mr. levin: mr. camp, i think it takes unanimous consent to do that. i'm sorry, mr. camp. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: thank you, mr. speaker. as a member of the national commission on fiscal responsibility, our debt commission, we received testimony from experts in economic policy research. and they said that when debt loads of a country reach above or at 90% of their economy or g.d.p. that results in the reduction in economic growth in that country by about one percentage point. and using the administration's economic model, that one percentage point increase in our g.d.p. or decrease in our g.d.p. costs about one million jobs. that's why this debate is so important. it is so important to get us on a path to fiscal responsibility. to begin to bring down our

national debt. the plan before us today does that. it does that with spending reductions. it does it with the sort of structural reforms in terms of spending caps that are there. it also does it with an automatic reduction in spending. if for some reason congress, the select committee that's set up in this bill, fails to come to some sort of agreement on how to reduce spending that automatic reduction, i think, is an important backstop so the select committee will take its work seriously and do everything to come to a bipartisan solution. also, there's a path forward on a balanced budget amendment in this legislation. that is absolutely critical, i think, for not just today because we know it has been possible to bind future congresses but to put in place a structure and mechanism well into the future so we don't find ourselves continuing to deal with the fundamentals of this problem that we begin to deal with the problem, we make

progress on the problem, and that progress will mean job creation and obviously that's something we're all looking for. i thank the speaker and urge a yes vote on this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the members of the budget committee, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, and the gentleman from maryland, mr. van hollen. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, may i ask how much time is remaining on both sides? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin has 7 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from maryland has 8 1/2 minutes. mr. ryan: at this time, mr. speaker, i yield 3 1/2 minutes to a member of the budget committee, the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. lankford. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for 3 1/2 minutes. mr. lankford: thank you, mr. speaker. i say i'd love for people to come to oklahoma city anytime they have the opportunity to do that. but to be able to talk to the great folks in my district, i

can tell you one thing that comes up again and again, they are really frustrated and they're looking for things to really be able to change here in washington. they see how broken our system is. they see the way we interact. they're really legitimately frustrated. i can tell you they have lost trust in how we're doing and what we're doing. as a federal government we're trying to do too many things and we can't afford all the things we're doing. so in some very simple way this whole process has united the nation to be able to look simply at $14.3 trillion in debt and to say as a nation, we have a problem. that is a good first step. now, for the conversation that's been happening around congress over the past serviceable months now, it's now dealing with how do we resolve the problem and what is the core of the problem. is the problem the debt ceiling vote? is the problem tomorrow or is the problem $14 trillion in debt? i feel like sometimes we've been trying to either figure out how to get past tomorrow or how to get past solving this

issue of $14.3 trillion in debt. that has created seven months of debate and seven months of conversation that i fear has made an unrealistic expectation of how much we can really do in one piece of legislation. quite frankly, no piece of legislation can solve $14.3 trillion in debt all in one moment. no piece of legislation can be a perfect solution. there is no perfect ideal piece of legislation that's going to solve it all. are there major issues i think are in every piece of legislation? i'm sure there are in every one of them. this one i would say it's not perfect but it takes us down that first step to start getting out of this. if there's a perception that we can solve it all in one piece, i think everyone's underestimated the size and the scope of what it really means to deal with this large of a debt and this large of a deficit. it is a single step on a very long journey. it doesn't solve all the

problems. does it cure cancer? no. does it get us out of all the wars? no. does it locate amelia earhart's body? no. it doesn't solve everything we'd like to do with it, but it does begin to put a framework around the federal government for the next 10 years to set spending caps in place to say we're going to stop the growth of government. we've grown very quickly very fast. we got to first stop that growth of government and put some boundaries around it. it's a good first step on that. it puts a square focused on a balanced budget amendment to the constitution which 80% of the american people say they want some version of the balanced budget amendment. quite frankly, this creates a moment for republicans and democrats to be able to have an honest conversation about what should that text be for a balanced budget amendment, how can we work together. the constitution is not owned by one party. it is owned by the people of the united states of america. so that is both parties coming together to have a very frank conversation if we're going to

