Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 515 and as the designee of the majority leader, I have a motion at the desk.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the resolution under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise today as the proud primary sponsor of the subject resolution that is before the desk.

Madam Speaker, I'd like to start my conversation with a few numbers: $15.2 trillion. That is the size of our national debt. We as a Nation are borrowing at the rate of $58,000 per second. That is approximately $45,000 for each man, woman, and child in America. This type of debt is not sustainable.

Madam Speaker, this resolution is offered today to send a message to the Nation and to the world that this Chamber is going to lead and not hide. We are going to deal with the issue of the national debt once and for all because it is time. The path that we are on is not sustainable. It is a path of bankruptcy, it is a path that will destroy the American Dream if we do not stand up to the plate and lead us out of this fiscal nightmare that we now find ourselves in.

Now, many people in this town and in this Chamber and in the Chamber on the other side of the Capitol probably would like this issue to go away until after the election. The problem is, is that the issue will not go away. And even though if we don't want to deal with it politically, we need to deal with it substantively. And my resolution that is before this Chamber will send a message that the constant borrowing on the backs of our children and our grandchildren must come to an end.

I quote the words of our own President when he was Senator in the U.S. Senate. The path that we are on is similar to the words he echoed and stated in the U.S. Senate Chamber when he said this constant borrowing, this national debt is a complete failure of leadership in the White House. We need to lead, and that is what we are going to do.

So I ask for support on this resolution from all of my colleagues, to stand with us, make the hard decisions, deal with this issue to stop this insanity that is truly a threat to our very Nation. And also, it is a threat to any economic recovery that our Nation hopes to enjoy in the short term, because if we do not get the debt under control, small business America, our entrepreneurs, the people that are going to put Americans back to work will not have the confidence or the certainty to invest in the American market that is going to lead to real jobs and to deal with the problem of our unemployment once and for all.

So with that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, what I would like to say is that time has passed since we passed the Balanced Budget Control Act. There has been no action on the debt. We have seen nothing out of the White House as to a plan to deal with this national crisis. And my colleague on the other side, I will remind, that I am a conferee on that conference committee to deal with the payroll tax rates, to deal with unemployment, and to deal with the doc fix.

We were here at the end of December. I was here over the New Year's break, Thursday, Friday, working on it. We are ready to do the work. And I'm glad to hear my colleague on the other side of the aisle say that now the House Democrats are here to do the work. We do need the Senate to join into that conversation, and my hope is that they will join into that conversation very soon.

But we are capable men and women in this Chamber, Madam Speaker. I am confident that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We will deal with the issue of the payroll tax rate. We will deal with the issue of the unemployment. We will deal with the issue of the doc fix. But we will not take our eye off of what is becoming one of the fundamental issues of our generation, and that is our national debt. And that's what this resolution speaks to and will constantly remind all of us that we need to be diligent on this issue to get it taken care of once and for all.

And with that, I would like to yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).

Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul).

(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds.

Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rooney).

I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo).

I'd just like to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that last time we took a vote on this issue back on the Budget Control Act in August was a much different time than today. Since August, we've been waiting for a plan from the other side to deal with our national debt. We've been waiting for a plan from the White House to deal with our national debt. Nothing has occurred.

So, Madam Speaker, there is no repudiation of our vote from August. This is consistent with what the American people are telling us, that we have to get our act together in Washington.

I join my colleagues on the other side. My hand is open to work hand in hand to deal with these problems once and for all. I'm willing to sacrifice my political life to do what needs to be done for the American people. I just hope my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join in that same sentiment.

Let's put politics aside. Let's deal with the substance of the day. Let's deal with this underlying national crisis that is represented in our national debt. You have many friends over here that are looking to reach out hand to hand, join arm in arm to deal with this problem and deal with the economy of our Nation once and for all. I just ask you to jump and join us rather than fight us.

With that, I'm happy to yield to my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Flake) for 2 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I would just like to remind my colleague on the other side of the aisle that when you get a credit card bill that you can no longer afford, you do pay it, but you cut it up, and you stop the spending so you don't exacerbate the problem.

With that, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).

Madam Speaker, I would just remind the gentleman that what we have done on our side of the aisle is at least we have put a plan in writing by adopting and approving the budget. We're just looking. In the last 7 months we've been waiting for a plan in black and white from the White House on how we are going to get out of this national debt crisis. Not political speeches, but in black and white so that we can take it back to the American people and have an open and honest debate with them as to where we're going to prioritize our spending and how we're going to get out of this hole.

That's what we're looking for, and that's what my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Flake) is talking about. We are at the point on this side of the aisle, ladies and gentlemen, of saying we don't care who's at fault. I'm at the point--Democrat, Republican, we're at $15.2 trillion, whoever is responsible for it, I could care less.

What I care about are my kids--and my grandkids, who aren't even born, who aren't even on the face of this Earth--and getting our act together in Washington and getting a national plan put together so we can join arm in arm and stand with each other to deal with this issue.

With that, Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Huelskamp).

