. >> some tough kess in africa to the economic battle taking place here in washington. across the board budget cuts, known as a sequester are set to take place. ahead of that deadline, both political parties were keen to put their spin on events. president obama appeared in a briefing room after a meeting with congressional lead doors make his case. >> at a time when our businesses have finally begun to get tracks, hiring new workers, we shouldn't be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on and workers depend on like education and research and infrastructure and defense. it's unnecessary and at a time when too many americans are still looking for work, it is-in excusable. >> president obama, earlier today. how do average americans feel about the stand-off? our michelle wasn't to norfolk, decision. >> american politics aren't too popular among this crowd. washington may only be a three-hour drive away, but they don't think much here about how the nation's capital is handling the showdown. >> politically, how can congress let that happen

the specifics are done by the kess so the ways and means committee right now is doing what you're talking about. it's having hearings, dave camp is the chairman of the committee and has a great group of people right now that are combing through and looking at the best way to put a fair system in place that closes the loopholes and lower rates for families and businesses. if we have two options if you have your mortgage interest and you want to continue using the current system, you're able to do that. but if you want a fair system where you actually pay less, in tax rates, you're going to have that option, too. so i think that's a good option for families to say let's look at the code and see how it works best for me and let the families make that decision, not the federal government. >> that's a little known part of the ryan budget that republicans flagged to me and that is the assumption of 19.1% of revenues. are republicans quietly saying that we support staying at this revenue level of 19% of g.d.p.? because if so that seems to be a bit of movement on revenue. >> the current baseline

it is leaner, it provides a road map for kess that can fuel a 21st century work force. it removes roadblocks that prevents workers from receiving in demand training and it gives employers more flex to believe the provide funding for in demand programs. it ensures that more of every dollar we spend goes to training people, rather than to the bureaucracy administering the 47 different programs today. house republicans are ready to show we can put skilled american workers over government bureaucracy by passing the skills act. i support passage of this rule and the underlying bill and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: i would like to inquire of the screalt from north carolina if she has remaining speakers. ms. foxx spks we do have addition -- ms. foxx: we do have additional speakers. mr. polis: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: i yield three minutes o the gentleman, mr. metser. mr. messer: i rise today in support of the rule to h.r. 803, the skills act this cr