able to drive it for three or four years? i just think he is a teleprompter present. a good reader but not a good leader. he has to wait to see what rahm emanuel -- i would like to see if he would go to the gridiron dinner -- tim geithner went but there was a skit on him being a tax cheat and he laughed. host: thank you very much. i have to apologize, the house is in session. thank you for being with us. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., february 4, 2010. i hereby appoint the honorable tammy baldwin to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives.

the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend andrew walton, capitol hill presbyterian church. the chaplain: let us pray. in thanks and gratitude, we breathe the life giving spirit of a new day. a day filled with creative potential and possibility. as on the first day may this day be in the beginning. may we see the goodness and abundance of creation. may we embrace the name given to us, human from the earth. may we look into the ecertainly waters and see in our own reflections the image of the

name that cannot be named. the ecertainly living presence we call by many names. may we see both the human and the divine in ourselves and every other person. may we see the eternal presence of life in all creation. may the light of the first day be our guiding vision for every day, particularly within the deliberations and decisions among the minds and spirits and imagination of these chambers. leading us to see and respect the sacred, dignity and worth of everyone and everything everywhere. amen.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house her approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from texas, congressman poe. mr. poe: please join me in the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain up to five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise to express my disappointment and dismay with a.i.g.'s decision to pay $100 million in bonuses to executives.

these are just not any employees but those from the financial products division, the same group that created the flimsy derivatives, that caused such a catastrophe for our economy in late 2008. with taxpayer dollars flowing to keep a.i.g. afloat, ordinary americans facing 10% unemployment, i don't know who would have thought this announcement would be well received by the american people. it may be that these bonuses were legally obligated before the crash, but i'm sure that all the brainpower that created a.i.g.'s financial products can find out a way, as the american people would, to simply say no. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? ms. ros-lehtinen: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker. my sincerest thanks to the miami-dade county fire rescue, urban search and rescue team for their heroic efforts in the relief work in haiti. their dedication to helping

save lives is examples for us all. under the division chief, an 80-man chief was sent to haiti one day after it was ravaged by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. i'd like to thank miami-dade fire chief for their courageous dedication to saving lives in south florida and worldwide. as a result of their work in haiti, lives have been saved and many more individuals have been aided. their selfless dedication and sense of mission is testaments to our nation's highest principle. the team's experience in disaster relief efforts during hurricane katrina, in the aftermath of 9/11, and in the 1999 earthquake in turkey as part of the national urban search and rescue mission were invaluable to the efforts in haiti. thank you to you all. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise?

rise? >> to my kid's old

credit cards. when it reached the spending limit it meant there was no more room on the credit card for one of my four kids to spend more money. when they reached the limit they begged daddy to increase the limit. today, we're voting on whether or not to add $1.9 trillion to the credit card limit. so what if we say no to all the borrowing? we might have to quit spending money. do the american people really want their government spending and borrowing less money?

i think they do. this is my congressional voting card. i will be using this card to vote against more debt on the american people. when you find yourself in a financial hole, stop digging. don't borrow more money, buy a backhoe and dig a deeper hole of debt. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from nevada rise? ms. berkley: i rise to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentlewoman from nevada is recognized. ms. berkley: madam speaker, on behalf of yucca mountain johnny and the people of the state of nevada, i want to thank the president for putting the kabash on the yucca mountain project which would have shifted 77,000 tons of toxic, radioactive waste across 43 states to be buried in a hole in the nevada desert where we

have groundwater problems, volcanic activity, no radiation standards, no way to safely transport the waste, no standard that exists that would store the waste without croding. the president came to nevada 20 times during his campaign and pledged to help yucca mountain. the people of the state of nevada are grateful that he ended this expensive, dangerous, foolish project. on behalf of yucca mountain johnny and myself, we thank you, mr. president. way to go. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. murphy: remember september 11, 2001, two planes hit the world trade center, one plane crashed into the pentagon and one stopped hitting targets in washington by the brave actions of its passengers. altogether thousands died, civilians and soldiers died

during that terrorist attack of war. now, khalid sheikh mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of this act, and his four co-conspirators, are to be tried for this act. but the administration want to take them out of the detention base facility at the navy because guantanamo, and try them in a civilian court, not a military court. to sweeten the deal, the administration is giving them a cash for courtrooms deal. nothing can compensate for the risk this trial would place in the people of new york, pennsylvania, virginia or any other state that would seem to have jurisdiction. this understand necessarily jeopardizes the safety of the citizens, the jurors, the judges in those communities. mohammed and his co-conspirators should be tried not in the civilian court. the americans get it. they them to be tried in military court. why doesn't the administration get it too? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> to address the house for one

minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. shea-porter: we must end these big corporate bonuses to executives at financial firms that were bailed out by the taxpayers. just yesterday, it was reported that the a.i.g. is planning another $100 million in bonuses. the people who helped get us into this mess should not be rewarded when their companies still owe money to the american people. that's why the populous caucus is supporting h.r. 4426, the wall street bonus tax act. this bill would tax the bonuses of the bailed out companies to help small businesses by providing direct lending and other financial assistance. in addition, the populous caucus is supporting h.r. 4191, or let wall street pay for the restoration of main street act. this bill would have a small transaction fee and would use those funds to support job creation and to pay down the debt. madam speaker, wall street's gone right back to their old ways, but small businesses and

families are still suffering. wall street must now help small businesses and workers. these bills would help and i urge my colleagues to support them. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? mr. dreier: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, recently the economist magazine had an article in which they said it's time for the president to get tough. and pointed to the point he needs to be serious about the trade issue. it congratulated him for not taking a step backward on -- towards protectionism. but the fact of the matter is by doing nothing we are taking a step backward. now, i'm glad to see that the secretary of commerce, mr. locke, today is launching an initiative that will encourage greater trade. it's wonderful to say that we need to focus on a small business 21st century export-oriented trade policy, but the fact is the only way that we can do that is if we pry open new markets for union and nonunion workers in the united states of america at

companies like caterpillar, whirlpool and other companies. we can do that by doing what the president failed to do in his state of the union message after making a great statement about trade and that is, send up the agreementes that are pending, that have been signed for panama, colombia and south korea. the votes are here if we can have that on the floor of the house asap so we can create good american jobs. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new mexico rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. heinrich: when it comes to the federal budget, we owe it to them to spend within our means and without unreasonable borrowing. this legislation referred to as pay-go mandates that the federal government pay for new tax cuts and spending by finding savings elsewhere. in the 1990's, pay-go helped

turn massive deficits into record surpluses. but that policy was abandoned by the bush administration. after not paying for two wars, two tax cuts and a new entitlement program, we now face a growing testifies. i'm an original co-sponsor of pay-go legislation because we have to get this deficit under control for the sake of our children and for our financial future. we must reinstate fiscal discipline in washington. i urge my colleagues to support this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. the president's $3.8 trillion budget proposal sets a lot of new records. record spending, record deficits, record debt. we can't tax, spend, borrow and bail out our way to recovery. if we could we wouldn't have a

10% unemployment after passing a multibillion dollar stimulus package and raising the debt limit to $14.3 trillion. that's $47,000 for each american. americans are sick and tired of the democrats' tax and spend agenda. unfortunately, this president's budget only proposes more of the same. it's time for a new approach to fixing our economy. let's focus on balancing the budget and lowering taxes for small businesses. that's the way to grow the economy and finally create jobs. congress should never vote for anything less. .7 c16 c13 the speaker pro tempore: the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole for further consideration of h.r. 4061. will ms. baldwin kindly take

the chair. the chair: the house is in committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 4061 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill to advance cybersecurity research, development, and technical standards, and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose on wednesday, february 3, 2010, amendment number 18 printed in house report 111-410 offered by the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly, had been disposed of. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, proceedings will now resume on those amendments printed in house report 111-410 on which further proceedings were postponed in the following order.

amendment number 19 by mrs. halvorson of illinois. amendment number 20 by ms. kilroy of ohio. amendment number 21 by mr. kissell of north carolina. and amendment number 27 by mr. owens of new york. the chair will reduce to five minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 19 printed in house report 111-410xnoñh(v the gentlewoman from illinois, mrs. halvorson, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 19, printed in house report number 111-410, offered by ms. hal vorsop of illinois. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted.

a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the e '2u

the chair: on this vote the

yeas are 424. the nays are zero. the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 20 printed in house report 111-410, by the gentlewoman from ohio, ms. kilroy, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 20, printed in house report number 111-410, offered by ms. kilroy of ohio. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the

the chair: on this vote the yeas are 419. the nays are four. the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is request for recorded vote on amendment number 281 printed in house report 111-410, by the gentleman from north carolina, mr. kissell, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed voy boys vote. ther cloffered the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 21, printed in house report number 111-410, offered by mr. kissell

of north carolina. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the chair: on this vote the yeas are 423. the nays are six. the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 24 printed in house report 111-410 by the gentleman from new york, mr. owens, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 24 printed in house report 111-410 offered by mr. owens of new york.

the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the chair: on this vote the yeas are 430. the nays are zero. the amendment is adopted. the question is on the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the amendment is adopted. accordingly, under the rule the committee rises. . the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had

under consideration h.r. 4061 and reports to the house sundry amendments adopted in the committee of the whole. the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has had under consideration the bill h.r. 4061 and pursuant to house resolution 105 reports the bill back to the house with an amendment adopted in the committee of the whole. under the rule the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the aye vs. t the amendment is adopted. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: bill to amend cybersecurity research, development, and technical standards and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the bill is passed and without

objection the -- >> mr. speaker. the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a recorded vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this shall be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 422. the nays are five. the bill issed. and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of h.r. 4061, including corrections in spelling, punksuation, section and title numbering, cross-referencing, conforming amendments to the table of contents and short titles and the insertion of appropriate headings. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered.

mr. mcgovern: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: by the direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 1065 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 158, house resolution 1065. resolved, that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to take from the speaker's table the joint resolution house joint resolution 45, increasing the statutory limit on the public debt, with the senate amendment thereto, and to consider in the house, without intervention of any point of order except those arising under clause 10 of rule 21, a motion offered by the majority leader or his designee that the house concur in the senate amendment. the senate amendment shall be considered as read. the motion shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader or their designees. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the motion to its adoption without

intervening motion. the question of adoption of the motion shall be divided between concurring in the matter preceding title 1 of the senate amendment and concurring in the matter comprising titles 1 and 2 of the senate amendment. the first portion of the divided question shall be considered as adopted. if the second portion of the divided question fails of adoption, then the house shall be considered to have made no disposition of the senate amendment. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for one hour. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, for the purpose of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. sessions. all time yielded during consideration of this rule is for debate only. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials into the congressional record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may

consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, the resolution provides for consideration of the senate amendment to h.j. res. 45, the debt limit and statutory pay-go resolution. the rule makes in order a motion offered by the majority leader or his designee that the house concur in the senate amendment. the rule waives all points of order against the motion except those arising under clause 10 of house rule 21 and provides one hour of debate on the motion. the rule divides the question between concurring in the matter preceding title 1 of the senate amendment and concurring in titles 1 and 2 of the amendment. the first portion of the question shall be considered as adopted. and if the second portion fails, then the house will be considered to have made no disposition on the senate amendment. madam speaker, this vote is both historic and difficult. it's historic because it's reinstating the pay-as-you-go law, or pay-go. this is the first step in

returning fiscal common sense back to our budget. and it's difficult because this resolution includes a $1.9 trillion increase in the debt limit. now, let me begin with the debt limit. none of us are eager to increase the debt limit, but we have a responsibility to take action. the treasury department has informed congress that the united states will reach the current statutory limit on the national debt on february 11. that's next thursday. if the debt limit is not increased before that date, treasury will not be able to meet the obligations of the u.s. government. simply, madam speaker, if we don't act then we will default. now, i can't think of a more reckless or irresponsible act. defaulting is not an option. if the united states defaults, investors will lose confidence that the u.s. will honor its debts in the future. they will likely demand higher interest rates to common say the for the higher risk of purchasing treasury securities. and this would increase the cost of federal borrowing,

result in an even greater budget deficits and require higher taxes and fewer government services. a greater portion of u.s. wealth will be transferred to overseas creditors to china, india and saudi arabia. it's also possible that those creditors will demand that the u.s. borrow in other occurrencies rather than dollars putting in peril the very value and stability of the american dollar. it's clear that the responsible course of action is to raise the debt limit. it is also clear that we're in this position because of the policies that have been implemented over the past decade. 10 years ago, madam speaker, we had a budget surplus. since then our country was attacked and the worse recession in our lifetimes took a severe economic toll on our nation's economy. but we also had two wars that were unpaid for. tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy, that were unpaid for. and a prescription drug benefit that was unpaid for. yes, republicans and democrats

have had to increase the debt limit because of these policies and events. and unfortunately we have to do it again today. now, i know there will be those who want to use this vote as a way to demagogue this issue. there are those on my side of the aisle who will detail how the policies over the last eight years put us in this position and there will be those who use this debate who claim that the recession is the fault of the democrats. we can have that debate. and we will have that debate. but at the end of the day, madam speaker, it is my hope that nobody in this chamber would put our nation at such financial and economic risk simply because of politics. my friend from massachusetts and my colleague, congressman richard neal, said it best in the rules committee last night. if you voted to go to war in iraq and afghanistan, if you voted for the tax cuts that went mostly to the wealthiest in this country or if you voted for the recovery act, then you have to vote to raise the debt

ceiling. simply put, the american people want us to solve our nation's problems. and increasing the debt limit is the responsible action. but it doesn't address the underlying problem, and that is the problem of the deficit. and that is where statutory pay-go comes in. statutory pay-go requires all new policies be offset. that means paid for. in plain english, we have to pay for what we buy. while it's not the only step we can take, this is a solid step towards fiscal discipline. now, why is this legislation, why is pay-go so important? it's important because our fiscal health and long-term economic prosperity depend upon it. we must find a balance between short-term deficit spending to speed along our economic recovery with longer term fiscal discipline. dick cheney, madam speaker, famously said that deficits don't matter. well, i believe that they do matter and i'm glad to hear

