mr. mr. scalise: as we are dealing with the debate over the debt limit, one thing has become clear as people have followed over the last few weeks is that washington has a spending problem. regardless of the resolution of today's action in the house and senate, i hope nobody thinks that this is the end of this debate. frankly this is just the beginning of the debate to finally cut spending in washington and put real controls in place. i think as we look over the next few months we need to continue to push for a balanced budget amendment to our constitution. because ultimately that's the kind of accountability that we need to ensure that we change the culture of spending in washington. clearly tax cuts will not solve this problem. they will only make matters worse, but if the problem is spending, why would you want to send even more money up to washington to let them spend more? we got to control spending. we got to start making cuts today. but we ultimately need that accountability that comes

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i'd like to express my appreciation to my colleague for her great spirit of bipartisanship. with that i'd like to yield a minute and half to my good friend from stan stathen island, mr. grim. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york voiced for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. grimm: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to ensure that the voices of those that i represent in staten island and brooklyn are hed. and what they have to say is actually quite simple. they expect of us to use common sense, to bring solutions to problems that this nation faces. and the problem that we face is not a debt ceiling problem, it's a debt problem. d the people on staten island and brooklyn, every day they go home and they have to figure out how to manage their househo. they go to work and they have to figure out how to manage their small businesses. and you do that with common sense. that's what they ask of us. you cannot spend money you don't have. you cannot continue

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i feel very honored to follow my good friend and classmate, the distinguished democratic whip, as we talk about this compromise and where we are. now, mr. speaker, saving social security and medicare is a priority that i believe both political parties share. contrary to much of what has been put out there, this is something that is addressed in this measure. we're going to be able to save social security and medicare. again, working together in a bipartisan way. creating jobs, democts and republicans alike talk about that. how is it that we're going to be able to do that? getting our fiscal house in order. it's a very, very important step in our quest to ensure that the people who are hurting and looking for jobs will have an opportunity to get them. sending a positive signal the global market that we are the world's economic military and geopolitical leader by increasing the debt ceilinger with sending a positive signal that we are going to continue meeting our obligations a

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 384, i call up s. 365 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro teore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 365, an act to make thnical amendment to the education, sciences reform act of 2002. the speaker pro tempore: the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in house report 112-190 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debatable for one hour with 30 minutes equally divide and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules, 15 minutes equal request divided ancontrolled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means and 15 minutes quelly divide and controlled by the chair -- equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member by the committee on budget. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. dreier. house will be in order. members, please take combingses from the floor

mr. andrews: mr. speaker, what brings us together as a -- is a need to create jobs for the american people. and i think people would agree there's three things we need to do to create jobs. the first is not fall off a cliff and have a default on our national obligations. this bill accomplishes that. the second thing is to make sure we have an interest rate environment so that our businesses and entrepreneurs can create jobs, so they have some predictability. by making a 25% to 30% down payment on reducing our deficit in a fair and equitable way, this bill does that. and finally i think most of us adepree that we need investments in our education, research and development, infrastructure, other activities to create jobs in our private sector for our people. by making sure that at least in the first two years of this agreement that the reductions in those areas are either nonexistent or moderate, i think that we give ourselves the freedom so our appropriators can put valuable investments forward in that

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myse one minute to say to my rules committee colleague that timand time again he criticizes the tax cuts that have been put into place. they really are the bush-obama tax cuts because we all know last december president obama signed an extension of those. i think it's important for us to look at the 2003 revenue flow and rook at what happened just few short years later in 2007. in 2003, mr. speaker, we had $1,562,000,000,000 in -- excuse me $1,782,00000,000 in revenues to the deral treasury. in 2007 after those tax cuts were put into place we had $2, 567,000,000,000 in revenues. that was a $587 billion increase, a 44% increase in the take that the federal government had because of the implementation of those cuts. it's important to recognize that if we can grow the economy we can generate an increase in the flows of revenue to the federal treasury. i'm proud to yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from ohio, mr. latourette. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman

mr. camp: mr. speaker, if the congress does not act and act now, america will default and that wld wreak havoc on our economy and make it harder for americans to find and keep a job in an already weak economy. default cannot be an option and i am pleased that the bill before us ensures that will not occur. just as default would threaten the economic health of this country, so would increasing taxes. raising taxes on families and job creators would hinder investment, incolleague the cost of doing business and -- increase the cost of doing business and result in even less hiring and fewer jobs. that's the wrong direction when we're struggling with an unemployment rate of 9.2% and 14 million americans looking for work. the good news is that the legislation before us recognizes these basic facts, it avoid a default, it makes sure that the government pays our bills and it does not increase taxes. and though some have argued the new joint select committee on deficit reduction could pave the way for tax i

