Speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip each, to five minutes but in no event shall the debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer, for five minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you, mr. Speaker. We are here in the capitol awaiting decision by the republicans in the house about the next step to deal with the fiscal crisis they have created. Its not really that complicated. The monday deadline approaches to continue the operation of the federal government with a shutdown looming because the republicans have refused to work on a bipartisan basis to resolve the funding issues. The centerpiece of the rhetoric has been objection to the Affordable Care act and their childish insistence that a program thats been approved by congress, president obama reelected defending and validated by the Supreme Court that somehow this bell can be unrung. Billions have already been spent, hundreds of thousands of people are working to make the reform operational and it seems to be working. Better Prescription Drug benefits for Senior Citizens are putting more money in their pocket. Children under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents policies. Beginning tuesday enrollment starts for the exchanges, and on january 1, it goes live with Better Health insurance. People cant be refused insurance for preexisting conditions. There will be no lifetime limits on benefits. Health insurance will be more affordable with subsidies for millions and there will be more competition for all. These provisions are overwhelmingly supported by the American Public. The Health Insurance program will save billions of dollars for the federal government, reducing the deficit. Thats the judgment of the c. B. O. In fact, isnt it ironic that having campaigned against these Health Care Savings and losing, paul ryan and the republicans include those very savings in their budget . My republican friends are paralyzed in part because theyve adopted a draconian budget that actually requires savings in the very health plan they want to defund. Now, they claim to want to reduce government spending. Yet, they have refused to allow the house to vote on the spending bills their budget calls for. We have been waiting for two months to finish the transportation and housing spending bill. They got halfway through it on the floor of the house and they realized that their own members wouldnt vote for it because it was so awful and they stopped. They didnt even bother to bring the interior spending bill to the floor. Now, if their budgets are so bad that their own members wont vote for them, they shouldnt throw a tantrum, threaten to shut down the government or destabilize the Global Economy by playing games with the debt ceiling. If theyre afraid to have their own members vote on their spending bills, shouldnt they allow a Conference Committee between the house and the senate to resolve budget differences . Thats how the system is supposed to work. They whine the president wont negotiate with them. How is the president supposed to deal with people who are unwilling to face up to the consequences of their own irresponsible budgets or refuse to allow congress to work the process to establish a consensus budget by having a Conference Committee . How are democrats supposed to deal with republicans as they up the ante, seeking to damage the American People by cutting off Vital Services in a shutdown . How do you deal with republicans who are willing to default on paying americas debt, breaking our moral and legal obligations and risking not just americas but the worlds economy . Earth to my republican friends. America pays its bills. Always has, always will. It is the height of hypocrisy to blame this on the president , the Affordable Care act, or the democrats. We wait breathlessly to see if republicans can agree to have anything to be voted on today, but the American People should insist that if my republican friends are serious, they should bring their own budgets to the floor, allow the process to work to have a Conference Committee between the house and the senate to reconcile our differences. Then, we can act like grownups, not children throwing tantrums and we wouldnt need to threat the Global Economy over the debt ceiling. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Williams, for five minutes. Mr. Lliams thank you, speaker. Yesterday, the president yet again chose to bash congress and blame the House Republicans for the failure of americas economy. Ive seen him make this argument on Television Many times, but he never shows up on capitol hill to actually engage in productive conversations. He does talk, however, with the russians, the chinese and the iranians. This is no surprise. This is the same man who spends more time with hollywood stars than with members of congress. Its not congress that will shut our government down. Its our president. And i will argue that he already has shut the government down. Five years ago, unemployment was at 5 . The National Poverty rate was at 12. 5 and approximately 30 million americans received food stamps. Today, unemployment sits at 7. 6 , the poverty rate exceeds 15 and a staggering 47. 