Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

WASHINGTON – Last night, House Republicans on the Rules Committee – which governs debate in the House of Representatives – voted to prevent the Blue Dog Coalition from offering an amendment during the budget debate that would have helped cure our nation’s addiction to deficit spending.   

The amendment, taken from The Blue Dog 12-Step Reform Plan unveiled in February, was a more comprehensive and responsible alternative than the meager attempt at reform contained in the president’s budget and other reform plans being discussed in Congress.  The national debt has soared over $2 trillion under the watch of the current administration, with trillions more projected in the next 10 years under current policies.  The 12 Step Reform Plan is based on the Blue Dogs’ commitment to solving growing fiscal problems facing our country.

“With the nation’s addiction to deficit spending growing year after year, the process is clearly broken.  The Blue Dogs have offered the antidote to cure our nation’s addiction to deficit spending,” said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (CA), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications.  “It is a sad day for Congress – and for the Country – that the Republicans have decided the nation does not even deserve to hear debate on getting our nation out of its growing deficit hole."

“Members on both sides of the aisle need to work together in a bipartisan manner to promote fiscal responsibility and honest budgeting,” said Rep. Dennis Moore (KS), Blue Dog member of the Budget Committee.  “If we continue to ignore the long term consequences of our budgetary actions, we will be forcing our children and grandchildren to pay a steep price for the deficits we create today.”

Since their inception in 1994, the Blue Dogs have been the leading voice in Congress on the need for reasonable, common-sense solutions to our nation’s budgetary woes.  The Coalition has focused this year on fixing a broken process that allows our nation to run deficits exceeding $400 billion a year, much of which is borrowed from foreign nations like China and Japan. 

“Taxpayers deserve to know how Congress is spending their money, and that’s what the Blue Dog proposals are designed to do,” said Rep. Jim Cooper (TN), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy and member of the Budget Committee.  “These are common-sense reforms that have won wide bipartisan support not just from many Republicans but from some of the nation’s top budget watchdog groups, including the Heritage Foundation and the National Taxpayers Union, to name a few.  I am stunned that members of Congress will not be allowed even an opportunity to debate these reforms.”

“When the budget process is jimmied to conceal the budget's true impacts and to avoid public votes on tough choices, is it any wonder that the resulting product is a mess?” questioned Rep. Ed Case (HI), Blue Dog member of the Budget Committee. 

The Coalition’s call for bipartisan action on the budget comes as the Blue Dog 12-Step Reform Plan has been praised by several organizations from both sides of the aisle dedicated to fiscal responsibility, including The Heritage Foundation, Centrists.org, Citizens Against Government Waste, National Taxpayers Union, and Taxpayers for Common Sense. 

“The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem.  I, along with the Blue Dog Coalition, encourage Congressional leaders to sober up in Washington and work together to restore fiscal sanity,” said Rep. Jim Matheson (UT), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration.  “The Blue Dogs will not roll over.  We will continue fighting to restore fiscal sanity to Washington and we call on our Republican colleagues to do the same.”

Last week, Blue Dog members of the House Budget Committee pushed an amendment that would have added key provisions of the Blue Dog 12-Step Reform Plan to the Republican Budget.  The amendment failed, 18-18 with three Republicans siding with the Blue Dogs for fiscal responsibility. 

“We should review the spending and the tax policies in our country’s budget and tax code.  Every Tennessee family has to balance its checkbook, our state government has done it and now we need that kind of common sense in Washington,” said Rep. Harold Ford (TN), Blue Dog member of the Budget Committee.  “A Constitutional amendment would fix that.  If put in effect, the amendment would require a balanced federal budget every year except in times of war or national emergency.  It is disappointing that Congress would debate a budget and not even consider a plan to balance it.”

“The Blue Dog plan is pure common sense and it should receive strong support from both sides of the aisle," stated Blue Dog Rep. Allen Boyd (FL).  "We owe it to the American people to fix the broken process."