mr. franks. >> thank you mr. chairman. we appreciate the opportunity. mr. chairman, i have one amendment of my own into that i offer on behalf of myself and dr. brown and congressman sam johnson. the first one mr. chairman would change the reconciliation bill cuts of another 66-point $1 billion for medicare advantage on top of the 136.2 billion already cut from this very successful program in the same path bill. this is a total of $202 billion for medicare advantage. of course in my district mr. chairman a loan, i have one of the higher numbers of senior citizens and 43% of all medicare beneficiaries in maricopa county which is 75% of my district have chosen to participate in medicare advantage plans and they do that for a couple of reasons. number one medicare advantage plans are privately administered and they have a lower percentage of claims that are denied. they have lower out-of-pocket expenses and they give the enrollees a great deal more choice in flexibility. the reason of course that i a

mr. frank: i hope people will take note that there is not a correlation between the importance of what we do and the attention that what we do gets. this is not controversial because it is a product of genuine cooperation. i'm delighted to be on the floor with my friend, mr. bachus. a few years ago with him and the gentleman from california we frankly beat the leaderships of both parties in the clinton administration to get debt relief through. they've learned so we don't have to fight so hard this time for an important cause. i am pleased to be joining in this wholly cooperative way in a response to the haiti people. i join in thanking the gentleman from california, the gentleman from new york, my colleagues on the other side for bringing this forward and various members of the staffs have been congratulated as they should be. it's not as easy to do the right thing as it sometimes seems. i want to single out daniel who has been working on this for a long time in cooperation with others. this i

mr. franks for today, mr. duncan for today, mr. goodlatte for today, mr. cassidy for today and march 21. and mr. mccotter for march 21. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut rise? mr. himes: 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 the house for five minutes, to revise and extends their remarks and include therein extraneous material. mr. himes of connecticut for five minutes, mrs. woolsey of california for five minutes, mr. mcdermott of washington for five minutes, mr. defazio of oregon for five minutes, ms. kaptur of ohio for five minutes, ms. jackson lee of texas for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair lays before the house the following personal requests -- personal request. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. latourette of ohio for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request is granted. under the spea

. >> jimmy: all around -- i think of my chemistry teacher, mr. frankgarage? >> yeah. well, you know, there have been a few cases of chemistry teachers who have done exactly that. we thought we were pioneering, but art, you know, copies life or life copies art, and there's been a few arrests. >> jimmy: really. >> yeah, exactly. it's wild. >> jimmy: it's a great show. we actually have a clip of "breaking bad." let's check it out right now. bryan cranston. >> step back right now. >> did you even hear what i said? >> sir, calm down. >> now, you're giving me a ticket. i told you that my house is in the debris field. do you have the remotest inkling of what that means? >> sir, calm down. >> hellfire rained down on my house. >> sir, i need you to step back. i need you to step back. >> there were body parts in my yard. are you kidding me? >> sir, this is your last warning. >> you've got to be kidding me. >> you've got about two seconds to stand down or i'm going to pepper spray you. >> oh, what -- you're gonna pepper spray? perfect! >> do you understand that?

mr. franks. mr. mccotter of michigan. ms. ros-lehtinen of florida. mr. carter of texas. mr. wolf of virginia. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. fwaregare -- mr. garamendi: mr. speaker, thank you very much. i doubt we'll be here for the full 60 minutes but there are things we need to discuss, especially following the previous speaker as he talked about the american recovery act and the things that have actually been done to really move the american economy forward. one of those things was the stimulus bill, the american recovery act, that is now just about 13 months old. in that american recovery act there was a major element dealing with green technology, green jobs which i think most americans and most economists feel is where the future lies. we know we have an energy security issue. we know we import far more in an we possibly could afford in foreign oil. we have to become energy independent, and in the american recovery act there was a

mr. frank h franken: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today to speak about arms control and the president's negotiations with russia over a replacement to the strategic arms reduction treaty, or start. this new treaty will be an important enhancement to american national security and i look forward to considering it on the floor once it's been signed. as you may recall, the original start treaty was ratified by the senate in 1992 by a bipartisan vote of 93-6 it went into force in late 1994 with a predetermined life of 15 years. causing it to expire this past december. soon after taking office, the obama administration began careful and diligent work to negotiate a successor treaty with russia. as start was expiring in early december, president obama and memedveded, issued a joint statement making clear that our two countries would effectively abide by the expiring treaty until the new one comes into force. i think we can all agree that the original start was a landmark achievement. it brought about historic reduct

