mr. frank: i was just yielding to the gentleman. -- mr. franks: i was just yielding to the gentleman. such time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arizona will control the time. mr. price: i commend my friend for taking time this evening on what truly is a historic day. an opportunity for this nation to begin, just begin, to move things in the right direction from a fiscal standpoint here in our great country. the debate over the last, oh, three to four months has been very loud. sometimes it's been acrimonious. there are many people across this great country who just are confounded by the la boirs you nature with which it takes to make any changes here in washington at all. i share that frustration and share that anger and share that concern because we've been moving in the wrong direction for a long, long time. as it relates to spending at the federal level. so what we as the gentleman from arizona so appropriately said was, what we need to do is decrease spending in the short-term. we need to put some controls

mr. franks: about 13 minutes remaining. i'm hoping to yield to the gentleman eight minutes or something along those lines. mr. king: i thank the gentleman from arizona for leading on this special order and all my colleagues who have come to the floor on this balanced budget amendment. i want to point a few things out as to where this sits. the chairman of the committee standing before me, mr. franks, has presided over the shaping of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. i certainly favor the one offered by bob goodlatte and marked up in the judiciary committee, it took three full days over a couple of weeks trying to find the time to get this to work out. i want to express, mr. speaker, that a balanced budget amendment that's written by someone who doesn't believe in a balanced budget amendment probably isn't going to yield the result we all want from that amendment. and the worst case scenario would be the drafting and passage of a balanced budget amendment that would be the constitutional equivalent of pa

mr. frank: mr. speaker, earlier this year a group of members sent a letter to president obama urging him to grant clemensy at this point and commute the sentence for jonathan pove earth. he spied on the united states on behalf of israel. he should not have done that and he was punished. but the punishment for that espionage has gone on longer than being comparable. i believe there is a personal argument for the clemensy. and there is also the fact that american-israeli relations are always important and are particularly important now. we are asking the israelis to take some steps towards a negotiated peace. it may or may not be impossible for them to take. knowing that america recognizes the strength of that friendship is a important factor of our persuading them of that. the fact that he has served so long, we're not asking him to be barded -- pardonned, we're not condoning his crime. we're saying in addition to the personal argument, it would be a sign of u.s.-israeli relations that i think would

mr. frank, i guess the question is, would you have voted against this measure, or would you have voted a nay if your vote were decisive? >> yes, i thought long and hard about it. it wasn't something to play games about it. i rose twice this year to raise the debt limit. i thought it was important. i also believe if this had fallen, what you would have seen would have been an immediate short-term extension, but it's a dilemma. i understand that. are you ready to take the pain? once you accept the premise you're going to vote for anything to stave off a disaster, then you give the people who have an interest in disaster even more leverage than they already have. it would have been a mistake to say the tea party people are out to dismantle government, they're out to reduce and discredit the president and don't mind screwing up the economy, and to stave that off you will do anything they ask, then you are in big trouble. so i think a line had to be drawn. i wanted to vote for this. i saw reasons to

mr. franks said it well, free enterprise capitalism has done more good for the world than any other system out there that has gotten people out of bed in the morning, kept them up late at night, caused them to find another way to be more efficient. competition makes us more efficient. and the desire to do well sometimes just for the pure sake of the challenge of it all, that desire to do well drives many of us, and now -- so the people that are out there creating jobs are doing so because there's a prospect for profit. that's where the jobs are, the prospect -- if the prospect for profit isn't there, if the degree of risk isn't proportional to the potential for profit, they're not going to take the risk. it's that simple, mr. speaker. on this side, i hear sometimes, this lack of resolve that yes, we ought to have a balanced budget and we need to get there but it's just too soon to rush there. the resistance to the idea that we should take a look at this spending now. and cut the spending now. get it under control now. when i first came into this congress and swore in here on this floor in

i was representing the raiders and mr. frank mallicoat representing the 49ers. reat time. >> who won? >> i had so much fun with you out there frank,dy -- i did not even watch the game. it was a great time to get out there and enjoy the game. >> my buddy. my buddy. my buddy and me. so cute. >> all right. >> how about another verse? >> thank you. >> that's what the picture reminds me of. >> let's go to redwood city. we're just getting word of what sounds like a structure fire. a two alarm fire. we don't know exactly what is burning right now. we understand that the flames are possibly blocking an area, hastings area, burnside street. and no other details right now. but it sounds like we are launching chopper 5 to check it out. we will hopefully bring live pictures coming up. in the meantime, the rest of the south bay looks great including coming out of downtown, 280. no problems to cupertino. and coming up, we will show you a check of the bay bridge. but in the meantime, back to you. >> is this version available on i-tunes? my buddy? just check, elizabeth wenger. >

