, yesterday, i spoke with the database -- dallas federal reserve president, richard fisher, who would like to tapering to begin. he continues to say it is not fair that it is all on the federal reserve. we have seen in absence of monetary policy. that is where we are. i think janet yellen will continue the policies of ben bernanke. i think she is a person that brings people together. she has been talked about as being someone who listens and it is not her way or the highway. that was one of the criticisms of larry summers i like the fact that she is a local girl that has done good. i think she is accomplished. host: unfortunate, we will leave it there.

they are meeting this morning at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour, 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. nt to the order of the house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip each, to five minutes but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. well, now after 16 days one remembers the gleeful republicans pouring out of the house chamber on the early morning of october 1, so

excited that they got the shutdown, the tool they would use to end the affordable care act. and in 's now collapsed disarray, flirting with the default on our national debt. i'm embarrassed for my republican colleagues who cannot figure out what they want as they tie themselves into knots, refusing to put a simple clean continuing resolution on the floor that would end this madness. i guess because they fear all the democrats and many republicans would approve it, ending this sad chapter. it's fascinating what a destructive minority and republican house leadership can do, inflicting damage in so many ways. this always would have been inimaginable so many times. i tried to explain it on the air yesterday to a bbc reporter. i felt foolish and embarrassed.

it's inexplicable. it's time to stop negotiating the terms of the release of the american people and their economy. there is a simple answer and it's not necessarily calling the republican bluff on the shutdown and debt ceiling. the answer is to encourage the republicans to try and pass their own spending bills. don't insulate them any longer from the specifics. with the ryan budget, republicans are on a glide path to 1962 spending levels, but for an america half a century later with 150 million more people and three times the number of senior citizens, the math doesn't work for most of us. it appears it doesn't work for the republicans either. why else would they have stopped consideration of their own spending bills not even halfway through the process? remember, we still have pending the transportation-h.u.d. spending bill that was abruptly halted more than two months ago

last summer. it's still pending. it could be brought to the floor at anytime. let's stop tolerating wildly unrealistic political antics and dive into budget mechanics. let them try and pass the interior spending bill, which they were afraid to even take to the full committee, let alone pass the health and human services bill. let's get into specifics and stop the hostage-taking. no one should be allowed to weaponize the process of governance, especially people unwilling or unable to do their own job. the president should use his bully pulpit to stoplight their refusal to act and his alternatives. by all means, let's look at the looming social security cut that's going to occur 20 years from now. how much do we want to cut future benefits for people who are increasingly struggling in

retirement and who already get less than most other rich countries? let's deal with the long-term costs of our military with hugely expensive, outdated, unnecessary surplus nuclear weapons. let's help the military deal with health and pension costs that greatly concern the military leadership because they know it's not sustainable. my republican colleagues cannot have it both ways. attacking the president for including the chained c.p.i. in his own budget proposal as an assault on senior citizens as alleged by my friend and colleague, greg walden, head of the republican campaign committee in the house, when that's actually what many of my republican friends want. attacking the president and democrats for having obtained $700 billion in medicare savings without cutting payments to seniors and then making that into a campaign issue in 2012 and then claiming

the president and the democrats don't want to deal with entitlements, how hypocritical. let's stop the hostage-taking and deal with specifics. we can resolve these matters in actually a matter of months if the american public and the congress are forced to confront the realities of fantasy budgets and political slogans. the american people deserve better. now it's time to give that to them. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. mcgovern, for five minutes. mr. mcgovern: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. speaker, the republican government shutdown has been a disaster. a lot of people all across this country have been hurt, and hopefully the press reports that i am reading this morning

are true and that by the end of the day this house of representatives will support a senate compromise that will reopen our government and will avoid us defaulting on our debt. so i hope that in a bipartisan way before this day is out we can come together and do that. this shutdown and this threat of default has made this chamber look ridiculous. people of every political persuasion are disappointed in the behavior, especially of some elements of this house that have driven us to this shutdown and threatened a default of our nation for the first time in history. mr. speaker, i just want to take a few minutes here to speak about another aspect of this shutdown and indeed some the policies that we have proved of here in this is house of representatives, policies that have adversely impacted most especially the poor and the hungry and the vulnerable.

we have 50 million people in the united states of america who are hungry. 17 million are children. and this shutdown and this sequester and the farm bill that this house of representatives approved goes after the very programs that provides so many of our needy people in this country food. that's it. nothing else but food. we have a hunger problem in the united states of america, and we all should be ashamed of that. this shutdown, coupled with the sequester, has threatened programs like w.i.c., the women, infants and children program. it has gone after the snap program, used to be known as food stamps, threatening the amount that people get to be able to put food on their table. it has threatened funding for food banks. we have had food banks all across this country that have shut down because of the sequester and also because of what this shutdown has done. we are a much better country

than that. we -- i know that the majority of people in this chamber deep down care about the most vulnerable, but we haven't acted that way. there's a pattern in this house of representatives and this republican-led congress that has diminished the plight of poor people, that has -- that has trivialized the need for people to put food on their tables for their family and their children. we passed a farm bill in this congress that cuts food stamps by $40 billion. $40 billion. that would mean 3.8 million people who currently rely on this benefit would be thrown off the program. we are literally going to be taking food away from families who need it. it would throw hundreds of thousands of people off the free breakfast and lunch program at school. hat cut would result in over 170,000 veterans to be thrown off that program.

veterans, men and women who have served our country overseas in battle, who are having trouble finding a job, getting stability in their life, that need this program to be able to put food on their table for them and their families, we are going to throw them off the program. that is just not right. that is just not right. the farm bill is going to go to conference and my hope is we can come to some sort of bipartisan agreement to reverse kind of the negative aspects of what the house has done. we can do much better. we can do much better. we need to do much better. mr. speaker, it is not fashionable in this house of representatives to worry about the poor. i guess maybe because they p.a.c.'s. super they don't donate to our campaigns. they don't have lobbyists in washington. we need to stand for those

people. donald trump doesn't need us, doesn't need government, but some returning veteran who cannot find a job or some single mother who is trying to raise her kids and doesn't have enough food to put on the table or some unemployed man, all of a sudden because of this lousy economy is trying to support their family and they need us and we should be there for them, that shouldn't be a controversial or radical idea. yet, in this house of representatives it has been. so from the shutdown to the sequester to the farm bill, i mean, over and over and over again we have targeted the most vulnerable. and mr. speaker, we need to reverse that friend. when this is all over with, i hope we can come together in a bipartisan way and actually talk about hunger. i hope that the white house will come forward and embrace a white house conference on food and nutrition so we can have some leadership at the national level to come up with a plan to

end hunger and to end poverty in this country. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, for five minutes. mr. garamendi: i thank you, mr. speaker. if i might have permission to revise and extend my remarks also. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. garamendi: it's a rather important day today. sometime today or in the next 24 hours, the united states treasury will run out of its ability to borrow money. that is to roll over its debt to pay all of the obligations that the united states government have. i guess even this morning we remain the world's biggest economy. we certainly remain the oldest democracy although that seems to be somewhat in doubt here on the floor of the house of representatives where we don't operate as a democracy. we really operate more as a

dictatorship in which one or two or a handful of people make the decision for the majority of the house. it's a very, very, very important moment that this nation moves towards the moment in which it in the first time of its history would default on its payments, default on its debt. we've already seen the effects of this. banks all around the world are selling, that is getting out of america's short-term obligations or those obligations, bonds, that are due now or in the next week or so. so they're shedding american debt. they're running away from the world's reserve currency. why?

because this house, the house of representatives, the people's house is being jerked around, led around by a small ntingent of folks that are not thinking clearly, that are ot willing to understand the import, the importance of the soundness of the american dollar, of the importance of the full faith and credit of this nation, of the 200-plus years of history where this ouse with this government, with the people of america has always, has always stood behind its obligations. that group of individuals that are unwilling to be rational, that are the tea party faction

of the republican party seem to want to take this nation into a new era, an era in will the world cannot count on the united states of america. . we are also in the 1th day of the shutdown of the united states government. now these two things which the united states government is only partially operating, in which the national parks with the exception of three, are not opened. with the fish and wildlife service refuges are not available to the public. where much of the government is not operating. the 16th day. why? why are we in this situation? well, when it started 16 days ago, it was to end the affordable health care act, and then it was to modify, and then

it was to change it, and then it was to delay it. now it's not even on the agenda. why are we still shut down? there's no reason that's being presented other than what you might see in a preschool class with some kid that is too hired and is down on the floor throwing a tantrum, screaming and yelling, and trying to stop everything. ok, get your blanket, get your bottle, and take a nap. we don't need tantrums around here, but apparently that's the only reason the government continues to be shut down because some 40 or 50 members of the tea party caucus of the republican party is throwing a tantrum. led by senator cruz. we don't need tantrums. we need cooperation. we need to work together. we've got serious problems. the shutdown is creating even more serious problems. as we run up to the debt crisis,

yet one more problem because 40 or 50 people are throwing a tantrum. this is the house of representatives. 435 of us elected to represent the people of america. to do right by them. to do right by this nation's economy. by the working men and women. even those that are laid off because of the shutdown, they want to work. it's time for us to end this. it's time for us to go to work on the long-term problems. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. hall, or five minutes. thank you, mr.

