mr. speaker, the american people are way ahead of the politicians. they have been telling us over and over again we want a balance approach to reducing our deficits. one in five americans has said very clearly, we support the republican slash and burn default plan that we see before us that only cuts services to americans to try to help us balance our budget. but nearly three times as many americans have been saying over and over again, we want to see a balanced approach between those cuts to very important services, a little bit of pain, but also tax increases on all those folks who have beetaking advantage of those tax loopholes and making a ton of money. the american people don't think it's a good idea to cut medicare and social security and cut mediid, to protect tax loopholes for special interests. they've been seeing that over and over. but here's the biggest clue that r republican colleagues aren't

listening to. the american people have said over and over that the biggest deficit our country faces today is a jobs deficit. after 204 ys as the majority, republicans have only given us a slash and burn politics that has created not one single job for hardworking middle class families. in fact, instead of creating jobs, their major pieces of legislation could potentially cost two million more americans to lose their jobs. and the worst thing about this whole chade is that every single person here in this room today knows that this bill that we're discussing today won't go anywhere. we face the very real possibility of an historic default in under a week and here we are spitting -- spinning our wheels. we all agree our nation must not default on its past obligations. the republican members here must abandoned their my way or the ghway approach and work across the aisle on a balanced, bipartisan agreement to reduce our deficit, create jobs and

protect ouseniors and our middle clals. i say to my republican friends, america is not -- class. i say to my republican friends, america is not short on work ethic, we're short ojobs. it's time to get to the business of america and create those jobs. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: mr. speaker, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: it is now my pleasure to yield two minutes to the gentleman who is a member of our committee and the chair of our caucus. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from connecticut for two minutes. mr. larson: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you, mr. levin. at this very moment the whole world is watching in on the united states congress. it is a sad day for the united states congress. we in america, the preeminent military, economic and cultural

leaders in the world are governing like we're a thirled world country -- third world country. t.s.a. sad time for this body -- it is a sad time for this body that we cannot come together. sad is the american public who looks in at this and recognizes that it's theater, except that it's become the theater of the absurd. in a frail recovery where americans are already overburdened, what we have in front of us is a manufactured ideological crisis. 18 times the debt ceiling was raised for ronald reagan. eight times for george bush. because they would never stand in this body to see a default on the full faith and credit of the united states. as the world looks in and we default on a global economy and we default, march toward

defaulting on a national economy, the most ruinous thing is that we are defaulting on household economies. what this body should be focusing on is dealing with this deficit and focusing, as mr. becerra said, on the real default that's taken place in congress, the lack ojob creation, the need to put people back to work so that we can restore the dignity that only comes when people are able to sit across their dining table and look at one another and know that they have the dignity that comes from a job. . we need not go through this hostage situation. why are we holding the american people hostage? let's put america back to work. we are a better nation and a better body than that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, has 1 1/2 minutes. mr. levin: are you going to close? mr. camp: i'm going to close. mr. levin: i yield one minute to the the gentlelady from alabama. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from alabama. >> i am completely disappointed in our failure to work together. our constituents sent us here to solve america's problems not create moreroblems for them. the constituents of the 7th congrssional dirict of alabama september me here to make sure i better their lives, not create fear and instability. the entire world is watching us. and what are we showing them? we are showing them that we are completely detached from reality and that we don't care about their families, local governments, states and businesses and what they're facing. america's debts are serious. we all know that. we have to put our fiscal house

in order. it's how we go about it. no matter how we got here, we have bills to pay and we must pay our bills. that's what we do, we pay our bill. the bill that is before us does not do that. what it does, it holds hostage america's promise, the promise that we made to students and to seniors, for social security, medicare and medicaid. it's unfair, i ask my colleagues in this house to vote against the bill on the floor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp, continue to reserve? mr. camp: continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: this is an and difficult occasion of responsibility. this bill is going towhere and tries to fill the wounds of a divided republican caucus.

