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tv   U.S. House of Representatives  CSPAN  January 24, 2012 1:00pm-5:00pm EST

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african-american troops who served in the first national parks, including yosemite and sequoia national park prior to the establishment of the national park service. the legislation sponsored by congresswoman speier of california was considered by the committee on natural resources in may. i commend my colleague, congresswoman speier, for introducing this legislation and her leadership on this issue. and we strongly support this legislation. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from ohio is recognized. . mr. johnson: i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from northern mariana islands is recognized. mr. sablan: i yield to the congresswoman from california, the sponsor of this legislation, congresswoman speier, as much time as she may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized for as much time as she wishes to consume. ms. speier: thank you. i thank my friend from the northern mariana islands for yielding. i rise today in support of this
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legislation, the buffalo soldiers in national parks study act, which would allow the department of interior to study the role of buffalo soldiers and how they -- how it defended our first national parks. this is a key step in preserving the legacy of the army's first african-american infantry and cavalier units and the contributions they made to our nation. this bill will evaluate the feasibility of a national historic trail along the buffalo soldiers route from the historic milltory post in the san francisco presidio, to yosemite and sequoia national parks. it will also identify properties that could be listed in the national register of historic places or investigations as national historic landmarks. for several years buffalo soldier regiments traveled 320 miles along this route to patrol the parkland for loggers and poachers, build new trails, and escort visitors. the buffalo soldiers who are
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among our very first park rangers. a challenging task, these troops took on with pride after serving bravely in the civil war. because of the color of their skin, the buffalo soldiers were all too often marginalized and instead of respected for their service to our nation, both on and off the battlefield. however, during their time protecting the parks, they not only confronted racism and discrimination, they overcame it. they became respected neighbors and friends to people living in the park regions and they made real inroads towards racial progress that were extraordinary for their day. although they were assigned to watch over government property for only a relatively short time, the buffalo soldiers helped lay the groundwork for some of our greatest wilderness to be preserved forever. i'm proud that the buffalo soldiers traveled through our district on the way to the parks and i believe this bill will help shine a light on the history they made in the great state of california and in many places across the country.
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all americans from all walks of life would benefit from learning about this often overlooked chapter in our history. the buffalo soldiers story is ultimately about the triumphs not just of african-american troops over prejudice and injustice, but of the movement of our nation toward a morele to rent and courageous society. i thank my colleague for supporting this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from ohio is recognized. mr. johnson: mr. speaker, may i ask if the minority bill manager has any additional speakers? we do not. mr. sablan: i do not. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. johnson: with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1022. those in favor say aye. those opposed say no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended --
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mr. johnson: on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 , further proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3800. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3800, a bill to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the airport and airway trust fund, to amend title 49 united states code, to extend authorizations for the airport improvement program, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. petri, and the gentleman from illinois, mr. costello, each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. petri: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill h.r. 3800. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. petri: mr. speaker, i ask
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unanimous consent to include in the congressional record the exchange of letters between the committee on ways and means, committee on transportation and infrastructure concerning h.r. 3800. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. petri: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. petri: i'm pleased to report that we are currently in the final negotiations of completing a f.a.a. re-authorization bill with the senate with only a few open issues left to be resolved. i'm confident that we will be able to complete negotiations and produce a conference report in the very near future. however, give the congressional schedule and limited legislative days before f.a.a.'s current authority expires, we'll not be able to consider the final agreement on the conference report until february. since current funding expires at the end of this month, it's necessary for us to pass a clean short-term extension of the f.a.a.'s funding and programs through february 17 at
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current funding levels. this extension is a prudent precaution to ensure that the f.a.a. is able to continue its funding of programs while negotiations are completed and the house and senate consider the f.a.a. conference report. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentleman from illinois is recognized. mr. costello: mr. speaker, thank you. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. costello: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 3800, the airport and airway extension act of 2012. this bill contains a clean extension of the federal aviation administration's authority to spend from the airport and airway trust fund and carry out airport improvement projects at current funding levels through february 17, 2012. mr. speaker, this short-term extension will hopefully provide us enough time for the house republican leadership to finally appoint conferees to the f.a.a. re-authorization
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bill. which we passed almost a year ago. work through the remaining policy issues with the other body and send a comprehensive bill to the president. although this has been an unnecessarily difficult and controversial process during the first session of the 112th congress, to move the multiyear f.a.a. authorization measure, i'm ploozed the house and senate leadership recognize the importance of getting the bill completed and stepped in. while i reserve judgment on a final conference report, it appears as though we are making progress and we certainly need to avoid a repeat of the disastrous outcome that occurred this summer when the f.a.a. was partially shut down for two weeks costing taxpayers almost $400 million in lost revenue, for infrastructure investment. as we move to conference, we need to enact a fair and comprehensive bill that creates jobs, furthers aviation safety, and advances our transition to the next generation air transportation system.
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mr. speaker, i support this short-term f.a.a. extension and the interest of preventing another f.a.a. shutdown in order to give us a few more weeks to produce a bipartisan re-authorization conference report that the president can sign into law. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 3800, the airport airway extension act of 2012, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. petri: does the gentleman have any further requests for time? mr. costello: mr. chairman, we have one speaker. mr. petri: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized. mr. costello: i thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i recognize a valued member of the transportation and infrastructure committee, the gentlelady from the district of columbia, ms. norton. for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. norton: i thank the
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gentleman from illinois. this reminds me how much i regret that he has decided to retire. he was such a valuable chair of our subcommittee and member of transportation and infrastructure committee. i can only wish him all the good fortune his extraordinary productive years from the congress have earned him. but i thank both sides of the aisle for this short-term extension, short-term i am assured to wrap up some details . this is a bill that is really a great deal more bipartisan than it would appear. yes, there were some tough items as in any piece of major legislation. i do regret the major reason for the standoff. this bill seems to me could have been before us long ago
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but for at least one provision which could have been settled long ago. and that was the provision that -- in the bill that would have insisted that no shows be counted in elections. the no shows be counted as -- for one side or the other. and in this case they would have been counted as a no vote to join the union. you could argue just the opposite. that if you really want or were against the union, you would be the one who showed up. it seems to me you don't know how it would come out. some kind of compromise is reached on that. i will have to wait on that compromise. i'm very pleased we moved ahead
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on a compromise because the president has said over and over again he was going to veto the bill if it had that in it. since we knew it was going to be vetoed, it was up to us to get to a compromise much earlier and get on to a few other tough issues in the bill. i recognize that more time is needed on those issues. one of those issues, by the way, has to do with how much you are going to tolerate at reagan airport with the notion, an individual member from the west coast, would prefer the convenience of landing and reagan and the whole bill should bend in that way, i ask that we consider -- could i ask for 30 seconds more? mr. costello: i yield another one minute to the gentlelady. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. norton: in winding up the bill i ask that we keep in mind the fact that a very fragile
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compromise has been reached to allow the three other airports in the region and the economics to divide up the air traffic as has been allowed. i also want to thank -- when we get to these union provision, do remember that in every society one of the cardinal tests of whether or not you have a free society is whether or not there is a free right to organize. i thank the gentleman for yielding. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. petri: i yield such time as he may consume to our colleague from texas, representive -- >> thank you very much, mr. speaker, i rise today i don't like to do. support kicking the can down the road. but i am excited to kick the can down the road.
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we had 23 extensions of the f.a.a. bill but this time as we kick the can we see the end of the road. the transportation and infrastructure committee has worked in a bipartisan manner to come up with a bill that i think is going to be phenomenal. once we get it out of the house and senate conferees. it's taken time to get us to the point where we can find the efficiencies and savings that we need and continue to provide the level of service we expect in our air transportation system in this country. mr. farenthold: my fear is we are going to come up with this bipartisan bill and it's going to get stalled again. as we stand here on the eve of the state of the union address, we have the politics of a do-nothing congress. i hope that narrative doesn't stop this bill from moving forward as it comes up. and we don't have to extend this again. this is something we have been able to do bipartisan nature. historically transportation bills have been bipartisan. let's not let this get stopped and have to kick the can down the road. let's get this passed.
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i urge everybody, my colleagues, to support this extension. let's make it the last and get the long-term bill passed for the betterment of this country and everyone in it. thank you very much. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. petri: i yield such time as he may-- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves? mr. costello: we continue to reserve. mr. petri: i yield such time as he may consume to the chairman of the full transportation and infrastructure committee, our colleague from the state of florida, john mica. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. mica: mr. speaker, i want to thank chairman petri, our chair of the aviation subcommittee, i see mr. costello, the ranking member, former chair, of the subcommittee. thank you for your work. we're here to extend the f.a.a. for the 23rd time.
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the consequences that have can i hope be positive that we can conclude this long overdue and very important authorization. you know, members of congress, we must authorize every program, that's part of our constitutional responsibility. i had the privilege when i chaired the aviation subcommittee to write a lot of what was in the last bill which we authored in 2003, it expired in 2007. the other side of the aisle had four years in which they controlled the body, two of which they controlled every branch of government, and were unable to pass that. they passed 17 extensions. we've had to pass what will now
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be five, but we can get this done. this should be a bipartisan and must be a bicameral jobs bill. the aviation industry in our country accounts for between 7% and 8% of our gross domestic national economic activity and for us not to have passed authorization that updates the safety, all of the programs, the jecks general -- next generation of air traffic control, things that are so important to have a dynamic industry, and then an area of our economy that we have led in in the world, the biggest area of exports is aviation. that's huge for jobs in this country. so, this is going to be the last extension. it's done in, again, a
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bipartisan effort to conclude the negotiations. and let me say in conclusion, there are some tough issues on labor that have held us up, four years with the democrats, the last year with us, and i want to commend speaker boehner for his leadership, working with the leadership of the senate. the speaker and his staff and others have worked day and night through the holidays and right up to now to conclude what i think is a very fair compromise, and it must be a compromise. this is, you know, a part of our business is to do the best business we can for the american people and getting this economy working and getting in place the framework for one of the most important aspects of our industry. if we want to see americans back to work, we'll pass this legislation by the 17th of february and then we'll come back and the next week or two and we will pass a long-term
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infrastructure, transportation measure, and we will and we can get americans working. so with that i yield back and ask for continued cooperation to complete this important process. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. petri: i have no further requests for time and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized. mr. costello: mr. speaker, lelt me commend chairman mike -- let me commend chairman mica and chairman petri for working in a bipartisan way. we've attempted to work with the other body in working out an agreement. we are very close to an agreement, as i said in my statement. i reserve judgment on the final conference agreement but i certainly want to commend our friends on the other side of the aisle for working to move this legislation forward and with that i urge passage of this legislation and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin.
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mr. petri: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3800. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. >> mr. speaker. mr. --
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>> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? mrs. capps: mr. speaker, i have a motion to ininstruct conferees at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: mrs. capps of california moves that the managers on the part of the house at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two houses on the senate amendment to the bill h.r. 3630 be instructed to file a conference report not later than february 17, 2012. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 7 of rule 22, the gentlewoman from california, mrs. capps, and the gentleman from new york, mr. reed, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california. mrs. capps: thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield myself five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the
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gentlelady is recognized. mrs. capps: i rise today to offer a straightforward motion to provide certainty to american families and businesses. as we all know, late last month after a lot of drawnout drama, we enacted a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut. of unemployment insurance and the so-called doc fix. all these provisions were set to expire at the end of last year. payroll taxes would have gone up on 160 million american workers. millions of unemployed people would have had their benefits cut off even though they still can't find work. and doctors would have faced huge cuts in their reimbursement from pled care, making it harder for seen -- from medicare, making it harder for seniors to see doctors. differences could not be resolved before the clock ran out. now with this short-term extension set to expire in just a few weeks, we must find way to bridge our differences and enact a full year extension of these provisions and we need to do it as soon as possible.
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and that's what this motion is about. it simply directs the conferees to finish their work by february 17 so both the house and senate will have time to vote on the final package before the clock runs out on the 29th. just a date certain to ensure that we get our work done without yet another last-minute scramble. we have a habit in this congress of leaving our work until the last minute. something we should have learned when we were kids when our parents warned us about this long ago. last year, for example, was filled with manufactured crises and last-minute deals. it led to a great deal of uncertainty about everything from tax policy to whether or not america will pay its debts. and this certainly has affected our economy and our efforts to create jobs. i know we can do better. i know we must do better. our economy is still in a fragile state and we must not add to its precarious nature with yet another unnecessary
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dust-up here in washington. and especially not about provisions we generally agree upon. for example, extending the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans will put $1,000 more in their paychecks for this worker in this coming year. in my home state alone, that would put $21 billion into the pockets of 17 million californians. that's real money for consumers who spend quickly at small businesses across the country, stimulating demand and growing our economy. now, economists from both sides, from every perspective, agree that this payroll extension is critical to maintaining our recovery and critical to extending new jobs. in addition, there is a general agreement about the need to extend unemployment benefits. this affects about 4 1/2 million americans who would lose their unemployment benefits if we don't get our work done in time. never before have we allowed emergency unemployment benefits to expire while unemployment
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remains so high. millions of middle class workers and their families depend upon emergency unemployment benefits to feed their families, to put gas in their cars, to keep their houses warm. once again, extending these benefits helps create jobs, helps to grow our economy. according to mark zandi, every dollar of unemployment benefits creates $1.65 in economic demand. that's not rhetoric, it's a fact. and, finally, mr. speaker, we all agree that the need to ensure our doctors don't see a draconian cut in their medicare reimbursements. such a cut would effect the health care of -- affect the health care of nearly 60 million seniors who could lose access to their doctors if we don't complete our work on time. without an extension medicarefications -- physicians will see a nearly -- medicare physicians will see a nearly 30% reimbursement cut at the end of this month and of course this is something we face every year which is why i have always supported a permanent fix to the s.g.r. at a minimum we must include a
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full-year fix for this program. failure to do so will harm not only our doctors and their employees, but our seniors as well. mr. speaker, the american people are rightfully tired of the political games and needless brinkmanship that has become all too common in this body. i say it's time to change course. let's begin this new year on a better note. let's begin the year by putting aside our differences and working together. let's complete the new year, let's begin the new year by completing the work that we all were sent here to do and let's do it on time and without unnecessary drama. and let's begin the new year by helping middle class families and small businesses stay afloat in these tough times. it's way too important to wait until the last minute. millions of american workers, business owners and families are depending on us. the time to act is now. i urge my colleagues to support this motion, to ensure that we get our work done on time and i reserve the balance of my time.
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the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in great agreement. mr. reed: what she has articulated before us in this chamber, mr. speaker, is an instruction to the conferees of which i am one, to get our job done. i wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. and also there's a tremendous amount of agreement when it comes to the payroll tax extension. to get an extension for at least a year. to extend unemployment benefits. and also to do what we have to do in washington, d.c., in regards to our providers under medicare with our doc fix. we have proposed and passed in this chamber before the end of the year a one-year proposal on the payroll tax extension, fully paid for, a two-year proposal on
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our doc fix, fully paid for. those are long-term solutions that have been offered by our side of the aisle, adopted in a bipartisan fashion before the end of the year, and sent to the senate to act upon. the reality of the situation finds us in a position where the senate has not done its job. and my colleague from california is correct, a lot of it had to do with the fact that the senate ran out of time and they reverted to classic, old political ways of doing business, passing legislation at 3:00, 2:00 in the morning, waiting until the last minute and putting forth a product that only allowed us to kick the can two months down the road. we can do better, we need to do better and the proposal that came out of this chamber was a
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stark -- was a start in that right direction and it is time that we join together and we hit this long-term solution put forth for the american people because they deserve no less. you know, i would be remiss if we did not identify the fact that we as conferees were here over the christmas break. we were here trying to champion the cause for making sure we put policy into law, not achieve political gamesmanship or wins. it is time for us to focus on policy and put politics aside. hardworking taxpayers deserve that today in america. and i for one will join my colleague on the other side of the aisle in the tremendous
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amount of agreement that i think we have going into this conference and the sentiment of getting the job done in time, not waiting until the last minute, coming up with a long-term solution of at least a year on our payroll tax extension, at least two years for our doctors who are getting reimbursed under medicare and take care of the unemployment situation, but i would have to disagree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle when she says that unemployment benefits are some sort of economic stimulus that should be expanded. . i understand and have read what the economists have said on the economic impact of unemployment benefits, but my point would be if that logic was true think why don't we extend unemployment benefits to every american and sit back and watch the economy blossom? the fundamental truth is, and it's time to be open and honest with the american people about it, is that the economy is not going to strengthen based on
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government expansion, government spending. it's going to strengthen on a commitment to small business america laying the foundation upon which the private sector knows that there is certainty, there is confidence in the market, and they have the ability to know what the rules are going to be for years to come not on a month-by-month basis. i urge my colleagues in the other chamber, in the u.s. senate to heed that fundamental message. we can no longer in washington, d.c., believe the short-term policy is the best we can do for america. hardworking taxpayers deserve better than that, and small business owners across america need to know what the rules are with certainty and for years so that they can make the investments to put our
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hardworking taxpayer americans back to work. that's what we stand for on this side of the aisle. that is what i am hopeful going into this conference we'll be able to produce out of this payroll bill, unemployment extension, and our doc fix. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield, mr. speaker, to my colleague from california, barbara lee, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for two minutes. ms. lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentlelady for yielding. and also for your tremendous leadership. mr. speaker, i rise to encourage all the conferees on h.r. 3630 to fully consider the chilling effect on the economy of any failed -- failure to fully extend unemployment benefits. while we are all pleased to see the economy slowly improving, unemployment rates continue to be unacceptably high. and, yes, there are four
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individuals looking for every one job. this job recovery still has not created enough jobs in our country. i have participated in many job fairs in my district along with the congressional black caucus and we have witnessed thousands and thousands and thousands of people lining up for the jobs that existed. people want to work. it's not that people are sitting around waiting for their unemployment benefits. if there were jobs, people would work. so we need this bridge over troubled waters until we figure out a way to create the jobs that people deserve. we must immediately extend all expiring unemployment benefits. the conferees should also strongly consider adding an additional 14 weeks of tier one unemployment benefits for the millions of 99ers who have completely exhausted their benefits. we don't remember that even with the extension of
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unemployment, there are between two million and three million people who will not be eligible because 99 weeks is the limit. and so we can't abandon those individuals. we have to pass and we are asking for congressman scott's bill and my bill, h.r. 589, to be included in any final lemming agreement. -- legislative agreement. so, mr. speaker, i'm really pleading for this body to really understand that until we figure out a way to create jobs people want to work and it is our moral responsibility to create this extension of unemployment benefits to include an additional 14 weeks for people who have hit the 99 week mark. that's our duty and our responsibility. i hope that you'll put this in our package. thank you again. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the
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gentleman is recognized. mr. reed: mr. speaker, i'd like to respond to my colleague on the other side of the aisle who just spoke in regards when it comes to unemployment benefit extensions. what we have to do in my opinion is set the framework upon which jobs in america could be created. and we just had an example of this last week that i so hope our president tonight in this very chamber comes and explains his decision to reject american jobs being created through the keystone pipeline. because there is a project that has been identified and it will be implemented in a way that would create an immediate 20,000 new jobs for men and women in america. that will go a long way to solving our unemployment problems in the united states. not just extending unemployment benefits, but as we take up the issue of extending unemployment
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benefits, we need to do better. we owe it to hardworking taxpayers of america to come up with solutions and reforms in our unemployment benefits program that gives them the tools, the resources to be re-employed. i agree wholeheartedly with my colleague on the other side of the aisle that i don't believe the majority of americans want to be unemployed. they want to get back to work. so in our reforms that were passed in this chamber before the end of the year, we talked about things as requiring g.e.d.'s, high school education efifflency diplomas, high school degrees so that people could have the basic educational benefit in a will give them the tools to get back -- that will give them the tools to get back to work. we should be focusing together in a bipartisan manner, democrat and republican, on reforms that are going to give those tools to our unemployed americans rather than just giving a check. there is an old adage that i
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grew up with being the youngest of 12 children that was passed down from generations in our family and that was, you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. you teach him a man or woman to fish, you feed him and her and their entire family for a lifetime. that is the mantra, that is the foundation upon which we should take up unemployment extension in this conference and join hands to implement going forward. and again i have to highlight the fact that what we see out of the other chameber in the united states senate is a willingness to just achieve what is politically possible to only achieve what could be called a political win. it is time to stop focusing on politics. hardworking taxpayers in america deserve us to focus on good policy. and with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves.
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the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield one minute to our colleague from california, lynn woolsey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. woolsey: mr. speaker, i rise today to support the capps motion to instruct conferees. this is just too important to get tied up in election year politics. failing to extend the payroll tax cut, unbloiment insurance, and the medicare -- unemployment insurance, and the medicare doc fix will have real and lasting effects on our nation's middle class. it will mean that fewer doctors will be available to care for seniors. and an aging baby boomer generation. it will mean that people who have lost their job through no fault of their own will have the safety net pulled out from under them. and it will mean that working families will see their paycheck shrink. americans don't want partisan gridlock, they want jobs, they want economic security, and they want access to health care. i urge my colleagues, support
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the capps motion and put our families first. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: mr. speaker, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: mr. speaker, i'm pleased at this time to yield two minutes to our colleague from florida, kathy castor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from florida is recognized for two minutes. ms. castor: i thank my colleague, representative capps, for yielding time and for your great leadership on behalf of middle class families across america. i rise to encourage all of our colleagues to get to work on middle class tax relief and also take this opportunity to strengthen medicare. we are going to have a lot of debate over medicare here in the coming year. but this will be an opportunity to address a real shortcoming in medicare. and that is protecting our
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parents and grandparents and the ability that they have to see the doctor of their choice. see, what will happen if the congress does not act is there will be instituted very harsh cuts to the reimbursement rate for doctors that take care of our parents and take care of our grandparents under medicare. we simply can't let this happen. democrats are interested in a permanent fix to these medicare cuts to doctors. this is vitally important for tens of millions of our parents and grandparents all across america, and you better believe in the state of florida where we have 3.4 million seniors that rely on medicare, we want to ensure that the ability of the doctor that they trust, that they see time and time again, will be there when they make that appointment in the doctor's office. we are interested in a permanent fix. we think working together we can get this done.
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medicare is that promise that has been made to generation after generation of americans that it will be there, no matter what happens, how hard they work, what happens in their lifetime, medicare will be there to serve them and we need to ensure that the doctors are there on the frontlines to take care of our parents and grandparents as well. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. again i'm heartened because as the gentlelady spoke i came to the conclusion, we are in full agreement. house republicans are in full agreement. so that gives us hope, ladies and gentlemen. it gives us hope going into this conference that what we are going to be able to put together with the doc fix and how our providers are paid under medicare is a solution that will be a long-term solution to this situation that politically is required to go through all the time because of this doc fix situation we find ourselves in. but i would remind this chamber and i would remind all my
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colleagues that we are in the midst of a fiscal crisis and this nation that needs to be respected. and as we talk about making sure that our providers under medicare are taken care of on a long-term basis, we need to go into this discussion with our eyes wide open. and that is that fiscal crisis forces us to cover these costs. for us to be responsible in washington, d.c., for one time, and pay for what we are doing and live within our means. that's what our proposal for two years out of the house chamber before the end of the year, passed in a bipartisan fashion, did, took care of two years of the doc fix, fully paid for and offset, and what we need to do is bring that attitude into the conference to get it taken care of. i so hardly agree with my colleague, the esteemed lady in
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her position and coming up with a long-term solution for our doctors under medicare. but we do need to be responsible and we have to offset and make sure that it is paid for. that is the reality of the situation we find ourselves in america with the fiscal crisis. we now face. it will be the reality of our nation's fiscal prosperity going forward. if we so choose to honor it. with that i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to our colleague from new jersey, mr. andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for two minutes. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. andrews: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, we hear that there is agreement over some basic principles here. just about everyone thinks we should extend the middle class tax cut for the rest of this year. just about everyone thinks that
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we should make sure doctors don't see a nearly 30% cut in the payments they receive to take care of our seniors and disabled persons under medicare. most of us think that unemployment benefits should be extended at a time when there are four people unemployed for every one job opening in the country. most people believe that most if not all of this should be paid for, that is to say we shouldn't borrow the money to do these things. the amount of money that's needed to do that is about $3 out of every $1,000 that we are going to spend here. that's significant money, but it's $3 out of every 1,000 we spend. here's the idea behind this motion. since there is such broad agreement this middle class tax cut and the other provisions need to happen, since there is such broad agreement that it ought to be offset at least in part if not fully, and since it's such a relatively small
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amount of money, $3 for every $1,000 we are going to spend, let's not wait until the very last minute to do it. the history of 2011 is littered with the majority waiting until the 11th hour. and it was more than just an inconvenience for the legislative process. in august when the markets melted down, it turned out to be a crisis for the country and the global economy. let's not take that chance again. . so if everybody is so much in agreement, vote for this motion. what it says is, let's not wait until february 29, they gave us a leap year this year, so let's not stretch it, let's not wait until february 29 at midnight, let's get this done no later than february 17 to get this done in an orderly fashion. the american people are tired of a congress that has the study habits of a student who parties all semester and crams for the finals. let's get serious, let's grow up, and let's vote for this
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motion. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i do have to remind my good friend on the other side of the aisle that on december 22 house republicans were here. we were sitting in the conference ready to get to work and conferees on their side of the aisle had not even been named by that point in time. i was here over the new year's break, thursday, friday, working on this issue in preparation for the conference. where was the senate? nowhere to be found. so, let us be straight with the american people. let's be open and honest with the american people. that who's ready to do the work is us, in the house chamber, on the house republican side. we demonstrated it at the end of 2011 by staying here. we may have been parked politically or lost that political battle but you know what? the american people want us to
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do not what is politically the winning strategy but what is the best policy for the american people. and that's what we stood up for. maybe that message didn't get home to the men and women back in our districts immediately but i can tell you, mr. speaker, when i went back in my district and had the question presented to me at my local church, local grocery store, why were you still down there? what was the problem? what were you fight for? and we went through the -- fighting for? and we went through the details of the policy that we are talking about here with the payroll tax rate, the unemployment extension and medicare reimbursement for our providers under medicare and they said, well, obviously you needed to stay there to get it done. and that's what we have to do. we have to adopt the attitude of we have been sent here to do the people's work. it's time now for us -- not for us to wait until the last minute, i wholeheartedly agree, buts also time that we do not --
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but it's also time that we do not just leave town because we accomplished what is politically possible or what was in our political interests. i wholeheartedly am committed to finding the real solutions, the real policy initiatives and that is what we're standing for on this side of the aisle and with that i continue to reserve, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: mr. speaker, could i inquire how much time remains on each side? the speaker pro tempore: 18 minutes remains on both sides. mrs. capps: each side? the speaker pro tempore: each side has 18 minutes remaining. mrs. capps: thank you. it's my pleasure to yield two minutes to our colleague from connecticut, mr. courtney. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from connecticut is recognized for two minutes. mr. courtney: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of the capps motion which -- caps motion which again says we -- capps motion which again says we should move as swiftly as possible to resolve she's issues -- resolve these issues. the largest physician group in the state of connecticut asked
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what the impact would be if the s.g.r. 27% rate cut went into effect? it would be catastrophic. 47% of doctors would stop accepting medicare patients, 10% would close their practices, 32% would lay off staff. but what was interesting is that 19% said that they are already refusing to take new appointments of medicare beneficiaries and are curtailing access for both medicare and tricare patients all across the state of connecticut. so, clearly this is not an issue which can wait until the last minute. people are already voting with their feet and it's effecting access to health care literally as we sit here today in the house chamber. i also would like to remind the gentleman from new york that the measure which the republicans passed in december which supposedly addressed this issue paid for the s.g.r. fix by taking $40 billion out of the hospital accounts in medicare. so in the name of protecting physician fees, they butchered the other part of the system, an
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essential part of the system, in terms of hospital access which provides emergency care all across this country and the american hospital association and others clearly warned this chamber and the senate that this cut would be extremely damaging and catastrophic to the american health care system and the fact that the senate did not just rubber stamp what the house did in my opinion shows that they acted appropriately. it is extremely urgent for the american health care system that we pass and follow the capps motion's time line to fix this issue. frankly an issue which has festered since the 1990's when the republicans passed the s.g.r. form lafment this is not part of the affordable -- formula. this is not part of the affordable care act. at the time we passed the affordable care act abolished s.g.r., we should follow that path at the end of the day and we should certainly follow the timeline of the capps motion. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i so appreciate my colleague
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reminding me of the offsets on the doc fix bill. and i would just like to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and this entire chamber that the house-passed bill that was sent to the senate, 90% of those offsets were recommended and supported by the president of the united states. president obama. now, i'm not saying that that's the final thing that we can agree to. by no means am i saying that. but what i will say is that we did our work. found common ground with the president's own recommendations and policies that he supported, and sent it to the senate. and at this point in time i still remind the american people , who is at the table? the house. where is the united states senate? and may i remind the speaker and
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the american people, i say the entire senate, but in particular those on the other side of the aisle. with that i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield, mr. speaker, two minutes to our colleague from new jersey, mr. pascrell. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for two minutes. mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. in just a few hours the president of the united states will be on the floor to present his ideas as to how we can grow our economy and put the american people back to work. i hope the majority keeps an open mind, rejects the extreme ideology and political timidness that has driven the 112th congress of the united states. need i remind my friend from new york state, need i remind him that the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, as we move into this next
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decade, are the biggest cause and the biggest proportion of the deficit facing this congress and you are not going to, you are not going to nickel and dime us to solve the problem of the deficit on the backs of the middle class and the working poor. it doesn't work. you can't figure it out. while the economic indicators are showing pretty good improvements, the unemployment rate in my home state of new jersey, still 9.1%. above the national average of 8.5%. because of games played by the extreme wing of the republican party, the payroll tax cut that president obama and the democratic congress support is at risk of expiring again. now, i can't say any clearer than this, $1,000 may not be a lot for millionaires like mitt
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romney. paying a 13.9% tax rate. but it is a significant amount of money directly in the pockets of middle class families in north jersey. you don't have to look far to see where we are still hurting. just last month the construction industry, mr. speaker, unemployment rate jumped from another 3% to 16%. passing the payroll tax cut will help grow the economy, get the american people back to work. isn't that what we want? and with that i yield back to you, mr. speaker, and thank you for giving me the courtesy of allowing me to speak. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to yield one minute to my good friend from missouri, mr. long. mr. long: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to address the issue of the payroll tax extension holiday, whatever you want to call it. and the doc fix that we address every single year here in this congress. at the end of the laugh year we went home, we did our work, we
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extended the payroll tax holiday for one full year. we did the doc fix for two years. i got to the airport in dallas, texas, we got a call that the senate had sent back over a bill here that was going to pay the doctors, taking care of our seniors on medicare, for two months. i think if i remember right they had three different plans. it would take care for two months, eight weeks or 60 days. that's the only three programs they looked at at the senate. then is he sent it back over here and tried to blame us saying we were not for it. we were for it for a year, we were for the doc fix for two years and i think it's ridiculous that the senate cannot do their work, just like we haven't had a budget out of the senate in 1,000 days. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to our colleague from north carolina, david price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina is recognized for two minutes.