have a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, how do we get it done, what is the text for that and how do we do best for our nation? but the key piece of this legislation today is focused on not just getting us past tomorrow but starts us down a process, that single first step of starting us down a process that in the days ahead our children will not live in the shadow of this kind of debt, of this kind of deficit and we as a nation can get back to doing the things we love to do rather than worry about what creditor we're going to pay and which one we're not. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. we should never have gotten to the point where our troops in afghanistan had to ask whether they were going to be paid. that's a scandal. and it's scandalous that our republican colleagues would threaten for the first time in american history to torpedo america's credit worthiness and american jobs unless they

succeeded in enacting a budget plan to end the medicare guarantee, slash medicaid and slash critical investments in education in our future. that was the plan. they wanted to do that now and they wanted to have this whole debate again six months from now. why? not to reduce the deficit. if the goal is to reduce the deficit why refuse to end taxpayer subsidies for the oil companies? if reducing the deficit was the purpose, why refuse to end special breaks for corporate jets and the folks at the very high end of the income scale? that wasn't the plan. the plan was to use this moment to threaten the economy, to try and slash the social safety net and those critical investments in education innovation in our future. and guess what? they failed. they failed to do that.

they failed to end the medicare guarantee. they failed to slash medicaid. they failed to slash education. in this measure we succeeded in protecting medicare and social security beneficiaries. we succeeded to protect seniors in nursing homes, individuals with disabilities and poor kids who depend on medicaid for their health care. and we succeeded in providing room for critical investments in education and america's future. don't get me wrong, mr. speaker, there's much in plan i don't like. we did not succeed in shutting down special interest tax loopholes that add hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficits. our republican colleagues refused to cut those subsidies for big oil companies, they refused to cut the others and now we're going to have a great debate, we're going to have a great debate about how to grow the economy and reduce our long-term deficit. it will be a debate about our

national priorities. i hope we will support the balanced approach that the president has called for. i have very limited time, i'm sorry. one that refuses to put greater burdens on medicare beneficiaries in order to provide greater tax breaks to the wealthiest americans. and in the coming months our republican colleagues will be given the following test. will they choose to protect special interest tax breaks over investments necessary to keep our nation strong and secure, will they finally demonstrate a willingness to pay for our national defense rather than put it on the credit card? mr. speaker, let's get on with that big national debate and let's finally focus on jobs and getting the economy going as we reduce our long-term deficit. thank you, mr. speaker, and with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves the balance of his

time? the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield one minute to the gentlelady, a member of the budget committee, ms. moore. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. ms. moore: thank you so much for yielding. so many of my colleagues have said that it was necessary to storm the white house and take the country hostage in the name of their grandchildren. so i wanted to go on record talking about what i want for my grandchildren. i want head start for my grandchildren. i want w.i.c. programs and early childhood education for my programs, i want my kids to go to a school where they can participate in the science fair. i want immunizations for them. i want research done for food safety to make sure the chicken nuggets are safe, i want clean air and clean water for them. i want jobs where they invent things like new energy sources and, yes, i want them to be contributing citizens and pay taxes and i want a safety net

for them in case they are disabled and when they become elderly and if they get cold in the cold winters of wisconsin to still have some energy assistance. i want my grandchildren to get the american dream. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield a minute to the gentlelady from california, ms. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. ms. lee: thank you very much. thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you for yielding and also for your very bold and effective leadership, mr. van hollen. i rise in strong opposition to this unbalanced debt ceiling bill. this is an unbalanced approach, we all know that, we've heard that. and furthermore this debt ceiling bill should have never been an option in terms of having to come to this floor to debate this and we should have, like democrats and republican

presidents have done in the past, we should have lifted the debt ceiling. rightfully so, many of us are concerned about these discretionary cuts. what are these cuts going to do as it relates to our senior citizens, low income veds and the poor? -- individuals and the poor? this debt ceiling bill does nothing to address the real crisis in our country, the lack of jobs and economic growth. at a time when investments are needed to jump start our economy and put people back to work, this deal and its cuts only approach which it is, it's the wrong approach. it's an outrage that as we stand here today that we could not raise the debt ceiling by voting for that. thank you again. i intend to vote no on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield one minute to the gentleman from new jersey who has been a --

