mr. cantor: mr. speaker, again the question has to do with the gentleman and his side and the president's insistence that somehow the math requires us to raise taxes on small business men and women. we don't believe that. we don't believe that we ought to let tax rates go up and create a tax hike on the small businesspeople of this country. because, number one that exacerbates the challenge that we are already dealing with in trying to get this economy growing, and number two, it will put more money into the hands of washington to begin to start spending that money without paying down the debt. 7 the gentleman knows very well -- the gentleman knows very well our commitment to make sure we get our fiscal house in order. he knows very well we believe we got to fix the problem and not go in and ask the small business men and women to pay more taxes to dig a hole deeper. we believe you ought to fix the problem, stop taking small business money away from the men and women who make it, and let them continu

mr. cantor i just want to follow up on things you said. to believe there's a reason that mf global went bankrupt because of the missing money? >> my understanding is like many financial services companies week -- they were seeking an acquisition partner and they were close to reaching agreement along those lines which fell apart when the customer money was missing. >> i recognize mr. posey from florida. >> thank you mr. chairman. just a few general accounting questions. of a company that your reading rating has a commodity account like exxonmobil is the value of the cash or treasury bills in the segregated customer account assumed to have full value? yes or no, each of you please. >> yes. >> yes. >> only one of you has an opinion? >> i don't know the answer to that. >> so we have a don't know from mr. parmelee, i i guess for mr. cantor. >> i believe the answer is yes but unfortunately our system takes care of that in i don't -- >> so we have a don't no, a yes and i believe it's yes. assets on a balance sheet can appreciate or fall in value

mr. cantor: mr. speaker, again the question has to do with the gentleman and his side and the president's insistence that somehow the math requires us to raise taxes on small business men and women. we don't believe that. we don't believe that we ought to let tax rates go up and create a tax hike on the small businesspeople of this country. because, number one that exacerbates the challenge that we are already dealing with in trying to get this economy growing, and number two, it will put more money into the hands of washington to begin to start spending that money without paying down the debt. 7 the gentleman knows very well -- the gentleman knows very well our commitment to make sure we get our fiscal house in order. he knows very well we believe we got to fix the problem and not go in and ask the small business men and women to pay more taxes to dig a hole deeper. we believe you ought to fix the problem, stop taking small business money away from the men and women who make it, and let them continu

mr. cantor: mr. speaker, i say to the gentleman, i know the gentleman likes to talk about past congresses. when he was house majority leader he did not bring the stock act to the floor and it was a submitted bill. so let's set the record straight. this majority leader is going to bring the bill, a stock act bill to the floor next week. and i would also say, mr. speaker, that mr. walz's bill actually would weaken the senate bill. and it is our intention to pass and get to the president a workable, strong bill that makes sure we're delivering on the promise that we made to the people that sent us here. i know the gentleman wants to join me in the effort to reinstill the confidence in the public that we are abiding by that trust. i yield back. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i think certainly that all of us hopefully agree with what the leader has just said. we clearly want to make sure the american public has confidence and trust in the actions we take and are not driven by personal interests but by public int

mr. cantor? >> i really don't know anything about her. >> do you know who she is? >> no, i don't. >> okay. mr. gellert? >> again, we have no contact with them. >> okay. let the record show nobody knows nothing. i just mr. cantor, in rating, inviting mf global you assume that the conduct their business in accordance with all the laws and regulations, and not that they would lose theirs -- use their customers to create accounts for the own assumption, is that correct of? >> that's correct. >> did you assume that the cftc and cme were filling their responsibility to audit and verify the proper protection of those assets? >> that's correct be back would you all have done the same? >> yes, sir. >> yes. >> did you confirm with mf auditors pricewaterhousecoopers that they verified that controls and systems were in place to prevent theft fraud and unauthorized transfers? >> no, sir, we did not speak directly to the auditors but typically we would expect an audit, an auditor would be up to share information with those of a third party. they would have a confidential relation

