Deborah Koff Ross: “this evening, as on each Tuesday evening, I rise on behalf of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, a group of…”

“this evening, as on each Tuesday evening, I rise on behalf of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 of us that are fiscally conservative Democrats that are concerned about the state of affairs in America. We are concerned about the debt, the deficit, the budget; and we are committed to trying to restore some common sense and fiscal discipline to our Nation's government and our Nation's budgeting process. Ever since I was a small child growing up in Prescott, Emmet and Hope, Arkansas, I always heard it was the Democrats that spent the money. And yet it was a President named Bill Clinton from Arkansas, from my hometown of Hope, Arkansas, in fact, that gave this Nation its first balanced budget in 40 years. From 1988 through 2001, America enjoyed the prosperity that came with having its fiscal house in order. America enjoyed the prosperity that came with having a balanced budget. It is hard now to believe that from 1998 through 2001 this country had a balanced budget, because, as we all know, for the sixth year in a row this Nation, under this Republican-led Congress and under this President, this administration, has given us the largest budget deficit ever, ever in our Nation's history for a sixth year in a row. As a matter of fact, as you walk the Halls of Congress, it is easy to spot a fiscally conservative Democrat because the 37 of us who belong to the Blue Dog Coalition have this poster outside our office in the Halls of Congress.…”