vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to explain why i'm voting "no" on the budget deal later this afternoon. first a and foremost, i am voting "no" because i don't think this is a meaningful, substantial start to getting our hands around what is the biggest potential crisis we face as a nation: out-of-control spending and debt. $38 billion is, i suppose, more of a cut than we've ever done, but if you put it in any other context, any other context, it's very, very modest indeed. take a look at the eight days leading up to the announcement of this deal. in those eight days alone, barely more than a week, we as a nation racked up $54 billion of brand-new debt, way more than the $38 billion of cuts in just eight days. that gives some perspective on exactly how modest and how limited in meaning this is. when you dig a little deeper to look at details of the cuts, i'm afraid the picture gets even worse. a lot of these cuts are paper cuts only, only cuts on nairp don't have a -- 0 on paper that don't hav

senator vitter. mr. vitter: mr. president, i'm proud to join my colleague, senator landrieu, in introducing today the restore the gulf coast act of 2011. i also want to thank her and compliment her on her leadership on the issue. she has been developing this legislation tirelessly since the tragedy along with many others who we hope will be cosponsors. i want to recognize steve colese are having similar conversations in the house. as we near the one-year anniversary of the disaster, first we need to remember the victims, the human victims, 11 people lost their lives rap theilives andthose -- and thosed we need to continue to remember them and pray for them. but we also need to help to restore the affected area. a lot of other lives were impacted through the environmental and economic devastation and we need to work on that as well. this restore the gulf coast act of 2011 would go a long way in restoring those lives in healing those impacts. this was a horrible tragedy and, of course, the physical, the environmental

most haven't responded yet, though a spokesman for the top recipient of oil money, senator david vitter, told us he would only be willing to eliminate the tax breaks if corporate tax rates were also lowered. today, the oil industry prepared for battle. >> it's going to mean less investment, less supply, fewer jobs than we'd have otherwise. and it's really going in the wrong direction. >> reporter: you'll fight to defeat this? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> reporter: as for the president's letter demanding immediate action, it has hit with a thud, rejected by republican leaders. today, speaker boehner's spokesman said that the president's plan was insufficient because it would only raise taxes and increase prices at the pump. bottom line, diane, don't expect the tax credits to go away any time soon. >> despite this big argument today. jon karl reporting from washington tonight, thank you, jon. >>> and we turn overseas now. we are getting a new and vivid look tonight at the chaos and carnage on the treatments of syria. government forces trying to crush demonstrators who are desperate to te

vitter: thank you, madam president. madam president, america's illegal immigration problem is clearly, clearly way out of control. we can all agree that we desperately need to better protect our borders, ensure that only citizens and legal residents can be hired for jobs in this country and reverse misguided policies that serve as a magnet for further illegal immigration. today i'm introducing a bill that falls into that third category, to get rid of these magnets that encourage further illegal activity. the bill would amend the immigration and nationalization act in order to change our current practice of granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born on american soil. when it comes to u.s. citizenship, it's not just where an individual is born that matters. at least it shouldn't be. the circumstances of a person's birth and the nationality of his or her parents are of at least equal importance. and i simply don't believe that our constitution confers citizenship on children who happen to be born

vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to end the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, a few weeks ago as we were debating whether to move to this bill on the floor now, i sent a letter to the distinguished majority leader, senator reid. and i was joined by several of my colleagues. and we'd made real simple point, and the simple point was this, we have a spending and a debt crisis. we need to act and we need to act now. and so rather than continue to bring up various cats and dog bills, various matters that aren't related to that crucial, central spending and debt question before us, we should focus on the task at hand. we should focus on our greatest challenge, meetin meaning that spending. the majority leader did not heed that call. he proceeded with this bill. for the reasons jannetty lined, i and those -- reasons i outlined i and those others sigors moved toward this bill. as we're on the eve of a potential govern

vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to mr. president, i rise today to to explain why i'm voting no on the budget deal with laterhi this afternoon. first and foremost, i'm voting no because i don't think this is a meaningful substantial start to getting our hands around what is the biggest threat and bigge potential crisis we face asst al nation come out of control spending and debt. $38 billion is supposed more of a cut than was ever done but ift you put it in any other context, any other context, it's very, very modest indeed.s take a look at the eight days ac leading to the announcement ofem the deal and those eight days alone barely more than a week we as a nation wracked up $54 billion of brand new debt. we more than $50 billion of cuts in just eight days. that gives some perspective on exactly how modest and limited in meeting this is.per when you dig a little deeper tos look at the details of the cuts on the of phrase the picture gets even worse. a lot of the cuts are paper cuts only, only cuts on paper that o don't have

