great group of people who walk hand in hand with shine and many of the other programs that are helping put a dent in helping to reduce medicare fraud. we are responsible and we all have the opportunity. i would like you to make sure you come by our booth and pick up one of our free health planners. we have a toll-free number -- . . he might spend some time with you.

we wl see what your diagnosis is. what level of service you are getting. anything. this is one opportunity. please, do not, if you have in your wallet, please take out your social security card, please take out your medicare card. take those cards out. you know what your numbers are generally speaking. we are trying to help with medical anti-fraud helping all of us. don't give your creditard over when you have a copay for a bill. don't give your credit card over the phone for someone. these are really good tips that we need to wrap around and deal with the problems. lastly, we need volunteers.

we need help. we get our funding from the federal government. we rely on gras and money and i am proud t say that south florida is doing a heck of a job even though we have huge medicare fraud but we will be working on these issues. if we make a little bit of each of us reporting it, medical equipment, if you see someone in the parking lot and they come up to you and ask you, do you need some equipment, just be on guard. we will all work together. >> thank you so much to all three of you. again, i try to provide sources like these. >> i am here to give a

legislative update. it has been a challenging first seven months of the 112th congress. that mig be the undstatement of the year. the republicans took control of the house of representatives and left democrats in a minority. i have been in a majority in the minority, i like the majority of lot better. i will be honest with you. to me, the important thing is to work together and to sit down and figure out how we can find common ground. we don't always understand that it cannot be this way and remove the country forward. we will have to put some of our differences aside to find common grnd and work towards a common goal. and the last congress, democrats worked to improve and grow our

economy while protecting our seniors, children, and the middle class. we passed historic health care reform. when it is fully implemented, all americans will have access to affordable health care. finally, this is a right, not a privilege. the legislation provides many important improvements to medicare. a lot of you might not realize this. this congress, while the house democrats have been focused on eating jobs and bringing down the deficit in a responsible y, we have had not had that kind of focus and cooperation. instead, what we have seen from republicans are a series of bills that pursued a reckless and extreme social agenda or one that sent to break requirements to medicare and social security. the medicare proposal under the guise of reform it simply shift

the costs on to the states and low income beneficiaries and weaken social security. while we do need reforms to ensure there is sustainability. virtually everyone on this room is on social security and medicare. i bet if you ask your children or grandchildren, many would be worriethat those programs are not there for them. we need to make sure that we take those steps to shore up those programs. i would say that we need to take a fferent approach unlike the proposals that have come from the other side of the aisle which i will detail in a few months. i want to turn to what health- care reform has done for medicare beneficiaries. this is one of those import laws in a generation, really one of the most important since 1965. there has been a lot of misinformation out there about

what it means for seniors. this will improve your quality of care and save you money. last year, how many of you are direct medicare? you get your prescription drugs from the party planned. i remember when it was being implemented, i remember trying to help you figure out how to sign up. they have that dreaded coverage gap called the town uphold which never should have been part of that original proposedaw and which the affordable care act is closing. over the next nineears, the medicare coverage down uphold look completely close. last year, if you fell into the doughnut hole, how many of you actually fell into that zone

uphold? last yr from the affordable care act, you received a $250 payment. this year, brand-name prescription drugs, once you are in the town hall has a 50% discount. we will increase that over the course of the next nine years so that we will close the town of whole and it will save the average senior an average of about $3,000 a year. in addition, improvements to medicare will help to ensure affordable access. one of my frustrations and all the time i have been in congress and really be on that is that the medicare system has always been a sick care system. when i talk to constituents like you, so often you are going to the doctor when you are ill, when something is wrong parent of course, when something is wrong, you're care will cost more.

i have always thought and affordable care act does this, that we should shift the focus from a sick care system to a prevention and wlness system. that is why the affordable care act gives you without a copay free access to a preventive health care visit to your doctor to make sure that you can catch things early. as a breast cancer survivor, now going on three years and with a clean bill of health. thank you, thank you. i can tell you the reason that i can share that with yois because when i found a lump in my breast, i was able to catch that very early. it only makes sense that being able to get an annual checkup which he could not get before the affordable care act passed, let us catch things earlier and will help you live longer.