Madam Speaker, I would like to say to Mr. Hoyer that I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a Member of this body. And I have joined him to support the ``Go Big'' effort.

And what I would say is, by this resolution, look at what we have done on our side of the aisle. We have brought this conversation out of the back rooms. We have brought the ideas and proposals that we've heard from Mr. Blumenauer from Oregon, I believe, who talked about comprehensive tax reform, agriculture reform on the floor of this House, in front of the American people, in an open and honest manner. And what we have done on our side of the aisle is to stress that these conversations will no longer happen behind closed doors, but they will happen on the floor of this Chamber. And I'm confident, I am confident that when we come together like we are, like the foundation that we are setting in our conversations, that we are going to solve this problem. But until that solution is enacted, I will get up every day as a Member of this House to champion the cause of getting the fiscal house of Washington, DC in order, to get our reckless spending under control, and get this economy going.

I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo).

Madam Speaker, I'm happy to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Buerkle).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. DesJarlais).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Ross).

I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida.

We believe we have about three or four.

Madam Speaker, could I inquire as to the amount of time we have left?

Madam Speaker, at this time I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger).

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Levin, for engaging in this debate today that is so important, in my opinion, to the future of this Nation, to the future of the world, in the sense that we need to get this issue under control once and for all.

The national debt is a serious threat to our very existence as a nation. You don't have to take my word for it. You can take the word of the former joint chief of staff, Admiral Mullen, who, when he was asked by the President what is the biggest threat to our national security, responded: Not a military threat, but the national debt. A fiscal threat is what jeopardizes us most in regards to our national security.

When I hear that type of opinion and advice coming out of our military leaders, I am very concerned. It should send a message across the nation that this debt needs to be addressed. It doesn't necessarily just need to be addressed for the purposes of the threat it represents to our national security, but also the threat that it represents to the economic recovery that we are trying to kindle in this city across America.

The national debt represents a threat to that American recovery when it comes to putting our men and women back to work because it is the cancer that is causing concern across all of small-business America and all across the private sector when they express that they don't have the confidence or certainty that Washington will take care of the problems that threaten us most. So it is time that we come up with a hard plan.

My colleagues during this debate referenced the House budget as the plan that was adopted here, that somehow by voting for this resolution we contradict ourselves because we voted for that House budget because it called for an increase in the debt ceiling. I would remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that budget only passed this House. The Senate has yet to enact a budget.

It will soon be 1,000 days that the Senate of the United States of America has not passed a budget. If we don't have a U.S. House and a U.S. Senate committed budget that we can rely upon to solve this issue, how can we only rely on the House budget to see us through?

This resolution today sends a message to the Senate and to the Nation that the House of Representatives will remain committed to finding a solution on this issue.

The second threat that it represents to our American recovery and putting men and women back to work is if our interest rates in the private sector, which are keyed upon the national debt and the interest rates that are charged for our borrowing costs as a governmental entity, if those interest rates in the private sector increase, you're not going to have the capital to invest in small-business America or in the private sector that is going to lead us out of this economic turmoil that we find ourselves in, because they won't be able to afford that capital that will build the next plant, that will build the next assembly line or build the next retail operation that will put people back to work.

The bottom line is this debt touches everything across America. What we are doing with this resolution is saying we are going to deal with it, and we are going to continue to deal with it until we get a plan in place from the White House, from the U.S. Senate, and from the U.S. House that deals with it once and for all and brings certainty and competence back to the American market.

Madam Speaker, it is time to lead this Nation, not hide. It is time to put our ideas in writing, debate them with the American people in an open and honest fashion, and once and for all even be willing to sacrifice our political lives to do what is right for the American people. I am committed to doing that if it means that we will save my children's generation and the generations yet to come. That's what needs to be done.

That's what needs to be done, and I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know that. We know it on our side of the aisle, and our hand is open to work in a bipartisan fashion. So I am glad that I heard many comments today on the other side of the aisle showing they are committed to that also. I am confident that when we join hands, when we come together, we will solve this issue and that we will solve the economic problems we face as a Nation, because together the history of our Nation has shown that we can overcome any obstacle in America, any threat to our existence once we unite, not divide, and put forth a commonsense solution to our problems.

With that, Madam Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to support this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I rise in support of this rule and the underlying legislation. Why? Because enough is enough. The arrogance of this place is outstanding. It's unbelievable. You have to look at what we're talking about from the eyes of our constituents and the people back home.

Two months of certainty for people when it comes to their payroll, to their paychecks? Two months for how our doctors are going to get paid for caring for our sick and our old? That's ridiculous.

I will tell my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, there's a new dawn that has emerged in this Chamber. We are no longer going to run from our responsibility to govern. We are going to do it in the open, we are going to do it honestly, and we're going to do it in a way that provides certainty to these problems, because God knows we can no longer afford Band-Aids. We need real solutions, long-term solutions.

I plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us and reach a resolution to bring certainty for a longer period of time than 2 months.

To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it's not a $1,000 payroll tax reduction, just as was quoted by my colleague who just spoke. The Senate bill is 2 months. It is $160. So let's be clear and honest with the American people.

