Fiscal Responsibility

The Blue Dog Coalition has a long history of leadership in addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges, and the members will continue to build on that record of accomplishment by advancing commonsense, middle-of-the-road policies to put the country back on a path to long-term fiscal sustainability.
 

113th Congress:

The Blue Dog Coalition remains fully committed to working with Republicans and Democrats to find a solution that reduces our long-term federal debt and deficits in a balanced, bipartisan fashion and in a way in which we do not stall our nation’s fragile economic recovery. 
 
In March 2013, the House of Representatives voted on a number of partisan budget proposals introduced by the Republican majority. At the time, Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications, Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, issued the following statement:
 
“This week members of the House of Representatives only had the option to vote on partisan budgets. Yet, we know that the only path to real fiscal reform will come through bipartisan compromise.” said Rep. Schrader. “After garnering strong disapproval of the Ryan budget from the American people, Blue Dogs had hoped that the Republican majority would begin to work across the aisle on a big, bold deficit reduction package that could pass in a divided Congress. Now that these partisan budget exercises are behind us we urge the President and Congressional leadership to finally get serious on a bipartisan plan that reduces our deficits, provides long-term economic certainty, and puts our country back on a path to fiscal sustainability.”
 
In April 2013, the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition formally endorsed a House resolution introduced by Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) urging the Speaker of the House to follow regular order, request a budget conference with the Senate and appoint conferees.
 

112th Congress:

2011 Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform
 
The Blue Dogs have adopted the Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform, an aggressive set of targets for long-term fiscal reform and deficit reduction that includes cutting the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, with the largest deficit cuts in history by 2014. 
  • Largest deficit cuts in history by 2014
  • Cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years
  • Stabilize the debt and maintain a debt ratio to 60 percent of GDP by 2024
  • Return to 2008 spending levels by 2013
  • Reduce the deficit to 2.3 percent of GDP in 4 years
  • Reduce the size of government
  • Achieve deficit reduction with 2/3 spending cuts, 1/3 tax reform
  • Everything must be on the table:
    • Discretionary Spending Cuts – both security and non-security
    • Tax Reform
    • Entitlement Reform
    • Other Mandatory Policies
    • Process Reforms 

​2010 Blue Dog Blueprint for Fiscal Reform

Our underlying structural deficits are the biggest threat to our economic security today.  As independent voices for fiscal responsibility and accountability, the Blue Dogs recognize that it’s time to change the way Washington operates and begin working together in earnest to develop solutions to these systemic problems. With the 2010 Blue Dog Blueprint for Fiscal Reform the Blue Dogs put forth a real proposal to put the country back on a path to balanced budgets and long term fiscal sustainability.
 
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House Passes Measure to Restore Bipartisan PAYGO Rules

WASHINGTON—Today, the House passed H. Res. 6, A Resolution Providing for the House Rules of the 116th Congress, which included a measure restoring the bipartisan Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rules. PAYGO requires that both mandatory spending and tax cuts must be offset to prevent increasing the national debt. The last time PAYGO was in place was 2010, when the Blue Dog Coalition worked with Democratic Leadership to restore the rules to ensure the government does not spend beyond its means.

 

Remarks at Press Conference with Blue Dogs, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer Calling on Republicans to Uphold Promise of Fiscal Discipline

Yesterday, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer joined the Blue Dog Coalition for a press conference on the state of the U.S. national debt and the fact that Republicans are making it worse by attempting to jam through a tax bill that will add at least $1.5 trillion to the debt. Accounting for interest paid on the national debt, the real cost of the tax bill could be upwards of $2 trillion.

As of this week, the U.S. national debt is almost $20.5 trillion, and every American man, woman and child holds a share of about $62,780 of the debt.

Blue Dog Leadership Statement on the U.S. National Debt Surpassing $20 Trillion

Today, the co-chairs of the fiscally-responsible Blue Dog Coalition—Reps. Jim Costa (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and Daniel Lipinski (D-IL)—issued the following statement in response to the U.S. national debt surpassing $20 trillion for the first time in U.S. history:

“The total public outstanding debt of the United States has surpassed $20 trillion for the first time in our country’s history, and it continues to increase at an alarming rate.

Blue Dog Coalition Reacts to CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook

Yesterday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the June 2017 Budget and Economic Outlook. According to the CBO, in fiscal year 2017, the budget deficit will total $693 billion, or 3.6 percent of the GDP—$134 billion more than prior estimates and the highest projection since 2012. America’s debt will grow from $14.3 trillion today to $25.5 trillion by 2027—and in 10 years, the nation’s debt will be 91 percent of the GDP.

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