it also provides for preventative screening like mammograms and colonoscopy is and other copay is so that if there is a problem, it will be caught early. the plan that we put into law was designed to improve the quality of care under medicare while limiting the amount that seniors pay out of pocket every year. it has been the star contract with the proposals that the republicans have offered. house republicans took what i like to call the appeal and abandoned approach by to completely propose to on to the affordable care act. if this were to become law, it would reopen the doughnut hole coverage gap and it would cost seniors thousands of dollars. itould force them to pay for preventive care. it would strip the benefits from

preventive plans. these challenges are not the only way the republicans are putting seniors security at risk. four months ago, it might have heard, that republicans under budget sre paul ryan rolled out a budget which would ilude nothing short of a termination of medicare. if it ever became law, medicare would be turned into a privatized vouer program requiring seniors to go buy private insurance and then cover any adtional expenses on their own, completely yanking the safety net from seniors and the promise that when you reach the age of 65, after paying into medicare, we will make sure that you don't have to worry about how you are goi to pay for your health care. according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, over the next 10 years, the republican plan would more than double the out-of-pocket expense. that it be about a $6,000 a year

increase to what you would pay and in 20 years of a triple your cost. this is dangerous and wrong to assume that someone on a fixed income could afford the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. that is why medicare was created in the first place. this guarantees your access to health care fits your budget. democrats make sure that the affordable care act would pay for those out of pocket expenses. seniors should have a certainty in the health-care expenses. i cannot tell you how times i have had senior stand up and say that i have such a hard time making ends meet bween living on social security for most of my income andrying to pay those premiums and make sure that i can pay for my prescription drugs. there are seniors that shared with me that they had to have a

doctor draw a line through the bill. the pharmacists bring five prescriptions to them and they can only afford four of them. should a senior deciding which prescription they will not take so they can grow to the grocery store? that is an unacceptable choice that would be worse if we went with a plan to privatize and make a voucher of medicare. this made deep cuts to the children's education funds, even deep cuts to pour security all the while creating a trillion dollars in new tax breaks. to republican budt turned this into a block grant program. some time people's eyes glaze over. keep in mind that 60% of seniors

in a nursing home, the way they're able to be in a nursing home is through medicaid. if we turn this into block grant program and the federal government is not provide enough funding, that will leave a lot of seniors in a position where they will not be able to get access to a nursing home or they will not be able to afford it or the seniors might get people to remain. when the federal government capped the amount available for patient care, the population increases, natural disasters, all of those unaffected events will have to be borne by the state. additionally, the budget projects that the block grant would not increase at the same level as health costs and there would be less and less individuals covered. this is not simply a funding issue. medicaid provides federal

standards of care and enforcement of those to ensure that they can protect the health and safety of their patients. i want to make sure we have the highest quality staffing in those homes as we have all heard the nightmare stories when a quality staffer is taking care of someone's loved one. we made a commitment that each and every one of the americans that when ey got older, they would not have to live in poverty, would not have to force our children into poverty in order to care for them. the americans pay in with the expectation that the federal government would honor their commitments. now you see a clear attempt to allow the government backed out of their commitment. that is wrong and that will not happen on my watch. i will fight every single day to make sure that social surity and medicare are preserve much as for those collecting it now for generations to come into that is a commitment that we

made. it will separate them from other countries and their commitments through the quality of life of seniors. and the last congress, democrats made great strides in turning around the economy, protecting consumers, and protecting medicare and social security. we prevented former president bush from privatizing security. when i go back to washington, i will make sure this progress doesn't disappear and make sure that the fund is not that -- is not cut. [applause] thank you for joining me and i will be happy to take any questions. i also want to make sure i don't

fall off the podium. have a microphone. if you have a question, feel free to come over to the microphone with the microphone on the other side of the audience. i would be glad to take your questions. >> yesterday, on "hardball," they had the president of the teamsters, jamesoffa on. what are they looking for. i think that he gave a pretty good answer. it is not what we're looking for. maybe we are disappointed in what the president or the democratic party hasn't done in congress to enter any bill that you put foh in the committee and any bill that does get through the committee will

probably be shot down. represent if kantor is a kid -- rep cantor is a good example of that. the president should at least make a presentation and would be taught to our membership, this is what e democrats and the president did. it was the republicans who >> i appreciate the comments, but let me just add to your comment. we are living -- we have a republican house a a democratic senate and a democratic president in one house. that signals that we should absolutely be finding a way to work together.

