instead of stimulating the economy, we're about to take federal money out of the economy. there will be a loss of jobs with these cuts, and that is no way to deal with this predicament we are and in this weakened economy. i'm also very, very disappointed that we allow the tea party to drive this deal. it seems to me that what we have here is a small number of people, relatively small number of people, who have held hostage not only their own caucus but they are holding the democratic party and the american people hostage with their threat of not allowing us to lift the ceiling, the debt ceiling, and using this as a way to dismantle this budget. i am very disappointed that our negotiators were not tough enough. they did not do the work to

bring them to the point where everybody could agree that we do not want to default. so here we are today with some of the worst public policy that i think has ever been made in the history of this institution, where a lot of people are going to be heard, where the economy is going to be even more fragile, and where our citizens are going to not only feel the loss of jobs and a loss of opportunity, but this will be four years to come. so i think the progressive caucus for standing tall and for standing strong. >> this is not the first time that the progressive caucus has taken a leadership role on tough issues. i lived through and manage to see a segregated america where people live separately and were treated differently.

i simply want to give this brief statement. it is not about the members to stand here representing a number of constituents, an advocacy groups who speak for a number of constituents -- it is really about whether america was the country to continue in this pathway or they want change. never in my lifetime did i think i was going to see that tyranny of the minority of. and that is the voice is so strident, that have been popularized by the media, they had been seen as that darling's of change. they are not. they are simply individuals who want to say my way or the highway is bank by simple message is this -- and there will be votes coming up on this issue into the fall. the question is whether america will rise up and rush to this capital and rushed to this city and announced that enough is enough, and that although the voices of the minority should be

heard, that they have a right under this flag that they will not control of this nation in the most distasteful way that they have done, to undermine those who cannot speak for themselves. that is what we are facing today and some have some very tough decisions to make. >> we have one minute before we have to go vote. maybe we could get about two questions and then catch up later. >> [inaudible] >> we have not whipped the whole caucus to a person but by all indications, most of very dissatisfied, and many are going to be voting now. we do not have a whip count just yet eve. >> the answer to that is a definitive no. the reason is is because all of us voted for a clean debt

ceiling, we voted for reid, and 18 times reagan had asked for and got me a clean vote on a debt ceiling. bush got seven. it is the normal course of congress to raise the debt ceiling when these questions, but congress. we have all done and we are prepared to do it now. what drove us to this is beyond dispute that the coupling of the debt ceiling with their production. we have been fighting for the economy, not those trying to wreck it. maybe one more question. >> congressman waters said that the negotiators were not tough enough. are you throwing the president under the bus? >> president obama had a we can to fight from. he was the president at the time that these people made these unreasonable demands to undermine in hurt basic social services and actually had social

security, medicare, and medicaid in their sights. if we have any dispute, it is tactical. in principle we know that these are core democratic values, actually core american values, to stand up for basic programs that help americans be better off. and finally, we do support the president in using his constitutional and executive authority to protect the full faith and credit of the united states. he has our full support on that event with that, we have to go vote. thank you all very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next house debate leading up to the boat for the debt

ceiling. this is one hour and 25 minutes. for what purpose does the gentleman from calornia seek recognition? mr. dreier: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 384, i call up s. 365 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro teore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 365, an act to make thnical amendment to the education, sciences reform act of 2002. the speaker pro tempore: the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in house report 112-190 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debatable for one hour with 30 minutes equally divide and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules, 15 minutes equal request divided ancontrolled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means and 15 minutes quelly divide and controlled by the chair -- equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member by the committee on budget. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. dreier. house will be in order.

members, please take combingses from the floor. -- conversations from the floor. members in the rear of the chamber, please take your conversations from the floor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from calornia is recognized. mr. dreier: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extd their remarks on the measure befe us. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i might consume and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, at this moment we are beginning debate

on a measure which i believe will finally send a signal to job creators in this country and in the global marketplace that we are finally, finally getting serious about gettinour fiscal house in order. we know that we're dealing with a very sad 9.2% unemployment rate in this country, we know that there are people hurting. we all have constituents who have lost their homes, people who have lost their jobs, people who have lost their businesses, people are hurting. it is absolutely imperative that we do everything that we can to get our economy back on track. we've just gotten the report of this downward report of the g.d.p. growth rate down to 1.3%. we need to get backo robust dynamic d robust, dynamic,