What we're talking about here in the House of Representatives on our side of the aisle today is that we want to do our work. Yes, we want to be with our families for Christmas and we want to be home ringing in the new year with our family and friends. But you know what, the American people deserve better. We are willing to stay here and do the work, not do Band-Aid type of policy. Tax policy on a 2-month basis, are you kidding me? That is ridiculous.

We need long-term solutions to our problems in America. We need to put the political bickering aside. Two months is not a solution. It's dodging responsibility in the Senate.

And so where I'm at today is I support the underlying bill that we stand and rise to support today, and it is a vote. We will have a vote to reject the Senate's position with its amendments and its Band-Aid policy, and we will send a clear message to the American people that we in the House of Representatives are about finding solutions long term-- 1, 2 years at a minimum--and we're willing to do the work.

I call on the Senate to come back to D.C. and finish the job. Hardworking taxpayers of America deserve no less than for us to honor our oath and our responsibility to govern through solutions, not political games.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Time Warner Cable for its dedication to keeping citizens informed about what is going on in Washington. The better informed our citizens are, the better it is for our democracy. As our founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789, ``Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.''

At a time when news coverage budgets are being cut, I applaud Time Warner cable for expanding their presence in Washington, DC with the opening of a new bureau.

I have always been a champion for transparency in government. News coverage is one of the ways that sunlight is shined into government operation. This increased presence will lead to a more informed citizenry, and I congratulate Time Warner Cable for making this investment in democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for H.R. 3630, the

Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011.

First and foremost, I was glad to hear my colleague on the other side of the aisle recognize that lowering taxes, be them payroll taxes, income taxes, or whatever taxes you want to refer to, lowering taxes is a job creation policy initiative that should be supported by both sides of the aisle.

Now, I'm concerned about the payroll tax cut that is continued in this payroll tax bill today because these are the revenue sources for Social Security. But I have come to the conclusion that allowing all Americans to keep more money in their pocket, rather than allowing it to come to Washington, D.C. and to fuel the beast that has been created here in Washington and that is causing the national debt crisis that we now face and the out-of-control spending of Washington, I believe allowing Americans to keep more money in their pocket is a better policy position to take once and for all. And so I support the extension of the payroll tax rate where it is at.

This is not the time, in this economic climate, to take money out of hardworking American families and small businesses and their financial resources that they have to work on as they go forward putting people back to work. So I support the extension of the payroll tax cut.

But I would have to be very sensitive and clear with all Americans that this type of tax policy must be offset by a reduction in the spending that is the root cause of the crisis that we now face in Washington, D.C., so we must offset these tax cuts, and we will do and have done that in this bill.

I also am glad to see that our unemployment reform measures that are set forth in this bill have the opportunity to go into law. Right now we are at 99 weeks of unemployment. The President, in his own proposal, says we need to reduce those weeks of unemployment by 20 weeks. We, in this bill, want to go further, and we'll reduce the number of weeks to 59.

Why? Not because we're cold hearted, not because we're mean spirited, but we are being open and honest with the American people and saying that there is a cost to this indefinite unemployment extension policy that is coming from the other side of the aisle. What we have to do is realize that we have to live within our means once and for all.

And so, what this does is it lowers those numbers of weeks, it puts in commonsense reforms by making it a requirement that people are looking for a job. It gives the States the flexibility to implement drug testing and drug screening to make sure that the workforce of America has the ability to go back to work when those jobs are available.

I have been back in my district, and we do town halls all the time. And what I've heard from small business owners across our district is that one of the main reasons that they cannot hire individuals is because they simply cannot pass a drug test.

This commonsense reform that's contained in this bill will allow us to develop the workforce of America in a stronger and a better fashion so that people can be put back to work once and for all.

The other issue in this bill that I've been supportive of is the doc fix. Now, our health providers in America are being faced with major cuts, be it through ObamaCare, the Health Insurance Care Act, the Affordable Care Act, whatever you may call it. We're also seeing it in the possible sequestration that we're going to face next year.

But what we're doing in this bill is we're giving some certainty to our providers that over the next 2 years they'll know what their reimbursement rates will be. That is critical to the future of our health care industry, and therefore we support it. But we cannot be satisfied with this temporary solution. We must come up with a permanent fix to the doc fix so 2 years from now we are not right back in the situation we find ourselves today.

The final point that has caused me to support this bill as vigorously as I will today is that it is a jobs bill. The Keystone pipeline piece of legislation that is attached to this is being used as a political football. The President has said we can't wait to put people back to work. Well, in this bill with a stroke of a pen, the President will be able to put 20,000 families back to work with one signature--his signature. To me, that's what we should be doing in this Chamber. That's why I ask my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and recognize Alfred University, a major educational institution in my district which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year. Their official commemoration and activities were held the week of December 5, 2011. I am honored to have the privilege of representing such a fine university that provides an excellent education to its 2000 undergraduate and 300 graduate students.

Alfred University was founded on December 5, 1836 by a group of Seventh Day Baptists who moved to the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. The University is named for the ninth-century ruler of southern England, Alfred the Great, whose devotion to learning and literature is a legacy that the institution upholds to this day.

