Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20120125

can build a middle class after got -- out of government jobs paid for by borrowed dollars. pat, it works the other way. a government is big in policy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class. and those who hope to join it. ♪ host: on this day after the state of the union address and the republican response, some of the headlines. upholstery journal, usa today -- the wall street journal, usa today, and roll call. it is wednesday, january 25, your reaction to what you heard last night from the president as well as the republican response from mitch daniels. later, allen west will join us and senator mark pryor. you can join in with your phone calls. we are dividing up on walls -- the phone calls between political parties. our twitter redress, @cspanwj. some of the headlines from outside of washington, d.c. i intend to fight the obstruction with action is the headline. from the boston globe, the president wants to higher taxes on rich. the detroit free press, and the president will be traveling there later this week. from the tallahassee democrat in florida where the primary is six days away, the president challenges to shrink a scrap between rich and poor. from the of atlanta journal- constitution, we have come too far to turn back. the president is hitting the road later today. he will be traveling west to cedar rapids, iowa, phoenix, ariz., and then lost vegas, nevada. all key states for the reelection. it will travel on thursday to denver, then friday to detroit, and then he will address democrats in cambridge, md.. here's more from the president's speech last night as he talked about regulations and government bureaucracy. [video clip] >> the executive branch also needs to change. too often it is inefficient, outdated, and remote. [applause] i had as this congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the american people. [applause] finally, none of this can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. we need to and the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction. that politics is about clinging to rigid -- rigid ideology instead of building consensus around common-sense ideas. i am a democrat. but i believe what republican abraham lincoln believed. government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves and no more. host: the president, his speech last night is available on our web address, c-span.org, and let's dig into the editorials. beginning with the washington post, the state of the union. the editors writing that the president's speech last night combines soaring rhetoric with small for proposals. as with last year's debt of the union speech, when he relegated the debt to neera side late in the speech, mr. obama did not go beyond the rhetoric -- the rhetorical not on the issue. indeed, in arguing for increased investment, mr. obama gave up on the traditional approach of paying with an increase in the gasoline tax or similar user fees. that editorial from the washington post. from below wall street journal, there is this. in the obama recovery, growth has never exceeded 4% in any quarter and fell off markedly in mid-2010 for the third quarter of 2011. he is trying to run as an incumbent who is striving to help the economy but has been stymied at every turn by congress. not even msnbc can believe this. fort two years he had the largest democratic majorities in congress since the 1970's and achieve nearly everything he wanted. the headline, obama has done nearly everything he wanted. that is the problem. and over the last year, americans have become more aware of the deep and equities in the economy and the government's responsibility to act. mr. obama deserves some of the credit for that, but there is a lot more to do with the unrelenting tough times in the efforts of occupy wall street and other protests. what americans want now is strong political leadership. some of the editorials on this wednesday morning, the day after the state of the union. randy joins us from michigan. caller: thank you for c-span and for taking my call. i have to say that was a great speech and i was glad to see the president stand up and put the republicans feet to the fire. we're not losing 700,000 jobs a month as we were when we were under the republican regime. the tax breaks that these republicans cannot seem to get out of their head to go beyond seemed to prove that they do not work. i will say that i guess they do know trickle-down because they complain about the trickle down government. they know it does not work because the reagan trickle-down economy has soured. i'm glad mr. obama is standing up for the 99%. there is a big gap in this country and they have been stepping on the rest of us for too long. host: steve on the republican line in wisconsin as we look at this headline from politico. a reluctant populist. good morning. caller: it was 750,000 jobs a month when we did have a republican president, but do not forget, nancy pelosi ran the house and harry reid ran the senate at that time. now something missing in last night's speech was last weekend's panel on how to get this country going again said a whole bunch of stuff like the keystone pipeline, more oil, gas, everything. republicans in the house have brought up many things, but the president and harry reid are the ones that will not bring them up. and that thing they're really stood out last night was a president, and you showed it here right away, he wanted more power for the executive. that is leaning toward a dictatorship. and everybody ought to know that. host: thank you for the call. another editorial from the usa today. looking at inequities in income. the focus was on middle-class income last night. if there was one message to be drawn from the state of the union, it is this -- the american dream is under extreme pressure and in need of immediate attention. the romney campaign issued this video as the president was finishing his speech. [video clip] >> this is the real state of our union. the unemployed do not get tickets to sit next to the first lady. instead tonight the president will do what he does best, to give a nice speech. the idea of american tourists. a lot of memorable phrases and it. but he will not give you the hard numbers. >> our journey goes forward. the state of our union is strong. >> three years ago we have measured candidate obama bias hopeful promises. today president obama has amassed an actual record of debt, declined, and disappointment. host: from the romney campaign. he is campaigning in floor today and focusing on immigration. newt gingrich and rick santorum campaigning in the state were the primary will be held six days from now. we will continue to cover the process all on the c-span platforms, including our website, c-span.org. bill is on the phone from elizabeth, new jersey. caller: i do not want to go as far as saying disappointed, but all of light of how much more aggressive tone. he had said that when i make the nomination, he should get an up or down vote in 90 days. all of like to have camera placed that with that they will get a vote in 90 days. the should have brought up the keystone pipeline and said yes, i understand that it is 20,000 jobs now, but there is too much of the possibility of 150,000 environmental cleanup jobs later. and i will not allow that to happen. host: from our twitter page, one of our viewers saying, you cannot legislate the poor and the prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. twitter has been keeping track of the number of tweets and we have shown you that for our -- on our hub page for the state of the union. the number of tweets last night wrapping up with the republican response, 766,000, 681 tweed's related to the state of the union. some of the key words, education, fairness, manufacturing. mark joined us on the democratic line in philadelphia. caller: it's been awhile since i have been able to get through. it seems like you are the only guy i can get through to. what i like to say is that i thought the president's speech was good. like the other caller said, i think he needs a little bit more passion. i think that he has to make the case -- i would not do so much with the economic inequality thing. i think basically what he has got to say and the pitches, they may not be getting better that quickly, but the one hand the keys of state back to the guys that got you into the ditch in the first place? you do not want to blame bush. you do not have to blame the prior republican congresses, but that is what he has got to do. at this point is the only way he can go. and this economic inequality, i think most people realize there are born to be a lot are rich people making money. i do not think people care as long as they have a job. host: the headline from usa today. they are differing on the economic picture. -- elixir. another tribute to gabby giffords are officially handing in her resignation. you can watch the process at 9:00 when the gavel -- when the congress gavels in. nancy pelosi will ask for unanimous consent from her colleagues to speak out of order. she will then discuss gabby giffords career in the house of representatives. following that, republican leaders including the speaker of the house will deliver remarks. and representative debbie wasserman schultz, a longtime friend of gabby giffords, will read the congresswoman's letter of resignation. there will be one order of business. a piece of legislation that she has been putting forward that would use ultralight aircraft to bring illegal drugs across the border, it would add stiffer penalties. she was a congresswoman on a border district. a piece of legislation will come up and all this will happen just after 9:00 this morning after the gavel comes down for morning business. you will watch the tribute and the letter of resignation, and sometime between 9:45 and 10:30 eastern time. we will posted on our web page. from pennsylvania, good morning. caller: thank you for this opportunity. you have a wonderful program. i wanted to say and consider myself a tea party republican, and i think that romney is the best candidate and the best one to go up against an incumbent democrat. also, i wanted to make mention that obama is for the working poor and the ones to help the economy, he should take up the candidates offer for the pipeline. because if we do not do that, it will create a lot of jobs. secondly, they are threatening to run the pipeline west and sell it to china and that would be a disaster. i want to remind the american people that we're paying 27 cents more a gallon than what we did a year ago. and gas is considerably higher than when bush left office. host: from our twitter page. the president has become an expert at finding ways to divide us. you can join the conversation at our twitter page. from the new york daily news, this headline. bam, came on. the republican response came from its daniels from indiana. he is the former budget director in the george w. bush administration. he talked about the deficit and the middle class. [video clip] >> no feature of the obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some americans by castigating others. as in previous moments of national danger, we americans are on the same boat. if we draft, over a niagara of debt, we will all suffered regardless of race, gender, or other categories. if we fail to shift to a pro- jobs economic policy, there will never be in the public revenue to pay for our safety net and national security or whatever size government we decide to have. as loyal opposition who puts patriotism and national success ahead of party or etiology or any self-interest, we say that anyone who will join us in the cause of growth and solvency is our ally and our friend. we will speak the language of unity. let us rebuild our finances and the safety net and reopen the doors of the stairway upward. any other disagreements we may have to wait. host: mitch daniels delivering the republican response selected by the speaker of the house and minority leader mitch mcconnell. a populist pitch. he offered few details on his initiatives even as he tried their rally the nation to return to old-fashioned american values. his rhetoric was not aimed directly at the gop but the ideas at every turn were at odds with republican policy. from a joke from our twitter page, we are moving to what america used to be. when? host: we will go next to sasha from california. caller: i think the president had a wonderful speech. i think it was absolutely wonderful. the republicans take what he says and turn it into something negative. i think it is absolutely ridiculous. he is a wonderful president. i think the state of the union was a wonderful message in a people cannot get that message, that is pretty much on american. host: from the washington post, the president saying that this nation must address inequality. in an election year state of the union message that will serve as the template of months of campaigning ahead, he outlined prescriptions to reinforce the tentative economic recovery. cindy rights this. the obstructionist party will not play well for the next eight months. david on the republican line in tennessee, good morning. caller: my first time ever calling about anything political. host: we are glad to call -- we are glad to hear from you. caller: the president's speech last night, i felt, was more of -- more of a campaign speech than a state of the union speech. it seemed like that as he was campaigning, he seems to be using all of our dollars to do all of these things, to fly off here and there. host: thank you for the call. let's go back to the usa today and the story by richard wald indicating that the republican national committee began running television ads in three battleground states. what difference statistics, 13 million people unemployed, 49 million people in poverty. reince priebus says that the president's sole priority is getting reelected. there is that 30-second ad from the rnc. [video clip] >> if they do not have this done in three years it will be a one- term proposition. >> why should they support him? 4 million people