Butler County's two congressional members Thursday voted both to allow the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills and to impose the budget-control mechanism known as "pay as you go."

U.S. Reps.

Kathy Dahlkemper, D-3rd, and

Jason Altmire, D-4th, backed the measures that passed the Democratic controlled House of Representatives largely along party lines.Altmire and Dahlkemper issued news releases praising passage of the pay-as-you-go rules but did not mention the debt limit increase."PAYGO was one of the primary reasons the federal government had budget surpluses in the 1990s," Dahlkemper said. "Restoring statutory PAYGO will help bring our country out of the red and back into the black."She said the PAYGO measure enforces budget discipline by mandating that any new spending be paid for instead of added to the deficit."By once again making PAYGO the law of the land," Altmire said, "we can force Congress to pay for new spending and start to get our nation's fiscal house back in order."———The leader of the Butler County Democratic Committee this week announced his endorsement of Auditor General

Jack Wagner for governor in this year's election."Jack is the best Democratic candidate to beat (Pennsylvania) Attorney General (

Tom)

Corbett in the November general election," said

Larry Kriess, chairman of the Butler County Democratic Committee."Pennsylvania is facing serious economic challenges. Auditor General Wagner has experience finding and cutting waste, making him the best candidate to face those problems."