eqtrolbynd controlled by the m chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules 50 minutes equally divided andt controlled by themites chair a ranking minority member of the committee on ways & means and 50 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of theld committee on theth budget. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. dreier. >> the house will be in order. members please take conversations from the floor. members in the rear of the chamber please take your conversations from thee ta floo.

[inaudible conversations] the >> thank you very much mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent all members have five legislative days the measure before is. >> without objection. >> mr. speaker i yield myself such time measu ask unanimous consent to revise my remarks. mr. speaker, at this moment, we aree beginning debate on a measure which i believe will finally send a signal to job creators in this country and in the global marketplace that we are finally, finally getting serious about getting our fiscal order.n we know that we are dealing with a very sad night -- 9.2% of employment rate in this country. we know that there are people. hurting. we all have constituents who have lost their homes, people

who have lost their jobs, people who have lost their businesses,e people are a hurting. it is absolutely imperative that we do everything that we can to track. economy back on we just have gotten a report about this downward report of the gdp growth rate down to 1.3%. we need to get back to robust, dynamic and strongobu gross domestic product rules. we need to get to four, five, 6% gdpp. growth. and mr. speaker, one of the main reasons we have note done thats that we have seen this dramatica increase in spending and over the pastse i half-century on 75 different occasions, 75 different occasions we have seen ur debt ceilingo increase to without any effort whatsoever to get at the root cause of why it is that we have had to increase the debt ceiling.

i argue mr. speaker that wei aru don'te, have the debt ceiling problem. we haven' the debt roybal on. and that is why we are here today and that is why i believea that week, after months andt hsn months and ounce of partisan bickering, finger-pointing, we have at this moment begun a debate that will allow us in a bipartisan way to increase the debt ceiling which we all know needs to be done and simply isti meeting the obligation of paying for past spending. many of us have been opponents of much of that spending but we recognize that the bill has to be paid. speaker boehner wednesdays aftet we took the oath of d office and the 112 congress, received aden request from the president of the unitedunited s states theres treasury secretary mr. geithner that we increase the debt ceiling. the speaker said ben that he would agree that it is essential for us to increase the debt ceiling but we were not going tt proceed with business as usual. we are not going to continue

increasingth the debt without getting to the root cause of the problem. and mr. speaker i've got to tell you, through all of takingt' place, we have gotten o the point where we have a measure.e it is a bipartisan compromise. it is a bipartisan agreement that i believe will as i said, send a signal to those who are seeking toe wh create jobs for r fellow americans that we now are going to have the kind of fiscal restraint and responsibility from washington d.c. the likes k of which we haven't seen in a long, long period of time. so mr. speaker i will tell youll ast i strongly support you this measure as everyone has said it is far from perfect. but i strongly support it, and urge my colleagues, democrats and republicans alike, to join together and support and with that i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady from new york.

>> thank you mr. speaker. after a month-long standoff over raising the debt ceiling congress is forced to take action onte a bill and by all accounts it is deeply flawed. i think everybody today has agreed with that. why are we doing a broad bill? because we waited until the last minute. instead of reducing the nation's debt by closing tax loopholes for oil companies and private bs debt owners instead it creates r super committee that will decide how toco take over a trillion dollars in cuts. and the super committee will serve congress leading 525 members of congress sitting onw thea sidelines while a group oe 12 shapes the country for decades to come. painted it should be a no-brainer. the debt ceiling was ann to antiquated solution to problem we no longer face and should be eliminated.ld it was originally created to pay for world war i to providerwith country with economic stability while it were.

instead of protecting the stability ofut i our economy so congress have decided to question the necessity of payin ourow bills. is another now they have taken our economy hostage and man did draconian cuts in exchange fore not leading our nation into default. and it has caused significant damage.ge, roll call reports that because of thell c prolonged debt ceilig crisis, the interest rate the united states government must pay has already increased, which means interest rates ford wh car loans and home mortgages are also increasing. the stock market has responded as expected. .. key artery for our economy. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 5% of its vam last week which meant 401-k's,

retirement plans, all of america -- americans were put at risk and much of it was lost. baby boomers across the united states watched nervously as all those things were happening. as i mentioned earlier, this type of crisis has become the new normal in this congress. under the republican rule, the house of representatives is re-- has repeatedly led our country to the brink of unthinkable situations. first we led the country to the brink of a government shutdown, threatening the jobs and hundreds of thousands of workers and endangering vital government as we speak, the federal aviation administration is shuttered costing the identification hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. because they refuse to pass a clean legislation that does not include measures that threaten rural communities and the future of the airline unions. now we are at the edge of a cliff in order to see how much they can get without throwing