. >> david vitter -- senator from louisiana, won his last election in a landslide victory. it is possible right now because americans have gotten more and more use to sex scandals involving politicians ultimately that is a good thing because it will enable us to stop talking and obsessing about sex lives of presidents and politicians at focusing on what really matters. >> not just the positives of new orleans but -- when you have somebody that hypocritical, getting caught up in a sexual escapades it just makes it even worse. >> instead of talking about the conceptualism and our lines are already busy let's just give a for instance. what is your favorite story in the book? >> my favorite chapter turned out to be the eleanor roosevelt and franklin roosevelt. it was complicated. he had his girlfriend living in a bedroom next to him. she had her girlfriend living next to her in the white house together. the american public did not know any of this. franklin's girlfriend turned out to be essential to helping these two figures become the great heroes of american history who led u

dissemination, fusion of that data coming off of the sensors and other sensitive data with david vitter collect the is extremely important because the original purpose to flying these missions if something isn't done with the operative mission if what is the effect. what decisions are being driven by the outcome of that mission. so what are we doing? this gives us an idea of what kinds of systems were flying now. you'll see we perch the spectrum from handheld systems that we put they had held so attains of guys all play up to flying predators and we are flying reverse right now with the special operations plans. rosa taken advantage of the platforms provided through the theater process that the services or flame out there. so a good deal of air force mission and some of the army missions are being floated by the services and support of sof. the tongue-in-cheek answer to what happens about the aircraft are although scouts once iraq and afghanistan come back down from tampa, we've got the answer. we're going to take women were going to employ them someplace. the key thing on this also is

senator vitter? >> thank you, mr. chairman and both for your service and thanks to all their great service of the men, women who serve in uniform with you. admiral, i think the fundamental confusion about the such region in libya is the statement is that we are mostly there to avoid the humanitarian catastrophe. everyone knows that the greatest threat towards that end ms. gadhafi remaining in power and regaining control of the country. yet gadhafi is a vehicle of the operation. it doesn't connect. can you explain that to us? >> i can only explain what i do as a military officer leading from the nato perspective and the military mission life been given is to focus on all the things we talked about in the course of this hearing which range from the humanitarian operation to the arms embargo to the no-fly zone to protecting the population. now, as distinct from the military mission that i am charged with, as i listen to all that the time has come to. i think the way those connect is a sense of by our participation in pro

vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr.president, i watched with great interest president obama's speech about our spending and debt crisis. that's what i would call it. he didn't use as stark terms, unfortunately, but it is a spending and debt crisis. first of all, i'm -- i'm at least a little encouraged that he is finally beginning to enter the debate about this crisis. it is headed to a crisis. it is the greatest domestic threat we face as a nation and at least this speech acknowledges that it is a huge threat and that his own budget, submitted just a few months ago, was a pass on all of those big issues and he needed a redo. this is a great threat to all of our future says and prosperity. let me try to put it just a little bit in perspective, mr. president. borrowing right now is at least 40 cents out of every dollar, so every dollar the federal government spends, 40 cents of that, over 40 cents is borrowed money. we're spending $3.7 trillion a year but we're only taking in $2.2 trillion. because of that, we've recently

vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to explain why i'm voting "no" on the budget deal later this afternoon. first a and foremost, i am voting "no" because i don't think this is a meaningful, substantial start to getting our hands around what is the biggest potential crisis we face as a nation: out-of-control spending and debt. $38 billion is, i suppose, more of a cut than we've ever done, but if you put it in any other context, any other context, it's very, very modest indeed. take a look at the eight days leading up to the announcement of this deal. in those eight days alone, barely more than a week, we as a nation racked up $54 billion of brand-new debt, way more than the $38 billion of cuts in just eight days. that gives some perspective on exactly how modest and how limited in meaning this is. when you dig a little deeper to look at details of the cuts, i'm afraid the picture gets even worse. a lot of these cuts are paper cuts only, only cuts on nairp don't have a -- 0 on paper that don't hav

vote threshold and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, or that the vitter amendment number 178 and the pryor amendment number 229 be withdrawn. the presiding officer: is there objection? the senator from maine. ms. snowe: reserving the right to object, i have an additional amendment that i'd like considered on this list, and i thought that we had an agreement that there would be an even number of amendments offered on both sides, and now i understand under the agreement that's put forward by the majority leader there are six amendments on the democratic side and four amendments on our side. i would like to ask consent because i thought our -- my amendment, the snowe amendment 299 would also be included in the amendment, so i'm asking unanimous consent that the order be modified to include snowe amendment number 299. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, i object to my friend's request, with the following explanation. we've worked very hard to get this bill done. this is a committee that the senator fro