it made sure that there would be no shortfall in the social security trust fund. it made sure there would be no shortage in the medicare fund. it addressed that, and the only people that would have been hurt -- and i don't think they would have been hurt -- but the only ones that would have missed the money would have been those getting the bailouts. well, the president like the name, liked the idea of leaving some money in the check, but instead of $4,000, $5,000, they decided to leave $160, two months. harry reid said he wants to give americans $1,000 and that's what the nat is doing. the only way we can keep harry reid from being a liar, and i don't want to make him a liar, what we have to do is have the senate pass what we've passed and at least sent conferees to the conference so we can work out a compromise because right now all he's got is $160, not

$1,000. i hope my colleagues here in the house will urge the senate, please help us keep harry reid from being a liar he said they provided $1,000 in tax cuts to working americans and the only way that'll happen is if they'll adopt the house proposal or send conferees to the conference that will leave that much for the whole year, not just two months. now there were $700 billion originally allocated for tarp. the obama administration got $350 billion of that, plus was projected we'd get maybe $100 billion or $so billion of the original $350 billion. there's still $120 billion plus in assets in that slush fund. they need to be liquidated and they need to take care of things like social security.

and medicare. there's another $50 billion or so in the tarp that is still cash money that should be used, if anything is going to be used, use that to stimulate the economy by letting people keep their own money in their paycheck. this two months proposed by the senate is not going to stimulate the economy, as nonpartisan groups have said, it is going to create vast instability and there is no comparison to that and a paid for, complete holiday for working americans to keep everything in their paycheck. that would have been a stimulus. we made inquiries to people, what would you do with it? we heard from people saying, we want a car that's more fuel efficient but the big gas guzzler we've got is under water, we can't get out from under it.

if you let us keep our taxes for two full month, we would be able to get rid of this clunker and be able to get a more fuel efficient car. others said, we got behind on our mortgage last summer when gas went to $4 a gallon. because speaker pelosi and harry reid's policy the bill the legislation they had passed were stifling the ability to provide for more of our own oil and gas. spiked up to $4 a gallon. they said we got behind then but if you let us keep two months' of all of our taxes, we don't need anymore government programs, we can get out of problems with our mortgage ourselves. but no, there are people in this town that like the g.r.e., the government running everything. and the way to do that is to keep coming up with programs. so they created more programs. one other thing i want to touch on that's hit the news in the

last two days but unfortunately many have not noticed, this administration is about -- they're in the process of trying to provide the taliban a christmas present. now, two weeks ago, we found out that a fourth category of the terrorist watch list was being created called former military detainees. having seen how this administration works, having known we have an attorney general that represented terrorists before he became attorney general, having an attorney general who has no clue how fast and furious came about, according to his testimony, having an attorney general that was involved, was around when the mark rich pardon took place, we knew we needed to look carefully when these kind of indications came forth.

what we found was, the administration, no, no, no, we just needed -- we're not about to release detainees. not much. what's come out in the last two tais is that this administration is negotiating with terrorists, negotiating with the taliban directly, and about to work out a deal, the administration is saying, reuters had a story on this, but the administration apparently is saying, in essence, we need to have a show of good faith to these terrorists, the taliban, that were complicit in the killing and murdering of over 3,000 americans. we need to show them good faith by releasing taliban murderers from their detention, and then they'll have a much better feeling about us. then we're also in the process directly of negotiating with the karzai administration, in afghanistan, and the taliban, trying to work something out where the taliban will have a place.

this administration has forgotten they killed americans. they're saying, well, we think they're softening up now, they don't want to kill americans as badly as they did back at 9/11. but they probably won't plot and train and kill americans like they did before. if they just see how wonderful our administration is and how kind and generous we are just to let them have murderers back out of detention who have indicated nothing -- who have done nothing indicating they don't want to kill americans any further this administration is doing this and they need to understand the people that they're about to give this christmas present to don't believe in christmas. they believed in killing americans they believed in killing innocent people, they believed in plotting and training and carrying out such a plot to kill americans and there is no indication that

they think otherwise. but this administration is so intent on getting out of afghanistan and turning things over to the taliban again we're going to be right back where we were 20 years ago as the taliban was working toward the ultimate 9/11. and not only that, they will then know, everything osama bin laden said about the americans being too weak, not being up to the fight, that eventually they'll cave in and start helping us to destroy them, that's what appears to be happening with this administration. we can't do that. the lives of americans that have been lost in afghanistan cry out, do not concede defeat to our enemies that have killed us.

afghanistan is an issue that needs to be dealt with but not by giving those who terrorized us all that they want. they're wanting an office outside of afghanistan and this administration said, we think we can work that out, we'll pay for the office and take care of that if you promise us you won't use it to fundraise for terrorism, ok? that's not like -- that's like north korea saying if you'll just build us a nuclear power plant, we promise we won't use it for nukes and the clinton administration, and madeleine albright, believed them. and now they've got nukes and we helped them with it. now this administration can't learn from past mistakes, it's about to do that with the taliban. in meeting with war lords a year and a half ago from northern afghanistan, a small group of us learned that after

the taliban was initially defeated in about three or four months with merely embedded troops that the united states asked the war lords, the northern alliance to disarm. and they did. and now here it was a year and a half ago, they're saying, you may not be aware but your administration, the obama administration is indirectly negotiating with the taliban right now. we know. and you're negotiating with them and pakistan and a corrupt karzai administration and who is going to be hurt out of all of this? your allies. those who fought with you, who defeated the taliban initially and now you're about to turn things over to the people who will kill your allies. do you want that message going around the world that to be an ally with the united states means you ultimately will be abandoned and the enemies of

your allies will be allowed to kill your allies? be hard to get allies if you do that. this administration is looking at an election year, this is no time to give in to terrorists. when president bush says, i hear you, and in essence said, and soon those who did this will hear from us, i can't imagine that he ever believed a president and administration would say, we hear you now, terrorists, and we're not going to hurt you, we'll fix you up an office outside afghanistan, we'll make it with where you can take over areas of afghanistan, we'll work with you, we'll release your murderers from prison. i don't think that's what president bush was talking about when he said they would hear from us but it sure looks

like that's about to be what happens, according to the stories now circulating. those war lords were right. they said, look, we were not meant to have a big central government. we can't have it without being corrupt, not right now. at least let us elect our regional governors, our mayors, at least. don't have the karzai administration appoint the regional governors, apont the mayors and pick corrupt police chiefs, let us elect those. the power of afghanistan is in the regions, in the tribes. to have a government that's centralized right now means corruption. let us do that regionally. and give us back weapons so we can defend ourselves against the taliban who is already moving. and in answer to this administration's wonderful gestures of kindness and we'll release your murderers, we had

them kill seal team 6, a big number of our people. that wasn't enough. in september, they killed one of the war lords, just as a handful of us were about to go have a meeting with him again. the message is clear, the taliban have not learned nothing. there's only one thing they understand, that's force. and it's like career criminals that i dealt with as a judge, if you want to be protected, you've got to put them where they can't hurt you anymore. they're murderers who have been put where they can't hurt us anymore and this administration is now talking about releasing them. so we have a two-fold front of problems, one is the economy,

where the wall street executives that contribute 4-1 to democrats over republicans, contribute 4-1 to the obama campaign over the mccain campaign, they've been enriched and engorged with tarp money, it's time to end tarp, it's time to allow workers to have a break, it's time that the senate quit playing games and acknowledge that a full year of certainty is a whole lot better than two months, apont the conferees, send them to confer, it's how things get worked out. it's the way that procedurally things were meant to happen. so, it can be above board, the rules require that they must be open sessions of the conference committee, that's the way you resolve things, under regular order. needs to be done that way.

i know the senate would like to do closed door meetings and give away programs behind closed doors but it's time to do this thing the way the president promised four years ago that he would if he were president. make it open. make it clear. the american people will see who is negotiating for whom. that will help america. and i know in closing for my comments that with the christmas season, there are so many who want to enthe ability to say merry christmas, they want to end the ability to do much of anything that really is acknowledging our roots, i think it's important to look where we came from. so i would close with this message from ronald reagan. he basically reiterates things that have been said back to the

time of george washington, abraham lincoln. he said the themes of christmas and coming home for the holidays have long been intertwined in song and story. there's a profound irony and lesson in this because christmas celebrates the coming of a savior who was born without a home. there was no room at the end for the holy family. weary of travel a young mary, close to childbirth, and her carpenter husband joseph, found but the rude shelt ore of a stable. there was born the king of kings, the prince of peace, and -- an event on which all history would turn. jesus would again be without a home and more than once. on the flight to egypt and during his public ministry when he said the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head, from his very infancy on, our

redeemer was reminding us that from then on, we would never lack a home in him. like the shepherds who come, to whom the angel of the lord appeared on the first christmas day, we could always say, let us now go even unto bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the lord made known to us, as we come home with gladness to family and friends this christmas, let us also remember our neighbors who cannot go home themselves. our compassion and concern this christmas and all year long will mean much to the hospitalized, the homeless, the convalescent, the orphaned and will surely lead us on the way to the joy and peace of bethlehem and the christ child who bids us come, for it is only in finding and living the eternal meaning of the nativity that we can be truly happy,

truly at peace, truly at home. merry christmas, and god bless you, ronald reagan, december 19, 1988. his last christmas message as president. mr. speaker, there are those who don't want people to mention the word christmas and there's an easy solution. for those that don't want to mention christmas, don't want to observe christmas, then if they take the holiday, just agree to give back the money because the money earned on a holiday shouldn't be taken for those who don't think it should be a holiday. that's easy enough. but in the spirit of christmas, and the things we know about government, those of us who believe what's in the bible, we have an obligation to protect people as the government, as put

out in romans 13, coincides with providing for the common defense. it's time to do that, to make sure americans are safe, that they're provided with a defense so they can take care of the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widows. they can help their fellow man. that's our job as a government, our job as individuals is to have that same spirit of assisting and helping and being servants. we're elected to be servants in this body, we're not elected and charged with taking from some people and giving to our favorite charitable cause. we're to do that with our own money. not with people's money that may have some other better charity they prefer to give it to. we need to get the economy going, we need to bring down the costs of energy. that would be a great christmas present.