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mr. price: mr. speaker, i rise in support of the motion to instruct and want to thank our colleague from santa barbara for offering it. last year as we lurched from one congressionally created crisis to another, uncertainty plagued families and businesses and the american people's confidence in our ability to do their work plummeted. in the first few months of the new year we can right these wrongs. we can proceed in a mature matter to address our nation's problems. as the president will reiterate tonight in his state of the union address, this is a make-or-break moment for our economic recovery, for our middle class and those trying to reach the middle class. expending -- extending this payroll tax cut will put an average of $1,000 in the pockets of workers this year. let's not play games by threatening to raise taxes on 160 million workers. if you don't get crur way on one
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bargaining -- if you don't get your way on one bargaining chip or another. we should pass a full year extension of the payroll tax cut right away and then move onto the president's broader jobs bill that would create jobs and put us on a faster road to recovery. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. reed: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york are -- reserves. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. capps: i yield to mr. crowley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. crowley: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend and colleague, mrs. capps, for yielding this time and for spearheading this resolution which will simply end the dog-ate-my-homework excuse my republican colleagues have repeatedly used when refusing to do more than the bear minimum that our -- than our job requires. i'm the father of three children all under the age of 13. my kids are the best. i love them dealer. but they are like most. they don't like doing their home wsh and they often wait until the last minute to get it done.
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despite my wife and i, our best efforts to see otherwise. while this behavior is common in households across america, it is not acceptable in the work force and it ought not be acceptable here in the halls of congress. yet this is how the republican leadership has gone about our business here in congress. this congress almost let the united states of america default on its bills. this congress almost prevented social security checks from going out to every american senior because they wanted their way or the highway. this congress almost refused to pass a middle class tax cut for americans before the holidays because they didn't believe middle class americans deserved one. and here we are today, the majority has refused for weeks to even begin discussions on the payroll tax, even though democrats name their confereed several weeks ago and have been willing to talk ever since. president obama has been waiting
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for any word from my republican colleagues. he's made clear he wants to talk, negotiate and get this done. but the republicans have clearly been in no rush to get a tax cut passed for the middle class. today with the passage of mrs. capps' resolution, that will all come to an end. the middle class will go to the front and center of this congress and it's about time. we cannot wait until the last second once again. we have a chance to pass a bill that will provide the typical american family earning $50,000 a year over $1,000 in tax cuts. tax cuts that will -- they will see in every paycheck. i can have an additional 30 seconds? mrs. capps: i yield 30 seconds to our colleague. mr. crowley: we have a chance to ensure that doctors can continue to treat medicare patients without having to charge them higher fees for medical care. we have a chance to continue unemployment benefitings for those who lost their jobs by no fault of their own and are actively looking for work. the majority has a simple choice
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today. pass this resolution and make it clear to our -- that it's our shared goal, republicans and democrats alike, to help hardworking americans who are struggling in this economy or reject this bill and continue playing the same games that have become the hall mark of this do-nothing congress. the fact is the american people don't have time for these games anymore. stop the games, task this motion to instruct conferees and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i'm pleased to yield two minutes to my colleague, mr. ryan from wisconsin. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. . mr. ryan: our friends on the other side are saying we haven't done our job, we are not doing our work. well, let's think about this for a second. it was the house republicans that passed the full year extension last year of the payroll tax and unemployment extension. it was the house republicans that named the conferees to get this work done.
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let' think about who is and who is not getting their job done. this year marks the second year in a row where the president has flouted the law and is delaying his budget. two years and the president hasn't brought the budget on time as according to law. today, 1,000 days since the other body, the united states senate, bothered even to try pass let alone propose a budget. we acted responsibly. we acted in time. and more to the point, mr. speaker, if we are going to have a temporary tax holiday for payroll taxes, let's never forget the fact that payroll taxes finance social security. this is why we insist on spending cuts to make sure that social security is intact, remains whole. failure to cut spending to pay for this temporary tax holiday means complicity with raiding the social security trust fund. we are not in favor of that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: could i ask how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady has 10 minutes remaining.
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mrs. capps: i just remind our colleagues that we went lurching from one cries to another during the past year. first about our debt ceiling default crisis, then whether or not we could even continue the government. then we spent some time shutting down the if a i fay. that's the reason behind -- the f.a.a. that's the reason behind this motion to instruct conferees in terms of getting on time. and now i'd like to yield two minutes to our colleague from new york, mr. engel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. engel: i thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. i rise in strong support of her motion and i urge my colleagues to do so as well. today's a day of bipartisanship. the president is speaking to us. we should really show it. we should put our money where our mouth is. it may be true as the gentleman just said on the other side of the aisle that the republicans passed a year of the payroll tax break. yeah, but they put poison pills in it, they put keystone in it, medicare restrictions in it.
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we want a clean bill. we want a year's bill. let it be a clean bill. let it be a bill that is not mixed in with anything else. no poison pills. i challenge my friends on the other side of the aisle to do that. this is what we should be doing. there are still significant differences between the two parties on the specifics. let's resolve them. let's resolve this many sooner rather than late. the american people are saying congress is dysfunctional. congress can't even agree on a bill which everyone agrees. and this is a more reason why we should pass this and show that we should not be playing politics on something that's so vital to people's lives. we should not wait until the very last minute to reach an agreement. this motion simply instructs conferees to finish negotiations by february 17. by doing so, we avoid confusion and uncertainty that happened last time when the congress waited until the last minute for the last extension. we need these tax breaks for the middle class. he we need the doc fix.
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we need unemployment benefits for those hurt most by the economic downturn. let's not play politics. i urge conferees to quickly reach an agreement that will not hurt the unemployment. again, mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support this motion so that we don't take this debate to the last minute again. make us look like fools and play games with people's lives. let's pass this. let's do it now. let's not wait. let's stop the political games. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i just remind my good colleague on the other side of the aisle that we were here. the house republicans were here december 22, december 26 conferees weren't even named yet. i was here, thursday, friday of new year's, working on the issue. we are ready to do the work. there is one thing we will not yield on. we have demonstrated years in washington, d.c., of fiscal irresponsibility. and until we came in this
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freshman class of november, 2010, there was an attitude of, don't worry about how we are going to cover it. don't worry about how we are going to pay for it. that attitude's changed. and that's why i am proud to yield to a fellow freshman member from north carolina, mrs. ellmers, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina is recognized for two minutes. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you to my freshman colleague from new york. i have been watching this discussion, this debate going on, and i am once again amazed by the issue. i am in favor of this motion to instruck. in fact, i am so much in favor of it that i wish we weren't here talking about it right now. i wish we had finished the people's work in 2011. as my colleague has pointed out, we were here, this idea that somehow we don't work until -- up until the minute, mr. speaker, this is ridiculous.
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this is absolutely ridiculous. this is nothing more than a dog-and-pony show. as a conferee i'm anxious to begin the house and senate level meeting and to learn about what policy pathway will get us to the year-long extension we are all seeking. what we voted for, what we patched in the -- passed in the house of representatives. bipartisan effort, mind you. i am waiting to see what the senate has to say about this. on this 1,000th day of them not even passing a budget. the senate's willingness to produce a plan is critical. to giving employers, workers, and those seeking to re-enter the work force certainty they need. again, i am ready to work on this issue. my colleagues are yesterdayy -- are ready to work on this issue. we were ready to fix this problem in 2011 where it should have been left so that into 2012 we could provide certainty
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for the american people. so thank you. again, i support this effort and let's get to work. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: i -- before i yield time, i want to congratulate the conferees for finally meeting today for the very first time at least five weeks after they were appointed. that's the point. i am pleased now to yield two minutes to our colleague from texas, sheila jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized for two minutes. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentlelady from california for the recognition and also for the leadership. i might say to my colleagues whenever we come to the floor of the house to do the people's business, it is an important effort. and this motion to reconstruct -- to instruct is truly the people's business. i want to applaud you for
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framing the urgency of answering the call of doing what we need to do with respect to 160 million americans who need a payroll tax relief. again tax cuts for middle class and working americans. not a discriminatory treatment of only the top 1% having to be able to sing the song, oh, happy day, but allow those who get up every day, some working with their hands, genius of their mind, and being able to get cash relief from this congress. i also know that the american people are looking for immediate relief as it relates to jobs and i join with my colleague, chairman larson of the democratic caucus, about the american jobs act and the president's initiative on putting teachers and firefighters, police and construction workers to work creating jobs and cutting taxes to put in the american people's pockets. and as well to provide job training and extended unemployment incentives.
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but i do raise this question. as we look to protect medicare and, yes, provide the doctor fix which is so important to houston with the large texas medical center and the large population of seniors, i join with my colleagues to urgently move toward that. may i make it very clear that unemployment benefits are not a handout. it is not given to people who have not worked. it is given to blue collar workers, it's given to white collar workers, it's given to people who work and contributed to this economy. for my friends on the other side of the aisle to suggest in a most insulting way to give drug tests and suggest people need a g.e.d., i can assure you people want to get a g.e.d. when you talk it's a body politic of unemployment workers, 14 million people can't find jobs because there are no jobs to be found, and we are working to create jobs. and so the issue is, help us pass the american jobs act and help recognize that those who get unemployment benefits, mr. speaker, are americans who have worked, who deserve this kind of insurance. i join in passing the payroll
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tax motion to instruct and the unemployment benefits. let's do it now. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york. mr. reed: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to our colleague from ohio, mr. kucinich. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for two minutes. mr. kucinich: i agree with representative capps that we shouldn't wait. we have to move quickly to eliminate any uncertainty that american families have in planning their budget or any uncertainty they may have as to whether or not they are going to get unemployment benefits. we in this congress have certainty to much of our lives, especially with the fact that we get paid every month. but if you are out there and in a tight -- really tight budget or unemployed or you are a senior trying to make sure you can get your doctor of choice, this motion that mrs. capps has is very important because we need to recognize that the middle class has been
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unenormous financial stress. the wealth of the country accelerating upward, middle class people have been looking for a break. if i'm right, mrs. capps, this legislation will provide up to $1,000 for the year for a middle class family that would be a great break for many families. this middle class tax break is imperative. unemployment benefits for those who have not been able, despite their best efforts, to find a place in the job market absolutely essential. there's 13 million people unemployed. there's a tremendous number of unemployed people in my own state of ohio. they are looking to see are we going to help them eliminate the uncertainty. that's why the capps amendment is important. we move forward quickly to show them they are there for you. and senior citizens they want to make sure they can get their doctor of choice. and the doctors want to make sure they are going to be paid what's appropriate. i rise to support this
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amendment. let's remember the middle class taxpayers. let's remember those who are unemployed. let's remember seniors who want to see the doctor of their choice. let's remember doctors who want to get paid a fair amount. and let's mrs. capps' amendment. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new york. mr. reed: i continue to reserve and am prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: i'm prepared to close, too. i believe the gentleman goes first. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. in closing, i would just like to say simply this, that we wholeheartedly agree with the general sentiment that has been brought to the house chamber today with the motion that's before this body. that we need to do our work in the conference. we cannot wait until the last minute. and we wholeheartedly join in that sentiment, and we have demonstrated that commitment by what we have already done. our actions should speak louder than our words. the house republicans were here
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december 22 asking the senate to come back to the table and do the pool's work. -- people's work. and we are ready to do that work now. we need the senate to come to the table in good faith, finalize this package on a long-term basis, bring certainty to our payroll tax rates, bring certainty to our providers, how they get under medicare, and take care of the unemployment extension situation. but we must go into this conference with our eyes wide open. we were sent to washington in november, 2010, because the american people recognize the fiscal crisis that is coming to our shores in america if we don't get our debt under control and the habit that creates it, the spending problem of washington, d.c., corrected once and for all. then we will not have a future
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in america. and that is unacceptable to me as a father of two. the father of three, mr. crowley, on the other side of the aisle indicated, we are fighting, fighting for our children and our grandchildren who have yet to see the face of this earth. so i join with my colleagues in sending the message that we will do the work, hardworking taxpayers in america deserve no less. the u.s. senate should come to the table, find a solution to these issues, and we will wholeheartedly join hands on our side of the aisle when we do it in a responsible way that will take care of this situation in a long-term fashion not a short-term band-aid like washington, d.c., for so long has thought is good policy at the expense of hardworking taxpayers of america. with that, i yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the
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gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: thank you, mr. speaker. to my colleague from new york, being here in december as you mentioned a few times it was december 22nd that senator mcconnell actually, nefrl senators, said to -- several senators, said don't just be here but get to work. and again i acknowledge that today the conferees are meeting for the first time. . i yield myself the remainder of my time and i want to make a few quick points. first, to remind our colleagues what is in this motion. it simply says that the conference should finish its work and report it back to the house by february 17. it doesn't speak to specific outcomes, just that we get our work done and do it in a timely fashion. it's clear we need to come together and work on the problems that the american people have sent us here to address.