8 million americans are enrolled in the Food Stamp Program. And 48 Million People between the ages of 18 and 64 have not worked one day the last 12 months. The president s economic agenda is only pushing us further into danger and its a disaster. For more than four decades i have owned my business and i can say with certainty that todays economy is the toughest economy our country has seen from a Small Business standpoint. Everything from health care to taxes to regulations are killing businesses and forcing job creators to play defense. Rather than generating profits, business are saving profits. This isnt the sign of a rebounding economy. Despite this, in his public address to the nation, president obama said the economy has gained traction and continue to place the blame on congress. But the American People need to hear solutions, not sound bites. As a Small Business owner, i live it every single day. We need lower taxes. It means more income. More specifically, we need to cut taxes for all taxpayers across the board and quit picking winners and losers. The first step in doing this is cutting the Corporate Tax rate, the personal tax rate, the Capital Gains tax, the dividends tax and eliminate forever the inheritens tax. The next step is to begin a dialogue on whether we should move to a fair or a flat tax, either one of these is certainly better than what we have today. Second, we need to change health care policy. With the addition of obamacare, the government now comprises 1 6 of the nations economy. This is a complete travesty and the private sector must be given more control of health care, not the federal government. Consumers should be able to shop across statelines which creates more competition. As a result, premiums will go down and service goes up. Thats what competition does. The consumers will own their own health care, and it needs to be tax deductible. It needs to be portable so if you retire, lose your job or move around. Lets favor an allamerican approach father all sources of energy and let the private sector approach of all sources of energy and let the private sector do this. We need to advance safe nuclear and alternative energy sources. Let the private sector tell us where to go. Developing our Domestic Energy sources will undoubtedly Lower Energy Prices for families and businesses. We need to ensure america remains the worlds superpower with the strong and wellequipped military. Our men and women in uniform must have the best equipment, must have the best training to fight for our freedom and our liberty. It shouldnt even be an option to balance our nations books on the backs of our military. Doing so diminishes our militarys readiness and threatens our National Security and it simply shows weakness across the world. These are Real Solutions. They will allow businesses big and small to invest to take isks and they also will be rewarded. They need to know that federal government believes in people getting checks and lets everyone feel good about themselves. We should never accept 7. 6 as the normal level for unemployment. We should never accept a 15 poverty rate. We should never accept 2. 5 billion in free cell phones. We should never accept 15 underemployment. We should never accept 52 of our graduates not getting a job. And we should not accept an economy that creates more food stamps than jobs. Its time to wake up, america. Big government is taking a toll on our families, our businesses and our budgets. Lets get back to regular order in washington and start passing responsible budgets that give our nation muchneeded certainty and security. Business and families do it every single day. There is no question that america is the greatest country in the world. In the unforgettable words of abraham lincoln, america is the last step. Lets keep believing in the American People and not Big Government. And lets say goodbye to obamacare, the largest takeover of the people by the government that weve ever seen in our history. Its our generations valley forge. Lets be shepards and not sheeps and lets be patriots and not victims. In god we trust. Thank you very much. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. Tonko, for five minutes. Mr. Tonko thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i have one basic question. What are we doing here . I mean, just that. What are we really doing here . Each day we talk about problems, problems, the real problems that face our country, that are fixable with compromise and clearheaded solutions. And each day this chamber does nothing to overcome those challenges in front of us, and each day the American People think we cant sink any lower or be any more dysfunctional. Right now theres talk about passing a oneweek budget to simply provide the time for elected officials, people charged with running the government of this great nation of ours to get along for enough time to pass yet another extension. Say it isnt so. One week. There are lemonade stands with better budgeting practices than what weve seen in this body in the past two years. This is unacceptable. This is absurd, and this certainly is not what the American People deserve from any layer of government, especially their federal government. Lets get this done. Lets pass a budget, a budget that cuts where we can, that invests where we must, that grows jobs and ends the painful consequences of sequestration. The absolute misery here is that all of this dysfunction could have been avoided. We could have avoided the reach to yet another kicking of the can down the road if we would come together at the conference table and do a real budget. We could reach to a budget process. We could reach to regular order. I have requested with many of my colleagues, i have urged with them that the leadership in the house resort to naming the panelists who will sit at that conference table to realize