that my republican friends now agree with democrats that deficits do matter. i trust at the end of the day they will vote that way too. but whether you vote for this resolution or not you must at least admit that president obama and the democrats are facing this problem head-on. we are making sure we responsibly meet our financial obligations. we are instituting pay-go so that we pay for the programs that we are funding. and we expect president obama to formalize a debt commission soon to make other recommendations to bring down our debt. these are important steps, and these are real steps. i urge my colleagues to do the right thing, to vote for this rule and this resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you very much, madam speaker. and good morning. the speaker pro tempore: good morning. mr. sessions: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: madam speaker, no

surprise i rise in opposition to this closed rule. the charade of speaker pelosi running the most open, honest and ethical congress is once again confirmed today that that's not happening. that is not happening here again on the floor. and it's related to this activity that went on in the rules committee upstairs just yesterday. at a time of record deficits and record unemployment, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are simply trying to blame republicans and george bush rather than looking at their own responsibility of what they've done in the last year that has placed enormous, enormous financial strain on this country. never once did they talk about that responsibility that they led this country saying we must go and spend this money because it will lead itself to jobs and we're going to have the

stimulus bill, we are going to call the stimulus bill. the president went all over the country, members of congress went all over the country and sold this. it didn't work. it didn't work. it didn't work big time. i didn't hear any offer of, whoops, as vice president biden said, we guessed and it didn't work. i think it would have been appropriate this morning for the gentleman from massachusetts or anybody from the democratic party to stand up and say, you know, we did guess. i know those republicans told us this wouldn't work, but we really guessed and we guessed wrong. the vice president has the guts to say that. i think this body should say the same thing rather than trying to blame this on george bush. today, we're here to raise the debt limit. an additional time, $1,9 00,000,000,000.

the bottom line is we're only here because what our friends, speaker pelosi and the democratic party had done did not work. they took out a monster loan that is not paying off. . today there is not even a vote, even a debate on raising the debt limit. the majority party has used deceitful procedural games to hide the fact that they are raising the debt limit again for the sixth time, six times since they took control of the house. why, you ask? well, give the members political coverage and a vote on statutory pay-go again. i guess we are going to keep blaming george bush, president bush for this. the bottom line is, madam

speaker, as i speak to each of the members here on the floor today this is about raising the statutory debt limit, $1.9 billion. we'll spend the time today discussing the current economic climate, the reason why things aren't working. -- the majority's principles and priorities of spending and taxing and borrowing and the president's fiscal year 2011 budget, $3.6 trillion that was just released this week tell the reason why. madam speaker, we told you over and over again, if you take the investor out of the equation, if you tax the american people, if you destroy jobs -- job creators, if you go after employers and have a battle with them, they'll get it. they'll quit employing people. our president seems to have

every time i watch him, he's always after somebody. he's always got a problem. the bankers. the doctors. insurance. every time i look up our great president, barack obama, has an axe to grind to somebody and it's generally employers. then he wants to turn around and say, how come we don't have any jobs? oh, we are going to get those. we'll get those. it's america. we can do anything. but the policies are not creating jobs. they are creating debts. they are creating circumstances where this country has to again today borrow for the debt limit and pass a bill here today that says we are going to raise the debt limit, $1,900,000,000,000 so our government doesn't go belly up. that is over $46,000 per

american family just what we are doing now. so in september of 2007 the year our friends, the democrats, took control over $3.8 billion on average has been added to the national debt every single day. the president's budget boros too much, taxes too much, and spends too much. but what it does is, it kills the goose that lays the golden egg. then we wonder why we don't have jobs in this country. the $3.6 trillion budget represents nearly a 30% increase in total outlays since 2008. the budget includes more than $2 trillion in job-killing tax hikes with a nearly 20% jump in the first year alone. i get it. i get it as an individual taxpayer. that's why i virtually sold all my stock. i got out of the stock market.

because this administration and this congress wants to kill economic growth and opportunity. and i can't take that and everybody else can't take that. so that's why you're seeing employers and others say, enough is enough. that's what we are saying here today. this tax includes taxes on small businesses, investors, and families earning less than $250,000 a year also. i thought when we heard the president say he was going to give everybody a tax cut, they keep talking about it. it's a great idea to float. sure wish you'd deliver on that one, but let's also go to the high side. we need investors to be in the game, madam speaker. we need investors. and this bill taxes the stuffings out of them. additionally, the president's budget runs up a record budget deficit again. we are going to vote on it

again. democrats, yeah, we support the president. all these great priorities. the national debt is prekicted to double once again over five years and triple by fiscal year 2019. and that's a mistake. the interest alone would set the american taxpayer back $6 trillion just the interest over the next decade. the american people want congress, want washington to rein in borrow, tax, and spending, not more of it. they want congress to stop talking about what they will do about helping jobs and to actually make the environment better. there is still an experiment going on out there, madam speaker, and people are not buying it because they are concerned about washington and what they are going to do next. taxing, spending, and borrowing is not a way to start this new year. during last week's state of the union, president obama stated, and i quote, starting in 2011

we will prepare to freeze government spending for three years. great. great, mr. president. that was thursday night. i went upstairs just yesterday and i offered an amendment in the rules committee on this bill, h.r. 4061 -- i'm sorry, on h.r. 4061, the cybersecurity bill, the first bill right out of the bank, and i took the president up on that and said, hey, i think we ought to have an amendment added to the bill since the bill doesn't do it that would have frozen spending just on two programs for three years. my amendment would have saved a paltry $47 million. that's all, just $47 million. i know it's not a lot. and you would not have believed the calls at me about how out of line i was. how this was the most important thing in the history of our country. this body is not prepared to

make tough decisions. this body is not prepared even to cut $47 million after we clap for the president just the other day. this democrat majority continues to have initiatives and policies that will lead to more unemployment and bigger and more deficits. this administration and democratic majority promised the american people they would aim for jobs and economic recovery, health care, cleaner energy, better education, the list goes on and on and on. and i'll tell you what we've got for it. record deficits, report spending, and record unemployment. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgotsche: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. -- mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: my republican colleagues are impressive. they are impressive in their ability to cover their tracks. they make a mess, they cover their tracks. they make a bigger mess they

cover their tracks. they grow this economy into a ditch. they are trying to cover their tracks. that's fine. for playing politics on the house floor. but the facts are a stubborn thing. the facts are that $4 trillion of bush tax cuts were unpaid for. $4 trillion. $700 million for the bush prescription drug bill, unpaid for. $3.5 trillion in mandatory and revenue costs of the bush economic collapse we had to endure because of the lousy economy. record job losses in the bush economy. now, look, the fact of the matter is that we are faced with difficult economic times. and i would like to think that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would at least take some responsibility in helping to fix things. my colleague talks about the recovery act as if it meant

