balance to the relationship between t united states and israel and the united states and its arab neighbors so that it can regain our role s and honest broker. during the bush administration we were seen as so pro-israel that the united states could not stand as and interlocutor among those nations for reasons partly because we did not have any diplomatic presence in damascus. i'm not sure help the russian ship will develop with the syrian ambassador, but the administration believes it is better to talk and be present with and not to be. i think that is the logic. host: we're joined on the democrats' line from newark, new jersey. caller: thank you to your balanced response to the questions coming your way. as a person who watches c-span consistently, it is a pleasure to hear you cannot avoid questions posed to you. my question to you as a reporter for "the washington post" regarding john mccain and lindsey gramm attacking the president's response to the situation iniran, do you s a writer for net to be out of hand on their part and only politically motivated? do you think -- what are we supposed to do in response, technically, to what is happening andiran?

it took until 1990 for it to become operative here when president bush was president of the united states. throughout the 1990's it was how we operated. pay-as-you-go. and the last four budgets of president clinton were in balance or in surplus. we have to return -- you know what has happened in the eight years intervening in terms of the reversal of that under president george w. bush. but now happily democrats are coming together around this concept. for many years it has been the central organizationing purpose of the blue dogs, fiscal discipline, fiscal responsibility. and -- but i want you to know that their -- there are initiatives from all the caucuses for pay-as-you-go. i sent a letter to chairs of the committee to ask them to subject everything under their scrutiny, under their jurisdiction to the harshest scrutiny to find savings, whether it's waste, fraud, abuse, duplications. we'll save $10 billion below the president's budget in that respect. and as our appropriations bills go forward, they will implement that direction. health care reform will be part of how we address reducing the deficit. health

reagan, president george bush in the 1990's, president george bush in 2008, they believed the i.m.f. itself was an important asset in the seeking of security by the united states of america. now, we didn't put it in that bill, but it's supported by 2/3 of the united states senate, supported by the president of the united states who when he met with the g-20 pledged to play our part in trying to bring the security that this country so -- has paid so dearly to achieve. our shares is approximately 20% . the other members of the g-20, 19 nations will be putting up 80%. why? because they too believe this is enhancing the security of their countries and also what they think it does is to lift up the poorest nations of the world. not iran, who's not gotten any money since 1994. not hezbollah. no discussions with them. the united states would clearly weigh in to stop such funding, properly so. so we have a bill that seeks security and peace and it's two-prong now, not one. and i suggest to you that it is my belief that if it were a republican president asking for this that this bill would pass with some 368 votes again. why? because democrats would join in the republi

bush number 2's banning of international aid on totally cynical grounds. in february, 2004, the two traditional tortures of haiti, france and the united states, combined to back a military coup and send president aristide off to africa. the u.s. denies him permission to return to the entire region. haiti had by then lost the capacity to feed itself. making it highly vulnerable to food price fluctuation. that was the immediate cause of the 2008 food crisis which led to riots and enormous protest but not getting food. the story is familiar. in fact, quite similar in much of the world. so going back to the bangladesh newspaper, it's true enough that the food crisis results from western lack of concern. a pittance by our standards would overcome its worst immediate effects but more fundamentally, it results from the dedication to adam smith's principles of business-run state policy. these are all matters that we too easily evade. along with the fact that bailing out banks is not upper most in the minds of the billion people now facing starvation. not forgetting the tens of millions during hunger in the richest country in the world. also sidelined is an easy way t

maintain a robust united states merchant marine and authorize the $60 million worth of title 11 program. mr. chairman, i would like to thank captain eb before s -- ebbs, heath pope, doug bush for putting together this portion of the bill. i recommend it to the full house for its passage. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from mississippi has 12 minutes remaining. the gentleman from california has 18 minutes remaining. the gentleman from california. . the chair: the gentleman from florida is recognized for three minutes. mr. miller: i rise in support of the national authorization of the defense act for fiscal year 2010. as ranking member of the terrorism and unconventional threats and capabilities subcommittee, i think we have put together a good and excellent mark and i would like to thank the chairman of the subcommittee for all of his cooperation in putting this together. the members of the subcommittee have worked hard to address the many issues that face special operations, information technology and science and technology investments just to name a few of the areas that our subcommittee has handled. we have provided important support to enh