mr. barney frank and chris dodd and too big to fail. a big, big topic in banking reform. financial regulation will be the number one issue after the easter recess, according to the two leaders. and they're really tapping down the too big to fail bailout nation issue. still some loopholes, but i think they're making great progress. let's talk about this. we have john harwood from washington and chairman and executive director of the cambridge winner center and steven, chief economist. john harwood, i have to give them credit. i've been behind this thing and i think they're damping down too big to fail bailout nation and i think that is a terrific free market reform. how do you read it, my friend? >> larry, i think this is fundamentally different from health care in that this is going to happen with or without republican support, although they do need to get 60 votes in the senate. the question is, how do you get them? do you get a big compromise with richard shelby or other senior republicans, mitch mcconnell and pass a bill with 70, 89 votes or do you pass it through? rep

speaker, was the now chairman of the finance committee, mr. frank, came to this floor and vigorously opposed an amendment that was offered by mr. leech of iowa, october 26, 2005, that would have fixed fannie mae and freddie mac. . . jim leach understood what we needed to do, i understood what needed to be done. but the defenders of freddie mac and fannie mae would become the chairman of the financial services committee and open authorizations to fund acorn and accelerate the downward spiral of our economy and i hear it's george bush's fault. i have trouble with this logic, mr. speaker. i will fast forward to another circumstance that's taking place, yesterday, day before, day before, day before and will be taking place tomorrow, and that is the position that senator bunning has taken with regard to the position of unemployment benefits. if you believe we should pay as we go, that the people should find a way to pay as they go. they passed pay-go here. it's a sham. they bypassed it or ignored it and do whatever they want to do. there's no standard an

mr. franks: this government takeover has been debated on so many fronts. the president says it's to save money yet in every corner of the planet, every corridor of history, socialized medicine has always cost more, not less. every government health care program in the united states has ever implemented has cost many times the amount first predicted system of if this bill saves money, mr. speaker, it will be the first in human history. democrat leaders say that the government takeover will increase the quality of health care. and yet once again, mr. speaker, every example in history speaks to the contrary. those living under socialized medicine across this planet can only dream of living in a free market economy like america because they know that if they have a cold in their country they can call a doctor, but if they have something serious like cancer or diabetes or heart disease, they better call a travel agent and come to america if they possibly can. democrat leaders say that this will make health care more accessible to the people. and yet we have tes

mr. lewis, barney frank, certainly a legend in the legislature andy the man spat upon.american. these are the kinds of acts republicans and other conservative people should say we will not tolerate this. we have a beef with the president, the health care bill but we're not going to tolerate bigotry. >> there's so many people that want to say time and time again we're in a post racial society, post sexist society. what happened over the weekend, there's nothing else to say other than it was absolutely disgusting. it started, went all the way through the campaign period. i bring up the feminist part because we saw the same against hillary clinton. holding up the sign, iron my shirt. it's not just about people in the tea party movement but the country as a whole. people are desperate, unemployed and we see the worst of america in harsh times. >> to ling this back to the forum this weekend. there is an issue of entitlement that's on the minds of some americans. they feel like the african-american community, leaders feel like because president obama is one of them, never min

mr. franks: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health carebill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: drished ranking member of the transportation committee, mr. mica. mr. mica: thank you, mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health bill. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: the gentlewoman from ohio, mrs. schmidt. mrs. schmidt: mr. speaker, i have ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health care bill. mr. dreier: the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster. mr. shuster: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: the gentleman from newport beach, mr. campbell. mr. campbell: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health care bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: the gentleman from dallas

mr. franks: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, to paraphrase a man, in every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentialality of the entire human race is born all over again. the democrats say compassion is the fundamental motivation behind this government takeover bill. but if compassion was the motivation, madam speaker, democrat leadership would not be so doggedly determined to include the increased tax-pair funded murder of little unborn -- taxpayer funded murder of little unborn children in this bill. nothing so destroys the notion that this bill is about compassion than the arrogant disenfranchisement of those who are helpless and have no voice. it is an unspeakable disgrace. madam speaker, it is obvious that democrats are determined to ram this bill down the throats of the american people using the so-called slaughter solution, a shameless political gimmick that would avoid even an up or down vote on the bill. but if they do, madam speaker, the world will

mr. meeks: let me just first thank the chairman of the committee, barney frank, ranking member bachus, and again my ranking member on the international monetary policy and trade, mr. miller. we came together because of the hard work and dedication that the gentlelady from california put forward in writing this bill to make sure that we did the right thing for the people of haiti. this is one of those times you're proud of being a member of congress, working together for the good of human beings. and though oftentimes we say that haiti is poor, when i think of haiti, they are rich, rich in spirit, rich in human capital, flitch hope. these are a people under the most unimaginable tragedy, still have hope and desire of moving forward, who have overcome and survived all of the things that mr. bachus and others have said today, when you think from the very beginning of their independence, indeed, the people of haiti are a rich people and we are doing the right thing today and sending the right message to the people of haiti that we will stand by you, not just for the short haul, but for the hon

mr. speaker, the railways are carrying more passengers and more frank than ever since the second world war. and will be announcing plans to mark to expand our railways and to make sure we have the most modern railways for the future. and i believe the passengers welcome the fact that not only have we better trained services but trains arrive on time. i think it's important to recognize the huge investment that this government has made in the railways of this country. >> is my right honorable friend aware of integers campaign of them undermining of public service and the bbc in particular? as the goes to a general election, will reaffirm that this government supports public service broadcasting and the bbc? >> mr. speaker, what worries me more is the conservative campaign to undermine the bbc and british telecom. and the conservatives have made an announcement that put at risk the future of digitalization and broadband in this country. we're determined that everyone in this country has access to broa on wednesday, it will air at 8:00 a.m. eastern. at c-span.org, you can find links to the ho

please, go ahead, frank. >> caller: great show. mr.d, i have some issues about what you were saying and some comments you were making. >> guest: sure, sure. >> caller: about getting things for free, okay? >> guest: yeah. >> caller: in this country we have created a bunch of people that think they should get everything for free. and there's a major problem with this because our country -- our politicians and our government has created this monster by wanting to take care of everything we do in our lives and all our aspects. the problem here with healthcare has a lot to do with i'm going to go out on the limb and say there's possibly 20 to 30,000 illegal immigrants that don't pay anything for our system and that puts a huge strain on our medical process in this country and on the hospitals and all that. whatever happened to old-fashioned earning. why does everybody have to get everything for free? >> host: mr. reid? >> guest: it's an comment question. -- excellent question. not everything is free. free healthcare is not free. somebody pa

mr. speaker, the railways are carrying more passengers and more frank than ever since the second world war. and will be announcing plans to mark to expand our railways and to make sure we have the most modern railways for the future. and i believe the passengers welcome the fact that not only have we better trained services but trains arrive on time. i think it's important to recognize the huge investment that this government has made in the railways of this country. >> is my right honorable friend aware of integers campaign of them undermining of public service and the bbc in particular? as the goes to a general election, will reaffirm that this government supports public service broadcasting and the bbc? >> mr. speaker, what worries me more is the conservative campaign to undermine the bbc and british telecom. and the conservatives have made an announcement that put at risk the future of digitalization and broadband in this country. we're determined that everyone in this country has access to broadband and access to the best services. the conservative policy would make sure that 100% did

mr. murphy: during the vietnam era, but my father was a world war ii marine veteran who had his knee shot out in the south pacific. my brother frank, who is now deceased, served in combat in vietnam and came home with post-traumatic stress. changed his whole life. my brother gary, vietnam-era veteran. my sister beth ann, army veteran. nephew iraq veteran. i come from a family who believes in service. the american family, large family of our nation believes in service to our country. yet, it is true that the death toll as the "washington post" reports in afghanistan is at least at 1,000. and we have to have this debate tore either recommit to continuing the war and giving the reasons to the troops why we're doing that or to suggest that maybe this is the opportunity for us to take a new direction. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker. i yield three minutes to the the gentleman from illinois, mr. kirk, a member of the committee on appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: mr. kirk is recognize

mr. gregory meeks for the time and i appreciate all of the work he has done on this bill. indeed, i would like to thank all of the members who support this bill including barney frank, the chairman of the financial services committee who made sure we got the bill up and going and we could expedite it in a way that we have never seen a bill expedited. spencer bachus, i appreciate that he understands thoroughly the history of haiti and what it means to the world. gregory meeks, the chairman of the international monetary policy, whose manager's amendment added so much in the way of improvement to this bill. and representative ros-lehtinen, ranking member of the foreign affairs committee, elliott engel, chairman of the western hemisphere committee and all of the other co-sponsors of the bill and the congressional black caucus. i like to thank my senior legislative assistant who worked very hard on this bill. kathleen is an expert on debt relief and has workd

frank, maryland. you're on with karl rove. please go ahead. >> caller: good morning. i'm surprised mr. rove is tempered and i have so much respect to you for taking a call off the air without reiterating. i give you that. i want to ask you a question and then i hope i get an answer. much before september 11, mr. louis farrakhan and his final calls reported a letter was sent to clinton signed by dick cheney and the so-called neocons waiting for the overture or for them. are you aware of that or are you going to say that you never heard of it? if that is true, then how do you come and say that it wasn't -- that he came into office without those people in those specific points. thank you. >> host: is he referring to the gary schmitt letter? >> guest: i think that's it. but also there was a bipartisan consensus under president clinton that regime change should be the policy of the united states. and the united states congress house resolutions calling on the back by the administration. in fact, i believe it actually required a signature by president clinton and the iraq liberation act and

mr. gohmert: i heard the brilliant gentleman frank luntz. 15 people had voted for president obama, 15 had voted for john mccain. and it was interesting to hear some of the observations. i loved what one gentleman said. didn't sound like a lawyer but a good commonsense person. he said, i just know that i have never been in a government office in line to get some service and seen a government employee come running out and say, let me open up another window. this line is too long. he said, we've seen that in private businesses, because if you make someone wait in long too long, they'll get to the next business and not stay in your business. and his point was, he did not want those people who would come around and not open the extra window would be in charge of health care. it was a beautiful point. mr. akin: it raises as much as you and i have always railed against insurance companies making health care decisions, that's not quite so bad, because if you don't like the insurance company, you could change to a different insurance company. you might have to change your job to do it, but you cou

being as frank as you have with respect to this program. thank you, mr.hairman. >> thank you, senator chambliss. senator mccaskill. >> i know there has been talk about unit costs. i have not heard an estimate for the entire program. can somebody give me that number? perhaps i am sorry, i do not have that number. we do not have that number with us. >> i think we need to know that number. i am a little worried you would come to this. without that number, to be honest with you. i think everybody having a handle on what the overall costs are compared to what the were predicted to big, we are stuck and i'm sure this will be a great jet, but we want to learn from this. we do not want to do this again. if we do not have competition and i am a big fan of the product boeing puts in the air. for accountability purposes, i think whenever this group of people assembles, you should have a number of the overall program will be a. there is the shortfall. the home in st. louis, i know what the tactical aircraft means to our services now. i know that as you talked about m

frank who is gay. this is stupidity on a grand scale which mr. rich is -- it's something that's not new to him.hen you have "the washington post" piece which compares tea party people to these out and out racists of the 50s in the deep south, in the old south. this is seriously slanderous. this is disgraceful. and i will predict it is not the end of it. this is part of a pattern. if i were a conspiratorialist i would say there is a vast left wing conspiracy. i don't believe there is, but you marginalize people in this culture when you call them racist. megyn: it is a serious charge. we appreciate bernie's insights on this. if you missed any of that interview you can check it out on line. if you missed our interview with the code pink jody evans it's on foxnews.com/america live. you can see mr. snyder, the father of that fallen marine who was subjected to those protesters from the westboro baptist church. facing off against the i-man. i sat down with shock jock don imus on his show yesterday. here is a sample. >> this girl is living the dream. new baby, new husband -- originally new husband, hit

thank you for the testimony and senator frank and for your patience. >> thank you, mr. chairman.that because you are talking -- i think the global network initiative is a great start, and this is for both you and ms. wong, and mr. memarian, i want to get to you and i can't tell you how much admiration i have for your work and your courage. i think that gni is a great start, but microsoft is one of the members and yahoo! is one of the members and i don't see them making the same kind of decision google has made. i think that bill gates recently called chinese censorship very limited. i think those were his words. what do you think we can do and others can do to help other companies follow google's lead in china? that's both through you, ms. wong and ms. mackinnon. >> so, we actually -- our decision about china wasn't an easy one and i don't think any company will confront how to do business in these regimes has an easy one. we think we have now made the right decision to be we stand by our decision for sure. i was puzzled by microsoft's statements because they are not consistent a

the democrats, and to be frank, the clinton administration in terms of consolidation was in most cases worse than what the reagan people did. we should make no mistake about what mr. bork and his fellow chicago schoolers affected with their consumer welfare frame. this was to pass essentially into law the efficiency argument that has been favored by monopolists for centuries. what do i mean by that? john d. rockefeller, j. p. morgan, they all basically had a single message, competition is wasteful. centralization and control in one hand, that's deficient. but consider how it plays out over time. the logic goes like this. consumer want low prices. low prices are best with economies of scale. monopoly is the best friend of the consumer. so here we are a generation later and, well, it's proven effective again. we actually see the greatest concentration of power in this country in a century, and in some cases it's actually worse because last time around, they did not get their hands on to the farms, on to the retailers. if we view american history through the lens of our antimonopoly law. we see four eras. the first was in the first half of the 19th century. the year

frank, maryland, you are on with karl rove. please go ahead. >> caller: good morning. god bless america. i am not supposed to be surprised that mr. rove is-- i have so much respect for you. i don't think you take the call on the air without being-- [inaudible] i want to ask a question and i hope i get an answer. much before september 11, louis farrakhan reported a letter was sent to president clinton signed by the paul wolfowitz, dick cheney and the so-called neocons for the overthrow of saddam. are you aware of that or are you going to say that you never heard of it? it is true-- how do you say with all those people in those strategic points? >> host: is he referring to the gary schmitt letter? >> guest: i think that is it that there was also a bipartisan consensus under president clinton that regime change should be the policy of the united united states and the united states congress passed resolutions calling l backed by the administration and in fact i believe it required a signature by president clinton and the iraq liberation act i think the title of the bill is. there was an broad consensus bipartisan in nature. you can s

frank, do we maryland. you are on with karl rove. please go ahead. >> caller: hello. god bless america. i guess i am supposed to be surprised that mr. rove is tempered and [inaudible] so much respect to you -- i didn't think you take a call of the air without pre-editing. i give you that. i want to ask a question and hope i get an answer. much before september 11th, the minister reported a letter was sent to president clinton signed by cheney, rumsfeld and the neocons for the overdraw of saddam. if that is true, how do you say [inaudible] >> host: is he referring to the gary schmidt letter to president clinton? >> guest: there was also bipartisan consensus under president clinton that regime change should be the policy of the united states and the united states congress passed resolutions calling on that backed by the administration in fact i believe require a signature by president clinton and the iraqi liberation is the title of the bill but there was a broad consensus, bipartisan in nature if you go back to the 90's you can see to see emerge with democrats and republicans representing a threat. he invaded kuwait and threatened sa

mr. speaker, i want to take this opportunity to thank my chairman, chairman barney frank, and the staff of the financial services committee, for their assistance in bringing this important resolution to the floor, especially rick mo raw noah and -- rick morano and tom duncan. i also want to express my sincere appreciation for all my good friend congressman judy biggert has done. she's been at the forefront of literacy for many years in terms of her entire service here in the congress. judy biggert has been in a leadership role in financial literacy and the importance of saving. and all she's done over the years to help improve the financial literacy rate of all individuals across the united states at all stages of life and ms. judy biggert certainly deserves our commendations. she and congressman ruben hinojosa co-founded and currently co-chair the financial and economic literacy caucus, of which i'm a member. both of these outstanding congresspeople, congressman hinojosa could not be here with us today because yesterday was the texas primary and i'm pleased to announce to all of us that h

and frank wolves like there are more now people, look at this example in central europe and eastern europe of solidarity and more is coming, but much more is needed. nays, thank you, chris smith. mr. diaz-balart: i thank the gentleman from new jersey for spending time and explaining what's at stake here. it's important to note that the majority of congress has stood by the cuban people and continues to stand by the cuban people. but there are others who do the lithuanian the pole the czechs, the lithuanians -- the poles, the czechs, others, those who have had lack of freedom understand the horrors of that regime 90 miles away. they suffered under similar type of totalitarian regimes. i mention this again that this congress in a bipartisan fashion stands by the cuban people. stand by the political prisoners. stands by those relatives who have lost loved ones in the gulags and in the ocean. will continue to stand by the cuban people. will not be swayed by propaganda. do not forget, this congress does not forget, i should say, the suffering of the cuban people and does not forget that the most important thing that any human being has is freedom. so i am so grateful to the solidarity