nothing. according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office the recovery act is already responsible for as many as 2.4 million jobs through the end of 2009. analysis by the council of economic advisors also found that the recovery act are responsible for about two million jobs. that's not counting the jobs that were saved. in my home city of worcester alone, 500 teachers and support staff would have been laid off without the recovery act. 22 cops would have been laid off. 17 firefighters. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would say fire them. fire the teachers, fire the cops, fire the firefighters. that's irresponsible. so, i also point out that former mccain advisor, mark standy -- zahndy, said the stimulus was key to the strong fourth quarter growth of the u.s. economy. we just heard the news from the department of commerce that the

u.s. economy grew at 5.7% from october through december. a better than expected gain. this is what mark, the republican advisor said, i think the stimulus was key to the fourth quarter. it was really critical to business, fixed investment because there was a tax bonus depreciation and stimulus that expired in december and juiced up fixed investment. and also it was very critical to housing and residential investment because of the housing tax credit. and the decline in government spending would have been measurably greater without the money from the stimulus. the stimulus was very, very important to the fourth quarter. that's republican advisor, mccain advisor mark zandy. i would say, madam speaker, that those of us who voted for the recovery act have a responsibility to vote yes on this rule. but i would also say that those who voted for the wars in iraq and afghanistan, wars that were not paid for, somehow it's ok to ask all of our men and women to sacrifice, but we do

nothing. but those wars were not paid for. if you voted for the bush tax cuts. the $4 trillion unpaid for. at least have the responsibility to come to the floor and do the right thing. so, i would urge my colleagues, madam speaker, to vote for this rule and vote for pay-go. everybody -- during the bush years, no one talked about the deficit, except to say it didn't matter. that was dick cheaney and some of my other colleaguesle of -- cheney and some of my other colleagues. it does matter. we need to get the deficit under control. statutory pay-go is one way to do it. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you, madam speaker. by the way i like this pay-go thing that my friends, the democrats are pushing, but when it comes down to it they waive pay-go on a regular basis. madam speaker, at this time i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from chico,

california, the gentleman from -- the gentleman, mr. herger. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. mr. herger: thank you. madam speaker, i rise in strong opposition to this rule and to the underlying bill. excessive debt helped bring down the current economic downturn and the american people know it. working families have to make difficult choices every day to balance their budget. yet congress still refuses to make the tough choices needed to balance the federal budget. the legislation before us authorizes the federal government to go $2 trillion deeper in debt. in place of real fiscal discipline, it offers a phony pay-as-you-go rule that is more loopholes and exceptions and does nothing to tackle our government's long-term structural deficit.

the good news is that we can take real action to start cutting the deficit today. at a time when our economy is hurting and washington continues to pile debt on future generations it's simple common sense to stand up and say enough is enough. by defeating the previous question and voting no, the house will have an opportunity to consider the end tarp act, legislation i introduced along with mr. paulsen and mr. tiahrt that would finally bring tarp to an end and immediately reduce the amount of money the government must borrow. a vote for this rule is a vote in favor of the status quo in washington. the american people have spoken and it's time this house acts to reduce unnecessary spending. madam speaker, i urge a no

vote. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, at this time i would like to yield four minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, member of the budget committee, mr. andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for four minutes. mr. andrews: thank you. . i'd like to thank my friend from massachusetts for yielding. the constituents i listen to know that both parties are responsible for borrowing a lot of money. they know that we borrowed a significant amount of money in recent times. they also know that the minority party voted to borrow and increase the national debt by 70% during the term of the prior president. they know that this is the worst economic times we've had since the great depression. and they don't know this by reading the newspaper, they know it by reading the balance in

their checking account or reading the foreclosure notice that came in the mail yesterday or reading the want ads because they're looking for a job. they know this. they know that us saying the republicans did wrong and the republicans saying we did wrong isn't going to fix their problem. so what they know is they want to hear us talk about what to do about this burgeoning problem of the national debt. here's our answer, we first believe that the best way to reduce the debt and reduce the deficit is to get people back to work so that individuals and families are able to pay taxes and so that businesses are able to pay taxes off of their profits. the best deficit and debt reduction program is full employment. we have nothing like full employment. nothing like it at all. we've lost huge amounts of jobs and our plan to do something about it has been this, first,

we believe that we should cut taxes for middle class families so they have more money to spend and that's what we did last year. the president proposes to do it again this year. second, we believe that we should cut taxes for small businesses so they can re-invest in their business. that's what we voted for last year, we're prepared to do it again. weble we believe that we should put people back to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges, rail systems, clean water systems, clean energy. that's what we voted to do last year. we are a long way from succeeding in this effort. but here's what has happened, in the last quarter of 2009 nearly 800,000 americans lost their jobs. tomorrow we will hear the reports for the month of january. they won't be good. they won't be good. but they'll be a lot better than 800,000 people losing their jobs which is what happened in the last quarter of last year, of the year before last year.

we've seen growth in the fourth quarter of 5.7%, that means nothing to you if you're still looking at the want ads but it means that there's reason to think that jobs are on the way. and what have we heard about this? the chief economic advisor to senator mccain's presidential campaign said that the key factor that have growth taking place was the recovery bill that we passed last february. that's his words, not mine. the nonpartisan congressional budget office, as mr. mcgovern said, estimates as many as 2.4 million jobs have been created as a result of the recovery bill. we have a long way to go. we've laid out our plan to get there, frankly the minority has not laid out a plan, and we look forward to them doing so. the second thing that you need to do is to restrain and reduce spending. most people will agree that the number-one spending problem is entitlements and the number-one entitle problem is health care. there are two ways to reduce

health care spending. the first way is to restrain spending right now in existing programs. that's what we did in november a bill came to this floor -- we did. in november a bill came to the floor to reform the country's health care system which would have stopped waistful payments to health care providers and people making money off the system to the tune of $480 billion. real deficit reduction that we all voted for. no one, well, one exception, on other side voted to do that. i would ask -- mr. mcgovern: i yield the gentleman -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one additional minute. mr. andrews: i thank the gentleman. the second way to reduce health care costs is to change the health care system so there's more competition, so that insurance companies have to compete for people's business and keep costs down that way. we'll all have a chance to vote on a bill that does that next week. and, yes, the third thing i think that you have to do is to raise some resk knew. the president ran -- raise some

revenue. the president ran, most of us ran on this proposition. we believe that couples who make more than $250,000 a year and individuals who make less than $250,000 a year should be asked to pay the tax rates that they paid before the bush tax cuts of 2001. now we heard in 1993 that this would ruin the economy, it would be the end of the american economy as we know it. mr. begin rich said this, others said this. they were wrong. after they said these things the economy created 23 million new jobs. when we followed their way, the economy lost jobs in the succeeding eight years. the american people want to know what we intend to do and we've said what we intend to do. we know it can be better. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is recognized. >> thank you, madam speaker. it's a good thing we're here on the floor of the house to where we're exempt from things like deceptive practices because this

body would be guilty today. here we are, statutory pay as you go act of 2010, madam speaker, 56 pages of this 32 pages are exemptions to pay as you go. 32 pages are, oh, we say we're going to have pay as you go but 32 of the 56 pages are, i'm sorry, but it does not apply to the following items. madam speaker, that's deceptive. madam speaker, this time i'd like to yield three minutes to the favorite son of dallas, texas, the gentleman, mr. hensarling. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, i heard one of my democratic colleagues say that today is a historic day, that there's a historic opportunity and, yes, history is being made today because never in the history of america has the debt limit been increased to $14.29

had 4 trillion -- $14.294 trillion. here we are again just a few months later enacting yet another increase in the debt limit. the new debt limit again, $14.3 trillion, costing every american household over $120,000. and what do i hear from my democratic colleagues? well, we hear the old blame game. that's the first thing we hear. we hear a lot of names from the past. well, facts are pesky things, madam speaker, and, listen, there's blame to go around. my party spent too much money. i have a chart right here. this congress that controls the purse strings, as we all know, and when republicans controlled congress, this is the blue, these were our deficits. they averaged about $104 billion a year. i'm embarrassed about that. it's much too high. now under three years, three

years, of control by the democrats, we have deficits that are averaging over $1 trillion. $1.1 trillion. that's the difference. what was once -- what was once our annual deficit have become their monthly deficit, madam speaker. that's totally unacceptable. more history was made earlier this week when the president submitted his proposed budget and so many of my friends on the other side of the aisle decided to embrace. it made history. it is breathtaking in its red ink. it spends, it spends $3.8 trillion, the largest budget in american history is being proposed. it proposes a $1.6 trillion deficit, the highest deficit in the history of our nation. over 10% of our economy. we haven't seen debt to economy

ratios like this since world war ii. triples the national debt in just 10 years. yes, this is a historic day because once again we are here to accommodate the spending agenda of the democrats with a historic new increase in the debt limit. and, madam speaker, i would just ask this question, where are the jobs? where are the jobs? we were told that if we went off and if we passed this government stimulus plan that somehow unemployment would never go above 8%. what do we have? we have an extra $1 trillion in debt from that act and we're still mired in double-digit unemployment. you cannot spend, borrow and bail out your way to prosperity. sex session -- mr. sessions: i yield the gentleman an additional minute. mr. hensarling: i thank the gentleman. it's almost a year later and yet the democrats continue to try more of the same.

borrow, spend, bail out your way into prosperity. and what do we have again? an additional $1.2 trillion in debt and over three million more of our fellow countrymen have lost their jobs. small businesses are wondering, who's going to pay for all this? they're concerned about the $2 trillion takeover of health care. who's going to pay for that? they're concerned about the threat of an $800 billion carbon tax, the energy tax, who's going to pay for that? the omnibuses. is it any wonder that jobs are not being created in america? i speak, madam speaker, to small businesses and investors every week and they tell me, we're too scared to create jobs in this environment. are we going to have rapid inflation? is it going to be the huge tax increases? is congress and the president going to vilify us once again? and my colleagues wonder where are the jobs?

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. hensarling: you cannot borrow and spend and bail out your way to prosperity. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgovern: i yield three minutes to mr. edwards. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for three minutes. mr. edwards: madam speaker, getting sailing lessons from the captains of the economic titanic may be interesting but not very helpful. let's get serious. allowing the u.s. treasury to default on our nation's debt for the first time in history is not a responsible option. it would devastate our economy, our stock market and our children's future. republicans know it and democrats know it. we all know it. the responsible action is to start taking control of our deficits today and we can do that by passing the pay as you go law. pay as you go is a principle that citizens understand and live by every day. it's a principle that helped congress in the late 1990's tune the largest deficits in history

created by some of those just spoken into the largest surpluses in american history. unfortunately the republican house leadership killed the house pay as you go rule that had worked so well, they killed it in 2002. and what happened? the largest surpluses in history turned into the largest deficits in american history. the republican-led congress passed massive unpaid for tax cuts and the largest expansion of medicare without paying for a dime of that. those two actions alone added $6 trillion to to our national debt over a period of just one decade. $6 trillion. most of which was borrowed from the chinese and other foreign governments. it's time to put some discipline back into our federal budget processes and that is what pay as you go is all about. i'm proud to have initiated the effort to make this law, this pay-go not a temporary law but a permanent law. had we done that in the 1990's we wouldn't be facing the terrible deficits that we hear decried today.

pay as you go works for families, pay as you go works for businesses and in the 1990's it worked for the american people in the federal budget and when we pass this into law it will work once again and help us get these intolerable federal deficits back into control and preserve our children's future. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you, madam speaker. once again hyperbole that does not match the action. 32 of the 56 pages of this bill are exemptions to pay as you go. 32 of the 56 pages that our good friends are touting as the answer and the right way to do it. but most intriguing is, we've heard that the way to do it is the way it's being done here because it's open and honest. there's not even a vote on the debt limit itself executed in the rule so let's go and vote for pay-go and talk about how responsible we are, oh, at the

same time make sure we fund what we've done, $1.9 trillion. rules committee is pretty good up there, madam speaker, know how to hide things, now how -- know how to hide the facts of the case. the facts of the case are the american people know what's going on. they k-n-o-w what's going on. over the last year i've heard from constituents also and they want a good economy and they want jobs. and the democratic majority is simply not stepping up to this. i'm going to encourage a no vote on the previous question and a no vote on the rule when it's our time to get that done just so our colleagues understand this. we're going to have a vote on this one here today. madam speaker, at this time i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. neugebauer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. neugebauer: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to express great concern on behalf of our children and our grandchildren who are going to bare the burden -- bear the burden of this

expansion of our national debt. we're going to vote on the six entries on the debt limit. after today we will have added $4 trillion to the government credit limit. who's going to pay this bill? congress may address the root of this, it's the spending. i want to point to a chart here that the president the other night came and talked to us about his spending freeze. so here is the impact of the freeze on spending. i know it's a little hard to tell, but if you look real close you see that you can get a 49.27% growth in spending without the freeze, but with the freeze you get a 49.01% increase in spending. it's a gimmick. this whole pay-go thing is a sham. we just had a gentleman in new york that was doing a kind of sham transaction and he's probably going to -- in fact he is in prison for a ponzi scheme.

that's what this whole situation is, it's a ponzi scheme, because what we're doing is we're borrowing and spending and borrowing and spending. we're borrowing the money that we're going to make the interest payments on the debt that we already have and what do the democrats want to do? they want to borrow some more money. . i had an amendment that would begin to decelerate the growth of government. those rules r. they eligible to be considered on this floor today? no. they were denied. if we keep putting off and playing this ponzi scheme game, we are going to keep running up the debt for our children and our grandchildren. what does pay-go really mean? the pay-go vote we are going to have? the american people get to pay and the democrats get to go spending, taxing, and borrowing

just like they have been doing since they took control of this house three years ago. but they want you to think today that they have brought some real reform to this body. we passed pay-go in getch. guess what we have done since we passed pay-go? we raised the debt limit five times. in fact in 1998, a bill that came across this floor, 98% of the time pay-go was either waived or exempted from that. as the gentleman pointed a while ago, i appreciate him doing that, a majority of the text of this bill isn't about how we are going to cut spending, it's about the things that we are going to waive that aren't going to be subject to pay-go. if we are serious about cutting spending in this country because we are serious about this debt, then why aren't we taking steps that really are going to address spending? the reason that they don't want to address spending is they don't intend to cut spending, they intend to raise taxing.

i encourage my colleagues to vote against the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: this debate is laughable. during the republican-controlled congress and under president bush from 2002 to 2006, the debt limit was raised by over $3 trillion. that's just a fact. can't deny that. secondly, why are they so against pay-go? why are they so against being responsible? because they have an alternative plan. we saw it in the budget committee the other day. their plan is try to reduce the deficit and balance the budget by going after medicare and social security. privatizing medicare, privatizing social security, letting medicare wither on the vine. going after these programs which is something they have tried to do time and time again. let me just say this for the record. while the democrats control this congress, we are not going to let you destroy the two most important social programs that have been enacted in this country. at this time i yield one minute

to the gentleman from california, mr. miller. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i find it interesting our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, republicans, say this is a sham. you know what? it was the law for a decade under the clinton administration and i guess it wasn't a sham because the first thing the republicans did was to repeal pay-go so they could run up the massive deficits of the bush years. we are asking to put this back in place because this is how we cleaned up the unsustainable deficits of the reagan years. this is how we got for the first time surplus for this country that had evaporated in the republican irresponsibility. pay-go is not a sham. there's no more sacred cows. you have to choose your priorities. they may be different but you don't get to charge them to the future. you are either going to pay for them, raise revenues, or cut something else. the fact is it worked. it worked and it worked and it worked. the deficit came down. and the fact of the matter is i

offered this in 1983 and we couldn't get the congress because they thought it was too tough. finally under prin -- president clinton we did it, the deficits came down. we left you with an inheritance of $5 trillion that you squandered, wasted, and now you want to not play by the rules. you should pay as you go. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. session: i would love to engage the gentleman if he would take the time. i would like to ask him if he says it's so good, why are 32 of the 56 pages exemptions to pay-go? i would like to find out -- mr. miller: i would be happy to. mr. session: i yield. mr. miller: the fact is the deficit came down. we raise the $300 billion annual deficits of the reagan administration. we did it over time. we left you $5 trillion you squandered. mr. sessions: i would like the gentleman to address why are 32 of the 56 pages -- we are going to blame it on ronald reagan now.

i retain my time. i appreciate the gentleman for blaming this on ronald reagan. i tell you what, i would be very pleased to engage in a dialogue with the gentleman to answer one question. why are you down on the floor, your party, saying this is the real deal and yet 32 of the 56 pages exempt spending? i would enjoy the gentleman doing that. mr. andrews: here's what this say. as the gentleman knows the structure of this bill is that increases in mandatory spending or decreases in revenue must be offset. there are four exceptions. the so-called doctor fix, no class tax cuts, the estate tax fix, which i think both parties have tried to support, then -- mr. session: then why -- we did the same thing.

but it's ok for you. mr. andrews: would the gentleman yield? mr. session: i am engaging with the gentleman. mr. andrews: the jages the gentleman is talking about are the sequestration rules. what that means is if the congress violates pay-as-you-go and it spends more than it should under those rules, then there is an automatic reduction in spending to make the so-called scorecard balance out. to make sure things are brought into balance. sequestration has happened once in the years that pay-as-you-go were in effect. it was during the -- when mr. darman was budget director. it has never happened before. what these rules say if there is a sequestration there are certain programs that are off limits to the sequestration. they are not exceptions to the pay-go rules. mr. sessions: i appreciate the gentleman. i think the best evidence -- reclaiming my time. i think the best evidence that this is not working is the deficit rising from $161 billion in 2007 to $1.4 last

year and $1.6 trillion this year. $161 billion in 2007, the last year $1.6 trillion. i would say the pp 37 rans of the -- preponderance of the evidence does not support the hypothesis. today in this rule we didn't debate the debt limit about being honest about the vote. but we are going to go ahead and have an opportunity, madam speaker, when my colleagues vote no on the previous question that we will be allowed to amend this rule to consider and end tarp act to stop the bailouts which are a part of this problem. this act would immediately terminate the troubled asset relief program and reduce the debt ceiling by the amount of remaining authority authorized tarp funds which is nearly now $200 billion. we cannot continue what we are

doing, spending taxpayer dollars. and having these bailout programs. this is an ineffective program. i ask unanimous consent to insert in the text of the amendment and extraneous material prior to the vote on the p.q. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. sessions: madam speaker, americans are calling for fiscal responsibility. and i welcome the gentleman from tyler, texas, the gentleman, mr. gohmert, to speak for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, madam speaker. we can agree on some things. default is not responsible is one of them. it isn't responsible. but there are things that can be done to avoid defaulting other than raising massive debt ceiling beyond anything anybody ever dreamed of before. and we keep being told that clinton gave you a balanced budget. the president does not vote on a balanced budget.

he signed and wasn't real happy at first about signing a balanced budget that was pushed over there by the republican majority that was voted in in 1994 because of the democrats' irresponsibility. so things went well. as the republicans did what they were elected for a time. but you are right, when president bush got elected, 9/11 happened, and the spending began anew and it was not responsible as it should have been. and when i was elected in 2004, one of the things that we dealt with was too much spending. and it continues. and some of us fought to bring it down, but it was not enough. and as a result the democrats have been in charge since 2007. and so pay-as-you-go, let me tell you i was asked the other day by eric cantor, when we checked our records, you voted for this one of the times they brought it up last year. why did you do that? i said it was my mistake.

i thought they were serious. but they keep waiving and exempting, keep adding it to bills. here it is back again. they won't fool me again because i know they are not serious about it anymore. we heard from art, the architect behind turning around double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates. how did he do it? he cut taxes 30%. and art two weeks ago said you want to deal with this deficit? you you have so much in the way of assets in the western part of the country. you own most of the country. start selling some assets. that's what people do who are responsible. mr. sessions: an additional minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for an additional minute. mr. gohmert: what responsible people do, i appreciate being lectured on responsible, is they bring down spending immediately. you don't have a president or head of a household saying we are going to get responsible

next year. yeah, that's it. next year. you do it now. you don't keep going on. i'll give you a personal, very personal example. we have three kids who have been going through college. we owe a lot on student loans. we have a home i'm not in four, five days out of the week. i love that home. i hope that home would be my home the rest of my life. but we are putting it up for sale because it's an asset. it will allow us to pay off debt. let's start selling some of our assets. instead, oh, no. last week we noted to buy a bunch of the virgin islandses. we voted in here because of the majority, we are going to buy homes in foreign countries for rare dogs and cats. we are going to buy homes for cranes that don't live in this country. it's time to get responsible, all right. let's vote down this bill and let's come back and be responsible. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from

massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgosm: madam speaker, -- mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, again i remind my colleagues, 4d trillion in bush tax cuts that weren't paid for. during republican controlled congress under president bush from 2002 to 2006 the debt limit was raised by over $3 trillion. i didn't hear any complaints at that time. my colleague talks about selling assets. the problem is the assets they want to sell is social security and medicare. we don't want any part of it. i yield two minutes at this point to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. fattah. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. mr. fattah: let me thank the speaker and let me thank my colleague for yielding me this time. if we roll the tape back, i can hear as if it were yesterday alan greenspan, chairman of the fed, testifying before this congress right after president bush was sworn into office about the fact that this $5 trillion surplus and the opportunity to pay off the debt, we were having a discussion about whether it would be good for our economy.

this is in the record of this congress. whether it would be good for our economy to pay off all of our debt or whether we should leave some debt on the books. that's what was projected. it was said at the end of the bush presidency we could be an n tire-l debt-free country. here we are today -- entirely debt-free contry. here we are today in a different situation f you want a balanced budget, you should follow the people who know how to get us there. democrats led the way under president clinton and we had a surplus. we had a balanced budget. we were paying down national debt. and that's where we are returning our country to which is a responsible fiscal policy. and if we see the economic turn around, gross necessaryic -- domestic product, 6% in the negative a year ago. we saw 700,000 jobs lost in january a year ago. what we see now is a $5.7%

increase in gross domestic products. we see purchasing orders up. manufacturing up and today's report by 1%. which is the second in a row. we see home sales up. we see a country on the rebound. and the fact of the matter is that pay-go as structured under this rule not only says you have to pay as you go, it also directs the general accounting office to look for duplicative programs in the federal budget that can be cut. i'm going to be offering additional legislation next week on dealing with the debt that is been accumulated by republican president and republican majority over the last six years of the bush administration. and we can do even more. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. fattah: thank you very much, madam speaker. . mr. sessions: if i could engage mr. mcgovern for the purpose of letting him know i'm down to my final few minutes, i have two

additional speakers, he has a lot of time remaining, i would ask that he engage his speakers and his time as we -- to get us even. mr. mcgovern: may i inquire how much time is remaining on both sides? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas controls three minutes and the gentleman from massachusetts controls nine minutes. mr. mcgovern: ok. i yield myself two minutes, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, we don't need any lectures from the republicans on fiscal discipline. we did it. and we're going to do it again and the president and the leadership here in this house has outlined how we're going to do it. but i want to point outer that my colleagues on the other side don't -- point out that my colleagues on the other side don't like statutory pay-go, they don't want to pay for tax cuts for rich people because they have a different plan and their plan is to reprise the

bush era proposal to privatize medicare and social security. and the budget committee the other day, the ranking republican introduced his plan, which makes it very clear, he wants to privatize social security and medicare. "washington post" writes that this proposal would take medicare from costing an expected 14.3% of g.d.p. in 2080 to less than 4%. that's trillions of dollars not going health care for seniors. the you a daft is breathtaking. the congress -- the audacity is breathtaking. the congressional budget office said new enrollees would no longer receive coverage but be give an voucher with which to purchase private health insurance. c.b.o. says traditional benefits would be reduced below those scheduled on the current law from any workers aged 55 or younger in 2011.

peter orszag says the proposal takes the medicare program and for those 55 and below turns it into a voucher program. and that it introduces individual accounts privatizing social security. madam speaker, we have some challenges before us, but i would like to think that we can all agree that balancing the budget by letting medicare wither on the vine and privatizing social security and destroying two of the most important social programs in the history of the country is not the way to go. and so that's the choice. we either -- i yield myself an additional 0 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: we either do what's fiscally responsible and enact this statutory pay-go and pay as you go. if you want to increase education programs or programs for health care, you have to find an offset, you have have to cut another program or find additional revenue, if you want to give tax cuts to rich people,

you have to pay for it but i think that's the responsible way to go. going their way, going after medicare and social security is the wrong way, we've seen this movement before, we don't want to go there. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: madam speaker, i love it that the gentleman's talking about, oh, these republicans want to privatize social security and medicare. we're responsible. well, what the gentleman forgot is it's the democrats' proposal that takes $400 billion out of medicare. $400 billion. those are not only talking points from the 1990's that the gentleman's hung up on, it's not truth of. i'd like to yield to the gentleman from minnesota one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized for one minute. mr. paulsen: i rise today in strong opposition to this rule which will raise our national debt by nearly $2 trillion. that's 12 zeros. i urge members to vote no on the previous question so we can immediately have the house consider h.r. 4566, the end tarp

act. that will end the tarp bailout program once and for all, saving taxpayers about $200 billion. in the most recent report, the special inspether general of tarp himself said, the program has failed to boost bank lending and it's also failed in halting the spread of home foreclosures. if the program isn't helping small businesses, if the program isn't helping homeowners, two of its major goals, why do we consider -- continue to throw hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money at it? it's time we got serious about sixing -- fixing our national fiscal house and spending problems. i urge members to vote no on the previous question so they can bring up the end tarp act, we can end the bailouts once and for all and not raise the debt ceiling by nearly $2 trillion. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, i again inquire how much time i have remaining. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts

controls 6 1/2 minutes and the gentleman from texas controls 1 1/2 minutes. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, i yield myself three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, we've had an enlightening debate here today and i guess the difference between democrats and republicans couldn't be clearer. and this debate couldn't come at a better time. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe a that we should balance the budget by going after medicare and social security. they introduced a -- an alternative budget in the budget committee, it's there right in black and white, easy to understand, no one denies it. mr. hensarling who was on the floor earlier was on msnbc talking about the neat to, -- need to, quote, reengineer social security, which is a word for -- code word for privatization. my colleagues don't support pay-go and they don't support increasing the debt limit. i guess that means they'd rather play politics than act responsibly to fix the problems that this country faces. president obama said that fixing

this economy would not be easy and it wouldn't happen overnight. and that's clear. he took office and we implemented a bold plan to jump start the economy and in the fourth quarter we saw the u.s. economy grow at 5.-- at a 5.7% rate. mark zandi, the co-founder of moodies economy.com and former mccain economic advisor said, we're headed -- headed in the right direction, the recovery has begun. i think prospects are that job growth will continue and we'll have enough job growth to bring up unemployment and good things will happen, end quote. that's a republican economist. instead of working together to fix the economy, my republican colleagues have decided to try and use this recession for political gain. they've obstructed and opposed all efforts to jumpstart the economy, they voted against the recovery act which put millions of people to work and saved millions of jobs. they would have rather fired cops and firefighters and teachers. they would have denied new emerging industries the important money to hire more

people. they voted against the jobs creation bill and except for one brave vote against the health care bill that according to the c.b.o. would reduce the deficit. instead they've dusted off the tired old stand bis. corporate tax cuts and privatization of social security and medicare. unfortunately they're stuck in the past and have simply repeat -- and are simply repeating the mistakes that you the us here in the first place. we were elected to do responsible things, to do what's right. we were elect to solve problems and make this country and the world a better place. republicans say we can't default on our debt and we'll reduce that debt through pay-go, bending the cost on health care and curving spending. i think we need to look at all parts of federal spending, including wasteful and unnecessary spending of the defense department, but it's clear we need to prioritize our spending. in fact, democrats say we're going to cut captain gains, something the republicans have been telling you for years, but republicans are opposing that, too, simply because president obama is proposing it. madam speaker, there's a time and a place for politics and i