we should do better and we will do better. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield myself such time as i may csume. and i have been listening to my friends on the other side for the course of this afternoon and i would just say to them, where is your plan? where is your legislation to address the debt problems of the united states? where are your ideas in legislation that is scored by the congressional budget office so that you could bring your alternative to the floor? this isn't the direction you want to go? where is your plan? i noticed the other side, the senate, has not passed a budget in more than 800 days. frankly if they passed a budget on the other side, we might not be in this situation because we would have the avenue of reconciliation available to us. th is a second congress. the other body hasn't passed a

budget. we've got no ideas from our friends from the other side how to address this issue. this is the secd proposal that we have put forward that has been in legislative form, that has been scored where you can address the problems that are cing this country -- no, i will not yield. >> regular order, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the time is controlled by the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: we have had lots of rhetoric from the other side but no concrete plan. we have had lots of press releases from the other side, but n proposal. even the president has not articulated one spending cut after giving us three years of trillion dollar deficits, after putting us on a path to more than double the debt of this country in less than half the time of the previous administration. i would say this is the proposal

that will get our country on to a fiscal path that will prevent default and address the long-term debt obligations that this nation has run up, frankly, under bo parties but need to dress them now because the trajectory has become much worse in recent years. this is the plan. i urge a yes vote and i ask unanimous consent that the balance of my time be yielded to the dget committee. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection? the gentleman has two minutes remaining and without objection, it will be yielded to the chairman of the budget committee. it is now in order under the rule to have 30 minutes of debate controlled by the committee on the budget, mr. ryan of wisconsin, the chairman of the committee will control7 minutes and mr. van hollen of maryland will control 15 minutes.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair would recognize the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, may i ask how much time is remaining between the two sides? the speaker pro tempore: you have 17. he has 15. mr. ryan: i would like to yield two minutes to a gentleman from oklahoma, mr. lankford, member of the budget committee. mr. lankford:. i speak in support of this bill. i came on as a freshman and in january of this year, we were already talking about th moment. and for months the conversation

has been, how do we reach a point of agreement. there have been lots of ideas that have been floated around and very few put down in writing. but the ideas seem to circle around a central theme, how can we find a middle ground to be able to resolve this issue. i propose this bill is that middle ground. the debt reduction that's in it was the framework that was formed in the biden talks. the select committee that's in it is something veryimportant to the senate that harry reid raised that idea. the proposal to have a balanced budget amendment is very important to republicans who say let's have a moment to discuss that and the statutory caps that are coming are very important to republicans. this is a bill that has been discussed in its essence and in its core in a bipartisan fashion. and while we search for a compromise, i would suggest that we have found it and we are about to vote on it. this is a moment to be able to look at it and say it is not the

raconian monster that has been described. it allows a simple way to be able to handle one of the most difficult issues that we have dealt with in a very long time. ultimate, we bump up against an issue that is significant because of this one key truth. why has this not been a problem before? why haven't we passed it and added to the debt ceiling year after year after year. we have done that but reached $14 tllion and 100% of g.d.p. and we have to deal seriously with how do we start paying down our debt, not just our interest payments but our debt. at this moment in time, it becomes a key moment to say let's resolve the problem and deal with difficult issues and work on these together. both parties, both houses and be able to settle the issue, but do it in a form that forms long-term solutions. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from maryland, mr.

van hollen. mr. van hollen: sthanching you, mr. speaker -- thank you, mr. speaker. it's high time to stop playing rush and rule et with the american economy and american jobs and that's what this will measure does. it says ok, america, we are going to pay america's bills, but only for five more months and only if we put in motion a plan that will end the medicare guarantee and slash education. the proposal befo us today will put the american economy and american jobs at even greater jeopardy over the next five months than they are today. it deliberately, by choice, keeps the economy under a cloud of instability and uncertainty. it chooses to risk higher interest rates and shrinking retirement funds a hit on every american family. so why would we choose to intentionally keep this cloud hanging over the country and the american people?

we're told that we have to do it in order to force this congress toreduce the deficit. that's what we're told. but the actions tell a very different story. the actions suggest this is not about reducing the deficit, it's about reducing the deficit in a particular way, the way the republican plan wants to reduce the deficit. that's why our republican colleagues walked out of talks three times and have rejected the balanced approach and framework put forward by the president that says let's do $4 trillion in deficit reduction and delrs 3 trillion in spending cuts. and asking the folks at the very top to go back to the rates they were paying during the clinton administration. our republican colleagues rejected that approach to reducing the deficit because they don't want to end these tax breaks for the purpose of reducing the deficit. in fact, passed a piece of

legislation just a week ago that says we are going to keep america om paying our bills unless we enact a constitutional amendment that makes it easier to cut medicare and soal security than it does to cut special interests subsidies. a majority vote, but you need supermajority if you want to cut corporate x breaks for the purpose of reducing the deficit. that's what this is all about. this particula issue on the debt ceiling is a manufactured crisis. we have all heard when president reagan was president, raised it 17 times. this is a manufactured crisis in order to force and squeeze through a particular deficit reduction plan, a deficit reduction plan that would end the medicare guarantee, cut education, and yet protect the special interest tax breaks and breaks at the very top. if we want to be serious about the deficit, we ned a banced approach, but let's not hold the entiremerican economy hostage.