chairman. three years ago when the president and the democratic-controlled house and senate forced obamacare into law without a single republican vote, my constituents wrote and called my office to tell me they didn't want a government takeover of health care. they expressed many concerns, including losing a health care plan they liked, higher cost, overbearing regulations that would prevent businesses and their owners' ability to hire workers. and the government making health care decision for citizens, just to name a few. my constituents' concern proved true. the obamacare website has been up for two weeks or more, and for those who were able to get the website to work, the reports have proved disappointing, and anything but affordable rate hikes of 260%, $12,00 deductible, co-pays up to 40%, and zero competition. perhaps that's why according to the daily mail on october 11 in

the first week only, 51,000 people completed obamacare applications. my constituents continue to write me about their concern for this bad law. today ed -- i'd like to read a letter from one of my constituents. mr. stanley is a constituent from texas. he wrote to my office as follows. dear congressman hall, i don't know if you're getting any input from small business owners like us regarding obamacare. we are really at a dilemma here at guard line. we found that there are items we can manufacture here at the same cost we currently import from mexico, china, and pack pakistan. we'd like to bring these jobs back here, but in the background is obamacare. we employ 85 people in our atlanta facility. we compete in a world market with distributors on importers that maybe have 15 to 30 employees. and they follow the 50

employees. therefore do not have to pay the $2,000 penalty for not providing health insurance. our industry business model does not provide for employee benefits as it's mostly a minimum wage industry with profit margins very low. the situation we are in is we have to pay $170,000 in penalties under obamacare. this is another example of the government picking the winners and losers. we begin to show up here totally as the losers. there's no way i can be competitive if i have to raise my prices to cover the $170,000. here's my options. don't pay the penalty. two, raise my prices gean out of business. 85 people lose their jobs. lay off 15 to 35 employees to get under 50 in order to not pay the penalty and move more production out of this country. reduce 35 jobs to part-time under 30 hours a week and move more production out of this

country. as you can see from the above options, there's not a good one. we are having to run our business in a way that does not make very much business sense. we have to always keep in mind the effects of obamacare. we are in a position that we can add more jobs here in the u.s.a. and are being penalized for that. this country will never be able to completely recover with restrictions on business like that. i'm sure we are not the only employer in the situation. i don't know what we can do except express our concerns to our representatives. mr. speaker, on behalf of my constituents, i will continue to fight to defund as much of this bad law as possible. obamacare remains widely, completely unpopular across the country for good reason. it's hurting jobs, hurting pocketbooks of already struggling americans, and preventing people from making their own health care decisions. the american people deserve better. responsible health care reform should do better. that offers true health, true jobs, financial and personal security. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. green, for five minutes. mr. green: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. green: mr. speaker, members, 17 years -- 17 days ago i came to the house floor to talk about how disappointed i was at the topic of such importance, the medical device tax repeal or delay was being reduced to the level of political squabbling over whether we are going to continue the function of the government. but here we go again. we are not only here maybe again to vote on that same policy 17 days later, but we are further deviled into the realm of pettiness because the republican leadership continues and insists our economy's future should be tied to whether members of congress, cabinet members, and the president and our staff should have the same health care insurance that other federal employees receive. i'm surprised.

are we really going to keep the united states government shut down and threaten the full faith and credit of our country based on whether members of congress, our staff, and the president and cabinet, get the same health care that thousands of other federal employees get? it's bordering on pettiness. it sounds so silly to be able to deal with that. i was fortunate enough, i worked 23 years at a company that they not only subs died my health insurance -- subsidize my health insurance, but they pay for my family's. governments all over the country do that. the state of texas, where i'm proud to be from, pays for health insurance for state employees. the city of houston has a health insurance plan for their employees that they help pay for it. harris county does it. all governments do that. and frankly, i represent a lot of petrochemical refineries and

plants. exxon, shell, the ones serving our area. all of them have subsidies, as the republicans call it, for health care for their employees. yet on the floor of the house we think it's a dirty word. our goal by the affordable care act was to have everyone in the country have access to quality health care. not just because you got to work for the government or work for an exxon or a shell or great companies, everyone. and so that was the goal of it. and if you look at the national exchanges, if we ever get the computers fixed, we'll see that. people will have the options to be able to have the same options that we as members of congress or federal employees or that i had in the private business that i helped manage. that's what we are talking about. but to put that in a continuing resolution to open up the government and to make it you have to vote for this or we are ot going to pay the t.s.a. who

screens us when we go into the airport. they are working, but they are worried about getting their paychecks. so is the military. so is a lot of folks. but to make that the end all, be all i can't believe our forefathers and our veterans sacrificed for our country to make sure we have this freedom to lower to the level of we are not going to vote for this unless he we can take away the president's health care. or the cabinet officials, members of congress. our constituents expect us to act more responsibly. we should be ashamed of what this house of representatives has come to over the last number of months. because we need to talk about making sure our country continues to grow. and what's so sad is that last week some of us were briefed about every week the government's shut down causes $3% of our gross domestic

product. we want jobs, here we are two weeks, going three weeks into the shutdown and adding to those unemployment because of what the federal government is doing. again, we shouldn't even bear what the house of representatives is doing. let's pass a continuing resolution. let's pay our debts that this house of representatives has voted for. every appropriations bill, every dime of that $17 trillion passed this house of representatives. why would we not want to pay those debts? that's like me saying in texas, oh, i don't want to pay my house note. well, maybe they won't come after me the first month, but under texas law in 90 days you are going to get your house sold from under you if you don't pay your debts. the federal government, various times, has not paid our debts. one by a technical glitch, and 1979, but the last time we didn't pay our debts was when the british army burned the treasury. i would hope this stance we have

now is not compared to the british army burning our treasury. we need to pass a continuing resolution, deal with our budget, and make sure we don't hurt the full faith and credit of our country. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. williams, for five minutes. mr. williams: i ask unanimous consent to speak for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. williams: thank you, mr. speaker. i am proud to represent texas 25th district, home to fort hood, the army's premiere installation to train and delay heavy forces in one of the largest military installations in the world, and the largest in america. fort hood ranks highest in terms of future capability and can support and sustain more than 50,000 soldiers and their families. the communities surrounding fort hood provide outstanding support and resources to these men and women, especially the school districts who are responsible for educating the children of our troops and the education of our kids in the future. for example, 50% of all students

in the school district are military kids, that's over 20,000 students and they are still growing. nearby in coppers cove,er more than 8,000 students have a parent in the military. this is why funding for impact aid should never be threatened. not even at a time when washington is at a stalemate. these students should have access to the best and the brightest educational opportunities our nation can provide. our men and women in uniform shouldn't have to worry about their children's education when they are facing potential deployment. mr. speaker, being a part of a military family is not easy. it requires more sacrifice than most of us can fathom. i strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of congress to make good on our commitment to provide for our military and their families as we move forward. in god we trust. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, for five minutes. ms. jackson lee: i thank the speaker and ask to address the house for five minutes. unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: i thank you so very much. good morning. this is now on the precipice of moving toward a place that america should not be. stood on this floor a few days ago and said, mr. speaker, we are facing a crisis. and for some the argument is, we haven't seen the market take a fall. well, let me suggest that we as custodians of this great nation, members of the united states congress, are like parents, therefore i ask any parent that is listening, how long do they wait before they see a toddler fall? or do they leap toward that toddler so that they know the

strength of that parent is always there? we have an important challenge today. the headlines of this newspaper says senate leaders see deal on the horizon. so i make a plea today, mr. speaker, that our republicans, however distracted they may be, join democrats so that the senate bill be on the desk of our president today before midnight. . we are parents holding onto america. let me remind my friends of the words of abraham lincoln in his first inaugural address, we're not enemies but friends. we must not be enemies, though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. we are close to breaking those bonds of affection because we have thrown the american people

into a downward spiral. i hope that members of congress will join me on h. jezz 375, where i have -- h.res. 375, where i have this house go on record to never, ever again tie a nongermane legislative matter into the budgeting process, obamacare. and the reasons are many. oh, there is much talk about the challenges we're having with the technological infrastructure. i met with some 40 -- almost 40 members of the navigation -- navigators in my area. i'll tell you, when i left the meeting, they were smiling and they were encouraged, they were ready to move forward. they know there are technological glitches and we will fix those, but they also know there are stories that are important such as obamacare saved my family from financial ruin.

by jeannine reid. house speaker boehner and his tea party friends shut down the u.s. government because of people like me. i am the mother of an ininsurance hog, someone who could blown through his lifetime insurance limits by the time he was 14. my son has managed to survive despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, and he wears his pre-existing condition like a super bowl ring. mason, now 16, was probably born with a brain tumor. it goes on to talk about, he discovered it six years ago through by opsies. over and -- biopsies. over and over again, he had surgeries to the point where he was reaching his lifetime caps. but yet mason came up toward the affordable care act which lifted his lifetime caps. he's a young man demow that plays basketball -- now that plays basketball and argues with his siblings. the affordable care act will allow mason to go forward. join in h.res. 375.

never again to squalor in the opposition of a legislative initiative that can go through regular order, to be able to in essence stop and shut down the government. this default which can occur, which we shouldn't play with, some people are talking about it could be two weeks from now or we'll pay the bondholders or other folks won't suffer. watch my words, mortgage rates and interest rates will go up, access to business loans will not be able to survive and interest rates on credit cards, working america will literally crumble before us. i hope that we'll take the words of chaplain black, a dear friend of all of ours and mine, gracious god, we praise you that although we have merely a feeble hold on you that you have a mighty grasp on us. use your mighty hands to lead our lawmakers to your desired destination, making them instruments of truth and justice.

mr. speaker, there's a rum maker in pittsburgh who was just getting his business together. after two years of working, he lined up everything, ready to produce legal good rum. he's shut down because he can't get a.t.f., alcohol, tobacco to come forward and be able to help him. mr. speaker, the impact is egregious and horrific. and what i would just simply say to you is don't listen to those who are saying it's going to be ok, we've lost $22 billion all right. i'm asking, i'm pleading, put the senate bill on the floor. waive the rules and vote on this, put it on the president's desk tonight. don't let fitch and s&p and others send us downhill. this is a great country, this is a great nation and we deserve to show americans that we care for them. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlewoman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. speier, for five minutes. ms. speier: thank you. i ask unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. speier: mr. speaker, we are now 16 days into a government shutdown and standing on the precipice of defaulting on our debt. families around the country are worrying if they will be able to pay their water bill, but stayed ers' gym has open so my colleagues can live rent-free in their offices and use the gym to shower and shave. one of my colleagues who used his office as a holiday inn has thousands of people on snap in his district. people can't curl up in a building or get dinner at a congressional reception to cut costs but my colleague does.

the only inconvenience for him is that his office doesn't have a kitchen. so he stocks his office annex with a crock pot, an electric griddle, a microwave, a toaster and a refrigerator and he told cbs news, quote, you can put bouillon, let it simmer all day and you're ready to rock and roll. american speaker, the people is not ready to rock and roll. america's small businesses are not ready to rock and roll when the markets worry that we will default and not pay the bills that we have already incurred. the american people are not ready to rock and roll when they don't know when the government will reopen to provide them with the services that they have already paid for but will not receiving. the house of representatives is not a campsite.

it is embarrassing that americans have been kicked out of yosemite and national parks across the country, yet members sleep in their offices that taxpayers foot the bill for. as bad as this government shutdown is, however, the debate over the debt ceiling is taking this dysfunction nuclear. a default would bring an economic catastrophe that would cost americans who have been prudent with their money, paying their debts and investing in their 401-k's billions of dollars in lost value in their investments, in their homes, in their jobs and in increased lending rates. every american here, every american in this country knows that every member of the house of representatives makes four times the amount of money that they do. we are paid to come up with solutions for the american people, not to sabotage their

401-k's. this is what warren buffett said last week about trying to use the debt ceiling as a political ploy. quote, it should be like nuclear bombs. basically too horrible to use. in military terms, it's known as mad, mutually assured destruction. some on the other side of the aisle seem intent on pushing the button and sending our economy into a nuclear winter. debt ceiling deniers have now emergedess pousing the belief that the debt ceiling is a figment of our imagination, that it's part of a liberal agenda to get to the negotiating table. quote, we are not going to default. there is no default. or, quote, we shouldn't accept this as the date beyond which we can't go without what they call default. we can go a long time. we can go indefinitely without hitting default, says another. mr. speaker, a reckless faction

of your party is not only holding your caucus hostage, it's holding the american people and the global economy hostage. calling the dealings with this faction is, quote, negotiating is absurd. the reality is there is no negotiating with this reckless faction which seems spent on the destruction of the american economy and the full faith and credit of the united states. mr. speaker, these members who are sleeping in their offices should be thinking of all the americans who will be sleeping in the streets if this reckless republican faction gets its way. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, for five minutes. mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i thank you for the opportunity to rise and address my colleagues.

on november 1, households participating in the supplemental nutrition assistance program, popularly referred to as snap, will see their monthly benefit sharply reduced. the temporary benefit boost provided for in the 2009 american reinvestment and recovery act is scheduled to expire next month leaving many americans unsure of how they will put food on the table. the november 1 cut will exaggerate the problem of hunger in our nation and make it much harder for millions of americans, fathers, mothers, children, veterans and active duty military, even, to provide for their loved ones. the benefit increase passed in the depths of the great recession has provided americans both directly and

indirectly with substantial benefits. low-income families who face unemployment and underemployment are provided a critical way to bridge the financial barriers they face. americans who are employed in -- inadequate paying jobs are able to remain so because of the boost of the economy. $9 is added to the g.d.p. for every $5 in snap benefits that the program provides. these cuts will come at a moment when americans are ill-prepared to afford them. the loss of snap will not just mean empty tables for thanksgiving for millions, it will mean as well a weaker economy. even as the effects of our

shut down and brinksmanship. this cut in benefit will simply push the american economy into a vicious cycle which we simply cannot afford at this time. and so i'm urging my colleagues to avoid the exacerbating effects of this government shutdown and the potential default of government debts. and i'm calling on them to the rt my bill, h.r. 3108, extended not cut snap benefits act, which provides for a one-year extension of the 13% benefits increase contained in he aara through the 2014 fiscal year. i have -- i am aproud to proclaim 43 co-sponsors so far.

in 2011, snap lifted 4.7 million americans above the poverty line, including 2.1 million children. without an extension of the 2009 recovery act's temporary boost to snap, our economy will be the worst and our children will face a hunger they do not deserve to confront alone. and so i urge my colleagues to continue the support of h.r. 3108 and ensure that americans are not cut off at the worst possible time. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess

>> as the house is in recess, we want to take this moment to update you on the government shutdown. speaker john boehner is buying a house vote because of the procedural hurdles that could take place. he would bring them bill up to the floor for a vote. we are keeping an eye on all of this, and opening up the phone lines to hear from you. if you're an independent, the 585--- o call is 202- we're keeping track on our comments on our tweet page and the hash tag is #cspanchat.

send us a tweet at #cspanchat. give us a phone call. let me tell you -- 02 is the area code. 85-3885 for republicans. 202-585-3886 for democrats. 202-585-3881 for others. caller: john boehner is doing a fine job. i hope they come to a conclusion to get to this country to its rightful self. obama set out to absolutely

destroy america, and he's done a fantastic job. and i thank you for my time. >> let me ask you, if the speaker brings up the senate version of the bill, even if it does not have enough support among house republicans, do you still support that move? caller: yes, i do. >> why is that? caller: well, because i think what boehner has done is right. this country is needing some help from people that know what they're doing. and obama, president obama has not give fairness at all to his obamacare program. he will not listen. he will not listen. and, you know, i really feel for boehner because he has done everything possible. the democrats sat back and said they've done this and they've done that. harry reid has not put one bill on the floor that

representative boehner has had anything to do with. >> ann, thanks for the call. jerry is next, ohio, democrats' line. good morning to you. caller: yes. budget say about the ll, i refer the -- [inaudible] the president should put it on he ballot for americans to vote on it -- the united states wants to vote on. >> ok. from our tweet page and the hashtag again is #cspanchat. there is this comment. connie is next from columbus, indiana. good morning to you. caller: hello.

i got a question here. i know there are democrats and republicans that are trying to come with a deadline for the default, but i can't understand what got this far because here in columbus, indiana, there is a lot of middle-class people that can't afford this to happen. if i don't get my check i will be put out of my home. i have no place to go my husband is handicapped with heart problems and everything else. they don't have to shut down the government. i don't vote because i think both sides are guilty. >> ok. connie, thanks. go ahead. caller: the president needs to step up. >> we missed your final point.