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they are rightfully tired of the endless drama and the political posturing in washington, d.c. they know we can do better and we know it too. and second of all, we pretty much agree on the need for the basic provisions of this bill -- extension of the payroll tax cut, a tax cut for middle-class, hardworking families, and extension of unemployment benefits and a doc fix for medicare providers for the rest of the year. and third, it sounds like we all want to get these issues resolved as quickly as possible. and there was a lot of agreement here on the floor during the past hour, so i hope we can all agree now to pass this simple and commonsense motion to instruct the conferees to get their work done over the next three weeks so that we can get our work done here on the floor and get moving to an agenda that we
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know lies before us. i urge my colleagues to support this motion and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the question is on the motion offered by the gentlelady from california. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. mrs. capps: ask i ask, mr. speaker, for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on the question will be postponed.
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for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.res. 516, a resolution expressing the sense of the house of representatives that the passage of a fiscal year 2013 federal budget is of national importance. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 516, resolution expressing the sense of the house of representatives that the passage of a fiscal year 2013 federal budget is of national
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importance. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, and the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.res. 516, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, i'll yield myself three minutes at this time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, we welcome the president to the house chamber tonight where he will address the american people to assess the state of the union. this presents another opportunity for the president to chart a new course. i hope the president takes this opportunity to stop offering empty rhetoric and broken promises, to stop pushing policies that are proven to make matters worse and to stop dividing americans for political gain. i hope the president takes this opportunity to start working
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with us to get america back on track. yet, the administration has time and again turn hope into disappointment. the president and his party's leaders continue to duck from the most pressing and fiscal challenges facing our nation. exhibit a is of this failure is the fact that today marks 1,000 days without senate democrats passing a budget, having failed to put forward a credible plan in 1,000 days, the president's party is committing america to a future of debt, doubt and decline. instead of dealing honestly with our biggest fiscal challenges and providing certainty to job creators, senate democrats have refused to meet their legal and moral obligations to propose and pass a budget. the president and his party's leaders refuse to account for their reckless spending spree.
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their lack of credible budget plans from the president and his party's leaders raises the question -- what are they hiding? is it threats to economic security, health security and national security that would result from their policy agenda? the jobless destroying tax hikes that continue to -- they continue to insist upon. the bureaucratic rationing and denial of vital care for seniors that would result from their health care law. or the deep cuts to the military that would hollow out our national defense. mr. speaker, their policy preferences call for ever higher levels of government spending, higher taxes, a board of bureaucrats to cut medicare and a smaller military. it's understandable why they'd be afraid to try to fit that agenda on a spreadsheet, but that is no excuse for giving up on budgeting. this failure to budget stands
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in stark contrast to our efforts here in the house. as the law requires, we proposed and passed a budget resolution last spring. we honestly confronted our nation's most difficult challenges, putting the budget on a path to balance and the country back on to a path to prosperity. we will keep working together to advance solutions this year and we call upon our friends in the senate to get serious about their duty to those they serve, propose a budget, engage in debate, advance solutions. i think congress -- thank congressman nugent for his work on this -- passage of the budget is of national importance. i yield myself 15 seconds to say we must recommit ourselves to the american idea. we must apply our nation's timeless principles to the challenges of the day and we will continue to advance bipartisan solutions and the
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principal reforms necessary to get our country back on track. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. blumenauer: i appreciate, as always, the opportunity to exchange views with my good friend from wisconsin, the chair of the budget committee, with whom i've been pleased to work with on some items, occasionally, rarely we're opposed, but this is one of those areas where i do have some concerns. when i hear my friend talk about empty rhetoric and broken promises, i am reminded of what the republican agenda has been to this point in this congress -- debt, doubt and decline. debt, doubt and decline. well, i think that that's a pretty good assessment of what had been offered up by my good freppeds when they had an opportunity -- friends when
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they had an opportunity this last year to present their vision. they attempt to lay this off somehow on the senate, and we all have had our frustrations with the other body, but the fact is the problem that we face in terms of being able to work regular order is that there has been a decision by the minority leader in the other body, the senior senator from kentucky, the republican leader has been very clear. his number one priority is not putting americans back to work. it's not dealing with the challenges we face at home and abroad. it is to make sure that president obama is not re-elected. and when you start from that premise and radiate down, we have seen the senate, which has never been, shall we say nimble, have slowed to a crawl. we have seen an unprecedented
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effort to make even the most modest and money dane efforts over there -- money dane efforts over there -- mundane efforts over there to require a supermajority. it's sad. the american people deserve better, but it is republican obstruction that has twisted the rules of the senate to make it nonfunctionable. debt, doubt and decline. the republican budget, notwithstanding all the pyrotechnics and the effort to spread doubt about whether or not the united states would honor its commitment paying the national debt for debt that has already incurred which occupied too much time this summer, an absolutely manufactured crisis, the republican budget, authored by my good friend from wisconsin, itself would have
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required increasing the debt ceiling. and when you talk about decline, my republican friends have failed to move forward with meaningful job creation. we've had languishing a re-authorization for the surface transportation act which we've had to extend eight times, and in fact the republican budget actions to this date are cutting back on investment in water, in transportation, things that would put americans back to work all across america. and as for bureaucratic rationing of health care, i'm surprised my good friend can say that with a straight face because, remember, his budget takes the half trillion dollars and accepts it. he doesn't unwind it. he doesn't change it. he accepts it. they count on it because they
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know that in fact there are opportunities for us to strengthen medicare without ending the guarantee that two generations of senior citizens have relied upon to be able to have the medicare payments when they need it, we have the opportunity to refine and reform medicare to provide better service for our seniors and eliminate unnecessary expenditures. there was a time when those agenda items, not the rhetoric, not vouchering this and slashing that, but what was required to move forward to actually reform medicare, that's been bipartisan. it's been agreed to. it's being practiced by health care systems in wisconsin, in oregon. we know what to do. we have the opportunity to do
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it. unfortunately, the republican approach to this point has been to assume that it's too expensive, that we can't do it, it's too expensive for the federal government so we are going to transfer the risk to the next generation of senior citizens. but taking the savings under the affordable care act. mr. speaker, we're going through an exercise today that is largely beside the point. what we should be doing is dealing with pieces of legislation that would have bipartisan support, moving forward, accelerating health care reform, rebuilding and renewing america, taking things like the work that i have done with my good friend from wisconsin in terms of reforming the agricultural system that wastes too much money on the young people, doing the wrong things, we could be moving forward on a constructive agenda that the occupy wall
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street people and the tea party folks could actually get behind. unfortunately today this h.res. 516 is another side track that gets us away from doing what we should do. i'm going to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time is reserved. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: i'm sure my colleague, my friend from oregon knows that you cannot filibuster a budget resolution in the senate. i'll just state that for the record. i'm sure he realizes that. at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, a member of the budget committee, mr. flores. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. flores: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, just like america's families and businesses, congress must base its spending on a budget so that the federal government lives within its means. . while americans are struggling 234 the owe wama economy sit down and produce a budget for their families, senate democrats have decided it would be a better political move to not produce a budget for the
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nation. even though the law requires passage of an annual budget. to repeat, the senate leadership is ignoring the law and has been for 1,000 days. a budget plan is congress' most basic responsibility of governing. without a budget the state of the union is uncertain, just like the economy is today. coincidentally today is not only the president's state of the union, it is also the 1,000th day since the senate last passed a budget. and without surprise, yesterday, just like it did last year, we also learned that the white house will again misits deadline to submit a budget to congress. for 1,000 days the democrat-led do-nothing senate has refused to political its duty to the -- fulfill its duty to the american people. during this time our national debt has surpassed our gross domestic product and we have seen 35 straight months of unemployment higher than 8%.
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that means trillions of dollars of debt are being added to the bill our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay. house republicans put together a plan to put america back on sound fiscal trajectory and to avoid a future of doubt, debt, and despair. our path to prosperity budget will cut excess spending while strengthening vital programs like medicare so they will be around for current and future generation. unfortunately senate democrats rejected this bill and in fact they have not bothered to do their job and pass a budget for the federal government since april 29, 2009. exactly 1,000 days ago. today i call on president obama and senate democrats to do their jobs, providing real leadership for the american people, and to join house republicans in passing a responsible budget so that we may restore america's promise, prosperity, and security for future generations. i urge my colleagues to support this important resolution,
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h.res. 516. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: at this time, mr. chairman -- mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to mr. scott from georgia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. as i heard the gentleman from oregon speaking of debt, doubt, despair, decline, i couldn't help but think all those words start with d, just as democrat does, and recovery starts with r, just as republican does. mr. speaker, the president presented a budget and that's a fact. and the house passed the fiscally responsible budget. the senate defeated both of those budgets and then failed to produce an alternate. mr. speaker, republicans in the house stand willing to work and move to regular process. senator reed has closed that door at every opportunity. today we call on the president to appeal to the senate in a state of the union address tonight to ask the senate simply to pass a budget. without a budget there is no
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plan, with no plan that means no recovery, and no recovery means no new jobs. mr. speaker, americans did not send us here to play the same tired old games that senator reed continues to play. they sent us here to get something done for this generation. this is my son, wells, he's 12 years old. our class represents over 300 children and grandchildren. times are tough, but americans are tougher and so the future of america is bright. but today 1,000 days in this country has operated without a federal budget. i understand the majority leader likes to say that we don't have a budget because of house freshmen, but that's not true. when we arrived in washington, we were sworn in just over year ago, when america operated at that time without a budget for 678 days. our freshmen class knew we could do better than that and we did better than that, mr. speaker. we passed a budget in the house. and we call on the president tonight to ask the senate to
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fulfill their job for the american people and simply pass a budget. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield the majority of my time -- remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time of the the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: reserves. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: at this time i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from missouri, mr. long. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized for two minutes. mr. long thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today address 1,000 days. i can try to impress you with my knowledge of 1,000 days and tell you things like mark duggerberg could have invented facebook in his dorm room at harvard 71,000 times in 1,000 days. i could tell you you could build .4 empire state buildings in 1,000 days. that doesn't mean anything. the only thing you can do today that i would like to address is what you cannot do in 1,000 days. what can we not do in 1,000 days? the senate cannot pass a budget. i was one of the 87 freshmen that got here last year.
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i have been here 365-plus days. what happened in that first 600-some days when the democrats controlled all three bodies? the house, the senate, and the white house. they didn't produce a budget in that time. this is an election year. i don't think we are really going to see a budget this year. we can talk about it all we want, ask them to produce one, but it's not politically correct to budget in this country anymore. to me, mr. speaker, that's appalling. when you come forth with a budget as we did last year, a couple years later you are going to get an ad of somebody throwing a lady off a clip in a wheelchair because that's what happens in this country when you put your plan down in writing, that's appalling. 87 freshmen came here last year. doctors, nurses. i was one of two auctioneers, pizza parlor owner, just like the founding fathers envisioned, car dealers, people off the street. people that have run businesses. small businesspeople. we got here and we were told the first vote we needed to
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take was for what? speaker of the house. we voted for john boehner, speaker of the house, because the public sent us up here with a 25-seat majority. what was our second vote? a c.r., continuing resolution. we looked at each other, continuing resolution? oh, yeah. we got to keep the government open for two more full weeks. 14 days. because that's how we operate here in washington, d.c. if that's not appalling, too, we were sent here to change the way washington does business. you can have your 3-d's, doubt, despair, decline, and i think on he haw they used to say in agony, but we can also be optimistic in this country. we can be optimistic in this country. you can deal from a position of defeat and doubt and decline, like our colleagues across the aisle like to, but i wish i would have stepped 14 steps down the hall to my good friend from oregon's office, that's how far we are apart, and i could have studied on how the first term of george w. bush,
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they worked night and day how to figure out how to get him re-elected because apparently mr. mcconnell is doing something wrong in the set. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio, mr. kucinich. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for two minutes. mr. kucinich: i thank the gentleman from oregon. on its surface the resolution seems to make sense about making sure we pass a budget, and that's of national importance. i think that all of us who are here understand the underlying politics that have made it very difficult to bring a budget forward. and of course budgets are all about priorities. what are our nation's priorities? when we get to the point of passing a budget, here's what we ought to be telling the american people. that the middle class will be protected. that the social safety net will be protected. that social security will be protected. that benefits will not be cut.
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that the cap will be lifted. that there be no privatization. that medicare will be protected. that will there will be a fix so doctors can get a fair shake. and that we'll do something about medicare part d which blew a hole in the medicare budget. that we'll begin to cut back our military presence around the world and that we start to take down this military industrial complex that general eisenhower warned about so many years ago. that we'll begin investing in new technologies so that we can grow the economy of the future. budgets are about priorities. and while we still debate whether or not we are going to pass a budget, we need to set those priorities that would enable america when it finally has a budget to move forward into the future with a country that's going to be serving everyone, not just a few at the expense of the many. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to how much time remains between the two sides?
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the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 10 1/2 minutes remaining. and the side in opposition has 12 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. ryan: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: i would recognize the gentleman from texas, distinguished member of both the budget and ways and means committee, mr. doggett, for four minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for four minutes. mr. doggett: i thank the gentleman. as a long-time member of the budget committee, i certainly think that having a budget resolution is a good idea. i think it is a matter of national importance. i don't see how anyone can disagree with the resolution. though it seems to have been offered primarily to establish a setting for the republican response to the state of the union address that we all look forward to hearing tonight. it is important to understand what the budget resolution is and what it is not. and what difference it really makes if one hasn't been passed
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for 1,000 days. three or four years or three or four weeks. the budget resolution is not the appropriations act. it is a statement of our values and of our priorities and i think it is important to try to get one passed every year, but the most important practical consequence of passing a budget resolution is to establish the level of discretionary spending. that is to establish the level of expenditures that can be made by the various appropriations committee and by this congress. it provides us a good opportunity to look at what the consequences of that spending are, to try to match it up to revenues, and not to engage in illicit deficit spending, but the practical effect of the resolution itself is to say to the appropriations committee here in the house and in the senate, how much discretionary spending will the congress approve this year? so what happens when there is not a budget resolution?
