Blue Dog Democrats Outline Proposal
From Staff Reports
Review Appeal
March 16, 2003

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Pall Mall), whose district includes the Franklin area south of Highway 96 West, holds a print of a blue dog in Washington, D.C., symbol of conservative Democrats. (Photo Courtesy of Lincoln Davis’ office)

Conservative Democrats in the congressional Blue Dog Coalition last week announced their plan for the federal budget and U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis calls it “a fiscally responsible budget plan that would balance the nation’s budget, strengthen spending limits and provide needed tax cuts for all Americans.”

Presented as an alternative to the president’s budget, Davis says President Bush’s plan will add to the growing “debt tax” paid by taxpayers to overcome payments on money borrowed for government operations.

“As the government amasses debt, interest payments pile up, essentially amounting to a ‘debt tax’ that can never be repealed and will be paid for by generations to come,” Davis said. “The Blue Dog approach restores fiscal discipline by paying down our ballooning debt.

“It’s ironic that the Republicans are willing to go down the road of borrow and spend,” he said, “yearning for the buzzwords I heard in 1994” such as “term limits.”

A summary of the Blue Dog budget proposal states it is “affordable if the budget outlook improves and the nation does not incur substantial additional costs related to the campaign in Iraq and the war on terrorism...”

Davis says, “It spreads the proposed tax cuts to everyone regardless of economic income. It is a short-term solution to stimulate the economy.”

Davis represents the 4th Congressional District which, in Franklin, includes Columbia Avenue, surrounding neighborhoods, West Main Street and, except for an area generally surrounding Jim Warren Park, the territory south of Highway 96 west of New Downs Boulevard.

The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 34 moderate to conservative Democrats, proposes to help “all families and small businesses within the 4th District by accelerating a series of tax cuts,” Davis said.

“Our policy is to be deficit hawks,” he said.

The so-called Blue Dog budget proposes to achieve a $15 billion budget surplus in fiscal year 2009 and balance the budget without the Social Security surplus by 2013, Davis said. It has nearly $2 trillion less debt than the president’s budget in the next 10 years.