caller: the president needs to step up and tell both sides. >> let me turn your attention to politico.com. the headline -- >> republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. >> you're on the air. go ahead. caller: yes. i'd like to say there is a simple solution to this. make obamacare mandatory. let the people that can use it and benefit from it, that's fine. but the people that don't benefit from it, they will have to use it. making it handtory, i think, is

wrong. >> ok. caller: and the president needs to step up and negotiate that. thank you. >> thanks for the call. if you're following the developments yesterday, you know that speaker of the house, john boehner, met with his house republican conference in the morning. then briefly spoke to reporters saying that the house would take up a house version of the plan, that then moved through discussions during the day and into the house rules committee scheduled to meet last evening at about 5:40 eastern time, but in a was quickly changed when it was clear that the house republicans did not support the plan being put forth by speaker boehner. so now the negotiations resumed into the evening, led by the senate democratic leader, harry reid, republican leader mitch mcconnell. that's where we are with the senate version of the plan that would reopen the federal government and also raise the debt limit through early or mid february. again, we're still trying to get more details on the specifics and, of course, once it comes to the floor of the house, we'll have live coverage here on c-span and the

developments in the senate live on c-span2. eric is joining us from roanoke, virginia, democrats' line. good morning. aller: good morning. >> good morning. you're on the air. caller: i wrote an editorial. i guess i'll call y'all and let y'all hear it. i pulled up oath of office for both the house and senate which are identical. it says in the oath that they're supposed to do the will of the people. and if they would go and read that, just to hear the specifics of it, they'd find out that they have to do the silliness away. get rid of the mandate of -- shutting down the government, actually. i don't know what to do. i have no power. but i've gotten in touch with my senator and representative,

but this can do us some real serious, serious harm. if they would adhere to the oath that they took, things would be fine. >> ok. thanks for the call. we also have cameras around capitol hill as we monitor the movements of house and senate leaders. we do expect to hear from senators reid and mcconnell as they announce details on their agreement. again, the initial plan for the senate version was put on hold yesterday as republican lawmakers waiting to hear from speaker boehner on his plan. again, that changed into the afternoon when it was obvious that the republicans did not support the alternative plan. it moved back to the senate and that's where we're at today. david neil has this point. the hashtag is #cspanchat pointing out that this has done nothing to increase our debt, destroy our party and damage our economy. oh, the absurdity. michelle is joining us next from duluth, minnesota. good morning. caller: hello. i just want to make a comment that i think what is going on is good.

i think there is a lot of waste in government. i see it every day. i think there is a way that our government needs to come together and decrease this waste and maybe this is how it's going to happen. we do also need to pay our debt. they have to shave off these excesses that are unnecessary. and that's what i have to say. bye. >> thank you. we'll get more of your calls in just a minute. billy house is joining us on the phone. he writes for national journal. he's on capitol hill. thanks very much for being with s. billy, you with us? >> yes, good morning. >> thank you for being with us. we just read your piece at nationaljournal.com. it looks like the senate bill will come first to the house floor. explain the latest. >> the latest is the news from democrats and republicans that the plan -- the idea in the house would be to take the senate agreement and put it on the house floor first.

now, whether conservatives and the majority of speaker boehner's republican conference would object to that, it's likely, but we don't know for certain. that would mean that the speaker -- after all this time -- would in fact would rely on democratic votes to get this passed. putting to in the house vote would allow for procedural shortcuts in the senate. they would have to go through one cloture motion and perhaps in activity could be concluded as early as tonight and sent to the president for his signature. >> so does this have to go to the house rules committee first? work through how this moves through the chamber in what would be record speed. >> yes, you're absolutely correct. this is a bill that would not only address lifting the debt ceiling cap, extending the nation's ability to borrow, but it also will reopen government or at least restart government funding.

and it would have to go through the house rules committee first, but there's already a built in expedited process for c.r. or so-called short-term spending bill that would allow the house rules committee to then act, set forth procedures and then put it on the floor almost immediately. so the house could be voting on that by late afternoon or perhaps early evening. if it passes and there are 200 democrats, at least 195 that said they would go along with a clean c.r., so minority leader nancy pelosi could coninjure up enough votes to help 30, 40 or more republicans to get this passed. once in the senate, there would be a cloture vote requirement, but only one. and since this agreement essentially is already a bipartisan senate agreement, the notion is it has enough votes to get past cloture and then floor action quickly after that. if it had started in the

senate, the requirement would have been -- the procedures would have required at least three cloture votes. that's why it's starting in the house. there have been overnight discussions between boehner and his lieutenants with the senate leadership. >> it was clear yesterday that there seemed to be a lot of frustration among congressional republicans waiting for the speaker to come forth with a plan and then all eyes on the house rules committee and in a quickly ended at about 5:45 yesterday afternoon. what happened in the ensuing hours? >> well, they claimed frustration. they argued the source of that frustration. the demands, the tinkering the speaker had to do with the bill that he initially was very hopeful of in the morning continued throughout the day, and by late afternoon, members -- dly admitted they knew no longer knew what was in, what was out.

it was clear that conservative oppositions, a number of the issues that were addressed in that early version of the bill helped scuttle it. now, with regard to the senate bill, i'm kind of privy to believe it's a win-win for everybody. it still passes, they can still go home maintaining nevada' done everything humanly possible to block this but that speaker boehner allied with minority leader pelosi, pushed this through. yet, they'll continue their fight, i'm sure they'll say, and meanwhile moderates and democrats can say they saved the day. >> the headline from nationaljournal.com, speaker boehner, eyeing a house vote on a senate bill. again, that could come later in the day. so what was the last 16 days all about then? >> one wonders. felt rtainly could have this hatched maybe not 16 days

ago but 2 1/2 months ago when everybody knew this deadline was approaching. i think what it does do, solidify for conservatives, if they vote for this package today, their promises to do everything in their power for their constituents to try to ut spending, try to slice into entitles. just they didn't have the -- entitlements. just they didn't have the numbers. i think like i said, all sides are hurt, obviously. the polls show that. but there are arguments could be said on all sides that they came out as sort of the victors in this. >> the federal government would be operational through mid january, january 15, and the debt limit would be extended through sometime early or mid february. is that still the framework this morning? >> now, the senate's top two leaders, republican mitch mcconnell of kentucky, and the

democratic leader, the majority leader, harry reid of nevada, are still talking. finalizing the details. you're correct, both of those, from what i understand, are still the dates. there are a couple other elements to it. earlier they had a section that would have called for a budget committee to hash out longer term debt deal. that is now a separate piece of discussion that will not be part of this. there is some talk of a resolution of disapproval that would allow members to disapprove of a budget -- debt ceiling increase in the future similar to what was in the budget control act of 2011, and that we're also understanding there is an anti-fraud provision, verify income for those who receive subsidies under the affordable care act. now, that's actually already in the law, but this would re-emphasize that that sort of procedure will take place.

>> billy house, let me just reset where we're at at the top of the hour. 11:00 in washington, d.c. and we welcome our listeners joining us on c-span radio, x.m. channel 119. we have cameras around capitol hill, including on the senate side, where meetings are still going on between senators reid and mcconnell. we expect some sort of a statement from both senators either later this morning or early this afternoon to outline a framework of this agreement. we also know in a we'll go first to the house of representatives and then to the u.s. senate. what about the president's role in all of this? . . has he been engaged? caller: he has. this has been very much a threeway conversation. i think one little obvious comment is that there is no mention of the so-called two-year delay to the medical device tax. that is something that he added to go along with.

partially in a small way funds part of the affordable care act. i believe he has constantly been in contact with the democrats about what their role today, their very important role could be in getting this senate plan passed. >> there is no such thing as the hastert rule. we know the so-called rule says a bill doesn't come to the floor of the house without a majority of the majority. will that so-called rule be broken today if speaker boehner goes ahead with the plans as reported? caller: fascinating question. as we speak there is no house republican conference scheduled that i'm aware of. there certainly probably would have to be sometime before the vote so the speaker can explain what he's doing, unless it's so frayed on that side such a meeting is no longer even reasonable. you're right, he would have to break a practice, not a rule, of the majority of the majority

allowing such a vote or wanting such a vote to reach the floor. he's done that three or four times already this year. and it is called the hastert rule. it's never been called the boehner rule. >> from the fiscal cliff now to day 16 of the government shutdown, what is speaker boehner's legacy so far? and how much support does he have in the caucus? could he face a challenge in the ensuing months? caller: i was thinking about that -- >> iowa thinking about that and that's a very good question. i think in kind of a -- unexpected way that decision to put a bill on the floor today without the majority backing of his own party, is actually could be seen historically as a brave bill, somewhat delayed by two months or three months, but to do so shows he's the speaker of the house not speaker of the republicans. his persona with a backbone has

eroded. i think doing this today might change that. with regards to the future, he certainly does probably face potential challenges that could not occur until the next term. but keep this in mind, any challenger, even from the far right, would still have to get a majority of votes of the entire house, that includes democrats and republicans. just 17 moderates in his own party could scuttle any right wingers' hopes to become speaker. they would face the same number problems as anybody else to try to topple speaker boehner. the other question is does speaker boehner want to put up with this much longer? >> you have a busy morning and afternoon. two final questions if you could stay with us. first of all the reporting yesterday from fitch threatening the triple-a bond rating, credit rating for the u.s. for the federal government, did that have any impact on lawmakers