Alfred's commitment to academics is nationally known, with the Inamori School of Engineering consistently ranked top in the country for its Masters of Science degrees. Additionally, students at Alfred can choose between over 40 undergraduate majors to study.

As an alum, I can personally attest to the excellence of this institution and its world class academics.

Please join me in congratulating Alfred University in reaching this incredible milestone as it celebrates its 175th Anniversary.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for taking the leadership role and putting this hour together, and joining my fellow freshman Members on the floor of the House to talk about the number one issue of the day, and that is our economy. That is jobs.

I come down here tonight to join my colleagues and to tell the American people that we here in the House of Representatives are going to be open and honest and will push forward an agenda that relies on the private sector being that primary engine that creates the economic environment so that people--hardworking Americans, hardworking taxpayers--have the opportunity to take care of their children for generations to come by having a good, solid job.

I'm looking at the vote tally from tonight's two votes that we took just moments ago that added to the forgotten 15, the last two of the tardy 22. And look at the numbers on passage of each bill. It was 407- 17, and it was 413-11. That is almost an unbelievable percentage of bipartisan support in the House of Representatives for two bills that are going to create a stronger private sector America so that we can put people back to work.

And yet we continue to engage in partisan politics in the Senate, and we don't even allow these bills to have a vote on the floor of the Senate, at least to be debated in an open and honest debate, an argument about their merits to be heard by all Americans just like we do here in the House of Representatives on the floor of the House.

It's interesting. I listen to the President as he goes around and he's promoting his Jobs Act bill, and I would say that I clearly have an impression that the President is concerned about his job. But is he really concerned about your job? Because he's spending an inordinate amount of time going around this country rather than coming here to Washington and working with us in the House and working with the Members in his own party in the Senate to say, Take up with these bills and have an honest debate. Send them over. If they strengthen the private sector of America--like essentially all of our colleagues here in the House agreed tonight would do by passing and supporting these bills with the numbers that we see--have that debate in the Senate and move forward.

We're going to stand, and we're going to continue to work for the hardworking taxpayers here in the House of Representatives. I know my colleagues share in that sentiment because that's what we came to Washington to do. We came to Washington as freshmen Members of Congress not to engage in politics, not to engage in partisan debates, but to talk about fundamental policy issues that are going to move us forward as a Nation, so that we can have the great experience that we've all enjoyed and the opportunities that we've all enjoyed, so that all of our fellow Americans can give that opportunity not only to themselves but to their kids, to their brothers, their sisters, so everybody in this Nation can enjoy that opportunity.

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I'm proud to join him and my other colleague from Wisconsin tonight to talk about jobs and what we are doing here in this Chamber on that issue.

I listen many times to my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, and they say we haven't put forth a jobs bill, as if there's some simple fix that we here in Washington, some bureaucrat sitting in a cubicle over at the White House is going to come up with a plan that's going to cure this economy with a magic wave of the wand here in the U.S. House or in Washington, D.C.

I join my colleague in his sentiments that I'd rather be listening to the people on the front line. I'd rather be listening to the people that are in the position to really create those jobs, because I believe in a private sector-based economy. I believe it's going to be the private sector that is going to be the primary engine of pulling us out of this economic crisis that we now find ourselves--not the public sector, not more spending out of Washington, D.C. But rather, what we need to do in this House is come together to create an environment so that the private sector can be competitive in this world economy and this world market, and it can really lead us to a better condition tomorrow so that generations of families, of American families, will have the opportunities that generations of families before us so enjoyed.

I've gone out and I've also had those town halls, and I've talked to people on the front line. And really, it boils down to some simple philosophies. We run our office here in the New York 29th Congressional District like a business. I come at this from a business perspective. Having started four businesses on my own, I've always had a business plan, and I've always had accountability metrics built into those plans. So we put forth a mission statement. We developed themes, we developed goals, and we put metrics to those themes and goals to make sure that we accomplish them. And the primary theme that we have adopted in our office is to create economic opportunity through the private sector.

How do you do that? We have adopted four main goals that we work on each day. We tackle this debt in a credible way, as my colleague from Arkansas has indicated, because it has so many indirect implications to our private-sector economy, be it in the financing world and be it in just the uncertainty of the U.S. markets. And we really have got to get a credible plan put together so that we can bring back that confidence in the American market that our job creators, the people that are going to invest in the American market, feel comfortable putting that capital at play.

I appreciate that. And what a great comment. That's exactly what I'm trying to articulate. I join my colleague and associate myself with those words, that we need a true plan that will solve this problem. And the $14.8 trillion in debt is such a huge problem that it's not going to be solved overnight. But we have the vision, and we have the plan. We're going to bring that certainty and confidence back to the American market.

The second point on our four-point theme in our office that we operate under is going after our Tax Code in a way that is going to make it competitive in this world economy. That means going from page 1 to the 70,000th page of the IRS code and streamlining it and doing comprehensive tax reform in such a way that simplifies it and makes it so that we are competing on the same field as competitors around the world.