in manila on the political side, i obviously have a goal of politil respect, but as a member of congress, my first responsibility is to theell- being of my constituents. that is why i am here. i go back and forth every week from washington, making sure writer remaining can touch with my constituents. -- making sure that i remain in touch with my constituents. during the debate over the budget when the republicans brought us to the brink of government shut down earlier this year, -- let me take you back for a second to when obama was st inaugurated and the economy under president bush was on the press a bus of disaster. we were literally about to go over the economic cliff. the economy's was bleeding 700 tickets thousand jobs a month. i mean, really, we were in free

fall. now, 2.5 years later, although we have a long way to go and there are still far too many people out of work, we have made a lot of progress and begun to turn things around. now we have aidid's -- added some private-sector jobs for 17 straight months. we have added 2.4 million jobs in the private sector. we are going in the right direction instead of in free fall. we can only do it in a significant weight if we work together. i think it is extremely important that we focus on jobs across america, which is what president obama will talk about next thursday in his joint session address. i just hope the republicans are focused on everyone's job, because right now they seem focused on only one personhop, the man who is in the one else. i think we need to make a decision to work together

instd of what happened during the debt ceiling crisis was never clearly were focused on the welfare of the most fortunate in america, instead of a significant compromise like the president wanted to put forward with speaker boehner. the tea party seems to be -- it has not allowed for compromise and working together. i am going back to washington next week to coinue to push for common groundecause i think that is what america expects. >> i am very happy to be here and to see. i work for zero essay -- osa, by the way. in the past two years, gas has gone from $1.60 a gallon to $4 a gallon. my food bills have gone sky

high. i don't have to tell you what has happened to the economy, for which i do not blame president obama, by the way. my questn is, during those two years, we have not seen an increase in social security. my question to you is, what can we expect this coming year and are we ever get another incrse in our social security? >> thank you for the question. you are right, it is economically a very difficult situation. i want to answer your question in a more expanded way. specifically on social security and a cost-of-living adjustment. a lot of people perceive that congress actually controls and votes on cost-of-living adjustments for social security. we don't. the social security administration, through the social security trustees, they make that decision, based on a

cci index that is tied to inflation and tied to a market basket that is, i think, very out of date. so the last couple of years, the social security trustees have said that because the inflation rate, because the cost of living has not gone up at the same rate -- it has gone through a calculation -- it is done through calculationhat looks at a correction in a market basket. they take the cost of living of 02 different items, and those items that look at or more like the items that a family like mine spends money on, as opposed to what senior spend money on. so i support legislation that would actually create a senior , so you would loo more --

they will look more at a market basket that is typical of what seniors spend money on, and the new could see a more true reflection of the impact of inflation on senior citizens household income. then the cost-of-living adjustment would be more likely to come to you. unfortunate, the republicans refuse to pick up that legislation. we tried to get it taken up at the end of last year and they still refuse to take it up. so we are stuck with the cpi that does not reflect the true spending of seniors. they years ago, we did provide congress,nowing this was a difficult situation, we appropriated a $250 payment a couple of years ago to make up for the pact that seniors did not get an increase. we did not do that last year because unfortunately, the

republicans refuse to support it. i know it seems like i am being partisan here. i am not being partisan, those are just the facts. we had support for the appropriation from democrats and we did not have it from republicans. to the rest of your comment on gas prices and food prices, the frustration that i have over gas pric is that because we have such a divergence of opinion in washington right now between the two parties, the republican approach is to drill for more oil. i mean, really? there is an expression that says thto keep doing the same thing over and over an expected different result, that is the definition of work i will not call. but we have to make sure that we

can make investments in renewable energy and wean ourselves off of our dependence on oil. number one, that is not smart foreign policy. most of the oil producing countries are not our friends. that is proematic to begin with. to say nothing of the fact that a lot of those countries have seris internal problems politically now, anyway. so we need to make investments. we need to have a universal agreement and understanding that global warming is a problem, that it iimportant for us to reduce our energy costs, and we can do that by investing in renewable fuel here. that is important. that will have an impact on food prices, because if we are able to make sure that we don't have to move food around, or if the

