“I am worried about the direction our country is going,” said Ross. “Our country is $7 trillion in debt and the debt is growing every hour, every minute and every second.  From 1997 to 2001, we balanced the budget, and finally started to pay down the debt. Now, we have gone back to the days of deficit spending.  Last year, our country spent $150 billion more than it brought in.  And this year, our nation’s deficit is over $374 billion - the largest in our nation’s history.”

Ross joined members of the House of Representatives Blue Dog Coalition, which is a caucus of House Members who promote fiscal responsibility, in making this plea. The Coalition used the construction site of the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center as a backdrop for the announcement, which is a hole four stories deep. The growing hole symbolizes the hole the Republican’s are digging our country into by irresponsible, deficit spending. 

“Our deficits do matter - they impact us all,” said Ross. “We are spending $1 billion every single day to pay down the national debt.   We could build 200 new elementary schools every single with $1 billion.  Or, we could provide prescription drug coverage for one million seniors for a year just with the interest we are paying on the national debt in one day! The hole we stand in front of today symbolizes the rising deficits the Republicans are digging. If we don’t stop this hole from growing, our children, grandchildren, and men and women in uniform will bear the burden for generations.”

The Department of Treasury announced last week that the budget deficit for 2003 has ballooned to a record $374 billion, the largest deficit in our nation’s history. This number shatters the former record deficit, of $290 billion.