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Quigley Stands Up for Pay As You Go Legislation

February 4, 2010
Speeches

WASHINGTON -- Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) spoke on pay as you go legislation and the need for public trust.

Below is a video and transcript of the speech.

Thank you. Thank you Madam Speaker.

Everyday families across the country make sacrifices to stay within their household budgets.

I know you can't spend what you haven't saved, but for the past decade, Congress has failed to grasp that simply premise.

That failure has led to what the President aptly described as a deficit of trust. It's hard to govern when you don't have the public trust and it is borrow when you have lost the trust of world markets.

During the 1990s, PAYGO forced members to make hard decisions, however PAYGO rules were waived in 2001, on the theory that we could pay for two wars with two tax cuts.

Today, thanks to years of hard work by the blue dogs, we are taking the first step to win back the public trust.

Madam Speaker, today I am a blue dog.

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