the country into default. they spoke of a promise to the american people the debate will be an example of an "adult moment" in washington. is this what he had in mind? this morning, mr. dreier went on national public radio said they had not threatened defaulting when the statement defies reality. we were brought to the point because leadership and his party walked out of negotiations demanded they got cuts before they vote to protect the stability of our economy. last, but certainly not least, the crisis of the last few months came at the expense of addressing the true crisis in our country, the jobs crisis facing millions of our fellow citizens. last month, over 25 million americans failed to find full-time work. many have been out of work for so long, that their benefits expired as their skills erode, and they are living on savings

or charities of loved ones and frendle. in response, we have not introduced a single bill in the house designed with resources to create jobs. instead, we have repeatedly cut funding to investments in green technology, in transportation and infrastructure, destroying the promise of putting thousands of americans back to work with jobs that can't be outsourced overseas. they refused to extend benefits for those who can't find jobs and moving nowhere fast helped create the small number of jobs we added in recent months. mr. speaker, it's time we assume responsibility of leadership, and in doing so, put an end to the self-inflicted crisis and focus on getting americans back to work. i yield back -- no, i reserve the balance of my time. >> e gentleman from california.

>> i'd like to thank my colleague with her bipartisanship, and now i want to yield to my friend from stan ten island. >> thank you chairman and thank you speaker. i rise to sneer the voices i represent are heard. what they have to say is quite simple. they expect of us to use common sense, to bring solutions to problems that this nation faces, and the problem that we face is not a debt ceiling problem. it's a debt problem. the people in stanten island and brooklyn go home and have to figure out how to manage their household. they go to work and have to manage their small businesses, and they do that with common sense. that's what they ask of us. you cannot spend money you don't have. you cannot continue to rack up

debts with no plans to pay them off. it's about moving america forward in a bipartisan way. this is an american debt which means that americans must come together to solve the problems. today is about solving problems. i proudly stand here that i will support this bill. i will support speaker boehner, and i will bring solutions to the problem, not just bickering. with that, i yield back. >> the gentleman from massachusetts seek to control the time from the gentle lady? >> i do. >> without objection. >> i want to yield. >> recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, we have never cut our way out of an economic recession. we've always grown our way out. we've never grown our way out by investing less than 15% of our gdp in our people's potential.

in fact, the last time we cut back in the way we will do today was in 1937, and that acceptability us back into -- and that sent us back into an economic depression. this thyme it's not world war ii to rescue our economy. it's interesting to know home oil and higher education for the returning gi's and infrastructure investments and state highway system and the like created a permanent middle class after the war that lasted for two generations, but the middle class has never been more threatened than it has today, and this will consign it to stay in the same condition that we find it today, and it's not because we're a poor country. our largest cooperations have record profits. the top managers make more than a billion a year and have $2 trillion in cash. >> [inaudible] >> thank you. mr. chairman, the point is i

understand that this train is leaving the station, but it's going in the wrong direction. we need to be investing in this country, not taking away the resources which enable it to grow and help the poor and especially those striving to be in the middle class, to achieve middle class through education training and infrastructure investment. thank you, mr. chairman. >> the gentleman from california. >> thank you. i yield a minute to my friend from wisconsin. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i had a chance to watch this floor debate over the last week or so, and to say the least, i think we can say tempers have flaired. there's been a lot of rhetoric on both sides, and as we come together today, we're at the proposal that was negotiated with both sides, with speaker boehner, the president, harry reid, a deal that not everyone is pleased with. it's a deal that doesn't have in

everything that i want, and i'm sure it doesn't have everything in the deal that my friends across the aisle wouldment. that's why so many of us hear from our constituents from the far right and left saying we don't like it. the bottom line is, i think this is one of the great moments of the house where two sides come together and figure out how they are going to find a solution that doesn't work for their parties. it's a solution that works for the american people, and at this point in our history, all $14.5 trillion -- >> i'd like to give him an additional 15 seconds. >> it's about time this congress come together and figure out a way to live within our means. this bill is going to start that process though it doesn't go far enough. with that, i yield back. >> gentleman from massachusetts. >> i yield one minute to the gentleman from pennsylvania. >> recognized for onemen. >> thank you.