overnight? >> i think it did wake people up to the fact that no matter what we say about the administration's deadline and whether or not we believe it's a true deadline or not, there were some real outside and real world repercussions of the not meeting the increase in the debt ceiling by thursday. i think that has played a role, particularly in speaker boehner's decision, to do what he's going to do or is planning to do. yes. we are not sure that they are not going to be more reports from other credit rating agencies today. >> we should point out wall street so far liking what it's hearing. the market is up 195 points. approaching almost the 200 point up arrow today. again it's important to keep in mind this is a short-term agreement. could we be back here in mid january or in early february? >> that's a very good point. what's lost in all this is that

essentially while solving the problem perhaps today or tomorrow, we are kicking off another debt ceiling or c.r. showdown for the next two months. it's all -- here on capitol hill a sense of deja vu. one at a time, and the next two months will take care of itself. >> there had been discussion of a budget resolution by mid december to deal with some of those cuts that are automatic in sequestration kicking in january 1, correct? >> that is correct. it's a confusing date for me. the notion was we needed to do it december 15 so it wouldn't disrupt the christmas shopping mood and the economy. as you know and i know, people don't always shop on christmas eve. they shop long beforehand. that december 15 date, the

motivation for that seems to be more ingrained in the fact that three weeks later the sequester levels would automatically kick in. >> thank you for filling us up to speed on the latest. we appreciate your time. we'll getting back for reporting for nationaljournal.com. thank you. again, all eyes on speaker boehner and the house of representatives and we are also keeping an eye on the u.s. senate. we expect what will be statements either at a stakeout location on capitol hill or from the floor of the senate about the details of this agreement between senator reid, the democratic leader, mitch mcconnell the republican leader, for procedural reasons this will go first to the house of representatives. you can see a number of the reporters lining up. it's been interesting to watch back and forth as lawmakers shuttle from one room to another. you'll see the scrum of reporters and photographers following them. but still no official statement before the microphones.

mary joining us from carroll, michigan, republican line. your thoughts? caller: first i would like to -- whether it's the proposal of the floor on the eve of the government shutdown, not days, weeks into it, number one. upper two, i feel common low to lower middle class the mortgage, special needs child, are all held captive because everything that i based my promises on are now being threatened by a group of people that we elected to be able to solve these problems before a deadline.

>> you're a republican mary, correct? caller: i am a republican. i was a republican. i have been on the fence for the last few years. i even crossed over and voted for obama the second time. >> thanks for the call from michigan. susan, at this point the democrats have had the ability to open the government since october 1, they can simply sign the house bills. again the #is c-spanchat. michael, indiana, democrats line. good morning. >> good morning. first of all state that i am a disabled u.s. veteran. and all of my brothers and sisters in the u.s. military, we rely on those benefits. i think we handle this just like the private sector. we took them to office to do their job. in the private sector you got to do your job, you get fired. it looks like -- you take away a eadline, they'll start to act.

>> michael, thanks for the call. martin, the economist with moodies analytics speaking in washington earlier in the day on the u.s. reaching the brink of its credit rating. that deadline according to treasury department is tomorrow. and day 16 on the government shutdown and what the government needs to do next in terms of its own payments. there's a portion of that event from earlier today. >> tomorrow is the day when the treasury runs out of borrowing authority. so it can no longer borrow more money. it has some cash in the till, according to the treasury secretary, about $30 billion. so it has that cash to spend. every day gets checks in the -- check's in the mail. tax revenues coming in. so you do a little bit of arithmetic and look at last year and the year before and look at how much cash comes in every day and how much cass goes out every day, it -- cash goes out every day, it appears certainly by november 1 when there is a very

large payment do $55 billion for social security and medicare and military pay, that there won't be enough cash in the till. the treasury will have blown through all their cash. at that point someone's not going to get paid on time. now, the open question with the treasury, what it does and manages that, but the best, most likely scenario is that he would pay the bills as they came in when they had the cash. take social security recipients who wouldn't get their money on november 1, but the treasury could collect enough cash by a week later and they would send out the check. the first day when we could actually experience a default as defined by i'm not making a payment to bondholders, would probably be november 15 on that day there's a very large interest payment due. in all likelihood if the treasury -- lawmakers haven't figured this out by november 15, there certainly won't be enough

cash to pay them on time unless the treasury decides to prioritize that debt and say i'm going to pay debt holders before i pay everyone else. >> would medicare have the same point as social security? would it be treated the same way? >> i think it's an open question, but i think, yes, in all likelihood all creditors of the u.s. treasury would be treated equally. they would get their money after everyone whose bills came in first got paid, then they would get paid. that would be social security, medicare, state local governments because they get checks from the federal government to finance all kinds of things. they would be in line. everyone would be in line. just to give you context, if this weren't solved by -- addressed by the end of november, then the cash shortfall would be -- total cash shortfall for that period would be about $130 billion.

so $130 billion will not have gone out in a normalway. that's a lot of money. that in a real dollars and cents way is why we would be in a very deep, dark recession. >> those comments made this morning at an event here in washington. you'll also be able to watch them as with all of our programming on our website at c-span.org. washingtonans woke up to this headline this morning from "the washington post." as the house deal was scuttled, again tomorrow is the deadline for the u.s. reaching its borrowing limit. senate leaders racing to draft the debt bill. that's where we are at at this hour. we are waiting to hear from the senate leaders. the first vote on this will come in the house of representatives as reported by billy house of national journal, and jake sherman of politico, then we'll go later in the day, we presume to the u.s. senate. first to the house rules committee. we'll cover all of that here in on c-span. on c-span2, website, and c spab

radio. pierre is joining us here on washington, d.c. thank you for waiting. your thoughts? caller: how are you? my use of high ber poely and trying my calm. i have friends who have been out of work for a couple weeks. they are not happy about this in any way, shape, or form. i have friends who have -- they make their models so they bought some to do when they are out of work. they are down with those things. now they have nothing to do and calling me up. the point is that i want my government to actually be -- i want them to be -- to do their job well so i don't notice them working. i i notice them working too little now because they can't make a deal. they got sent there to make a deal. i have no say over it because my representative, well, she can't vote. what am i supposed to do? except go to bar on capitol hill and hopefully run into a congressman and say i don't like

what you're doing. i have no say in this. that's what's really making me angry right now. i think making a lot of people here in d.c. angry. they have a lot of time on their hands and they got no recourse. >> thanks for the call. here in our nation's capital, joe who sent this tweet. we were talking earlier with billy about the so-called hastert rule. he says the hastert rule was an invention of the gangster puppeteer tom delay, former house member from texas, good to see speaker boehner is not a kantor puppet. again you can join the conversation and the #is c-spanchat. sandra from alabama, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. my name's sandra and i am from alabama. i am an independent. i couldn't get through on that line so i was a democrat, went to independent. my concern is, i'm 52 years old. i have been disabled for over 10

years. i beat cancer. i have m.s. i'm raising a 14-year-old that has adhd, and with obamacare, they have already cut because our governor has not accept obamacare down here. and tomorrow is my food stamp day. if i don't get my food stamp, my daughter not going to eat. and i'm living with my ex-mother-in-law. if she wouldn't have took us in, we would have been living in our car. >> have you not received any food stamps during the shutdown? or would this be the first real test? caller: tomorrow will be the first real test. i don't know if i'm going to receive them tomorrow even if there is a -- if they do pass anything because it will take a few days. that's basically what they say. my concern is, you know, if i don't -- i don't understand why -- i'm native american indian, too, i'm a black foot indian.

m very despondent to this, i wish native american people would stand up. and i'm one that will. and i believe that this country -- our forefathers would be rolling over in their graves if they saw how this government is being run. and dictating by a few tea partiers. these tea partiers should not be dictating to the speaker. whether on the house or the democrats. either side. i'm an independent. i look at both sides. a i'll stop you on that point. thanks for the all from alabama. independent. next to robert who is calling on the independent line from salem, indiana, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i am a conservative neither republican nor democrat. and i actually propose that the ryan -- boehner go ahead and

present the senate thing. let's go ahead and get this thing right out in the opened. boehner had been just dying to agree with the democrats, let's do that so that we can have another speaker in the house who actually will fight for conservative values. why do we pretend that he is a curve -- conservative? >> who would you want to replace him? >> i don't know. i guess maybe the congressman from iowa, mr. king, sounds like a viable alternative who will not back down. the thing of it is this, the united states is headed for bankruptcy. medicare is getting ready to go belly up. so is medicaid. so is social security. and instead of trying to actually address these facts, what are we doing?

why are we introducing another major entitlement, which we cannot afford? we are indebted to china up to the hub and instead of addressing this fact, we are increasing this. >> thanks for the call from indiana. gerry buckner has this point. the #is c-spanchat. i support the tea party and stand your ground. the country is broke. no more borrowing. no more obamacare. bradley, california, republican line. what's on your mind this morning? caller: good morning, how are you? >> fine, thank you. caller: i'd like you to answer me a question first. what is the approval rate of our congress today? >> the last poll i saw from the gallup organization had it hovering about 10%. caller: that's great. now, they don't seem to be able to come to any meetings of the

minds and what's going on. this country is hurting. and i think the people ought to have the right to say what's right and wrong. not those clowns in congress. >> do you vote in the general elections and primaries and midterm elections? caller: yeah. >> who did you vote for last year? caller: i don't want to get into that right now. what i wanted to do is get a point across. all right. now, what i would like to see happen is that this government take the initiative and create a national referendum. now that could be done by city, state, state to d.c., however. our computerizedcies is thames today can easily handle a national referendum. >> thanks for the call from california. late last month the treasury

secretary, jack lew h. sent a letter to members of congress essentially saying that by tomorrow, october 17, we have reached our credit limit. the federal government would be unable to borrow any additional funds that we would have an estimated $30 billion in the bank, and that's an important number because on any given day the federal government, according to the treasury department, spends between $50 billion to $60 billion. with that deadline looming, and now with day 16 of the government shutdown, jack lew came up to capitol hill last thursday to again reiterate his concern about what would happen if we default on our credit rating. here's what he told members of the senate finance committee. >> our systems were not designed to not pay our bills. our systems were all designed to pay our bills. the legal issues are many. i do not know how you could make the decisions. i do not think the legal authorities are clear at all. and i do not think the administrative process would permit the system to work. we write roughly 80 million

checks a month. the systems are automated to pay because for 224 years the policy of congress and every president has been we pay our bills. you cannot go into those systems and easily make them pay some things and not other things. they weren't designed that way because it was never the policy of this government to be in the position that we would have to be in if we couldn't pay all our bills. >> if you prioritize, our --erstanding, that you don't to the social security payment due, october 23, interest on the debt, at the end of the month, major medicare bills due. on the other hand, knowing the revenues is sketchy. it's lumpy. it's unanticipated amounts. could you go over that. >> we have estimates, if these estimates are wrong then there is the real risk of

miscalculation. i would just note, even in the period of time that i have been keeping congress informed, we have seen swings in the normal course of things of $20 billion in terms of our estimate of what the cash on hand would be. that's not because anyone did anything wrong, because quarterly tax receipts were not exactly where they were estimated to be. i would also remind everyone that we are now in an unusual position with the government shut down. that is having economic consequence that is we are just beginning to understand. all the revenue projections that we have based our analysis on were based on a world where the government was functioning and where all the services that relate to government activity were happening. so it didn't take into account any layoffs that might occur. it didn't account for any reduction in payroll or payroll taxes. so i have to assume that the estimates from before shutdown are likely not to be an accurate predictor of where we are. >> how do we reprogram

computers? >> mr. chairman, i have to tell you i don't believe there is a way to pick and choose on a broad basis. the system was not designed to be turned off selectively. anyone who thinks it can be done just doesn't know the architecture of our multiple payment systems that are very complex. they were designed properly to pay our bills. they were not designed to not pay our bills. >> our pryor at thisization doesn't work? >> i think pryor at thisization is de -- prioritization is default by another name. we are still -- by definition if we don't have enough money to pay all our bills, we will be in default on our obligation. >> jack lew the treasury secretary delivered those comments six days ago last week before the senate committee. we are one day before the threat of reaching our credit limit and potential of defaulting on our bills. the congress working on a resolution in the house and

senate. this tweet from steve who says, do you think a balanced budget amendment might be the answer to the struggle currently be played out? eric watson has the latest details from his posting at the hill.com. headline, speaker boehner who allow a house vote on emerging senate debt ceiling deal. let me read to you part of what eric is reporting at this hour. speaker john boehner has agreed to allow a vote in the house. a here are the specifics --

>> essentially that's where we stand at this hour, but by all accounts from billy house, who we talked to a short while ago from "national journal" it will first be in the house and later in the senate. kiesha, greenville, south carolina, democrats line on day 16 of this government shutdown. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i would like to say i'm disgraced as an american right now that we waited this long. that our house has waited to vote on something. all of us as americans should be outraged. i have two senior parents that live off social security. what do they do when they don't receive their checks if we default? what are they to do? all those if we do default, i say we should rise up and have

congress removed. >> thanks for the call. bill king says this, the tea party wants to change obamacare in 2016, let them win the house and senate and the white house at the polls. becky from arizona. our independent line. good morning. caller: hi. i had a question. in the senate bill, is it also including verifying income for the affordable care act? f so, isn't that -- i have rallied for both republicans and democrats. i don't want more government in america's life. in americans' lives. and if there is going to be verification of income from the already kind of

not having enough people to bring in enough income because they are not checking enough, isn't that in fact putting what the republicans, what we don't want -- >> becky, the short answer is we don't know. we know that yesterday when we were talking about this that issue of the income verification was part of the original proposal being put forth by senate democrats and republicans on a compromise deal. then things changed when the speaker of the house john boehner said he wanted to put a house version on the floor, and that was scuttled late in the day because he didn't have enough votes. whether or not this current plan has the income verification issue you were referring to, we don't know at this hour, but we expect to get more details. it's now almost 11:30 here in washington, d.c. we are expecting to hear from the senate democratic and republican leaders before microphones either at an area known as the ohio clock, or from the senate floor. we also expect to hear from the house leadership during the

course of the day. we don't know specifically if that is part of this final compromise. the negotiations literally are still going on as we sneak -- speak. caller: couple quick things. the last time we did this in 2011, interest rates went up a half of a percent. >> and our credit rating went down to a double-a. caller: exactly. how big of a hit are we going to hit now? and this -- what is it doing to the housing market which is still very much struggling? like i said i have worked, actually volunteered for campaigns for republicans. and i will never, ever for the remainder of my lifetime unless they wake up, ever vet for a republican again. >> becky from arizona, thanks for the call. the market liking so far what it's hearing. right now the market is up 175 points. at one point it was up 200-plus points. we talked about all of this with

marie this morning on c-span's "washington journal." and our interview with her is available on our website at c-span.org. jeffrey is joining us from broken bow, oklahoma. a republican, good morning. welcome to the conversation. caller: yes. honestly i'm proud of what they are doing. i was a democrat. live in a democratic state. in our local elections, if you don't vote democrat, you don't have hardly any vote. >> you have a republican house delegation and two republican senators. caller: exactly. that's what i'm saying. t all our local has no

republicans. it's really sad. but what i'm saying, i changed to republican. because i don't like what the democrats are doing. i do not -- i work very hard and i have worked very hard all my life. i started out as a truck driver. i worked at a paper mill. and i'm here to tell you, i worked very hard for my money. i worked very hard for my children. to raise them. and what's so scary is all the -- we have so many give me programs and things that instead of helping the workers that are low-income, instead of helping

-- moreget to be a more independent, if you work a little bit then they want to cut any kind of help off. where the younger people that's got children can't afford to work and pay their daycare, but if you work, they take away your daycare. >> ok. next is david, joining us from jonesboro, arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning. having a good morning conversation this morning. i feel like we as voters need to remember this come election date. on election day then we can speak our peace the way they are speaking theirs to us. i don't feel like they are honoring their obligations like they are supposed to in congress. >> thanks for the call.

marie has this tweet. again all of these dependent callers on government programs have to vote and depend on spenders to survy. next is linda joining us from ill i now -- illinois. independent line, good morning. i er: hi, i need to just guess basically stick up for the disabled veterans. they have been promised paychecks. many of them came back without limbs. my husband is 100% disability. -- disabled. we depend totally on that check. come the first, always been there. that's how we survive. there is no extra money. that's it. i'm not able to work. and yet they are taking that away.

as far as all the rhetoric about each -- they come out and say we believe this. we believe. the american people are really tired of hearing t they each have good and bad points, but they need to come together and they need to get our country operating. i had no idea about the food stamps or whatever. that's being cut. medicare. i don't know if that one is. i do know about the veterans. and the veterans will not get a check come november 1. crime is going to go up. people are just going to go crazy. >> thanks for the call from illinois. thanks for sharing your story with us. we are also getting your thoughts on our facebook page.

the website is facebook.com/c-span. we also have an unscientific poll, can a debt ceiling deal be reached? we appear to be closer to an agreement being worked out by senate leaders and moving to the house first, but you can weigh in and cast your vote. facebook.com/c-span. gave from 29 palms, california, republican line. good morning to you. caller: morning. thanks for taking my call. i have just a few questions actually because i keep hearing the democrats talk about the debt ceiling and social security . what does social security have to do with the debt ceiling? social security is a separate program that is funded by those who work. i have still no understanding of why we would have to borrow money when social security is self-supporting as far as i

know. when it comes to the budget, isn't it part of the president's job description to balance -- at least balance a budget and loosest sense of the word, that would be to balance a budget from year to year to keep the government going? this president has never balanced bauth as long as he's been in office. >> to be honest, nor have many of his recent predecessors, either. caller: certainly. i agree with that. however there's been times when .e haven't had to shut down this seems to be a returning theme with the current president and his cabinet. >> we certainly had a number of shutdowns during the clinton administration. and certainly during the reagan administration. but now what appears to be happening is there is an agreement that would at least

keep the government in operation through mid january and raise the debt ceiling until february 7. we are now 16.7 or $16.8 trillion and quickly approaching $17 trillion over the next few months. caller: i'd just like to say to those number of callers who are calling in that are dependent on that government check and they are really upset with the politicians and all the rhetoric going on, and my advice to them is, if you're not truly disabled, and i mean disabled, go out and get a job. >> dave, thanks very much for the call. yesterday one of a number hearings we covered related to the government shutdown. and the u.s. reaching its debt limit was the senate small business committee chaired by mary landrieu, democrat from louisiana. among those who testified a number of small business own earns the impact this is having on them. >> i have heard some people in washington describe the

government shutdown as a pin prick to the economy. i didn't hear that today from any of you. would niff you like to comment and just elab brown-waite and underscore would any of you like to comment and just elaborate and underscore would any of you like to comment on just elaborate within it's a pin brick? >> i would be happy to address that. i have seen a number of studies, particularly the tourism industry is a major driver in 44 of the 50 states. and as an economic driver the u.s. travel association released a new analysis that shows that this pin prick is now costing this travel industry $152 million per day. that's growing very quickly. and it is affecting, 450,000 americans who have jobs in this

industry. the national tourism association did a quick survey after it started and showed that there were effects in all but four of the states by their 3,000 members. and these effects are dramatic, immediate, and unrecoverable. more importantly, this type of man-made crisis does create immediate effects for small businesses and all of their employees, but it creates long-term effects which everybody is talked to here can even further depress the travel market going in the future, which is our number one services export. and we have a number of emerging markets such as china and brazil, that are increasingly coming to america. we have finally started a brand u.s.a. program, about two years old, it's just starting to make an effect. and this will have long-term lasting negative effects on all

of those markets and certainly all of the thousands of small businesses that are parts of this industry. >> mr. lay, how would you describe it? does it feel like a pin prick to you? >> it's definite not a pin prick. i think what's really important to convey is the small business owner is you -- when you go and borrow large sums of money, you put up and collateralize everything that you own in the world. everything that i have worked for my entire life is in -- behind that loan. with the uncertainty that's being created right now, if interest rates go up 1% on the size loan that i'm dealing with, over the life of my loan, that's $76,000. that's an employee. that may be me not covering the bank note, losing my house. that's just one percentage point. so we go through this game in washington where every time it's time to decide whether or not we are going to raise the debt

ceiling, we argue about it. it's ridiculous. and it has an immediate impact on our ability to not lose everything that we have put forth. and risked. >> so in my particular situation right now. where i had an excellent program to finance, if the interest rate goes up 2% i may not be able to do it anymore. >> ms. robin son, we'll do this quickly and turn over and get mr. paul and we'll ask more questions. >> sure. i'm at ground zero in terms of the government shutdown being right here in the heart of the d.c. and metropolitan area. we see in the newspaper yesterday, two large defense contractors announced they were going to reduce their upcoming layoff to 5,000 people. those people aren't going to get back pay once they are gone. they are going to have to pay for benefits out of pocket. they are not going to have money to spend on daycare, on entertainment. all that trickles down to our

main street businesses. and the reality is that the conversation has been going on for months about the shutdown, about the problems, about the debt ceiling. c.e.o.'s have been taking that into account for months. they have been making quiet cutbacks, layoffs, making furloughs. so our economy's been suffering for months in this particular area. our lending activity is down 30% from last year. that's a very large number. that's small businesses that aren't buying buildings, aren't buying equipment to expand that aren't going to create jobs. we think that this is much bigger than the small pin prick. we think it's a very major problem. >> mr. paul. >> thank you. i don't also believe it's a pin prick. i think it's the beginning of a hemorrhage. i think that what we have experienced over the past couple weeks, the number of phone calls the bank has received from hundreds and many, many of our borrowers making sure that they have their lines ever credit

available to them. this has resulted in the bank making sure that we have our own liquidity issues that are available to us to continue to fund these lines of credit. i think that if you fast forward this, if we should get this passed through february, what's going to happen between now and february is going to be equally as ugly as what's happened over the past couple weeks. we have a situation right now that the consumer's going to be signature and saying we are not going to go out to dinner, not going to the movies or a show. we are not going to buy a house. new home sales will dramatically be impacted because you'll have people over the next three months that are going to be so paranoid about what's going to happen. i think it's an absolute embarrassment to this contry. i think the trickle-down effect has yet to be felt. i think the economy that's finally starting to get on its feet will be devastated as a result of this kicking the can down the road. >> let me get the other three of you. about the pin prick, stay on that, but also talk about some

people around here saying, well, we'll pay the federal workers' back pay and that will supposedly solve the problem or make the problem go away. so when you answer this, talk about that as well because i think that's missing a big point that some of your small businesses, they are not going to be in that payback discussion. i don't think they are included in that. miss smith, is that what you're hearing? >> yes. >> you have to lean into your mike, please. >> yes, i'm hearing that as well. and, yes, it is more than a pin prick. we have companies decreasing in revenue. we have many small businesses that may have to close their doors. small businesses, we are the life line of the economy and the key to recovery. yes, it's definitely more than a pin prick. >> mr. reesey. then mr. ford. then i'm going to go to the others for questions.

>> yes. i would agree, it's much more than a pin prick unless it's a very large pin. the majority of the employment in this country is by small businesses like the people we have around this table, and like many of the clients i have at the bank. 2/3 of the economy is consumer driven. it was mentioned just a moment ago about the uncertainty creating problems with that part of the economy. i believe that's real. i believe that's large. so this really is not a pin prick. >> mr. ford. >> i certainly agree and to your point, senator, small businesses will not be paid for the work that we have lost now. that is lost revenue. that going away. that will not return. if we look at contracts that we have, as soon as we do go back to work, those contracts will have to be modified because those contracts have deliverables time based. that means those contracts need to be modified which further delays the process, because we have to get new contracts.

again that will not be paid. if you -- we are a -- a company, that time that is lost is lost. will you not get that changed. if i am' there i would be concerned because that time is not coming back. if we look at the concept of a pin prick, we are talking about when we had to lay people off, you have to look in the eyes of somebody you know you have a family, i know about the kids, the people that we have to lay off. these are people that came to our corporate picnics. that is not a pin prick. when you are talking about people who may have to go on assistance of the government that they don't trust anymore, they also lose confidence in small businesses, which are the innovators of america. that is not a pin prick. we look at the fact that as you talked about, my line of credit is based on the he creditworthiness of myself anti-partners. everything i have had over the past 14 years has been put into this business. my home has been put in this business.

that's what my banking friend used as collateral. if gi out of business, everything my three friends i'm working for goes away. >> nobody is going to reimburse you for this. there is no bill -- >> there is no bill at all. >> senator high camp. >> i am struck because we are talking not only about the shutdown but we are also talking about this uncertainty about the debt limit. and what interest rates, how they all affect all of you. now, on top of hearing that it's a pin prick, i'm sure you also heard that there is a number of amateur economists out there who ave been telling us all that debt limit can be managed by paying our interest. the debt limit, those are false days, we don't need to worry about it. we recently had hearing in the banking committee where we heard from the relltors who told us that they believe if we miss this default deadline, home mortgages will go up at least 1% if not more. we are already seeing our treasury as being discounted, as

high as almost 70 basis points. so my question to all of you is we include this discussion, as you have, about what the debt limit means and this constant uncertainty. and i really would appreciate comments on the proposal which a lot of you have referenced of only going out to february as opposed to looking at a long-term deal. and really encourage you to encourage us to look at something much longer than that to give you the certainty that you need. so anyone who wants to comment on the debt limit, i would appreciate that. >> being we are in a start up world on the web where things are venture packed and uncertainty is a part of what we sign up for in some sense. but we do assume that the full faith and credit of the u.s. get is something we don't have to be uncertain about.

