DENNIS A. CARDOZA: “along with all 36 members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, I have a sign in front of my office that is…”

“along with all 36 members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, I have a sign in front of my office that is updated daily to reflect America's national debt. Just 2 weeks ago, I was deeply dismayed to see that the national debt had reached $8 trillion. That is $27,000 for every man, woman and child in America. How did we dig ourselves into such a deep hole? The truth is the Republican leadership has created a credit card Congress that is recklessly selling out the future of America, our children and our grandchildren, and President Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible President in the history of America. On his watch, we have run up record deficits and added nearly $2.5 trillion to our national debt. In just 5 years in office, President Bush has borrowed more money from foreign sources than all 42 previous Presidents combined. Put together, the first 42 American Presidents borrowed a total of $1.01 trillion from other countries. President Bush has now borrowed $1.05 trillion from overseas and he still has 3 years to go. I know that my Republican colleagues are as ashamed as I am that the United States is forced to borrow over $1 trillion from foreign nations to pay for our national priorities like reconstruction of the gulf coast and the war in Iraq. We owe it to the American people and future generations to roll up our sleeves and dig out of this mess now.…”