mr. richard cantor, chief credit officer of moody's investor services. mr. james geller president and officer of the rapid ratings internal international bank. i'm going to ask the three of you to please stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> thank you. >> we are going to ask each of you to give your opening statement and let you know that you're written statement will be made a part of the record. mr. parmelee, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. mr. sherman, a restaurant a number of members of the subcommittee, good morning. my name is craig parmelee i serve as managing director and analytical manager for the north american financial institution team at standard and poor's. i am pleased to appear before you this morning and discuss the rates. over the course of its history s&p -- >> i'm going to ask you to do me a favor to read those microphones don't pick up a very good unless you nearly half your lips on them that y

mr. cantor, would you agree?it would be helpful to have these types of transactions on balance sheets, but there is already transparency. the information is in the footnote if you identify it as to whether that is on the balance sheet or not. the information is transparent. >> you think everything is perfectly fine. >> again, you can have a lot of assets on your balance sheets. you need to interpret what are those assets, what are the rest of those assets. >> your interpretation would be utterly wrong. you're telling me now you had enough information to make a judgment. fine. your judgment was wrong. >> that was not the only thing that was important to the rating. one thing that was important to the rating was whether the principal positions that the firm was taking on represented a significant increase in risk appetites or whether it was facilitating -- >> $6 billion off the books. >> again -- >> . my problem. i came to the theory is prepared to give you guys credit. your ratings are not that good. but what you

mr. cantor: mr. speaker, i say to the gentleman, i know the gentleman likes to talk about past congresses. when he was house majority leader he did not bring the stock act to the floor and it was a submitted bill. so let's set the record straight. this majority leader is going to bring the bill, a stock act bill to the floor next week. and i would also say, mr. speaker, that mr. walz's bill actually would weaken the senate bill. and it is our intention to pass and get to the president a workable, strong bill that makes sure we're delivering on the promise that we made to the people that sent us here. i know the gentleman wants to join me in the effort to reinstill the confidence in the public that we are abiding by that trust. i yield back. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i think certainly that all of us hopefully agree with what the leader has just said. we clearly want to make sure the american public has confidence and trust in the actions we take and are not driven by personal interests but by public int

mr. cantor. the speaker pro tempore: the majority leader is recognized for one minute. mr. cantor: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman from texas. madam speaker, our government was founded on a promise. this promise was built on the trust between the people and its elected officials. we all have a duty to honor the trust of the american people and to work faithfully on their behalf. madam speaker, it is unacceptable for anyone, any elected official or their staff to profit from information that is not available to the public. people in this country have a right to know and trust that officials at all levels of government are living under the same rules they are. if there is even the slightest appearance of impropriety we ought to go ahead and prevent that from taking place. it is incumbent upon each of us to start restoring the trust between the people and their elected representatives. that's what the stock act is all about. madam speaker, members on both sides of the aisle have worked hard on this issue. i'd especially like to express my appreciation to represe

mr. cantor: mr. speaker, i say to the gentleman, i know the gentleman likes to talk about past congresses. when he was house majority leader he did not bring the stock act to the floor and it waa submitted bill. so let's set the record straight. this majority leader is going to bring the bill, a stock act bill to the floor next week. and i would also say, mr. speaker, that mr. walz's bill actually would weaken the senate bill. and it is our intention to pass and get to the president a workable, strong bill that makes sure we're delivering on the promise that we made to the people that sent us here. i know the gentleman wants to join min the effort to reinstill the confidence in the public that we are abiding by that trust. i yield back. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i think certainly that all of us hopefully agree with what the leader has just said. we clearly want to make sure the american public has confidence and trust in the actions we take and are not driven by personal terests but by public interest,

mr. cantor. the speaker pro tempore: the majority leader is recognized for one minute. mr. ntor: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman from texas. madam speaker, our government was founded on a promise. this promise was built on the trust between the people and its elected officials. we all have a duty to honor the trust of the american people and to work faithfully on the behalf. madam speaker, it is unacceptable for anyone, any elected official or their staff to profit from information that is not available to the public. people in this country have a right to know and trust that officials at all levels of government are living under the same rules they are. if there is en the slightest appearance of impropriety we ought to go ahead and prevent that from taking place. it is incumbent upon each of us to start restoring the trust between the people and their elected representatives. that's what the stock act is all about. madam speaker, members on both sides of the aisle have worked hard on this issue. i'd especially like to express my appreciation to representativ

