Melancon says Blue Dogs will hold to PAYGO rules

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville) came to Thibodaux Monday to discuss economic issues and his appointment as co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition at a meeting of the Bayou Industrial Group.

Melancon called the November presidential election “amazing” and anticipated that President-elect Obama would move closer to the political center during his presidency. He said U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s pick to be White House chief of staff, is “no nonsense and always gives you an honest answer.”

Melancon, who was appointed in November as a co-chair of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats in the House, said the group is trying to create a counterpart coalition in the Senate.

He said the Senate too often does not conform to PAYGO rules, which limit spending to available funds.

“The Blue Dogs are the only ones talking about fiscal responsibility,” Melancon said. “When we get money, the Senate strips out PAYGO. That will come out of your and my children’s pocketbooks.”

The country’s debt, estimated recently at $10 trillion, will really be around $54 trillion, he said. The $31,000 each individual owes under a $10 trillion debt has to be multiplied by a figure higher than five.

“We need to get back to reality, finding ways to pay for things,” Melancon said. “The Blue Dogs are trying to recruit in the Senate. We need them to say, ‘We can’t spend it.’ We have to make sure we don’t spend more than we take in.”

China and Japan could one day stop buying U.S. Treasury notes, he warned.

Melancon said earmarks – allocations made by Congress that are often criticized as pork-barrel spending – can be a positive expenditure of funds.

“I like earmarks,” he said. “It’s the only way I get money back home to help. You can show something for the community. I don’t mind earmarks if they’re part of the public good, not-as the old joke goes-for rain forests in Iowa.”

Melancon said since taking over Congress two years ago, Democrats have made the earmark process more transparent. Earmark expenditures have decreased dozens of billions of dollars since Republicans controlled Congress, he said.

Despite deciding in favor of the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout, Melancon’s vote had to be earned. He said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was overly eager at first to push through the bailout in Congress.

Though only three banks in Louisiana have experienced difficulty as a result of the nation’s financial crisis, the country needs to ensure that credit flows, he said.

Now, Congress has to decide whether to bail out the Big Three U.S. automakers. Melancon wants the aid to come out of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Melancon also repeated his longstanding view that the recovery of oil in the Caspian Sea by Kazakhstan will help Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes economically.

On federal funding for the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane levee project and other flood protection measures, Melancon is hopeful that Obama will be supportive.

“With the new administration, we hope to get new possibilities,” he said. “This administration (Bush’s) has just shut it down, except what has gone to save New Orleans.”