DENNIS A. CARDOZA: “I was going to say, one of the things that I like about being a Blue Dog and fighting for fiscal responsibility with the…”

“I was going to say, one of the things that I like about being a Blue Dog and fighting for fiscal responsibility with the Blue Dogs, we do not just criticize but we also have a plan. Mr. Matheson gave the first two planks in our 12-point plan to restore fiscal sanity to the United States, which is to have a balanced budget and don't let Congress buy on credit. We call it PAYGO, pay as you go. There are a number of other things that we have like the third plank in our plan is to put a lid on spending, to have a freeze on additional spending until we can get our fiscal house in order. Fourth, we require Federal agencies to put their fiscal house in order. As you said, 16 or 17 of the Federal departments cannot balance. They cannot even tell you where the money is going. The fifth plank of the plan is make Congress tell taxpayers how much they are spending in the bills we pass. We do not tell taxpayers how much we are continuing to authorize every year. The sixth point in the plan is we are going to require a rainy day fund so we set aside money for the natural disasters that befall our country on a regular basis. Number seven, and this is really important because we are getting ready to do this as we speak, and that is do not hide the vote to raise the debt limit.…”