The third point of our plan is to focus on a comprehensive, domestic- oriented energy policy right here, going after not only the fossil fuels in our backyard but not taking our eye off the long-term vision of the alternatives and renewables; looking at the commonsense solutions of going after our natural gas supplies, our oils and our shale formations and our tight sands formations around America but at the same time focusing on the alternatives and renewables, because we know those fossil fuels are a limited source.

But not only because of the national security implications that so many people in America know so well, but also looking at it from the perspective of making a competitive private sector arena in which our manufacturers and industry can compete again here right with operations in America. Because if you put those supplies in motion, you can create low-cost utility rates for 30, 40, maybe even 70, years is what the projections I've read in the reports and talking to people on the front line have articulated to me. So those decreased utility costs make our market that much more competitive when we're dealing with a world market that we now find ourselves in.

The last point that we always stress in our office is going after this regulatory burden that my colleague from Arkansas spoke about earlier. It's about not living in a world where there would be no regulations, but where there will be reasonable regulations, regulations based on a cost-benefit approach, a business approach, recognizing that with every regulation there's a cost. We're trying to achieve a benefit, but we've got to be reasonable to make sure that those costs don't outweigh those benefits. And so we've adopted that type of framework of operation in our office, and we've found some great success.

One last point I'll make before yielding back to my colleague from Arkansas is one of the stories that really resonated with me as I went through some of these town hall meetings--and we've done, I don't know, 30 or 40 of them now at this point in time--is I heard this story in August, and I'll call him Dr. Bill. He was a physician, and he had a small practice back in the 29th Congressional District. He was talking

about how he wanted to invest and expand his practice. And he went over to the bank to get the financing to build the little addition--he was going to put maybe three people, new people to work.

And I listened to his story, and he was talking about the uncertainty that my colleague from Arkansas is talking about. And I want to put a face to it because Dr. Bill, as he told me, whenever he would go to the bank historically, he would go in and he would give his financial projections as to what his practice was going to do. A lot of times he would have to footnote because we have a lot of issues here in Washington with temporary policies that have been done more for politics than for true policy.

And what I'm talking about is we're dealing with things like the SGR, the physicians reimbursement under Medicare and the doc fix that always comes in. Typically what happens, America, if you haven't been aware of it, there's a fix, a Band-Aid that's put on it each year. And what he was able to do is he was able to always go to his bank and say, you know, I know the law says that I'm going to take a 30 percent cut, for example, this year in my reimbursements under Medicare, but we all know that Congress is going to get around and eventually fix it by putting another Band-Aid on it. So then he projects out a 2 percent increase in his reimbursements for his practice.

Well, he went to the bank. He went to the bank and he said, okay, here are my financials again. I want to do this expansion. And you know what the bank told him? The bank said, you know what, we don't know what's going on out of Washington, D.C. You've been dealing with the issues in your physician practice under ObamaCare, the Health Insurance Reform Act--whatever you want to call it--we're dealing--this is the bank talking to him--under the new Dodd-Frank bill that came into existence. Those regulations are uncertain to us. We don't know what they're going to require.

And the bank told him, we're not going to accept that footnote anymore. You've got to project out what your revenues are under what the law says, and that's a 30 percent cut in your revenue. And when he went back and he did the numbers, obviously, with the 30 percent cut to his revenues, he couldn't get the financing; the bank had to say no.

So that's the real story from the front lines that we have to come to terms with down here in Washington. Our decisions, our policies have ramifications. And if we can just have some commonsense points and deal with people like Dr. Bill in a way that says we're going to adopt policy for the long term, not the short term. We're going to get away from the politics or the tax politics and get into tax policy. We're going to get into the substance of these issues and adopt certain rules and regulations and legislation that's going to go on for 5, 10, 20 years so at least people know what the rules are. I think if we do that, we're going to go a long way to improving the private economy of America. We're going to work day in and day out.

I know my colleagues share a lot of these sentiments; and I'm just here to join them, to really focus on what has to be the priority issue, and that's putting people back to work. That is what we're doing here in the House. We're not looking for the political headline of a jobs bill. We're here to talk about jobs policy and leading this country out of the recession it finds itself in through strong policy rather than politics.

With that, I thank my colleague from Arkansas for yielding.

Will the gentleman yield?

I appreciate my colleague from Arkansas, my great friend, for yielding to me.

Just to add a comment. When my colleague from Wisconsin spoke and my colleague just mentioned when we talk about the Forgotten 15, now 16, we've got to be clear to the American public that those bills that came out of this House had bipartisan support. There are colleagues from the other side of the aisle that have seen the wisdom in the sound policy that's represented by those bills, and they've joined us and supported those bills going over to the Senate.

Yet Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has blocked, in my opinion, those bills from coming to the floor. It's time now for the Senate to act. At least bring them up and debate the issue.

Just to conclude on this point. Now is not the time for our President to divide this country. We have had bipartisan support on these bills here in the House. I know it hasn't been reported on by the press. But that's the fact.

Now, what we need to do now rather than divide the country--when I hear comments from our President talking about how he has to break up the American Jobs Act that he submitted so that we Republicans can understand it. That's not productive conversation. We understand the jobs bill. I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle understand it, too, and that's demonstrated by the fact that there's only one sponsor of that proposed piece of legislation from the President. No other individual in this Chamber cosponsored that legislation. I think that speaks volumes. They understand that's not good sound policy.

So now is not the time to try to divide the country with scare tactics, class warfare, trying to go after and paint the top 2 percent as the reason why we're in this situation. This is not the time to try to say, ``Oh, China is the bad guy.'' Of course it's not the policies coming out of Washington and the overregulations and the noncompetitive Tax Code or the lack of a vision for a comprehensive energy policy. Or doing the responsible thing with coming up with a credible plan to deal with the debt.

No. We have to divide this country is the rhetoric that I'm hearing on the campaign trail during this Presidential election from our President. I disagree with that.

We're here as a freshman class to really change the culture of Washington, and I think we are. We're making progress. But we've got a lot more work to do.

Let us never forget that the Forgotten 16 bills that are now on the Senate floor were done with bipartisan support. And we'll continue to work at it because I don't believe the American people are stupid. They will see through all of the rhetoric because the American people are like me. They are sick and tired of politics as usual out of Washington. That's why we ran. That's why I'm sure my colleagues who joined me today would join in the sentiment that we ran, we left our families and our businesses, to come down here and once and for all stand up for what's right.

And what is right is a strong private sector America, an America of principle based on capitalism, based on individualism, individual accountability, and responsibility. Those are the themes that we promote and that we stand here and will fight for, because if we can get those themes implemented into strong, long-term policy, America not only will survive, it will prosper for generations to come. That's my promise to you here tonight.

I again thank my friend for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of all three free trade agreements we will be voting on this evening. This is a great day. We are talking about, with the passage of these free trade agreements, approximately 250,000 new jobs across America. Those are new jobs that will put families back to work. They'll put roofs over their heads, put food on their tables, and allow them to enjoy the American Dream.

I rise in particular in regards to the U.S.-Panama agreement. Some of my colleagues, Madam Speaker, have argued that free trade has forced a lot of our manufacturing and industrial jobs to go overseas. Well, one of the facts of the circumstances can be illustrated by what's going on with U.S.-Panama. Right now our goods, as they go into Panama, face up to a 260 percent tariff at its borders. Yet the imports coming from Panama to America, because of the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, come to us duty free. That is an uneven playing field.

What these free trade agreements do, in my humble opinion, is even the playing field so that American workers can compete on an equal and level playing field. And if that is the case, I'm confident that the American worker and American families will always win in that competition. So I strongly support these trade agreements.

It's amazing to me that it has taken 5 years to get these agreements to this Chamber; but rather than point fingers at who caused what and what the reasons for those delays were, I always will look to the future. And what these agreements will represent is a step in the right direction of getting America back in a position where it competes in

the world market and once again rises up and says we are the strongest, we are the best, and we will create 250,000 new jobs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I rise today in strong support of the three pending agreements before this great body. This is a great day. This is a great day for America in the sense that we have before us an opportunity to create 250,000 jobs. That's the administration's own number. That is the number that has been verified, and I am a supporter of that number in creating jobs for Americans across this entire Nation.

Now, when I came here as a freshman Member of Congress, there was a big question about the freshman class's thoughts about free trade. And I was proud to be part of an effort that got 67 out of 87 freshman Republican Members to sign a letter to the administration to say that we support free and fair trade. Because when it's free and when it's fair, the American workers will outcompete anyone in the world. And that is exactly what these agreements will do.

In particular, with the U.S.-Korea relationship, not only will we be strengthening a strategic relationship, we will be creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

With that, I support this bill.

I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for yielding and for setting up this leadership hour for us to have this important conversation.

I would say to all of my colleagues, it doesn't take a whiz kid to figure out that we're on the wrong path in America. So how are we going to change it? I come to this Chamber always in an optimistic manner. I come to this Chamber with the energy and the commitment to make America better. And we're going to change that by changing the culture of Washington, D.C. I'm proud to be part of this freshman class: 87 House Republicans, 13, approximately, new Democratic faces on the other side of the aisle. So how are we going to change from that new class, develop a new breed of elected official that puts country and policy over politics?

I can tell you that my colleagues that I have spent a tremendous amount of time with in the freshman class have always taken the approach that it is policy over politics, and I am pleased to be joined on the floor here today with a colleague, a Democratic colleague, joining us, a bunch of House Republican freshman Members, a fellow freshman Member from the Democratic side, who has had the courage to stand up and publicly stand with us to talk about what is the critical issue of this Congress, and that is creating an environment where the economy improves and people can be put back to work.

It's about creating an environment that creates jobs. My colleague from Michigan, who I have developed a friendship with, is down here to join us to offer his ideas. Although we may not agree 100 percent on all of the ideas that he brings to the table, I still respect the man and I respect many of his ideas. And I respect that there are going to be areas where we will find common ground, that we can come together and move the ball forward so America will see its best and brightest days again ahead of us.