and since we know that the market and the energy industry adjust to announcements, how about a great announcement from our president, we're not going to let murderers go free, so you don't have to worry, you'll be safe. we're going to take the battle to those who want to murder us, we are not going to negotiate further with terrorists who want to kill us. we're going to make sure that we quit bailing out our friends, our cronies. we're going to make sure that those who know better what to do with their own money have the opportunity to do that. we're going to give some security and some confidence for the following year because here's what we're going to do. and we're going to work together and it would be wonderful if the president would say, you know what? i demanded the congress pass a bill that had not even come out when i started criticizing for

not passing, then i started criticizing them for not passing a bill i'd forgeten to ask a democrat to file for me -- i'd forgotten to ask a democrat to file for me, so i'm not going to do that anymore. i want to work with congress, i want to get this country back on track. so instead of traveling around the country demeaning congress for not passing bills that were not filed, i'm going to work with congress and i hope that will be our president's new year's resolution, don't release murderers and deal honestly and openly with the american people and with congress. we can get some things worked out. i've just been talking to democratic friends today about things that we agree on. we can do that. and give the american people a present. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. members are reminded not to engage in personalities toward the senate or its members and under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the

gentleman from georgia, mr. woodall, is recognized for the balance of the hour as the designee of the majority leader. mr. woodall: mr. speaker, i thank you for the time this afternoon. it's been a big day. big day. freshman in this body, coming up on the end of our very first year. in fact, all of us here, here with my colleague from wisconsin, all of us here freshman finishing up our first year. and it's a big day. i got to tell you, i feel good about the quality of the work product that's going on today. i feel good about the fact that there's serious issues before this body and we have said, let's slow down and make sure we get it right because families

have their futures on the line and i'd like to ask my friend from wisconsin how he sees this. >> i appreciate the gentleman from georgia yielding. i think it's important to note, we have listened to a debate that went on all day today that there really is no difference within this house, whether we should extend the payroll tax holiday or not. both republicans and democrats alike have come together and said, we want to have that tax break for middle class americans extended. mr. duffy: but if you were listening to the debate you might be confused by that because we so often heard on this side of the aisle that they don't believe that the republican side wants to extend it. and so i want to take a moment and just talk about what i think is happening here with regard to this debate in the house. i mean, let's not make a mistake. we have introduced legislation that is going to extend the

payroll tax holiday for one year. and what that means is $1,000 in a tax reduction for middle class americans throughout the country. and in my district, central and northern wisconsin, $1,000 for them as well. across the aisle a proposal has been made that started its process in the senate where we will do a two-month extension, a 60-day extension, which means the proposal is they would offer middle class americans $170 in tax reduction. so we proposed $1,000 of tax reduction and the democrats have proposed $170 in tax reduction. the american people look at this debate and say, my goodness, i want to go for the $1,000 deduction, not the $170. and so as we dive in a little more, we hear a lot about partisanship and a lot of differences between both chambers.

and a lot of folks are saying, we can't get this done. let's adjourn for christmas and let's come back at the end of january and through february and see if we can resolve this very important issue. i would say this, when we get back next year there will be five, maybe six weeks to work on this. but this won't be the only issue on the table. we're dealing with budgets and jobs bills. the docket, the calendar is full of issues that we have to address in this house. but for the next 10 days we have nothing on the agenda. the calendar is clear. let's get the house and the senate to come together and address this one very important issue, to extend the payroll tax holiday and let's do it for a year. we have disagreements. but for 10 days we can talk about those disagreements and find solutions that don't work for parties, that don't work for

chambers, but solutions that work for the american people. and you know what? if the democrats in the senate are steadfast in their request that it only be 60 days, i'll go for 60 days. but i just can't imagine that the american people believe that we're going to get a better resolution in 60 days than we can in the next 10 days. and as i look across my district, everyone in my district, they work today. they work tomorrow. they work the next day. they don't take the week off before christmas. and after christmas they work that whole week between christmas and new year's. they don't take that off. why should this house? why should the senate? let's come back and get this work done for the american people. they deserve it. and it is a real impact. people are concerned about how they're going to put food on the table for their kids.

how they're going to pay the mortgage. and $1,000 in the year makes a big difference for a lot of people in my district. and to think that the offer is we're going to give 2000 months and $170, that doesn't -- two months and $170, that doesn't cut the muss ard for them. they -- mustard for them. give them a break for a year. i'm really concerned. we've proposed the keystone pipeline. i know the president has talked about job creation. we've talked about job creation. we disagree on how we do it. the president and others will say, the government needs to spend money to create jobs and economic growth. we say, well, listen, it comes from the private sector. here we have a good example with the keystone pipeline where it's private sector money that's going to create 20,000 new jobs, direct new jobs in america if that pipeline goes forward. it's going to be 100,000 indirect jobs, real, good paying jobs for hardworking americans.

and the president's saying he doesn't want to do it. i say, listen, mr. president, we can't wait. the american people cannot wait. let's come together and say, you know what? 20,000 people, 100,000 hardworking americans can get a good paying job if you'll sign onto this legislation. not only that, we're going to take our energy from canada, people who actually like us, instead of countries in the middle east. let's get our energy, let's get our oil from our friendly neighbor to the north instead of those who are not so friendly in other parts of the world. and another key component of this extension is boiler mact. this is an e.p.a. regulation that came out that is going to increase the boiler standards that are used in american manufacturing. costing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars for our manufacturers to increase their

boiler standards. and in my district, just two weeks ago, we had one of our energy companies indicate that they're going to lay off 74 people and they made it very clear, in mayor in press release, they said -- in their press release, they said one of these issues is boiler mact, the e.p.a. let's take that away. let's make sure that our energy and our manufacturers have the ability to compete, not state to state, but in a new global environment. china, india, mexico, vietnam. we have to be able to compete with those countries. and if we implement this boiler mact regulation, we're going to shut down american manufacturing. in my district, it's paper. this regulation will cause wisconsin paper to be crushed because right now they're under immense competition from foreign competitors, but not only that, they're in a very tough industry as people move to computers and ipads and there's less paper

being used. so, i believe that these parties , i believe that these chambers have to come together in the next 10 days and we have to find a solution that's going to work for the american people, that is going to extend this payroll tax holiday, that's going to give them certainty so as they start the next year and as they start it with hope and a thought of opportunity, they know what they're going to get in regard to the payroll tax holiday that's going to come from this house. and so i would encourage all of my colleagues to come together during this season where we're all supposed to get along, we're all supposed to think about the me in -- the meaning of christmas, reach your hand out across the aisle to our friends who don't always agree with us but who can come together on this issue and say, america, we're going to stand together as the u.s. house and the u.s. senate and pass a bill that's going to give you certainty for

one year, giving you a tax break to the tune of $1,000. and so with that i would yield back to my good friend, i appreciate him offering me the time during this hour debate. mr. woodall: i thank my friend. i hope folks were paying close attention. i hope folks were paying close attention. what you have are two members of the freshman class on the floor right now, mr. speaker, and what you heard from our freshman colleague was, when can we come together? what you heard from our freshman colleague was, i don't want to do it if it's about party, i don't want to do it if it's about chamber pride, i want to do it because it's the right thing for the american people. is that what you're reading, mr. speaker, in the newspaper about what this freshman class is doing? is that what you're reading in the newspaper about what this congress is doing? pause i tell you, having sat here for one year, that's what's going on right now. that's what's goning on right here today. republicans are in the majority, mr. speaker work the power of your gavel, you could

demand that the house bill be the only bill that anybody considers. that it's our way or the highway, who cares what the senate has to say, we're in the majority, we're doing it our way. you could do that, mr. speaker. but that's not the advice and counsel that my colleague from wisconsin gives. the advice and counsel that my colleague from wisconsin gives is, we've done the very best we can in this chamber. work product that we're proud of. and now it's time, since the senate has passed a very different work product, candidly a work product i'm not proud of, a very different work product, that we now come together, the house product an the senate product, and try to agree on a final product that can pass both houses. this is a process as old as this institution. as old as this institution. thomas jefferson, when writing

the rules for this institution, mr. speaker, wrote of the conference committee process and how that is a tool for resolving differences between the bodies. now why are there differences twood? -- today? there are differences because this isn't some renaming of a post office. aisle not trying to denigrate the importance of a good name on a post office but i put that lower on the priority list. this is about medicare beneficiaries being able to find doctors, this is about whether unemployment checks continue to go out the door, this is about payroll tax cuts for every single working american family. this is about jobs, not just folks who don't have them but folk whors looking for them and how we can help them find them in the future. boiler mac, that my friend from wisconsin mentioned is a job growing proposal. the pipeline, that's a job-growing proposal.

that's what we had, in the house-passed legislation, you know, mr. speaker, we had not just unemployment benefit, not just payroll tax breaks, but also real proposals and reforms to grow this economy once again. those are absent from the senate proposal. now i'm not attributing any bad motives to our friends in the senate for producing a proposal that didn't have any job creating structure to it but i point outs that the proposal they produced and we need to come together and talk about it and candidly, i think we'll win that one. i think if our friends in the senate weren't so hurried to get out of town they would have produced a more thoughtful piece of legislation that would have included the job growing provisions we include. and we now have the opportunity to come together and do that. let me talk about why it is the senate proposal is so concerning to me and my constituents, mr. speaker. this is what abc news says, holiday passed by senate, pushed by president, cannot be

implemented properly experts say. i don't think that surprises any job creators in this country, mr. speaker. if you're someone who has to fill out government paperwork quarter after quarter after quorter, you're thinking, don't change the rules on me 10 days before the start of a new quarter and if you do, don't change them in the middle of the next quarter ksm no -- cannot be implemented, experts say. the question is, why would we try to prodouse a short-term solution when we have it within theable to have this chamber and the one next door and down at 1600 pennsylvania avenue to produce a long-term solution that serves the hardworking taxpayers in this country? we can do better and we owe it to the american people to do better. from the small business and entrepreneurship council, the confusion the two-month extension would impose on employers or their payroll providers will inevitably divert resources away from

productive activities. indeed, the uncertainty regarding what happens next following the two-month expiration date will serve as additional fuel to currently low business confidence levels. this is what the business community, the employer community, the job creator community, is saying about the so-called senate solution. and in fairness, even the senate, mr. speaker, is not stand big their slough. they're say, let's do it for two months and then come up with something better masmse colleague from wisconsin said, the time to come up with something better is now. from the national roofing contractors association, talking about the senate proposal, this would impose an undue burden on employers in the form of logistical difficulties and costs. i appreciate my colleagues on the democratic sid of the aisle and -- democratic side of the aisle and their commitment to helping the unemployed through a check from the government.

