Deborah Koff Ross: “as whip of the Blue Dog Coalition I rise this evening to talk about the financial condition of our Nation's government.…”

“as whip of the Blue Dog Coalition I rise this evening to talk about the financial condition of our Nation's government. There are about 35 of us that are fiscally conservative Democrats. We refer to ourselves as members of the Blue Dog Coalition and we are trying to bring some common sense back to our Nation's government as it relates to trying to restore some fiscal discipline to the way we operate our government. Our Nation today is $7.769 trillion in debt. To put that another way, our Nation today is spending $160 billion a year simply paying interest on the national debt. That is about $500 million a day. In fact, it is $13 billion per month, it is $444 million per day, it is $18 million an hour, it is $308,000 a minute, or $5,100 a second. That is how much our Nation is simply taking tax money from you and me and using it to pay interest on the national debt. I have got about $4 billion in road needs in Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District, which includes 29 counties and 150 towns and three interstate projects that are now under construction. Give me less than a week's interest on the national debt and I can put thousands of people to work and complete these road projects, like I-49, I-69 and I- 430, and four-laning U.S. Highway 167. When we speak about the debt in public opinion surveys, it simply does not show up. It is like it is someone else's problem. But, Mr.…”