mr. defazio of oregon. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 358, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio and a member opposed shall each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, five minutes. mr. defazio: hopefully this will be an amendment which can be accepted. it's quite simple. and what i'm addressing what the "washington post" has called the resolving door that spins at a dizzying pace here in washington, d.c.,. the "new york times" has said that goldman sachs is government sachs for all the employees who bounce back and forth between the nation's capital, regulatory bodies and administrative branch and its manhattan office tower. and all my amendment simply does is prevent potential conflict of interests. remember, a board here has been created here in the original bill, which can overturn any regulation. fairly unique among independent agencies. if there is a board which can overturn their -- the administrative procedures or rules that they adopt on the financial services industry. but in any case, that was in the original bill. this bill would

mr. defazio of oregon. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. defazio: colleagues, 1990, congress passed a law that required that all, all federal agencies, including the department of defense, must have audittable financial statements every year. since that time, the department of defense has spent $10 trillion, $10,000 billion dollars and yet no audit has been conducted. in fact, there are numerous problems with the accounting at d.o.d. and their financial management has been rated as high risk by the government accountability office. unfortunately, the pentagon, being incapable of being audited, sought an exemption from audit. so in 2005, congress passed a ban on completing an audit. it was contained in section 376 of the 2006 national defense authorization act. but 2007, 2009, they said we exempt you, but let's have a goal of you doing an audit by 2017. yet last september, in a hearing, pentagon officials stated that meeting a deadline of 2017 for having their first ever audit of their books and they will spend $4 trillion between now and 201

mr. defazio: in december the president caved to the republicans and extended all the bush tax cuts. immediately increasing this year's deficit by $00 billion, and the 10-year deficit by $4 trillion. precipitating the great debt and deficit crisis. now, we are hearing from the press today that the president is preparing yet another great cave. instead of saying we will have some revenues to solve this problem, he is apparently about to cut a deal that will be all cuts. so its inic, he cuts taxes to create a crisis, and then we cut spending to protect the tax cuts because tax cuts create jobs except they haven't created jobs, but we've got to continue to protect them. it's all very, very sad. if we get rid of all the bush tax cuts, $4 trillion, no cuts in social security, no cuts in medicare, no cuts in veterans' benefits. and $4 trillion less deficit. now that would be an equitable solution. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut rise? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. murphy: thank you, madam speaker, in the five years leading up

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for three minutes. mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman for yielding. this used to be a legislative body. i'm not quite sure what it is now. the way traditionally the house and the senate resolve differences is each the house and the sfat pass a bill, most -- senate pass a bill, most people learn this in their high school civic class, then each side appoint conferees and they hash through the differences. actually served on some of those conference committees. voted across the aisle on some provisions in bills in conference committees. what they're saying is after they worked out with the senate and the way the bill passed in the house which is my way or the highway, then they'll appoint conferees to a meaningless conference on something that's already agreed to and then we'll come back and pass their bill. it doesn't work that way. it won't work that way. and this is just not a simple problem because if this -- if the f.a.a. has to close down all of its capital improvement programs friday night, very expensiv

mr. defazio: i ask for a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of 1818, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from oregon will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 4 printed in house report 112-172. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? mr. paulsen: mr. speaker, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 4 printed in house report 112-172 offered by mr. paulsen of minnesota. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 358, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. paulsen, and a member opposed will each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from minnesota for five minutes. mr. paulsen: mr. speaker, i rise to offer this amendment really to help ensure that we maintain prudent regulation of the financial services industry. mr. speaker, under current law there are five nonvoting members of the financial stability oversight council, including a state insurance regula

mr. defazio. mr. bishop: if this bill were enacted as drafted, it would no not -- many sources of clean drinking water would be imperiled, valuable fishing and wildlife areas would be in danger and valuable coastlines would be at risk, including the economic resources they provide. the amendment simply -- simply restricts the provisions of this bill that endanger waters, provide flood protection for communities or are coastal recreational waters that are the back bone of my district's economy. in fact, my district will face real economic danger if this bill is not amended, not to mention the environmental danger that my district and districts all over the country will facism strongly urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from ohio. mr. gibbs: i'd like to comment, from the comments from my colleague from oregon -- >> i'd like to say, if there's a new pollutant, the state has to take action and the e.

