mr. garamendi: doesn't change at all. mr. tonko: they are saying we have been flatlined for so long and this rise for the highest on the income ladder. mr. garamendi: surcharge is on the amount over $1 million. mr. tonko: there is more determination by america's middle-class families to have it fixed and done correctly. and the other thing is, i'm reminded every time i go home by middle-class americans, modest household incomes that we are job creators, my children needed my attention at home, i opened a child care center in my home. i charge and i have a small business. many small business people tell me, an idea came to mind and wanted to turn it into a product. they are small business owners. they are connected to the community. they are connected to the small community. mr. garamendi: the american jobs act, which we are trying to push through this congress to get men and women back to work, provides a tax reduction for the employer on wages less than $50 million. so for your child care provider, for the small business per

mr. garamendi: obesity. ms. kaptur: well if you try to find different brands, you'll see certain brands at eye level because they pay thousand of dollars to each grocery store to put it there. but if you want locally bottled soda or pop, you're lucky if you can find it on the bottom shelf and you probably can't. they have gate keepers. the public is largely unaware of this local meat. i represent a region that's both urban and rural. i love it, i'm privileged to represent it. try to get locally pr deuced pork on the shelves of large supermarket chains. good luck. you know. the same is true with vegetables. we could have so much more income growth and job growth in this country if we would have some consciousness by these big retailers and box stores to go local. we grow local, we make local but to try to move to it shelves, it's almost impossible. mr. garamendi: black friday, a week ago, all about the big retailers. but small saturday, now that was exciting. a lot of advertising out in california about go to you

mr. garamendi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. garamendi: i think somehow i made a mistake. i came over here to listen to the debate and it's almost like als i in wonderland -- alice in wonderland. white is black, black is white. this is confusing to the folks out there. so let's just try to understand where we are at this moment. we sent a bill, that is a republican -- that is the republicans in this house sent a bill to the senate that was rejected, rejected for several reasons. one of them was the pay-for. how it was going to be paid for. ways that dealt, i think, unfairly with workers who were unemployed, it shortened the period of unemployment, not to 99 weeks but even shorter to just over 50. and it also went after medicare recipients, causing them to pay more. it was rerejected by the senate. the senate put together a complo mice. 90% of the senators, well, just short of 90%, 89 senators, democrat and republican, voter fod a two-month compromise that was paid for. with the understanding that they would spend the next two mon

mr. garamendi of california, the gentleman from california, and we use this to show how flatlined our working and middle class have been in terms of their growth of their income and we see the top percent of wealth right here shooting up to an enormous amount that is the blue line, this is how the wealthy have progressed and grown, and then we hear our friends saying, the poor little rich person, where the very rich person in this group, because i'm not involved in class warfare, is saying, we understand and we're willing to have the burden of sacrifice with the benefit of living in this great country, and so when we look at this wealth, think about this woman who is saying she is near homelessness and think about the 160 million americans that if we do not do a payroll tax cut, but think about most of all, the six million americans who will be left to homelessness in contrast to the enormous wealth that is on this poster board and the meager proposal of surtax on the 1% for 10 years starting in 2013 to pay this off and to keep solvent social security, it is unbelievable that we would not rus