Jim Costa: “I rise to add my voice to my fellow Blue Dog Coalition members who are here this evening to have a dose of fiscal…”

“I rise to add my voice to my fellow Blue Dog Coalition members who are here this evening to have a dose of fiscal sanity, to allow the American people to understand that there is indeed a another choice. Therefore, tonight we hope to give an accurate picture on the budget process that we are about to embark on this week and the lack of fiscal integrity that this budget process unfortunately has, because it lacks a bipartisan effort to provide the sort of financial support that the American public demands. I too want to commend Mr. Ross and Mr. Cardoza for allowing me to join with them in this effort. I think that Blue Dogs who are fiscally conservative really reflect the mainstream of what America is all about. The fact of the matter is that this budget resolution that we will debate this week has in its very basic underpinnings a lack of fiscal integrity. Let me talk about a dirty little secret contained in this budget resolution that all Members ought to be aware of. The secret is the offloading of our Federal financial problems onto our States as a strategy to reduce our Nation's budget deficit. The hypocrisy is clear, through the preemption of State laws, and in spite of a little-used Federal law that prevents unfunded mandates on States, Congress has arrogantly chosen to do just that, and that is to offload on our States. Do the States have the ability to fill that gap?…”