out of work for more than a year. on view influenced by obama campaign supporters. >> things are not going in the right direction. they are going in the wrong direction. >> i do not think they are better off than they were crutcher years ago. did in the republican national committee is responsible for this advertisement. host: some other headlines. obama taking congress to task and a picture of the president as he greets gabby giffords. a reminder that she will officially hand in her resignation letter this morning carried live coverage beginning at 9:00 when the house gavels in. we will hear from the democratic leader nancy pelosi had about 9:45, possibly closer to 10:00, in which she was asked to speak out of order. following that tribute to gabby giffords, as she steps down from the u.s. house of representatives, as we heard on sunday, in order to fully recover from a gunshot wound. the hill newspaper has this headline. and finally from politico, a pledge of economic equality is the front page story in the printed addition of political. harry joins us from making, and missouri. caller: he talked about bridges and things like that but as people know, there is a $7.5 billion bridge being built in california by the chinese with chinese materials. has c-span than any story on this at all? it is being blacked out by the media. host: what questions do you want us to ask? caller: i wanted to know if you had done a story on the bridge being built by the chinese in california? host: where specifically is it being built? caller: san francisco oakland. but nobody in the media is talking about this at all. the unions do not say anything. i do not think there is many of people that know about this. host: thank you to that -- thank you for the call. some key words that were used last night. budget for deficit or debt frequently used in previous state of the union addresses, not so much last night. also, businesses, education, health care, war, and troops. president reagan only used it once in 2010. and government, you can see this online or check it out in today's new york times. centered joins us from florida. welcome to the conversation from the -- sandra joins us from florida. caller: i thought the republican response -- i enjoyed listening to that. it was the first time that i could really listen to a republican in a long time, because when republicans like newt gingrich and santorum pay poverty and black people wanting and celts -- wanting handouts, it makes it very hard to listen to what they have to say. when i was 14 years old, i would walk to a bus to go to pick tomatoes. that does not bother me. at that time, i made $8 a day for about 12 hours a work permit i was proud to get that $8 a day. i have worked hard ever since. and the thought the republicans and newt gingrich and santorum would use that kind of forum, we really do not need that route. republicans to half a point. we have to watch our spending just like we have to watch the spending in our homes. both parties have very good points if they would put aside partisan divides like -- realize that we have to live within our means and that black people are not looking for handouts. i believe that all people should have health care. host: thank you for that call. a follow-up to carry who joined us from missouri about that chinese bridge. donna points out, read all about that, it is chinese steel. some of your e-mails from louisville, colorado. they have not uttered the name george w. bush in three years. also from glenda of kentucky. finally the president's speech is just talk. you can send us an e-mail. steve joins us from arizona. welcome to the conversation from the republican line. caller: i was going to say, i have listened to the speech and then i listened to the republican response. it reminds me of when -- remember when mayor koch presided over the people's court? he used to say after he had listened asides, he would say, somebody is lying to me here. one side was not jiving with the other. i'll never forget that. that is what reminds me of what happened here. somebody -- one side or the other is lying to us. it is just not jibing. it just seems like it is the same old same old. they are both saying the same thing. no real answers. host: thank you for the call. from the new york times, a look from behind the podium. his third state of the union. it ran just about an hour in length, followed by the republican response. next is a lame from michigan on the independent line. -- elaine from michigan on the independent line. caller: it did feel like that campaign speech. i think four more years of obama will put the final coffin nail in for us. gingrich comes across as a brazen arrogant. mitt romney is the only possible hope to run against obama. and we desperately need that. host: the president's speech got under way at just past 9:00 eastern time. here is more is the president talked about trying to bring down the temperature here in washington, the corrosive effect of politics and partisanship, and economic inequality for the middle class. [video clip] >> i talked about the deficit of trust between main street and wall street. but the divide between this city in the rest of the country is at least as bad. it seems to get worse every year. some of this has to do what the corrosive influence of money in politics. together let's take some steps to fix that. send me a bill that bans insider-trading by members of congress. i will sign it tomorrow. [applause] let's limit any official from owning stocks in industries they impact. let's make sure that people who bundle campaign contributions for congress cannot lobby congress, and vice versa. an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of washington. host: from the baltimore sun, the president tarp it's the economy. these and the issues that will dominate the 2012 election. john on our twitter page says democrats are hilarious. only tax cuts for their baser good for the economy. all others are bad. ron joins us from illinois, the democrats' line. caller: i cannot believe my fellow democrats are still drinking the same kool-aid. it is ridiculous. anyone out of work, on on employment, or welfare should not even be considering this administration. he is leading us down the path and these democrats in love with our president, which i was at one time, are going to follow him and chop off the cliff, just so they can keep him in office. host: what changed? caller: his speech, when he became president, i thought it was one of the great speeches and i thought that is where the country should go. but then, let me tell you this, when he first came into office instead of helping people who are unemployed and losing their houses, he spent all the time, a year-and-a-half on his health care bill. and when he came into office, the unemployment rate was 7.3%. he had three years with a total democratic -- two years of it with a democratic congress and he did not do anything to change that. what more do we have to see? host: thank you for the call. from the orange county register, if this picture of the president. a pitch to the people is the headline. from the l.a. times, money in politics. all must pay their fair share of taxes. looking to mitt romney's taxes, released yesterday in what they mean for the campaign and what it tells you about the u.s. tax code coming up later in the program. from new york, the republican line. caller: now he wants another trillion dollars. that is three trillions in six months. i've heard about how government will fix this certification fix that. did not fix anything. that gentleman spoke of the chinese steel and the chinese workers in california. we have a similar deal in they are false. the company has been given government money, about a third of the money to expand their facilities, and they have hired all out of state workers. these programs sound so wonderful from the podium. what happens is, because it is governed by political influence, political influence makes the decision on who gets the work and where the steel comes from and all of these other things instead of common business sense. this is the underlying fault of the democrat platform, that government can help us. one more thing. we are the 53%. we pay taxes. when one talks about everyone should pay their fair share, i will love to see that other 47% get some skin in the game. host: let me follow-up because gary from missouri found in a gap -- about that san francisco bridge being built across the bay. a story from the new york times website from last june, bridge comes from san francisco with a made in china label. it will be loaded on to the huge ship and transported 5,500 miles to oakland. there they will be assembled to build the eastern span of the new bay bridge. moveof china's continuing up the rigid up the global economic change, from toys to commercial jetliners as it aims to become the world's civil engineer. thanks to gary for that call. suit joins us from new hampshire. the democrats' line. caller: i do not understand why obama does not state everything that the democrats have tried to pass with the actual date and what we actually lost due to the republicans blocking it. why does he not point the finger against bush, while oil he was actually handed when he came to office? i just cannot understand it. it is too generalized, and the american public is too confused by it. i would wish that he would do something like that. host: the president also talked briefly about foreign-policy issues, including the capture and killing of osama bin laden. here's more from last night. [video clip] >> one of my proudest possessions is the flag that the seal team took with them on the mission to get bin laden. on that are each of their names. some of the democrats. some may be republican. but that does not matter. just like it did not matter that day in the situation room. i sat next to bob gates, a man who was george bush's defense secretary, and hillary clinton, all woman who ran against me for president. all that mattered that day was the mission. no one thought about politics. no one thought about themselves. host: the comments from the president last night and while he was speaking before a joint session of congress, the navy seal team also working on another operation and the statement came from the president shortly after 5:00 this morning. on monday on an authorized an operation to rescue an american citizen who was kidnapped and held against her will for three months and somalia. nine pirates believed to a been killed in that operation. that statement released at 5:00 from the white house. next is a republican from georgia. what is on your mind? caller: if two points out want to make so i will be brief. the first on theatrics. america and the last 25 years has been conditioned really hard by the entertainment industry. we are a nation of leisure and entertainment, that is what we have evolved to. we're so condition, we evaluate our politicians strictly on charisma, looks, and demeanor. how they give a speech. time after time after time, a democrat will call in and say what a wonderful speech the president gives. without digging beneath the surface to find out what his values are, what his mantra is, what his ideology is. they do not even think about that, how they are driving this country further and further away from success. the second point -- the president's lack of understanding or refusal to understand the free enterprise system. the simple basic knowledge that the higher you tax the corp., upper that it will locate from our shores. there is a big world out there and there are countries just begging for our industry to relocate there. and have an endless supply of labor, at one third what it costs on this continent. if we lowered the corporate tax to a crazy to%, -- 10%, our employment would soar. host: bob from florida sent us this e-mail. another point of view from tony on our twitter page. if the current occupant is not up to the job, quit complaining and get someone who can. we have been seen to rebuttals from the president's speech but we're now seeing the prebuttal. there is a story about that. ladies and shaman, let us discuss the prebuttal. on tuesday morning, mitt romney launched his response to the state of the union of full 10 hours before the president delivered it. the republican president pooh- poohed what the president had not yet said. you can see the photographs and that banner that around the campaign had put up on our website. david joins us from flint, mich., the democrats' line. caller: for the republican that just called, the president said that he would do more for the company's if they reunite with united states, bring the jobs back, that he would give them a lower tax rate. if he was listening. also, i enjoyed what he said. i am ready to go to work to reelect the president. also, we have a republican governor here in michigan, the republicans control the house and everything in the state of michigan. they have raised taxes on our pensions. thank you. host: next is a viewer from hawaii, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. we have a class warfare in our country, obviously. i lived in a very, very democrat state as you well know. in fact it is called the people's republic of hawaii. we are not suffering from what you guys are suffering from on the mainland. we only have 6.5% unemployment here. but what the president neglected as he did last year is his own simpson-bowles recommendations. if we do not get our country back into the black, that's $4 trillion starting since january 1, 2015, we're going to have drastic guns across the border, because it europe falls, we all fall. and all the teleprompter speeches by are handsome put thet ain't going to egg back together again. host: if you remember the air florida crash back in the early the federal page of the washington post, after three decades, along . it's become a tradition for the president to showcase heroes and individuals to eliminate the state of the union speech. this ap story, obama guest: celebrity to the state of union. from atlanta, the democrats' line. caller: i was just calling about president obama speech. the republican party is all about greed, because of they took their time to think about it and switch the position and the less fortunate were able to do things, you know, and make the situation better for themselves, they would. it is not all about money. which is how the republicans look at it, in my opinion. if people would be as american as they say they are, help the less fortunate, everyone would be more happy in america, periods. host: thank you for the call. something else getting a fair amount of play and will likely get more attention in the coming days, a story inside the wall street journal about the president's health care bill and the issue of contraceptives and reproductive rights and health care providers. this is all from the archbishop of in new york diocese. he is also the president of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops. he makes a couple of points. when the obama administration first proposed a nationwide mandate for contraception and sterilized coverage, it also proposed a religious employer exemption. one other point from this editorial by the rev., coercing religious ministries and citizens to pay directly for actions that violate their teaching is an unprecedented incursion into the freedom of conscience. it and make all americans pause. when the government temples with the freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead. obamacare and religious freedom, the editorial this morning, the opinion of the archbishop of the new york diocese. back to your calls. reaction to the stated the union address. caller: i have a comment, but i think first president obama -- the first lady, i think they are terrific. my comment is, when the president's speech about all should pay their fair share of taxes and the republicans respond with their mantra that taxing the rich will not make a difference in our deficit, and the middle-class family knows every dollar counts. guess what? a million billion here and a million billion there from rich people and corporations eventually becomes a trillion. thank you. host: let's go back to our other stories. the president and congressional republicans square off. the white house is expected to use congresses of oil throughout 2012. already the president has taken action to inflame reactions by making controversy or recess appointments over the christmas holidays. senate republicans say that they are illegal unquestionable. that has been put forth in bad faith according to congressional republicans. and finally this from inside the new york times, this analysis pointing out that the president did not mention mitt romney on tuesday evening, but he did not need to. mr. romney who is still viewed as the most likely opponent in the fall was the unspoken adversary. we will turn our attention to taxes. mitt romney is taxes, and also the returns of newt gingrich, both released within the last couple of days. what do they mean for the campaign? what do they tell us about the u.s. tax code? we will have a conversation with two members of congress, first allen west of florida and later mark pryor from arkansas. you're watching the "washington journal." we are back in a moment. ♪ ♪ >> i do believe the west, for all this historical shortcomings, and i'm skating in discussing the shortcomings, for all of these shortcomings the west still today represents the most acceptable and workable -- universally workable political culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global superpower. today, how to restore its status in the world from significant presents the. saturday night at 10 eastern. also this afternoon -- an argument that europeans no longer believe in anything other than their own personal economic security saturday at 11:00 p.m. and the new privacy is no privacy. how your rights are being eroded by social network. book tv every weekend on c- span2. >> for more resources, go to our campaign 2012 website. read the latest from candidates, political reporters, and people like you from social media sites. c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to turn our attention to mitt romney's taxes. marty sullivan is a contributing editor for tax.com. we have a copy of his taxes, about 500 pages, at our website. what did you learn? guest: there really are no surprises from what we knew. we knew that mr. romney was a very wealthy individual. we knew he was paying a lower effective tax rate and that turns out to be true. there were no smoking guns that we can see in, anything that is inappropriate or overly aggressive. we think it is setting the stage for the upcoming campaign. it illustrates a lot of the issues that we will be seen discussed this year in the election and next year when tax reform becomes the main issue. host: let me give everybody a sense of what it looks like when you go on to the c-span.org website or the mitt romney campaign. he release these yesterday at 7:00 in the morning. the story in the new york times saying that if nothing else, they indicate just how complicated the u.s. tax code is. guest: 2010 return, that was just as federal return. he had state returns as well. yes, it does illustrate a lot of the problems or issues that are in the tax code and the complexity comes out when you see that 203 page return. host: many share you the first sentences of this new york times story. mitt romney and his wife made $27 million in 2010, held millions in a swiss bank account and millions more in partnerships and the cayman islands. as you indicated, nothing illegal, nothing wrong, based on what he released over the last 24 hours, but a lot of questions about where some of the money was stored and also the u.s. tax cut issue. guest: that is right. the cayman islands issue in the swiss issue grabbed headlines because there were problems with swiss bank accounts and offshore accounts in the caymans. but there is nothing to indicate that there has been innovation or even aggressive tax avoidance. for example, that came in corporations related to his holdings in bain capital, those are very common tax framing devices used by universities and pension funds. they basically allowed them to -- these tax-exempt entities, to invest in these active businesses. they are circumventing a u.s. tax rule that is really an artifact of a lot that really is not that central. in fact, this rule, if mr. romney was not allowed to do this type of tax planning, congress would probably change the rules anyway. there is no smoking gun here. just because there is a cayman islands account. host: but when you see the ads of offshore accounts, swiss accounts, cayman island accounts, will this come back to hurt him? guest: i do not think so. there are a lot of problems in other contexts and i have done research on that. but the more that you look at this, you will see that there is really no problems in this case. he has paid his taxes on these accounts, just as if they were in the united states. host: these investments earning him $20 million in the last year. going back to the story, the same tax level that an individual or family earning $80,000 a year. this was not in come. this was profits from investments that he earned a the last 12 months. what does that tell you about taxes in this country? guest: there are two types of people when it comes to taxes. there are other rich wage earners and small business owners, lawyers, doctors, corporate executives. they pay the 35%. but the wealthy individuals who do not have that type of full- time employment, to get most of their income from their investments, pay much lower tax rates. because most of that in, and it is true of the ranis, it is received in the form of capital gains and dividends and those are taxed at 15%. host: let me ask you about -- estimated taxes. did you take a chance to look at those stocks -- those documents? guest: we do not have as much information as the 2010 returns but the same picture emerges. it is still a low rate of tax because most of his income is in the form of tax favored carried interest, capital gains, and dividends. host: he also talked about tithing 10% of his income to the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. guest: it would not his tax rate off by a few percentage points. he might been up to 18%. he is very generous and that reduced its rate. if he was as generous as the average american, his rate would be higher. host: we also looked at newt gingrich's taxes. he made far less in 2010 than mitt romney. an estimated income of $3 million in a higher tax rate. guest: that is right. he receives most of his income from his business. he is in affect a small business owner, a chapter s corporation. that in come close to his aunt -- his corporation and he is taxed on the full 35% on that. mr. romney gets in come from bain capital and is taxed at only 15%. host: talking about warren buffett's secretary. warren buffett is publicized as saying he should pay the same tax rate as a secretary. his secretary was seated in the first lady's box. and we will get them ready in a moment. what does that tell you? i think we have it. ok. that reap remind our audience that our phone lines are open. -- all let me remind our audience that our phone lines are open. the telephone numbers are on the screen. you can join the conversation at twitter or send an e-mail and here's more from last night's state of the union address with the president. [video clip] >> right now because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. right now, warren buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest americans or do we want to keep our investment in everything else? a education, and medical research, a strong military, and care for our veterans? because if we are serious about paying down our debt, we cannot do both. host: marty sullivan, your reaction. guest: a lot of controversy about the puppet rule. -- buffet rule. there is a subset of wealthy americans that pay a much lower tax rate than other americans, even americans who are middle class. again, that goes to that fact that they're rich -- these very rich individuals get most of their income from dividends and capital gains which are taxed at lower rates. if we are going to make the tax system progressive for these individuals, we would have to address the capital gains issue. host: from california, the democratic line. go-ahead. caller: i like to make three quick points. one is a lot of things can be hidden in the 500 pages. two, it just because it is legal does not make it right. and three, i happen to be one of the poverty-stricken people. you know, it is mainly rich and poor. there is no in-between. host: from california. guest: mr. romney's return illustrates a lot of the issues that we're going to have in the year -- in the 2012 campaign. should the rich pay more in taxes? that is starkly illustrated with his return. again as the caller said, there is nothing illegal, and the question is, is it right that a wealthy individual should have a lower tax rate? that is for the voters to decide. it is not an issue of economics as it is political preference. host: the scope back to the washington post, taking a look at the numbers. tax documents shedding light on the investment well. looking of the total income, total income for the first family about $1.7 million last year. $3.1 million for the former house speaker. nearly $22 million from mitt romney. in terms of the total taxes paid, the obama's paid roughly 200 -- ford $50,000. newt gingrich almost $1 guest: that is right. is 26.3%.s tax rate .ingrich's is very high this illustrates how certain circumstances, our tax system is not as progressive as we sometimes think it is. for individuals like mr. romney , he pays a very low taxes because most of its earnings or in the form of investment income. president obama and mr. gingrich, those are wages, salaries, and small business income. host: this information is available on our website, c- span.org. joan has this comment from vermont. a tax: well, we want t system that promotes economic growth. one thing that mr. romney is proposing that may be controversial is to eliminate the estate tax. for some like mr. romney, he stands to gain tens of millions of dollars from that. the fairness issue i think is if mr. rahm it does become the republican nominee is going to be front and center -- if mr. romney does become the republican nominee. host: it has been 24 hours since the gingriches released their taxes. any questions as you review these documents? guest: i have not seen any so far but there is still a lot to go through. there seemed to -- it seems to be pretty straightforward. most of his income would be from small business and come and it is being taxed at the top rate. that's the main story. host: our guest is marty sullivan from tax.com. caller: i understand there has to be a change in the tax code. somebody making that much money at 15% is not correct. i just hope people cannot make mitt romney the villain because he worked hard and he made this money legally. he is paid what he is supposed to pay. he does not owe anybody anything. thank you. host: joy has this question. guest: well, i think that is a loaded question. we all know that the limits on payroll taxes is about $110,000. you pay about 15% on that. he paid about $15,000 of payroll taxes on his income of $0.1 million. -- $21 million. host: let's break down the numbers. host: what is carried interest? guest: fees paid to investment fund managers but only paid if the managers are making money for their clients. this has been a controversial issue over the last few years. many people consider this to be not really a capital gain but an ee.inary salary or f it is now being taxed 15%. president obama and the democrats are proposing they be taxed at default 35% -- at the full 35%. host: just over $20 million for knit and and romney -- miss attd ann romney. caller: how much was mr. romney's money taxed? guest: most of these private equity funds are not taxed as corporations. they are flow through entities. a big corporation like gm or apple -- there is no corporate level tax. they are organized as limited liability partnerships. host: dale