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the congress finds other ways to do the very same thing. so in fact the congress did not pass a budget resolution for fiscal year 2003, for fiscal year 2005, for fiscal year 2007, but that did not stop brush from signing -- president bush from signing appropriations bills that added billions of dollars to our national debt along with his tax cuts for those at the top that also added immensely to our national debt. he signed those appropriation bills. i don't know whether we went 1,000 days or a year or two then without a budget resolution. it would have been better if we could have adopted one, but the budget resolution tends to be confused by some people with the appropriations that keep the federal government going. this is not the act that republicans from time to time have threatened to shut down the government. you can't threaten to shut down
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the government over the passage of a budget resolution. that has happened with some of our appropriation bills. it almost happened with the ceiling on debt for the federal government. it is also inaccurate not only confusing to mix the few, but it is inaccurate to say that this congress has not acted to establish some discretionary spending limits even though a budget resolution, as good as it would be to have one, has not been formally adopted. we did adopt last year the budget control act. the budget control act proposes to set discretionary expenditure limits of what this congress will spend not just for this year but for a 10-year period. and in an effort to try to get spnding under control and bring this--- spending under control and bring us closer to getting our fiscal house in order which is something we very much need to do. i see today's resolution as restating the obvious, that a budget resolution is a good
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idea, but not adding really much to our attempt-to-a cheeve some balance in our -- attempt to achieve some balance in our budget. the last debate here on the floor about instructing conferees and trying to move forward on the issues of unemployment, job creation, and the payroll tax extension, much more on target than a resolution of this nature. we do have some serious challenges and deadlines. we still have almost five million americans that would lose their unemployment benefits this year if we don't have an extension. i'd focus on those. and working with the president rather than a resolution that accomplishes little. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from mississippi, mr. nunnely. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi is recognized for two minutes. mr. nunnely: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to thank the gentleman from wisconsin for
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yielding. also for your leadership on budget issues. 1,000 days without a budget. and two days ago we received news that the president is going to miss his deadline for submitting a budget to congress. rather than urging senate democrats to pass a budget and work with us to solve our nation's fiscal problems, president obama has joined them in failing to do the job. . america can he -- deserves better than this. americans and small businesses set budgets every day. how much money do we have? what can we afford? what do we have to go without? in washington we have an obligation to ask and to answer those same questions. as i learned operating a small business, failing to plan is
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planning to fail. now, 17 years ago when i lost my job in a corporate merger my wife and i set down at the kitchen table and made a pot of coffee and on a sheet of paper said this is how much we have and on the right side how can we spend it. that's a budget. americans are sitting around their kitchen tables every night and they have every reason to expect their government in washington to do the same thing. in the house we passed a serious budget last year and we're committed to do so again this year. it's time for the president and the democrats in the senate to do the same. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. i will yield myself two additional minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. blumenauer: it's interesting to watch my friends
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attempt to reframe the issue away from proposals that they have offered and the inartful budgetary fiscal activities of this last year. it was after all a republican choice to halt the operation of the other body, essentially shutting down the senate by requiring superjorts on everything. -- supermajorities on everything. we started the year with a threat of government shutdown. you recall we were two minutes away from having to shut down the federal government over a basically theological argument on the part of my friends on the other side of the aisle over things like planned parenthood and big bird. then this summer we cashed out for the first time in history about whether or not we were actually going to honor the
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requirements to pay the debt for obligations we'd already incurred. this summer the republicans were willing to leave town and we actually shot the hostage when it came to the f.a.a. 70,000 people were idled on construction projects for aviation, 4,000 employees laid off. and then this fall and into the winter we had the spectacle of what should be a relatively routine effort and has been a routine effort for republicans and democrats alike dealing with things like the extension of unemployment insurance and avoiding a draconian impact with the sustainable growth rate, the s.g.r., the doc fix and we watched our republican friends in the house and senate unable to communicate and we ended up having a situation
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where we were going to -- basically turn their bake on the earn -- back on the american people and we were going to insist it was their way or the highway again. i give myself one additional minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one additional minute. mr. blumenauer: and it took days for finally reason to settle in when even the republicans in the senate have to say, no, this is kind of a deal we had. and even though there appears to be a lack of accord on behalf of the new majority in the house, it's time to turn things around. when we're dealing with things like a sideshow on what really makes the difference how we spend the money, these appropriations bills, the majority of which haven't even come out of the republican-controlled committee to the republican-controlled house to be passed when we actually should be working on
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the next fiscal year. so we'll endure the side show. this will pass. it will not really do anything other than sort of try and be the pivot point and try to spin the issue, but it would be nice at some point to stop the spin and things that are beside the point and maybe encourage the republican to agree amongst themselves, come to accord between the house and senate and maybe get some of these appropriation bills to the floor to see where we're going. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time is reserved. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: at this time, mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from kansas, mr. huelskamp. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kansas is recognized for two minutes. mr. huelskamp: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise in support of the resolution offered by my colleague, the gentleman from florida. the jobs of the people i
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represent dropped when i informed them that 1 -- the jaws of the people i represent dropped when i informed them that 1,000 days since democrat harry reid allowed for a budget to be debated. they didn't know that could occur. two weeks ago i hosted a town hall in kansas and they asked, how is it possible for the senate not to pass the budget? as the constituent correctly point it out, you can't run a city, state or business this way. washington seems to be the only place in the world where reality doesn't apply. perhaps it's fitting the president travel to the most magical place on earth, disney world. last week he was complicit in ray loug the senate democrats to live out a fairy tale in which fiscal policy is carried out on a whim. not only do cities, states and businesses not only not function without budgets,
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families can't get ahead without them. families who face mountains of debt, like washington does, -- families who want to save the best for the future cannot do so without a budget. families who want to leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren come up with a blueprint to do so. and the same regard, we should be focused on the legacy washington is leaving for our children and grandchildren, mr. president and mr. reid. we cannot wait. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. the gentleman from oregon continues to reserve. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: i'll speak for a minute and a half and then we have one final speaker and then i'll yield back to the gentleman. i yield myself a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. ryan: here's the deal, mr. speaker. we are going to have a debt crisis in this country if we don't watch it. what happens if that happens is everybody's going to get hurt in this country. europe is in the middle of
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austerity. what that means is they're cranking up taxes on all their countrymen, slowing down their economy and they're pulling the rug out from their seniors who have organized their lives around these programs. we want to prevent that from happening. we want to preempt a debt crisis. we want to get america on a path to prosperity and deal with this debt issue. and we can't grow the economy and create jobs unless we do that. and the only way to fix this problem, to prevent seniors from getting harmed, to grow this economy is to have a budget. and it's been 1,000 days since the senate bothered to even try to pass a budget. it's the epitome of irresponsibility that the other body has neglected this most basic function of governing. we got to save this country. in order to do that we have to
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budget and prioritize because that's what our constituents have elected us to do. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from oregon is recognized. mr. blumenauer: thank you. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. blumenauer: i agree with the goal of my good friend from wisconsin about making sure that we deal with our long-term problems of budget deficit and national debt -- deficits and national debt and look forward to working together to move down a path toward prosperity, but we have slightly different ways of going about this. and it's unfortunate because i think if we really had full and open debate on the floor of the house, if we hadn't accepted
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draconian rules that make it very hard to be able to discuss on the floor the opportunity to have a balanced approach that would include, for example, eliminating unnecessary tax breaks for industries that no longer need them or adjusting the tax code so we wouldn't have the anomaly of where people worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- the most recent example of mr. romney releasing his tax returns where he's paying less than 15% due to the use of carried interest, long after he left his former employer, these are things we could do that the american public agrees with and that would help have a balanced approach that ultimately we will do that would make a difference. i am, as i mentioned, a little bit perplexed that we are going to continue to beat up on the senate, although that's always
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fun to lack around the other body, but the point is the dysfunction of the senate is a republican choice to shut it down, require extraordinary majorities for the most routine of items. we see it with judicial appointments that have been cleared out of committee, that have bipartisan support, that the minority in the other body, the republican party won't even allow to move forward when we have a serious crisis in the number of the areas of our judiciary. we have watched where there's rhetoric but when it comes to getting the budgets done for this year, there are six major appropriations bills for this year and we're now five months in to the fiscal year that are languishing, that have not
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passed through the -- out of the republican committee to the republican-controlled house to at least start the process going. now, today in the budget committee we had a fascinating intellectual exercise. there were four bills that were considered. we're moving these items to the house floor. each and every one of which was an interesting, intellectual exercise but in the name of transparency and simplicity and giving the american public a fuller picture, every one of them clouds the budget picture. whether it's dynamic scoring that the so-called that won't deal with important investments like infrastructure and give the people a great picture but it will muddy the waters in terms of the impact on legislation coming forward.
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by any old budgets when we can't move forward now with appropriations on an annual basis will institutionalize the sideshow, will do it twice, will require the bureaucracy to generate more information over a longer time frame that will be more inaccurate. you know, it flies in the face of what's happening in the states which have been referred to as the laboratories of democracy, that most of whom used to have any old budgets and the majority are moving away because everybody is moving away, it's inaccurate, it requires extra work. this is part of the republican approach, to move in this rex. freezing baseline budgets will make long-term budgeting less accurate and make it harder to really assess what the budgetary costs and consequences were going to be. and then there's a little thing
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that deals with risk adjustment that would require the current process which -- where there is an absolute accurate appraisal of what will happen with federal loans and their performance, but because it doesn't deal with their academic model, will require a risk adjustment premium and further budget balancing and i defy any member of the house to explain to any of their constituents, even pretty sophisticated people, why this is an improvement for greater transparency and accuracy. the point is it's continuing a sideshow. instead of working together on what the american public wants -- they want a balanced solution, and if we didn't have the vast majority of people in the house and the senate pledging their feelity to
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unelected lobbyists on pledging never to increase taxes, we could have moved with the supercommittee and move forward and done something. it's time for us to start -- stop the gimmicks, maybe work together doing what the american public wants so that we can deal with avoiding a debt crisis and get us launched on a path to prosperity that the american public would agree with. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: mr. speaker, at this time i'll yield the remainder of our time, five minutes-plus, i believe, to gentleman, the author of this legislation, mr. nugent, for purposes of closing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 5 1/2 minutes. mr. nugent: mr. speaker, i would like to thank the chairman, mr. ryan, for allowing me to speak and allowing me to close. i heard this is a sideshow. i don't think the american people see it as that.
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mr. speaker, i rise today to offer to'slusion expressing the house of representatives that passage for fiscal year 2013 federal budget is of national importance. mr. speaker, you've heard it over and over again. this is the thousandth day, 1,000 days, mr. speaker, that the senate has not fulfilled its obligation. think about all the things that the americans have done, been able to accomplish in the last 1,000 days. yet the senate has failed to achieve the basic responsibility under the budget act of 1974. it's astonishing. i have two sons graduate from college. two sons go to war and come home again. another son get married in that time period. and in that time the citizens of florida's fifth congressional district sent me to washington to do this job. to work for the american people. that work undoubtedly includes passing a budget. as this house has done on april
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15, based on the leadership of chairman ryan. the senate hasn't passed a budget since 2000. i believe it's april of 2009 and didn't even bother to propose a budget this last year. the last time the senate passed a budget the c.b.o. predicted that the deficit in 2011 would be $693 billion. in reality it was twice -- almost twice that, $1.3 trillion. when i'm home talking to my district, they're astounded that the senate has not passed a budget in almost three years. i can't fathom how we operate without a budget. in truth, mr. speaker, you heard the other side even say we haven't been operating smoothly. when i first got here we had to do a c.r. that's because we haven't done what we're supposed to do in the senate. and the house. the american people know that and that's reflected in our
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approval ratings. you see, in the real world americans routinely set budgets for themselves, their families and their businesses. i had to set one when i was a sheriff. unfortunately the senate doesn't operate in the real world. rather it has become a legislative graveyard, even for bills passed with bipartisan support. the house however has acted. we've passed 27 bipartisan job bills then lost them to the black hole of the senate. some of those bills received an overwhelming majority of support . for instance, h.r. 1070, the small company capital formation act, would allow small businesses to capture the capital in the early stages in the formation and that passed in this house with 420 -- 421 votes for and one opposed. that's a perfect example of legislation that should be public law and it isn't because
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it's died in the senate. i understand the senate may not agree with everything in our bills that we pass and that's fine. it's how our founding fathers envisioned it. but if you have objections, then put forth your own proposals. allow the normal process to work. do not simply sit on the sidelines and decry every idea that comes out of the house of representatives. ideas that we put forward. in my opinion there couldn't be a better example of putting politics before country than the senate's refusal to pass a budget. even those on the other side have said, it's a plan, we have to have a direction. that's what we ask. we don't have to agree on that direction, but at the end of the day we have to have something to set our appropriators free to work within in the confines. you know, rather than show americans what priorities are, rather than show what they're willing to spend, where they want to cut and how much they want to increase taxes, whether
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they believe our clausal debt is even an issue, the senate has instead insisted on punting this issue entirely. it's not only a disservice to the american people but frankly it's irresponsible and when you hear them say, the republicans in the senate are blocking a budget, you can't filibuster the budget in the senate. the rules do not allow for it. so they could if they wanted to do their job. and assist the american people in figuring out where they stand on issues of great national importance. once again, we talked about spending, taxes and how we move forward. you know, the senate democrats had the supermajority in the senate, control of the house, the white house and still didn't pass a budget. i don't think it's too much to ask the senate to produce a budget.