i rise in support for this proposal, but as with many of our greatest keepers in history, this is an inside job. i want to offer just in evidence that, you know, we had in the words of the treasury secretary for reagan and for bush, an admitting that they ran up deficits and this was one of the ways to starve the government, and then we had the republican party at the height of its power, the house, the presidency, the senate saying, no, we were not going to have tax increases even though there's deficits. we're going to cut taxes, hemorrhage trillions of dollars in revenue and go into two wars, put a $7 trillion prescription drug plan on financial pile of our debt, and so alan greenspan testified before the congress in

the first weeks of the bush administration saying bush could leave office, with our country debt free. what happened was the reverse. he doubled the debt, walked out with 8 million americans losing jobs. >> the time expired. >> they want to cut the baby in half. we choose not to default. >> the time expired. >> thank you very much. >> at this time, i yield two minutes to the next governor of indiana, my good friend from columbus. >> recognized for two minutes. >> thank you -- [inaudible] >> without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. this is a challenging time in the life of our country. our economy is struggling, millions are out of work, and now with the more than $14 trillion debt, america is on the

verge of having debt exceed our statutory rowing limit. if you have debts, pay debts. congress has an obligation to defend the full faith and credit of the united states, but this congress also has an obligation to keep faith with this and future generations of americans by restoring fiscal responsibility and discipline to our national treasury. the bipartisan budget control act that we consider today makes it possible for the nation's bills to be paid with no new taxes, dollar for dollar cuts in spending for every increase in the debt ceiling, and it gives the american people a fighting chance to consider a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. now, let me be clear, the budget control act is not so much a good deal as it is a good start. i really believe this bipartisan compromise is a modest but meaningful step in the direction of fiscal discipline and reform,

and i welcome it. now, while this bill does not go nearly far enough, it does move us in the right direction. you know, leadership means knowing when to say yes and knowing when to say no. i believe the time has come to get something done so this congress can move our national government back in the direction of fiscal responsibility and reform and begin to advance policies that will put americans back to work. last thought -- there's a lot of credit taking on a day like today, a lot of bipartisanship back padding as we say, but let me say from my heart, this day where we see the ship of state turning ever so slightly towards the lone star of fiscal speedometer, this day does not belong to one political leader, any one party or any one branch

of government. this time belongs to the american people. >> the time expired. >> who stood, clam moried, came to town halls and demanded we live within our means and said this is enough. this is your day. >> gentleman from massachusetts. >> i yield to the gentleman from georgia for one minute. >> the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. ladies and gentlemen, this is, of course, a very important day, difficult decision for all of us. i'm going to vote for this in the best interest of our economy in putting us in the stature where we need to be. i want to point out one area of weakness we have to look at carefully going forward, and that is in the application of this 12-member committee, and especially as it relates to the areas of social security, medicare, and medicaid. now, my understanding is, and i think this is understanding that

we certainly need to make clear that social security and medicaid, veterans, pell grants, are protected fully under this bill, but when it comes to medicare, my understanding is that there will be an opportunity in here where they will look at medicare on the provider side. question becomes how can you basically separate benefits of medicare patients when you have the patient, the doctors, and the hospital, and you can't adequately separate. >> the time expired. >> we must be mindful of the medicare apparatus. >> gentleman from california. >> i reserve my time. >> gentleman recognized for two and a half minutes. >> mr. speaker, i did not come to washington to dismantle the

new deal or great society or force more people into poverty. we need to avoid default an confront the challenges. that's why on saturday i voted in support for the reid proposal reducing our debt by hundreds of billions of dollars, but the bill before us today is unfair in so many ways. it puts the debt issue on the back of those who can least afford it and spares the wealthy. there's something fundamentally wrong when a billionaire hedge fund pays a lower tax rate than the secretary and when tens of billions in profits every quarter, but gets deals from the taxpayer, and when we are slashing funding for roads and bridges, but allow tax breaks to continue. there's no new rev news in the bill before us today, just cuts in domestic discretionary

spending. what does that mean? it means less investment in the transportation and infrastructure, less investments medical research, education, food security. simply, it means less jobs, higher unemployment in a time when millions of americans struggle to find work. the bill puts social security, medicare, medicaid on the chopping block. we now how we got in the mess, two huge tax cuts not paid for, two wars not paid for, a massachusettsive prescription drug bill not paid for. now, there are certainly places to cut. right now, we are borrowing $10 billion every month, $10 billion every month for military operations in afghanistan to prop up a corrupted regime. the budget office says the caps contained in the legislation do not apply to war. that makes no sense to me. the truth is the way to do with

