Date: 2007-02-27
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank my colleague for putting together this hour to discuss what I think is something that is very important. that is. what the Blue Dogs are thinking about in this Congress and what we have been trying to do. Now. I will tell you that I have been in the Congress for 11 years. This is my llth year. I have been a Blue Dog the entire time. And that really comes from the fact that before I came to the Congress. I was an investment banker. I am an MBA. I have been in the international finance arena for 14 years before coming to this Congress. So people ask me. what is the thing that you worry about the most when you go to sleep at night? And" the answer is always the same for me: The structural financial debt and deficit that we have in Washington. D.C.. because most people have not looked and seen and realized what has been going on here in Washington. D.C.. but I have seen it in the last 11 years. That is why. as a Blue Dog. I also have that sign up that says what todays national debt is and how much of that $29.000. if every man. child. woman in America. would give us $29.000 today. we would be able to bring down the national debt. But the fact of the matter is. we dont. We dont. and the debt keeps climbing. So a few years ago. we were trying to think about. well. how is it that this has happened? Because when I came. it was in 1997. I had 4 years under President Clinton. and at that time. the debt of this Nation. the interest payments on that. was 18 cents of every dollar that we collected. 18 cents. That means if we collect a dollar from you in taxes. 18 cents of. it we dont spend because we are paying the interest cost on that. Imagine if you did that in your home for every dollar. So what did we do? We worked hard. We instituted PAYGO. What does that mean? Well. it means you dont make any new spending unless you are going to tax. put in an amount of. money for it. or you are going to take it away from some other area you are already spending on in order to spend in your new priority area. much the way people do it at home when we have to decide among the priorities. Okay. well. this month. September. I have to get the shoes for the kids for school. so that means that there are going to be no days out ofthat month that we get to go out and eat at a restaurant. I mean. you just make up for it in one way or another. But the Congress and the United States do not do this. They keep spending. even when they give tax cuts. So that means if your boss told you we are going to give you a 70 percent cut in the amount of money you take home. and you go home and you tell your husband that. but he still keeps spending the same amount of money every month. he doesnt bring his expenses down. So it is a problem. So we spend. I would say. honestly. about 700 to $800 billion more a year than the monies we take in. Now. we will throw numbers around. to $143 billion. deficit. $400 billion. deficit. $358 billion. No. no. no. no. no. The reality is that we are overspending by anywhere between 700 and $800 billion every year. That is why this number goes up. because we cannot get this under control.