mr. cantor? he trying to audition for a role as mediation service at the united nations because this doesn't sound like the eric cantor that we come to know and love. >> it's not just eric. the american people have spoken. when the republicans have said that the first priority they had was not economic growth, was not making certain that we got jobs, but to get rid of obama, it seemed like everything that the president of the united states would do would be wrong because their job was not to make america look good on this presidency. the whole idea they were so wrong when they came up with denying unemployment compensation, not paying the doctors, not being able to give a little relief for the working poor. well, the american people have spoken. now they have to find out -- now that they have agreed, what poison pill can they put into this, how can they embarrass the whole country by punishing the people that we all should want to help. >> congressman, the kind attitude didn't last long. about an

mr. cantor: sure. i respond to the gentleman. think that is a provision thataises an awful lot of questions. i think there's a lot of discussion and debate about who and what would qualify and fall under the suggested language that came from the senate. and that is why in the stock act 're calling for a study of that issue to ensure that the integrity of this process is maintained. but i'd remind the gentleman the thrust of this bill is about making sure that none of us in elected office or those in the executive branc are able to profit from nonpublic information. the political intelligence piece is outside of is body and we are talking about us and the perception that has gathered around our conduct and i yield back to the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: well, i thank the gentleman, because there are some members on the gentleman's side of the aisle that says if congress delays action on the political intelligence industry , we will stay in the shadows just the way wall street likes

mr. cantor have been wart with each other.uess that does really explain why nothing gets done. >> i heard some years ago a great philosopher, rodney out of california saying can we bull get along. i just simply want to get to work. i can give you a whole litany of why pots on both of their houses. i don't want to engage in relationships between members. i hope they get along and become friends. this may be a question about divided government. the 111th congress was one of the most productive congresss we had. we talked about issues whether than we were friends. we have the difficulty of passing of the payroll tax for working americans. working american who is are unemployed or engineers or doctors, lawyers, teachers, firefighters the, i think are well qualified to work. then we add insult to injury, i'm rushing to the floor to discuss budget amendments that are not a budget, about shortchanging so we can do taxes and not do revenue. isn't that a dream? i believe that divide government is now being put to the challenge. i belie

mr. cantor. saudi arabia, and every one of these countries masked concern about a nuclear iran. enormous support for sanctions, but a cautious about the use of military force. we have to calibrate whether we'll be willing to be patient with the sanctions or will we escalate into a rhetoric that walks us into a sober consideration that has to be used before you take military action. >> roya, you were explaining before we walked on the set that the sanctions are having their intended effect. that effect is manager manifest by the summoning of ahmadinejad to testify before the people. >> i think, you know, next week iran will be celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 revolution with a lot of things still in question for the public since the 2009 stolen elections. ahmadinejad came back to power seeming like his relationship with the supreme leader was strong. it is no longer so. and promising to bring out a middle east that was on dwindling inside the country. he has not been able to strengthen the country economically. and in the meantime, we also know that the dissatisfactio

mr. cantor: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from maryland, democratic whip, for yielding.eet at 1:00 p.m. in pro forma session. no votes are expected. on tuesday, the house will meet at noon for morning hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. on wednesday and thursday, the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour and noon for legislative business. on friday, the house will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business, last votes of the week are expected no later than 3:00 p.m. mr. speaker, the house will consider a few bills under suspension of the rules, a complete list of which will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. in addition, the house will consider h.r. 7, the american energy and infrastructure jobs act of 2012. the house may also consider legislation relating to h.r. 3630, the temporary payroll tax cut continue -- continuation act. i thank the gentleman from maryland and yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for that information with respect to the two pieces of legislation and the suspension bill

mr. cantor voted for tarp, mr. boehner voted for tarp. with that, i yield three minutes to my friend from new jersey, mr. andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. how much time are you requesting? mr. andrews: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. andrews: i thank my friend from new york for this opportunity. we got some welcome economic news last friday that companies added about a quarter of a million private sector jobs. it's long overdue and we hope and pray to it continues for many, many months to come. the country is coming back but we have a very long way to go. and i think one of the reasons that the country is coming back is that at the beginning of 2011, everybody learned a -- who earns a wage in this country got a fairy substantial tax cut so they'd buy more in the stores, maybe eat a little in restaurants and buy more goods and services. it