the long term situation is to grow the economy. that means creating jobs and putting people back to work. this bill goes in the wrong direction. i have two children, mr. speaker, i i love more than anything, and i don't want them growing up in a country where the gap between the very rich and poor grows wider and wider each year. we can do better, we must do better, and we can do so in a way that does not abandon the principles of economic justice and fairness that made our nation so great. i will vote no on the bill. i reserve my time. >> the gentleman from california. >> i give myself one minute to say to my good friend, rules committee colleague, that time and time again he criticizes the tax cuts in place. they really are the bush-obama tax cuts. president obama signed an extension of those, but it's important to look at the 2003 revenue flow and look at what

happened just a few short years later in 2007. in 2003, mr. speaker, we had $15 -- $1 trillion dollars in revenues to the federal treasury. in 2007 after those tax cuts went into place, we had $2,567, 000. that's an increase in the tax the federal government had because of the implementation of the cuts. it's important to recognize if we grow the economy, we generate an increase inspect flow of revenues to the treasury. with that, mr. speaker, i'll yield a min and a half to my good friend from ohio. >> gentleman from ohio is recognized for how long? >> one and a half. >> one and a half minutes. >> thank you for the

recognition. this moment in time on the floor reminds me exactly of a period during the 1990s. you know, there's a lot of publicity given to the new freshmen class, and us feel negligented these days, but welfare reform was the discussion. we endured overheated rhetoric on the floor about how the proposals were mean to pregnant women, children, old people and young people, and poor people, until one day president clinton decided he was not the protecter of overheated rhetoric, and was the president of the united states. he signed the bill. i walked on to the floor, and you would have thought my friends here from the other side of the aisle thought their dogs died because they looked so depressed. president clinton decided to lead. i don't know what's going on in all of the other offices, but we have taken a lot of phone calls over the last four or five weeks, some people tell me i'm

an idiot or hold the line, but the overwhelming amount of the calls is you have to work this out. to the president of the united states' credit, president obama, he had speaker mr. boehner, ms. pelosi, speaker boehner, and they worked this out. i'm not going to stand her and listen to this continued debate of how we are mean to people. i don't think anybody on that side of the aisle believes that president obama would do the horrible things that the people are indicating they would do. i just don't believe it, and i yield back. >> the gentleman's time expired. the gentleman from massachusetts. >> mac, i yield myself 10 seconds. if the bush tax cuts are great, where are the jobs? it's wrong to have the middle class in the country bear the burden of balancing the budget while the donald trumps get tax cuts. there's something wrong about

that. i yield one minute to the gentlewoman from texas. >> the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. >> mr. speaker, this is a tough place to put america, not members of congress. we are paid to come here and do our job, but it's a very tough place to putt america, and so i have a simple state of facts to present today, and listen to my other colleagues, which i will, because it's a tough decision to an actuality support legislation that seems to be driven by thoughts that the only way to get something done is a hold country hostage. that's what we have. on the brink of august 2, we are # throwing something on the floor that is arguably supposed to be helpful.

i am concerned that there are nuances in this legislation that will hurt people that we all care about, but it's a tough decision not to say yes to having america pay her bills. i hope for once that once we get pass today that we will not in any way yield again to the voices of 87 members who care nothing about america and simply care of their way or the highway. >> the time expired. >> i'm upset. >> the gentleman from california. >> we do not need this anymore. >> the time expired. >> [inaudible] >> i thought i was recognized. >> the chair advises all members to respect the gavel. the gentlewoman was out of order. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield a minute and a half to my friend. >> thank you very much. i rise in support of this

legislation, and i think that president obama, the leaders in the house and the senate should be given a warm congratulations on being able to come to some agreement to prevent america from defaulting on its debt. we all know that this is not a perfect piece of legislation, but one of the real positives of the legislation is the joint commission that's beginning to be established by six members of the house, six members from the senate who come up by recommendations to reduce federal spending, and we do know that exempt from that is social security, veterans' benefits, as well as medicaid -- those who really need health care the most, but i've heard a lot of discussion today about this is not about jobs, and i would just point out that getting our financial house in order is very important, b