Deborah Koff Ross: “I thank the gentleman from Long Island for joining us on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as we discuss…”

“I thank the gentleman from Long Island for joining us on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as we discuss the fiscal conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and our plans to restore some commonsense and fiscal discipline to our government. It begins with our 12-point reform plan for curing our Nation's addiction to deficit spending. Mr. Speaker, if you have questions, comments or concerns, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. Quickly, I want to go through some of the 12 points. In other words, we are not here on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives just to beat up the Republican leadership or just talk about what has gone wrong, we are here to offer up commonsense solutions to getting this Nation out of debt. Number one, require a balanced budget. Forty-nine States do. Holly Ross does. Most Americans understand the concept of a balanced budget. So number one, require a balanced budget as a nation. Number two, don't let Congress buy on credit. That goes back to the PAYGO rules, and we are very pleased that Speaker-elect Pelosi has included in her legislative agenda for the first 100 hours reinstituting PAYGO rules, rules that were in place on the floor of this House from 1998 through 2001 when we had a balanced budget for the first time in about 40 years. Pay as you go simply means if you want to spend money on a project, show us where the money is coming from; don't go to China and borrow it from them.”