We have heard a lot of talk tonight about the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. We are a group of 33 fiscally conservative Democrats that believe we ought to get our government, its budget, and our debt under control. 

We are a group that is sick and tired of all the partisan bickering that goes on at our Nation's Capitol. It should not be about what makes the Democrats look good or bad or the Republicans look good or bad; it ought to be about doing right by the people who sent us to the Nation's Capitol to be their voice in government. 

About this time last year, there was a lot of debate going on in this very Chamber about a surplus, a surplus that was projected to exceed $5 trillion over the next 10 years. Back last year when we stood here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives and talked about this projected $5 trillion surplus, the Blue Dogs tried to bring some fiscal responsibility to this Chamber and to the floor of the United States House of Representatives. 

As that debate was going on, I voted against the Democratic budget last year. I voted against the Republican budget. I am trying to be bipartisan here. The Blue Dogs developed their own budget, and back in the days when we thought we had a surplus, when we were told that we had a surplus of $5 trillion over the next 10 years, here is what the Blue Dogs had to say about it 1 year ago. 

We said that we ought to take that surplus and take 50 percent of it and pay down our Nation's debt, that we should take 25 percent of it and provide a tax cut for working families and those who need it the most, and take the remaining 25 percent and do things like truly modernize Medicare to include medicine for our seniors, strengthen our national defense, something we were talking about way before September 11 ever happened. 

Of course, the Blue Dog budget failed. It did not pass. We passed a budget, or this Chamber passed a budget, without my vote, and now we have another budget before us this year which I voted against, a budget where in less than a year we went from talking about a $5 trillion surplus over the next 10 years to a budget for fiscal year 2003 that some say will cause us to deficit spend $80 billion, on the conservative side, and some say we will deficit spend to the tune of $120 billion. 

Throughout the debate last year, we were told we had a surplus but it will not materialize. Rather, for the first time since 1997, this year's budget, fiscal year 2003, will put us back in the days of deficit spending for the first time since 1997. But when they were talking about that supposed surplus last year, we did not hear a lot of talk about the debt, a 5.9 trillion national debt. 

Some people think we spend too much money in this country on food stamps. That is a couple of billion dollars a month. Some people in this country think we spend too much on foreign aid. That is $1 billion a month. 

Mr. Speaker, we spend $1 billion every single day in America simply paying interest, not principal but interest, on the national debt. How much is $1 billion? I put that number in my calculator and I get that little ``e'' at the end. 

What does it mean to us in our everyday lives? I will tell the Members what it means. One billion dollars can build 200 brand new elementary schools every single day in America. The $1 billion we are paying every day in interest on the national debt can complete important infrastructure projects. 

In my congressional district, in the southern half of Arkansas, I have three interstates pending right now. There is Interstate 49. Give me a day and a half of the interest that we are now paying on the national debt and I can complete Interstate 49. Give me about a week of it and I can complete Interstate 69. Give me a few hours of it and I can complete Interstate 530. These are projects that are vital to provide economic opportunities for people from all walks of life. 

That is what this debt means to us in our every-day lives, and the drain it is having on being able to do things like truly modernize Medicare to include medicine for our seniors. Medicare is the only health insurance plan I know of that does not include medicine, yet it is the plan that nearly every single senior citizen relies on day in and day out to stay healthy and to get well. 

My grandparents left this country just a little bit better off than they found it for my parents. And my parents have left this country just a little bit better off than they found it for my generation. But I wonder, is this Congress, is this Government, is our generation going to leave this country just a little bit better off than we found it for the next generation, our children and our grandchildren? 

Social Security is another issue that involves the debt. We have borrowed, our Government has borrowed $1 trillion from the Social Security trust fund with no provision on how it ever gets paid back. When you and I go to the bank to borrow money for a car or a home, what do the bankers ask you? They want to know how are you going to pay that money back. How much can you pay a month? How many years will you take to pay it back? And yet our Government has raided Social Security trust funds to the tune of over $1 trillion with no provision on how that gets paid back. And guess what? If we figure out how it does get paid back, Social Security as we know it today is still broke in 2041. 

So our response to all this is simple. On Thursday, April 25, the Democratic Blue Dog coalition, 33 fiscally conservative Democrats, outlined four principles to prevent our children and grandchildren from being stuck with the burdens that our country is accumulating today because of our generation's budget decisions. We call these four principals the ABCs of fiscal discipline. A, assure honesty and accountability; B, balancing the budget without raiding Social Security; C, climbing out of the deficit ditch; and D, defending children from paying our bills. 

The ABCs of fiscal discipline say we need enforceable budget constraints that will expose deceptive budget practices and provide our guardrail to keep our spending within the government's means. It says we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that requires us to balance that budget every single year, an amendment that could only be waived in extraordinary times such as a war or military conflict, and that takes Social Security completely off the table. It will stop the politicians in Washington from raiding the Social Security and Medicare trust fund. 

I served for 10 years in the Arkansas State Senate. Our Constitution required us to have a balanced budget, and for my 10 years there I took my experience as a small business owner to our State capital, and for 10 years I helped balance that State budget. If we can do it at the State level, if we can do it at the small town family pharmacy that my wife and I own in Prescott, Arkansas, then, yes, the United States government can do it as well. 

It says that if we have to raise the limits on our national debt that we do so with a plan that will put our fiscal house back in order, just like a family facing financial hardships works to get approval to refinance their debts. And, finally, it says that Congress must have a super majority, a three-fifths majority vote to approve additional government borrowing. 

We believe following the ABCs of fiscal discipline is the right thing to do for this Congress, for our Nation, and for the future of our children and grandchildren.