within those rules of PAYGO, so they abandoned the PAYGO rule, the PAYGO principle.

As a result, from 2000 to today, 2007, you have had a swing of several trillion dollars in terms of the surpluses versus the deficit. So we are in a bad situation. We are in a bad situation; and during the campaigns last year, people running for the House and the Senate across this country campaigned on this issue, that we had to restore fiscal responsibility to our government. You heard from four members of the Blue Dog, freshmen members, who are brand-new here tonight. This is their first term as Members of Congress. They campaigned on this issue. They understand it. They understand the importance of it. Their constituents back home do.

Madam Speaker, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, our majority leader, Steny Hoyer, our Ways and Means chairman, Charlie Rangel, and our budget chairman, John Spratt, and other Democratic leaders, in addition to the Blue Dogs, vowed to put an end to the reckless fiscal policy that has existed in our government for the last 6 years. And under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, and with the help of the Blue Dogs, we put in place this PAYGO principle on the very first day when this new Congress took power in early January of this year.

That is what the American people wanted us to do. They wanted us to stop acting foolishly when it comes to fiscal management. We are like a board of directors, Madam Speaker, of a major corporation. It is our job to manage the resources, the fiscal financial resources, of this country in a prudent way for our stockholders, who are our people back home.

And we said we have to stop spending more than we take in. There are lots of tools that you can use, as has been said here earlier, but the one that we have in place right now, the one that we have been able to get in place, given the current political environment, is this PAYGO rule, and we need to abide by it. We don't need to abandon it.

Congress without those tools in place has not exhibited the willpower, if you will, to make tough choices when it comes to spending or tax cuts. So that is why it is important that we have tools like PAYGO. If you don't have the ability, the will or the backbone to make choices about how we responsibly spend the taxpayers' money, then what are we doing here? This Congress, under the leadership, under the Democratic leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer has shown that it has the ability and the will and the backbone to be good stewards of the taxpayers' tax dollars that they send here for us to spend. Every single bill, Madam Speaker, that is passed by the House this year has complied with PAYGO rules. Whether it was the farm bill, SCHIP reauthorization, or AMT relief, every bill has complied with the PAYGO rules. And do you know what, Madam Speaker? Seventy-five percent of the pay-fors have been spending cuts and not revenue raisers.

Sadly, very sadly, the Senate last week failed in their duties as leaders of this country and as responsible stewards of our taxpayer dollars when they passed an AMT bill that was not paid for. The Senate was held hostage by the Republican caucus in the Senate and they blocked a House AMT bill that was paid for from even being heard on the Senate floor.

The Blue Dogs, Madam Speaker, and the House leadership are standing behind PAYGO for one simple reason: it is the right thing to do. It may not be the easy thing to do or the politically easy thing to do, but, Madam Speaker, I didn't take this job because I thought it was going to be easy. I took this job to do right by the people of the Second Congressional District of Florida and the American people.

The House of Representatives will again pass an AMT bill this week that is paid for. It is possible to do it. The Senate will have another opportunity to do what is right and responsible. And I strongly urge the Senate to have the gumption and the will and the good sense to keep the promise they made to the American people to be good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars and pass an AMT bill that does not violate the PAYGO rules and that is paid for.

Again, I want to thank my fellow cochair, Mike Ross from Arkansas, for his steady leadership on this issue and so many others, but also steady leadership in forming these Tuesday night Special Orders, in which we have had a chance to come talk to the American people about issues of much importance.

Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to discuss the importance of this pay-as-you-go system that my colleague from Arkansas, Congressman Ross, and my other colleagues have spoken on thus far.

What you're going to hear this evening across the breadth and width of Representatives from throughout the country is a common and reoccurring theme, and that is, as Blue Dogs, we believe that putting our fiscal House in order is among the highest of priorities that we are sent here back to Washington to do. And so, therefore, it is a very important discussion that we are having with you this evening, as many Americans sit at their home having dinner and wondering just really what's going on in Washington.

What's going on is really trying to draw a line in the sand. Are we about trying to establish and stay with fiscal responsibility or not?

Now, PAYGO is a tool, as was mentioned, to try to ensure that any additional expenditures of our Federal budget be paid for. That's not the only tool, but it is one of the few tools that we now have in place. Certainly as Blue Dog members, we are looking and trying to figure out how we can do other efforts to focus on budget cutting and reestablishing our priorities. But right now pay-as-you-go is the most important tool that we have available to us.