mr. cantor. another economic story got our attention this weekend.grich made on abc's meet the press. take a listen to this: >> you cited going into the show today that unemployment has dropped. it has dropped. you know why it's dropped? because over 4 percent of the people who would be unemployed have quit looking for work. if we had the same participation rate we had a couple of years ago, we'd be at 12 or 13 percent unemployment. people just quit looking. jenna: you probably heard this argument from newt gingrich and otherwise. we want to know is that true. we had our brain room facts check it and here's what they found, if the labor force participation rate last month had been the same as it was in january 2007 -- 2007, the unemployment rate could be as high as 11 percent plus, but the participation rate is lower, and that's not only because people have stopped looking for work, but also, because we have a new census information. demographics have changed, you have more baby boomers retiring, more students extending their education, maybe because

mr. cantor has interesting ways of deploying new tactics in the leading phase of saying no to president obama. in our view, that is, you know, that deserves the number one, but it's all, of course, subjective, and it's meant to be a subject of discussion. >> host: talking to the insiders inside the beltway folks about eric cantor, you mentioned in the piece whether or not he becomes house speaker or wait for speaker boehner to speak down or get power from him? is that something you heard from the sources you talked to? >> guest: yeah, well, ofng, you have to -- of course, you have to keep in mind, particularly when it comes to the hill, everybody wants to act like they know what's going on. they say, i'm hearing, x, y, z, i can't say that that's true. i heard it. people around here heard it. it may or may not come true, but, as you know, in washington, just having that thing said about you can be power in and of itself. >> host: boehner makes the list, not in the top 10, but number 12. why? grg -- >> guest: when you look around, there's power centers here, and certainly the house is one of th

mr. richard cantor, chief credit officer, moody's investor services. mr. james gellert, president and chief executive officer of rapid ratings internal international inc. i want to ask the three beauty please stand and raise your right hand. [witnesses were sworn in] >> thank you. i'm going to ask now that each of you to give your opening statement, and just to let you know that your full statement, your written statement will be made a part of the record. and mr. parmelee, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. mr. chairman, mr. ricci miller, good morning. my name is craig parmelee but i served as managing director and lead analytical manager for north american financial institution team at standard & poor's. i'm pleased to appear before you this morning and to discuss s&p ratings at mf global. over the course of its long history speed i'm going to ask you to do me a favor. unfortunately those microphones to pick a very good unless you nearly have your lives on that but you don't have to put her lips on them. move it closer. >> over the course

mr. eric cantor is wielding power in interesting new ways and deploying new tactics in the face of saying no to president obama. in our view, that deserves the number one. it is all of course subject of. host: when you talk to the insiders inside the beltway about eric cantor, you mentioned whether or not he becomes house speaker -- does he wait for john boehner to step down or does he try to oust power from him? is that something you heard from the sources that you talk to? guest: yes, but you have to keep in mind everyone wants to seem like they know what is going on. i cannot personally say whether that is true. i heard a lot of people -- i have heard it from a lot of people. having that things said about you can be power in it of itself. host: speaker john boehner makes the list, but he is number 12. why? guest: when you look around, there are a lot of different power centers. certainly, the house is one of them. something tells me i do not think speaker john boehner is not that upset that he is number 12 and not number one. we see these key moments in the house. day today, you might

mr. ahmadinejad. on a recent trip to that country with eric cantor, i flaerds the the leaders over there sober use ofistan is hosting the iranian president and the afghan president today. where do things stand with regard to our tense relationship with pakistan, and should we be worried that someone like ahmadinejad is in a nation like pakistan that already has nuke her weaponry? >> of course we should be concerned. it shows the power of concentrating the mind by letting him know we are not going to keep our troops and taxpayers involved in afghanistan indefinitely. the president had a goal of bringing our troops by 2014. now it's moved up to 2013. you see him engaging in discusses with the taliban and there has to be a political outcome to this. this is a good thing. >> thanks so much. you're traversed so much territory for us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> stay with us. >> we consider hippos and dogs and cats. in the end i could not resist ellis the elephant. ♪ i opened the first sammy's back in 1966. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharin

cantor constantly maneuvering people. even president obama joked about it. according to the white house release, the president quipped, "mraker, it's good to the see you at the head table. i know how badly eric cantor wanted your seat." boehner was asked about that relationship with cantor today. >> we are teammates and have been teammates. and i can tell you, i don't think there's been a disagreement between eric and i over the course of the last year. as you're clearly aware, there's been a couple of staff rumbles from time to time, but you know, that's to be expected when you're doing big things. >> joining us now is politico's editor in chief, john harris. you've got a story today in politico about this tense relationship. it's not a staff relationship, this is a relationship between the principles and everyone who is on that payroll tax call in the house caucus reported out of that that there was some noticeable friction. >> well, right, and my colleagues, jake sherman and john do have great story on politico this morning, detailing the efforts of the two sides to say, look, we've got to move past this, it's becoming

own version of the stock act, eric cantor and the house leadership did not consult the bipartisan coalition that has championed this bill and over the week neither i nor mr. walls were asked to contribute to the final product and nor was our leader consulted in any way. and despite championing the bill for six years, i was left completely out. as a matter of fact, the way that the bill is structured, i won't have an opportunity to offer an amendment to put back the political intelligence piece which is the heart of the bill. the bill was changed from a bill to a suspension which means that it is through the minority, and they will have neither the right or the motion to recommit or an opportunity to amendment this bill in any way. that contrasts completely with what happened over the in the senate where members of the senate were allowed to present amendments to the bill and many of them did it successfully, but as what we got here is a flawed bill last night, and a need to introduce and revise legislation earlier today and as a matter of fact the bill they put out last night has been superseded by one that was met 45 minutes ago which says that if you w

maxine waters never wants to see cantor and boehner on her screens, her tv screens. i got a suggestion. mreaker, cut off her cable. or -- >> cut off her cable! and you woint be on her screen, you demon. >> this is also the same congresswoman who a year ago said that president obama should line up the gangsters and tax the bankers out of existence. >> great. >> that sounds like barack obama regarding the gas companies a couple of years ago. >> she points out that if the democrats take back the house and barney frank is going to retire, she's the senior most member. she apparently could be leadership in financial services. >> sure. >> who thinks that we should tax the bankers out of existence? what? >> what is going on in california? how's this? congresswoman, you saw what happened to whitney houston. step away from the crack pipe. step away from the -- >> oh! >> it's going to get you in trouble. >> how would she explain those kinds of comments? >> oh, man. >> i'd only say -- >> theater in the morning. >> boy. what do you think? e-mail us, 13 minutes after the hour. straight ahead on this th

mr. reed for their service on the conference committee. it cannot be an easy conference, and i would just ask as you go forward, you be guided by what leader cantor has said. what leader continuor has said is we should pass what we can agree on and leave the issues on which we can't agree to another day. and it certainly appears that we agree we need to extend the payroll tax you deduction and fix the s.g.r. and pass unemployment insurance. let's pass it. leave to another day contentious issues like the keystone pipeline and drug testing. let's pass what we can agree on. they deserve a full debate and let's not let them stand in the way for a tax cut of 160 million americans and access to medicare physicians and keeping millions of americans at least with some lifeline with respect to unemployment insurance. and so i urge my colleagues to support this motion to recommit. i thank mr. walden for a spirited debate. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time having expired, without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on the motion to instruct.

mr. jim vandehei. good morning. >> how are you? >> we're doing all right. reporting 2012, a new year, a new you, a new beginning for the trained relationship between house speaker boehner and majority leader eric cantorre we explain the new relationship, what was the old relationship? why didn't they get along? >> they've had tension going back years. both of them want to be leader, this happens all the time in congress where you get the people with power and they want more power. and their staffs have been at war for some time, and it bothers other members. it makes people suspicious of motives when they're in the private meetings trying to decide the direction of the party. and things got so bad, members were starting to complain privately that their staffs had sat down and they're calling a truce promising to get along with each other and cut the crap so they can get along and have a unified message heading into the election. truth is, it's going to be tough to do. this bad blood has been there for some time. it's been disruptive for republicans, it's hard to imagine it just suddenly goes away. >> so they're going to be getting along now. we've got to ask you about a big endorsement in this campai