mr. serrano: thank you, mr. chairman. you know, when some of us go home and we speak to different groups about how congress conducts its business, one of the parts of those conversations that may be hard to understand is that we have personal relationships and we have people on both sides of the aisle that we respect and we like. and so especially during these times it becomes difficult for some of us when, for instance, a person like myself looks at a chairman rogers or a chairman wolf or a mike simpson, chairman simpson, and we know that these are good people who are totally confused as to what it is we're supposed to be doing. you say to a republican these days, good morning, and he or she answers, cut the budget. the sky is blue, cut the budget. we all understand the need to get certain amounts of spending under control. but the problem is that some folks, and this bill shows that, continue to totally misunderstand that, yes, we may have economic issues that we have to deal with, that's a given. but we are also still

mr. serrano. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. serrano: i ask neaks to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. serrano: i thank the gentleman. i rise today to speak against this rule and this bill. this will not save our nation's problem but instead devastate our economy in the most vulnerable -- and the most vulnerable in our society. our nation has run into fiscal problems for three runs none addressed by this bill. bush tax cuts, foreign wars and a recession. when a fiscal situation of the government was better i warned that the spending and tax cuts and foreign wars would cause problems between republicans which will balance on the backs of social programs. when times were good, republicans said that tax cuts pay for themselves and famously deficits don't matter. they were wrong and working families are suffering. now we get the explanation that by cutting government jobs and spending it will create jobs and revive the economy. however, it is clear that what we really need are good, stable