mr. butterfield's public admission results in the white house shutting down the taping system. so now that you've got a sense of how enormous this system is, if you're trying to figure out water watergate, you realize oh, my goodness, this covers the period. the plumbers. it covers the dirty tricks operations. it covers the watergate break-in and the cover-up. this is going to tell us what actually happened. let's go back to the time line. so you know you have this huge bit of information. and the question is how to get it. now, president nixon -- well, let me put it this way. if we were having this conversation in january of 1973, just imagine that cable existed then. in fact, imagine a different world. but in any case. it's january 1973. you wouldn't know that kennedy had a taping system. kennedy had sadly been dead for almost ten years. you wouldn't know that lyndon johnson who had been out of office for four years had had a taping system. you wouldn't even know that fdr had a taping system. why is that? that's because our system of government allowed presidents to claim own

mr. butterfield. how was nixon so confident, able to be so confident in his ability to keep these tapes jit it seems maybe just with hindsight inevitable a scandal like this would arise these tapes would get out. was it hubris? did he think he had a much tighter grip on his inner circle than he ended up happening? why do you think he had confidence to keep this secret? >> i don't know but i was flattered by it, because the secret was well kept, until this -- and to answer the question earlier that someone mentioned, perhaps it was the dean. why he didn't burn the tapes. i always felt i knew why he didn't. it was simply because he could not fathom, he couldn't imagine, the tapes ever being revealed. he really didn't. he had that much confidence. on i'm sure that's right early on. there was no one that was going -- it is amazing. henry kissinger didn't have a clue, rose mary woods did not vat clue. we just didn't run around talking about it. and -- well, you know. i think i'm right about that. i don't k

mr. butterfield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina is recognized for two minutes. mr. butterfield: thank you. the gentleman from massachusetts is absolutely correct. this is a sad and troubling day. what we see here today, mr. speaker, is nothing more than using the halls of congress for extreme partisan political purposes. this case is all about politically motivated confrontation with executive branch on a matter that does not even begin to rise to this level. this case is not about gun walking. those documents have been provided and are not in dispute. the documents at issue are completely unrelated to how gun walking was initiated in operation fast and furious. the department has produced thousands of pages of documents. the committee has interviewed two dozen officials and the attorney general has testified on nine occasions. this is an election year witch-hunt. i say that to the gentleman from south carolina. this is an election year witch-hunt. during this 16-month inve

mr. butterfield, for five minutes. mr. butterfield: thank you, mr. speaker. the centerpiece of president obama's 2008 presidential campaign was the promise of health care reform. he told us time and time again that every president has seen the urgency of reform, that all of them attempted reform and none succeeded. president obama reminded us of the fact that having more than 40 million uninsured americans is unacceptable. it is not only bad for the individual, but it is bad for the american economy, it is bad for hospitals who absorb the loss for these indigent patients or shift the costs to other patients. during the campaign the president went on to painfully highlight the unfair practices of some insurance companies in making people think they have quality insurance policies when in fact in many instances it is not worth the paper it is written on. after fierce debate and after the right-wing tea party instilled unfounded fear in the hearts of good americans, the congress passed the affordable care act and it is good policy for the american people. but th

mr. butterfield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 90 seconds. mr. butterfield: let me thank you, mr. pallone, for yielding the time and thank you so very much for your leadership on the health subcommittee. you do extraordinary work on our committee. mr. speaker, i rise today in support of s. 3187, the amended version of the food and drug administration safety and innovation act. i strongly support this bill and particularly pleased that the intent of h.r. 3059, the creating hope act, sponsored by my good friend from texas, mr. mccaul, and myself was included in the final bill. i'm thrilled to highlight section 908, the rare pediatric disease priority review voucher incentive program. the program will incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for children with rare pediatric diseases such as childhood cancers and sickle cell disease, by expanding the cost-neutral priority review voucher program, expanding the voucher program will allow pharmaceutical companies to expedite f.d.a. review of more profitable drugs in return for developing

mr. john dean and our panelists alexander butterfield and scott armstrong. [ applause ] >>> this is really a unique panel this morning. take a special delight in being able to moderate. i'm the guy who thought i was taped. scott's the guy who thought there might be taping. alex is the guy who knew there was taping. they have been together once before almost 40 years ago where they sort of, one, brought this information to the public, but also realizing the importance historical importance of what they were doing, they paused to make a record of it. that record was recorded many years later in the journal of american history which is a fairly detailed account. it's the march 1989 addition, if anybody is ever interested in going through every detail. what i thought would be interesting this morning is to reminisce about that where we can short of serve as your fact witnesses this morning. if you were in the audience last night, jill volner did a wonderful job of providing a chronology of events, many of them touching on the tapes because the tapes will become the central issue in the waterga