let's not put us on five months to five months interest rate and credit worthyness watches in order to jam through a particular idea on deficit reduction. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlemareserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan. mr. ryan: i yield myself one minute to respond. i enjoyed listening to the talking points but i don't think they apply to this bill. rush and roulette, tis is the second piece of legislation we brought to the floor to responsibly raise the debt limit while cutting spending. nufactured crisis, who went on television to scare senior citizens that their social security checksighte in doubt? the president of the united states. mr. speaker, the cuts in this bill wer agreed to in a bipartisan group. the level of cuts in this bill are $2 billion off the senate majority leader's cuts in his bill. these were agreed to o a

bipartisan bas. we're cutting spending, not as much as we want, but at least we're cutting spending. rushnd roulette is not getting debt limit under control. this is scaring seniors into giving this cntry another blank check and keep spending money we don't have. i yield two minutes to the the gentleman from new hampshire. mr. guinta: i rise to support the bill before us, the budget control act of 2011. mr. speaker, this is about leadership and ability and willingness of this body to do something right, not for partisan purposes but for spending reductions and for the country. i hear from the other side that they are concerned about this

component and that component, but what i don't see is a plan and a solution. we have not put one, but two different proposals, the one i co-sponsored cut, cap and balance is the most appropriate way to move forward, but the senate has decided they don't want to take up th piece of leglation, so we are here to compromise and work with the other side of the aisle to get something accomplished on behalf of real structural change in h we spend taxpayer dollars, other people's money. i to an oath to make sure i uphold the constitution. i also will make sure that i represent new hampshire in the manner in which they would like me to represent them. and i contend that they would like us to reduce expenditures, reduce our debt, reduce our deficit and this bill does that. they want to see us cap spending. we all have to live within the ans we have. we take in $2 trillion a year and spending $3.7 trillion.

nobody in america has that balance sheet. the time now to act. no more partisan polits, or baseless charges from members of this body. let's do the right thing and let's make sure that we can send a message to the country that we can work in a bipartisan fashion to do what everybody understands what we need to do which is spend no more than we take in. and in exchange for that, we allow this president to raise the debt ceiling, to pay for the 41 cents of every dollar that we contin to borrow. that policy has to stop. those days are over. i support this bill and i urge my colleagues here in the house and the senate to do the same. i yield back. . >> we keep hearing from our

colleagues that this was put forward by the president. mr. van hollen: he said he'll do $3 in spending cuts for $1 in revenue for debt reduction. if somne wants to take us up on that option, that would be terrific. because our republican colleagues walked out of that discussion, senator reid did put on the table a proposal that has been scored by the congressional budget office, i have their score in my hand, dated july 27, 2011, it would reduce the deficit by $2.2 trillion, more than the $917 billion score in the republican proposal. this is a nonpartisan, independent, c.b.o. score. the difference is, he would raise the debt ceiling for two years, so we don't keep the economy der a cloud, so we don't keep the threat of higher interest rates going into effect which would be a hit on every american family. why we would choose to deliberately keep the economy

under a cloud and put jobs at risk is a mystery. the only answer is, our republican colleagues want to use that as a forcing mechanism to ultimately put in place their budget plan which does end the medicare guarantee, does slash education, and does protect corporate tax loopholes. with that, i yield one minute to a terrific member of the budget committee, ms. schwartz, the gentlelady from pennsylvania. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. schwartz: we are faced with an important moment for our nation. a moment of economic uncertainty a moment to significantly reduce our deficit and make the right choices for our future. the boehner bill does neither and as a result there little support from either side of the aisle because it does not seriously reduce the deficit and ensures uncertainty in the markets for many, many months ahead and cu $ trillion over 10 years. speaker boehner had the