from cherry hill, new jersey. caller: good morning. i like that last caller. people think that they had to pay 35% or 30% when it was investment income. i think everybody understands the tax code needs to be changed. i am a democrat and i was an independent for many years. i feel i'm on the side of the democratic side. all these debates there been throwing around what to do with the tax code. i think the obama administration should listen to everything they said and say, there are four good ideas. let's suppose that and throw it out to the congress and get it passed. by the time there is a debate between the republican candidate and obama, he can say, we already did that. host: thank you for the call. guest: there is more agreement than folks might realize between the democrats and republicans on tax reform. we need to reduce the corporate tax rate and to close loopholes. the partisanship between the parties is more on whether the bush tax cuts can be extended. on reforming the tax system, the problem is not the partisanship between the parties but the special interests who are trying to protect their tax breaks. startlet's go back to the there were brought up at the beginning of the conversation. this is front page above the fold from "the new york times." host: follow-up on that point. that seems to be a general theme. he is taxed at a different rate than most americans who see their pay check and see what is taken out every other week. guest: the private equity industry has a host of tax advantages. they do leveraged buyouts. they reduce the taxes of the entities of their target companies by loading them up with debt, which reduces their business taxes. the funds themselves pay no corporate tax. the fund owners are lucky enough to have a loophole of carried interest. there's a series of tax benefits that makes private equity funds and their owners able to have their low taxes and these opportunities are not available to regular wage earners. host: this is from ben who lives in ohio. guest: that is a deeper question. i do not think we would want to get into the business of trying to distinguish what is a deduction that is for america and what is a deduction for foreign interest? if you're making a donation to top-flight aids in africa, should we disallow that because it is not directly benefiting americans? that does not seem like something that we would want to look at. i have not heard anything along those lines. host: what is the gift tax loophole? guest: the gift tax is a tax that is imposed on all americans if they give more than $13,000 a year to any other individual. whenever think about that -- i do not know what you mean by "the gift tax loophole." this is an elaborate and complicated area of the tax law that mostly is available to the very wealthy. host: we are talking with marty sullivan, a contributing editor to tax.com. he has written a number of books. ent from mary --r will go to bonnie from maryland. good morning. caller: this proves that romney is a shrewd businessman. they used insider trading to make themselves richer. what does man to pelosi pay? you didn't hear nothing about that. guest: we i did not have meant to policy's -- i do not have nancy pelosi's tax returns in front of me. her tax rate might be well below but that is speculation on my part. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, jim. please go ahead. caller: i take exception to these rich people being able to give to their church and write it off on their taxes. this essential it makes me pay more taxes, which then in turn is me giving to his church. this country would not have the debt problem. our cities would not have the debt problem. guest: i think congress is reluctant to limit charitable deductions. there is some talk of a broadbased limitation on the deductions, itemized deductions overall which would include charitable deductions. there may be something in the works in the upcoming months and years to look at putting some limitations on charitable deductions. host: last call from missouri, dee. caller: good morning. this whole thing -- i heard you talking or reading in the newspaper about how they did not see anything unusual in mitt romney's taxes, according to the way he made his money and the way he is earning his money. they did not see anything out of the ordinary. if what i heard last night, bain capital in 2007 and other companies of that ilk did an extensive amount of lobbying back in 2007 to maintain the current tax rate. guest: i think the caller is referring to the carried interest loophole. that is a controversial issue. it became more of an issue. during this campaign, it is going to be front and center because the president and democrats feel strongly it should be repealed and the financial industry has a very entrenched lobby opposing it. ould a flat tax reduce the amount of paperwork? guest: it would simplify the system because it would eliminate a lot of the deductions and special interest loopholes that would simplify the competition -- computations. it will be simpler than current law. host: 1 final tweet. guest: that is a good question. let me put it this way. you can invest across a street in your own home bank as well as you can invest in a swiss bank account. just because you have your money in a swiss bank account and you're paying taxes, that is perfectly legal. host: you can log onto our website, c-span.org. we have the returns of mitt and ann romney and also newt gingrich's financial information. marty sullivan, thank you for being with us. coming up, a conversation with congressman allen west, republican from florida. later, senator mark pryor. their reaction to the state of the union address and the republican response. live coverage of the proceedings on the house floor as representative gabrielle giffords hands in her resignation. tributes will be paid to work by the speaker of the house and by nancy pelosi. you can watch all that live here on c-span. good morning, nancy. >> more on the navy seal rescue of american jessica buchanan yesterday. last night, the president pointed to leon panetta and said, "leo, good job tonight." the u.s. military was one of the issues in the state of the union address last night. today president obama begins a three-day trip to promote his economic policy goals. the president wants to attract more manufacturing to america and to improve education. three republican presidential candidates reach out to hispanic voters in florida. they are participating in a form at the univision television network in miami. florida's primary is next tuesday. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. [video clip] >> i do believe the west for all of its historical shortcomings, and i'm scathing in my book in discussing these shortcomings, because they have to be admitted. for all of these shortcomings, the west still today represents the most acceptable and workable -- universally workable political culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global superpower. today, how to restore its status in the world from former national security advistor zbigniew brzezinski on his "strategic vision," saturday night at 10:00 eastern on "after words." also this weekend on "book tv," in "the new vichy syndrome," theodore dalrymple argrues europeans no longer believe in anything other than their own personal economic security. saturday at 11:00 p.m. and sunday night at 10:00, the new privacy is no privacy. lori andrews on how your rights are being eroded by social networks. "book tv" every weekend on c- span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome back to c-span allen west. guest: thank you for having me. host: let's get right to the speech. guest: i would like to read some quotations. "the american republic will endure until congress discovers they can bribe the public with the public's money." "a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policies. the average age of the world's greatest civilizations have been 200 years." let's see if anybody knows who said that and where it came from. i spent 22 years in the united states military. i have been on missions before. when you talk about a mission, the president should ever brought up the fact that we were at 8000 days yesterday without the senate having passed a bill legit-- 1,000 days. that is important if we're going to get the government on the right track. his administration has told congress they have to push back the deadline for submitting a budget. that was back to mission. host: i understand where the republicans are coming from. the speaker called the speech bathetic before even hearing the speech. mitch mcconnell said his job is to make barack obama a one-term president. guest: there were some experts cerpts of that speech sent out. i was not appear when mitch mcconnell said what he said as far as a one-term president. i want the president to be able to pivot much the same as bill clinton did. we saw that he crated surpluses and that we get welfare reform. no one can tell me a democratic president and republican legislature cannot work together. host: unemployment in florida just under 10%. a 2% for closure rate. guest: i think it is not good and even higher in south florida in the overall state average, especially for foreclosures. when i talk to small business owners down in the district and they are talking about regulatory policies and a talk to the small community banks that are being crushed under dodd-frank and not able to provide lending to small business owners, we have to come up with the right type of policies that can unleash the entrepreneurial spirit the call this small businesses to be able to grow. i think the question before the american people is, do you believe in the equality of opportunity or do you believe in quality of achievement? we have to change some things up in washington, d.c. it is clear what we can do. host: are you giving out any coffee mugs are prizes for those who guess the quotations? guest: we call that a gentleman's bet in the military. we will refund you $1. host: their crafts line with allen west of florida -- democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. tell me three things that you like about obama and what he's doing in the economy believe the military out. give me three answers of what you like about obama as far as what he is doing with the american people, trying to get jobs. guest: i have to go back and be objective. i look of the fact that we have a debt that has increased under three years of president obama that matches the amount of debt from george washington to also bill clinton. re upside down. three straight years of $1 trillion-plus deficits. we had a black conservative for a couple of days ago. you are talking about 60% unemployment -- 16%. these policies have not been successful. i wish the president would move away from some of the divisive rhetoric. we passed legislation that would extend the payroll tax cut for a year and also the sustained growth rate, the doc- fix for two years. the pay for is that we have worked many of the proposals that the president put forward. we did exactly what the president wanted. host: let me share what you told wmal during the recess. you said you were upset with the republican leadership. you used the word "bathetic." -- "pathetic." guest: i was upset the we were told this was a good policy. 47 republicans voted for this was a two month extension. there would raise the fees on loan guarantees. i felt that was horrible. there was a disconnect between the house republicans and our leadership and the senate. last week we went up to baltimore and we have a strategy session and we should have that leadership from the senate republicans, over. we have to get on the same sheet of music. host: if the speaker is running for another term, we support him? -- will you support him? guest: are the things that could be done better? absolutely. i have been in politics for just one year. it would be like a lieutenant trying to pass judgment on a colonel. speakersfied with the right now. angst is with the senate side. if you continue on with the quotation, i talked about the come to jesus meeting. we need to have the leadership of the minority leader and the speaker to come together. host: jan on the republican line from colorado springs. caller: good morning. i have to say that i have been troubled by some of the things that you have said, some of the attitudes you have had. you are a new legislator and you have a lot to learn about governing. biz's doesn't necessarily prepare you for that -- business does not necessarily prepare you for that. the republicans and my party will never accept that we have to do something about our tax code so we have in, coming into this country. some of these add-ons, no one could vote for. actually i was impressed with mr. obama. i was impressed with him years ago with john mccain and sarah palin. i could not vote for sarah palin. i have to reassess a lot of things i believe in. guest: the president talked about the corporate tax rate in 2011 and we did not see any movements. i believe we have to do something about the corporate tax rate. it is the second-highest in the world. 46.7% thating about businesses have to pay. just give them a good competitive tax rate. 2% andreduce it down to 2 get rid of the loopholes. let's take the action to do that. look at the personal income-tax. we have a progressive tax code system and now we have 53% that are pulling the wagon, 47% are paying absolutely nothing. if we go to a flat tax system, maybe we can add the tiered flat tax system. we need to broaden the tax base, 13% to 16% for the lower tier, and then an upper tier with maybe 20%. maybe you add in the charitable contribution deduction. how do we get the hard earned american taxpayer to get the capital out of washington, d.c., back into their pocket so we can grow the economy? i want to try to get the money back into their pockets so they can grow the economy. host: a question from page.entativick on our twitter guest: i do represent palm beach and rush limbaugh is one of my constituents. wasre looking at a got that born in the inner city of atlanta, georgia. and now, i have the opportunity to represent areas and a district where my parents could not have taken me to the beach. i can go and speak at the breakers. young men from inner-city is the congressional representative. that is the duty of america -- that's the beauty of america. host: imagine the form that took place on monday on capitol hill -- you mentioned the form that took place. guest: 33% of african-americans say they are conservative. the vote is going en masse to the democratic party. there is not a joining of the vote. we have to talk about how we can get people to understand those values. effective government and what that means for the black community. a free markets. urban empowerment zones back into the inner city to help minority small businesses so we keep wealth in there. how do we support education? host: are you a member of the congressional black caucus? guest: absolutely. i certainly am. caller: i am a 59 years old next week. i've noticed that they have lowered the taxes on the rich. i've watched the middle class gets smaller and the poorer get more and more. how was lowering the tax on rich helping our country? guest: who do you think will be create the opportunities for everyone? i just told you my story. i think that we have to look at how we expand opportunities out there. i do not want to see people become more and more dependent on the federal government. i want to be able to provide those opportunities. if you continue to be more stringent, you are not going to have those opportunities. you'll of more closed store fronts -- you will have more closed store fronts. we need to be able to grow this economy. the top 1% of wage earners pay 30% of income tax. the top 5% pay 58%. what you're saying is that you want -- who is the one that will make this determination? we will continue to of more debt because we will continue to have higher unemployment. we need to set the conditions for job creators to be able to do that. last night the president talked about high skilled immigration work force. we passed a bill that is sitting on harry reid's desk right now. entrepreneur access to capital act. all these things have passed the house of representatives and sitting on harry reid's bedesk. that's the truth. host: let me go back to another tweet. guest: that is interesting that charles would say that. the neighborhood i grew up was the same near route that dr. king grew up on. dr. king did not liberate me. dr. king brought forth a cholent to this country that said the dream is a dream of the founding fathers. i do not want to see the government that believes they can guarantee happiness. martin luther king talked about the equality of opportunity, not the equality of achievement. that is why think dr. martin the king -- that is what i thank dr. martin luther king jr. for doing to me. mobile, alabama. caller: how many elderly people in your district are upset about taxation on their social security benefits? do you think taxing social security benefits is double taxation? guest: i agree. that is one thing i think we can correct. i have a lot of people in south florida and the concern about medicare and social security. we have to get americans back to work. from 1950 until today, we have three to one. the unemployment statistics in this country in south florida, we have to turn this around and get people working so we can get that social security fund protected and replenished. we have to do something about medicare. we can talk about discretionary spending all the daylong. that is only a 30% of the federal budget. we have to come up with a serious reforms. that is what we have to be focused on. host: let's look at a map of florida. the northern part of the state tends to be the more conservative part of the state. it is a closed republican primary next tuesday. in west palm beach and down south to miami, a large influx of hispanic and cuban american voters. what can we expect in terms of turnout? guest: i think the turnout will be big. the thing about florida is it is differs from the panhandle area over and that is almost an extension of georgia, alabama, and mississippi. you have the perverse population. it will be interesting to see if speaker gingrich can ride the momentum of south carolina into florida or if governor romney can stand up and come back as far as the ideas and contrasting the areas of will we see coming out of washington, d.c. host: 90 members are in the delegation -- 19 members are in the delegation and you remain undeclared. guest: i will make a decision based on the research i'm going to do. i will assess their ability to go into the arena and present their view of where our country is. i don't think it is my place to sit down and endorse. host: if speaker gingrich is the nominee, can he defeat president obama? guest: i do not know. t.m not clairvoyanc host: if he's the nominee -- guest: i do not know. host: would mitt romney have a better chance of defeating the president? guest: if i could bring together rick santorum, ron paul, gingrich, romney, you would have a candidate. there's a record of the president has. people need to assess the record. host: you began the conversation with some quotations. we've not had any guesses from our viewers. guest: the came from a alexas de tocqueville. he wrote in democracy in america and i think those quotations are prescience and purgatory find ourselves today. host: we note alexis de tocqueville well at this network. you could look at our web site and look back at some of our coverage of the french writer. chuck is on the phone. caller: good morning. i'm a vietnam veteran. guest: thank you for your service and welcome home. caller: i got quite an education. i have gone to the constitution and the federalist papers and the declaration of independence and i see absolutely nothing there that says that it is legal for the federal government to take money from one group and give it to another. the constitution only guarantees an opportunity. i firmly believe if this government would spend more time concentrating on lowering the taxes, letting businesses thrive and giving people the opportunity, we would be much better off. i'll hang up and listen. thank you for your service. guest: thank you. it is important to go back and read those founding documents. you are correct. i look at a comparative analysis where president reagan was and 2 president obama. president reagan had it gdp growth of about 6.4%. what we saw last year was a 1.0%, 1.37% as far as gdp growth. something has to be done as far as the policies. i go back to something that lisa jackson said wednesday testified before the commerce committee and she was asked if she considered the economic impact of the regulations they are handing down on businesses. absolutely not.m n host: from mary wondered if you sign the grover norquist tax pledge. guest: i did back in 2007. that was sent to me while i was back in afghanistan. they ask me to reassign the pledge and i did not do that. host: you serve in iraq. the president indicating there are no troops left in iraq outside of a few doing some cleanup operations. right move? guest: wrong move. we had a very accomplished commanding general over there with the fort bragg and he asked for 10,000 to 15,000 troops. it was taken down to zero. we should have left a credible presence in iraq. we continue to work and support the kurdistan region of governments. we see what is happening in iraq right now. maliki is aligned to pro-iranian influences. i think it was a political decision and not in national security decision. host: with that some people are twitter page courted the alexis de tocqueville. the want to know where they can collect their $1. we were expecting some calls. the check is in the mail. guest: contact our office. host: how would you describe the tone of the president's speech last night? guest: i kept account. three times the was divisive rhetoric. i think the president needs to take responsibility for some of the things we have seen in the past three years. that is what leadership is about. host: congressman allen west, thank you for being here. center mark pryor and joins us. --senator mark pryor joins us. the president did not mention the xl pipeline. your reaction. guest: i did not expect him to talk about it in the speech. pipeline.ehe xl there will let us refine it here and burn it in our automobiles cleaner and safer than any other country or there will send it to china. we should do this. i think it is the right thing to do. it is a north american source of energy from a friendly neighbor. we should do this. this has become a red hot political issue. it is full of rhetoric now. i am hoping we will get this done in a year so. host: you indicated you disagree with the president's decision. did you talk to the president or the administration about the pipeline? guest: i didn't have a chance to talk with them. they know where i am. i support the pipeline. it will have an impact on our state in a couple of different ways. i fill the pipeline can be done safely and you can meet all the environmental standards. we have a better source -- near domestic source of gasoline and diesel. they may build some of the pipeline parts in our state. some manufacturers may supply the pipeline. it would help jobs. host: you are a veteran of the senate. you talk about common ground between democrats and republicans. why has been so hard for both parties to reach a compromise? guest: what has happened over the last several years is hyper partisanship has taken over. you can get a good idea in washington. good sense just goes out the window. people oppose it just because he is 48. the same thing happened under president bush. once he laid it out there, democrats would just block it. we need to stop that. that is not the way the founding fathers designed our system to work. the campaign seems to never stop. governing seems to never start. it is all completely fixable. there's nothing wrong with washington that we cannot fix. i felt like the speech was not confrontational. i thought some of the media was predicting it would be confrontational, that he would lay down the gullet against the republicans. -- he would lay down the gauntlet. i thought his speech was full of optimism. america needs to hear some optimism. there are some signs of the economy that are positive. he focused on a few of them. if we work together, there is nothing that we cannot achieve as a nation. we should get it done for the country. host: look at the growing debt and deficits as we approach a nearly $5 trillion debt, approaching $14 trillion in total. guest: we'll have to make hard decisions. we have to put all three things on the table. they talk about discretionary spending. we have done some things there and we have to do some more. we talked about entitlement spending. speaker boehner is willing to put entitlements on the table. the third thing is the tax code. we have a big disagreement in washington about the tax code. people start saying that this is class warfare. we need comprehensive tax reform in this country. anybody that looks at our tax code objectively, they understand that we need tax reform in this country. the debt commission said you can do a comprehensive tax reform and lowers people -- and lower people's tax rates. if you follow the general outline by the simpson-bowles debt commission, you will find-- you'll creek two million new jobs just by reforming the tax code -- you will create two million new jobs. we have to make decisions to accomplish anything that we will work together. that is what is lacking here right now. there are not enough people willing to work together. host: frank from new jersey, good morning. caller: you guys have a great show. i heard more of the same last night in obama's speech. he wants another stimulus package, ok? you talk about you guys working together, ok? for 1,000 days, the senate has not passed a budget. the first two years of his presidency, you guys have the senate, the commerce, and the white house. you cannot avoid that and i'm not on the republicans. you could have passed all the stuff you wanted. the people should start reading the bills and what is in the obamacare bill. guest: i appreciate that call. you covered a lot of ground. the president focused on manufacturing. i heard an expert this morning talk about how this president last i talked more about manufacturing than any president has in 25 years. he did focus on manufacturing. we have gone through the talking point by the republicans in the last several days. it has been 1000 days since we had a budget. that's a great talking point. that's not true. we did pass a budget. we did this in august. bipartisan budget. 74 votes in the senate. several republicans joined in. we passed a budget. the talking point sounds great, but it is not true. the budget control act of 2011. we passed a budget. it is now law. the budget resolution is binding with congress. 10 years of spending caps for our government. we done that. it did get 74 votes in the senate's. thank you for the call. i would respectfully disagree with some of the things that you said. host: we have a comment about bowles-simpson. guest: i agree with that. i wish that when the devils a commission came out, i wish there was a bipartisan group led by the president a year ago where everybody would embrace that and say this is the blueprint -- i wish when the deficit commission. they brought a lot of smart people together and they studied it. it doesn't matter how much you study the debt and deficit. you are going to end up coming out about where simpson-bowles is. look at the numbers and the political realities. it is about shared sacrifices and about putting everything on the table. i wish the house and senate would have embraced it or move it to the floor and allow us to work on us and try to pass it in the house and the senate. host: next will go to wally, from indiana. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a republican but an american first. i remember when president obama stood before the american people and he said, "we're going to pass the stimulus and we will build the roads and build infrastructure and of all these --" that he was caught off tape laughing that they were not shovel-ready. take moneyd, let's and build roads. guest: we have done some of that. the stimulus is mostly positive but a mixed bag. if people say it was a total failure, they are wrong. we did build a lot of roads and we invested in infrastructure and that could be schools and other things around the country. i see stimulus projects over the state of arkansas when i drive around. federal taxpayer money that is being reinvested back into the nation. the president talked about nation-building. we need to continue to invest in infrastructure. that is an investment into our future. focusing on roads and runways is very important. we to invest in broadband -- we need to invest in broadband. that is like the new rail. if you don't have access to broadband, you are left out of the global economy. broadbent in a small town of arkansas connects the world to the small town. someone can start an internet business sitting right there in small town, america, but you need world broadband to do that. host: can the president win arkansas? guest: i think it is unlikely. i don't think he as much of a strategy. my guess is arkansas will go for the republican candidate. now. it is kind of uncertain on the republican side. we will give it time. certainly i would hope the president will try to come to the state and forcefully make his case to arkansas voters. the economy is improving and we have a lot of reasons to be optimistic and i think in the end he will have a pretty good story to tell. host: senator mark pryor, democrat from arkansas. thank you for being with us on c-span. we will take you to the floor of the u.s. house of representatives as the gavel comes down in just a couple of minutes. and a reminder, representative gabby giffords will be handing in her resignation. there will be tributes by democratic leader nancy pelosi and speaker john boehner and also representative debbie wasserman schultz. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., january 25, 2012. i hereby appoint the honorable jason chaffetz to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. we give you thanks, o god, for giving us another day. as you make available to your people the grace and knowledge to meet the needs of the day, we pray that your spirit will be upon the members of this people's house, giving them the richness of your wisdom. bless the members of the minority party as they gather these days. may they, with those who accompany them, travel safely and meet in peace. bless, also, the majority party as they return to their constituencies. give them hearts and ears to listen well to all those whom they represent. may the power of your truth and our faith in your providence give them all the confidence they must have to do the good work required for service to our nation. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from rhode island, mr. cicilline. mr. cicilline: please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain up to five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: my grandmother used to say there is nothing more powerful than a woman who has made up her mind. gabby giffords has always been that woman. she is compassionate, tenacious and relentless in her love for our country. her desire to serve the people of arizona has never waivered and she will carry that same feisty spirit with her indefinitely. after she bass attacked and faced with what seemed to be ensurmountable odds, gabby fought each day to get better. her recovery has been a miracle and she will only get stronger. gabby is the spirit of bipartisanship that we should all learn from and i enjoyed working with her on border security issues. she makes decisions based on what she seems to be right for her people. although she will not be in congress for the time being, the people of arizona has not lost an advocate. gabby is fiercely dedicated to making her community and our country a better place because she is a woman that has made up her mind. and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island rise? mr. cicilline: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cicilline: my constituents in rhode island have been hit hard by this recession. last night president obama offered congress a plan to rebuild our economy with proposals focused on manufacturing, innovation, investments in infrastructure and work force training. proposals that i and many of my colleagues have been working hard to advance. i urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to move forward on the offshore prevention act that ships american jobs overseas. we should work together by passing legislation such as make it in america block grant and the rest of the make it in america agenda. i will continue to work hard for these proposals. we need to move beyond ideological differences that get things done for this country. after so much unproductive business throughout this past year, we should advance the interests of every american family. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? will kopelman mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, the constitution gives congress the responsibility of providing for a common defense. the defense cuts that occurred in 2013 as a result of sequestration undermines this constitutional duty. general ray odierno, the army chief of staff, said that cuts of this magnitude would be bad, unquote. under sequestration, quote, we would have to reduce the size of the military sharply. rough estimates indicate after 10 years of these cuts we would have the smallest ground forces since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915 and the smallest air force in our history, end of quote. with growing worldwide threats, the president last night praised our troops but actually is slashing the army by 80,000 troops and cuts to the in a reens by 20,000. i urge my colleagues to support chairman buck mckeene. his bill provides certainty of the military to provide strength through peace. i yield back and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york rise? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, exactly 12 hours ago those of us who sat in this chamber watch raw courage walk through that door when our colleague, gabby giffords, came in here through her own accord. she overcame obstacles that few of us can ever imagine. in this room we often talk about similar challenges. i call on this body to put aside our differences and work together and institute the parts of the president's plan we heard last night that we all agree on. i sat on the so-called republican side of the aisle. i know there are times when they got up and applauded and supported the president's initiatives, whether it is to bring back jobs from overseas, how about infrastructure back for our roads and bridges that are crumbling, at least in my district? ms. hochul: we have much before us, just as our friend, gabby, did. we can overcome it. she did it. we must. the american people are counting on us. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? >> mr. speaker, i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, last night in this very claim ber i heard the president talk about an all-of-the-above energy strategy for our nation. i couldn't agree more. but, mr. speaker, this is the same president who a few days ago rejected the keystone x.l. pipeline project, a $7 billion trifecta, shovel ready for america. jobs, energy security and urgent logistical relief necessary to move oil to the gulf coast region. count me as disappointed, mr. speaker, as a time when we should be doing everything we can to give everyone a lift, we go to the bully pulpit, a political smokescreen. mr. speaker, if you're truly -- if you truly believe in an all-of-the-above strategy, if you're generally concerned about an 8.5% unemployment and if you're looking for a bipartisan way to reverse this economic course we are on, say yes to keystone x.l. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair will remind the members that they will address their comments to the chair. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky rise? mr. yarmuth: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. yarmuth: thank you, mr. speaker. i was very pleased last night to hear president obama talk about the defining issue of our time, the grate economic disparity that we face in this society and the need to have a fair tarksation system. of course, what's fair is in the eye of the beholder, and the recent disclosure of government mitt romney's tax returns offers us a great laboratory to talk about that. on $21 million in income, he paid $3 million in taxes. the question for us shouldn't be whether $3 million is fair or whether 13.9% rate is fair. the question is did he deserve a preferencial rate? did it create jobs, did it provide important research, did it build infrastructure? if it provided a societal benefit, a broad societal benefit then that preferencial rate is justifieded. if not then we can't explain to hardworking americans why he pays a lower rate than they do. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. yarmuth: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute and i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, today is day 1,001 since the senate has passed a budget. in lankford: the president has notified this body that his budget will also be late this year. it may be a couple days, it may be a week. we don't know how late it will be at this point. last night during the state of the union address he spent 3% of his speech talking about debt and deficits. we have $15.3 trillion worth of debt right now in our nation. it is a major issue for us. it slows down our economy. i was very pleased to hear him talk about an all-of-the-above energy strategy and i'm focused on that exact same thing. i have a couple things that needs to be cleared up. he talked about hydraulic fracking and recovering gas was a federal project. i'd like to inform everyone since 1949 we've done that in oklahoma and the chemicals he mentioneds, if you are going to frackfocus.org, mr. speaker, you'll find all those hydraulic chemicals out there. so we need to clear those things up. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee rise? mr. cohen: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. last night was the state of the union, but it was also the state of the american family for family values were much on display like i've never seen before in this room. we had the president of the united states and his beautiful wife, michelle, who have a beautiful family and certainly exhibited family values and we had gabby giffords and her marvelous husband, mark kelly, who have shown american values. they've shown what vows mean and what better or worse means. they know that marriage is forever. they also are great americans in a want to bring this country together and the president properly said our country is great. we're doing better. we have improved since the bush years in so many areas and are putting our country on a course toward economic employment, preservation in the middle class, shared responsibility and fairness. i urge everybody in the spirit of family values that the president and representative giffords and their families exhibit to join together as an american family and move in country forward and keep america number one. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. last night president obama asked congress to support his same failed policies that have kept unemployment above 8%. this administration has caused our economy to fail. the house has passed more than 30 bipartisan bills that will create american jobs. but the democrat-controlled senate has failed to move on 27 of them. it's time for the senate and the president to get behind these commonsense bills that will boost job growth, cut spending, shrink the deficit and get the government out of the way of small business. just last week, the president rejected the keystone project which will create tens of thousands of jobs, draw billions of dollars in new investment to the united states and increase our domestic energy security. america's energy independence independence should be a top priority for the white house. americans want, need and deserve immediate action on these bills and the keystone pipeline. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? mr. ellison: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i rise to congratulate the egyptian people on their revolution one year ago today. of course, that revolution is still a work in progress, but it reminded us of what people can accomplish through nonviolence and perseverance. it inspired my constituents and people around the world. the egyptians disprove the myth that people in the region do not want democracy. protestors in the street were not asking for another dictator. the nonviolent protest was a stunning rejection of violence and extremism as exhibited by al qaeda. there were also not blaming others for their problems. their demands focused primarily on internal issues like the economy, corruption and police brutality. the united states must engage the new egyptian government. if the new parliament doesn't deliver, the egyptian people will throw them out just like our people will throw us out. that's democracy. as they build theirs, we should remember that we're still perfecting our own. i yield back. thank you. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on the motion to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yanges are ordered -- yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. any record votes on the postponed question will be taken later. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? mr. reichert: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3801. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3801, a bill to amend the tariff act of 1930 to clarify the definition of aircraft and the offenses penalized under the aviation smuggling provisions under that act, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. reichert, and the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, as a former sheriff, i rise in strong support of h.r. 3801 because it would address the increasing use of ultralight aircraft in the smuggling of contraband across our borders. we also move this bill today in honor of congresswoman gabrielle giffords, the sponsor of this bill. she ably represented arizona's eighth congressional district since being elected to the united states house of representatives in november of 2006. in fact, our offices were next door to each other when she first arrived in congress, and we had an opportunity to walk and talk and share some stories. i learned from her that she came to congress for the right reasons. she is concerned about her constituents and cares and loves this country deeply. so we got to know each other just a little bit. one of her foremost concerns has been the safety of her constituents. this bill is but one way in which she addressed those concerns. working together with her good friend and tireless colleague, representative flake. i'm delighted that we can move this bipartisan bill. we look forward to the day when gabrielle fully recovers. the use of ultralights which are small, slow, highly maneuverable, single seat recreation air vehicles is a proven way to smuggle contraband. these planes fly at a very low altitude, and do not even have to land. they simply drop their bundles of contraband at a predestined point and fly back undetected. a sheriff in new mexico was quoted as saying that we need the ability to detect smugglersers' flights before they cross the border to track them and give us a good indication of where the dropping -- where they are dropping their contraband so we can preposition our response teams. this legislation provides the tools to stop these smugglers from using ultralight aircraft. first, the bill adds ultralights to the definition of aircraft for purposes of smuggling, and stiffens the penalties for using this type of aircraft to smuggle contraband. secondly, it enhances the ability of u.s. customs and border protection to detect, track, and halt illicit trafficking across the international borders between the united states and mexico and the united states and canada by calling for a collaborative effort between the department of defense, customs, and border protection. for these reasons i'm in favor of expanding our abilities to combat smuggling and support this bill. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: i rise very much so in support of the ultralight aircraft smuggling prevention act of 2012. it's concurrent resolutionly important in two respects. -- it's crucially important in two respkts. it's clear we need to act, it's important of itself. every year hundreds of these aircrafts are flown across our borders. they are carrying drugs. smugglers favor them because they are hard to detect. they are inexpensive. and they can often avoid radar detection. and so the problem is that under current law, under current law immigration and customs enforcement, i.c.e., and the prosecutors don't have the authority to charge the users, these offenders with the existing statute. and so they can seek the higher penalties or lower the burden of proof. this bill, and this is the second significants -- significance, it was introduced by representative gabby giffords, and it would close this loophole. so i think for all of us colleagues and friends this is a special moment. this legislation was characteristic of the devotion, the dedication, the hard work of representative giffords. representing so ably the people of her district, the people of her state, and the people of our entire nation. gabby giffords has been a spectacular star in the congressional galaxy. and we say as friends with love and affection we know that that star will continue to shine brightly and it will inspire us all. gabby giffords will be sorely missed, with you the example of her dedication -- but the example of her dedication, of her vitality and her courage, all of this has set an example that i think hopefully will lead us to undertake our duties with the same devotion as she has given to her work here and at home. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, i understand that their side may have some additional speakers. we have one additional speaker. would yield to mr. levin to continue with further speakers on his side. mr. levin: thank you, the gentleman from washington. it's my pleasure now to yield to another distinguished gentleman from the state of washington, a member of our committee, distinguished member of our committee, mr. mcdermott. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time will the gentleman be recognized? mr. levin: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. mcdermott: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcdermott: mr. speaker, i urge members to support h.r. 3801, which is the ultralight aircraft smuggling prevention act of 2012. this bill as you have heard will help prevent drug smuggling across our borders and it does it really in three ways. it amends the current law to give our prosecutors the authority to charge smugglers who fly ultralight aircraft in the same way as they charge smugglers who fly conventional aircraft. second, the bill adds both an attempt and a, quote, conspiracy provision to the aviation smuggling law. that means our prosecutors will be able to seek higher penalties when it makes sense. and finally, the bill directs the defense department and the department of homeland security to collaborate in defying equipment and technology that could be used by our customs officials to detect these aircraft. this is a common sense piece of legislation that address as real problem and in a way that deserves broad bipartisan support. very similar bill passed the congress -- passed the house in the last congress by a vote of 412-3. so this is a broad bipartisan bill. i expect this bill to pass with the same kind of bipartisan support today. what's unique about it is that it comes on the day when gabby giffords is going to resign from the congress, the woman who brought this bill to the floor. i want to congratulate her not only on this important piece of legislation but for the impressive record she developed over the five years that she was representing the eighth district of arizona. we all know gabby's spirit well. she has an office down the hall from me and i occasionally walk from office over here in the times when we came over to vote and got to know her on a newman basis, and she is truly a wonderful woman. and we will miss her. she had a bright future before her here. and it's sad to us that she's leaving, but it's important for her to take care of herself. i'm a physician, a psychiatrist, and i have seen cases like hers in the past, and know that the possibilities for rehabilitation are very good. but it takes time. and running political campaigns and doing the kinds of things that you have to do in this business doesn't give you much time to take care of yourself. so we want gabby to go home and take care of herself and return to her highest level of ability because she has much to offer the people of the state of arizona and her husband and the country. so it's with a great deal of sadness that we say goodbye to her, but on the other hand we are very happy for her. and we very much urge everyone to vote for this bill. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, at this time i'd like to yield to the gentleman from arizona, mr. flake, and also take a moment to recognize him for his continuing efforts and doinged determination to ensure the safety of our country's borders. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time is the gentleman is recognized? mr. reichert: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. flake: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise today in support of this legislation. it's been described it will help, it is needed on the border to close this loophole. to make sure we can better protect that border. i also want to pay tribute at this time to my friend and colleague, gabby giffords, for bringing this bill forward. for her work on this over the years. i have traveled to the border many times and meet with those property holders there. particularly the ranchers. that she knows so well, that she has worked with over the years to develop legislation like this and the other legislation and initiatives she has pushed to make sure that we have a secure border. she met with these groups and then committed to have conference calls routinely to make sure that she was hearing their concerns. and she did so. over a long period of time. and i can tell you those who reside at the border, those who live there, who have property there, who work there, who have been there for generations, appreciation so deeply the work that she has done over these years. i want to pay tribute also to her family, especially her good husband, mark, for these difficult and challenging year for supporting her and for making sure that she had what she needed and that she is recovering. what a wonderful story they have together and will continue to have. and also want to pay tribute to gabby giffords' wonderful staff. this has been a challenging year for them. and they have done everything possible to ensure that the people in the eighth district have received the representation that they deserve. they have worked long hours under difficult circumstances and made sure those constituents were well served. i was down in sierra vista earlier this week and -- last week and spoke to many of her constituents who recognize the efforts of gabby and her good staff in this difficult time. we of the arizona delegation will miss her in congress deeply. we are so appreciative of the service that she has rendered and we know that she will continue to serve whether in the future as an elected office or whatever capacity she will continue to serve the good people of arizona and this country. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. reichert: i continue to reserve, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve his time. the gentleman from -- mr. levin: it's now my privilege to yield three minutes to a gentleman who has been very much involved in issues relating to this bill, mr. reyes of texas, three minutes. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. reyes: like my friend and colleague from washington, i, too, rise in support of this legislation, h.r. 3801, as a former federal law enforcement officer, retired border patrol agent, border patrol chief who had the opportunity as a co-chair of the border caucus to work very closely with gabby giffords. and it's a real privilege to be able to support this piece of legislation which, as my colleague from washington mentioned, has previously passed the house and it's my understanding has already passed the senate. so i urge all my colleagues to support it. i, too, would like to pay tribute to gabby giffords because not only did i get a chance to work with her on border issues as members of the border caucus but also as members of the interparliamentary group and wanted to make sure that we know that we're not counting out gabby. i think those of us that know her, those of us that have had the privilege of working with her understand that she is determined to make a full recovery. we all will miss her but we certainly agree with the decision she has made along with her husband, mark, and her family that she needs to take some time to fully recover. so we haven't seen the last of gabby giffords, i believe. i think whatever the future holds for her she has made this a better place because of her work, because of her thirst to seek out the facts. this piece of legislation is just one indicator of the work that she has done on behalf of not just her constituents and not just her state but work done on behalf of our nation to keep us safe, especially post -9/11. so i hope today we have a unanimous vote of support for legislation that, yes, is needed because i've been on the border with our border patrol agents and i.c.e. agents and have seen some of these ultra lights that this legislation addresses. but more than that, because we have to continue the fight against these drug cartels and these drug trafficking organizations. so i urge all the members to vote yes and wish gabby and her family well and proud to have worked with her. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: i have no additional speakers and i continue to reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield two minutes to the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentleman from michigan, and i thank the manager of the bill and rise today to support h.r. 3801. i serve on the homeland security committee and know the importance of emphasizing, utilizing resources in a partnership and in fact passing a law, an authorization for that. we all know there's a firewall between a civilian government and its department of defense, and that's why i think this bill is particularly astute and particularly important, authored by our friend, gabby giffords. i thank her for her thoughtfulness, to ensure that as we put assets together we have the act of law to ensure that it is properly done. as a member of a border state or a resident of a border state, having been to the border many times, having walked the border from california to texas, having been on the border at night, having been on the border with the customs and border patrol, i can see what these assets can do to help stop the scourge of drug cartels and drug trafficking and certainly make sure that those who come into this country come in for the right reason. but i also had the privilege of serving as part of the region that we are associated with in the structure of this congress and served on the steering and policy committee with our friend. i consider her a gift that keeps on giving to this nation, and i really do believe that as she per sues her own health issues -- pursues her own health issues, as she continues to espouse those issues that she did when she was here, i think america is a great country and she's an example of that and her husband, mark, who served so well in exploring our universe. we in houston owe her a debt of gratitude for you could not imagine the love and affection of houstonians who never met congresswoman giffords as she healed in our community. and so i would just like to -- mr. levin: an additional 15 seconds. ms. jackson lee: so i'd like to say thank you to her and wish her well. she is an american hero because of the courage and certainly we acknowledge those who lost their lives and those who were wounded on that tragic day but what a symbol that this congresswoman represents, this american represents to all who seek a better place. i ask our colleagues to enthusiastically support h.r. 3801. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: still no additional members seeking time. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i guess we'll wrap up. i do show as i look about and think of this institution, it sometimes can be quite impersonal. i think for all of us today this is a very personal moment, and i think all of us join in saluting gabby and mark. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: i thank you, mr. speaker. i keep my closing statement short. this obviously is an important bill to this country, for our nation's security and is especially important on this day when our good friend, gabrielle giffords, has presented her resignation. i urge all members to join me in support of this bill, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3801. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill -- the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess for a period of less than 15 minutes. >> u.s. house going into brief recess after debating what will be the last piece of legislation of gabby giffords of arizona. over the weekend she announced on her facebook page she is stepping down as a member of congress. she was in the audience last night for the state of the union and today this final piece of legislation dealing with the definition of all to light aircraft used in smuggling among the border between the u.s. and mexico. we expect a vote on that bill coming up shortly, in the next 50 minutes or so, and also more tributes likely to continue as gabrielle giffords resigned effective today from the u.s. house. live coverage when the house cavils backed in here on c-span. -- gavels back in here on c- span. >> i do believe that the west, for all of its historical short comings, and i in scathing in my book and this gushing the shortcomings because they have to be admitted -- for all of these shortcomings of the west still today represents the most acceptable and workable universally political culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global superpower. how to restore its status. from former national security adviser on his strategic vision, saturday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern. also on book tv, in "the new vichy syndrome" says europeans do not care about anything besides their own economic security. and tonight at 10:00, the new privacy is no privacy. how your rights are being eroded by social networks. book tv, every weekend on c- span2. >> for more resources in the presidential race, use c-span's campaign 2012 website to watch videos of the candidates on the campaign trail, see what the candidates have said on issues important to you, and read the latest from candidates, political reporters, and people like you on social media sites. >> a few moments ago, the speaker pro tem said the house would gavel out for a period of less than 15 minutes. while we wait for that, we will bring you a portion of this morning's "washington journal." attention to mitt romney's taxes. marty sullivan host: marty sullivan -- his taxes, about 500 pages, at our website. what did you learn? guest: there really are no surprises from what we knew. we knew that mr. romney was a very wealthy individual. we knew he was paying a lower effective tax rate and that turns out to be true. there were no smoking guns that we can see in, anything that is inappropriate or overly aggressive. we think it is setting the stage for the upcoming campaign. it illustrates a lot of the issues that we will be seen discussed this year in the election and next year when tax reform becomes the main issue. host: let me give everybody a sense of what it looks like when you go on to the c-span.org website or the mitt romney campaign. he release these yesterday at 7:00 in the morning. the story in the new york times saying that if nothing else, they indicate just how complicated the u.s. tax code is. guest: 2010 return, that was just as federal return. he had state returns as well. yes, it does illustrate a lot of the problems or issues that are in the tax code and the complexity comes out when you see that 203 page return. host: many share you the first sentences of this new york times story. mitt romney and his wife made $27 million in 2010, held millions in a swiss bank account and millions more in partnerships and the cayman islands. as you indicated, nothing illegal, nothing wrong, based on what he released over the last 24 hours, but a lot of questions about where some of the money was stored and also the u.s. tax cut issue. guest: that is right. the cayman islands issue in the swiss issue grabbed headlines because there were problems with swiss bank accounts and offshore accounts in the caymans. but there is nothing to indicate that there has been innovation or even aggressive tax avoidance. for example, that came in corporations related to his holdings in bain capital, those are very common tax framing devices used by universities and pension funds. they basically allowed them to -- these tax-exempt entities, to invest in these active businesses. they are circumventing a u.s. tax rule that is really an artifact of a lot that really is not that central. in fact, this rule, if mr. romney was not allowed to do this type of tax planning, congress would probably change the rules anyway. there is no smoking gun here. just because there is a cayman islands account. host: but when you see the ads of offshore accounts, swiss accounts, cayman island accounts, will this come back to hurt him? guest: i do not think so. there are a lot of problems in other contexts and i have done research on that. but the more that you look at this, you will see that there is really no problems in this case. he has paid his taxes on these accounts, just as if they were >> we will take you back to the u.s. house. yeas and nays. h.r. 3801 by the yeas and nays. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from ohio, mr. johnson, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1022 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 110, h.r. 1022, a bill to authorize the secretary of the interior to conduct a study of alternatives for commemorating and interpreting the role of the buffalo soldiers in the early years of the national parks and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record the votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] th congressional district since being elected to the united states house of representatives in november of 2006. in fact, our offices were next door to each other when she first arrived in congress, and we had an opportunity to walk and talk and share some stories. i learned from her that she came to congress for the right reasons. she is concerned about her constituents and cares and loves this country deeply. so we got to know each other just a little bit. one of her foremost concerns has been the safety of her constituents. this bill is but one way in which she addressed those concerns. working together with her good friend and tireless colleague, representative flake. i'm delighted that we can move this bipartisan bill. we look forward to the day when gabrielle fully recovers. the use of ultralights which are small, slow, highly maneuverable, single seat recreation air vehicles is a proven way to smuggle contraband. these planes fly at a very low altitude, and do not even have to land. they simply drop their bundles of contraband at a predestined point and fly back undetected. a sheriff in new mexico was quoted as saying that we need the ability to detect smugglersers' flights before they cross the border to track them and give us a good indication of where the dropping -- where they are dropping their contraband so we can preposition our response teams. this legislation provides the tools to stop these smugglers from using ultralight aircraft. first, the bill adds ultralights to the definition of aircraft for purposes of smuggling, and stiffens the penalties for using this type of aircraft to smuggle contraband. secondly, it enhances the ability of u.s. customs and border protection to detect, track, and halt illicit trafficking across the international borders between the united states and mexico and the united states and canada by calling for a collaborative effort between the department of defense, customs, and border protection. for these reasons i'm in favor of expanding our abilities to combat smuggling and support this bill. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: i rise very much so in support of the ultralight aircraft smuggling prevention act of 2012. it's concurrent resolutionly important in two respects. -- it's crucially important in two respkts. it's clear we need to act, it's important of itself. every year hundreds of these aircrafts are flown across our borders. they are carrying drugs. smugglers favor them because they are hard to detect. they are inexpensive. and they can often avoid radar detection. and so the problem is that under current law, under current law immigration and customs enforcement, i.c.e., and the prosecutors don't have the authority to charge the users, these offenders with the existing statute. and so they can seek the higher penalties or lower the burden of proof. this bill, and this is the second significants -- significance, it was introduced by representative gabby giffords, and it would close this loophole. so i think for all of us colleagues and friends this is a special moment. this legislation was characteristic of the devotion, the dedication, the hard work of representative giffords. representing so ably the people of her district, the people of her state, and the people of our entire nation. gabby giffords has been a spectacular star in the congressional galaxy. and we say as friends with love and affection we know that that star will continue to shine brightly and it will inspire us all. gabby giffords will be sorely missed, with you the example of her dedication -- but the example of her dedication, of her vitality and her courage, all of this has set an example that i think hopefully will lead us to undertake our duties with the same devotion as she has given to her work here and at home. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, i understand that their side may have some additional speakers. we have one additional speaker. would yield to mr. levin to continue with further speakers on his side. mr. levin: thank you, the gentleman from washington. it's my pleasure now to yield to another distinguished gentleman from the state of washington, a member of our committee, distinguished member of our committee, mr. mcdermott. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time will the gentleman be recognized? mr. levin: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. mcdermott: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcdermott: mr. speaker, i urge members to support h.r. 3801, which is the ultralight aircraft smuggling prevention act of 2012. this bill as you have heard will help prevent drug smuggling across our borders and it does it really in three ways. it amends the current law to give our prosecutors the authority to charge smugglers who fly ultralight aircraft in the same way as they charge smugglers who fly conventional aircraft. second, the bill adds both an attempt and a, quote, conspiracy provision to the aviation smuggling law. that means our prosecutors will be able to seek higher penalties when it makes sense. and finally, the bill directs the defense department and the department of homeland security to collaborate in defying equipment and technology that could be used by our customs officials to detect these aircraft. this is a common sense piece of legislation that address as real problem and in a way that deserves broad bipartisan support. very similar bill passed the congress -- passed the house in the last congress by a vote of 412-3. so this is a broad bipartisan bill. i expect this bill to pass with the same kind of bipartisan support today. what's unique about it is that it comes on the day when gabby giffords is going to resign from the congress, the woman who brought this bill to the floor. i want to congratulate her not only on this important piece of legislation but for the impressive record she developed over the five years that she was representing the eighth district of arizona. we all know gabby's spirit well. she has an office down the hall from me and i occasionally walk from office over here in the times when we came over to vote and got to know her on a newman basis, and she is truly a wonderful woman. and we will miss her. she had a bright future before her here. and it's sad to us that she's leaving, but it's important for her to take care of herself. i'm a physician, a psychiatrist, and i have seen cases like hers in the past, and know that the possibilities for rehabilitation are very good. but it takes time. and running political campaigns and doing the kinds of things that you have to do in this business doesn't give you much time to take care of yourself. so we want gabby to go home and take care of herself and return to her highest level of ability because she has much to offer the people of the state of arizona and her husband and the country. so it's with a great deal of sadness that we say goodbye to her, but on the other hand we are very happy for

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