get that. but to paraphrase john mccain, sometimes you have to put country first and it's unfortunate that my republican colleagues would rather play politics instead of acting responsibly to attack our country's problems. madam speaker, this time i yield the remaining time -- i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you, madam speaker. in the remaining time i would just like to say that i think the american people are watching and they are listening and they heard a good debate here on the floor about, you know, about these corporations that republicans try and get all these tax breaks for all these corporations. well, i'd like to remind the gentleman, those are called employers and employers in this country have the second highest tax rate of any country in the world. darn right republicans are trying to cut taxes because we want the american people to get employed again and attacking

employers is the key thrust of what the democratic objective is all about. no wonder we've lost jobs. we're attacking employers, attacking employers. the president, the gentleman, mr. hoyer, the speaker, ms. pelosi, attacking employers. no wonder week of got an unemployment problem. look, this budget is filled with reckless spending and unsustainable debt. don't blame that on somebody else. accept the responsibility yourself. this is the biggest budget we've ever had and for the president to come and say, as a take away, just so you know, american people, we're going to start this spending process to where we freeze spending, it's really a joke. the bottom line is that the american people know what the problem is. they've clued in on it. they even know the pages of the bills where they have he seen the majority party try and take advantage of the taxpayer, rip

health care out from their advantage where they could have their own health care, take dollars away from their employers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. sessions: i thank you, madam speaker, and i'll tell you the republican party is going to stand up for jobs again today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, how much time do i have left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts controls 3 1/2 minutes. mr. mcgovern: i yield myself one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, before i yield to our last speaker, let me again just remind my colleagues what this debate is about. it's about whether we should pay as we go. that's what families do. that's what we should do here. i don't know why that's a radical idea in the republican conference, but it's the responsible thing to do. my friends on the other side are responsible for creating the second -- for creating this economic mess. they should share the responsibility with us now to get this economy out of the ditch. and one final thing, madam speaker, trying to balance the budget by going after social security and medicare is the

wrong way to go. these are important programs that provide important benefits mostly to our senior citizens and we should not allow them to wither on the vine or be subject to a republican budget that would basically take a meat axe to those programs. that's the wrong way to go. at this time, madam speaker, i would yield -- give the remaining time to -- i will give the remaining time to the majority leader to close, mr. hoyer. who's -- let me take 30 more seconds, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, again i would remind my colleagues that we are facing tough times but tough times require tough decisions and statutory pay as you go to basically pay our way is the responsible thing. we can't keep on adding to our deficit, to our debt.

we have a responsibility to our kids and our grandkids. i would ask my republican colleagues to join with us. if they don't want to do it, then i guess we'll have to do the responsible thing on our own. i would again urge my colleagues to vote for the rule and at this point i would yield the remaining time to our distinguished majority leader, mr. hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the majority leader is recognized. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the last time we voted on this issue the floor was packed on both sides of the aisle. and i observed at that time that -- and i repeat today, i really doubt that there are any of the 435 of us, madam speaker, who believe that this matter that is included in this rule ought to be defeated.

i would hope that's the case. the gentleman who represents the minority party on the rules committee has confronted this issue in the past. he confronted it in 2002, he confronted it in 2003, he confronted it in 2004 and again in 2005. on each of those occasions he voted to increase the debt limit. his party was in charge. unfortunately my party voted against it at that point in time. because we weren't in charge. the point i make is that the american public too often believes that we do not do what we think is the responsible thing for our country but what we think is the right thing to do from the perspective of our

party. they're not impressed by that kind of action. in fact, not only did mr. sessions vote to increase the debt limit numerous occasions, many of us voted against it. essentially for the same reasons, because we said the other party had incurred liabilities with which we did not agree. . i'm sure we could all say that. but the fact of the matter is, america, voting through its representatives in the house and in the senate, incurred those liabilities. creditors throughout the world relied on the fact that the united states of america, the

world's wealthiest nation, would in fact pay its bills. i will say that in the future when this issue comes up i will not repeat again the mistakes that i made in the past. i said that last time. if it so happens that some time in the future the other party is in control and we come to the necessaryity of ensuring that america could pay its bills, it will be my intention to vote with the majority party to increase the debt limit. not because i want to see us deficit spend, i don't. i voted for constitutional amendments to balance the budget, to constrain the spending of this body. in a few minutes i will speak strongly in favor of adopting statutory pay-go which is made

in order by this rule. statutory pay-go will be a constraint on the spending this congress votes for. a restraint to bring in line spending on mandatory items with the revenues and abilities that we have. so i say to both sides of the aisle, this is not a vote about party. this is a vote about country. there is no one in this room, no one who has raised their hand to defend and protect the constitution of the united states, not one of us who honestly can say that it is an alternative available to us to not ensure that america can pay its bills. that's what this is about. that's why my friends on the

republican side when you were in charge you voted in some cases almost to a person, almost unanimously, to increase the debt five times under president bush. very frankly i tell my friends on the republican side when president bush was in office, we did the same thing you're going to do today. we pretended that somehow because we did not agree with the policies that had led us to the place where we incurred those debts, that somehow we would take no responsibility for paying those debts. ladies and gentlemen, our creditors around the world on whom we are now relying in order to fund our government don't really care about our partisan politics. they do care, however, about

the will we have to meet our responsibilities, to pay our bills. to meet our obligations to them. everybody understands that if we did not increase this debt limit, at some point in time not too long thereafter, checks to social security recipients would have to stop. checks to veterans would have to stop. checks to employees who work for the government would have to stop. no one thinks that's a rational alternative. we may think there ought to be less or more but no one thinks we ought to have none. so i say to my colleagues this is a vote for american responsibility. not republican responsibility or democratic responsibility, but for american responsibility. both of us, both of us have

pursued politics in this matter. the american public is hopeful as we all can see that at some point in time we all realize that playing politics is not the policy that americans want us to pursue. they want us to pursue the well-being of our country and of our citizens. we have incurred debts. we expect people to pay the debts they owe us. and they in turn expect the same. that's what this vote is about. so there are not a lot of members on this floor, i hope a lot of members, madam speaker, are watching. because i hope when they come to the floor to vote for this rule which will deem the

authorization of the ability of america to meet its responsibilities that they will vote for their country, for our citizens, and for our responsibility. it's the right thing to do. every one of us on each side of the aisle, republican or democrat, knows it's the right thing to do. let's do the right thing. i urge support of this rule. i urge support of the statutory pay-go provision made in order by this rule. which will say that notwithstanding the fact that we have authorized additional debt, we are also at the same time going to constrain the incuring of additional debt beyond that which we are prepared to pay for. that's what families have to

do. that's what we need to do. vote for this rule. it's the right thing to do. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. mr. sessions: madam speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 , proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. votes will be taken in the following order. suspend the rules and adopting house resolution 1022, ordering

the previous question on house resolution 1065, adopting house resolution 1065, if ordered, and suspend the rules and passing h.r. 4532. the first and third electronic votes will be conducted as 15-minute votes. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is on the -- is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from georgia, mr. johnson, to suspend the rules and agree to h.res. 1022 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1022, resolution honoring the life and sacrifice of medgar evers and congratulating the united states navy for naming a supply ship after medgar evers. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device.

by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote.