Sylvester Turner: “it is good to be here tonight to address a very important issue, the issue of fiscal responsibility, and I am joined…”

“it is good to be here tonight to address a very important issue, the issue of fiscal responsibility, and I am joined tonight by some of my colleagues who are members of the Blue Dog Democrat coalition. That group of 33 Democrats in the House who believe in fiscal responsibility, who believe in balanced budgets, who believe in controlling spending, who believe in paying down our national debt, which now consumes, just to pay the interest, 14 cents out of every tax dollar. In fact, $1 out of every $4 of individual income tax payments made into the Treasury every year goes solely to pay the interest on our national debt. The Blue Dogs have taken a very strong position with regard to an issue that is pending before this House and may very well be debated this week, and that is the issue of the debt ceiling. As we all know, there is a law on the books that controls the amount of debt that the United States Government can incur. That statutory debt ceiling has now been reached and, just in the last few days, the Secretary of the Treasury has been manipulating our Federal accounts to ensure that we do not go into default with regard to the obligations of the Federal Government.”