Political Quotes

“I rise as a proud member of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. For a quarter century, the Blue Dogs in Congress have focused on three missions: fiscal responsibility for our country, a strong national defense, and commonsense solutions to practical problems. We are 27 proud Democrats with democratic values. Our individual views and votes on the broad range of issues that come before this Congress run the gamut from progressive to moderate, centrist, and beyond; but together, we believe that the best way forward for our country on all of these issues is an underlying focus on fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense, and commonsense solutions wherever they may be found to practical problems. Today, I wish to focus on fiscal responsibility. I do so as co-chair with my colleague from Utah, Mr. McAdams, of the Blue Dog Task Force on Fiscal Responsibility and Government Reform. Let me start by saying, unfortunately, and very directly that it is very arguable that at no point in our entire history have we operated our Federal Government in as fiscally irresponsible a manner as we are operating it today. There are lots of indicia of this out there, but nowhere does this show up more directly and stare us straight in the face than our national debt. Let me say what that is. Our national debt is exactly what it sounds like. It is the amount that our Federal Government--you--owe to everyone who has loaned us money to pay for government.…”