opportunity to reduce the deficinot by $1 trillion but $4 trillion and walked away from that plan. the gang of six a bipartisan effort, reduced the deficit by $3 trillion and he rejected that plan as well. this moment is about choices. speaker boner made a choice to walk away from the plan that offered trillions in deficit reduction and subts constituted instead a political document with significantly less deficit reduction. this is not a serious proposal. we have little time to avoid default. let's stop wasting time. members from both sides of the aisle should reject this bill, it's an adequate -- it's an inadequate response to deficit reduction and the harm it will do to the nation's economy. the chair: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from lahoma, mr. cole. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: every now and then you need to step back and look

at the record and put the rhetoric aside. when this jority showed up in january of this last year, we found a situation where our fends on the other side of the aisle had failed to write a budget for this year, failed to pass any appropriations bills, and had just sort of gone home. we had a president who had appointed a debt reduction commission and yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all. not one. then we heard the president come and address us in this chamber, state of the union message, didn't bostonner to mention the looming debt crisis for 35 minutes. 35 minutes. then the first serious proposal we got from that president, our president, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable, when it was brought up in the united states senate, which his bod -- which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0.

the the president wanted to have a free vote on raising the debt ceiling. let's just raise it, go ahead, and see what happens. we obviously don't support that. we think there ought to be spend regular duckses but we said, sure, you've got the vote. fewer than 100 of my friends on the other side supported their own president when he asked for that vote. so we clearly weren't sufficiently motivated to do that. now we've reached a point where, last week, we actually did raise the debt ceiling by $2.7 trillion, we did institute cuts that, frankly, are going to happen anyway they coincide with my friend mr. ryan's budget and put caps on long-term spending and said, just give the american people a chance. just a chance, vote on a balancedudget amendment. not asking that it pass, but don't you think they ought to have the right through their state legislatures to make that decision?

we were denied that. i ask the gentleman for an additional minute. mr. ryan: i yield the gentleman an adegreesal minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: now we are at a point where we are about to once again raise the debt ceiling and do it in a responsible way, a way that i predict will probably become the pattern in the future this body should never raise the debt ceiling again automatically. we've done it on our side, our friends have done it, we should always couple it with spen regular straint and reform. that's what we're doing in this measure this majority has enacted a budget, my friend has taken a lot of flak for that budget, but i'm proud to be associated with it, body has, or will twice raise the debt ceiling and as for the president's plan whear about, i'd just like to see it. just once. i haven't seen anything or heard anything like this since richard nixon had a secret plan to end the war. the president must have a secret plan because it's not on

paper, it's not been scored, it's not been publicly presented to anybody. to act like -- and by the way, one last thing on that, if speaker reid -- excuse me, an additional minute? mr. ryan: yield an additional minute mr. cole: if the leader's plan scores at $2.2 trillion, i guess we have a $4 trillion defici we have $3 trillion and we don't count the extra trillion which is automatic becausehe wars are ending. i think we ought to up ours, we have a $4 trillion plan, ought to give the majorityleader the credit for that, for finding that additional trillion and if you'll just vote for this, we'll have your magic $4 trillion plan done. our three, senator reid's one that adds up to what we wanted. let's pass it, give the senate an opptunity to pass it and give the president an opportunity to sign it.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. van hollen: i don't think the american people want us to be doing this every five months, that it becomes business as usual that we put the country through this crisis situation with the threat of rising interest rates and all the negative economic consequences that would happen and because the grand babar -- bargain is now off the table, senator reid has put forward a proposal, and again, i have the c.b.o. scoring of it right here, $2.2 trillion, more than the proposal, more cuts than the proposal on the table here from our republican leagues, the big difference being, he doesn' want to say every five months, let's puthe country into economic crisis and all the uncertainty between now and five months from now that that will create. with that, i yield one minute to mr. ryan a terrific member of the budget committee from ohio.

mr. ryan: i thank the gentleman. one of the issues we want on the table here is revenue. the top 400 wealthiest people in the united states of america pay 17% tax rate. my constituents in youngstown and akron, ohio, pay a heck of a lot more than 17%. we hear our friends on the other side of the aisle, how all these changes need to occur, how all these problems need to be solved, but heaven forbid, mr. speaker, we ask the 400 wealthiest families in the united states of america to maybe be a little bit patriotic and help us ou and you'll say, well these are the job creators. these taxes won't go into place for another year or two. we've got to get through this downturn. but we need to send a message to the bond market that we are serious. and for us to be this

irresponsible and not ask the wealthiest, what a they being asked to sacrifice here? what are the top 1%, what are we asking them to sacrifice? i ask for an additional 15 seconds. mr. van hollen: i yield an additional 15 seconds. mr. ryan: one final point. the debt we are now debating was run up by our friends on the other side. two wars, the bush tax cut and a prescription drug plan, all on the credit card, and now the same people who worked their way up in the leadership position are saying, we're not going to pay the bill. this is irresponsible. let's solve this in a lanced way and let's ask for some shared sacrifice. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, let me -- i yield myself two minutes. the gentleman, my friend from maryland, keeps talking about the reid plan, that the senate majority leader, i've got the c.b.o. score, it says $2.2 trillion.

