Teachers, their police officers, firefighters and others. And yet with all that was done, all the acts of cow mission with agreement, ionplus we couldnt help the people of puerto rico by simply putting them in the same place to restructuring provisions in a manner that would give them the opportunity without a single cent of taxpayer expense to be in a better place . People of puerto rico participate in the military, die in foreign conflicts of the United States of america at a rate higher than those in the 50 states, yet theyre compensated from a medicaid reimbursement andpoint around 40 or 50 less. We dont have time to go through how policy set here in the United States congress has devastated the people of puerto rico economically for the last few decades. But it does seem to me we can find some way to deal with this issue. We found a way to give away billions and billions of dollars to Big Oil Companies as it relates to lifting the prohibition on the export of crude oil. But we couldnt find a way to help the hardworking people of puerto rico. Shame on us here in the United States congress. Now lastly, its my understanding that the speaker who i take to be a man of his word, said we are going to deal with this issue in the next 90 days. Heres the problem. On january 1, theres a significant amount of money that puerto rico owes that it cannot pay. And so the island cant wait until march 31 for the congress to try to work this out. The promissory note is not good enough. And as an africanamerican member of congress im reminded of a speech that dr. King gave in 1963 right outside these halls on the national mall. He talked about the fact that the magnificent words of the constitution and declaration of independence was a glorious promissory note. We hold these truths torn selfevident and all men are created equal endowed by their creator the ability to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But that century after century and decade after decade, that promise other note was handed over to the Africanamerican Community as a stamp, insufficient funds. I cant with any degree of confidence suggest that we can credibly say to the people of puerto rico and to those individuals of puerto rican december ept that i represent back home in brooklyn and queens that this socalled promissory note issued is going to take any action 90plus days. I hope there is a measure of resolution before we ultimately vote on this omnibus bill to deal in good faith with the people of puerto rico, United States citizens, who deserve our attention. And i yield back. And i thank the distinguished gentlelady for this time. Mrs. Watson coleman will my colleague yield for a question . You spoke about the impact of the omission of puerto rico in the omnibus bill and what it does to the territory of puerto rico and the citizens that are there. My colleague has spoken eloquently as to the proportionality question in this omnibus bill in general that would not only negatively impact puerto rico, but puerto rican and other citizens here in the United States of america. Whole communities, workingclass families. And would my colleague just use a little bit of his time to talk about that issue of fairness and proportionality that i heard you so eloquently speak. Mr. Jeffries thank you. The big question that we face here earlier today, we voted on 600plusender package, billion dollars. None of it was paid for at least as it relates to what was done today. But i think reasonable people understand that because making a se tax breaks permanent in way where they were not paid for ultimately is going to blow a tremendous hole in the deficit and that as we move forward, the people who will pay for the tax cuts that were passed out of this house earlier today hundreds of billions of dollars, notwithstanding the earned income tax credit and the child care tax credit that of course many of us support, the people who will pay for it will be the poor, the sick, the afflicted, working families, those who need assistance and so in good conditions there is no way i could support the tax extender package and go back home and say we just did a good thing. As it relates to the omnibus, we all have to ask the question, if the plusup is somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 billion in additional spending, yet we understand in the tax extender package, hundreds of billions of llars were unpaid for over a 10year period and ultimately someone is going to pay the price for that, thats one of the reasons we got Something Like sequestration, we got jammed as a result of tax cuts , at were not paid for in 2001 a failed war in iraq, a failed war in afghanistan, none of that was paid for and ultimately we find ourselves in fiscal difficulty. Who pays . The most vulnerable in america. Thats how we got sequestration. Im not convinced were not going to find ourselveses in a similar situation Going Forward as a result of what was tone with this tax extender package today. Im in the process of continuing to review the omnibus bill and trying to weigh and balance the equities. I will tell you, though, that the failure to do something anywhere people of puerto rico is greatly troubling. Because it doesnt cost the taxpayers anything. And the fact that some of the programs of importance to urban america, whether thats historically black colleges and universities, may not have received the resources some of us think they deserve and got concerns as it relates to some of the foreclosure prevention issues and some other areas, were all going to have to take a look at the equities, but it is clear that we should be able to do much better. For the American People, for those that weve come to the congress to represent, for those who have disproportionately born the burden of reckless and irresponsible fiscal policies over the past decade or so, and lets just hope that we can proceed to do things differently in a way that benefits those we represent here in america. So i thank the distinguished gentlelady for her opportunities to speak further on this issue and also want to acknowledge my good friend, Keith Ellison who is a tremendous champion for working families across the country. Mrs. Watson coleman thank you, i appreciate that. Thank you to my colleague and friend, i appreciate your perspective from the proportionality issue. Whos going to pay . Were going to pay. Who is going to pay when the bill comes due . It is the working famries and most vulnerable. Lets not get so excited about the 30 billion increase when we realize weve been under sequestration, for what does that mean . I thank you very much for sharing your time with us. Now, mr. Speaker, id like to yield to my colleague from minnesota, congressman ellison. Mr. Ellison let me thank the gentlelady. I just want to say, youve done an awesome job holding down the progress i special order hour. Its been to the benefit of everyone who listens. So Bonnie Watson coleman, thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, its important for all of us involved in this debate and every american to understand a concept known as starve the beast. Its a conservative concept and what it really means, and i would like everybody just to be clear, what it means is that the conservative wing in our country wants to shrink the size of government where a Big Multinational Oil company will never have to worry about an e. P. A. Regulator because the government will have so little money, they wont have an e. P. A. Regulator. The starve the beast concept means that a big bank wont ever have to worry about a Bank Regulator saying, hey, mr. Banker, you cannot do that with the American Peoples money, you have to be fair, you have to be proper and right with the peoples money, because well shrink the government to be so small and so weak that there wont ever be that regulator who will say to the big banks, you cannot do that. Starve the beast means that the largest private sector elements in our country cannest tape accountability that the government provides through the people who inspect the water, the people who inspect the meat, the people who inspect the air quality the people who inspect these things. And when the Public Interest runs afoul of the private gain, the private gain will prevail because the public wont have the wherewithal and resources to say, no, or you have to readjust this, or you have to operate at a higher standard of quality or anything like that. How do you get this starve the beast strategy in play . E thing you do is you have unpaid for tax cuts and you get these tax cuts in place, theyre all good you say, isnt this great, dont you want to stop paying taxs . Who likes paying taxes . Nobody. So people say, ok, good, were going to get out of having to pay taxes, how nice. But then you dont pay for them. But then what happens to the budget . Youve got a big hole in the budget because the revenue you were counting on is not there. Now, then, you use the Public Relations to say that raising taxes is just the worst thing anyone could ever do at any time in their life. They say this three letter word of tax, its really a four letter word, ill let your imagination go from there. Then, because they have been raising they made raising revenue utterly radioactive, all we can do is cut. So what do we do . We cut Education Funding. We cut meals on wheels. We cut National Institute of health. We cut, we cut, we cut. All this stuff that ordinary citizens relie on. Until we get to the next round of tax cuts. By the way, when it comes to tax cuts and conservatives, if the economy is doing really well they need a tax cut. If its doing really bad, of course the solution to that is what . A tax cut. And if were just doing average, well, why not have a tax cut. Almost always unpaid for. And if you look at it over time, theres this pattern of irresponsible tax cuts, deficits, cuts to fix it, more tax cuts, deficits, more cuts to fix it, never do we raise the revenue we need in order to meet the needs of our society. Who gets hurt . Not the country club set. People who need their government to function on their behalf. People who drink water every day. Who need some inspection of it. People who eat like to breathe clean air. People who might want to eat some meat thats been inspected. People who might, suffering from a serious disease like alzheimers or parkinsons, who might need the National Institute of health to put forth a grant which will help. And so what does that all have to do with this discussion . Today, we just passed a bill that gave 600 billion worth of unpaid for tax cuts and made them permanent. We created a structural deficit even worse. Now, are they going to now theyre going to give it back a little bit, a little bit. We give away 600 billion. They give us 30 billion. Voila, were supposed to be happy about that. Theres a concept also known as stockholm syndrome. They cut your captor holds you in control and you and then they, after theyve held you a little while they give you a few little chips. Then they make you think when they give you even a little drop of water, that theyre so benevolent. I will never forget that we never should have had sequester in the first place. We never should have had sequester. We had a hostage taking situation here where republicans were literally threatening to default and renege on the full faith and credit of the United States by not by busting the debt ceiling. If we did not give them back all kinds of cuts and concessions, they would bust the debt ceiling. So then we entered into this deal where we had some cuts in the beginning and then with they did is, they said, were going to set up a special committee three republicans in the house, three republicans in the senate, three republicans in the three democrats in the house, three democrats in the senate. This committee was supposed to come up with some cuts, targeted cuts to reduce the deficit. Which they said then was the worst thing in the world to ever have a deficit. And then they got in that committee and instead of holding their pledge to protect and defend the United States, they upheld their pledge to not raise taxes to serb political figures in our landscape. The whole committee failed and this was contemplated that if this committee cannot come up with targeted cuts, then there will be across the board cuts on both sides, also known as sequester. You know what . That Committee Really never had a chance. I wish we would have known then that that committee was always a sucker deal. Because they were clicking clinking the champagne glasses when that committee fail. They knew it was going to be across the brd cuts. They said, its going to be domestic discretionary, which you liberals like, and theres going to be cuts to the military which u. S. Conservatives like, which is a gross overgeneralization and not exactly accurate, but what we never accounted for is that in 2001, the u. S. Military budget was already was about 290 billion. By the time we got to sequester, it was about 700 billion. They could stand some cuts but the programs that the average citizen needed that were going to be ravaged could not. So you know, no sooner than the sequester went into effect, we had people say, we cant do these military cuts, cant happen, wont happen. They had their friends and advocates even though theyve been getting fats for years. What about meals on wheels and Education Funding and Environmental Protection . That was attacked. So what does that mean about today . What it means about today is this. Things een more tax given away, i definitely think some of the things made permanent today are good tax treatments treatments. Im for research and development. Im certainly for child credit and eitc. But they should be paid for because if theyre not paid for theyre going to come out of another part of the budget next year. Tax d by the way, how come doesnt have to be paid for but anything regular people need must be paid for. Why do we have to find offsets for Unemployment Insurance but not things big business needs. Utter hypocrisy. I want to tell you, for the folks listening, that there is a very important thing that Speaker John Boehner said when the republicans took over a few years ago. He they came up with this big, ugly budget, to cut things americans relie on to prosper and grow and they said, we wouldnt pass their house file one system of mr. Boehner, Speaker Boehner said, if they wont take it one big leif loaf at a time, theyll take it one slice at a time. Boy if that promise is not being kept. We have to turn around and say no to this starve the beast philosophy. We have to turn it around and start meeting the needs of the American People. Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society. If you dont like taxes, move to so mall ark you wont have to pay any. Good luck. But in america, where we pay some taxes that pays for schools that pays for clean water, pays for highways, pays for police, pays for fire, weve got to stop and stand against this false claim that there is something wrong with taxation. Let me just wrap up on one point. The gentlelady, i know we have to move on, we have other great speakers i want to hear from myself, but i want to make one quick comment as i listen to my colleagues and prepare to take my seat and that is one of the things well be dealing with tomorrow. Now you know, we talk about this tax extender thing and the omnibus as if its two different things. Its one big thing. Thats truth. One of the elements of the omnibus tomorrow which is pretty ugly, is lifting the Oil Export Ban on crude oil. According to the Energy Information administration, lifting the ban will increase oil industry profits by more than 20 billion annually. The Big Companies that make all these extra profits, i think that they have their favorites in the house of representatives and not too many of them sit over here. Probably a lot of them sit over there. I will also say that it will cut refinery jobs, it will make us more dependent upon foreign oil and it will increase more fossil fuel. This is absolutely the wrong thing, the only virtue of it is that a small, tiny, select number of people are going to get 20 billion. And im disgusted by it. By the oil industrys own expectations that this will lead to more than 7,600 wells being drilled each year, more fossil fuel the largest report from the center for American Progress says it will result in an additional 500 metric tons of Carbon Pollution each year, egive lit to 108 million more passenger cars or 138 more coalfired power plants. It will cost jobs in refineries, it will do real damage to americans, but this is on the docket tomorrow. Are there good things on the docket tomorrow . Yes, there are. Ill leave it to other people to decide whether its worth toyota pass a monstrosity like this. So i will say, always know that sometimes when youre in the game, somebody else playing has an overall longterm strategy and if youre just playing minute to minute, you are going to be no match for them. Ection resolution 566. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 566, the question shall be divided among the two house amendments. Pursuant to section 2a of House Resolution 566, the portion of the divided question comprising the amendment specified in section 3b of House Resolution 566 shall be considered first. This portion shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means. The gentleman from texas, mr. Brady, and the gentleman from michigan, mr. Levin, each will ontrol 30 minutes. The house will be in order. Members will please remove their conversations from the house floor. He house will be in order. The chai