transportation cost of food -- and transportation costs to move food or less, that will trickle- down to the overall cost of groceries. it is in all our economic terests to do that. think the social security trustees have said for this next year yet whether there will be a cola. it has been two years. do me a favor, it is not my fault. please tell your friends, it is a formul that i am trying to help change. >> you said the magic word before about working together. it really hurts my heart to see how this country has fallen apart. i have seen so many changes in the last big years that i have

never seen before. look at all the hurricanes we are having, look at all the flooding. never before. is god punishing us? it is said. i am 83 years old, and i have never in my life seen stuff like this. we better wake up and smell the coffee and start believi in god or somebody that looks like god. thank you. [applause] for don't want to blame god natural disasters, but i do agree with you. as i said at theutset, i have been in public service for more than 20 years and elected office for 18, and i have been in the minority and the majority. i have worked with republicans in leadership and i he worked with republicans when democrats were in leadership. one thing i have always really work hard on is to treat my opponents, people i don't agr

with or who don't agree with me, with rpect, and recognize that they may have a valuable point of view, even though i am most things i might not agree with them. right now, what makes me so sad is that i have nev treated my republican colleagues -- i have always treated them like they are my opponents, but never like my enemy. and that is what i think we have reached in america right now, in terms of the polarization that exists in politics. this tea party and the people who are running the republican party right no treat people they don't agree with like that are the enemy. when they disagree with us, we are not wrong, we are right. that is just not how we do things in america. that is how we -- i go on the

other side of the chamber of the time, and hopefully through the force of my personality, through being a nice person, through building relationships with individuals and trying to find issues we can work together on, a co-sponsor legislation with republicans all the time and i push them through into law and works against people who opposed that legislation on both sid of the aisle. that is what democracy is all about. i also agree to disagree with opponents on the other side, and quite frankly, opponent on my side, and recognize, like i tell my children when they are insisted that they want their way but i know it is not the right thing to do, they have to realize aimportant life lessons ishat it cannot always be yr way. oftentimes, the best outcome results from everybody giving a little. that might seem odd coming from

someone with a political role i have on the other side of my professional life, but i think first and foremost, we have to commit to work together and move forward together. that is what president obama has been working so hard to do. i think that has been evident to most of the people in the country. there is a very stark contrast that exist right now between the direction we have been going, which we need to pick up the pace, and he acknowledges that, improve job creation, make sure we can get people back toork, and the other direction that is proposed b our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, which would continue to focus on the most fortunate americans and not focus on the middle-class and working families and stockpiling pain -- we are all having to endure some pain right now and i have had to vote for some cuts there were very painful that i normally would

never have wanted to vote for, but i recognize that i have to come before you and tell you that we all have to sacrifice. they are asking nothing of the most fortunate arica in terms of sacrifice. why do major corporations in this country pay more to their ceo's than they do in taxes? war in bonuses than they do in taxes. unacceptable. that is what i am up in washington fighting for on your behalf. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, and tnk you so much for taking the time out. the one thing i need to ask you, and it is sort of the segue into the gentleman's statement. there have been so many horrific and catastrophic weather happenings all over our nation, whether it is tornadoes and hurricanes. the one thing i would like to say to you is, with the threat

recently with hurricane irene, south florida was another target. to be an elected official or anyone looking for your budget issues, the one problem which seem to have is expediting refunds when it comes to fema. another nasa to work load, and i am not trying to criticize, but most of us have an emergency preparedness reserve. at the same time, we use it, but we need to refund its and deposit back in. we still are having difficulty getting our money from wilma, and iin the tune of $400,000. is there some way that if we don't know the secret to expediting this, is there some

secret we are missing here? our paper work, everything is in, but with so much coming, it is not just for me, it would be for everyone who has to deal with fema. i am not being critical, i am just askg. >> if criticism is warranted, you can be critical. >> i know they have a workload, and i appreciate it, but i also have to look at my home town, and i would really appreciate them expediting our funds from wilma and from francis. >> i am glad you raised that because i have been able to be successful in helping the cities in my district cut through the red tape that fema has and get those refunds. i am surprised you are still struggling and have not called

