Roy Cooper: “This PAYGO principle is fundamental to good government. All it means is that you pay as you go, you pay your bills.…”

“This PAYGO principle is fundamental to good government. All it means is that you pay as you go, you pay your bills. That's what this Congress should do, just as every American family knows that they should pay their bills. It's a fundamental principle. We cannot afford to let this principle lapse. It was in place from 1990 to 2002. That was the period of the greatest economic expansion in American history, under the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, the Republican majority in this House allowed PAYGO to lapse. But none other than Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve, has said that this is the single most important reform that this Congress could undertake to address fiscal discipline. So I support my colleagues in supporting PAYGO. We have got to make this principle stand.”