Deborah Koff Ross: “An important member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats who spends many a Tuesday…”

“An important member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats who spends many a Tuesday night here on the floor with me talking about the need to restore common sense and fiscal discipline to our Federal Government. Why? Because today the U.S. national debt is $8,811,969,377,773 and some change. For every man, woman and child in America, their share, our share of the national debt is $29,245. It is what those of us in the Blue Dog Coalition have coined as the debt tax, d-e-b-t, and that is one tax that cannot go away and cannot be cut until our Nation gets its fiscal House in order. Why is this important? Our Nation is borrowing nearly $1 billion a day. In addition to billing $1 billion a day, we are spending about half a billion every day paying interest on the debt we already got before it goes up another $1 billion today, a half a billion dollars a day. What could we do with that? Just in my district alone, give me three days' interest on the national debt, and I could complete I-49 across the western side of Arkansas.”