out of this mess. and the real problem, i would add, mr. speaker, is th fact that we spend way more money than we take in. we have to address that. to my friends on the left, i think they would like to take comfort in the fact the way the spending cuts are designed. to my friends on the right, we re cutting spending. we have been trying to get discretionary caps in law for years. i have been here for 13 years trying for it every year, and this is the first time. the last time we were in the majority, we couldn't get it in the republican congress, now we are getting discretionary caps. that is a big achievement. number two, we newsed to sneak ese in budget resolutions and now it's in here in plain sight. and what are w doing? we are actually cutting spending while we do this.

that's cultural. that's significant. that's a big step in theright direction. we are getting 2/3 of the cuts we wanted in our budget and as far as i'm concerned, 66% in the right direction is a whole lot >> the house to raise the debt limit. during the vote, gabrielle giffords returned months after being injured in a shooting in tucson, arizona. here is that reaction. [cheers and applause] cape st. clai -- [cheers and applause]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 2 -- the speaker: on this vote the yeas are 269, the nays are 161. the bill is passed and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from utah rise? >> permission to speak out of order. the speaker: without objection, so ordered. mr. bishop: kids who are at the back that you can't see because you're standing in front of them, this is the first time we've ever had pages here had

not in two small groups but in one summer group. these pages are going home this week and they have had a chance of being here to see history in the making on several different fronts. i wish you'd give them -- before you do that, page board consists of representative foxx from new york, myself, representative kildee, i yield to the gentlelady from colorado. >> i thank the gentlelady for yielding and i want to thank all of the wonderful pages who had are in the back of the room. ms. degette: you've seen history in the last six weeks here in congress and we're so honored and proud to have all of you here with us and i'm sure this may not be my place but we all want to welcome back our wonderful colleague, congresswoman giffords here. with that i yield back.

mr. bishop: mr. chairman, i also yield to the gentleman from michigan, mr. kildee. killed kill mr. speaker, i'd like to take this -- mr. kildee: mr. speaker, i'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the pages for what they have done here in the 112th congress. to become a page, mr. speaker, these young people have proven themselves to be academically qualified. as we all know, the job of a congressional page is not an easy one. along with being away from home, the pages must possess the

maturity to balance competing demands with their time and energy. you pages have witnessed the house debate, issues of war and peace, hunger and poverty, justice and civil rights. you have lived through history. and before yielding, mr. speaker, i would like to thank the members of the house page board who provided such fantastic service to this institution. the chairman, congressman rob bishop, the vice chairman, congresswoman diana degette, congresswoman virginia foxx, clerk of the house karen haas, sergeant at arms bill livinggood, and mrs. lynn silversmith kline. i want to thank them for their service on the house page board and i thank the departing pages and you've seen a wonderful bit of history take place today. mr. bishop: reclaiming the time, mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to include the page summer class in the official record and ask this body to recognize the pages for the services they have rendered us this year.

mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker: without objection, the gentlelady from california, ms. pelosi, is recognized. ms. pelosi: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i too want to join our colleagues in recognizing the contribution of the pages to the conduct of the house of representatives. i thank them. and they have, as mr. kildee said, and others have mentioned, borne witness to many important historical occasions here. but i can't think of any that is more special and means so much to our country than to witness the return of our colleague who was the personification of courage, of sincerity, of admiration throughout the country. congresswoman gabrielle giffords brings us --

ms. pelosi: her presence today, to make sure that we honor the obligations of our country great country is important and symbolic. her presence here in the chamber as well as her service throughout her entire service in congress brings honor to this chamber. we are all privileged to call her colleagues, of us very privileged to call her friend. throughout america there isn't a

name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her than the name of congresswoman gabby giffords. thank you, gabby, for joining us today.

>> you are watching c-span. every morning it is washington journal, a live call-in program about to the news of the day, connecting you with policy officials. supreme court oral arguments. on the weekend, see ever signature interview programs. on saturday, the communicators, and q&a, and prime minister questions from the british house of commons. you can watch a video at any time on our website c-span.org. c-span, washington your way. created by america's cable programs. >> a recap on today's coverage on raising the debt ceiling. starting with remarks from vice-

president biden. after that, senate democratic leaders. and later democratic leaders of the congressional progressive caucus. our coverage on raising the debt ceiling continues with remarks from vice-president joe biden. he said an agreement would avoid the default on the government's debt obligation. his meeting came after a meeting with house democrats for more than 2 hours to try to secure votes for the bill. this is about five minutes.

>> i did not go to convince, and went to explain why this is so important to the country. my sense is that they expressed all of their frustrations. we came down to the wire like this. would they want to know this -- they asked questions specifically about the proposed legislation. i thought and feel confident that this will pass. >> many think they have been sold down the river.