$2.2 trillion increase that means it doesn't raise the debt limit less than we cut spending, so it cuts less, but more importantly, $1.3 trillion of that money is accounting tricks and budget gimmicks. mr. speaker, the american people are tired of all the accounting tricks and the budget gimmicks that go on in washington. let me explain what $1.3 trillion of this does. it says that, imagine that we're at war for 10 years, in afghanistan and iraq at surge levels. we assume we're going to be fighting this war for 10 more years, with over 100,000 troops in afghanistan and oh, gosh, wait, we're going to withdraw our troops in 2014. $1 trillion in savings. i've got a better idea. let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost

$5 trillion today. and then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. we could save $5 trillion. wait, i've got a better idea. our debt is $14 trillion. let's come up with a new plan to spend $14 trillion, then rescind it the next day and let's save $14 trillion. this stuff is fiscal fantasy. you can't make this stuff up, mr. speaker. suggesting that we're going to be in a war at these levels for 10 more years when everybody knows we've already decided not to do that, that does not get us $1.3 trillion in spending cuts. only in washington can you add up math like that. we need real spending cuts. i yield myself an additional minute to say, this is getting serious,r. speaker.

very serious. we can't keep spendg money we just don't have. 42 cents of every dollar coming out of this place is borrowed money. it doesn't just threaten our children and grandchildren anymore. it is hurting our economy today. half of that money is coming from other countries like china. why on earth do we want to give the president a blank check to ke doing that, giving our sovereignty and self-determination to other countrieto loan us money to fund our government? those kay days have got to end. -- those days have got to end. this bill doesn't cut as much as we want. we passed a bill with $6.2 trillion in spending cuts, in real cuts. this cuts about $1 trillion. let's cut this $1 trillion and bank that money and cut some more. that's what we're trying to do, be responsible. the problem isn't that we don't tax americans enough.

the problem is we're spending way too much money. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: of course we should be reducing the deficit. of course we should make sure that we don't rely on the chinese as our bankers anymore. which is why it's so ironic that our republican colleagues refuse to cut suidies for oil companies by one penny for the purpose of reducing the deficit so we don't have to rely on borrowing from china anymore. in fact if you look at exxon o's quarterly profits today, they're through the roof. i'm all for having exxon make money, but why should they have taxpayer money on top of it? yet our republican colleagues get up here and talk about how we're dependent on china but they don't want to break that dependency if it means actually asking the top oil companies to get rid of their subsidiers in

purpose of deficit reduction. so let's get serious. now, with respect to the plan that's been put forward by senator reid, i listen to my colleague, i would point out to the body that if you look at the republican budget and the documents that accompanied it, when they pointed out what their savings were relative to te c.o. baseline, they also show $1 trillion in savings from the global war on terrorism. as my friend -- >> will the gentleman yield? mr. van hollen: as my friend, the chairman, knows at's the function of the way the congressional budget office scores, but it is also a fact that whethe republican budget was presented, they presented both relative to the prident's baseline and the congressional budget baseline. i further make the point, even if you take that off the table the proposal by senator reid cuts, cuts immediately more on spending than the republican proposal before us today. the difference being he esn't keep the economy hanging under

a cloud for five months and make this country go through this exercise just by the end of december. and with that i would yield a minute to the distinguished member of congress from illinois, mr. jackson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois. mr. jackson: soon, my colleagues will be quoting dr. king's i have a dream speech, and here's the quote they will not read and they will ignore. in a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent wrotes of the constitution and the declaration of independence they were signing a promissory note. this note was a promise that men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed e unalien able rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. america has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as the men of color are concerned. america has given the people a bad check, a check that has come back marked insufficient funds.