One of the common grounds that I know that's coming down the pipeline next week is the free-trade agreements. There's vast bipartisan support for those free-trade agreements which would equate up to 250,000 new jobs essentially immediately within the next 12 months. That type of economic opportunity is what we should be focusing on and on which we focus on here in the House as a freshman class, pushing forward policies and agendas that put the country first rather than our reelection efforts and our political ambitions ahead of country and policy.

One of the other things that we have to change in Washington, D.C., and I know my colleagues on both sides here today are firmly committed to, we have to look at this from a long-term comprehensive point of view. When you've got the Senate that hasn't passed a budget in 888 days, any businessman in America will tell you that how you run an operation, you at least have to have a vision, you have to have a strategy; and in government that document that sets the vision and the policy and the guiding principles of how we should operate is a budget. It's a fundamental thing that we do. So, again, the Senate needs to join us, lock arms with this freshman class and say we're going to put country and policy over politics, and jump.

That's why I have so much respect for my colleague from Michigan coming down and joining us here today, and if my colleague from Arkansas will yield him time to offer his insights into this debate. But, again, it's a commonsense approach to governing: do the job, lay forth the vision in a budget, work together to find common ground, and create an environment in America where people can go back to work and take care of their families for generations to come. It's only through that type of commonsense approach that I believe that we will move this ball down the field the way that it needs to, and I'm proud to join my colleagues.

I thank the gentleman from Arkansas. And I simply wanted to end this conversation with, as I get ready to leave and as our colleague from Kansas has joined us--I think the gentlelady from Alabama said it best. We came here as a new breed of elected official, part of this freshman class. We are not here to compromise our principles, but we're here to govern responsibly.

Get things done. And we can do that. That's why I was so pleased that our colleague from Michigan joined us today. Even though we may disagree on many things, there is common ground there. He recognized that lower taxes creates a business climate upon which entrepreneurs can put people back to work. We're all trying to achieve the same goal. Now it's time to have the Senate and the President engage with the American people in an open and honest fashion and deal with these issues once and for all. Because if we continue to play the politics of yesterday, then America's brightest days are behind her. And to me, that is unacceptable. And I know to all my colleagues here today, that is also unacceptable to them.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I rise today, even though feeling a little bit under the weather with an obvious cold, to show my support for these free trade agreements, because we have worked hard from day one in this Congress to be a voice for what I believe to be true free and fair trade agreements that put us and America on an even playing field with other countries around the world.

South Korea, Colombia, and Panama represent 250,000 jobs. It can't be any simpler than that. I listened to the President come up and present his jobs speech to us as we sat in this Chamber, and I heard my colleagues talk about the length of delay it took to get these agreements up to this House. But I'm not going to look to the past. I'm going to look to the future. And I'm going to look at the areas where we can find common ground to advance the cause of the great American economic recovery that could start and will start with the passage of these free trade agreements.

I applaud the President for sending these agreements up here today. I'm very confident that after a thorough and loud debate on these issues, they will be passed, and we will move forward to a brighter day of an additional 250,000 jobs in America and $13 billion worth of enhanced economic activity for the American market. Back in the 29th Congressional District that I am proud to represent, that is real money, those are real jobs, and what we're going to talk about are improvements in our agricultural industry, be it our grape growers, be it our wine producers, be it our apple growers, be it our dairy industry.

But we're also proud in the 29th Congressional District to represent some of the highest tech and manufacturing operations in the entire world. A little company in the city that I come from, Corning, Incorporated, in Corning, New York, has had a longstanding business relationship in South Korea, producing LCD glass and other high-tech materials and manufacturing components.

To me, these free trade agreements are fair agreements and they lead to job creation. That's what we were sent here to Congress to do, is to put America in a better economic condition so that generations of tomorrow will have the prosperity to call this great Nation home for many generations to come.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of two of today's scheduled bills, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Extension.

The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act makes the necessary improvements to the Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families programs to ensure accountability of the funds spent in the programs. Particularly, the waiver requirements and the required Government Accountability Office study will help reduce the duplication of funds for these programs.

Regarding the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Extension, I feel that this three month extension will provide the proper time to discuss, debate and research the benefits of mandating drug-testing and substance abuse treatment programs as a requirement for individuals to receive funds under this program. Including such a provision will increase the accountability of means-tested cash recipients and send a message that substance abuse will not be tolerated or supported by the federal government.

I see a direct link in the issue of substance abuse and child maltreatment; I feel that the inclusion of a drug-testing requirement would improve both programs and increase their efficiency.

I look forward to working on this issue with my colleagues in the Subcommittee on Human Resources, the Ways and Means Committee and the House of Representatives at-large.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 392 and as the designee of the majority leader, I have a motion at the desk.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I also ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

I am pleased to offer this resolution of disapproval of the request from the President of the United States to borrow an additional one-half trillion dollars. Dealing with this national debt is one of the primary reasons why I ran for Congress. It is to stop the endless borrowing of Washington, D.C. on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. I am also pleased to offer it in the House as the demonstration of a commitment to ending the decades-old borrow-and- spend practices and mentality that runs rampant here in Washington.

