DENNIS A. CARDOZA: “Madam Speaker, passing PAYGO rules at the beginning of the 110th Congress fulfilled an absolute pledge to the American…”

“Madam Speaker, passing PAYGO rules at the beginning of the 110th Congress fulfilled an absolute pledge to the American people that this new Congress was going to spend taxpayers' dollars and money responsibly and without continuing to run up the deficit. It was a very important initial step when we passed the House rules this year. Waiving this rule now would break that pledge to pay for the alternative minimum tax and would be a rollback in what we've committed to do for the American people. And I believe that breaking the PAYGO rules would return us to the disastrous fiscal policies of the past Congresses under the Republican administration of this House and would be a terrible mistake. After allowing the PAYGO rules to expire, the Republicans enacted legislation increasing the national debt by nearly $1.4 trillion over 6 years. Twenty-one percent of all individual income taxes of the year 2008 will go towards paying the interest on the national debt.”