but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. the problem, mr. chairman, is not that we spend, it's that's we don't honor our oblitions. we a a nation that spends billions of dollars to put a man on the moon, fund the war in afghanistan, fund the war in iraq but we can't find the money in this congress to put a man on his own two feet right here in america. and that is something more fundamental, mr. speaker, that's going on here. this president is being treated differently than other presidents. no other president has been stuck up, shook down or held hostage as the president of the united states over this. this is fundamentally unfair, mr. speaker, to change the rule in the middle of t game. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. and the chair would respectfully ask that members heed the gavel and only consume the amount yielded to them by the floor managers. the chair would recognize the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, i'd yield o minutes to the gentleman fr texas, the chairman of the house republican conference, the

gentleman from texas, mr. hensarling. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. hensarling: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, this nation has a debt crisis, not because we are undertaxed but because washington spes too much. and here we are days before the president's august 2eadline and the prident of the united states has yet to submit a plan to deal with the debt crisis. here we are days away from the president's august 2 deadline and the united states senate has yet to pass a single plan. days before the president august 2 deadline not only have house republicans passed their first plan, in a matter of hourwe will vote on another plan to deal with the debt crisis that we must remember is spending driven.

it's the president's spending that brought us here. now, the bill that we're bringing to the house floor, mr. speaker, is not the ultimate solution. but, mr. speaker, it assures that this nation pays its current bills like families, like small businesses have to. it gives us the opportunity to actually cut spending. you know, the amounts are not what they shoulde, mr. speaker, but for the second year in a row we will have the opportunity to actually reduce spending to save our country and save our children's future. but most importantly, mr. speaker, within this legislation is the opportunity that brings us the ultimate solution and that, mr. speaker, is a balanced budget amendment to the united states cotitution. every family, every small business, almost every state has a provision that says we

have to balance our budget. should we expect less of a great nation? maybe that's why we have the $14 trillion in debt. we have to act today, approve this bill, balance the budget for our children and future generations. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland, mr. van hollen. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan. mr. ryan: i'll yield myself two minus at this time, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, this legislation before us today is a down payment. does this cut the amount of money we need to save our country from a death debt crisis? no. our budget does that. this is 2/3 of the spending cuts we called for in discretionary spending. is i100% of the cuts we asked for? no. it's 2/3 of the cuts we asked for. what does the president's budget do? it actually spends $130 billion

more. i'll take 2/3 of the step in the right direction instead of going in the wrong direction, the president's plan. the congressional budget office, we asked them to take a look at the president's framework. c.b.o. director told me under oath they can't score speeches. this plan reject the president's fiscal demands for tax increases and it rejects its political demands for a blank check to get them through the election. what we are doing here today is getting serious about getting spending under control. the spending cuts that are in this bill were already agreed to by bipartisan talks. why are people hiding from that? this is the second bill we will have passed to avoid a default. that's responsible. it has been 820 days, 820 days since the senate even tried

passing a budget. the president, as we know, has yet to offer a plan to fix this problem. we passed a budget to fix this problem. we passed a man to deal with the debt limit, and now we're passing another plan based upon mutually agreed to spending cuts that gets 2/3 of the cuts we already called for in this cagory of government. that's reasonable. that's responsible. and that is what we should be doing. instead, we hear all this empty rhetoric and all this call for a blank check and all these accounting gimmicks and budget gimmicks from the other side who are trying to doverything they can to do anything but cut spending. and with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. e gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. just to be very clear, the senate leader, the democratic leader, mr. reid, has put on the table a plan that would cut

more immediately than the republican plan before us today even if you don't include, even if you don't include the overseas contingency account funding. the difference is he would not put our economy in jeopardy again just five months fm now as the republican plan did. with that i yield one minute to the gentleman from virginia, mr. scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, we're talking about being serious, and here we're considering a $2 trillion bill, $200 billion a year, slapped together behind closed doors, less than 24 hours when it was printed, no amendments that 53 senators already say they're going to oppose. we have a situation where last december we passed $400 billion a year tax cuts, and now everybody says we need $400 billion a year in deficit reduction. this bill does not cut

anything. it has caps. promises for cuts in the future. and we don't know what those cuts are going to be. mr. ryan: will the gentleman yield? mr. scott: we know in a continuing resolution -- i only have one minute. f.b.i. agents, air traffic controllers, flu shots, water grants, schools, scientific research, transportation, health and human servis, we can expect all those to be cut in the future all to preserve tax cuts, many for millionaires and oil companies. that's not right. let's go through the regular process so we know what we're doing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. you know what we've seen play out here is a few years back we provided tax breaks that went disproportionately to the very rich in the country. now, all of a sudden we say, well, and we can't pay our bills any more. a good part of that reason

