Charles W. Stenholm: “Let me remind everyone that just a year ago, the same Blue Dogs stood in the well, stood at this mike, stood at others…”

“Let me remind everyone that just a year ago, the same Blue Dogs stood in the well, stood at this mike, stood at others, and we offered an alternative budget. We at that time pointed out that the so-called surplus of $5.6 trillion was projected. We did not believe it was the conservative thing to do, to allocate all of that $5.6 trillion. We suggested paying down the debt with half of it, and then we suggested being very fiscally responsible with the spending as well as the tax cuts. We lost that vote. Our friends on the other side of the aisle said, thanks, but no thanks. We have the formula, we have the plan, and the surplus is real. We also pointed out to our friends on the other side of the aisle that, yes, we had a surplus, but many of my constituents were saying, how can we talk about a surplus when we have a debt? We owed $5.6 trillion last year at this time. That is $5.6 trillion. We also were completely ignoring the $20 trillion unfunded liability of the Social Security system. We Blue Dogs said we thought it would have been the prudent thing to do last year to deal with the future of Social Security and Medicare.”