me yet to help you with that refund from wilma. talk with jody and vivian after an we can definitely start to put in some calls to shake that money loser. is not ok that it has been this long. we do have some good news with the mud. the director of fema now, unlike some of the incompetence we have had in the past, is craig fugate, our former director of emergency operations in florida. we have a hurrica response system that is second to none, and other states since katrina have come down and got an advice and been tutored by greg fugate. let meave my staff and me follow up and make sure we can shake loose what is supposed to be coming back to you for sure. let me also point out that there

is a little bit of a frightening debate going on right now related to fee must pacific fleet and to disaster funding. you might have se in the news. the majority leader in the house of representatives, eric cantor, who is a colleague and friend, i would single him out as someone i have been able to work with on some issues, but he has actually been suggesting that we should not appropriate disaster funding to help communities that get hit by hurricanes like i read or like the flos that have happened in the midwest, unless we have a budget cut somewhere else. this is not something i am making up for misinterpreting. he said it point blank out loud. we liv in her cane alley here. can you imagine having to wait until congress acts on a different budget cut to ensure that we get the disaster relief

that we need? that is just unacceptable. it is madness. i agree we have to reduce the deficit, but let's make sure that we make smart cut. let's make sure that we don't cut so deeply and so much that we put people in harm's way or leave people in harm's way. absolutely, let us know how we can continue to help you sort that out. [applause] >> i would like to get back to social security and medicare. next year i will be eligible for medicare. i not only have to get medicare but i will have to get a supplement as well. i am confused bause what you are talking about earlier, it seemed like eventually we would not need those supplements.

medicare does not cover everything, as you know. >> as the affordable care act res pulp implementation by 2014, you may not. each individual has to look at their situation. my staff person is very familiar with the affordable care act. you should evaluate whether or not initially, because it is not fully implemented, you should take a look at what medicare will cover for you and what you are other needs are, what a supplemental policy would provide for you, and down the road, and a couple of years as the full implementation takes effect, you can decide whether or not the preventive screens that are available now, if that is what primarily you paid for supplemental policy to cover, then you may want to let it go. that is one of the things that is really important, learning

the details of how the affordable care act will directly help you, anwe can help you with that. there are other organizations that can help you, too, but shine can specifically help you coma 3 that detail. are you going on direct medicare? >> i have no idea. -- that can help you comb through that detail. when you sit down with shine, have them help you with the comparison of constriction -- prescription drug plans. that can be confusing, and they have a good way of helping people sort it out. >> the other thing is social security. last year, you had come to us and proposed two bills for

increasing social security because of the cola increase for social security. but they did not pass, and yet the democrats were in the vast majority in both houses at that time. that is why i don't understand why that did not pass. >> the reality is, in the senate, my colleague from oregon is the prime sponsor a that a legislation and i know he introduced it sometime in the last congress initially. while we have had a solid majority in the last congress and the house, effectively we did not have a worki majority in the senate because of the way they required 60 votes for anything to pass. we did not have the 60 vote majority in the senate, and as a result, every single thing gets filibustered. the house bill move the little bit, but then it did not go

anywhere, and subsequently, there was republican opposition in this congressnd we still have the same problem in the united states senate. >> my biggest concern is outsourcing. the economy is bad. there are no jobs here, but we continue to have companies outsourcing. and our utilities -- utility companies are doing it, and i think it is a disgrace. we know trickle-down economy never works. how about a trickle up? >> i am with you on the trickle up. you are 100% right. our tax policy under the bush administration incentivized corporate operations to actually offshore jobs. there was a tax incentive for them to create jobs somewhere else other than the united states.

