mr. defazio of oregon. mr. franks of arizona. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from iowa, mr. king is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. king: thank you, mr. speaker. i very much appreciate the privilege to address you on the floor of the house in this leadership hour designated by the majority leader. there are a number of subjects i wanted to take up this afternoon but i'm first inspired by the statement by -- made by the gentleman from texas, judge, congressman, mr. poe about a marine, mike marola. this is one of these reoccurring -- recurring stories we hear, somebody that's an aclu individual, somebody who gets indignant because there's something somewhere that would allow them to vent some of their prepackaged hyperventilation against patriotism or the truth or life or the constitution or the declaration of independence or american values or the values of western civilization or judeo christianity. all those people out there are full of indig nancy. an

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: previous speaker's right. this is not symbolic, it's real. in fact, the republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry. pre-existing condition exclusions. taking away your policy when you get sick. lifetime and annual caps. throwing your kids off your policies. the republican repeal of this bill would enable all those things for their very, very generous benefactors in the insurance industry. i haven't had a single constituent and i know you haven't, begged you to bring back these abuses. is that what you are doing? is that what they want? you could take steps right now, in fact, to rein in this industry, and 400 people in this house voted for it last year. let's take away their unfair exemption from antitrust law so they can't collude to drive up prices, they can't collude to take away your insurance, they can't collude to that throw your kids off and all the other anti-competitive things an industry does. i offered that amendme

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: previous speaker's right. this is not symbolic, it's real. in fact, the republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry. pre-existing condion exclusions. taking away your policy whenou get sick. lifetime and annual caps. throwing your kids off your policies. the republican repeal of this bill would enable all those things for their very, very generous benefactors in the insurance industry. i haven't had a single constituent and i know you haven't, begged you to bring back these abuses. is that what you are doin is that what they want? you could ke steps right now, in fact, to reinn this industry, and 400 people inhis house voted for it last year. let's take away their unfair exemption from antitrust law so they can't collude to drive up prices, they can't collude to take away your insurance, they can't collude to thatthrow your kids off and all the other anti-competitive things an industry does. i offered that amendment to rules l

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. speaker's right. this is not symbolic, it's real. in fact, the republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry. pre-existing condition exclusions. taking away your policy when you get sick. lifetime and annual caps. throwing your kids off your policies. the republican repeal of this bill would enable all those thingsor their very, very generous benefactors in the insurance industry. i haven't had a single constituent and i know you haven't, begged you to bring back these abuses. is that what you are doing? is that what they want? you could take steps right now, in fact, to rein in this industry, and 400 people in this house voted for it last year. let's take away their unfair exemption from antitrust law so they can't collude to drive up prices, they can't collude to take away your insurance, they can't collude to that throw your kids off and all the other anti-competitive things an industry does. i offered that amendment to rules last nig

mr. defazio of oregon. >> madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise? mr. engel: i ask permission to speak for five minutes out of order. to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. engel: thank you, madam speaker. this coming wednesday the really first order of real business of the house, we are voting on health care reform repeal. the new republican majority has decided that this is the most important issue. even though they know that it's political theater, charade, it may pass the house. but it won't pass the senate and certainly the president would veto it. so this is not becoming law. . at a time when we have so many pressing issues, i am saddened that the majority wants to conduct this political charade. you know, if there are problems with the health care law, we don't have to repeal it, we can change parts of it, we can tweak it, we could put out of the bill what we don't like and keep in the bill what we do like. but, unfortunatel

mr. defazio of oregon for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: thank you, madam speaker. i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. ac available in more than 100 million homes, created by cable prorkvided as a public service. white house press secretary robert gibbs said it's time for him to take a little break as he explained his decision to step down. at the first briefing of the new year, mr. gibbs dismissed republican efforts to repeal the health care law and discussed the president's agenda for the next two years. this is one hour and 10 minutes. >> we got a crowd here. i noticed. many cameras. i see a number of christmas ties as well. fire away. >> can you tell us a bit more, in a bit more detail about what you're going to be doing next? you're not going to be lobbying or consulting, how would you define your next job? >> l

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: by all accounts we are finally going to get serious about the mountain of debt that's been built up over the last 10 years that we are going to leave for our kids and grandkids. nearly $14 trillion. a number that's hard to actually understand. i'm hopeful it will really be a serious discussion, but it can't be as long as the republican rules stand. the republicans have said that if you reduce income to the government, that that doesn't count. toward the debt or deficit. you have to borrow the money, probablery from china -- probably from china, and it goes on the debt for our kids and grandkids, but they don't count that because it's your money. we are giving it back to you. except of course we are still spending more than is coming in. now, i'm all for looking at the expenditure side. and there's a lot of places i'd like to cut. republicans have put some of them off limits. we can't look anywhere in the pentagon who has -- is still acquiring through cost-plus contracts weapon

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: previous speaker's right. this is not symbolic, it's real. in fact, the republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry. pre-existing condition exclusions. taking away your policy when you get sick. lifetime and annual caps. throwing your kids off your policies. the republican repeal of this bill would enable all those things for their very, very generous benefactors in the insurance industry. i haven't had a single constituent and i know you haven't, begged you to bring back these abuses. is that what you are doing? is that what they want? you could take steps right now, in fact, to rein in this industry, and 400 people in this house voted for it last year. let's take away their unfair exemption from antitrust law so they can't collude to drive up prices, they can't collude to take away your insurance, they can't collude to that throw your kids off and all the other anti-competitive things an industry does. i offered that amendme

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. revious speaker's right. this is not symbolic, it's real. in fact, the republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry. pre-existing condition exclusions. taking away your policy when you get sick. lifetime and annual caps. throwing your kids off your policies. the republican repeal of this bill would enable all those things for their very, very generous benefactors in the insurance industry. i haven't had a single constituent and i know you haven't, begged you to bring back these abuses. is that what you are doing? is that what they want? you could take steps right now, in fact, to rein in this industry, and 400 people in this house voted for it last year. let's take away their unfair exemption from antitrust law so they can't collude to drive up prices, they can't collude to take away your insurance, they can't collude to that throw your kids off and all the other anti-competitive things an industry does. i offered that amendment to rule

mr. defazio of oregon. ms. kaptur of ohio. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. garr mendy: thank you very much, mr. -- mr. garmendi: thank you. tonight i'm joined by mr. pallone. tonight we want to talk about the economy, what's happened the last few years, how the united states economy has pulled itself out of the great recession and moving towards a much, much brighter future. earlier today or actually yesterday it was reported that our esteemed majority leader on the opposition side issued a statement taking credit that in just three weeks the return of the republican party to the majority in this house has led to an astounding improvement in the economy. mr. garamendi: it's kind of like -- i don't know how exactly to describe that than to say that's just an overemphasis of the facts and a complete distortion of what's actually happened. in the previous two years as the obama administrati

mr. defazio: the gentleman spoke before me talked about transparency and accountability. let's talk about the insurance industry prereform. they could cancel your policy if you got sick, even though you had been paying the premiums for years. they could refuse to sell you a policy if they don't like the way you look or a minor health problem. we changed that. people can now get health insurance and keep their health insurance if they have been paying their premium. but now they want to go back to those bad old days and they -- talk about transparency and accountability, how accountable is an industry that is exempt from the antitrust law? health insurance companies can and do collude to exclude people from coverage, to redline, to drive up premiums, to not sell in one state, not compete with one another. there is no free market and competition and traps and accountability. if the republicans really wanted to do something today, they could at least replace it by making the industry comply with the same competitive rules as every other industry in america except professiona

mr. defazio, oregon. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address this house, revise and extend their remarks, and include therein extraneous material. mr. pitts for today for five minutes, mr. royce toffered for five minutes, mr. fortenberry today for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, as elected officials all of us who serve in this chamber have the honor of representing our constituents in public service. and as officials we are also fortunate that some of our best and most able americans choose to serve their nation and their communities by working in our office as congressional staffers. in my office i have a staffer who is leaving that i wanted to recognize here today. mi