mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you for yielding. mr. speaker -- the speaker pro tempore: microphone. mr. pascrell: thankfully we're in a leap year because we have two weeks to the day to come to an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut, the doc fix and the important unemployment benefits. we can't let taxes go up to the american people by $100 billion. let's get this clear what this costs. yet the majority is willing to bail out certain banks, protect billionaires by having their taxes go up by one dime, has to be dragged kicking and screaming to provide the middle class a little help. and the gentleman from new york was absolutely correct. to compare what the reagan administration faced, and i thought they did a good job in responding to the problem, to this almost catastrophe off the cliff is a stretch beyond one's imagination. it doesn't stand up to logic. so far this year the economic indicators have shown some improvements. not what you would like, not what i would like, not what the gentleman from lon

mr. pascrell. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pascrell: thank you, madam speaker. i'm tired of hearing the president is a failure. i'm tired. you can smirk all you want. there's no perfection on this floor, there's no perfection down the street. and you didn't give these speeches in 2008 when we were losing 500, 600, 700 jobs a month. not one of you came to the floor. shame on you. and now, what we want to do, we want to turn our backs on those 10 million americans currently who need long-term care. we have no alternative, we all agree that there needs to be change, and -- change in the present system, that has yet to work, we have to find a way to make long-term care both accessible and affordable. these problems will not simply disappear. they're not going to go away. this bill certainly does not fix these problems, the bill does not provide an alternative. all it does is attack the progress made in the affordable care act. you've tried to take it down, you tried to take all the money away that's going in order to have a system in this country that change that wa

mr. pascrell? >> thank you, mr. chairman. when does the budget balance? i think that's a great question. mr. zients. and you were put to the test by the ranking member, my friend from new jersey, when he asked you that question in different ways in different times. and he claimed that you never answered the question. you know, dante's inferno is a terrace and we're looking at it right now. the budget that was presented to us, not that long ago, mr. chairman, your budget, your budget, was balanced on the positive in terms of the percentage of gdp in 2063. let me finish, please. >> if you want to be accurate -- >> i'm going to get back to you. i always allow you to speak. 2063 -- 50 years. balanced budget. >> that was when the debt was paid off. >> you took, if your budget, i thought you were courageous to present one, so hear me out. i said that to you once before. you took revenue off the table, oil revenue. no increases. the cbo said we had annual deficits of 3.5 and 4.5% of gdp. so it was estimated that in the budget that you presented, and please corre

mr. pascrell. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pascrell: thank you, madam speaker. i'm tired of hearing the president is a failure. i'm tired. you can smirk all you want. there's no perfection on this floor, there's no perfection down the street. and you didn't give these speeches in 2008 when we were losing 500, 600, 700 jobs a month. not one of you came to the floor. shame on you. and now, what we want to do, we want to turn our backs on those 10 million americans currently who need long-term care. we have no alternative, we all agree that there needs to be change, and -- change in the present system, that has yet to work, we have to find a way to make long-term care both accessible and affordable. these problems will not simply disappear. they're not going to go away. this bill certainly does not fix these problems, the bill does not provide an alternative. all it does is attack the progress made in the affordable care act. you've tried to take it down, you tried to take all the money away that's going in order to have a system in this country that change that wa

mr. pascrell. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for three minutes. mr. pascrell: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, the title of this legislation that the budget and accounting transparency act, maybe they should have stopped there, madam speaker. because the rest of the bill isn't transparency at all. we still want to dole in the midst, we still want to believe that if we don't pay our bills and if we don't pay the bills that we have, the federal government, that everything is going to be all right. the bond rating agencies don't think so. nor does anyone else. so when you put the country in jeopardy of not paying its own bills, here's who you hurt. you hurt the middle class. you hurt the working poor. hurt the poor. this is nothing more than a back door method, this bill, to politicize and eliminate important federal investments. been trying to do that, madam speaker, for four years. it hurts the middle class, hurts working folks, hurts the economy. the elected use of the fair value accounting is the acts that these extreme methods will take to sp

mr. pascrell, mr. capuano and ms. pingree. mr. speaker, i represent the last 70 miles of eastern long island where the primary industries are travel and tourism, everything to do with the second home market, agriculture and the fishing industry. thus, in my district, the environment is the economy in many respects. it can ill afford a disaster like gulf coast states endured during the deepwater horizon spill in 2010. oil-soaked beaches would devastate long island's economy, let alone the environment, and there is no reasonable person who can disagree with me on this point. the republican drilling proposals to offset the highway bill would raise less than $4.3 billion over 10 years, according to c.b.o. or less than .1 of the revenue actually needed. combine this with the other funding mechanisms for the highway bill and republicans are paying for their reckless legislation on the backs of middle-class families. for example, the republicans' spending package would require federal employees to increase their pension contributions whi

mr. santorum and next. >> tamara, the vice chairman of the house armed services committee will take your questions about proposed cuts in defense spending. bill pascrell look at the budget and deficit. the we will look at the security correspondent for the national journal to discuss nuclear energy programs in countries in the middle east. "washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> rick santorum won the misery primary and the minnesota caucuses tuesday. he spoke to supporters in st. charles, missouri outside the st. louis. -- outside of st. louis. clacks>> wow. conservatism is alive and well in missouri and minnesota. thank you so very much. it is great to be here. we doubled them up here and in minnesota. i also want to thank god for giving us the grace to be able to persevere. what a rock. we have had more drama than as a family really needs. she has been an amazing rockets and amazing to me. i want to thank you. -- she has been an amazing and amazing to me. i want to thank you. i want to thank my two kids and all the kids at home. i will be home in a couple of days. it has been a while. i just want a particular note to my bella