the decision that is investors make, the decisions the capital markets make reflect on what start-ups get started. they reflect on whether happen in this country or somewhere elsewhere there is more confidence. i think this is manufactured crisis leading into manufactured crisis, these are things that we can control. it's callous to call it a pin prick to the people who are directly affected and whether that means they are on government assistance and can't be part of the economy because we don't have northern ireland income or whether they get laid off, but also further down the line, all those people are engaged, all the small businesses directly affected by what other small businesses are producing, there is this domino effect. it's not just the one business shutting down, it's the five or six other businesses down the chain. >> thank you. i think my comments are more related to the short term -- the

short-term fix for companies like mine who we just got a very large contract in october and it's expected we will hire a lot of people which is great for the economy, but do i have the confidence that in three months i'm not going to be shut down? then what happens to my business that i worked over the last 16 years to grow? it's hiring good people. we hire doctors. we hire nurses. we hire analysts. there's a lot of competition for that talent. now i'm faced with having to hire, which is a really good problem, but on the other hand how are we supposed to handle that? in three months if we have to let them go. >> just for the record, what would you pay a doctor or some of your medical professionals, the range of what you are offering people in that contract? >> our average salary for our nursing staff, we do, we have nurses across the country, is somewhere in the range of $70,000 is an average salary.

and the physicians is probably twice that. >> fromied's hearing focused on small businesses and the senate small business subcommittee chaired by mary landrieu, senator from louisiana. roll call is reporting, quote, with just hours to meet the deadline to extend the debt ceiling, house leaders still have not decided how or when to vote on the senate deal expected to be announced shortly. and reuters is reporting that senate leaders will anouse the framework of the deal at noon eastern, in about 10 minutes. we'll have live coverage on our companion network, c-span2. jason has this. a tweet saying, if the republicans cave and give the president everything he wants, it is time to defund the g.o.p. and from the "wall street journal," there is this from aaron who writes how congress could speed up the debt bill. he points out in the washington wire, house asked congress to pass a debt deal to avoid as you us debt default, with senator leaders close to settling on the deal, attention turns to whether

any lawmakers paging ted cruz will make use of senate rules that allow a single senator to slow down legislation. joining us live on the phone is aaron blake, who is following all of this for "the washington post." thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you, steve. >> all eyes on the u.s. senate. harry reid and mitch mcconnell. we are told they'll announce something in about nine or 10 minutes. what are you hearing? >> yeah. all eyes are on the senate. the most important decision remains in the hands of house speaker john boehner. the big questions right now are, one, whether he will allow a vote on the senate's -- the senate package, which we still don't have all the details on. and number two, whether that vote would, in fact, come before the senate which would allow for a more timely passage of the legislation. or whether the senate would have to act first, in which case this would be a more drawn out process potentially, as you mentioned. >> the headline at "washington post."com senators close to a deal to end the shutdown.

explain what's been happening since the house rules committee abruptly canceled its session last night. there were no votes in the house. earlier in the day the speaker said there would be a vote in the house. now this morning an apparent agreement based on the earlier discussions between senators reid and mcconnell. >> basically what happened here is the senate was getting close to a deal as of late monday. on tuesday they essentially gave house speaker john boehner a chance to craft his own legislation and maybe make this process a little easier if he could push through a compromise bill in the house and then pass it on to the senate. that didn't wind up happening. just proved way too difficult for boehner to do that. i think that if the senate passes a piece of legislation, maybe it's a little easier for boehner to allow a vote on it rather than to pass something he himself crafted that would pass with more democratic votes than republican votes. which is a big sticking point i should mention with conservatives who would prefer that whatever the house passes

be passed with majority republican votes under the hastert rule. and reflect the kinds of concessions that republicans and conservatives are asking for out of this process and are the reason why we are in this situation we are now with two weeks into the shutdown and on the verge of the debt ceiling deadline set by the treasury department. >> one of a number of sidebar stories available on the website at "washington post."com, tomorrow's deadline. as your colleagues point out, it's not a hard and fast deadline, but it is a date in which the treasury does not have the ability to maneuver with its bills and credit ratings, correct? >> republicans have been making this argument for a while that october 17 is not the day that all of a sudden the united states government can no longer pay the interest on its liabilities. in fact that's likely to come later in the month, possibly as late as november 1. the obama administration hags basically said they consider default to be anything that

means they cannot pay some of their obligations, be it social security, other kinds of benefits. but there is some kind of wiggle room as far as when exactly the real negative consequences start taking place. what's really important to note here is that the perception of passing that deadline is probably what matters the most. we saw yesterday the credit rating agency, fitch, adjusted its outlook for the united states credit rating to negative. if we pass the debtline tomorrow, there is a possibility that those credit rating agencies could make a decision along the lines of what s&p did two years ago and actually, potentially downgrade the united states credit, at which point this would be a whole new set of difficult circumstances to deal with. >> aaron blake, we began the day yesterday thinking we were close to a deal that again changed when we heard from the speaker of the house, john boehner. who is calling the shots in the house republican caucus?

>> i don't think anybody. i think that really it's a difficult situation for boehner to be in. at the same time the opposition within the republican party to this senate plan is not terribly organized. there's not someone leading this effort. it's just kind of a bunch of members who don't necessarily like they are not getting much out of this deal. they are voting in unison but mostly because they see their neighboring members voting that way. it's kind of a situation where the senate needed to assert itself. now it's up to house speaker john boehner to decide whether he wants to allow a vote on this package and -- insofar as he can decide when that vote will take place and whether that vote will take place, he still remains in charge to some degree. >> one person at the speaker's side is congressman eric cantor, republican from the richmond, virginia, area, and some continue to speculate he has his eyes on the speakership

position. could speaker boehner face a challenge in his own caucus? >> it's certainly a question that's out there. if he allows a vote on the senate plan and it passes with universal democrat support and very little republican support, as it appears it would, there may be some kind of a backlash against the speaker. it's a very charged atmosphere obviously on capitol hill right now. the conservative wing of the party would see that as a can pit plays -- capitulation. congressman jimoredian, a leading conservative also from ohio like john boehner, he told us today that he does not see a movement to unseat boehner as speaker right now. of course that could change when they, and there certainly will be talk about that if it comes to be, but at this point that kind of noise not being made by the conservative wing of the republican party in the house. >> if we could reset, this again is some of the information we talked about a moment ago, but we have listeners also on c-span

radio just ruin tuning in, approaching noon eastern time, we know the senate leaders will speak on the senate floor with this new agreement, walk us through the afternoon. what do you expect? >> well, once the senate comes forward with this plan, the house has a chance to review it. there have been conchflicting reports -- conflicting reports about what the house will dofment the aides tell us they'll review the plan and make a determination whether they'll vote on it. whether they'll vote or the senate will vote first. that's the next big question after this plan comes forward. obviously the most significant portion of this is whether the house will vote on the senate plan. if they will vote on it, that means we are very likely headed for an end to this situation at some point. from there it will be a matter of whether this will happen sooner than later. that's what we need to keep an eye on this afternoon. keep an eye on house speaker john boehner. >> a story in the "washington post."com, another short-term agreement funding the government

through mid january and raising the debt limit through early february. >> we get to do it all over again in a few months. that's the good news here for all those political watchers out here and bad news for the american people. the question is, whether this set of circumstances and the way this debate panned out will embolden either side, will republicans seek a similar showdown in three or four months given the polls show them paying a bigger price? the white house really wanted to set a precedent this time by not having any concessions. i don't know that they are going to get a 100% win out of this deal. so we'll have to see whether both sides approach future negotiations in a similar fashion. i know that house republican leaders would prefer that this whole situation didn't get replayed again in three months. >> final question, could one senator, like ted cruz, scuttle this whole deal? >> the way the senate works, that's possible. i think if the house moves

first, that makes that less likely. i do think at this point that there is enough support in the senate to overcome a filibuster. republicans would join with democrats in allowing this to come to a vote and they would probably support the senate plan depending on what it is. there could be a delay, but i think at this point the delay would simply be delaying the inevitable, which would be the senate's passage of this piece of legislation. >> aaron blake joining us live from "the washington post" newsroom, thanks for joining us on updating us where it stands. you can join us online at "washington post"ings com we are told the house democratic caucus will hold a meeting in two hours at 2:00 eastern time. if you want to turn over to c-span2 in just a moment or two, you'll hear from senators harry reid and mitch mcconnell. we'll have live coverage of that as well. c-span radio will also be carrying their remarks with the update on where things stand. meanwhile this is from top aides

to the senate democratic leader harry reid and the senate republican leader, mitch mcconnell, forming a deal to raise the debt limit through february 7. >> this tweet from a viewer saying we are at a crossroads, if we don't wake up we'll miss the turnoff. from crn span chat. join in on the conversation, also weigh in on our faith-based -- faith-based -- facebook page. the senate on c-span2. and throughout the day, more of your calls and comments as the developments continue here in washington, d.c. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] the speaker: the house will be in order. our prayer will be offered today by our guest chaplain, reverend kurt