Sylvester Turner: “I think the reality of our current fiscal condition is certainly as he stated, and I think every Blue Dog Democrat…”

“I think the reality of our current fiscal condition is certainly as he stated, and I think every Blue Dog Democrat believes we need to give the American people as much tax relief as we can afford to give them. But he is exactly right that when there are tax cuts proposed on the floor of this House week after week, the reality is whatever tax cuts are approved today over and above what we have already done for the American people in the largest tax cut in our history that was passed last June, those additional tax cuts will just be paid for with borrowed money. So we are going to take money out of the Social Security trust fund or borrow money from the public so we can run the government and give these additional tax cuts. That is not fiscally responsible, and I certainly appreciate the fact that all of us want to be able some day to vote for additional tax cuts. I certainly do. But I think that what the Blue Dog Democrats stand for is first making sure that we are paying the obligations of the United States Government, whatever they may be; and it is a tragedy to think that the course that we are now following will result over the next decade of an additional trillion dollars in interest costs to the American taxpayer, wasted money just paid out on interest just because of the course of fiscal irresponsibility that we are now embarked upon.”