mr. tonko: a lot of weight on your back. mr. ryan: carrying oxygen tanks and everything else, and there has been a disrespect for that kind of work. the sanitation worker, the teacher, you know, pushing the blame of all society's problems onto these public workers in that instance, and then now in ohio, for example, they're coming in and they want to make it a right to work state. so those building trait folks who were going to try to get back to work, 21% unemployment in the trade, we were trying to get them back to work with the infrastructure investments we need to make, to say to them, you're frot going to be allowed to have the collective right of bargaining and be able to negotiate contracts and it's going to diminish the wages and everything else, similar to what happened or what they wanted to do in ohio, it's about respecting these people. and when you respect them, they'll come to perform. but it takes those investments and that general appreciation. mr. tonko: and essential services that are performed. you talked abou

mr. tonko, good to see you back. i hope you had as good a thanksgiving as i did. i'm sure you worked as hard in your district as i did during those days system of please share with us and welcome back. mr. tonko: thank you, representative garamendi, and thank you for leading us in an hour of discussion a dialogue that's most critical to the economic viability, the economic comeback of america's middle class. you talk about some of these incentives that would be addressed through a payroll tax deduction. it's all about empowering our middle class. enhancing their purchasing power. enabling us to enhance that demand out there for products that then obviously translates into job growth because with more demand upon manufacturers in this country, with more consumer confidence, with absolute increase in purchasing power, there will be a positive outcome. there's no denying that unemployment is driving the deficit. and if we can turn that around if we can invest in ways that enhance the middle class,

mr. tonko: we do. mr. garamendi: we are thankful for the men and women that served in the house over the years that brought us to where we are, the world's strolingeningest, greatest country with the greatest opportunities. even with all the trouble we have today, we have the greatest opportunity. it's a country in which the american cream lives and we have the obligation to make sure it's there for future generations. mr. tonko, we are going to do a rapid 30 seconds around. mr. tonko: we had a wonderful hour of discussion and i give thanks for the wonderful investments that have made us this strong nation. in conclusion if we invest in the middle class of this nation, our greatest days lie ahead of us. we have are a -- we have a chance to be continually investing in a way that allows us to make it in america and allow for intellectual capacity to reign supreme. it's been our history, it's our d.n.a., let's make it happen. i'm optimistic about the tomorrows for this country with the appropriate investments

i yield out to my classmate and friend from the great state of new york, mr. tonko. mr. tonko: thank you for bringing us together this evening on a very important discussion, one that focuses on the fundamental underpinnings of the right to vote and encouraging voters to come to polls. this sort of effort that is being taken seriously by fash too many as a form of reform is discouraging. this is an attempt, i believe, to discourage folks have voting across this country. from an effort that is somewhat presented in this description of going after voter impersonation fraud, which is something that everyone is concerned about, but the element here is not to do that. no one can point to this overwhelming evidence that there is voter impersonation fraud that gets addressed by this approach. this is a denial that may impact five million americans when we should encourage participation. this focuses on many who would be disenfranchised, those on the lower socio-economic strata, the minority community, the elderly community, those are the targeted forces here and an outright atte

mr. tonko: america's middle class are determined, hardworking middle class is challenging congress. will congress respond to our middle class? we in the middle class are growing increasingly aware of the statistics, the wealth in this top 1% has grown exponentially. 275% over the same time frame, america's middle class that has seen its wealth flatline. it's diminished like 15% to 20%. that is unsustainable. america's middle class knows it. they know that we need to invest in our middle class, empower the purchasing power, raise our children, invest in their education and higher education, invest in health care, invest in public safety, invest in job creation and job retention, invest in research that equals jobs. that is the commitment that they're asking for. they know it's within the grasp of congress to fix it. they know increasingly the american dream is growing outside their grasp. we need to go to work, provide jobs, the dignity for our middle class, we need to solve the problems of middle america. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpos