lummis: would the gentleman yield? i understand in the old senate chambers that still exist in this building that you can go see congressman crockett's desk, is that the case? mr. roe: that is correct. the reason that i was -- about 10 years ago, i never had service in the state or federal government and i wanted to take this time just to serve my country as i did my patients over the years. i was asked to be on the city commission and i was fortunate enough to run and then became mayor of johnson city. and i brought the philosophy, spend less than you take in. how do we deal with that philosophy? six years ago in our city of 60,000 people, we had $2 million in reserves. and when i came to congress, we had $24 million in reserves, we had not raised taxes and our bond rating went up while everybody else's went off the cliff. the city has a great commission and they're going to balance this budget and every single budget we passed had a surplus. now the philosophy in washington, d.c. i found out is you borrow more than y

lummis: will the gentleman yield? >> i will. mrs. lummis: i would like to acknowledge two other members of the freshman class who served in the military, john fleming, from louisiana, was a medical officer in the u.s. navy and brett guthrie, one of our colleagues from kentucky, served as a field artillery office in the air a-- 101st division air assault at fort campbell. we have other veterans as well. i want to turn now to a subject on the front burner in congress, both house and senate, both energy and health care. we have a wonderful array of talent in our class on both subjects. we have two medical care providers with us to discuss that issue. i know i was listening briefly to the progressive caucus before we had this little opportunity to visit this evening and they were espousing the benefits that they see in providing health care by way of a government-funded option. and i might point out, before i turn it over to mr. thompson, that government payers, and this was an independent study, found out that medicaid and medicare have

lummis: i thank the gentleman. in wyoming we have had surpluses in our budget for the last seven years. and it is because of the explosive growth in the production of energy. it has made our unemployment among the lowest in the nation. in fact, there were times during the last seven years that we have had statistically zero unemployment. incredible. while i was running for this position i stopped at a fast food place to get an iced tea late at night and they offered me a job and they offered my daughter a job at this fast food place because they are so much in need of employees. wyoming is unique in that regard. and it is because we are producing domestic energy and there are new discoveries of domestic natural gas all over the united states. the balkan in north dakota is fantastic. it's creating wealth for people who have been farming at that very narrow margin of profitability, zero -- 0% to 4% for years. mr. akin: you're talking about we're creating jobs and wealth and the government's not doing it? oh, my goodn

lummis: absolutely. i think a lot of americans have the perception that big oil is who is recovering these natural resources but even those firms hire very small, literally mom and pop operations, five and six employees, to go out and do the drilling, to do some environmental compliance, to do the surveying and to complete those wells and do the fracturing of the deep seams that are required to cause the gas to flow into a natural gas well. . in wyoming, over 350 businesses. what we see on the horizon through the national energy tax called cap and trade would be devastating to those businesses. mr. akin: reclaiming my time, what you're doing is making a tremendously important connection. and i think a lot of people do get that impression that all the jobs in america like general motors or general electric, or, you know, mobile oil or whatever it happens to be. but in reality, what we find is, you define small business as about 500 or so employees or less. small businesses create almost 80% of the new job

lummis: i'm a member of congress from wyoming. i'm a freshman and a republican. this is the first time that the freshman republicans have engaged in a special order and it's my privilege to be joined by members of the republican freshman. this is our opportunity to share with you our perspective on these first five months in congress that we have shared together as freshmen, to tell you about ourselves and about our views about this process, about where we have been in the last five months and as fiscal conservatives the nation should be going instead. and i'm pleased to be joined, first of all, but one of my freshmen colleagues who has a very interesting background. glenn thompson from pennsylvania is, in addition to his professional career, a volunteer firefighter and has volunteered for the boy scouts for 30 years. i yield to him to talk to you about why he chose to run for congress and what he is accomplishing here and how he feels that if this congress could work together more closely on fiscal conservativism, how this nation would currently be better off an

lummis: i rise in support of pastor shawn kumm. he's joining us from laramie, wyoming, where he's part of the zion evangelicallet ran church. he settled in wyoming in 1996. he held two offices, first as secretary to the board of directors, followed by his nomination in 2003 to vice president of the senate, a position which he currently holds. pastor kumm and his wife, barbie, have two children. his son nikolai and daughter alexandria who is here today. he's provided invaluable help to his church and my constituency. i thank him for his positive impact, leadership and service to the community and wish him the best as his congregation continues to grow with god's blessing. i also want to acknowledge representative jeff fortenberry who joins me here today, and pastor kumm's parents reside in representative fortenberry's district. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair will entertain up to 15 further win-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland r

public prayer in schools, i was like 100% by i felt out the questionnaire and now i'm against all lummis tests. i think we ought to be out of all those issues so it was a shock for me to read that and if anybody should get that far in the book it will surprise them because when i am on tv doing these things -- those are not mauney views today. and although conversations >> i'm interested and i think martha has a great platform and it is not going away and tell me is the guy who spearheaded the whole campaign back in eda. amazing position and a researcher. >> one of the central characters in the book, right? >> david clarke? >> the book made into the hbo movie. >> aren't you michael smerconish? national syndicated radio talk-show host, regular author radio guy who cares a lot about issues than you care about. >> is this for real? twice still need to be concerned? >> the swine flu? it's not predictable it's pointed to but it's not acting any more severe than a regular seasonal flu it is just out of season. it means it probably is more unpredictable than the standard viruses that go around

. >> miss lummis. >> dr. bernanke, thank you for being here today.i want to visit a bit about that balance between taxes and spending in the medium term. if congress just increases taxes to eliminate the deficit in ten years, let's say, without cutting spending, could that have an effect on our economic recovery, a negative effect? >> as i was trying to make the distinction earlier, in a economy in recession, tax cuts or tax increases have two effects. one is the incentive effects which are more long-term effects. but also withdrawing purchasing power, taking away income from consumers. and in a short-term, recessionary situation, i think that latter effect is more important. if you raise taxes during a recession, you probably want to offset it with a tax cut elsewhere, for example. over a longer period of time, you have to weigh the implications of higher taxes on incentives and on potential growth against the benefits of what you're using the revenue for. there is a cost benefit trade-off to be made there. and in particular, i think -- i believe th