what president obama and congressional democrats have been pushing for is to give a tax incentive to onshore jobs, to bring jobs back to the united states of america and incentivize companies to do that. i hope we get the cooperation of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do that, because we should be focusing on making thin in america. making its in america should be the focus. the good news is that over the last year, we have actually had a surge in american manufacturing, for the first time in decades. we have had manufacturing jobs created for 16 or 17 months straight. we have had a resurgence of the manufacturing sector in america, which is fantastic. look at the rescue of the american automobile industry. in the early part of last year,

or the early part of 2009, the tarp program, although it was unpopular, if we asked people what they thought of the park plan, people would say they cannot believe we did that, but the president's courage to overco unpopularity and invest those funds come along them to the american automotive industry, which was about to go down the tubes, and which many republicans said let them, it would have met over a milli jobs in th pipeline. you have so many suppliers to the automobile industry that would have folded if that happened. now we have all three american automobile makers operating at a profit for the first time since 2004, and they have paid back the tarp funds to the federal government with interest. so president obama's judgment was right.

it was also right to use those funds to prevent banks from being tobig to fail and to prevent the entire financial system from collapsing, following up on what president bush was forced to do in october of 2008, and then we had to invest another infusion to make sure you could never again have a bank so big that failing would wreck the economy. so the focus on manufacturing is absolutely a priority and needs to remain one. >> [inaudible] >> come to the microphone over here. >> no one has ever accused you of not being able to be heard. >> we have only to allow time.

-- we have known each other a long time. everything has grown in stature. there are two things. number one, the cola increase you talked about for social security. it has been on the books up to june of this year. it is true for veterans, it will be true for social security unless something changes. if there is going to be a cut somewhere along the line. i don't think that is going to change. >> right now we are ok, what what happens later on, i don't know. they have already paid back 76% of the total amount of money that has been brought in, with interest. $113 billion is what they took

an $313 llion is what they paid back. but how many new that the financial-services industry and the automobile industry paid back the tarp funds with interest to the federal government. that is because my seniors are so knowledgeable and well informed -- fantastic. >> i don't see anyone else at the microphone. i am sorry, forgive me. right ahead. bill is not only the president of brouwer county veterans counl but he shares my military academy council the reviews all the met -- all the applications of the young men and women who applied for admission to any of our military

academies and helps screen all of those applicant and health send the best candidates to the naval academy's, to the merchant marine academy and the air force academy. he has been the chair of that committee for all the time i have been in congress and i cannot thank you enough for your service. thank you very much. >> we have always been a consumer driven economy and it seems to me the investments we ve made have not been directed at the consumer so much as that big business and so forth. talking about a jobs bill, if it were possible to take that investment and make available to every taxpaying citizen in the united states x amount of dollars, whatever it might be, not in their pockets, is a

bandit art lose that amount of money, so that every time they went in and wanted to buy new car, if it is a $17,000 car and they have $20,000, $17,000 comes off the top and if it is spent in america, in business, and whatever money is taken goes directly io the economy, towards american businesses, whether retail stores -- you want a new kitchen, you have the money to do it but you are spending it. you don't put it away, you don't save it, it is not money in your pocket. it is use it or lose it. if you put in a billion dollars, it goes directly into the economy so that american businesses grow and need more employees and the consumerism starts up again that way. >> that is a good suggestion.

let me share review the ways in which we have already done that under president obama's policies and leadership in a variety of ways. actually, the reason that president obama has championed tax-cutting policy that is targeted to the middle-class and working families and small business owners, rather than republican colleagues to focus on the trickle-down policies that never worked and focusing on the wealthiest and most fortunate americans -- is more likely it deep give a tax break to small business owner or someone in the middle class who has been putting off buying a new refrigerator forheir kitchen, when they get that tax break, they are more likely to take that money that was not in their pocket before and go by their refrigerator. what happens with wealthier people is the windfall does not mean much to them, so they invested or sit on it, and the

money does not get put back into the econy. that is why president obama passed 17 different tax breaks last year for small businesses, including capital gains tax breaks and tax breaks on equipment and things they could actually use to invest in their businesses. it is also why even though it was frustrating to have to extend both the tax breaks for the wealthy and the middle class at the end of last year, i voted for that compromise because i recognize again that it cannot always be my way. i voted for that tax cut, but included in it was a payroll tax cut that made sure that we put some money -- we put it back into their pockets. we want to extend that payroll tax cut when we come back. reblicans right now or refusing to extend it. that would do exactly what you are saying, keep extra money in the pockets of individuals who

would go out and invest it in the economy. not the direct spendinyou would propose, but there are ways to do its and ways not to do it, and we think our focus on tax breaks for the middle class and small business owners and working folks are a lot more likely to end use resources into the economy and do exactly what you are saying. i think president obama's jobs rollout next thursday will include some of those good ideas, thank you very much. anyone else? ok. >> good afternoon. i name is mark and i am one of the contractors here at lauderdale west. i have a great question for you concerning the edley committee of lauderdale west. they passed an energy efficiency act for rebates like they did with "cash-for-

clunrs" last year. a lot of people have been receiving high efficiency air conditioning equipment. so we don't consume as much energy. i would like to know why the people of south florida that are spending the money on these hig efficiency equipment are not receiving the rebates that they used to be entitled to. the obama administration actually lowered the federal tax credit rebate for these efficiency unit and they have almost cut them out completely, and i would like to know why and how we can get them back to the community. >> i will have to check this to make sure i am right, but the obamadministration did not into them. they were part of the recovery act. a portion of the recovery act, when president obama took office in 2009, we passed the recovery act make sure that we could make significant investmts in infrastructure and job creation.

energy was a big portion of that investment and that included those energy rebates. as the money has run out, it was $787 billion. as the money has been spent and invested in the economy, we have tried to get the republicans to re-up on those investments. created tons of jobs for people of -- contctors like you they can go out and installed a new air conditioners and purchase the equipment to do that. there are so many different facets to investment spending economy that rebate like that generates, but they will not make the additional investment. they are only focused on cutting and not on balancing the way we deal with deficit reduction and job creation at the same time. it was not a policy decision,t was just a result of the

recovery act beginning to run its course, and we cannot get them to re-up to continue the flow that ensures that we reduce our energy costs and put people to work at the same time. you don't have to write your congressman because i am standing in front of you. i assure you will continue to push hard to make sure we have investments like that and we need to make sure at the end of the day that after president obama makes that special address on thursday, i hope you talk to your friends and neighbors that have different representatives in south florida and ask them to have their representatives support these proposals. thank you very much. >> i just want to say thank you. thank you for coming. we appreciate everything you do for us.

>> thank you very much. the two of you will close us out and then i would just set couple of things and we can chat. >> what is the solution? i am behind you 100%. i know how you are stymied, but if you say yes, the republicans say no. i have never heard the republicans say yes, so we can get rid of that. what is the bottom line? where are we going? america is suffering. we are suffering. your children will suffer. >> this will be the most political thing that i will have said, th only way i know how to respond. elections have consequences. the solution is the decisions that we maken 15 months from now. we have to make sure that we have different people serving in

washington that are going to be able to sit down and work together and move our country apart and work with president obama and make sure that we don't have the people who are there now that are committed to furthering the polarization. thank you. [applause] >> i live overseas. my question is, does the democratic party, or do the democrats have a pr person, and if they don't, they should. sometimes i don't feel like the message is getting out there. most of us listen to our programs, and i think the majority of americans, whatever news they are watching, local news, it is not on there, and no one is tooting the horn of all the policies that have been

passed. with everyone calling this obamacare, it gets put down, and i don't think anyone really notices how much has been implemented already and how much good that has done, except for the people who have already felt it. so you should get a pr pson because there is a lot of good. also to do comparisons, because i am sure that by this time now, when nancy pelosi was running the house, she passed an awful lot more bills than have been passed right now. i am sure you had less vacation time, so please, get a pr person. >> i said at the outset that i was here with my congressional hat on and not my political one. i will not get into a detailed answer of your question, but i will tell you that we do have them, and i wl take your message to heart.

thank you. one more question and then i will have to wrap it . thank you for your sentiment, i appreciate it. >> what if we all made a concerted effort and just one day, as a suggestion, we buy nothing from china. >> by american -- that is a great way to close this out. we should all make a commitment to check those labels on the clothing and the things that you buy that are manufactured elsewhere. look a little harder to buy american, because that is how we can all pernally contribute to making it in america. thank you so much.

>> remarks and comments on washington journal. live at noon, sarah palin is a key note speaker in iowa. on news makers, ohio's governor discusses the economy and jobs. his view of the obama

administration initiative in advance of the job talks. sunday on c-span. >> this morning fiscal times editor discusses the