Dan Boren: “Thank you. My colleague from Arkansas, Mr. Ross, is a great leader for us on the Blue Dog Coalition. I am now in my…”

“Thank you. My colleague from Arkansas, Mr. Ross, is a great leader for us on the Blue Dog Coalition. I am now in my second term, and I tell you there is no better organization than the Blue Dog Coalition. When I was elected, and actually when I was running for Congress, I was able to sit down with a lot of the Blue Dog members. We had a lot of common interests, and one of those was fiscal responsibility. Many of us that serve in Congress are former members of State legislatures. I can tell you, I can remember being a freshman State legislator and dealing with a State budget. When I was elected, we had a $700 million shortfall. That doesn't sound like big numbers here in Washington, DC, but they're big numbers in Oklahoma. And we were able to balance our budget because we basically had an amendment to our State constitution saying you will balance that budget. You're going to have to cut services; you're going to have to do something to rein in that spending. In Washington we don't have that. That's why it is so important that we have groups like the Blue Dogs who are focused on fiscal responsibility. I can tell you, since this Democratic majority has taken hold, the Blue Dogs have been a key player in making sure that we have things like the PAYGO rules, PAYGO rules that make sure that whenever there is a new government program, we find a way to pay for it. We don't just write a hot check for it. So that is why I am proud to be a member.…”