unemployment insurance is a longtime facet of the american economy. something that folks pay into at least for the first 26 weeks businesses pay into. but in the name of providing checks from the government we're saying, you're going to get fewer checks from employers. logistical difficulties and costs in creating new jobs. which i continue to say, mr. speaker is the focus of this congress, has been and has made me proud. from the associated builders and contractors this sort of temporary fix underscores congress' uneven, add hoc approach toward the -- ad hoc approach toward the economy. who disagrees with that, mr. speaker? how many times have you had a constituent back home, how many times have you heard from one of our freshman colleagues who said, i ran for congress because the guys in congress are doing more harm than good. i'll say it again. associated builders and contractors, of the senate solution, this sort of

temporary fix underscores congress' uneven, ad hoc approach toward the economy and causes more harm than good for america's job creators. mr. speaker, have you heard my friends on the democratic side of the aisle asking why it was so important for us to go to conference with the senate to try to improve that senate proposal? have you heard speaker after speak thorne democratic side of the aisle come to the floor and say, why won't you just pass it? why won't you just do what the senate in its wisdom has suggested? let me repeat the answer, mr. speaker. referring to the senate solution, this sort of temporary fix underscored congressman -- congress' uneven, ad hoc approach to the economy and causes more harm than good for america's job creators. i've got to tell you, mr. speaker, there were times in the debate today that i thought my colleagues on the democratic

side of the aisle were trying to shame me into voting a different direction. shame on me for believing what i believe. mr. speaker, i say shame on me for not standing up for my constituents, if i didn't stand up today. shame on me for not standing up against a proposal that causes more harm than good for american job creators. this isn't a game. this isn't some sort of political academic exercise. this is about families, this is about our economy. this is about the future of our republic. and the decisions we make here have consequences. rush through it, rush through it, mr. speaker? put it off for two months because we'll come up with something better, later? when that short-term fix causes more harm than good for america's job creators.

mr. speaker, it's not just the business community that has these concerns. and it ought to tell you something about the debate going on here today, from the president of the united states, mr. speaker. it would be inexcusable for congress not to further extend this middle class tax cut for the rest of the year. the president knows, the president knows, he's been pushing it all year, he knows, it was his idea last december, the president knows that a one-year extension provides more certainty, more dependability, and he's asked congress to do that. now what does that tell you, mr. speaker? all of this talk down here today about partisan divides and games what does it tell you when a hard core conservative from georgia is holding up quote from a hard core democrat from chicago about what we ought to do to move this

country forward? what does it tell you, mr. speaker, when on both thovendse spectrum we're feeling the same thing, that it would be inexcusable for congress not to further extend the middle class tax cut. inexcusable. folks say, oh, you can't. there's not enough time. folks, there's 10 days. 10 days. we just finished the national defense authorization act, mr. speaker. the biggest defense bill that this congress will produce. and guess what we did? same thing thomas jefferson suggested, same thing going on in this congress for 200 years. we passed the bill, the senate passed a bill we went to conference and in seven days, mr. speaker, they reconciled the largest defense bill in this congress, brought together the differences, brought something to the house floor and senate floor for consideration and we got it done. inexcusable not to extend this.

from house minority leader nan icy pelosi. house democrats will return to washington to take up this legislation without delay and we will keep up the fight to extend these provisions for a full year. now, in fairness, to the minority leader, she's not talking about pushing the year-long provision that this house passed. what she's talking about is producing the short-term solution and then calling everybody back to then come back and get it right later. but at the end of the day, we all agree that a year is the right length of time, 60 days is not the right length of time, everybody agrees it's a bad length of time, they're just doing it instead of zero. they say in -- they're saying 60 is better than zero. why do we have to have 60? why can't we have 360? we can. we don't have to have 60 as the senate proposed, we can have 360 as the house proposed and that's why we moved today to go to conference. from house minority whip steny

hoyer, i'm disappointed that senate republicans would not agree to a longer-term extension of critical policies. he's talking about this so-called bipartisan agreement from the senate. i'm disappointed that senate republicans would not agree to a longer term extension of critical policies. i'm going to team up with the minority whip again, one end of the spectrum, my end of the spectrum, two opposite ends of the spectrum, i agree with steny hoyer, i'm disappointed that we did not see a longer-term extension of critical policies come out of the senate. but it's not too late. that's what people have been saying all day, it's too late. it's too late. it is not too late. these policies do not expire until january 1 and the only thing standing between us and a conference committee to work out these differences, mr. speaker, is the will to make it happen. you know how painful it's been all day, mr. speaker, to have folks stand up, speaker after

speaker, talking about how it can't be done. you didn't run for congress because it couldn't be done, i didn't run because it couldn't be done, i ran for congress because they weren't getting it done. mr. speaker, we've been here one year. we have 10 days to get it right for the american people. we can. and we should. now what are we talking about? you can't see this chart, mr. speaker. it might not even show up on the cameras back in folks' offices but i want to go through it because it takes about why this is so important, mr. speaker. again, this isn't an academic exercise. this is the country, we're -- this is the country we're talking about. folks have been saying all day long, why don't you just pass the senate bill, why don't we just come back and do it later? mr. speaker, i hope you haven't had to put anything on your credit card in this christmas season but i have a lot of

friends an family that have. money is tight. if you here in the christmas season opened up your credit card account on the day that jesus christ was born and you put $500 on that credit card, and you put $500 on it the next day an the next day and the next day and the next day, seven days a week, from the day that jesus christ was born until today, you would have to continue to put $500 a day on that credit card every day, seven days a week for another 700 years to put on your credit card the kind of debt that the senate bill puts on america's children's credit cards next year alone. do that. just do it. just do it. we'll come back later and fix it, they'll say. this isn't something small we're talking about, mr. speaker.

$30 billion. on the credit card of america's children. it's what this bill did. now, it raises taxes more than that. it put the burden on the home mortgage industry, the construction industry, an industry that we desperately need to reinvigorate this in this country, it took it out of fannie and freddie a group we need to continue to build to make sure they can pay their bills when it happens but it's not a small decision. that's not the only difference, mr. speaker. let me just compare it for you. protecting seniors' access to their doctors, let's talk about this giant medicare cut that is being -- that is looming out there on january 1. everybody is looking for a solution to it. it's a cut, mr. speaker, that was passed in 1997. and not a democrat -- and neither democrats nor republicans have had the good sense to fix it for 15 years, but at least we're trying this year on the house-passed bill

to fix it for two years, a two-year fix to provide certainty to america's seniors. house bill, protecting seniors' access to their doctors, 24-month solution. senate bill, two months. two months. don't worry, seniors. that's my mom and my dad, they just went on medicare. don't worry. just let us go home, take some vacation time, come back, listen to the state of the union and then miraculously all of our problems will be solved and we'll be able to agree on something. mr. speaker, we have the ability to agree on something today and it's important that we do. two months in the senate bill, 24 months in the house bill. it's the right thing to do. federal unemployment benefits extension. it's a lot of controversy about unemployment benefits. you know, the first 26 weeks are actually paid for through unemployment taxes. the rest of this extension generally now is coming out of

federal general revenues. general taxpayer dollars. so there's a real oversight, responsibility, in determining how we deal with that. in the house bill, we say, let's deal with it, let's create more jobs, let's do some reforms to help people get off unemployment and find working paychecks that they can receive, a 13-month extension. our friends in the senate, two, two months, mr. speaker. we heard speaker after speaker after speaker come to the democratic side of the aisle wanting to know why republicans aren't working hard for america's unemployed. and they asked that question, mr. speaker, while putting a -- bringing a two-month extension. republicans brought 13. and by republicans i mean it was a bipartisan house-passed bill, mr. speaker. going through regular order. a number of long-term unemployed allowed to start collecting federal benefits after february. long-term unemployed, folks who

have been looking, who can't find it. we heard today about how unemployment numbers are dropping. we know they're dropping because people are just quitting, they're no longer looking, the obama economy has so discouraged the american work force they've just quit looking. but there's still some long-term unemployed fox he -- folks out there. not some, lots. how many get helped by the house bill? four million. how many get help from the senate bill, mr. speaker? zero. is it worth fighting about, mr. speaker? is it worth standing up and being counted when the solution that this house has proposed under regular order speaks to the needs of four million long-term unemployed americans? and the senate bill speaks to zero. zero. payroll tax cut extension. payroll tax cut extension. this is an extra 2%, ordinarily folks are paying about 6% in

payroll taxes out of their paycheck. this is cutting that down to 4%. it's a 2% reduction in the social security contributions of every american worker. every american worker takes home 2% more in their paycheck. house-passed solution, 12-month extension of that 2%. senate-passed solution, two months. two months. how many speakers have we heard today, mr. speaker? -- mr. speaker, who have talked to us about how families are hurting? member after member after member after member has come to the floor with stories of someone that they know from their constituency who is hurting in this obama economy. two-month extension was the best the senate could do. 12 months is what we got out of the house. we can do better and we will do better, mr. speaker, in conference. what's that payroll tax cut work -- worth, mr. speaker, for a worker earning about $50,000 a year?

