National Debt Tops Historic $8 Trillion Mark October 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "If alarm bells aren't sounding off now something is wrong," U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis said after the national debt reached a record-high $8 trillion today. "We need to reign in our federal debt before we reach the point of no return."

Earlier this year Congressman Davis and his Blue Dog colleagues- a group of fiscally conservative House Democrats- unveiled a comprehensive reform plan to address our fiscal policies. The 12 point plan uses budget enforcement policies implemented in the 90s that led to a $200 billion budget surplus. The plan uses pay-as-you-go rules to restrain excessive growth in spending, requires a balanced budget, establishes a rainy-day fund for natural disasters, and establishes other common-sense fiscal policies and practices that businesses and American families use every day.

"Paying down a debt of this size will take some time and requires Congress to change the budget process. The Blue Dog Democrats have a plan to do just this, and now is the time for our Republican colleagues to embrace this plan."

"The United States finds itself in a fiscal and moral crisis resulting from the Administration and Republican Congress' 'borrow and spend' economic policies. The crisis comes in the form of our record $8 trillion national debt, $600 billion trade deficit, and $300 billion-and growing-budget deficit. The numbers are so extreme they don't seem real. But they are, and they place an incredible burden on the futures of our children, our grandchildren, and our soldiers fighting in Iraq."

"It is sad and shocking to think in a span of four short years this country has gone from a projected ten year, $5 trillion surplus, to an $8 trillion national debt. To finance this growth in the debt we had to rely on foreign investors like Communist China, Japan, and the OPEC. Foreign countries now own 45% of our debt. We've got to turn this ship around."