Fiscal Responsibility
Fiscal Responsibility I believe the federal budget should be fiscally responsible, saving the money necessary to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent and pay down the national debt. To promote these values, I am a proud member of the Blue Dog Coalition – a group of fiscally responsible House Democrats who stress pragmatic solutions to budgetary and economic issues. In the 111th Congress, our coalition successfully reinstated statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget discipline which will help ensure Congress’ actions do not increase our debt for years to come. Under PAYGO, any federal spending increases or tax cuts must be offset by spending decreases or increased revenues. PAYGO budget discipline is a successful bipartisan budget enforcement tool that was the law of the land until 2002, when Congress let it expire. The Blue Dogs’ efforts to reinstate statutory PAYGO are an important first step toward improving the fiscal health of our nation, but more still needs to be done. With a total outstanding debt of more than $14 trillion, our nation’s debt crisis is a serious problem. Each citizen’s share of this debt is approximately $46,000. In just the last year, the national debt has continued to increase $1.69 billion per day on average. In 2010, we paid $225 billion just in interest on our national debt. This is equivalent to what the federal government spends on transportation, education, and veterans combined. Even more worrisome, over half of our debt is held by foreign countries. The debt we owe these countries, many of whom do not share our values, places our country at risk. It jeopardizes our national security and threatens our standard of living. It is important that we work on a reasonable, responsible, and bipartisan plan to change the budgetary course of this country before the global credit markets decide that the United States is a credit risk. Related Documents:
Press Releases -
Rep. Mike Thompson Statement on Fiscal Cliff Legislation
Related Files:
08/10/2011: KSRO Interview on the S&P Downgrade and New Congressional "Super-Committee"
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