Now, let me give you a little history of how all this took place. In 1990, when the Budget Enforcement Act was passed, there was an attempt to reign in deficits that had occurred for over 30 years, Federal deficits that had been

experienced since 1970. This Act, passed by a Democratic Congress in 1990 and signed by a Republican President, President George Bush the First, sought to control the budgetary impact of legislation through the enforcement of the provisions that we now refer to as pay-as-you- go.

Now, that was law and that was enforced for 10 years, about. Then in 2001, with a new Republican majority in Congress, our current President, President George Bush the Second, abandoned the PAYGO provisions.

And that, I think, among other factors took our projected budget surplus, then at $5.6 trillion over a 10-year period, and created the current budget deficit that we have today, which is over $2 trillion over that same time period. Yes, I think it's disappointing for all Americans that a sensible tax policy, an investment in smart growth in our country that was achieved between 1990 and 2001 on a bipartisan basis, has been squandered in the last 6 years to the large unsustainable deficit that we have today.

Now, where are we? Well, at the beginning of this year, the new Democratic majority returned to Congress a path of fiscal responsibility. As Congressman Ross and others mentioned, PAYGO was one of the first provisions we enacted. Under these rules we have in every piece of legislation that we have acted on this year enforced the PAYGO principle. This promise we made to the American people we intend to keep true to our word. We have already made great strides in bringing our fiscal house in order; but if we want to continue that, we must include this with all legislation, which includes the alternative minimum tax. It needs to comply with PAYGO.

Currently, our national debt is over $9 trillion, with much of it being held by foreign governments. In 2007, China alone had increased the holdings of U.S. Treasury securities by nearly 500 percent in the last 6 years, from $74 billion in July, 2001, to $408 billion in July of this year. Overall, and it has been said before, this administration has borrowed more money from foreign sources throughout the world than the previous 42 Presidents combined. Let me repeat that: overall, this administration has borrowed more money from foreign sources than all the previous 42 Presidents combined.

As a proud member of the Blue Dog Caucus, I strongly believe that fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets are essential to make our economy and our country strong and prosperous. Government should not be allowed to spend more than it takes in. Common sense tells us that. Any strategy of our Nation's budget must include a strategy for reducing these record deficits so that we don't pass them on to our children. Without adequate controls, prolonged deficit spending will weaken our ability to fund worthwhile domestic spending programs and jeopardize our national security. That's at the heart of this discussion.

I further believe that it's fiscally and morally irresponsible, therefore, to place the burden of today's deficit on our children and grandchildren. And that's why PAYGO is so important, that we draw the line and make this fight this week.

The alternative minimum tax is important. We passed that relief on that over a week ago. But it's not worth borrowing from China to pay for the alternative minimum tax. We can do this in a commonsense way, and that's what the Blue Dogs are asking you to support our efforts in.

I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Madam Speaker, we have a lot of Blue Dogs here this evening to talk about this issue because Blue Dogs feel very passionate about PAYGO rules and our national debt. The national debt exceeds over $9 trillion. One of the largest expenditures in our Nation's budget, second or third only to military spending, is the interest that we pay on that national debt.

Now, we are at a critical time because now we are at a stage of the legislative process where the rubber meets the road. As has already been mentioned here, there is a large issue looming next year for millions of Americans, and that issue is the alternative minimum tax. The alternative minimum tax was passed many years ago with the idea that only the wealthy who didn't pay any income taxes ought not to have that advantage, and so the alternative minimum tax was put in place. Little did we know when it was passed many years ago that we would advance up to 2007, which is the present time, and we would find that next year when people have to pay their income taxes, they will learn that many middle-class Americans will have to pay this tax as well.

So not only the wealthy will have to pay the alternative minimum tax but also many millions of middle-class people will have to pay the AMT. We need to fix that. And the Blue Dogs are committed to making sure that we provide tax relief for those millions of middle-class Americans who are going to be hit with this tax next year.

But this is where the rubber meets the road, because by giving millions of middle-class Americans tax relief, it's going to cost more than $50 billion. We have got to figure out a way to pay for that because in this House, we have pay-as-you-go rules, which simply means that if we are going to cut taxes or we are going to increase spending, we have got to figure out a way to pay for it. The many Blue Dogs here this evening are here passionately to make sure that we hold our ground because a storm is brewing here, Madam Speaker.

By passing this new alternative minimum tax, there are those in this Chamber and those in the other Chamber who do not want to pay for it. And the Blue Dogs stand before you today in front of America to make sure that we have the political courage to pay for this tax relief for millions of Americans in this country. Because if we don't do this, that $9 trillion that we are already in debt increases to $10 trillion and $11 trillion and then $12 trillion, and it goes on and on and on and on.

There are those in this body and the other who don't believe that this is an important enough issue and therefore we should ignore the PAYGO rules. That's the storm that is brewing in the next couple of days. And the Blue Dogs stand before the American people to say that we are still going to fight the battle of making sure that we restore fiscal discipline to this body. And that's the reason why so many passionate Blue Dogs are here this evening, because that storm is brewing. The time is ticking away. The threat of exceeding our expenditures over what we take in from income is at a threshold. And that's the reason why so many Blue Dog Democrats are here to talk about it this evening. And I hope the American people are listening.

To put it in perspective and why these rules are so important to be in place, it's important to note that since President Bush took office, the gross national debt has increased by $3.427 trillion. And since President Bush took office, we have borrowed $1.2 trillion from foreign sources. We've got to stop this madness.

Now, there are those in this body and outside this body, certain newspapers that consider themselves conservative newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, who believe that this issue is not important, that the Blue Dogs are wrong on this. We are not wrong on this. We have got to stop this madness, and we have to implement those PAYGO rules. It worked in the 1990s up until 2002 when we actually reversed our Nation's budget deficits and had surpluses. And it was because we stuck to the very rules that we are talking about tonight. And if we don't stick by these rules, then the days of deficit spending are going to return.

When the Democrats took over control of Congress in last year's elections, we promised to implement these PAYGO rules and stop the madness of these huge deficits that we had in place. And now we're on the verge of breaking the very rules that we put in place, and that is the reason why the Blue Dogs stand before you this evening.

I am proud to be a Blue Dog. I'm proud that the Blue Dogs have pushed

this issue to restore fiscal sanity to our Nation's budget. And I think it's the reason why we have so many that are about to speak about it.

I give the gentleman from Arkansas my appreciation for allowing me to speak on this very important issue.

I want to thank you, Congressman Ross, for reserving this time. And I would like to thank the leadership, Madam Speaker, for taking the initiative to reinstate the PAYGO rules.

As has been stated previously by my counterparts, my colleagues and the Blue Dogs, this is one element of government that we need to adhere to. It's shameful that the government hasn't been doing this all along. As stated earlier, we have a debt that far exceeds all 42 previous administrations collectively. That does not bode well for this country.

We were a strong Nation prior to World War II. We have been a strong Nation for centuries. But as you look at the devaluation of the dollar, the fact that China controls a large portion of our debt, that they, at one point in time last January, considered selling off some of their treasury notes, but were fearful that they may devalue the American dollar, thus lowering their value of their investments, that tells you something. And now that the dollar is sliding, China is reconsidering that.

And where does that put us? That puts us really in a trick bag. We are facing a comparative value of dollars, or currencies. Canada has passed us up. The Euro is far and away. The British pound is far exceeding the value that the average American can even afford to think about going to Europe to visit.

You know, I grew up in south Louisiana in a conservative household, in a conservative community for that matter, but one of the things that we were taught by our parents in our household was if you don't have it, you can't spend it. And even if you get a credit card, you've still got to pay for it someday. And that's basically what the Blue Dogs are about, trying to bring some fiscal responsibility to our government. Regardless of what party you're in, this is about our future.

Now, up until recently I was not a grandfather, but now I am. Before, when I ran for the Congress in my late fifties, I wasn't running for the Congress as a career, I wasn't running for the Congress to make a career later, I was coming to the Congress that the people so decided to try and help right this government and do what's right by the people of this country. The frustration is that you can't have it both ways. And the both ways is you can't help the people back home that need the help, whether it's building schools, whether it's building, in our case, levees, building highways and roads and bridges, educating the kids, doing cancer research. These things cost money. And without the involvement of our government, we wouldn't be the most advanced country that we are today. But we're moving down a slippery slope. We have spent ourselves into a debt that is estimated to be in excess of $9 trillion, $30,000 plus for every man, woman and child. So, that means my two kids and their spouses and my grandson have a debt that will take them quite a bit of time if they were to decide, well, I want to pay my share, take them quite a bit of their lifetime to put that money aside. And that money that they would put aside would be better served to educate my grandson, for them to build a house when the time comes, for them to be able to afford to do things, to live a quality of life that all Americans would love to and expect to have.

Madam Speaker, I stand here today with my colleagues, the Blue Dogs, and worry about the people of this country. That's what we were sent here to do, worry about their welfare, worry about their well-being, and to take action that illustrates that we do care about them and this country. And by not adhering to the PAYGO rule, by not finding the pay- fors in these pieces of legislation, we endanger the future of all citizens of this country.