mr. drake. >> frank drake. >> dr. drake, dr. used those words to describe it practically. >> i don't know if it was a rogue, but i would say -- >> it was dismissed. >> frank did the first search about 40 years ago. and at the time, it was very difficult technologically to look at a lot of frequencies or at a lot of stars. but, since that time the national academy of sciences in every one of its surveys of astronomy and astrophysics has endorsed seti. so if there were any concerns about it decades ago, we now have multiple peer reviews by both the astrofizzy sists and biologiologists that have endorsed it. >> are you talking about the committee on origin -- >> that's right. >> just so everybody understands this, this is not a pseudoscience, we're not talking about roswell, aliens, this is an entirely different subject. >> this is a sipe tick search. >> the seti institute in mount view california. the nexus of such efforts in the u.s. has accomplished in a spectacular wait founding of the science institute and the procurement of s

[laughter] first, mr. frank, i will turn to you with a question. that is it? >> talk about journalism. you're at iowa like to hear thoughts on how that is working now to in your view. >> the title is the britishbrig national and them but instead they're wonderful andh bright and frenetic and the bills in question referred to content. but they have figured out a way to producet journalismly, says it is really, really thosee hundreds of topics to write a story and then they turned in 300 words and what makes a wonderful is they pay thevery risers very, very little. 1 that would be very generouso and the dark and the $50 per story and the copy this on average getting $15 per storey if this giving $2.50 for every story that they grip parker you have to do adou bunch per day in order to make a living but people and assist it can be done in could earn a living thisst way. just.gn >> bid doing it with a computer program that lookst for what people are searching for then will they combine it with another at w factor what would they pay to associate themselves with a g

i recently sat down with frank luntz in his mind lab. mr. luntz, thanks so much for talking to me today. >> pleasure. and it's doctor. >> stephen: it dres? >> yes. >> stephen: okay. frank... (laughter) i want the best for my super pack. you worked with huge people: newt gingrich, microsoft, mcdonald's. if ♪ i'm loving it... is that you? >> no. >> stephen: can i get that guy? i thought you were that guy. >> no. >> stephen: okay. (laughter and applause) your slogan is "it's not what you say, it's a what they hear." >> the key process in communication is to listen to your audience carefully and actually hear what they're saying and understand the hopes and fears behind.... >> stephen: i'm sorry. i didn't catch some of that. can you repeat it? i apologize. you have to do what with your audience? (laughter) >> listen. >> stephen: listen. okay. listen. >> focus. focus. now look them straight in the eye. not with a big eye, i mean like... there you go, that's better. don't squint because that looks like you're being dishonest and don't breathe heavy

. >> mr. frank dobson. >> i think we all welcome the prime minister's praise for the individual police officers, for firefighters and for ambulance and emergency staff. will he now fall up his warm words with warm action and abandon his proposals to undermine the pensions arrangement of those same firefighters ambulance and policemen? >> we're taking action on the advice of lord hutton, the former labor pension secretary, i think, who whose written a vey good report. he does make certain exceptions for uniformed services, and i think it's a sensible report that i'm sure the honorable gentleman will study. >> mr. tbreg mulholland. >> thank you, mr. speaker. threats of violence against our brave firefighters, and yet the legislation is insufficiently clear. there is no specific offense of threatening a firefighter and legislation allows only for a 5,000-pound fine be into the on transition of the emergency -- obstruction of the emergency services act. -- [inaudible] is it not now the time to revisit t

that's where we are -- >> how about the last part claim by the ranking member, mr. frank, that the sec would be required to make its rules and regulations consistent with dodd-frank, and there but i guess withdrawal that requirement? >> well, we haven't done anything to alter the 436-g, or what was done in the statute. the only thing that we did was to issue annual action letter with respect to the abs market. >> you have if you are to other panelists have you on whether the rating agency should be subject to that expert standard? people do listen to the rating agencies. we are seeing that right now. when i was in state government we listen, in fact when the rating agencies said jump, we said how high? and we would go, i was secretary of finance, we go to the legislature and so you can do that because if you did that, it could affect our rating. now we have the debate over the debt ceiling, and, of course, the big argument is we don't want to default, we don't want to downgrade. so people do listen. some of the discussion and argue it is do they rely on the ratings too mu

mr. sharp, many in the banking industry have expressed concern that the dodd-frank act stifles lending to small businesses. hasn't the small business community been struggling to get credit from banks well before the financial reform was enacted, and is there something that could be done perhaps outside of this law or something different to help correct for that? >> thank you, mr. altmire. to answer the first part, yes. the challenge small businesses face in the credit markets right now are not unique to 2011 or 2010. they are there for several years now and stagnant. it's not improving, and that's a real concern. you know, honestly, at this point, i think part of what everybody is hearing is let's not do anything to make it worse. it's not exactly clear what it is what is gumming up the works, but what we know for sure is that the commercial lending markets are not froze p, but they -- frozen, but they are not in good shape. the message we hear is let's certainly not take away some of the tools that do some toke working now. we can use the credit cards, borrow money against our car or ho