strong growth. we need to get to 4%, 5%, 6% g.d.p. growth. d, mr. speaker, one of the main reasons that we have not done that is that we have seen this dramatic increase in spending over the past half century on 75 different occasions, 75 different occasions we've seen our debt ceiling increased without any effort whatsoever to get a the root cause of why it is that we've had to increase the debt ceiling. i argue, mr. speaker, that we don't have a debt ceiling problem, we have a debt problem. and that's why we're here today and that's why i believe that we, after months and months and months of partisan bickering, fingerpointing, we have at this moment begun a debate that will allow us in a bipartisan way to increase the debt ceiling, which we all know needs to be done, as

simply as meeting the obligation of paying for past spending. many of us have been opponents of much of that spending but we recognize that the bill has to be paid. speaker boehner, when just days after we took the oath of office in 112th congress, received the request from the president of the united states through his treasury secretary, mr. geithner, that we increase the debt ceiling. mr. speaker said then that he will agree it's essential for us to increase the debt ceiling but we were not going to proceed with business as usual. we're not going to continue increasing the debt without getting to the root cause of the problem. and, mr. speaker, i've got to tell you that throgh all of the debate that's taken place, we have gotten to theoint where we have a measure, it's a bipartisan compromise, it's a bipartisan agreement that i believe wi, as i said, send a signal to those who are seeking

to create jobs for our fellow americans, that we now are going to have the kind of fiscal restint and responsibility from washington, d.c., the likes of which we haven't seen in a long, long period of time. so, mr. speaker, i will tell you that i strongly support this measure, as everyone has said it's far from perfect, but i strongly support it. and i urge my colleagues, democrats and republicans alike, to join together in support of it and witthat i reserve the balance my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: thank you, mr. speaker. after months' long standoff over raising the debt ceiling, congress is now forced to take action on a bill that by all accounts is deeply flawed. i think everybody today has agreed with that. why are we doing a flawed bill? because we waited until the last minute. instead of reducing the nation's debt by closing tax loopholes for oil companies and private jet owners, today's bill instead

creates a supercommittee that will decide how to take over $1 trillion in cuts. this supercommittee will serve as a mock congress, leading 325 members of congress sitting on the sidelines while a group of 12 decide the shape of the country for a decade to come. paying our debts should be a no-brainer. indeed the debt ceiling itself is an antiquated solution to a problem we no longer face and should be eliminated. it was originally created to pay for world war i, to provide our country with economic stability while at war. today we're again in the midst of war but instead of protecting the stability of our economy, some in congress have decided to question the necessity of paying our bills. as we all know by now, they've taken our economy hostage and demanded draconian cuts in exchge for not leading our nation into default. the actions have cause real and significant damage, roll call reports that because of the prolonged debt ceiling crisis,

the interest rate the united states government muspay has already increased which means the interest rates for car loans and home mortgages are also increasing. the stock market has responded as expected. according to the july 29, big banks and companies withdrew $37.5 billion from money market funds that are described a a key artery for our economy. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 5% of its vam last week which meant 401-k's, retirement plans, all of america -- americans were put at risk and much of it was lost. baby boomers across the ited states watched nervously as all those things were happening. as i mentioned earlier, this type of crisis has become the new normal in this congress. under the republican rule, the house of representatives is re-- has repeatedly led our country to the brink of unthinkable situations. first we led the country to the brink of a government shutdown,

threatening the jobs and hundreds of thousands of workers and endangering vital government services relied upon by americans every day. as we speak federal aviation administration is shuttered, costing the united states government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. because the majority refuses to pass a clean legislation that does not include measures that threaten rural communities and the future of the aiine unions. the majority has brought us to the edge of a cliff in order to see how much they can get for not throwing the cntry into default. in january, speaker boehner promised the american people the debt ceiling debate will be an example of the, quote, adult moment, end quote, in washington. is this what he had in mind? just this morning my colleague on the rules committee, mr. dreier, went on national public radio to say his party has, quote, not torpedothe economy by defaulting, end quote. this statement defies reality.