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i know americans don't think so either. and with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. ryan: i yield back the balance of all our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of their time. all time for debate has expired. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 516. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection -- mr. ryan: mr. speaker, i ask the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 further proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the house will stand in
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is seniors who have organized their lives around these programs. we want to prevent that from happening. we want to preempt a debt crisis. we want to get america on a path to prosperity and deal with this debt issue. and we can't grow the economy and create jobs unless we do that. and the only way to fix this problem, to prevent seniors from getting harmed, to grow this economy is to have a budget. and it's been 1,000 days since the senate bothered to even try to pass a budget. it's the epitome of irresponsibility that the other body has neglected this most basic function of governing. we got to save this country. in order to do that we have to budget and prioritize because that's what our constituents have elected us to do. with that i reb. toipjart. the gentleman from oregon. blumenauer blumenauer reserve. toipjat reserves. ryan the gentleman from oregon is recognized. blumenauer blumenauer thank you. yumes. toipjad. blumenauer blumenauer i agree with the goal of my good friend from wisconsin about making sure that we deal with our long-term problems of budget deficit and
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national debt -- deficits and national debt and look forward to working together to move down a path toward prosperity, but we have slightly different ways of going about this. and it's unfortunate because i think if we really had full and open debate on the floor of the house, if we hadn't accepted draconian rules that make it very hard to be able to discuss on the floor the opportunity to have a balanced approach that would include, for example, eliminating unnecessary tax breaks for industries that no longer need them or adjusting the tax code so we wouldn't have the anomaly of where people worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- the most recent example of mr. romney releasing his tax returns where he's paying less than 15% due to the use of carried interest, long after he left his former employer, these are things we could do that the american public agrees with and that would help have a balanced approach that ultimately we will do that would make a difference. i am, as i mentioned, a little bit perplexed that we are going to continue to beat up on the senate, although that's always fun to lack around the other body, but the point is the dysfunction of the senate is a republican choice to shut it down, require extraordinary majorities for the most routine of items. we see it with judicial appointments that have been cleared out of committee, that have bipartisan support, that the minority in the other body, the republican party won't even allow to move forward when we have a serious crisis in the number of the areas of our judiciary. we have watched where there's rhetoric but when it comes to getting the budgets done for this year, there are six major appropriations bills for this year and we're now five months in to the fiscal year that >> good morning, everyone. you know, based on what i read
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of the state of the union speech tonight it seems like we will see a rerun of what we heard over the last three years -- more spending, higher taxes and more regulations. the president's policies have made our economy worst. 35 straight months with unemployment over 8%. gas prices have doubled over the course of this administration. and, you know, the president's policies, again, just going to double down on what hasn't worked. republicans have a plan for america's job creators. we have over 30 bills that are sitting over in the united states senate. we hope the president will extend somewhat of an olive branch tonight that will help get our economy moving again and help create jobs. >> good morning. mr. plouffe took to the airwaves this morning and said the president will be specific for his vision of how to get this economy revved up and going again and get people back to work. as the speaker said, we are looking for specifics that actually demonstrate a recognition that the policies that this president and his administration have been about haven't worked. and it's time to try something new. what we would like to see and i think most of the american people are bold ideas, that focus on growing this economy, on helping small businesses start up and grow again. it has been too long now that we have been mired in this spending, the more inoccurrence of debt and the overreach by this government. we want to see both focused on growth in the -- bold focus on growth in the private sector, we're growth oriented and the engine is small businesses and that thud be our focus once and for all. >> to have a plan to grow you actually have to start with falmt and to have a budget, especially when we have the
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deficit that we do. tonight marks 1,000 days that the senate has not produced a budget. now, the senate leadership and harry reid over there, i took to the -- look at other things that could have been done in that 1,000 days to see if it's beneficial to have done. in the 1,000 days by the numbers, 2.3, the number of times the empire state building could have been built. 58.8, the number of times thomas jefferson could have penned the declaration of independence. 250, the number of times neil armstrong could fly to the moon. this country excepts washington to work. you've watched this congress pass 30 bills focusing on jobs. you watched this new majority in congress pass a budget and make tough decisions to lay out a framework to end the uncertainty. but we have watched the senate, controlled by the democrats for the last 1,000 days, the time the president has been in, with no budget produced. that cannot stand. that is unacceptable. and i'm hopeful tonight that the president of the entire united
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states will call upon the senate to do the fundamental thing of passing a budget and calling the jobs bills up to the floor to be voted on. >> before the president makes a new set of promises this evening in the state of the union address, it would be good that all americans look back at his previous promises. we were told that if we passed his stimulus plan jobs would be created, the economy would grow. we were told that his health care plan would help the economy. we were told that dodd-frank would help the economy. and what is the reality? almost two million more americans have lost their jobs under president barack obama. we have the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the great depression, stuck at 8%, 9%. one in seven having to rely on food stamps?
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what's fair about that? now, according to the census bureau, almost half, almost half of americans are either at the poverty level or low income. what's fair about that? and so, again, before we hear a new set of promises, the american people need to know the president's policies have failed. that's why he's resorting to the politics of division but it is a new year and there are new ideas out there. some have been around for a while. house republicans have a plan for america's job creators. you know, mr. president, we tried your ideas and your ideas have failed. it's time to try some of ours so that the american people can get the jobs and economic recovery they so richly need and deserve. >> our nation is -- the problem bigger than the debt is there is
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no plan to get out of debt that's credible. 1,000 days ago today was the last time that the senate passed a budget. one of the most basic aspects of all of governance is to pass a budget, to give us a plan to how to get out of this. now, this week the president announced that his budget proposal for 2013 is also going to be late. when are we going to get serious? to say we got to get these big ideas and focus in on a specific plan of how to get out of debt? it's what everyone back in my district talks about. now, they have different opinions on how to take it on but they want to know, what do we do to get out of this debt? the senate can't reject a law that's been passed since 1974. it's time for them to do their job and we'd like the president's budget on time this year. >> well, just two days ago i was in the grocery store with my children in alabama shoping for groceries and had -- shopping
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for groceries and had the opportunity to speak with my constituents in alabama and hear the frustration over this congress that they say can't get anything done. well, i'm here today to suggest that the reason we can't get anything done is because we have these 27 bills in the senate and it's harry reid's refusal to allow debate on these bills that is stifling this economy. it is pro-growth, pro-jobs. so, again, i would say this house, this body is waiting for action, but more importantly, the american people are waiting. >> speaker boehner, the president is expected to talk about his -- and fairness in the tax code. is it fair someone like romney, whose income is from capital gains, is it fair that he's paying only 14%? the rate on capital gains should be lower, some say.
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>> well, we all know there's a reason we have low rates on capital gains. that's because it spurs new investment in our economy and allows capital to move more quickly. this election is going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies. his policies have failed. as a matter of fact, his policies have made the economy worse. the politics of envy, the politics of dividing our country is not what america is all about. and so let's get back to the economy. the american people want scombrobs and they want them now -- jobs and they want them now. >> speaker boehner, he can expect the president to blame the republicans for the fact that nothing significant is getting done coming out of congress and helping the economy. how do you respond to that? >> the house has had a plan for american job creators since last may. we have passed 30 bills, 27 are still sitting in the united states senate. all of these bills that are sitting in the senate have passed with broad bipartisan
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support. there's no reason why the senate shouldn't take these up. if the president wants to poke his finger at the congress, let's poke the finger where it belongs, the democrat-controlled united states senate. >> speaker boehner, do you think tonight will be a campaign speech from the president and is it fair to say we are in total campaign mode on both sides? >> the president has been in total campaign mode since labor day. since the campaign apparently wrote the speech, i expect we'll hear a campaign speech. thanks. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> we will expect the house back for votes in about an hour or so. continuing on with a look ahead to the state of the union from this morning's "washington journal" -- a democratic view from brad miller of north carolina.
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host: obama expected to focus on jobs tonight in the state of the union. what do you expect from him on jobs? guest: i heard there will be more of the themes that president obama announced in kansas a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago. that was theodore roosevelt gave his new nationalism speech in 1910 which had a strong theme of economic justice, really a much fairer -- more fair economy and one in a did not allow lewding of the -- looting of the economy by economic interest. i heard and i hope is true he'll talk a great deal about housing. housing remains the biggest burden on the economy. we still got 11 million homeowners who are underwater and the estimates another 10 million will lose their homes to foreclosure. will be escorted from their homes by a sheriff.
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we've had $7 trillion in loss of equity in homes, and that is probably the single biggest downward pressure on the economy. those families are not going to spend as they have before because they know their net worth has gone down dramatically. we need to put a floor on the housing market and get control of the continuing foreclosures. host: president obama gives that speech tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern time. our coverage begins here at 8:00 p.m. will you get there early to get a seat? are you one of those members of congress? guest: no. i don't want to be on the center row so i can see myself on public television shaking hands with the president. i think it -- five years ago we should had -- we should have
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been running up at least even and prmblely even a sure plus. the bible advises the time to make provision for legal years is in five years. right now we have a very sick economy. still. it's better than it was but it's still an economy with big problems. the total deficit, the debt is now about equal to the economy, the size of the economy, the g.d.p. and that has in many places been the point at which it starts to be a real problem. host: the unemployment rate nationally 8.5% in december. in november in north carolina, 10%. guest: right. well, north carolina had been suffering for a long time. we lost as many manufacturing jobs as any other state except maybe michigan. we've had industries that have
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been particularly hard hit by trade or otherwise have been having problems. the traditional pillars of north carolina have been textiles, tobacco and all of those have been hard hit. we've had a couple of decades of really hard times in parts of north carolina. host: let me ask you to give the president a grade on how he's done so far? guest: well, he inherited a very difficult set of economic circumstances. you know, we didn't have the president -- we haven't had one yet. who knows what will happen if europe really collapses. but i -- you know, i do think there's room for improvement in some of the economic issues. i think specifically how he's dealt with the banking industry, his unwillingness to go toe to toe with them.
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it's his administration. the department of treasury i think has been too kind to the banks. as a result of that it's been very difficult to do anything to help homeowners who are struggling. the most important thing to do to get the economy going again is to have households reduce their debt. they are not -- they are not consuming. they are not buying. they are not creating demand because they're burdened with debt. a lot of it is mortgage debt. like i said, a moment ago, 11 million families are underwater. i think the total amount of negative equity in homes is $700 billion. and if we could get control of that and begin to help households out from under, they would begin to act normally. they would buy homes. we are like in the year four of the housing starts being a third of what they should be. we lost millions of construction jobs as a result, and we have not had the usual kind of
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virtueous cycle coming out of the recession where people -- virtuous cycle coming out of a recession where people don't buy houses for months. there is a pickup of demand for people who postponed those decisions. that's when people buy appliances. that's when people buy furniture. that's been a major downward pressure on the economy. host: he needs to improve in certain areas. so a grade? guest: well, i don't think i'll give a grade but i think that is the area where there is the greatest need for improvement. i think president obama does understand that and i hope he'll address that tonight. host: there have been headlines which is expected to come out early february. last week there was one in "the hill" newspaper, front page of that newspaper and it says "obama warns left: you won't like the budget." guest: let me see it before i decide whether i like it or not. host: what do you want to see in it? guest: i think we need to be
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looking longer term about getting control of the deficit, but i think the way to do it now is not to take money out of working middle-class families' pockets but -- because that will further reduce demand. the reason that employers aren't hiring is that they are not at all convinced that anyone will buy what they make if they make more. and so they're not adding -- they're not buying equipment. they are not bringing back workers that they've laid off. they are not hiring new workers. they are not increasing their production because there is no demand for it. if we cut back the programs that help working class families we will further reduce demand. however, i think it was a big mistake a year ago to agree to extend all of the bush tax cuts. a lot of those are the ones for the richest americans don't really add to the demand. they are not going to spend what -- if their taxes are cut they are not going to spend it the way a struggling family will. and there's not a problem with enough capital to extend
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corporations. american corporations are sitting on $2 trillion of cash. they could easily expand operations if they thought anybody would buy what they made. host: let's get to phone calls. gloria, first is a democrat in illinois. gloria, go ahead. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment about newt gingrich and the food stamps. food stamps hasn't just started since the president got in office. people were on food stamps with president bush. and i also want to comment on the gentleman in a talked about reverend wright. the reason reverend wright -- did what he did, he fought for the country and came home and still had to sit on the back of the bus. that's why he felt like he did about america. and also, i wish people would go see the movie "the tuss key gee airmen," and that will tell you why black men feel like they do about the country.
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thank you very much. host: all right. gloria. let me take her comments about poverty and how it's being viewed. guest: well, the reason that food stamps are at a higher level is medicaid is at a higher level, all the programs that help people in difficult circumstances are under pressure because the economy has been in such bad shape. we have an unemployment rate at 8.5% and it has been significantly higher than that. when that happens to the economy, when there's a -- when there is a recession, two bad things happen to the budget. one is that tax collections are reduced because people aren't employed so they're not paying income taxes. businesses aren't making as much money. at the state and local level, sales taxes are reduced and all the demands for programs that really help people in trouble, unemployment insurance, medicaid, probably the children's health insurance program and on and on, all those programs are under greater
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pressure and that probably includes food stamps. what was offensive to me about speaker gingrich's remarks is the suggestion that people would rather be on food stamps than employed. i visit my district where you mentioned the unemployment figures earlier. i represent a lot of the areas where we lost manufacturing jobs, and those folks want jobs. that is what they want. yes, they need unemployment insurance for now. they may need other kinds of assistance, but what they want is jobs. and i would like to see speaker gingrich or any other go tell them to their face that the reason they don't have jobs is they just aren't looking and they'd rather have food stamps. host: let's hear from miranda, next. republican in south dakota. caller: thanks for taking my call. i heard it say by certain republicans that the president is federally required to pass a budget by this time. i'm wondering if the democrats have put any pressure on him to
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do so and if they have any speculation for him not doing so other than blaming republicans? host: she was wondering about -- you're still there. caller: i'm wondering if the democrats have put pressure on the president to pass a budget and if there is any speculation not to do that other than blaming republicans. guest: other than blaming republicans. the budget is a blueprint and it's not all that uncommon for congress not to pass a budget if the house and senate doesn't agree with it. the budget through appropriation bills when congress really does make decisions about spending. obviously those have been enormous battles. you remember the near government shutdown last year and the huge problem with the extending the debt limit which everyone knows had to happen given the budget decision that had been made long
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before. so it's not unusual for the house to pass a budget that is very ideologically driven in the senate which has a different point of view. adopting a different budget and the two houses not agreeing. that's happened many times. and the appropriations bill, when they actually spend the money is when they do have to find a way to come together. host: fredericksburg, virginia, independent. caller: why on earth don't we do what much of japan did when they allowed 100-year mortgages and if we had 100-year mortgages, so many people would not be losing their homes and all of the times spent in attempting to arrive at a station where people can find a place would have been for naught. thanks for taking my call. guest: i don't think 100-year mortgages are a solution but as
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i said a moment ago, the biggest single downward pressure on the economy is housing and trying to get people into mortgages that they really can afford to pay. reducing the amount of mortgages -- house values have gone down 33% since i think 2006 was their height. there's now $700 billion in negative equity. that's people who oh, how much people owe in addition to the value of their home. 11 million people owe more than what the house is worth. they're underwater. and the total loss of net worth of households is $7 trillion. it's a big problem. we need to be reducing the amount, the total amount that people owe. that's in the best interest of everybody because foreclosure is hideously expensive. it makes no sense to foreclosure if people can pay a mortgage if we just reduce some of the amount that they owe. so i don't know that particular solution of 100-year mortgage
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would do something about mortgages to get people in mortgages they really can pay and have a reason to pay because they will have some equity to protect. seems to be the most important thing to do right now to get control of the housing crisis, the foreclosure crisis which will begin to put -- host: so what does the president say tonight on housing because he's put forward on programs as his administration -- different types of programs, trying to refinance mortgages and things like that, not good enough so far? guest: well, no, it hasn't worked so far. i don't think we've had the reduction in the total amount people owe. and the economic analyses show if you want to give people a real incentive to find a way to pay their mortgage, they got to have something to protect. if they owe 125%, 140% of the value of their own, they are not building equity. they're not adding to their life
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savings. they're just paying really, really expensive rent and they're also becoming hopeless, desperate that they'll never get out of debt. if we can start to reduce that so people can be in a mortgage that they can pay, it will actually be better for the lenders too. they will not turn loose of the idea that they will get paid in full or they obviously are not. and the cost of foreclosures are just hideous. host: under that scenario, would taxpayers be involved, would there be a loss to taxpayers? guest: not what i just talked about, no. it would be the lenders reducing amount owed -- host: to lose money? guest: he can pay me now or pay me later. some of this is driven by accounting concerns whether or not to recognize a loss when in fact they are not going to get paid. there's only so much you can do to sugarcoat the fact that lenders are not going to get
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paid and people own those mortgages now. and foreclosures are much more expensive. they come out of foreclosures with something like 60% loss. and then they got a house. what are they going to do with a house? they got -- they now own the real estate. it's continuing to push down the housing values. half of the homes on the market is foreclosures. those houses are priced to sell. they are vacant, foreclosured homes in neighborhoods pushing down home values there. when people see their home values decline by 33% nationally and far more than that in some places, it's coming straight out of their life savings. host: is there anything congress can do? guest: well, i proposed things over the year. i proposed allowing bankruptcy judges modify mortgages in the same way they modify secured debt. mortgages are the only secured
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debt that can't be modified by a bankruptcy judge. it will be a very predictable you can logical way to reduce it that would get people in a mortgage that they would have every incentive to try to keep up. i also proposed over the years that congress use some of the tarp money that was set aside for housing, to buy mortgages -- the homeowners corporation in the new deal really did put a bottom in the housing market at a time -- that great depression did not start with housing the way that our current economic problems started. when the economy is that bad it will affect housing too. and people facing foreclosure, that program actually turned a slight profit. going to the homeowner and agreeing to a lesser amount the homeowner would in fact be able to pay. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.
