Blue Dogs heel

Politics: The debate over supplemental funding includes billions more than Iraq War spending | Becky Perry

Outside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) sits an easel with a large white posterboard and an even larger number on display. Big black letters announce: "Today the U.S. National Debt is: $8,884,000,000,000. Your share of the National Debt: $29,000." Emblazoned across the top: The Blue Dog Coalition.

It's a sobering figure—and a central message for the group of conservative Democrats who came into office in January claiming the mantle of fiscal responsibility.

Identical signs are posted outside the offices of the 43 Blue Dog congressmen as symbols of their fiscal platform, which urges Congress to require a balanced budget and "put a lid on spending." But only months after a campaign season that prioritized budget reform, political votes about funding for the war in Iraq have tested—and frayed—the Blue Dog commitment to curbing congressional excess.