we've been brought to this point precisely because the leadership and his party walked out of negotiations, demanded they get ideologically driven cuts before they will vote to protect the vility of our economy. last but certainly not least the crisis of the last few months has come at the expense of addressing the true crisis in our country, the jobs crisis that is facing millions of our fellow citizens. last month only 25 million americans failed to find full time work. many have been out of work to so long that their unemployment benefits have expired as their skills ede and they are living on savegsings or charity from loved ones and friends. in response, we have not introduced a single bill in this house designed to invest significant government resources into creating jobs. instead we have repeatedly proposed cutting funding to investments in green technology, in transportatn and infrastructure, destroying the promise of putting thousands of americans back to work in the jobs that can't be outsourced

overseas. they've refused toxtend unemployment benefits for those who can't find jobs and are moving nowhere fast to extend the payroll tax break that's helped to create the small number of jobs that we added in recent months. mr. eaker, it's time to seriously move responsibility to take any of the responsibilities of leadership and in doing so put an end to this self-inflicted crisis. and focus on getting americans back to work. i yield back the balance of my time -- no, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i'd like to express my appreciation to my colleague for her great spirit of bipartisanship. with that i'd like to yield a minute and half to my good friend from stan stathen island, mr. grim. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york voiced for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. grimm: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to ensure that the voices of those that i represent in staten island and brooklyn are heard. and what they have to say is actually quite simple. they expect of us to use common

sense, to bring solutions to problems that this nation faces. and the problem that we face is not a debt ceiling problem, it's a debt problem. and the people on staten island and brooklyn, every day they go home and they have to figure out how to manage their household. they go to work and they have to figure out howo manage their small businesses. and you do that with common sense. that's what they ask of us. you cannot spend money you don't have. you cannot continue to rack up debt with no plan to pay it off. today this debate is about moving america forward togher, in a bipartisan way, because this is not a democratic debt or a republican debt. it's an american debt which means that americans must come together to solve the problem. today is about solving problems. so i proudly stand here and i

will support this bill, i will support speaker boehner and i will bring solutions to the problem, not just bickering. with that i yield bk. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts seeks control of the time of the gentlelady from new york? mr. mcgovern: i do. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcgovern: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield one minute to the gentleman from virginia, mr. moran. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for one minute. mr. moran: mr. speaker, we have never cut our way out an economic recession. we've always grown our way out. but we've never grown our way out investing less than 15% of our g.d.p. in our people's poteial. in fact, the last time we cut back on the way we're about to do today was in 1937 and that set us right back into an economic depression. but this time we're not going to have world war ii to rescue our economy. the federal investment in homeownership and higher education for our returning g.i.'s and the subsequent infrastructure investments in

interstate highway system and the like created a permanent middle class after the war that lasted for two generations. but the middle class has never been more threatened than it is today. and this will con sign it to stay in the same condition that we find it today and it's not because we're a poor country. our largest corporations are experiencing record profits. the top 25 hedge fund managers are making more than $1 billion a year. our corporations are sitting on more tn $2 trillion of cash. mr. mcgovern: i yield the gentleman an additional time. mr. moran: mr. speaker, the point is i understand this train is leaving the station but it's going in the wrong direction. we need to be investing in this country, not taking away the resources that wl enable it to grow and for the poor especially those striving to be in the middle class, to achieve the middle class, to education, training and infrastructure investment. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california.

mr. dreier: thank you very much, mr. speaker. at this time i yield a minute to my very good friend from ashland, wisconsin, mr. duffy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. mr. duffy: thank you, mr. speaker. i had a chance to watch this floor debate over the last week or so. to say the least you can say our tempers have flared. there has been a lot of rhetoric on both sides. as we come together today, the proposal that's been negotiated with both sides, with speaker boehner, the president, harry reid. it's a deal that not everyone is pleased with. it's a deal that doesn't have in everything that i want, and i'm sure it doesn't have everything in the deal that my friends across the aisle would want. and that's why i think so many of us are hearing from our constituents. a lot on the far right and a lot on the far left sang we don't like it. but the bottom line is i think this is one of the great moments of the house where two sides come together and figure out how they are going to find a sotion that doesn't work

for their parties. it's a solution at works for the american people. and at this point in our history we owe $14.5 trillion. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield my friend an additional 15 seconds. mr. duffy: $14.5 trillion. it's about time this congress comeogether and figure out a way to live within our means. this bill is going to start that process, though it doesn't go far enough. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts. point of view gove mr. speaker, i yield one minute -- mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i yield one minute to the gentleman from pennsylvaa, mr. fatah. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fatah: this is an inside job. i want to offer just in evidence that, you know, we had in the words of the treasury secretary for reagan and for bush, an admitans they were running up deficitand it was

one way to starve the government. and then we had the republican party at the height of its power, the presidency, the house, the senate saying, no, we weren't going to have any tax increases even though we're running up these high deficits. we're going to cut taxes. we're going to hemorrhage trillions of dollars in revenue and we are going to go into two wars, we're going to put a $7 trillion prescription drug plan on the financial pile of our debt. and so alan greenspan in the first weeks of the bush administration, he said, bush could leave office but our country would be entirely debt free. what happened in the reverse was he doubled the debt, walked out with eight million americans losing their jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. fatah: but said to those who wanted -- mr. fattah: but said those who