mr. reynolds, i'd like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. >> frank: done. >> sweet dee: okay, holdone second. >> mara: bless you. >> sweet dee: hold on did you just say that you left the priesthood? >> mara: yes! yes, i had to. >> sweet dee: mattie, wow, you should not have done that. >> mara: what do you mean? >> sweet dee: you got to... you should go and undo that right now. >> mara: uh, but, but you said... >> sweet dee: yeah, i know what i said. i said there were a lot of things, and i meant all of them, i did, but the thing is i didn't know you were going to actually leave the church, which is why i felt safe saying those things in the first place. >> mara: wait, wait. so... so you don't love me? >> sweet dee: oh, mattie, i think you are a great guy. >> mara: my life is ruined. my life is ruined. >> sweet dee: no... >> mara: yes, yes, it's ruined. >> sweet dee: no, it's not. what about this? why don't you go back to the priesthood? >> mara: i can't, okay?! i-i-i can't. you can't just go back, dee. "yeah, i want to become a priest again." you can't, okay?! >> sweet dee: but are

i'm going to be very frank again, mr. senator, if you don't mind. i was in algeria during the civil war there in the mid-90s. there was a very brave algiersian opposition at the time. we had nothing to offer them. there was no democratic institute and the kinds of programs they do or the republican institute. those kinds of programs actually do matter a lot, and we work with civil society and political parties. those programs do help, and we have clawed and scratched for gains in places like iraq, and the resources we commit help. it's still up to the local people whether it's iraq, iran, or syria or whatever, but we can help. i hope we, the american people, will understand the value to our national security of supporting those democratic transitions. >> well, we want to thank you for your testimony, but express our gratitude and commendation in a much larger scale for your commit as you say on the ground which -- which is a noteworthy and very significant act of public service. we appreciate that, and we'll work with you, and i know that a bipartis

frank mallicoat. >> i'm grace lee. get your tuesday started off with a little mr.w you should start every day. >> that's what

frank mallicoat. >> i'm grace lee. the weekend right around the corner. a lot of people wondering what the weather is going to be like. >> mr. doughnut who brought in 700 doughnuts this morning! >> happy friday, guys. happy friday, folks at home. fog, low clouds and drizzle this morning. a little more sunshine by the afternoon, maybe a little warmer, 82 concord, 78 san jose, 60s in oakland and san francisco. more on the weekend forecast in a moment. first let's check the roads are gianna. >> we are jumping over to the bay bridge. metering lights off, no wind advisories, but lots of roadwork. details on that coming up. right now, back to you. >> thank you. >>> a developing story this morning. a hit-and-run rampage that's left a child in critical condition. >> this morning, police have a suspect in custody. kristy seifkin is in san francisco at the scene where the child was hit. kristy. >> reporter: good morning to you, grace and to frank. yes, this morning, police actually detained a suspect who they believe was involved in hitting that 9-year-old boy last night near downtown san francisco around 10:40 p.m. as we take a look

mr. assad stepping down, but is there any potential for someone to, at the highest levels to show that kind of forebearance at some point in the near term? >> i'm going to be very frank. i have heard from a number of officials in damascus, messages of good intent. i have to tell you that what matters is change on the ground. and an end to the shooting of peaceful protestors and end to these sweeps where hundreds of young people are rounded up without any kind of judicial process and held for months, often in barbaric conditions. there are still political prisoners. change on the ground. and i have listened to these messages of good inat the present time and when i come back to them and say, what about changing this and changing this today or tomorrow, i don't get much back. a few things here and there, but not very much. and our conclusion is that this regime is unwilling or unable to lead the democratic transition that the syrian people are demanding now. it doesn't matter now, what we are interested in, the syrian people are interested in and that's the change on the ground, positive change on the ground. the incidents over the past few days leading up to ramadan s

my time has expired. >> senator frank and you are next. >> thank you, mr. larsen for your testimony. experts agree that rising health care costs in our country are unsustainable for the federal government for states and for consumers. during the health reform debate i looked to minnesota for ideas to bend the implement cost care curve and making sure our insurers are offering high products in minnesota where the dollars they took in premiums were going directly to health care services. but it wasn't that way everywhere. the so-called medical loss ratio for individual and small group policies was as low as 60%, 50% and even 40%. and insurers were spending 40% of their dollars from premiums on health care services. based on minnesota's experience, i introduced a bill that was included in the health reform requiring insurers to spend at least 80 in small group and individual markets and 85% of insurance premiums on actual health care services. in the large group market. during a hearing before this committee in march, you testified that you had already seen pr