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have any bills passed out of the house concerning jobs and have gone on to the senate guest: any bills passed out of the house and gone on to the senate? despite speaker boehner saying it has all been about jobs, there has not been a lot of focus on that. it is about helping the economy generally by putting money in the pockets of working and middle-class families. although i hate to play with the tax, the way we pay for social security, is we do in fact make up for every dollar we cut on that payroll tax from general revenue it's a short-term measure. it puts money in other people's pockets. it's because of the payroll taxes, a regressive tax, cutting it is a progressive tax cut. and that really does help
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increase consumer demand. if we didn't cut the payroll tax a year ago, the economy would be in worse shape now than it was. if we didn't extend it would probably be a push to the economy as well. host: the debate to extend the payroll tax kicks off with a conferee meeting at 2:00 led by dave camp of michigan and senator baucus. live coverage on c-span3, 2:30 this afternoon eastern time. are you a yes, then, to extend this payroll tax cut? guest: i am. i assume we'll make up for all of it with general revenues so we are not taking money out of the social security fund but, yes. host: let's go to portland, oregon. delores, democratic caller. good morning to you. caller: yes. i have a couple brief concerns that i would like to ask the senator. and my first one is i'd like to know why president obama was
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willing to reinstate the tax break that seems to benefit wealthy people. and my other concern is everybody is concerned that, oh, the middle class is falling and we need the middle class. i understand that. i do have sympathy. but what i also understand is that as a person of color, the middle class has always kept me down. i know it's time we agreed and all of that, but wouldn't another approach be with, let's lift people up, let's lift those people up who never had a chance. let's lift the people up, the economy has always been that way for them. host: ok. congressman. guest: i think it was unfair to reinstate all the bush tax cuts in december of 2010. i voted against that. president obama did support it. and there was a lot in there i wanted to support but i could not see voting to extend the tax
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cuts. president obama since then has said he will never again sign an extension of all the tax cuts if it includes the tax cuts for the very richest americans. i do think tonight he will call for an increasing the taxes on the very richest americans as a way to pay for the programs that help working and middle-class families and kind of even up some of the income inequality that we've seen just grow so draw matcally in the last generation, last 30 years. we went from half a century where the middle class was doing better and better, when the economy prospered, the wealth was widely shared to within the last 30 years the middle class has barely been able to stay even. in the last few years have not stayed even. and all of the increased productivity of the economy is going to a handful of the people. and helping the poorest people,
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i think you were right. the best way to help the poorest people is to help the middle class, to help the people struggling to get in the middle class. if you bring up middle class wages, if you include the circumstances of the middle class, you also include the poor. and the phrase i used today and the phrase i normally use is working and middle class family. i think most of the poor is working. the problem is a lot of jobs don't get you out of poverty. and those are the folks most likely to lose their jobs. after americans have suffered a great deal more, latinos and african-americans -- african-americans have suffered more in this downturn, they will have much more been targeted by predatory mortgages. they are much more likely to have lost their jobs. they are much more likely to have been dispossessed because of foreclosure. when you lose your home to foreclosure you lose your spot in the middle class and it's pretty hard to climb back in. host: colorado springs, rita,
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independent. you're next. caller: yes, good morning. host: good morning. caller: and congratulations, representative miller. i'm glad you have the spine to stand up to -- let's get rid of these amazing tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy. and i don't know if you are aware but the u.k. is about to help us. let's cross our fingers. host: why do you say that, rita? caller: well, it's very interesting. pending now is a proposal to close the camen islands as a tax shelt -- cayman islands as a tax shelter. let's cross our fingers that will work. guest: i am not mitt romney is -- in spite to have a vacation area to spend your money. caller: good morning. i like to spout out a bunch of stuff here.
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first off, i am a republican. i'm a moderate. that's what i signed up to be when i was in the military back in the 1980's under reagan. there's no way i could be a democrat and i don't really want to be an independent. i'd like to be in a large group and i feel the moderate republicans are, you know, the best bunch to be in. and my point would be, first of all, you know, when there's an election and it's like a 46 to 49, i hate it when politicians go, well, the american people have spoken. you know. there's a pile of us out here, trickle down economics work for. i'm a landscaper. i work in a resort. it's a just me thing. i take care of my kids. i work for bank of america, i work for merrill lynch. i don't need the payroll tax cut because i don't hire anybody. i work by myself. you know, all this stuff works for me. and the thing is, i just heard
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you talk about passing a budget. budgets don't get passed. i mean, if we're in as tough a spot where we are, do you think a budget would be a good idea to be passed so we can start getting our stuff under control? when people really want to go out and get a job, believe me, they can go out and get a job. i'm not saying everybody can go out and get a job, but i know there is a pile of people out there making $80,000, $90,000, $100,000 a year and they're grabbing the benefits because they can't get a job that's going to be comparable to what they want. there's people out there working two, three, four jobs, you know. host: i think we got your point. i will have the congressman respond. guest: i heard that before. that the people who don't have jobs aren't looking hard enough, but, again, you ought to go tell that to them. i represent a lot of those folks. i know them well. i can close my eyes and see their faces. they are struggling. they are worried about their
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future. i talked not long ago with a woman that said, yes, she can find a job. she was making $40,000, $45,000 which was enough for her to support herself and support a child, a daughter. the jobs that she could get paid $17,000, $18,000. that's a dramatic change in her life. and she was on unemployment and looking as hard as she could to try to find a job that would not so draw matcally change her life -- dramatically change her life. if you are self-employed you are paying the payroll tax if you are doing your taxes right. i was self-employed before i was elected to congress and i paid the payroll tax. if you are not paying your payroll tax you need to talk to your accountant. if you do your own taxes, you need to look at your forms again. host: here's a tweet here from laura on our twitter page. when is this government going to encourage production and saving instead of debt field spending? there really is no free lunch. guest: saving in households or
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saving by the government? host: saving by the government instead of this debt-fueled spending by the government, she said. guest: there has been debt-fueled spending by households as well. the last decade and more has been a lot of policies has been directed at urging the middle class to spend even if they had to borrow to do that. the kind of stuff borrowed. the savings rate went to below zero. i think we should have policies, not to try to balance the federal budget, which is something we need to do in the long are term, at least, -- longer term, at least, but more importantly we need to help middle-class families get out of debt. caller: i just want to say that
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our congressmen and our president, when it's time for election time, they try to come out and get our people to vote for them. but when it's time to pass a bill, they give the money to -- wouldn't it be easier to give the money to the people instead of giving the money to the banks and they take the money to other countries and spread the money around because if you were to give each american $1 million -- $800 billion that they gave away -- host: onk. congressman. guest: it's a great sense of injustice that is true of democrats and republicans. i think we all feel that the people who caused the economic collapse, the great recession, this economic time we are going through, have coum out with --
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wut having lost anything. they're doing fine. the people who have suffered the most, people who have lost our jobs, lost their homes, lost their spot in the middle class were entirely blameless. i think that sense of injustice is a real problem for our nation. we have got to have americans believe that society will -- is fundamentally fair and there is an accountability for bad behavior. and they have not seen it in the last few weers. host: this is another tweet from mark stone. guest: well, most of the proposals have been to help people underwater. i think he will be helped if we stop the continued decline in home values. that is something hurting every american because it's hurting the economy. it is hurting all homeowners
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which is now about 65% down from 69% of households because the most important asset they have, the most important part of their life savings is the equity in their home and it's gone down by 33%. the $7 trillion of loss of equity in the last few years, the statistic i saw every day, for most households that's a decline in their net worth of 2/3 of a year's income. it's enormous. it's not just about job -- the problems of the economy is not just about loss of jobs. it is about the overall sense of the middle class that they don't have anything. they lost their life savings. and they are typically worried about their future. host: tell us about this case
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for those that don't know and why does it matter. guest: i am not on the inside so i don't know what the negotiations are. there are questions of what is really being settled. it began with an investigation in the signing which is a pretty serious allegation that appears to me to be perjury to sign a court document, a sworn court document submitted to court with things in it that you know not to be true. and that was pervasive. there was millions of cases. it has hurt the housing market. they didn't have good records or they didn't want to spend the money to make sure they had it right. and so people actually have been foreclosed upon who didn't even have a mortgage. or -- but there were other claims out there and a lot of other things that the banks have done that could give rise to penalties and it's not clear
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what all is being compromised. i spoke about injustice. no one has been accountable that led to the foreclosure crisis and to the economic collapse. too generous a deal for the banks and the $20 billion or $25 billion that's being talked about is a relatively small percentage of the overall loss of equity in homes and the $9 trillion in assets of the biggest banks. that if that settlement is too generous, if it gives too much, that hasn't been investigated, that that will increase the sense of injustice and the lack of accountability. but the laws in this country, the rules of this country apply to some people and not to others. host: so do you think the president will make that announcement tonight? guest: in a vague sentence or two. based what i read in this morning's papers, there is still not a deal. host: spartanburg, south carolina, scott, independent line.
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go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my calls. i have been self-employed in 1982. i bought a house in 1983. i think our government is the problem. as i'm sitting here, congressman miller, he's some of the problem. if you listen to what he says via -- he's above the american people. listen how he talks about how he's going to let us have more money and keep more money and da-da-da. this is just smoke and mirrors. we need a citizens referendum. we need the people to take our country back and vote on issues that can't seem to get voted on, can't seem to get the laws that affect us law get voted on and be fair about our elections and be fair with the people of this country. host: congressman. guest: i couldn't hear all of that. it sounded unfriendly. i think that's the way people talk to me. i think that's the way people talk to each other. middle class, working middle class families are struggling.
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they can barely make ends meet and until they feel more prosperous and they can buy more stuff, employers are not going to hire people to produce more because nobody will buy. i think that's a fairly simple explanation. i think people understand in their gut that is what is happening in the economy. it is what they feel is happening in their own lives and what they see all around them. host: charles, republican. caller: yes, good morning. host: good morning. caller: good morning. i'm 73 years old and i've seen a lot of things come and go and we never get an honest answer. first of all, we'll take -- where did the jobs go? it was a democratic congress along with the help of republicans who drafted nafta, allowed the jobs to go overseas,
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bring the products back in with no tariff. they is it this. the mortgage problem, how did it get to be a mess? the old mortgage -- you could not exceed one week's take-home pay years ago. nobody had that problem. you couldn't go out there, put a consolidation against your home. you could get a second mortgage if you had equity. the problem is, congressmen, senators, we have 450 people or less in this country who are the problem. every one of them should be thrown out because anything good that happens in america we can lay at their feet or anything bad. if they were in any business or corporation they would have been thrown out a long time ago. so i wait for his answer. guest: that definitely sounded unfriendly. nafta and the other trade deals -- and just a couple months ago we passed three more with korea
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and panama and colombia -- i agree that those have increased the income inequality. that has been a great thing for corporate executives. it's been a great thing for particular industries. the financial services industries and pharmaceutical industries love trade. actually ag. it's been bad for other industries including my state, textiles. it's been deadly for textiles. it's been deadly for furniture. it's put americans in competition. in time of increasing income inequality, the trade deals have acted as an accelerant, gasoline on the fire. and also by allowing the ease of moving financial services under other countries and bringing their manufactured goods in, we're pretty much moving
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manufactured capital out of the united states and into those countries and bringing the manufactured goods back in the united states. on the mortgage crisis, no. the problems in the last decade have been a very indull gent administration. the federal reserve board had authorities since 1994 under the home equity and home equity protection act to issue rules to crack down on predatory, abusive lending practices. they let it go on. they did nothing until there was a financial collapse. the kinds of mortgages that got people in trouble were not required by the community reen investment act. they weren't all for fannie and freddie. they were designed to make a quick buck for the lenders and for the big banks that bought from those lenders and put them in pools and sold them to investors, it was all designed
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to make a quick buck. it was never a good thing for the homeowners. it was never about encouraging homeownership. it was always about stripping the equity of -- in homes from people as they had to refinance because they had financial difficulties. host: congressman, would you describe yourself as a conservative sdrat, a blue dog -- democrat, a blue dog in the congress? guest: no. i have not been a member of the broader caucuses, the blue dogs, the progressive democrats. host: are you happy with your house leadership on the democratic side? guest: on the democratic side, the problem with the house leadership on the democratic side is we are not in control. i would -- i prefer the democratic leadership to the republican leadership. host: what about the roles that they are serving, are you happy with in a, would like to see nancy pelosi, steny hoyer, jim clyburn continue? guest: well, i voted for them all last year and i think that when we were in the majority, when it was just not a matter of
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making the case for opposing what the republicans were doing, i think they did a remarkable job of collecting the votes to pass legislation that had a lot of opposition from the most powerful economic interests in america. host: your re-election, what will your district look like? guest: i'm not sure. it's still under debate in north carolina. host: there is a piece on the timesnews.com that you and david price, a colleague of yours, attended a martin luther king jr. observance. host: is that true? guest: we have been pushed together.