would -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. eier: i said to the next governor of indiana, my friend from columbus. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. pence: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pence: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. this is a challenging time in the life of our country. our economy is struggling. millions are out of work, and now with a more than $14 trillion national debt, america's on the verge of having its debts exceed our statutory borrowing limit. now, i recognize if you owe debts pay debts. congress has an obligation to defend the full faith and credit of the united states. but this congress also has an obligation to keep faith with this and future generations of americans by restoring fiscal responsibility and discipline to our national treasury. the bipartisan budget control

act that we will continue today will make possible for the nation's bills to be paid with no new taxes, dollar-for-dollar cuts in taxes and it will gi us to consider a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. now, let me be clear, the budget control act is not so much a good deal as it is a good start. i really believe this bipartisan compromise is a modest but meaningful step in the direction of fiscal discipline and reform and i welcome it. now, while this bill doesn't go nearly far enough, it does move us in the right direction. you know, leadership means knowing when to say yes and knowing when to say no. i believe the time has come to get something done so this congress can move our national government back in the direction of fiscal

responsibility and reform and begin to advance policies that will put americans back to work. lasthought, there's a lot of credit taking on a day like today. a lot of bipartisan, back patting, as we say. but let me say this day where we see the ship of state turning ever so slightly through that lone star of fiscal resnsibility this day does not belong so much to any one political leader, to any one political party or to any one branch of government. this day belongs to the american people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pence: who have stood, who havelamored, who have come to town halls, who have demanded th this governmentive within its means. this is your day. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: i yield the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott, one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. mr. scott: thank you very much, mr. chairman.

ladies and gentlemen of the house of reprentatives, this is, of course, a very important day, moment usus decision, difficult decision. i am going to vote for this in the best interest of our country and putting us in the area where we need to be. but i do want to point out one area of weakness that we need to look at very carefully as we go forward and that is in the application of this 12-member committee and especially as it relates to the areas of social security, medicare and medicaid. now, my understanding is, and i think this is understanding that we certainly need to make clear, that social security and medicaid, veterans, pell grants are protected fully under this bill. but when it comes to medicare, my understanding is that there will be an opportunity in here where they will lookt medicare on the prider side. the question becomes, how can you basically separate benefits

of medicare patients when you have the paties, the doctors and the hospital and you can't adequately separate that? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. scott: we must be mindful of the medicare apparatus. mr. dreier: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: yield myself 2 1/2 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i did not come to washington to dismantle the new deal or the great society. and i did not come to washington to force more people into poverty i agree we must avoid default and confnt or long-term fiscal policies. that's why on saturday i voted for the reproposal which would have reduced our debt by hundreds of billions of dollars. but the bill before usoday is unfair in so many ways. it disproportionately places the burden of dealing with our debt issue on the backs of

those who can least afford it while it spares the wealthiest from contributing anything. there is something fundamentally wrong when a billionaire hedge fund manager pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, when big oil can make tens of billions in profits every quarter but can get sweetheart deals from the taxpayer. and when we're slashing dollars for roads and bridges. and there are no new revenues in the bill before us today. only massive cuts in what is called domestic discretionary spending. but what did that actually means? it means less investment in our transportation and infrastructure. it means less investment in medical and research and education and food security. to put it simply, it means less jobs and higher unemployment at a time when millions of americans are struggling to find work. and despite the rhetoric of its supporters, the bills put social security, medicare, medicaid on the chopping block. we all know how we got into

this mess. two huge tax cuts mostly for the wealthy that weren't paid for, two wars that were paid for, a massive prescription dr bill that wasn't paid for. now, there are certainly places to cut. right now we're borrowing $10 billion every single month, $10 billion every single month for military operations in afghanistan to prop up a corrupt and competent karzai regime. but according to the congressional budget office the spending caps contained in this legislion do not apply to ending that misguided war. that makes no sense to me. the truth is that the best way to deal with our long-term fiscal situation is to grow our economy. that means creating jobs and putting people back to work. this bill does exactly in the wrong direction. i have two children, mr. speaker, who i love more than anything, and i don't want them to grow up in a country where the gap between the very rich and poor grows wider and wider each year. we can do better, mr. spear. we must do better. and we can do so in a way that