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. van hollen: a fighter on this battle. mr. andrews. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. andrews: mr. speaker, what brings us together as a -- is a need to create jobs for the american people. and i think people would agree there's three things we need to do to create jobs. the first is not fall off a cliff and have a default on our national obligations. this bill accomplishes that. the second thing is to make sure we have an interest rate environment so that our businesses and entrepreneurs can create jobs, so they have some predictability. by making a 25% to 30% down payment on reducing our deficit in a fair and equitable way, this bill does that. and finally i think most of us adepree that we need investments in our education, research and development, infrastructure, other activities to create jobs in our private sector for our people. by making sure that at least in the first two years of this

agreement that the reductions in those areas are either nonexistent or moderate, i think that we give ourselves the freedom so our appropriators can put valuable investments forward in that way. this is a well reasoned, bipartisan agreement to create jobs for the american people. i urge a yes vote. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to how much time is left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland has two minutes remaining. the gentleman from wisconsin has four minutes remaining. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i yield myself one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, as i said at the outset, we should never have reached this point in our country. we should never have reached the point when our troops wondered whether they were going to get paid or whether individuals on social security wondered whether they were going to see their earned benefits.

that should never have happened and this is the first time in history, first time in history that we've seen members of this congress threaten to close down the american economy in less than -- unless they got their particular budget plan through, ones that ends the medicare guarantee, slashes medicaid and would deeply cut our investments in education and innovation. we protected those investments in this bill. the plan did not work, it didn't work now and the plan to do it again six months from now didn't work. so now we will have that great debate over our priorities, we're looking forward to it. let's get on to talking about jobs and the economy and with that i yield one minute to the very distinguished democratic leader who has been a fighter for america's priorities, ms.

pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the distinguished minority leader is recognized for one minute. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and every chance i get i want to salute him for his tremendous leadership as a top democrat on the budget committee, for the work he did with mr. clyburn and the bipartisan talks, as they strove to have what the american people want, a balanced, bipartisan, fair agreement to lift the debt ceiling and take america forward. unfortunately that did not happen. what did happen and it brings to mind the question, why are we here? and i would divide, as we say in legislation, i would divide that question into why are we here and why are we here today? we are here because all of us in this body care about our country , have decided that public service is a noble pursuit and

that we have come here to make the future better for future generations. that is what our founding fathers visualized for america. that every generation would take responsibility to make the future better for the next. that's why, mr. speaker, our founders, in addition to writing our founding documents, the declaration, the great deck -- declaration which embodies fairness in it and equality, then the constitution they declared independence, they fought the greatest naval power in the world, they won, they wrote the constitution, the bill of rights, making us the freest, greatest nation in the world, founded on a principle that all people are created equal. that had never been done in the history of the world. and when they did that they, as i've told you before because i love it so much, they also

created the great seal of the united states. and that great seal of the united states has on it know us have order seclorum. a new order for the centuries, for the ages, forever. so competent were our founders in their idea about generational responsibility, one to the next, that they were confident that our country, that what they were putting forth would exist for the ages. for the ages. that was the challenge they gave us. that is the responsibility that we have. and for a couple of hundred years or more that has always been the case. every generation has always believed that it would make the future better for the next. for their children and for their their grand charron. -- grandchildren.

we're here today because we believe that and we believe that the public policy that we put forth, the legislation we put forth should result in public policy that makes the future better for our children and our grandchildren. that we are committed to their education, the economic security of our families, dignified retirement, of our seniors and also safety and security of their neighborhoods and of our country and with that, we would do it in a fiscally sound way that did not give our kids any bills, public or perm. and -- personal. and so if we believe all of that and that's why we are here in congress, it's hard to believe that we are putting our best foot forward with the legislation that comes before us today. i'm not happy with it but i'm

proud of some of the accomplishments contained in it and that's why i'm voting for it. it takes me to the second question. why are we here today? why are we here today? within 24 hours of our nation going into default, after months of conversation about how we would address the debt ceiling, not to have had future spending, but to pay our past obligations and i won't go into it again, how we got here. but i will say that time is one of the most important commodities any of us have, the most precious, the most finite. and during that period of time when our country could have been more productive, more optimistic, more confident in the tradition of our founders, instead a cloud of doubt placed on it because of the delay, the delay, the delay in lifting debt

