mr. orszag, peter orszag, testifying to the ways and means committee on september 18, 2008, mr. speaker, he said, quote, decreasing emissions would also impose -- impose a cost on the economy, a cost on the economy. much of those costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy-intensive goods. mr. orszag's written testimony stated that the average annual household cost was $1,300. that's for a 15% cut in co-2 emissions which by the way happens to be 80% less than the cuts sought by this administration. another fact, on march 17, 2009, energy secretary steven chu testifying before the science committee said, quote, the cap and trade bill will likely increase the cost of electricity. end of quote. another fact i'd like to bring up today, energy secretary steven ch usaid that advocating -- chu said that advocating effective trade duties as a weapon to protect u.s. manufacturing is otherwise again u.s. manufacturing would be put at a huge disadvantage. he said establishing a carbon tariff would help, quote, level the playing field if other

mr. orszag, the firetruck is depleted. we're already there. and i'm disappointed as o.m.b. director he has forgotten his commitment to entitlement and tax reform that he so boldly and loudly called for when he was c.b.o. director. you would think that a change in title would not cause such a memory loss on as important an issue as the financial health of our country. to me it can only mean one thi thing, that peter orszag's boss, president obama, must not be serious about addressing the gross national debt or, worse, doesn't understand our fiscal crisis or even worse than that, that he doesn't care. just last friday, "the washington post" ran an opinion piece taking the administration to task for lacking a plan on just how we start to dig our country out of this financial crisis. the article details secretary -- treasury secretary geithner's trip to beijing two weeks ago when he went to reassure china, the world's largest holder of our treasury debt, as i mentioned, that lending money to the u.s. government is still a wise thing to do. he said in the united states, we are p