mr. blumenauer aye. mr. schrader aye. mr. chairman no. mr. chairman, on that boat, the ayes are 17, noes 22. >> the amendment is not agreed to. are there other amendments? >> amendment no. 9. >> mr. chairman, an amendment offered by ms. lee related to overseas contingency operation fun. >> the gentle lady is recognized for nine minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. this amendment will in the uncontrolled spending to fund our overseas operations, which really has little or oversight or accountability. just last week, i met with special investigator -- excuse me, and special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction and reviewed his detailed report on waste, fraud, and abuse going on in afghanistan. i know of you know of the report of taxpayer dollars this appearing in cash coming in suitcases. no one really knows how many millions of dollars really have been stolen from the american taxpayer. my amendment cuts $338 billion over 10 years from the overseas contingency operations account and reallocate those funds to other account

mr. blumenauer aye. mr. schrader aye. mrs. blackburn no. mr. chairman no. mr. chairman, on that vote -- oh, i'm sorry. mr. pascrell aye. mr. chairman, on that vote the ayes are 17, the noes are 22. >> ayes 17, noes 22. the amendment is not agreed to. are there other amendments? >> mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report and distribute copies of the amendment. >> mr. chairman, an amendment offered by mr. mcdermott, an amendment preventing the end of medicare. >> the gentleman is recognized for nine minutes. >> i want to offer again an amendment, mr. chairman, to remove the medicare voucher program from the republican budget and retain the medicare existing guaranteed benefit. this is the third time in a row, in fact, i sat on the medicare commission back in the 1990's and they tried it then, the voucher system. republican budgets call for an end to medicare as we know it with this ryan voucher program. as in years past, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to hide what it's called. this tim

mr. blumenauer: thank you, dr. bera. i appreciate your focus on this and pointing out that this is something that shouldn't be a partisan issue, doesn't have to be a partisan issue and it is in fact a success story that has made a huge difference in the lives of seniors from coast-to-coast. it's helped in many cases stabilize what's happened in terms of local health care economics. the pattern that we have seen in escalating health care costs for the last 40 years, yes, there are concerns about health care as it relates to medicare, but if you compare the rate of increase of private health insurance versus the rate of increase in medicare, medicare spending has not gone up as rapidly as what's happened with the private insurance sector. no senior citizen under medicare needs to go bankrupt because of medical costs. the security that you mentioned, i find it embarrassing and shameful that the united states is the only major country in the world where there are still people going bankrupt for health care costs. half of all

mr. blumenauer. for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. as we wait for the congress and administration to deal with how to do business differently for defense, for health care, for the tax code, we can take a break today as we welcome over 750 men and women from every state in the union who are here for the 14th annual bicycle summit. they represent, as you might expect, people from cycling clubs, mountain bike industry. they're dedicated recreational cyclists, those in bike purism, which has become very good business, by the way. and they are part of bicycle manufacturing and those who sell bicycle apparel. bicycles mean business. over $150 million of economic activity in a year employing over 1,000 people. as the bike summit attendees visit capitol hill later this week, we'll have an opportunity to hear from people of all ages, all walks of life, communities large and small. the federal government should be a stronger partner in capitalizing on the most efficient form of urban transportation ever designed. bicycles burn calories, not fos

mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: what's so maddening about the sequester drama, just like the earlier fiscal cliff drama and the looming government shutdown drama, is that it is hopelessly beside the point. the path to fiscal sustainability is not merely cutting budgets, raising tax rates or closing a few loopholes. it's about fundamentally doing business differently. health care costs demand we accelerate health care reform, which we're already working on in oregon and in a number of other communities and health care systems across the country. these reforms have put into effect nationally would save more in health care costs over the next 10 years than the entire $1.2 billion in the sequester. trillion dollars. everybody's getting excited about across-the-board cuts in the department of defense, but no one's talking about how we fundamentally have to change our philosophy of military compensation, benefits and the size of the force to come to grips with the cost of an all-volunteer army. of course at a m

mr. blumenauer.he made the statement that the democrats won the election, but he did not tell about all the voter fraud that made them win like the voter fraud in the battleground states and the people in ohio right now that are going to jail. jim, where did you read about the fraud? ?: read about it it was all over the news. you did not say much about it, that all the voter -- battleground states had voter fraud and in ohio right now they are having hearings on people that voted twice and six times and whatever it -- whatever. host: all right. conversely? i am afraid jim is channeling some some of the people who have made it hard for americans to vote. of rampant voter making it extraordinarily difficult for average americans to vote is fantasy. the study could only find one or two cases out of millions of votes cast. i come from a state where we do all our ballots by mail, a system that i would advocate a nationally, which would take the air out of this balloon. i started as a young activist workin

mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. this week we begin the republican charade of pretending to balance the budget in 10 years without a hint of how it really is possible. they intend to repeal obamacare, which was the central issue the last campaign where you remember president obama was re-elected, the senate went even more democratic, and the house democrats gained seats and won over a million more votes than the republicans. normal people would think that the obamacare issue might be settled. does anybody realistically think it's going away any time soon? the republican fantasy budget reduces taxes dramatically without a hint of how it would be possible. without exploding the deficit or dramatically raising taxes on the middle class. this is consistent with what the romney ryan ticket said on the campaign trail last fall. the same issue where they dodged, assembled, and ignored the perfectly reasonable question how is it possible? six months later it's back in the budget but there's still -- but there still is no ans