frank mallicoat. >> i'm grace lee. let's get a quick check of traffic and weather. we are starting off with mr. karnow. did you hear us talking aboutburgers? >> yes. i'm thinking about firing up the barbecue! this morning, we have low clouds and fog again. it will break up this afternoon. plan on 60s in san francisco and oakland, 80s in concord. san jose lots of sunshine. more on your weather in just a moment. let's check traffic with elizabeth. >> thanks. most of our overnight roadwork should be wrapping up. 5:00 is the magic hour. right now not much happening on the golden gate bridge except fog. so watch out for that. more on that coming up. back to you. >> thank you. >>> more market mayhem as stocks tank around the world. we have a report from the newsroom, u.s. stocks had one of the worst trading days in history. bracing hopefully for not another round of this. >> reporter: people are hoping so much that it wasn't be the repeat of yesterday. we are looking for round 2 today. extremely rocky trading yesterday. as for the worldwide markets, sharp drop, lots of selling began in asia and hit europe. t

mr. sunshine himself, lawrence karnow. >> yeah! we have a bright day ahead but we are starting out with patchy fog this morning, frank and grace. but we are going to see more sunshine into the afternoon, cooler in some spots. still patchy fog along the coastline into the bay. napa valley and santa rosa but clear into livermore, concord and fairfield right now. temperatures generally in the 50s outside so fairly mild start to the day but as we head toward the afternoon, we will warm temperatures up very nicely outside as high as 87 in livermore, 80 san jose, 50s and 60s with patchy fog at the coast. let's check the roads with gianna. >> thank you, lawrence. roads not too bad. we are accident-free. most of the roadwork has been wrapped up. live look right now at 101 through san jose, not a lot of cars on the road. just a few headlights there heading northbound as they work their way towards the peninsula. on the maps we'll check travel times through the south bay. northbound 280, 101 to 85, 11 minutes no delays on 101. northbound guadalupe parkway highway 87 looks like they are updating about 10 minutes from 58 to 280 so so far,

frank mallicoat. it is 6:30. let's get you out of bed with a little traffic and weather. and mr.himself, lawrence karnow. ladies and gentlemen! >> i'm just still waking up this morning, guys. but hey, we are looking at a great day. hard to tell though we have patchy fog out there now. by the afternoon, plenty of sunshine, 90 concord, 68 san francisco, 72 oakland. more on your weather in a moment. right now let's check the roads with gianna. >> we have an injury accident at the marina. back to you guys. >> thank you. >>> this morning the remains of hurricane irene are over eastern canada causing flooding power outages up in the province of quebec. >> the storm is now blamed for at least two dozen deaths in the eastern u.s. people along the east coast an even inland are still dealing with floodwaters. some of the worst flooding right now is in upstate new york and vermont, the worst flooding that state has seen in a century. power outages are a major problem. millions of homes and businesses were affected and many could remain in the dark tore days. >> definitely i'd say the power

mr. assad stepping down, but is there any potential for some of the highest military leadership to show that for parents at some point in the near term? >> senator, i'm going to be very frank. i've heard from a number of officials in damascus messages of good intent. i have to tell you that what matters is change on the ground it to the shooting of peaceful protesters and and to the swedes were hundreds of young people are rounded up without any kind of process and held for months often in the barbaric conditions as the release of political prisoners, still political prisoners. change on the ground and the messages of good intent and when i come back and say what about changing this and changing the face today or tomorrow i don't get much backed. a few things here and there, senator, but not for a much. and our conclusion is that this regime is unwilling or unable to lead the democratic transition that the syrian people are demanding now. and in a sense unwilling or unable doesn't really matter because what we are interested in is the syrian people are interested in the international community is interested in is that change on the ground. the positive change on the ground

mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity don frank legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they carry huge deal about what those rules end up looking like saw it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with politicians in fact they spent a combined total of one point seven six million dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by s. and p. because of government debt per member of the government ran up that debt in part because they bailed out the big banks and a.i.g. back in two thousand and eight remember the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d. or an f. which makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade lauren lester r.t. washington d.c. and i want to come to you live from the heart of moscow and british prime minister david cameron ha

mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies have been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity frank. financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules are yet to be written and they care. billion dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by ass in p. because of government debt girl member of the government ran up that debt in part because it bailed out the big banks in ai g. back in two thousand and eight the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d. or an hour which makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade lauren lyster r.t. washington d.c. . person prime minister david cameron has reiterated the zero tolerance approach to keep england's riots is a courts have been working through the night with leeches with almost eight hundred people charged with taking part of britain's worst on rest in decades of political reeses it won't be long before more disorder r