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts solve all problems, especially for the millionaire and billionaire job creators. we're in the 10th year of the bush tax cuts, $4 trillion. we're in the third year of the obama tax cuts, $1 trillion. now we have to cut programs to continue the tax cuts that don't create jobs. what's one of the specified targets? student financial aid. hey, they don't know anybody at the country club who can't afford to put their kid through medical school, but at the top of their list is cutting student financial aid. cutting investments in transportation that can put millions to work, stopping taxes on the aviation industry which is, guess what? capturing the money, not lowering prices, and laying off 90,000 people and stopping critical infrastructure jobs for that industry. tax cuts, tax cut, tax cuts. let's get real, let's do things for the american people, put people back to work and solve the deficit problem. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman fro

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: colleagues, we are truly through the looking class here into a strange world. the gang of six has supposedly met the president's requirements that we would have $3 billion in cuts and $1 billion in revenue. but actually they are cutting taxes. how does that work? well, that only works inside the washington, d.c. beltway. when you reduce revenues you'll increase revenues because you pretend you wouldn't have had those revenues otherwise. a little bit complicated, isn't it? it is incredibly complicated. a lot of smoke and mirrors here. there's a simple way to deal with this crisis. we need to rein in spending. we also need to make investments that will put people to work. the republicans don't think the government can invest in anything that puts people to work. except they haven't noticed that we have a infrastructure that's falling apart. we have 20% unemployment in construction and related fields. if we were to begin to invest and rebuild america's infrastructure, all private

mr. defazio: thank you for helping to organize this response. we do have one real and prevailing crisis in america that has been with us now since 2008 and that's the jobs crisis. there are probably 20 million americans who are unemployed, underemployed in this country when you get to the real numbers. now a credible economist say if you could find a way to put those people back to work and get unemployment down from 9.6 to 4.5%, that would solve a quarter of this deficit and debt crisis. that would be $2.5 trillion over 10 years. the republicans here have proposed $2.7 trillion of cuts over 10 years. so if we could put people back to work, we would have about the same savings. then, you know, if we got people back to work and healed the economy a bit, all we have to do and i talked about this earlier this week is nothing. let the bush tax cuts expire. go back to the good old days of bill clinton, $3.8% unemployment, paying down debt, the rich paying their fair share because those job creators were paying some taxes. oh my god, billionaires requ

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: it's clear to the american public that congress, especially the senate, is very good at doing one thing. and that is nothing. now, perhaps we can capitalize on this strength to resolve the impasse over the deficit reduction. how could that work? how could congress do nothing but solve this problem? within 17 months by doing nothing we could lower the keffs -- deficit by $3.8 trillion. and in fact the president could reinforce the message just in case congress decided to do something, he could say, no, if they do that i will pocket veto it. i will do nothing. so we got a good chance here. congress does nothing or the president pocket vetoes, he does nothing. we could save $3.8 trillion. problem solved. how do we do that? we allow all the bush tax cuts to expire. you heard the gentlelady, the job creators will pay more. you have the billionaire hedge fund guys on wall street might pay a little bit more in taxes. they are creating so many jobs today. and the other millionaires, w

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: we're in the 10th year of the bush tax cuts and the third year of the obama tax cuts. taxes today are at the lowest percentage of our national economy since 1950. and, of course, that pre-exists a few things like medicare, homeland security, massive spending on wars overseas, etc. yet, last friday with this very, very alike tax burden, we had the official unemployment numbers. they were horrible. but bess what, the reality is worse than the numbers. -- but guess what, the reality is worse than the numbers. unplanned parenthood, looking for work or underplanned parenthood. so i guess what we need to do is cut taxes more and cut spending and we'll have an economic boom. yeah, we'll have a boom like boom of imploding economy, just like the last 10 years. the worst job creation since the great depression under this theory that tax cuts solve every problem. now, the president's response on friday was, not surprisingly, continue tax cuts. the new one he's adopted is the social secur

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: well, this week we've just disproven two items of republican orthodoxy and that is corporations don't pay taxes, only individuals pay taxes. and tax cuts create jobs. what am i talking about? well, last friday the authorization for the federal aviation administration expired so the government is not collecting $200 million a week in security fees and other fees that pay for the aviation system. it's partially funded by the users of that system with ticket taxes and such. that's $200 million a week. now, what's happened since? well, three airlines, three honest airlines, frontier airlines, alaska and virgin america, lowered ticket prices because the government isn't collecting the taxes. but the other irlse, hmm, not so much -- the other airlines, hmm, not so much. they raised the ticket prices to match the taxes and collecting the windfall. the air transport system is complaining about ticket taxes but a chunk of your taxes is going to washington. you can now put into united a

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. well, yesterday the so-called gang of six on the senate side, six very important senators, unveiled an outline of how to save $4 trillion over the next 10 years. immediately was embraced by president obama. we really don't know much about it nor does he but he immediately embraced it. we know one thing about it, it contains something like a chained c.p. pmplet i. who cares about a chained c.p.i.? seniors, they care a lot about a chained c.p.i. middle-income americans, they care about it. they don't know it. what is a chained c.p.i.? well, the point he has , i like mr. furman saying, we're overstating inflation with the way we address it. there is something called substitution effect. you buy something cheaper so there is not inflation. you're buying something else that's more expensive. this makes sense in the economics world. so let's say how this would work for someone on medicare. ok, you can't afford your heart bypass so instead you say to the doc, ok, i can't afford the coy pay o

mr. defazio: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: "the washington post," the united states is a lot like a rich businessman who owns two homes, millions of dollars in stock but is in debt because he talk to out a big lowell loan to buy a private plan. here we are to protect tax cuts for millionaires and billion airs, the job creators, $4 trillion over the last 10 years, loopholes for corporate jets, you know, for private jets, for the oil companies, hedge fund billionaires, to continue tax cuts that haven't created a single job, we're going to cut real investment that would create jobs. we're going to reduce investment in transportation and infrastructure 35%. that's a million jobs gone. last week you cut off the f.a.a., 0,000 private sector jobs -- 90,000 private sector jobs and government employees. what about those private sector jobs? a lot of them are small businesses. thought you liked small businesses. so we're not

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: i support a honest balanced budget in 1995. there is no balanced budget amendment in this legislation. there is black mail that simply says that the republicans will drive the country to default unless congress later passes their right-wing version of a balanced budget amendment that requires an impossible 2/3 vote to close the egregious tax loopholes the same loopholes that the gentleman wants to close. there is no use trying said alice. won't can believe imaginary practice. when i was your age i did it for half an hour a day, i believe as many as six imaginary things before breakfast or in this case, dinner and cocktails at the republican club. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. ryan: may i inquire as to the division of time? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin has 20 minutes and the gentleman from maryland has 21 3/4. mr. ryan: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from

mr. defazio, is recognized for five minutes. mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman. with one simple vote last december, congress precipitated the so-called debt crisis. we voted to extend all of the bush tax cuts at a cost of $4 trillion over 10 years. i voted no. so now the debate comes down to what's more important to the american people? social security or tax cuts? medicare or tax cuts? jobs or tax cuts? that's what this debate is all about right now. preserving tax cuts, particularly tax cuts for the wealthy, and the largest multinational corporations in this country. some are still trying to drag social security into this debate. social security did not cause one penny of this debt. in fact, social security is the largest owner of federal debt in the world. they are the largest investor in federal debt. social security did not cause this problem. yes, long-term starting 2037 social security's projected only able to pay 73% to 75% of benefits. we can solve that simply. ask all americans to pay the same percent of their income into social security. today if you e

mr. defazio of oregon for today, mrs. napolitano for today until 5:00 p.m. and ms. richardson of california for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, mrs. christensen, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mrs. christensen: thank you, mr. speaker. the congressional black caucus is pleased that our democratic leadership has given us the opportunity to once again come to the floor for the first democratic hour this evening. i want to just talk a little bit about some of the people who came and have ited me in my office and my district this morning. i had a have it from aarp leadership and some of their advocates and volunteer this is morning in my st. croix office. they came to bring this petition to the office signed by hundreds of people just on one of my islands. and it says, dear members of congress, seniors and future retirees earned their benefits after a lifetime of hard work and paying into the

defazio. thank you for your time tonight. >>> ahead, in the fight over the debt, who will bleed first? is there a secret plan in the works? mr >>> plus, the real michele bachmann is back. wait until you see the disturbing positions she just indulged. >>> and rupert murdock is feeling the heat. can the fox news empire and rupert survive the phone hacking scandal? ♪ that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing mio. a revolutionary water enhancer. add a little...add a lot. for a drink that's just the way you like it. make it yours. make it mio. fas a managso i takeamt the way one a day men's 50+ advantage. counts on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. >> nancy pelosi goes one on one with the president today. but is social security still on the table in the debt talks? that's next. that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t netwo