house-passed bill, it's worth $1,000. real money in the pockets of a $50,000-a-year worker. what's the senate-passed bill do to help american families? $170 -- $167. hear that. take us back, mr. speaker, to when i told you if you put $500 on the credit card of your child and you started that credit card account on the day jesus christ was born and you ran up $500 every day and you'd have to continue to do it seven days a weak for another 700 years to run up a $30 billion credit card bill. that's what the senate does to america in the name of a two-month extension to put $167 in someone's pocket. is $167 important to the american family? sure it is, mr. speaker. every dollar counts, every nickel counts in today's economy.

but tell me that you're empathetic with the plight of middle class, hardworking americans, and tell me your solution is to find $167 for them that you're borrowing from their children. $1,000, mr. speaker, is the first step in the right direction that the house-passed solution contains. it's worth fighting for. reforming unemployment to focus on re-employment. mr. speaker, do you have any constituents that say to you that what they'd rather have is an unemployment check instead of a paycheck? because i don't. i don't. folks in the seventh district of georgia want paychecks. now some of them have to accept unemployment checkses while they're out there looking to feed their family, but they want a paycheck. so in the spirit of solving the real problems, not just putting a band-aid on it, but solving the real problems, the house-passed bill focuses on re-employment. what does the senate bill do?

nothing. regulatory reforms to protect american jobs, mr. speaker, you heard my colleague from wisconsin who said, businesses are closing, jobs, laying people off, because of boiler mact. this e.p.a. regulation. you've heard from our friends in arkansas, mr. speaker, who say that the folks in the pipe manufacturing business there in arkansas laying off jobs because delay of approving the x.l. pipeline. this is not about unemployment checks alone, this is about unemployment checks of those who can't find jobs and jobs for those folks who are looking. what happens to the house-passed bill? regulatory reforms to protect american jobs, yes. what happens in the senate bill? nothing. tell me, mr. speaker, are these things worth fighting for? are these things worth spending a few extra days between now and

the end of the year to get right ? president obama says yes. conservative house freshman from georgia says yes. from extreme to extreme, mr. speaker, folks are saying yes. mark my words, mr. speaker, harry reid's going to say yes, too. and bring the senate back to get the american people's business done. pay freeze for members of congress and federal workers. mr. speaker, i don't mind telling you that i think i work pretty hard. i try to give folks an honest day's work for an honest day's dollar. but do you think i can go home to a town hall meeting and look somebody in the eye and tell you i'm doing such a good job i deserve a raise? i'm just telling you how the senate's going to run up your credit card bill by $30 billion on your children, i'm telling you how the house can't find enough votes to per swrade the senate to come to the -- persuade the senate to come to the table. am i doing my best, you better

believe it. am i going to accept the pay raise while american families are hurting? no, i am not. in the house-passed bill, pay freeze for members of congress and federal workers, yes. in the senate-passed bill, no. no. i'll leave you with that bit of irony, mr. speaker. we're here begging our colleagues in the senate to come back and work. the house freezes salaries for members of congress. the senate said, we'll sort that out when we come back from vacation in february. and i thank you for the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does -- excuse me, under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from georgia, mr. johnson, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i'm reminded of a commercial that's been in heavy

rotation lately. it's a christmas commercial, santa claus with a back ache and a pain remedy being offered to him after he climbs down the chimney. y'all are probably familiar with that. santa is -- first shot is santa kind of trying to work in his headquarters up in the north pole, putting gifts together and he's just got a bad back ache. probably got a headache, too. and his ills are kind of -- elves are kind of looking at him concerns as he works dutifully on a job that only he can do and then they show him as he trudges

across a roof, about to go down the chimney and he's holding his back and then when he gets down the chimney they show him standing over by the christmas tree and he's distribute homeowner is kind of watching from a different room and he cease santa struggling with this back ache and so he then goes to get some pain medicine and while santa is presumably unpacking the gifts and putting them under the tree and everything, then he turns around and there is a glass of water and the pain medicine right there for santa. and then all of a sudden the music becomes lively and santa perks up and goes on about his business. that kind of reminds me of the

headache that citizens, the middle class, have had over the last year, headache and a backache. but there's nobody there to offer them any pain medication. instead they look at them, this tea party-controlled house, republican party, looks at them and just laughs and then they leave after getting as much as they can out of those middle class citizens. they leave, they don't even offer a drink or a pain medication. they just leave. that's what we've done today.

not in the spirit of christmas, not in the spirit of hand can -- hanukkah, not in the spirit of man kind, but in the spirit of the koch brothers and, ladies and gentlemen, i want to talk to you a little bit about the koch brothers who you've heard me talk about before. the koch brothers are a secretive brother-brother combination, two brothers. they inherited their fortune from their daddy. they earned it the hard way. and they have turned their daddy's business, once he passed on, they've continued this business and built it into something like a $100

billion-a-year company. it's either $100 billion or $200 billion a year in revenues for this -- for their company. and they are billionaires, both of the brothers are multibillionaires, multi, multibillionaires. they've got a lot of money. a lot of their business is involved with energy-related concerns. in fact, they own refineries, oil refineries, they own terminals where the oil is brought to for processing, on the trucks and pipelines and they're all involved in the energy business.

and they stand to get quite a bit of a return on their investment in the 2010 elections . through the organization americans for prosperity, they financed what is called the tea party, which is supposed to be a grass roots group but actually it's a corporate driven animal. financing for that, from the brothers and their americans for prosperity organization, they spent about $45 billion -- about $45 million in the 2010 election just running negative

ads against democrats. and they spent that money without having to account for who their contributors were. so we don't know whether or not, we don't know who the contributors are to those secret organizations that were unleashed to taint people's opinions about their representatives and candidates for office and as a result of this tea party ruse that was perpetrated on the people, the brothers ended up in control of congress. using the tea party as a front or as a costume as you -- if

you will. taking many justifiably angry american citizens down a deceptive path. americans who are not happy with the shift in the income disparity in this country they call them the tea partyiers, the tea party movements. those people they look at government and they say that it's government that is too big. what they really mean is that government is not working for me. and then we have the 99% crowd, the occupy wall street faction, that group has arisen based on income inequality and they

blame the corporations, the millionaires and billionaires, for income inequality. and actually, ladies and gentlemen, both sides have something that is legitimate about their concerns. but it all boils down to money and the money comes from the coke brothers, the coke brothers do their americans for prosperity, they're the ones who bought thes of people from the heartland on bustos washington, d.c. during the health care debate to demonstrate against something that was in their own interest. their ability to access the health care system.

the trick -- they tricked the people and then financed them to come here, put them on first class buses, brought them down here and we all knew -- we all knew that that was not spontaneous, that that was preplanned an orchestrated. as a result of that movement, they were able to take over the house of representatives, calling themselves tea partiers. they took over the house of representatives. this is all pursuant if you will, and i'm getting ready to get in some trouble here, but i don't know if any of you are familiar with lewis powell, former supreme court justice lewis powell who back in 1971,

i believe, was appointed to the u.s. supreme court by president nixon, who was a business lawyer out of richmond, virginia, sat on 11 or 12 different corporate boards and he was friends with people in the u.s. chamber of commerce and after he was appointed but before he was confirmed, he wrote a memo to his good friend who was the head of the u.s. chamber of commerce at the time, and that document, which is known as the powell memo or the powell minnesota fes toe

was addressed to his friend eugene snyder, who was the director of the u.s. chamber of commerce. that memo is dated august 23, 1971, just two short months before -- before powell was nominated. so i misspoke. this is -- this memo was written before he was nominated by president nixon for a seat on the supreme court. no prior judicial experience, no prior litigation experience, just a corporate lawyer. appointed ancon firmed by the supreme court. unfortunately, this memo did not come out, did not become public knowledge until at some point after his confirmation. it was actually revealed to

jack anderson who was a liberal syndicated columnist whose column appeared in, among other publications, "the washington post." he was an investigative reporter with a brilliant journalistic quality that is lacking in our journalists, our so-called journalists of today. but anyway, this lewis powell memo, which he wrote to eugene snyder, director of the u.s. chamber of commerce, was written for the purpose of

getting the chamber of commerce to understand that the free market system and capitalism for under attack and that the businesses in the u.s. chamber of commerce were aiding and abetting those attacks on capitalism. it went on to talk about blacks , out demonstrating, an the more thoughtful blacks, the more well-spoken blacks, speaking against capitalism the capitalist system, he talked about ralph they'der, suing large corporations -- ralph they'der suing large corporations, based on people

getting injured in cars that were not manufactured sufficiently, he talked about ralph nay der suing the drug -- nader for suing the drug companies for adulterated drugs, for drugs that did not do what they said they were going to do. these kinds of things. they talked about william couldn't ler a famous -- kuntzler a famous civil rights lawyer and lewis powell after expressing himself on how these kinds of things are now happening in society, and by the way, that was during the vietnam war period, the civil rights era, and he talked about , where are we going? what do we need to do to save our free market system?

he advocated to the chamber members, the u.s. chamber of commerce members, that each one of them should have a vice president of corporate affairs so that that person could be, could have a job that did nothing but protect the corporate interests. and he also recommended that the various think tanks be established, like he her -- like the heritage foundation, the cato institute he said we need to have something different, we need to hear some different voices other than the brookings institution and other institutions of fact gathering. and so they did those things. up came the heritage

foundation, the cato institute, and a bunch of other right-wing, not fair and balanced, but right-wing organizations calling themselves think tanks. then we have corporate money being put into the university system to produce the kind of thought that would be protective of the status quo. and so they began to demand a voice in the academic arena. it's all propaganda that they started putting out there. and they've been doing this,

ladies and gentlemen, since 1971. 40 years. it has produced a result culminating in the 2010 election cycle where they were able to put their hands firmly around the throat of democracy and trangle it. -- and strangle it. they're doing that today through the folks who they have -- the folks who they have elected. those are the tea party republicans. so, now what have those tea party republicans done this past year since they have been in office? they've been up to quite a bit.