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republicans controlled the redistricting, the triangle, raleigh-durham-chapel hill, they combined my home and my -- the most democratic parts of raleigh where i live with david price's home and the most democratic areas of chapel hill. i don't want to talk about that right now. host: and your friendship? guest: it's been a strain on the friendship, sure. i think that's understandable. host: why is that, because of the politics of it? guest: i don't really want to go into any detail about that. i don't want to elaborate upon that. host: couple minutes left. rock hill, south carolina, go ahead. caller: yes. i would like to know, it seems to me that most people that do not qualify for middle class, how much money is the middle class supposed to make? it seems to me that the person between the poverty and the middle class -- [inaudible]
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who need help. what is middle class and what is the person under middle class? guest: well, you know, i didn't come armed with all the statistics. i think that the poverty rate -- of course, it depends on how many people are in the household. i think me and household income is like $40,000. and all those folks are struggling, as you said. the vast majority of americans are struggling and have not seen the benefit of their hard work to make the economy more productive and i think that is a sense of injustice that is now shaping american politics. host: malcolm is an independent in phoenix, arizona. caller: congressman miller, can you hear me? host: we can, malcolm, we can
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hear you. caller: people were complaining about not being heard. guest: my ear piece was not working right. if you speak up i can hear. caller: i would like to ask, what is the financial committee's primary responsibility? number two, did they not see any of this financial crisis actually happening in the financial institutions over the years? number three, the appointment -- the recess appointment of mr. cordray, if he's working as prosecutor, will people go to jail for the acts in which they committed upon the american people? guest: the last question, i do not think that's within the jurisdiction of the consumer financial protection bureau. they are to issue rules that protects consumers and enforce those rules to protect consumers from the kind of abuses that we saw in the last decade.
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i think we had to do it. there are more than 200 vacancies, crippled vacancies in the federal government, that the senate has not acted upon, it's been blocked by filibusters. it really has been an effort to keep the president from being able -- and i don't think the confirmation powers of the senate have been abused in that way. they had to have a director in place. host: just want to let our viewers know that richard is going to be testifying today before the house oversight and government reform subcommittee on tarp financial services and bailouts. he'll be there talking about his role as the new director of that consumer financial protection bureau. go to c-span.org for more details about our coverage. but go ahead. guest: in the financial services committee, yes, the financial committees -- services committee had the jurisdiction, it was within their area, to look at a lot of what went wrong but i can
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tell you, i joined the committee when i was first elected. the republicans were in the majority for the first four years and we never heard a word in that committee about credit default swaps. we really did not hear from anybody except from the industry themselves about what was going on in the financial sector. so a great many folks were caught completely by surprise and there was i think an intentional effort that was very successful to control the information available to members of congress about what was going on in the financial industry. since then i think other committees have developed other sources of information so we will not have to take the industry's word about what's going on. host: linda a republican in fort pierce, florida. caller: hi. i was just -- [inaudible]
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i have been trying, and trying, and i've never -- [inaudible] collected food stamps and -- [inaudible] host: she was just saying a little bit of a breakup there that you commented on this, but people that are calling in saying people on food stamps, people that are unemployed don't want to have jobs. guest: right. i think that's not just not true, it's offensive. if you know the folks who have lost their jobs and are struggling and trying as hard as they can to find jobs and are very worried about their future and would like nothing better than to have a job that will allow them to support themselves and their families, the idea that they're just taking sfood stamps because they don't want to work is offensive. host: what has obama done to help the poverty, the poor? he made it worse. guest: he didn't make it worse. i've been critical on the show that there are things that he should have done that the administration should have done
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that would have been tougher on the banks but would have helped homeowners who are under water. who ode more on their -- who just are trapped in mortgage debt. the economy is doing better -- the economy was dropping like a stone in january, 2009. that is the reality. since president obama has taken office, in just the first -- those first three or four month when is the economy was dropping like a stone, we have been adding jobs, we have been inching back in, even paul curbman suggested that there was some glimmer of light in the economy. but president obama didn't her its the worst economy since -- did inherit the worst economy since the great depression. host: thank you very much for talking to our viewers. appreciate your time. guest: thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> white house putting the fippishing touches on the state of the union. the associated press reporting that the president's speech was
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to future manufacturing, clean energy, education and american values. he was to unveil new proposals to address the housing crisis and he plans to promote steps to make college education more affordable. we'll have live coverage for you at 8:00 eastern. here's a 50-degree-plus day in the nation's capital. even the president had to get out for a bit of a walk and walking from the oval office, the west wing, over to the residence. reporters were able to ask him a question or two. >> is the speech done, sir? >> [inaudible] it's not bad. >> the president from just a short while ago heading back to the residence at the white house. he's up to the hill later this evening. our coverage at 8:00 here on c-span. but ahead of that, the u.s. house -- >> mr. speaker, the president of
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the united states. >> tonight, president obama delivers his state of the union address. live coverage begins at k p.m. eastern including the president's speech. republican response by indiana governor mitch daniels and your phone calls. live on c-span and c-span radio. on c-span 2, watch the president's speech along with tweets from members of congress and after the address, more reaction from house members and senators. throughout the night, go online for live video and to add your comments using facebook and twitter at c-span.org. but ahead of the president's speech tonight, the house returns to finish up work. a couple of votes issues with -- dealing with issues like the 2013 federal budget. also a motion to instruct democratic conferees on the payroll tax cut conference that actually is under way. we're covering that live on c-span 3. until the house comes in, we will take you to a portion of this morning's "washington
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journal" where we ask our viewers what they thought of last night's debate. the republican debate in florida. host: the debate last night was in tampa. there will be another debate on thursday night, also in florida. so we'll be talking about getting your take on this 18th debate, is it helping or hurting, what do you think it's doing to the candidates, what about your support for your candidates? has it changed by watching these debates? we'll get to your comments in a minute but first john mckinen is a staff reporter for "the wall street journal." he joins us on the phone. what's the takeaway from last night's debate? guest: i'm not sure there was a clear winner from last night's debate. obviously mitt romney was a very, very different performer than he's been in past debates. he was on the offensive much of the time, but there was a tone
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last night that i thought was, you know, less engaging for all the candidates than some of the previous debates, especially the ones in south carolina. so, it was hard to see where newt gingrich really did a lot to put points on the board. he was really on defensive a lot of the time and also was i think for perhaps the first time in a while playing the role of the frontrunner and so trying not to make mistakes. that's something that showed up in his performance a lot. the other two -- and the focus was so much on gingrich and romney that the other two candidates were really in the background a little bit i thought. host: so the tone was less engaging. do you think -- what about the room in that debate hall? the audience not participating. guest: yeah, and they were really pretty quiet compared to
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the crowds in south carolina and in particular that affected nute a little bit. he wasn't able to -- nuth a little bit. he wasn't able to use them as a kind of prop the way he's done in some of the recent debates. host: so what does this mean going forward? do you see a campaign strategy from mitt romney, newt gingrich? what is it? guest: i think, you know, governor romney's going on the offensive and there's a certain amount of risk involved in that. i think a big part of his appeal has always been his competence and his smoothness and, you know, both of those characteristics, both of those factors are really kind of sacrificed to some degree when you go on the offensive, to the degree that he had, particularly in the debate setting, where, you know, a very skilled newt gingrich is able to fight back to some degree. so romney runs the risk of making mistakes, you know, and
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newt tried to correct him on several points, particularly relating to newt's work for freddie mac, the big mortgage company. so, that to me was the big takeaway from that. >> when it comes to the florida primary and how the florida primary works, we read yesterday in the newspapers, it's sort of like a mini primeary every day because of early voting, absentee voting. so you have to win the day's news seek cycle. you can comment on that? guest: yeah, it's almost the hour's news cycle on some days. last week in south carolina that was particularly true. there was so much going on with candidates resigning and debates going on and all kinded of charges flying back and forth and disclosures being made and that's all going to be very important in florida which has a long history, somewhat checkered history of early voting and so, you know, that will certainly be
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a factor here. that could play to romney's advantage, of course, because he's been kind of the presumpive frontrunner for a long time. that's obviously under a lot of question right now. but voting's been going on in florida for a while. host: so last -- mentioned mitt romney on the offense there. he's been on the defense on this issue of his tax records. they will be released today. when and how? guest: they're coming out -- there's a call at 8:30 for reporters and i believe -- i'm not sure exactly when the returns are being posted, the journal got an early look at the returns last night. it's an unusual procedure set up where returns were available to us and a few other outlets for a while and then went down again. they were not available. host: so you were able to look at them for how long and then try to write a sorry about it? guest: yeah, i think it was about three or four hours and we
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-- it was kind of a mad scramble last night to get through them. they're pretty lengthy. they put out about 500 pages. that includes a couple of returns that are kind of informational returns interest the blind trust -- from the blind trust that the romneys have and there's also another trust that a couple of other trusts they have. host: so they roll them out around 8:30 eastern time this morning. it will be 2010 and 2011. from your three--- three to four hours you were able to look at them last night, what's the takeaway from those records? guest: the takeaway there is that there are still going to be a lot of questions. basically they show what governor romney has said they would show. his tax -- his effective tax rate was around 15% for both of those years. he made roughly $20 million, he and his wife made roughly $20
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million in income. in each year. and paid roughly $3 million in tax each year. and so i think a lot of questions will continue to linger about some of the uses of , you know, sophisticated -- if completely legal and appropriate -- tax devices. i mean, they certainly had some income from entities that exist in tax havens such as the kaman islands and they have some -- they had a swiss bank account that they disclosed in their 2010 return that the account has been closed and the romneys' trustee was quick to point out to folks last night that that had been his idea and he had taken the initiative to open it and he had closed it and the romneys weren't involved in
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that. he said it was just useful for diversification purposes. and i think that on its face that's a satisfactory answer, that's an answer that is sort of unavailable, but it's still a swiss bank account and i think that phrase might be around for a while in this debate. it wouldn't surprise me. host: so real quickly before we let you go, why were -- did you get an explanation from the romney camp as to why reporters were only allowed three to four hours to look at these records before they took them back down? guest: we had so much to do that i didn't really ask them for a clear explanation of that and we were going to lose -- the returns were going to go down after midnight and that was, you know, after midnight was not a huge concern for us. host: john mckinnon with "the wall street journal."
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thank you for your time. we'll get into those tax record as little bit more. the newspapers have some details this morning when the records come out go to our website, c-span.org, to find a link there. but back to last night's debate, asking you this morning, after the 18th debate, is it helping, is it hurting? and as john said in that interview there, the audience not participating. here's the front page or the page -- the direct report this morning. no standing ovation. staten island, new york, go ahead. caller: i wanted to comment on the amount of debates. i think this is going to help the republicans in the general election because the unusual amount of debates that are going on in the primary right now, it's going to put pressure on the president to have more debates than the usual amount and the president's election because normally with mccain
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there were three. i think this is going to -- people like these debates and i think that the news networks are going to push this, there's going to be more than three this year. and as newt gingrich which i hope is the nominee, that's going to help newt immensely. in debates, that's the only way he's going to win, in my opinion. host: how did he do last night? caller: i thought he did great. he came on calm, presidential. he's the frontare uper now. and he reminds me of how romney was and -- in previous debates. and romney was on the attack and i found that comical. he was just -- he tried -- he just looked aggravated and newt just looked great to me. host: let me go back to what you just said. the debate is the only way newt's going to win. why do you say that? what are his vulnerabilities? caller: his vulnerabilities are, he has, you know, his past, everybody has a past. barack obama has a past, the media didn't want to really shine light on it. but i thought he was being
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romney. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] house resolution 522. resolution providing for consideration of the bill h.r. 1173, to repeal the class program. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. votes will be taken in the following order -- the motion to suspend the rules and adopt house resolution 516 by the yeas and nays. the motion to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2070 by the yeas and nays. and the motion to instruct on house resolution 3630 by the yeas and nays. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion by -- of the
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gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, to suspend the rules and agree to h.res. 516 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 516, resolution expressing the sense of the house of representatives that the passage of a fiscal year 2013 federal budget is of national importance. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]
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the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 409, the nays are one. one voting present. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative -- the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 410, the nays are one. one voting present. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the
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vote on the motion of the gentleman from ohio, mr. johnson, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2070 as amended on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 249, h.r. 2070, a bill to direct the secretary of the interior to install in the area of the world war ii memorial in the district of columbia a suitable plaque or an instrix with the words that franklin d. roosevelt prayed with the nation on june 6, 1944, the morning of d-day. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]
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the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 386. the nays are 26. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to instruct on h.r. 3630 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: motion to instruct conferees offered by mrs. capps of california. on h.r. 3630. the speaker pro tempore: the
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question is on the motion. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]
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the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 397. the nays are 16. the motion is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i would like to request that my name be removed as a co-sponsor of h.r. 3261. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. carter: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.
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the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair lays before the house an enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 3237, an act to amend the soar act by clarifying the scope of the act. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leave of be a requested by mr. brady of -- absence requested by mr. brady of texas for january 23, 2012 and for the balance of the week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request is granted. will the house will be in order? will members please clear the well? would members please clear the
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well? after consultation among the speaker and the majority and minority leaders and with their consent, the chair announces that when the two houses meet tonight in joint session to hear an address by the president of the united states only the doors immediately opposite the speaker and those immediately to his left and right will be open. no one will be allowed on the floor of the house who does not have the privilege of the floor of the house. due to the large attendance anticipated, the rule regarding
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the privilege of the floor must be strictly enforced. children of members will not be permitted on the floor. the cooperation of all members is requested. the practice of purporting to reserve seats prior to the joint session by placement of placards or personal items will not be allowed. chamber security may remove these items from the seats. members may reserve their seats only by physical presence following the security sweep of the chamber. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until approximately 8:35 p.m. this evening for purpose of receiving in joint session the president of the united states.
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>> members completed work on four measures including one instructing house conferees in their negotiations with the senate in extending the payroll tax cut. they are adding representative giffords border security bill to the legislative bill. our coverage gets under way at 8:00 p.m. eastern. here's a look at our plans. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> tonight, president obama delivers his state of the union address. live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern, including the president's speech, republican response by governor mitch daniels and your phone calls live on c-span and c-span radio. watch the president's speech along with tweets from members of congress and more reaction from members and senators. go online for

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