Our national debt has reached its breaking point. The need to make serious decisions to get our spending under control has never been more urgent. We have all heard the words of Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When asked what is the most direct threat to our Nation, his immediate and clear response was that our national debt is the greatest threat to our national security. The recent downgrade of our national credit rating by S&P further demonstrates the necessity of making significant structural changes to the way we spend money in Washington, D.C.

My focus here today, because we know the Senate has acted and this resolution did not pass the Senate--and is likely not to result in the borrowing of the President getting the additional half a trillion dollars of borrowing--but it's to send a message to the Nation that we need to act proactively in this Chamber and in both Chambers of this House. We need to recognize the national debt. And rather than deal with it in a crisis situation, we should be mindful of it in a proactive, strategic, open and honest manner so that we have good, sound policy responses to the issue that we face and finally tame this beast known as the national debt.

We have spent over $15 trillion of money we did not have. That national debt is growing at the rate of $58,000 per second. That's $55,000 owed by every man, child and woman in America. That level of borrowing, that level of spending is just not acceptable because it jeopardizes our Nation and, more importantly, jeopardizes our Nation for the generations yet to come.

The American people have made it clear. They spoke loudly in November 2010, and we are listening. More borrowing won't solve the problem. In fact, it will dig the hole even deeper. Borrowing even more before we can enact significant spending cuts to begin dealing with the root problem is a foolish errand. We have a responsibility to future generations to take immediate action.

I will continue along the path of working on both sides of this Chamber to try to identify common ground to solve this crisis on the national debt. The continuing resolution last spring and the Budget Control Act, which requires this vote, are only the beginning.

This war on our national debt is going to go on for many years to come; but we need to take those first steps because with every journey it takes the first step to get us on the path too success. I know the battles ahead will not be popular, and there will be tremendous political pressure on all of us to continue to borrow and spend as usual, but we must stand up to that political pressure. We must honor our oath to do our duty and do our job in this Chamber, and that means standing up and changing the path of Washington, D.C. Making difficult decisions now is the only way we can win this war on what is a common enemy we all face, our national debt.

It is my hope this resolution continues to show the President how serious we are about this issue and at the same time that we are dealing with this issue we will focus on jobs, we will focus on the economy. We, in the United States Congress, have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We are competent men and women in this Chamber who love our great Nation.

We must come together on all fronts at all times, not only on the national debt but on our economy, on getting Americans back to work. And I think, with that bipartisan attitude, it will be amazing what we can accomplish in order to achieve all those goals, the national debt being one of the critical ones that we must face head on today.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mack).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to my colleague from Tennessee (Mr. DesJarlais).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana, Dr. Boustany.

I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to my colleague from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman).

I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Huelskamp).

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I have one additional speaker, and then I am prepared to close after that, I believe.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I truly appreciate the sentiments of my colleague from Michigan, and I truly appreciate the debate that we've had today on this resolution.

It is time that we come together. As a member of the freshman class that's come to Washington, DC, I can tell you it is not a group of radical extremists, but men and women who have left their families, who have left their businesses, and have come down here to Washington, DC to accomplish what needs to be accomplished, that is, to get the fiscal house of Washington in order; it is to have the ability and skill to deal with the economy and put people back to work.

We have the energy, we have the desire to reignite this country so that generations of our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy the benefits that we have all benefited from. We come here sincerely to reach across the aisle to have an open and honest dialogue with each and every one of the Members of this House, and that is why this debate is such a positive thing, in my mind. Because we are now starting down the path of recognizing that the debt has to be dealt with once and for all, but at the same time we must work together to heal our country, to reignite our country's economy so that people can afford the American Dream that they so deserve and as each and every one of us has always benefited from.

So I come here this afternoon and offer this resolution to send a message to the President, to the world, to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we cannot take our eye off the ball. We have to do all things. Because we are in a historic time when the issues we face can no longer be pushed down the road. It is now time to lead. It is now time to come together and act for this great Nation, the United States of America.

In this vote, I urge all my colleagues to support the passage of this resolution to send that message that we will deal with the debt, we will deal with the economy, we will deal with the jobs, and we will create an environment upon which the private sector will blossom again and people will benefit for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, $14.4 trillion; $1.6 trillion every year added onto that national debt.

The people in November, 2010, spoke loudly. We are listening. It is time that we in this Chamber accept the fact that D.C. has to and will change because the American people have spoken loudly. They want us to get our fiscal house in order. They want us to bring certainty to the American market so that we can invest in this great country again and put people back to work, not only for this generation, but for generations to come.

I rise in support of this legislation. It is not the cure-all, it is not the one battle that will win this war on our national debt, but it opens us up on a path to where we need to be firmly dedicated and disciplined to carry on this battle and the battles to come.

So I ask all my colleagues, let us govern responsibly, let us avoid default, but continue on this battle--and continue on we will, as a new class, as a freshman Member of this great Chamber.