they have been up to quite a bit. none of which is is good for america. it's been destructive for the people the regular working people of this country and the poor people. what have we seen that they have done? they opposed a debt ceiling increase by misleading the public into thinking that it was more spending as opposed to authorization for what we have already spent. to borrow that money. they played games as a result

of their failure to do what had been done on a regular basis for decades, increasing the debt ceiling. it resulted in a devaluing of this nation's credit rating. making the cost of borrowing go up. now, i know some of you say, we don't need to be borrowing any money but i'll tell you, i don't know of many people able to go in and purchase a house for cash. you go get a mortgage. i don't know many people who are able to go buy a car for cash. no, you get some financing. this capitalist system that they're trying so hard to protect, and i'm a capitalist, i believe in capitalism, but i believe in fairness also. i don't believe in la zaire

fair capitalism. i believe in -- in laissez-faire capitalism. i believe in capitalism that works for everybody, that's fair. in their endeavor to protect that laissez-faire corporation, laissez-faire economics, you know, they have damaged the ability of this government to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare. the general welfare, not the welfare of the millionaires and billionaires but the general welfare, the 99%. what have these tea party republicans done for the 99%? well, they made it more difficult for their government

to borrow money. some of you say that's good. i say that when you have money, when you need to borrow money in order to prime the pump of your economy, then you should borrow the money, prime the pump of the economy, build up your economic engine, pay off the debt and move forward. that's the way that we have always done it, that's the way that america rolls, if you will. we're not in any danger of not being able to pay back our debt. it was a manufactured crisis. so, 15 million jobs, ladies and gentlemen, have been lost largely out of the private sector. based on these cutbacks, these mindless cutbacks.

seniors have been threatened with a change in medicare into a voucher system as proposed by the budget committee chairman. these things have not been good for the working people of this country. the cuts in the paul ryan house g.o.p. budget, inhumane and merciless. they have been quite dutiful in doing the business of the koch brothers. they haven't been doing any business on behalf of the 99%ers

-- 99 percenters. the ryan budget, the cut, cap and balance act which set arbitrary spending caps and required a balanced budget amendment which would lock in an unfair tax code and tax rate and tax system, would just lock it in forever, requiring a 3/5 vote in order to actually raise taxes, not to mention just a failure to look at a fundamental new direction for our tax code. no, they're maintaining the status quo because that's what the koch brothers want. they love all of those -- they love all of those loopholes, tax

credits, exemptions that are built into the tax code just to benefit them and a couple of their worthy -- wealthy friends. they have sought to remove the ability of the federal agencies like the e.p.a. and the f.d.a. from being able to regulate and make sure that we have safe products, we have safe air and water, food, drugs. they have fought and passed legislation to remove those regulations and to hamper the ability of these federal agencies to produce other

regulations as the need arises. short sighted. it was all to benefit the koch brothers and their friends. the energy prevention, energy tax prevention act of 2011, prohibiting the e.p.a. from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, the farm dust regulation prevention act of 2011, a waste of time that prevents the e.p.a. from regulating farm dust. even though the e.p.a. has said that it does not plan to regulate farm dust. the north american-made energy security act which we purport to force the president to approve this keystone pipeline. keystone pipeline, by the way, there's a terminal owned by the

koch brothers, one of their corporate subsidiaries located in -- at the beginning of this pipeline, up in canada, alberta, canada, and then along the route, the proposed route of the pipeline are other koch brothers entities, refineries, that will profit as a result of the tar sands, oil sands, coming out of canada through the u.s. all the way down to the gulf of mexico. and then what will happen at gulf of mexico? the oil will be shipped over to china. not any of it available to

americans for our energy use. it's all going overseas to the highest bidder and that's a fact. the consumer financial protection safety and soundness improvement act of 2011, which would -- which would weaken the consumer financial protection bureau, which was a part of the dodd-frank wall street regulations, they've sought to water that down and then in the senate the republicans have prevented a a head of that agency from being -- a head of that agency from being confirmed . they have fought the payroll tax cuts and the extension of unemployment insurance to the

long-term unemployed. they have fought that with great vigor. they held those items hostage, by the way, last year at this time just so that they could get a two-year extension on the bush tax cuts which benefit the top 1%. and i must congratulate the members of the house, the tea party republicans who have batted 100% in ensuring that not one tax increase for millionaires and billionaires was able to pass through this house.

but easily, though, they can walk away from a tax cut for the middle east, they just did it today. excuse me, for the middle class. they just did it today. instead of allowing us to vote on a senate bill which was approved over there in a bipartisan way, 89 of 100 senators voted yes, 10 voted no. that's almost a 90% bipartisan bill that the senate passed. it's not the best bill, two months of extension of unemployment insurance, two -month extension of the payroll

tax cut for the middle class, two-month extension of the -- what's called the doc fix, but the doctors at the end of the year who treat medicare patients are scheduled to receive a 27% reduction in the amount of their reimbursements paid by the government. and the republicans here in the house refused to allow us to vote on that senate bipartisan bill which, as they say, kicks the can down the, but it does extend -- down the road, but it does extend the opportunity to reach a longer term agreement by 60 days. but instead what we have is the republicans here in congress, the tea party republicans, refusing to let us vote on the

senate proposal and then they, instead of announcing that we're leaving town now, they don't intend to come back, they're gone. if you go to the airport right now you'll see them lined up, many of them with hats on, trying to shield themselves from the glare of public attention, making their way back home. you'll find them at the airport right now. and they don't want to come back . we could have had this done, ladies and gentlemen. we could have -- we could have all left today, this chamber, with our heads held high, knowing that the middle class,

knowing that it won't be a tax increase as of january 1 for 160 million americans. we would have known that those 2.2 million long-term unemployed individuals would have their benefits extended. we would have known that the 47 million seniors on medicare here in the united states would have the ability to access the same doctor that they have utilized because that doc fix didn't go into effect. the 27% decrease. that's going to cause doctors to be unable financially to treat those patients. so, it raises the possibility

that people will have to be reassigned to another doctor and then because so many doctors will opt out of treating medicare, then that means that the doctors who do treat them have a larger clientele, patient base, and can't be as effective as if they could just simply practice medicine in a way that was not volume-oriented. so, these are not things that i feel good about in terms of being able to leave today. but my republican friends got up

and inferred -- actually told you that the reason why they were leaving is because it's not a 12-month extension of the tax cut. and you know, i know and the american people know that that's not true and they argued that with righteous indignation one after the other. it's like they have gotten to the point where now they believe the stuff themselves. but don't you be fooled, ladies and gentlemen. don't be hoodwinked. don't be misled. we've got elections coming up in 2012. the monday that of distribute

mantra of the opposition to president obama has -- the mantra to the opposition of president obama has been, we're going to do everything we can to make him a one-term president. they announced that on the day of his inauguration. they have stuck to it. and they are concerned because despite all of that obstructionism, the economy has started to get a little better. they're concerned about that. so they want to impose as much harm and pain on middle class people as they can. to try to keep them confused about what is actually happening in their lives. is it the koch brothers, an

unbridled laissez-faire free market activity that's harming them? or is it government? to the extent that government is in bed with folks like the koch brothers, yes, government is the problem. but there's some good people out here, not everybody is involved with the koch brothers, who bought and sold off to the -- have sold off to the koch brothers. not everybody. not everybody has been influenced under the lewis powell manifesto that has been put into operation and has resulted in where we are today with people in the streets demanding equity. this is a serious situation that we're in, ladies and

gentlemen. it's for the heart and soul of our cupry. and there are many good people out here in congress who want to do the right thing by way of the people. but then you've got a group of extremists in here calling themselves tea partiers who are controlling the flow of everything. and it's not to your benefit. now, i don't normally come up and participate in these one-hour diserations, this is the first one i've done, ever, by myself. but i thought i would do so today because i really -- it's on my heart to make sure that we set the record straight

before the end of this year and that you at least have a voice that's crying a different tune than the righteous indignation of the -- of those who i again have to congratulate this year, the tea party republicans who batted 100 pk, not one penny of taxes for their koch brothers friends, millionaires and billionaires, but yet they leave and cost each middle class taxpayer on average about $1,000. which will go into effect on january 1. because they would not let this body vote on the senate bipartisan compromise bill.

they don't like compromise. they don't want bipartisanship. it's our way or you take the highway. and that's the way that it's been this past year. all of the manufactured crises the debt ceiling, the -- will we be able to keep the government operating? government shutdowns. we've had about three of those this year. and then they leave out of here saying that a two-month extension of tax cuts for the middle class won't do anything, it can't be done, i heard one -- the fourth highest ranking

republican in this body lamented that a two-month extension of the unemployment insurance for the long-term uninsured would burden the payroll software companies, they're more worried about the burden of an accounting fix that can be done with a couple of -- on the computer. they're worried about that burden on the corporations that prepare the payroll checks and information like that, that provide payment for their corporate customers, he's worried about them but he's not worried about the very people who will lose -- who will end

up paying $1,000 more. it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. he doesn't care about those who are struggling to stay in the middle class, depending on their unemployment insurance, which will get cut off, whacked off, come january 1. somebody else today on the tea party side said that we are -- this is a game of poker that we're playing right now. how ridiculous. are any of you out there playing poker? do you have anything to play poker with? trying to buy christmas gifts out here. they say that this payroll tax

cut and the unemployment insurance an the doc fix can't be implemented within two months but those things are -- we're just maintaining the status quo, there's nothing to implement. why can't we let it go for another two months an give it -- give ourselves another opportunity to negotiate a fair and balanced, bipartisan piece of legislation that the president can sign? like what they did in the senate. why can't we do that? well, i submit to you that they're not really interested in the middle class. that's clear. because if they were, they would not have left today. some of them unwittingly are

pawns in this master plan that was set out in the lewis powell memo and i'd advise you to go to the internet and look it up. lewis lewis powell. -- l-e-w-i-s, lewis powell. you can read that and see how effective his plan has been carried out and how close we are to the hopes and dreams of middle class americans being strangled due to their public policy being controlled by those corporations. not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of the rich, powerful, and corporations, which our u.s. supreme court now says are people.