ing the tax cuts, but how are we going to deal with these bills? we are going to sock it to middle-class america, whether it's through cuts in education or cuts in medicare and because we don't want to cut oil subsidies. just today exxon reported huge profits. god bless them for making all this money, but why do they need any of ours, our taxpayer money? and that is the rub of the issue. it's not whether we reduce the deficit. it's how. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair has been advised that it's the intention of the chamber -- chairman of the budget committee, mr. ryan, to hold on to his one minute. the gentleman from maryland has a minute and 3/4 and the chair has been advised that whenever you're done with whatever portion you are going to use we will go through other legislation.

mr. van hollen: so i understand -- if i were to use 3/4 of a minute i could reserve a minute later, is that correct? the speaker pro tempore: that's exactly right. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself 45 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. van hollen: just to say we as body needs to do two things. number one, we need to make sure the united states pays its bills. we need to make sure it pays its bills and we shouldn't do it in a way that puts the american economy in jeopardy every five months. just listen to the folks, the experts who have been monitoring this. they said if you do this on a five-month perd you will risk interest rates going up. second, we need to reduce the deficit. of course we do. we need to do it in a balanced way. the president has proposed $3 in spending cuts to $1 in revenue but we can't get our colleagues on the republican side to get one penny, not one penny of revenue from closing a corporate tax loophole if the purpose is deficit reduction. and there is the rub. so, mr. speaker, let's reject

this wrong approh. senator reid has a proposal on the table. cuts more than the one that the republicans does but it doesn't put the economy in jeopardy every five months. the speaker pro tempore: so both sides have a minute. it's the chair's intention now to postpone consideration and let -- mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i yield the last minute to the terrific democratic leadership in the house, ms. pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. i commend him for his tremendous leadership. we couldn't be prouder than the way he has represented the values of the american people both as the ranking member of the budget committee and also at the table with the partisan talks with mr. clyburn under the ldership of the ce president -- vice

president boyden. and too bad that the progress that was made in those meetings to have a balanced, bipartisan initiative to bring to the floor to give confidence to the market, to give confidence to the american people didn't succeed because the republicans walked away from those talks. mr. speaker, last week our speaker, speaker boehner, said he couldn't reachn agreement with president obama because they had different visions of our country. president obama has a vision, shares the vision with the american people. when we look to find our common ground and take it to a higher ground, i think all americans agree that we want to educate our children for their own self-fulfillment. but also to keep america number one by having innovation which

springs from education and from the classroom. i think all americans share the higher ground, the common ground when it comes to the creation of jobs, good-paying jobs here in america for the economic stability of america's families and of our economy. i think all americans agree that we must have a dignified retirement for our seniors where they have health and economic security. that's why medicare and medicaid and social security are so importanto the american people. i think all americans agree that we must keep the american people safe, both in our national security and our economic surity and one must do so in a fiscally sound way. without adding to the deficit. that is president obama's

vision of our country system of i think that one -- and i'm sure that speaker baper must share those views. so if that is the reason, the different vision of our country, maybe it is, hopefully it is not, hopefully they share that vision, why are we where we are today? i believe it is because it wasn't about not sharing a vision for our country. i believe it is because the purpose of these talks was to reduce the deficit. my belief is that the republicans came to the table not to reduce the deficit but to go way beyondhat and to dismantle decades of progress made in a bipartisan way for america's great middle class. if in fact the purpose was deficit reduction and a very -- in a very strong way, we were

on that path in the biden talks and the talks subsequent to it. we all agreed that there had to be substantial cuts, that we had to subject dollars spent, federal dollars spent to make sure we got our money's worth for u.s. taxpayers. democrats wanted revenue. we wanted sharing of the sacrifice in all of this repuicans did not. but we still could come to a place, as senator reid did and as our distinguished ranking member referenced, at a place that used the proposals that republicans had in the ryan budget and in proposals they had agreed to in the talks to reach a strong deficit reduction number that would enable us to come to agreement and put this matter to rest until february of 2013.

