arcuri. >> thank you madam chair. i would just like to say thank you to all of the people on the panel for their comments and their thoughts and i would just offer to my friend and colleague mr. weiner some time. i know you were trying to talk a while ago. did you have any questions? >> i don't want to belabor the point. mr. cordozo would put it more fy than i could have, the idea that sometimes citizens don't realize the exponentially higher cost of paying health care reflected in ways they don't see every day. every employee of mr. cardozo's business not only pays the insurance for their employees but pays the insurance for every city employee, every state employee, every federal employee, every retiree for those different levels of government and the ways that the high cost and inefficiency of health care manifests itself is not always appearance to citizens. they don't always wake up in the morning and see if that in my home city of new york we have an eight alien dollar amount that we pay to cover the uninsured t

call congressman arcuri. tell him to stand up for us. not the insurance companies. >> now, congressman arcuri is a democrat who says he is going to vote no. isn't it kamikaze for your allies to go out and targeting democrats who will face tough races in the midterms? >> people feel strongly about this issue. and sadly, we're going to have to do this alone as a democratic party. but it's our moment to lead. i think in the short-term and in the long-term, this is going to be seen, most importantly for the country. politics are about comparisons. and so, i think that we're going to -- listen. for a variety of reasons. we have a tough economy. we've run a lot of races. we have a lot to defend. we're going to have a tough election. i think our outcome in 2010 can be a lot better than the pundits think. >> would you ask your union allies to back off and not to target, these are the most vulnerable democrats in the house right now? you have threats to rescind endorsements. to endorse independent candidates. is it time for the unions to back off

congressman michael arcuri, democrat from new york, changed his vote to no. the president had personally lobbied him and rahm emanuel, but at the end of the day the public doesn't understand what's in the bill or how it's going to be helpful and doesn't think it keeps health care costs in check though he says he supports health care reform and i find him interesting because part of the argument if you support health care reform then lets get this passed and fix it later, finesse it later down the line and he isn't buying that and he's saying no this morning. >> you saw that some of the other members who flipped and some going back and forth from no to yes and yes to no and we're trying to track that. the magic number is 216 and the democrats have 253 seats in the house and as caroline pointed out they cannot lose more than 37 members. it more than 37 members vote no, it's done. >> and you wonder at what point nancy pelosi will begin the other legal, in the wrangling, but who they can let off the hook once she gets above the number. all of the people on the fe

looking at a blank page for two or three days coming to realize what the total and complete failure to arcuri at which is never happened to these gentlemen and not only have they published these bestsellers now they are off on new projects and we ought to talk about that. hampton, door book is coming out in just a few weeks. >> it is a book about -- i grew up in memphis and i think all characters at some point want to go back to the place they came from and in this case i wanted to go back to the pivotal moment in the place i came from, april of 1968 in memphis and the confluence of the forces that brought king to memphis my father was a lawyer and he worked for the law firm that represented came when he came on the garbage workers that went on strike in the fall or excuse me spring of mike 19th degette. lagat captivated by james earl ray and this became not so much the story of the assassination as how the fbi track down james earl ray the largest manhunt in history at that time $2 million, 6,000 agents, for different countries. he was finally caught by the scotland yard in london two months

. >> you do know it is in the "washington post" said the arcuri did refuse. making assignments. >> let's talk about that because i see daily ron scribbling note. and when you do have money to spend whether it's three and $50, $50, whatever. trying to get the right book to the right reviewer is a big challenge, and this matters to the consumer because the end product hopefully is going to be helpful to you. i'm not sure if that is what you're scribbling about. >> i think that is one of the great loss is what katharine and it mentioned. the newspaper ceased to have their own book critics if you could plot your reaction to a book according to that person that you do like we did with the towns restaurant critic and tonnes movie predict who was wrong. [laughter] but that's helpful, isn't it? because you knew where they are. >> so and so doesn't like this if he does the mauney will go. but now all of the book critics are gone except a few to the and so every book review you are reading of the paper has been freelance or syndicated. you don't know who that person is

arcuri: thank you, mr. speaker.ing these tough economic times, american families have been forced to cut back and tighten their financial belts. it's time that congress do the same and set an example for the rest of the federal government. that is why i have introduced the congressional belt tightening act of 2010 which would cut our salaries as members of congress and our office budgets by 5% next year. last year my office tightened its financial belt and returned more than 8% of our official office budget to the treasury for deficit reduction. additionally, we should pass legislation that requires votes on pay raises every year, no more automatic pay raises. my bill would require an up or down vote on all salary increases indefinitely. if the members think they are deserving of a pay raise they will have to vote on it or answer to the american people. congress cannot be seriously talk about reining in spending in washington and work to decrease our nation's debt if we are not willing to do it ourselves. thank you