in the citizens united decision , i watched -- i watched one of the justices shaking his head during the president's state of the union address, where he directed comments about the citizens united decision. i watched that justice shaking his head, no, i wonder if he would shake his head no today as the president pointed out exactly what would happen as a result of that corporate influence gaining unfettered access to our public policymaking apparatus, our democracy. so we're under attack, middle

class people, it's time for us to stand up, to get educated about what's going on out here and the fact that there's no need to be angry with your neighbor because they are african-american or neighbor over there is gay or this one over here, i don't know if they are a illegal alien or not so i don't -- you know, got to do away with them. just -- and abortion, is, you know, we end up dividing ourselves based on the public relations game plan that is put forward to influence us.

and we fall for it. so then we get divided, blaming ourselves instead of directing our attention to those who continue to drive their brinks trucks, hour after hour, into the bank. so it's time for us to wake up, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for us to get smart it's time for us to put aside our dislikes based on how somebody looks and it's time for us to unite and take this country back. i want to thank you for listening to me today. i feel better after closing the year with setting things in a proper format and i look

forward to us being table come back next year and do some things that will benefit regular working people in this country and try to shift the -- try to shift the imbalance of wealth back into one where all people are table prosper in this country. thank you very much and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair would now entertain a motion to adjourn. mr. johnson: i move to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourp. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

>> have you tried the three c's and radio at -- the free cspan radio app? here is what people are saying -- anytime, anywhere, get streaming audio including live coverage of congress. you can also listen to our interview programs, including "newsmakers" and "the communicator's." >> president obama spoke today

falling the senate approval of the legislation to extend the tax cuts. his remarks are just over five minutes. >> the afternoon, everybody. it is no secret that there has not been an abundance of partisanship in washington this year. what happened on saturday was a big deal. the entire senate, including all of the republicans, voted to prevent 160 million working americans from receiving a tax increase on january 1. the entire senate voted to make sure nearly 2.5 million americans were out there looking for a job, they will lose their unemployment insurance in the first two months of next year. just about everybody, democrats and republicans, committed to making sure that early next

year, we find a way to extend the payroll tax cuts and unemployment insurance through the end of 2012. even though republicans and democrats in the senate were willing to compromise for the good of the country, a faction of republicans in the house are refusing to even vote on the senate bill. a bill that cuts taxes for 160 million americans. because of their refusal to cooperate, those americans could face a tax hike in just 11 days. millions of americans who are out there looking for work could find their unemployment insurance expired. now, theclear -- right bipartisan compromise that was reached on saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on january 1. it is the only one. all of the leaders in congress, democrats and republicans, say they are committed to making

sure we extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for the entire year. by the way, this is something i call four months ago. the republican and democratic leaders of the senate worked on a one-year deal, made good progress, but determined that they needed more time to reach an agreement. that is why they passed an insurance policy to make sure that taxes do not go off on january 1. -- do not go up on january 1. the house republicans say they do not dispute a tax cut. they are holding out to wring concessions from democrats on issues that have nothing to do with the payroll tax cuts. issues were the party is fundamentally disagree. -- is used where the party is

fundamentally disagree. it is focused on -- we want to focus on unemployment issues and not an extraneous issues. the clock is ticking. time is running out. as the house republicans refused to vote for the senate bill, or even allow it to come up for a vote, taxes will go up in 11 days. i saw today the one of the house republicans referred to what they are doing as "high-stakes poker." he is right about the states, but this is not a game. it should not be politics as usual. right now, the recovery is for agile, but it is moving in the right direction. our failure to do this could have defects not just on families, but on the economy as a whole. it is not a game for the average family who does -- who does not have an extra $1,000 to lose.

not a game for someone who is out there looking for work and might lose his house if unemployment insurance does not come through. it is not a game for the millions of americans who will take a hit when the entire economy grows more slowly because these proposals are not extended. i just got back from a ceremony at andrews air force base and i met with some of the last men and women to return home from iraq, and these americans and all americans to serve are the embodiment of courage, selflessness, patriotism. when they fight together and sometimes die together, they do not care who is a democrat or republican and house somebody is doing in the polls. how this might play in the spin room. their work as a team, they do their job, and they do it for

something bigger than themselves. the people in this town need to learn something from them. we have more important things to worry about than politics right now. we have more important things to worry about than saving face. or figuring out internal caucus politics. we have people who are counting on us to make their lives just a little bit easier, to build an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded. and we owe it to them to come together right now and do the right thing. that is what the senate did. democrats and republicans in the senate said, we are going to put our flights on other issues aside and do what is right. on something we all agreed to. let's go ahead and do it. we will have time later for the politics, we'll have time later

to have fights around a whole bunch of other issues. right now, we know this is good for the economy. they went ahead and did the right thing. i need the speaker and house republicans to do the same. put politics aside. put aside issues where there are fundamental disagreements and come together on something we agree on. brinksmanship. the american people are weary of it. they are tired of it. they expect better. i am calling on the speaker and the house republican leadership to bring up the senate bill for a vote. give the american people the assurance they need this holiday season carried thank you inherited -- thanks you.

>> speaker banner -- speaker bonner announced eight senators to serve on the committee which is charged on differences between the tax cut extension. the house voted to disapprove the payroll tax bill and voted to go to conference with the senate. this is about 2 minutes. >> both leaders of congress have called for a yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut. the house passed a bill that would do just that. to extend and reform unemployment insurance, protect social security, and create jobs. we are proud of the bill that we passed. the house passed it with bipartisan support. we also understand that the senate passed a different bill. we oppose that bill because of

the two-month extension will create more uncertainty for job creators and our country while millions of americans are out of work. the payroll processing companies say the senate bill is unworkable and so complex that many americans may not even get the tax credit. today, we have voted to go to a formal conference to resolve the differences between the bills. this is a system that our founders gave us. it is as old as our nation and as clear as the constitution of. our house and gop negotiators are here and ready to work with their counterparts in the senate to resolve the differences as quickly as possible. our negotiators are kevin brady, david camp, rene l. worth, tom price, read -- tom reed, and greg walsh.

it is up to the president to so -- to show real leadership. said he will not leave for the holidays until this bill is done. the next step is clear -- president obama needs to call on senate democrats to go back into session, moved to go to conference, and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. i sent a letter to the president today asking him to do just this. we have done our work for the american people. now it is up to the president and the democrats in the senate to do their jobs as well. with that, i will take a couple of questions. >> does this mean you'll have to cut more? >> and we have done our job. all we need to do now is resolve our differences. a two-month extension is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. the president asked us to do this for a full year. we did it for a full year.

we offset the costs -- reasonable offsets. there is no reason we cannot do this. several weeks ago, the house passed a dod authorization bill. in the period of less than a week, they were able to resolve a big differences in these large bills. there is no reason we cannot resolve this. to say , would you not forge ahead with a conference committee? and with that just be a passat for getting this problem solved? facade for getting this problem solved? >> we are doing this under regular order, the system that our founding fathers gave us. we will sit down and resolve the differences. >> are house members not to go on until it is solved?

>> our negotiators are here, ready and able to work. members of the leadership will be here, ready and able to work. we will be available to do what needs to be done. the issue now is will the president engage with the senate democrats and bring them to the table so we can resolve this and give to the president what he has asked us to give him, a one- year extension of these expiring programs and. >> and the president just said personally i need john boehner to help out -- >> i need the president to help out. [laughter] [applause] >> i had a question. [laughter] he has asked you to help out and ask that you all take up the senate bill, which you have not done. any chance of that happening? >> the senate bill -- we have

are taken up the senate bill. we rejected the senate bill and we moved to go to conference. under the rules of the congress, that means that the papers that were in our possession are on their way back to the united states senate. >> the senate passed a two-month the house passed a one- year bill. voted to give the american people at $166 tax cut. we voted to give the american people a $1,000 tax cut. we are going to insist on doing this the right way. >> you guys have been working on this for weeks and have not been able to come to an agreement. what makes you feel you can do that now? >> we have not been working on this for weeks. i am going to make it clear -- i have told the senate leaders, senator reid and senator mcconnell, that there would be

no negotiations with the house until the senate passed a bill. i meant what i said harry -- i meant what i said. when there were getting ready to pass this and someone passed it on to me what it would look like, i made it clear to them that i was uncomfortable with where they were going. i express my displeasure. once again, taking the convenient route and not doing the people's work. thank you, everybody. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> and next, we hear from house democratic leader nancy pelosi, who said if there is no extension, it is because of the tea party and republicans. her remarks are about 20 minutes. >> it is just me, guys. >> good afternoon. just when we think we have seen the last of the tether, here we are again. we are prepared to stay here until they drop does get done. the american people -- the job does get done. the american people will have a

tax cut. democrats, republicans, independents, all have said one thing, they want us to work the other. they want us to work together and they support the payroll tax cut for the middle class, 160 million people to benefit. they want us to work together to create jobs. the senate did just that. in a bipartisan way, they passed a payroll tax cut which continues the economic growth and the momentum of our economic growth and gets the tax cut into the pockets of the american people. it gave us hope. it gave us hope of he was an example of how we could work together in a bipartisan way, sharing a purpose which was to get the tax cut to the american

people. the republicans of the house would not say doc would not take yes for an answer. they -- would not take yes for an answer. they rejected the bipartisanship. they did not take yes for an answer because they are no on the tax cut. our whip will speak to the statements made by speaker boehner and others. osama until president obama took this message across the country -- it was not until president obama to this message across the country, the american people responded positively to it, 57% of republicans support the payroll tax that. we had the opportunity. we still have the opportunity to

do that. we were hopeful we could take this up and our work would be done. apparently, the tea party is the elephant. the american people have a right. this is the fact. if we do not have a tax cut, if we do not have a payroll tax cut, it will be because of the tea party minority within the republican majority. the tea party minority will be holding up the tax cut. republicans in the senate, republicans across the country support this. that is why they did not get a chance to vote on the bill. they were afraid they would lose. you see the speaker talking about process.

what about results? the american people have the right to ask the question, like a putting process before a capital tax cut? -- why are you putting process before a payroll tax cut? we all wanted a one-year tax cut. the senate said they needed more time. in the meantime, we would remove all doubt that this would be there for the next few months. there is time to negotiate how we go farther into the next year. right now, we have to remove all doubt that this tax cut will be there for the middle class. we have, on the house side, we introduced the senate bill -- reintroduced the senate bill. there are no barriers to as voting on this bill. thank you.

bill that has 170 co- sponsors. thank you for your leadership. this is the reintroduced senate bill. there is no procedural process, whatever it is, obstacle to pass this bill. the speaker said our work is finished. it is not finished. we have work to do. i call upon the speaker to make sure we are in, regardless of how this goes, i hope we can accomplish it as soon as possible. regardless of how this goes, we should be here. why, when the american people are out of work, are we not working the first half of the month of january? with that i am pleased to yield. >> thank you for yielding.

another little short-term gimmick. heard that phrase? speaker boehner, june of this year. speaking about a one-year extension in the payroll tax. he called it then another little short-term gimmick. the proposition that 60 days is too short is not new to speaker boehner. he thought 1-year was too short. we have 11 days, 11 days before 160 million americans see their taxes go up. 2.3 million people seeking jobs it dropped from unemployment and 40 million on medicare have their access to doctors put at risk if we do not act.

we could pass the senate bill this afternoon. send it to the president, provide certainty. the republicans talk a lot about certainty. if any american, having watched the senate up rick for the last 12 months, has certainty in what they will do in the next 10 days, god bless them. they have not been watching closely. the fact is, we can give certainty to those 160 million americans. we can gesundheit -- certainty to the 48 million seniors. we can give certainty to the unemployed. we have heard from the president, senate democrats, senate republicans, there is an agreement that the house must plena -- passed the short-term compromise -- house must test

the short-term compromise -- pass the short-term compromise. the house has refused to bring the compromise to the floor. there is a lot of talk about not agreeing with the senate. this is the walk away caucus, with a walk-away leadership that is walking away from 160 million americans, 48 million seniors, the unemployed. on december 3, they walked away from the ball simpson commission -- bowles-simpson commission. in march, they walked away from a continuing resolution.

54 republicans walked out on their leadership. on april 14, 59 republicans walked away on their leadership. on june 23, one man walked away from the biden talks. on july 22, speaker boehner walked away from the deal with the president. on august 1, 66 republicans walked away from a bill that would insure our nation pays its bills. on november 17, republicans walked away from a confidence vote. why is that important? that was their bill. not our bill, not even a senate bill. walking away is a pattern for them as you can see.

they walked away from their leadership once again. november 21, they walked away from the committee on joint deficit reduction. just a few days ago, december 16, republicans walked away from an appropriations bill offered by the republican leadership. was in constanthner communication with mitch mcconnell. does anybody in the american public believe that mitch mcconnell would have agreed to an agreement he thought the republicans in the house were against when he has not done so? consistently not done so and said speaker boehner have to agree to this. is there any doubt that the speaker boehner agreed to this deal? what happened to it?

the same thing that happened on each one of these occasions, his caucus walked away. they put at risk those 160 million americans who do not want to see their taxes go up. put at risk as 48 million seniors who want to make with their doctors are going to see them. put at risk those 2.3 million who will lose unemployment. i plead with mr. boehner, the speaker of this house, take this bill up that we have introduced and passed it. then let us talk about extending this for one year. give us time. remove anxiety from those people of whom i talk. makes war that they do not lose the benefits we want them to have -- make sure that they do not lose the benefits we want them to have and bring our economy down. walking away is not the answer.

now i will yield. >> walking away has consequences that we in the house on the democratic side avoided. those who voted against the legislation that would prevent a default, even though it was there bill, they're people did not vote for it. the democrats did vote for it. 66 of them voted against a republican bill. we did not like the bill. the choices we had made it imperative that we do what was right for the american people and not say, it is not the bill that i wanted. we are prepared to take a few questions. we have to go back to the floor.

>> john boehner has named people to the conference. are you not in some way blamed? >> there is a bill that has passed the senate that was designed to pass. the republicans put forth a path that is designed to fail. the bill the republicans passed in the house was not even brought up. the republicans objected to it being brought up. they knew it would fail. the bill in the house was not brought up because the senate bill -- because they knew it would pass. he is not lucy, i am not charlie brown, we are not falling for that football stunt again. we are not falling for it. this is about not getting a bill

passed. the stalemate is that there is a bill that can pass, that can be signed at this very day. there is plenty of time to talk about the one-year proposal. they have never been for it. they were not for it in june. they were not for it as a one- year bill at that time. it was only that the president made this bill too hot for them to handle. the fact is a clear one, if we do not have the payroll tax cut, it is because republicans in the house have chosen to paint themselves in a different way than republicans in the country and the senate. they are isolating themselves. i will not play charlie brown to the embassy -- to their lucy. we will not let them mislead the american people.

>> both the house and senate have a provision forcing the president to make a decision on keystone. what should be done about he's done? >> the president needs to make a decision. -- about keystone? what is the president needs to make a decision. -- >> the president needs to make a decision. it is a bill that can get the tax cut done in a timely fashion. democrats stood ready to support that bill. >> you bring up a perfect example. heller position is not our way or the highway. we understand you have to make compromises. some media not like paid for the country and for those 160 million people -- some of you do not like.

for the country and for those 106 demint people, -- 160 million people, we are making compromises. unfortunately, the walk-away caucus has not learned that lesson. >> some thought both sides were close in terms of reaching an agreement. does that sound correct? >> i did not think that is at all. if that were the case, we should come back the first week in january and get to work on the one-year deal. let us pass the senate bill. there is an allusion going on -- illusion going on that republican support a payroll tax cut. that bipartisanship and working together is something they would like to achieve, not so.

they are not honoring what the senate did. whatever they say is irrelevant. what they do is what is important. what they are doing is not giving a payroll tax cut to 160 million americans. >> they cut 40 because of of unemployment insurance. the 0.3 million people -- 40 weeks out of unemployment insurance. 3.3 million people could lose insurance. they need to step up to the plate today and pass the bill that a vast majority of senate voted for. i think all of you should ask them, why not bring it up for a

boat? -- vote? they did not want those who voted no to be on record. it is as simple as that. if you have not ask that question, please ask them. >> we have gone down the path of compromise. he pointed out one area where we did not have unanimity. it does not belong in this bill. there are other provisions that do not belong. they have nothing to do with the subject. in addition, payroll tax cuts -- they do not believe in unemployment benefits to those who need them. millions of people will be cut up under their plan. they will now lose the benefit

because of the republicans in the house of the present this. ned -- some of them -- house of representatives. some of them have no other means of income. it is bad for our economy and job creation. the public has to be concerned and wondering why are we not getting a payroll tax cut when everyone says they are for it? those of us who say we are for it are for it. many on the republican side are for it. the republican leadership in the house is not. this is a stalling tactic. charlie brown is not falling for that trip. -- trick. >> will democrat be leaving after this series? >> if the senate does not reconvene is there another way to avoid the cuts?

is there an option? [inaudible] >> the house voted 229-193 to disapprove the senate-past payroll tax bill. the debate to go to conference as the leading voices. here is a portion. -- escalated voices. here is a portion. neither side is listening to each other, everybody is trying to say somethin the people at home are probably trying to figure out if there's any sanity anywhere in washington. we're having fact-free debates

and the truth of the matter is that we're putting ideology over lonlic. -- over logic. i'm not going to be here on christmas. you can get whatever people yo want, you can sd all kinds of things into district. we are on the verge of the second holiest holiday in my religious tradition. i'm going to be home, i'm going to be in church, this is sick. this is sick. and the people all over the country, the people in the gallery, they know that they are watching dysfunctionality at its best. i'm ashamed, ashamed that this kind of thing is going on in the world -- and the world is watching. all we need to do is wait until another -- a better season so that we don't look as bad. every minute we debate, our

poll numbers drop. it's probably at a point now where they can't drop any further, but can't we stop this and start trying to rationally deal with the business of the public? we don't listen to each other, the media wants to listen to see if anybody will see if say anything caustic. the red meat crowd is waiting for somebody to say something insulting to the other side. we ought to be listening to our better selves. we ought to call the best in us out right now, solve this problem and go home and be our families. i'm going to be with my family. you guys can stay here and scream at each other all you want, i'm going home. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. i would remind my friend that it was president obama who said this congress cannot and should

not leave for vacation until that -- until they have made sure that tax increase doesn't happen, let me repeat that congress should not and cannot go on vacation before they have made sure that walking -- woing family aren't seeing their taxes go up by $1,000. mr. speake in order for their taxes not to go up by thrs s >> with the caucuses next month, the c-span series contenders looks back at the 14 men who ran for president and lost. here is our lineup for this week. tonight, the man who lost to grover cleveland. thursday, eugene debs. on saturday, a three-time governor al smith followed by wendell willkie. the contenders, every night at

the clock p.m. eastern -- 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> the c-span app is fast, easy to use. an insanely great deal considering it is free. an awesome application. >> anytime, anywhere, it streaming audio of c-span radio. you can also listen to our interview programs including q&a, newsmakers, the communicators, and afterwards. c-span, it is available wherever you are. >> president obama and vice president biden marked the end of the war in iraq a special ceremony. speakers included joint chiefs and u.s. chairmaen

forces commander in iraq. the flag was lowered from a staff in baghdad last week. this is 30 minutes.

[hail to the chief playing] >> i would like to report the safe return of the colors to their rightful place, the united states of america. >> thank you. congratulations.

>> present. halt! present. halt. ["star spangled banner" playing]

["star spangled banner" playing] ♪ >> please be seated. >> halt.

ready? [indistinguishable military commands] >> deputy secretary carter. >> president obama, vice president biden, chairman and mrs. dempsey, general and mrs. austin, command sergeant major allen, distinguished guests, today is a historic day as we

commemorate the return of the colors under which our armed forces fought so pebbly in iraq. we marked the end of the second longest war in u.s. history. those of you who have arrived this morning bearing the flag represent all those who served, active duty, reserves, national guard, and civilians. we, who greet you hear, represent a grateful nation. we welcome you. we are proud of the. we are in your debt. your service belongs to all. to the family of the troops who made the sacrifice, to the 30,000 troops who bear the wounds of this war and to their families, we let the words to

say what you feel on this day because try as we may, we can never fully know. we do know what your sacrifice means to us. to this nation, and to a world that still depends on america for its security. this was a war that as american troops to be great warriors and also much more, trainers, development expert, road builders, and ultimately, partners in helping the iraqi people build a better future. to be sure, there will be many tests for iraq in the days ahead. you have given the iraqi people a new dawn. as the morning light spreads, we will stand with them. just as the president and secretary panetta pledged to

stand with the iraq tate -- the iraqi people, so to have a pledge to take care of the troops returning home. over the next weeks and months, thousands of men and women who served so superbly in iraq will begin a new chapter of their lives. some will go to college under the gi bill. many others will seek to enter or re-enter the workforce. last week at fort bragg, the president underscored our commitment to help our veterans make this transition home. as he said, after years of rebuilding iraq, we want to enlist our veterans in rebuilding america. on behalf of secretary panetta, i want you to know that this department, in partnership with agencies across the federal government, will do everything

in our power to make good on that, but -- promised. you answered at -- on that promise. call, ited america's is now our turn to into yours. -- answer yours. there will be nostalgia in not seeing your head the teleconference green anymore -- fill the teleconference screen anymore. it did a remarkable job of drawing down this force. doing so safely and leaving behind all the ingredients of continuing success. i look forward to you joining the general in your new role as vice chief of staff in the army. you will help guide the army

into the future. remembering that we are still at war in afghanistan, and building the best army there is to confront the conflicts of tomorrow. as we review our military strategy, we insist we must continue to have the best military, flexible, ready, and capable of accomplishing anything. that is why, as we prepare our budget, chairman dempsey has urged we keep our eye fixed on the joint force we will need in 2020. he should know, he was in iraq during the brightest in darkest hours, from the beginning of

operation desert storm to the very end of operation new dawn. it is fitting that you should be here today. it is my great pleasure to introduce the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. [applause] >> i do not know how many time we have greeted each other in some inhospitable and unpronounceable place. breaking news here today -- greeting you here today is an honor and a privilege. thank you for allowing me to be a part of this. mr. president, you honor us and those who have served in this conflict by your attendance. as the mr. vice president. -- as do you mr. vice president.

thank you for all your support in our effort. there are two special groups who are present here today. one of them is we have spouses of those young men and women who came off the plane here. i would like as family members to stand up. [applause] i know that i am all that is standing between you -- i in the next-to-last person standing between you and your loved ones. i will keep it short. i want to make mention of the fact that you are here representing all of those buse spouses who have sacrificed.

i want to make a special mention. charlene austin, stand up for me please. [applause] if you want to know what an army stuff looks like -- army spouse looks like. well done. the of the group i want to mention -- the other group of want to mention, i had the honor to take a group of celebrities. this is the 70th anniversary of the uso. this group was the best we have ever assembled. i would ask you to stand up, those who ran it, the uso has been with us do this entire conflict -- through this entire conflict. please stand up, all of you. [applause]

i bet you can not figure of which one is robert horry. a few days ago we were in baghdad to mark the end of our mission in iraq. i am here to share this historic moment with you all. the young men and women who are representing all of those who have served in this conflict, to you, well done. today we bring home the colors to the united states. at the same time, we embrace a loved one's just in time for the holidays. welcome home. this is time to reflect on a journey. a journey over 20 years that took us through two wars.

because of the courage and resilience of our military and our partners, those in our own government, throughout the world, and in a rock, 30 million iraqis are free today. they have a choice in the future and an opportunity to live in peace and prosperity it is a time to recall what we have achieved, what we have learned, and how we made a difference. it is a time to remember those who served and those we lost. we all have our memories. mine is just with more. he was under mike -- stewart moore. he was under my command. he once worked for three days straight. he was not an electrician. like so many of today's generation of soldiers, he

embraced every mission and every test. he was killed by a roadside bomb eight years ago this week. his daughter, nearly two at this time, will turn 10 next year. she may not remember her father, we will. we will remember for her. we will make short she knows what he did and why he did it. we will remember those for whom the wounds of war remain. we will care for them. our nation will care for them. they and their families deserve the future they helped secure. let me say to the families today, thank you for your sacrifice, your service, which has allowed us to succeed, even when the odds seemed stacked against us. you will always have your nation posted the best attitude and my

enduring admiration. thank -- your nation's deepest gratitude and my enduring admiration. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> hut ten. hut. ceremonial. at me. halt. ceremonial. >> i think the embassy was going to take privilege of introducing the next and final speaker. he is a man i have admired since we met were at west point together -- since we were at

west point together. it is my honor to introduce to you a superb salter, a superb statement, -- soldier, a superb statesmean. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. mr. president, it is an honor to have our commander in chief here today to welcome home our party. mr. vice president, you honor us with your present as well.

thank you for your leadership and your support throughout operation new dawn secretary, general, thank you for your -- don. secretary, general, thank you for your inspiring report boschwitz -- inspiring words. i know i speak for my staff and i say it is great to be back in the united states of america. [applause] i will keep my remarks brief. i feel there is tremendous participation, those who are waiting for reunions. i would like to thank all of those who helped put this their money together. -- this ceremony together.

i would like to thank the color guard and the detail in front of us. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] for the past several months, public troops have worked -- of the troops have worked to remove equipment from iraq. on sunday, the left of our troops crossed the border into kuwait. completing one of the most extraordinary feats in our military's history. they did it in an organ that -- in an orderly fashion. i sent a message in for the -- in forming that we have accomplished our military objectives in iraq. our mission has come to a

successful conclusion today, i am proud to safely return our callers to their rightful place. colors that have been carried and passed on from commander to commander since 2003. i think those commanders for the service and their leadership which helped make this day possible. it is my privilege to represent them as we celebrate this historic moment. i could not be more cuts of our men and women in uniform who are unquestionably the preeminent military force in the world. there is one thing that impresses me about a wherefores, that is that a significant number of those -- about a work force -- our force, that is that a significant number of

those who served answered the call after 9/11. even more impressive is after multiple stores in iraq, many of them have reenlisted. these things make them the next greatest generation. america, you can beat have. -- be porud. i sit in late m.proud -- i certainly am proud of them. what our troops to achieve is remarkable. our core of dedicated civilians, they removed a brutal dictator and gave the iraqi people their freedom. their courage and their ability to adapt has enabled us to persevere to the darkest days of the insurgency, to create hope

and provide iraqis opportunity they have not seen in their lifetime. now the stage has been set for a young democracy to be merged as the leader in what has been and what will continue to a dynamic region. success in iraq cannot be defined by the military effort. of a team of diplomats, the finest hour country has to offer, will remain as they continue to build upon our relationship with iraq. their teamwork was instrumental in making our efforts as successful -- efforts so successful. thank you. it goes without saying that we could not have done it alone.

our families and loved ones sacrificed considerably in support of our effort. they missed celebrating graduations and anniversaries, watching sporting events, and with this in births -- witnessing births. ellis buzzes, a friend, and other loved ones -- our spouses, friends, and loved ones have displayed amazing results. to those watching, let me extend our deepest thanks for your love and support. we could not have done it without you. to the families of our fallen, our nation owes you a debt of gratitude it can never repay. please note that we share in your loss. you will always be part of our

family. we have been fortunate to have the support of a quick american public. -- great american public. folks have gotten up from their seats and sent countless care packages and letters. their support has meant the world to us. it has been a big boost to our morel overall. i would be remiss if i did not recognize the efforts of our u.s. congress, their support has been in the ring -- been enduring. the funding they provided was instrumental to our success and helped keep our troops say. to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, i say thank you

for a job extremely well done. i am truly humbled by your service and your sacrifice. a special thanks goes out to our wounded brothers and sisters. you serve as a source of inspiration for us. you will always have a place in our formation. i would like to express my appreciation to the members of our reserve components, your efforts at its strength that we could not have found elsewhere. your contributions would not have been possible without your employers, who have sacrificed through your extended absences. finally, i would like to wish all of our veterans and their loved ones a very joyous holiday

season. as you reflect on your service in a rut, -- in iraq, please know your sacrifices were instrumental in liberating people and providing them an opportunity to enjoy a better way of life. you have set the conditions for democracy to take root in a region that is important to the united states of america. you have done all that our nation has asked of you and more. again, thank you for a job extremely well done. extremely well done. may god bless you all may god continue to bless the united states of america, the greatest country in the world. thank you. [applause]

>> hut ten. hold. hold. ready? hut. >> ladies and gentleman, please stand for the armed forces meldley. ♪

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>> ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's ceremony paid into the remainder of your day. -- ceremony. enjoy the remainder of your day. [indistinguishable chatter] >> on tomorrow's "washington journal" we will get an update on north korea. victor cha joins us. then a conversation on the role that faith and religion play in american politics. willis -- we will talk to

richard land. later, how campaigns are cracking and targeting voters on line. each morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> with the iowa caucuses and new hampshire primary next month, "of the contenders" looks back at the 14 men who ran for president and lost. here is carolina. tonight, james blaine. wednesday, william jennings bryant. thursday, eugene debs. saturday, al smith. followed by wendell willkie. every night at 10:00 eastern on c-span. >> have the pride of free seats

band radio app? the c-span app is fast -- have you tried it the free c-span at radio app? the c-span at thing is free. it took me about 10 seconds to learn how to use it. >> anytime, anywhere, it is dreaming access of c-span radio. --get streaming access to cspan radio. c-span, it is available wherever you are. find out more at c- span.org/radioapp. in a few moments we are going to take your calls as we look at today's action rejecting a bill that would extend the payroll tax that an unemployment benefits by two months. we will hear from voters in the house. in 45 minutes we will show you that debate from the floor. that debate from the floor. after