On the recordFebruary 4, 2010
Madam Speaker, every day families across the country make sacrifices to stay within their household budgets. They know you can't spend what you haven't saved. But for the past decade, Congress has failed to grasp that simple premise. That failure has led to what the President has aptly described as a deficit of trust. It's hard to govern when you don't have the public trust, and it's hard to borrow when you have lost the trust of world markets. During the 1990s, PAYGO forced Members to make hard decisions. However, PAYGO rules were waived in 2001 on the theory that we could pay for two wars with two tax cuts. Today, thanks to years of hard work by the Blue Dogs, we're taking the first step to win back the public trust. Madam Speaker, today I am a Blue Dog.
