mr. pascrell and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? >> mr. chairman, i'd like to strike the last word. the chair: the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you for allowing me to speak in support of the latourette and pascrell amendment, to restore funding for fire and safer grants. ms. richardson: i'd like to thank congressman latourette and congressman pascrell for offering this amendment which enjoys bipartisan support which i strongly support. the yawn slot of natural disasters that we have seen across the country have shown that the neeled for first responders has increased, not decreased. many of us have been strong advocates for this program and recognize the inherent value of making sure our nation's first responders have the people and the equipment that they need in order to ensure our safety in all of our local communities. i support these programs. why? because they work. after an independe

mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, reserves. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. camp: i reserve at this time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. levin: i now yield a minute and a half to another member of the ways andeans committee, mr. blumenauer of oregon. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon voiced for a minute and a half. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. eaker. there's no more important agenda item currently phasing congress -- facing congress than ensuring america pays its bills and honors its obligation. the accumulated choices of congresses and administrations past and present have created the debt and the need to honor the obligations. like an unfued war with in iraq that's going to cost trillions of dollars or an unfunded medicare prescription drug program from our republican friends. we're not going to default on our debt. with over 100 my colleagues, i signed a letter calli

mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. we better not forget how we got here in the first place. the president, when he raised his hand in january of 2009 inherited a $10.6 trillion debt. let us not forget history. i know this is like a kabuke dance today. you are not only not sincere about this but this is all process. the american people, the folks in my district are not interested in process, they are interested in results. what are the results? how does this help the guy or gal on main street? that's what we should be talking about. this bill we know is going to fail. you already told your wall street friends, don't worry about it, don't take it serious. it's just like a reality show. the republicans have warned their wall street friends and as "the wall street journal" said today, they're in on this, quote-unquote, joke. but as in poker, they're not all in. alexander hamilton founded my city of patterson, new jersey, understood that good credit is integral to being a world power. it is by no means a joke. failure to act will have immediate and dire consequences. now, the wor

mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. eaker. we better not forget how we got here in the first place. the president, when he raised his hand in january of 2009 inherited a $10.6 trillion debt. let us not forget history. i know this is like a kabuke dance today. you are not only not sincere about this buthis is all process. the american people, the folks in my district are not interested in process, they are intereed in results. what are the results? how does this help the guy or gal on main street? that's what we should be talking about. this bill we know is going to fail. you already told your wall street friends, don't worry about it, don't take it serious. it's just like a reality show. the republicans have warned their wall street friends and as "the wall street journal" said today, they're in on this, quote-unquote, joke. but as in poker, they're not all in. alexander hamilton founded my city of patterson, new jersey, understood that good credit is integral to being a world power. it is by no means a joke. failure to act will have immediate and dire consequences. now, the world i

mr. pascrell, is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. how are you today? what is a logical, we learn in logic 101, may not be true. it's our premises that determine those things. i don't know, i want to enter into the record, mr. chairman, the s&p indices concerning health care, health care costs, and bring to your attention, mr. chairman, that in 2010 medicare claim costs associated with hospital and professional services for patients covered under medicare increased at a more modest 3.2% rate, much lower than the private sector. much lower than the private sector. and i would like to ask to begin with and very briefly in response, i appreciate that, what do you think attributed to the slowdown, to the more moderate pace of entries in medicare? as well as the private sector going down, too, but not to the degree of medicare. why do you think that happened? both of you. either of you. >> my response to that would be one factor is certainly the turndown in the economy which has left some seniors and others with less income to pay their co-insurance, co-paym

mr. pascrell to restore the funding to the president's requested level. but my colleagues should also be aware that funding is only part of the problem with this bill when it comes to the safer program. the underlying bill also neglects to maintain provisions enacted in fiscal years 2009-2011 that allows fire departments to use these grants to hire and lay off firefighters and prevent others from being laid off in the first place. the law traditionally permits safer grants only to be used to hire new staff. now, that provision makes sense when our economy is booming and local governments are in a position to hire new workers. but when the recovery is still fragile and local budgets are actually contracting and workers are being laid off, fema needs the flexibility to use these grants to keep firefighters from being cut in the first place. secretary napolitano and administrator fugate testified to this need earlier this year in our appropriations hearings. i am proposing a waiver amendment which would save thousands of firefighter jobs. right now the real

mr. pascrell: we are morally broke, but that's how we're broke. let's be straight here. what's our vision for america? that has to be that issue. we can say we don't want it to be fiscally broke, but no one comes to this well with clean hands. this is something we should be sitting down and talking about together. how can we solve america's problems. so what's our vision? it may be a balanced budget. i could support that. it may be cutting waste and fraud. well, that sounds good. we should all be supporting that. and maybe to get americans back to work, over 14 million are still unemployed and the underemployed. it may be to halt the loss of our homes, like we did on the western frontier 150 years ago when people worked together to end those foreclosures. my vision does not include hurting our most vulnerable children and seniors just to make a point. you heard -- the gentleman from maryland talk earlier how little this means in bringing down the deficit for one year or 10 years. we've got our priorities screwed up. so, yes, we want a balanced budget. isn't it interestin