>> if we had our way and there was a different circumstance in the country, we would be talking in should be talking about job creation and infrastructure. we should talk about investment in education and innovation. the president made it clear in his message. the truth of the matter is, this is the debt limit. it was used as the means by which unless certain compromises were made, we would default on our debt. the reason why it is so important that this bargain has been negotiated with the republicans by the president -- it is so important. the debt initiative cannot come up again until 2013.

the reason is that is regarding elections. we will be talking about nothing but to jobs. if i said i have a job a plan, would you have written about it? none of you would have written about it. what about the debt ceiling. we have to get this out of the way. we need to focus on the issue of growing the economy. this bargain does not prevent us from being able to continue to fund those initiatives within our budget that are the job creation -- job creators. the normal process will not go forward in terms of the

appropriations committee. we have to convince people that our initiative in the past. there is room within the budget to fund those priorities. it would be a normal political battle rather than the city saying, if you do not do this, we will let the economy in the united states to fall. we are likely to head into a double-dip recession. >> thanks. >> senate majority leader spoke with reporters after meeting

with his caucus. it was to discuss the details of the debt ceiling mission -- issue. this is a few minutes. >> i bet none of you have been standing for two hours. we really had a good conversation. there was some enthusiasm from the legislation. some on the other side not so enthusiastic. generally speaking, people realized the situation we are in coming into the alternative. this legislation is typical for compromise legislation. neither side got what they

wanted. it is the essence of compromise. the house will be voting on this sometime this evening. we are working on voting today. we want to start the process. there are ways we can work simultaneously. all of this takes unanimous consent. we will do everything we can to try to get that. we need to send this to president obama as soon as we can. it is a long process. i am confident that we did the right thing for the american people. the solution, cut the deficit now. congress will do much better work in the months ahead. it clears the way for us to look up at the bright sunshine and get rid of the clouds that have

been hanging over our country for far too long. i am hopeful and confident that we can get this done very quickly, this legislation work. we still have to do things. many are struggling around the country for the essentials, a job. we have to move to a jobs agenda. we need to move to that as quickly as possible. we need to put this behind us and put americans back to work. the question is is there a need for comprehensive debt reduction after we get this done. we made a step forward. that is good. everyone knows the idea of the joint committee was my proposal. i am glad that senator mcconnell

put his arms around it. i hope we can get something done. i hope it does not affect the vote over there today. representative kantor said that revenue could be part of what we do with the joint committee. it is a problem. when we started the last congress, we found ourselves in a hole with this country has never seen before. we lost about 8 million jobs with the bush should ministration. clinton created 23 million jobs. we had a surplus when we took office. we are now $14 trillion.

we want more deficit reduction. >> [unintelligible] >> senator mcconnell and i have spoken about this. it will be interesting to see what ideas he has. i will make a decision at a subsequent time. i have two weeks after this bill is passed. i have to pick people that are willing to make hard choices. one of my friends ask me and said he would like to be on the committee. it does not bode well for me to choose someone and -- we have to look at other avenues.

i am looking at three people, including the co-chair. [unintelligible] >> i have not thought about that. it should have no bearing. [laughter] i am a longtime member congress. i never count my votes until they are cast. i am hopeful, but we will have to see. i am not here to declare victory. [laughter]

-- [unintelligible] >> i was referring to people who said the committee is a waste of time, nothing will happen there. people are willing to make difficult choices and yet understand the political realities of the world we are in. i think that is enough. >> of the house republican leadership also spoke to reporters about reducing the federal budget. this is about 10 minutes.

>> good evening. i made clear that there would be no increase to the debt ceiling. shortly after that, i was in new york and gave a speech with an outline saying that the spending cuts should exceed the amount of the debt will limit increase and there should be no taxes as part of this agreement. when you look at what we have

been able to achieve, we have met those standards. we have worked with our members and the american people. a real interest in making sure that we do not get in this spot again and we have a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. if you look to see the structure of the balanced budget issues in this agreement, it gives us the best shot that we have in the 20 years i have been here. the bill supports a balanced budget amendment to the constitution and puts the fiscal handcuffs on this congress that are sorely needed. we have been operating under a balanced budget amendment, we

never would have done ourselves into the mess we are in. it is important to our fiscal future and the fact that our economy needs to get going. beginning to take steps to fix our fiscal problem -- the people we expect to reinvest in our economy and create jobs. >> the house will vote on a measure today that will begin to change the culture in washington. for too many decades now, this town has spent money it does not have. by sending to the congress this year 87 new republicans, the american people have changed the direction of this country. the bill is not perfect but it is changing the way washington spends taxpayer dollars.

as a like -- is a monumental task. in my experience throughout the last couple of months, i have been in a lot of discussions around this issue. from day one, this administration has been insisting that we raise taxes in order to solve this problem. i think the big win for us and the american people is the fact that there are no tax hikes in this package. with the middle class hoping for new jobs, the last thing we need our tax i am told that the leader on the other side of the building indicated that somehow i have changed my position on that. he is wrong. now is not the time for us to consider tax hikes when there is over nine percent of --