ceiling. as my distinguished colleague, mr. van hollen, said, this has never happened before. we've never, never tied the hands of a president of the united states. we never placed any doubt in the public markets as to whether this would happen. . we never knew the consequences of our action. i'm more concerned about the kitchen table, because this delay and uncertainty has a tremendous impact on america's families, as they sit around the table and talk about how they are going to make ends meet, how they are going to pay their bills, is sorle security going to be intact for them and will their checks arrive, is medicare and medicaid something they can count on. well, after months and months and months to reach an agreement

that could have been reached a long time ago, it's not so great it took so long to achieve, it could have been accomplished months ago and at least have the merit of instilling confidence sooner rather than at the last possible moment. we must make sure that we are -- we say why are we here today -- that we aren't here some other day to go through these motions and that's the reason i'm supporting this bill. the president was successful in impressing upon the congress that we need the full 18 months so the americans at their kitchen table, people sitting around that table and aboard room table will know that you can rely on the united states of america to meet its obligations, ok? and another reason to support this bill, even there are plenty

of reasons not to, is that it stops cuts in social security, medicare and medicaid. this is the most important assignment given to democratic leadership going to the table, to make sure there are no cuts in benefits in medicare, medicaid and social security, that was achieved. another issue of importance to us, as we protect and defend our country, we measure our strength in the health, education and well-being of the american people. we have a 50-50 split between our expenditures for defense and expenditures defined in other ways for our country. these are some reasons why those who may have the luxury of not wanting to vote for the bill, i feel the responsibility to do so. we cannot, because of certain objections in the bill -- and

one of the main ones is that there's not one red centcoming from america's wementiest families and god bless them for their success, but not one red centcoming to help reduce the deficit while we are willing to cut title 1, education for the poorest children in america. it's too bad for those children and terrible for our country. for things not in the bill, like revenue, i urge my colleagues to think about our seniors and think about the 18 months and what that means in terms of confidence in our society and what it means also to have the 50-50 in terms of defining the sfreng of america. we cannot -- the strength of america. we cannot, despite our

reluctance to vote for this bill for some of us, allow seniors and veterans who are dependent on receiving their check from the government or their security over time, we cannot allow our seniors and veterans to be caught in the collateral damage on the assault of the middle class that is being waged in this congress. this is no manifestation of making it harder for the future for the great middle class, which is -- and those who aspire to it, is the backbone of our democracy. if we are going to honor the vows of our founders and carry on the great legacy and their determination, their hope for the future, that we would last for ages, but we would last for ages as a democracy, not an ever

broadening disparity of income and equity in our country that undermines that. please, my colleagues, if you are on the fence about this, i certainly am and have been even though i worked very hard to support the president in preserving what i said about no cuts in medicare, medicaid, social security, about this 18 months and about the 50-50 split . please think of what could happen if we defaulted. please, please, please, please come down in favor of again preventing the collateral damage of reaching our seniors and our veterans. i urge you to consider voting yes, but i completely respect the hesitation that members have about this. and again, i want to commend our distinguished colleague, mr. van

hollen, and mr. clyburn and the president of the united states and those who tried to work in a bipartisan way to accomplish something. i hear our republican colleagues have said they got 98% in the bill and i hope their votes real flect that. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin has four minutes. mr. ryan: i yield two minutes to mr. hensarling. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. mchenry: mr. speaker, the america -- mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, the american people want more jobs and less debt. the american people are telling washington you have to quit spending money you don't have and quit borrowing 42 cents on the dollar much of it from the

chinese and send the bill to our children and grandchildren. our crisis today is not the debt ceiling, it is our debt and it is a spending-driven debt. that is why we are here today, mr. speaker. i would like toe say this bill solves -- like to say this bill solves our problem. it doesn't. it is a doll i had first step. nobody, nobody on our side of the aisle wants to increase our debt ceiling. it's not in our d.n.a. but we do believe you ought to stay current on your bills and you got to quit spending money you don't have. and in this bill, although the sums are very, very small, when we pass this bill, if the president sinings it into law, it -- signs it into law, it will be the first time in my lifetime

that for two years in a row we have actually cut discretionary spending in washington, d.c., and made a very slight directional change in the right direction. the numbers are small, the directional change is huge, but more importantly, the