regular order through a budget process, a real budget process. That request has been turned down time and time again. The statements made in the past were, well, the senate hasnt moved on a budget or we havent heard from this entity about what their plans are. Well, the truth be told, this year the senate, the United StatesSenate Passed its version of a budget. This house passed its version of a budget. The president and his administration have advanced their fiscal blueprints for the coming fiscal year. The entities have spoken. The process needs to be addressed and respected. We need to bring those panelists to the conference table, those that will represent republicans and democrats in the house of representatives and the United States senate to come to terms, to develop the compromise, the spirit by which our founding parents developed this wonderful blueprint of a republic guided by the democracy. Why are we rejecting that opportunity . A sound budget could allow us to escape the terrible consequences of sequestration. I have witnessed what that sequestration has meant in my own district. During our 5 1 2week district work period, i visited with many of those head start programs, with early intervention, with nutrition programs, with food banks that addressed the nutrition needs of people of this great nation. I have worked with the Small Business community to understand more fully what the impact of sequestration might mean to them. Cuts to research, programs that have furloughed my federal employees if given the opportunity to serve this nation through their work force. All of that consequential damage could be avoided if we could resort to the soundness of the tool called the budget. The sequestration issue is painful. Its a hidden attack, its mindless, thoughtless, and pervaded itself into the fabric of our communities into the quality of life of the people that place within us the trust to be their voice in washington. So we need to do better than this paralysis that has stalled the process, that finds us in the midnight hour searching for answers in the most unusual format that will resort to yet another kicking of the can down the road that will fuse the smoke and mirrors to balance the budget for some uncertain period of time that doesnt provide the predictibility to the Business Community or working families of this nation. The partnership with their government should be real. It should be stated in terms that allow for the respect of businesses to invest and hire and be productive. And so we have had a plan of attack coming from the democrats. Representative van hollen has introduced a plan that will reduce the deficit in greater fashion and avoid the painful cuts of the sequestration. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. Blackburn, for five minutes. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. Speaker. I want to begin my remarks to just make a couple of comments about the budget process. I think my colleagues could be a little bit confused on this. And i will remind my colleagues, it is this body that every single year meets our statutory duty and constitutional duty to ring forward a budget that funds the operations of the United States of america. We do not miss our deadlines. And this year we did it. I know that the white house did their sweet 16 bracket before they did their budget, but you know, we were still pleased to see that they were willing to participate in that process, and we were pleased that our friends in the senate for the first time in five years decided they would enter into the budget process. We were very disappointed, quite frankly, when they said they would not move to the conference table with us until we agreed to a tax increase. Now, that is what they want is an agreement to a tax increase in this kind of an economy with about 8 unemployment . With 20 million americans either un or underemployed, they want more taxes more control over peoples lives, we are not willing to do that, we are continuing to stand and fight for the American People, for responsible government, for getting this budget balanced within the next decade, and for getting this country back on the road to fiscal health. Now, i will also remind my colleagues that one of the things we continue to hear from this white house and this administration is that they want a Government Shutdown. Now, they try to blame us. We realize that, but i got to tell you i have a titanium backbone, let them blame, let them talk. Its fine. They want the government shut down and for my colleagues, i would direct their attention to the Congressional Research service for the summary of what happens in a Government Shutdown. Now, for the interest of my colleagues, mr. Speaker, i will just walkthrough some of the points. One of the reasons they want it is because the president wants control of the checkbook. Right now the u. S. House of representatives has that control and we want to keep it. We dont want a Government Shutdown. We want to keep the government open and keep cutting it. We want to keep the government open so we can delay, defund, repeal, and replace obamacare. And this budget process going into a shutdown gives control to the administrative branch. Theres another little tidbit when you read this circular, and it directs you to the 2011 revision of circular number a11. O. M. B. s current intrucks would have agency heads use the d. O. J. Opinions, department of justice. I can tell you the American People and a republicanled house do not want eric holder and ba