so we would remove all doubt in the markets that we were going to honor our debts, we were not going to default on previous spending. the purpose was not to lift the ceiling to spend more. it was to lift the ceiling to pay for previous obligations. and that there would be that 18-month certainty. instead, the republicans have come forth with a proposal that, as i said, dismantles, this isn't about deficit reduction, this is about dismantling the public sector. and in doing, they want to do it for six months, which means the minute this thing would be accomplished, we would have to start all over again. i believe the american people were disappointed that this has taken so long and angry that it

is hapning because of the uncertainty it brings to their lives and disgusted with the whole process and they are so, rightly so. because if our purpose is reduce the deficit, we certainly can do that. if our purpose is to dismantle progress to the middle class, we won't be a party to it. i come -- i think that the six months not only in terms of uncertainty is also a job killer. it has front loaded cuts that will deter, impede, the growth of our economy, our comeback, and again, kill jobs. every day that we are debating this is another day that we are not talking about job creation. every day. republican bills that they have brought to the floor in the

first 200 days of their majority, now it's 205, would amount to nearly two million jo lost. just under 10,000 jobs a day. lost by the proposals they have brought to the floor. the american people's top priority is the creation of jobs. jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. instead of this prolonged dismantling of the public sector attempt, we should instead have reached agreement. we still can. on a balanced, bipartisan approach. i want to say something as a mom about this dismantling of the public sector. i view my role in politics as an extension of my role as a mother and now a grandmother.

as parents, all of us know that we want to do everything we can for our children, to help them grow, be healthy, to learn, to reach their fulfillment. but there are things we can't for them. we have to look to the public sector in order for them, and moms can identify with this, i'm sure, to make sure they have clean drinking water, that the air they breathe is clean, that there is food safety. we can't do that ourselves. we can't do that ourselves. that is a public role. the list goes on, the education of our chiren, the health security of grandparents, now being a fwrarnte myself, but in terms of medicare and medicaid all the things that are important to children, their health, their education, the economic security of their families, the pension security and health security of their grandparents, the safety of

their neighborhoods. some of these are private roles, some of these are public roles, some are public-private roles. but as a mom, i call upon all mothers across the country to understand what this bill does for the health and well being of america's children and really it's ironic because any speech that you hear on the floor, in meetings, and all the rest they say we must reduce the deficit because it's immoral to pass along deficits to our children. well i think it's wrong to pass along private or public debt to our children. but what we are doing here is to pass along to our children a future less bright because of the -- again, i'll say it again, the dismanting of the public sector, which is an

ideological goal long held by our iends. they would rather see seniors pay more for medicare, they'd rather cut medicaid and jeopardize social security, while they give tax subsies to big oil, making record profits, tax breaks to corporations sending jobs overseas, and tax breaks to the wealthiest people in our country at the expense of the education of their children and health and well being of our country. i hope that the house will reject this measure. i know that people of good intentn to reduce the deficit can find a path to do that. it can't be too late because we have a deadline on august 2. but i want to pay my respects to president obama, who has been respectful of every suggestion proposed by the

republicans, giving it the time and attention that they thought it deserved. he tried to accommodate all of those, to have a balanced, bipartisan approach, and what did the republicans do? walk away from the table. the american people know about this. that's why 50-something percent of the american people support the balanced, bipartisan approach that the president says we should strive to achieve and only about 19% of the american people support the proposal that is put forth by the republicans. this house should reject that. we should come together, use the work that has been done already to do something that will remove all doubt that we pay our bills, to remove all doubt that we are a strong economy that recognizes the role we play in the global economy, but also recognizes

that all of this has an impact in the lives of everyday americans as they sit around their kitchen table, thiing about what will they do if credit goes -- the cost of credit goes up and that means there are credit card bills, house payment, car payment, the rest are more expensive to them. this is very costly in terms of confidence and in terms of making ends meet. let's be responsible. reject this bill, get back to work so that on tuesday, we will have met our obligations. that's the lea that we can do fo >> house republican leaders post -- postponed a vote thursday night to cuts federal spending by nearly $1 trillion because house speaker john bennett did not have the votes to pass the measure. mr. boehner left will -- but last night with a number of members to support the package.

legislation is being reworked and they will be back on the floor today. senator reid said the measure will be tabled or voted down in the senate if it passes the house. >> this cspan networks provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history available on television, we take c-span on the road with our digital bus, local content vehicles. bringing resources to your community. it's washington your way. now available in more than 100 million homes. created by cable, provided as a public service. >> coming up next, "washington journal" will take your phone calls. and the house is back in this morning and will try again to pass the house g.o.p. measures to raise the nation's debt limit. live house coverage h o