mr. chairman and i think you for your opening comments especially. in the strength of that and the clarity of what we are working with. this is a very personal issue to me, and i appreciate the witnesses being here today and holding this hearing. and i mentioned earlier on another hearing that had direct contact with two very, very close, very close family friends who experienced the ugonda and kampala bombing. one who miraculously was scared by being in between the bomb and five other bodies or five bodies in between him. and my to close friends spent the remainder of the night the next day identifying bodies. and then ultimately finding out several of my personal friends, some of being muslim, and kampala ugonda were victims there and no longer because of all chabot. and then hearing subsequent days al-shabaab come out and apologize to the ugonda that they were killed because their purpose was to kill whites in america. so it's a personal issue to me. so i appreciate you being here talk

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, could i ask you to try and get order in the house? the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. members, please take your conversations off the floor. . the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. dreier: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 384, i call up s. 365 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 365, an act to make a technical amendment to the education, sciences reform act of 2002. the speaker pro tempore: the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in house report 112-190 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debatable for one hour with 30 minutes equally divide and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules, 15 minutes equal request divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the commi

mr. lazard to read the spirits of officer suguitan. >> on saturday generate 23, 2010 at 1721 hours, ms. johnson phoned the police to report that her roommate, mr. smith, was suffering from psychological problems, had been drinking, and was taking medication. in her request for the police, this johnson indicated mr. smith was not known to carry weapons and that she wanted vice from officers on how to deal with mr. smith. she needed assistance based on his behavior. officers brodericks suguitan and samuel fung arrived at the scene within four minutes. officer suguitan and fung were met by the woman outside of her porch. officer suguitan observed at the front door of the residence was open and stepped inside. officer suguitan noticed mr. smith and mr. rios, an additional roommate, were standing face to face having a conversation. both men were approximately 7 feet in front of officer suguitan. officer suguitan looked at both men and stated, how are you doing, we are here to help. mr. smith a

mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair at this time will recognize for special order speeches without precedent -- prejudice to the ability of further legislative business. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: permission granted. mr. poe: mr. speaker, this was a good day and one of the reasons it's a good day is because gabby giffords is back. mr. speaker, she is one of the best things in this congress. to me she came back tonight, cast her vote, the first vote since her -- since she was attacked and she is the perfect example of bipartisanship. i've had the privilege to work with her on the issue of border security and while she was in the hospital recovering in my hometown of houston, texas, her staff in arizona hosted me so i could go down to

mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, september 6, following disposition of the nomination of pwer niece donald, the senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on calendar number 87, h.r. 1249, further that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the following environments and public works bills en bloc: calendar number 72, calendar number 117. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: it's my understanding that you have granted consent for me to move to those two numbered matters. the presiding officer: that is correct. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the bills be read a third time passed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, any relevant statements be printed in the record as if read. the presiding offi

mr. conrad: mr. president, i have two unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous coent these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. conrad: mr. president, i rise today to discuss the agreement that has been reached between leaders in the senate and the house, republicans and democrats, and the president of the united states with resct to an extension of the debt limit and certain deficit-reduction steps to be taken in conjunction with that action. mr. president, i want to remind colleagues that if we fail to act, most economists believe we would face an interest rate spike and for everyon percentable point increase in interest rates, we would add $1.3 trillion to deficits and debt over ten years. mr. president, if there was only a 200 basis point increase, that would wipe out all of the ficit reduction that

mr. vice chairman? >> thanks, madame chair. mr. olsen, let me carry that question one step further because obviously it is a very, very serious issue when you have a member of congress who thinks that he has been misled so i want you to have the opportunity to explain and i want to quote to you what congressman wolf's recollection of the scenario was in the memorandum that he prepared within the last couple of weeks. i know you had the opportunity to look at it. here is what he says. he said it has recently come to my attention that i was misled about the status of the transfer of the knees in april, to those inclined to read the information confirms the newsweek report the federal employees were explicitly directed to hide the information from the members of congress especially republican members. during an april 22nd, 2009 meeting in my office with members of the guantanamo bay detainee review task force including mr. olsen, i inquired about the status of the potential transfer of uighurs detainee's to the united states. mr. olse

mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i have not wanted to pursue this issue because the debt ceiling issue has absorbed all of the air in the room and in the united states, as it should. it's a huge priority. but i have to set the record straight a little bit about how this came about. first of all, let me say, i agree with the house position. i would reverse the n.m.b. decision because i think it's wrong. however, what happened here is that after 20 extensions of the f.a.a. bill because of disagreements on several issues, the house decided to put this one -- well, actually, to be honest, the house didn't even bring up n.m.b., they put another issue on the extension language and it's the essential air service language, which we have been trying to negotiate but have not yet come to a full agreement among all of the parties. but it's really the n.m.b. issue that is causing the house to shut down the f.a.a. so the entire f.a.a. -- not the air traffic controllers, thank goodness, but 3,492 employees of the f.a.a.

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 384, i call up s. 365 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 365, an act to make a technical amendment to the education, sciences reform act of 2002. the speaker pro tempore: the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in house report 112-190 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debatable for one hour with 30 minutes equally divide and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules, 15 minutes equal request divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means and 15 minutes quelly divide and controlled by the chair -- equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member by the committee on budget. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. dreier. house will be in order. members, please take combingses from t

mr. fleming? >> mr. chairman, i would just ask the organization to take into consideration unintended consequences such as the data collection requirements that maybe in theory are of interest and helpful to the organization, however, be burdensome for us small businesses that have to comply with the new regulations to provide the data. >> i'll give a different answer as you might have guessed. if the two most important things are number one that the

mrs. boxer: mr. president, i rise -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum. mrs. boxer: i would note that we would remove that quorum, if we could, by unanimous consent. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you. mr. president, i rise because we have a crisis on our hands with the f.a.a. f.a.a., the federal aviation administration. and i know exactly why we have this crisis. it's another made-up crisis by the republicans. this is a republican shutdown. we just got past the most -- well, i feel -- made-up crisis we've ever seen. 89 times we've passed a debt limit extension, and it took us weeks of -- and months of wrangling to get it done, finally got it done. i'm glad we got it done. unnecessary -- people in my state panicked that they wouldn't get a social security check. small businesses saying they couldn't get a decent loan. all that for nothing. we can do our work. we can take the ideas of, mr. president, your gang of six, senator coburn's -- we can have the ideas on the table. we can do this. we did it when bill clinton was president. w

mr. hop kips, small -- mr. hopkins, small servicers like your bank haven't been caught up in the problems that large servicers have. is that just due to your size, or do you believe that there are other factors? >> i think that it starts up front. i think we had strict underwriting standards and always held the standards. we were not offering the exotic products that are creating the problems with the foreclosures now. we didn't believe in the products, therefore we didn't offer the products, so because servicing is a very low margin business, we felt it was important to have a good quality portfolio, so we were always conscious about gorped writing and -- underwriting our own up front. i think it starts with the underwriting. we keep our loans in house and therefore concerned about what we put in our portfolio. >> mr. hop kin, mortgage origin nation, there has been significant consolidation in the mortgage servicing industry and the largest banks now service the majority of the loans in the country. have borro

mr. bihi and mr. bledsoe, a colleague on the other side referred to you as not expert -- your testimony is not expert testimony. and i think the word she used to describe your experiences was interesting. mr. bihi, mr. bledsoe, take a shot at that. what you both have gone through is interesting, the word you'd describe it? >> no, i use to describe it as a tragedy. i'd also like to say the person who was speaking on the other side, i'm wondering how did they get on the commission to speak about some of the things they're speaking about? [laughter] >> we're not talking about how much of professional or expert. we're speaking about what happened here to our children and what we're speaking about what may happen to your children. we're speaking about the danger. i think most of the people that are here on the other side are talking about political fear. and that's what i mostly hear here. there is -- now, there are a population of a small population that we're talking about that is islamic extremists who

mr. bishop: mr. chairman, i also yield to the gentleman from michigan, mr. kildee. killed kill mr. speaker, i'd like to take this -- mr. kildee: mr. speaker, i'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the pages for what they have done here in the 112th congress. to become a page, mr. speaker, these young people have proven themselves to be academically qualified. as we all know, the job of a congressional page is not an easy one. along with being away from home, the pages must possess the maturity to balance competing demands with their time and energy. you pages have witnessed the house debate, issues of war and peace, hunger and poverty, justice and civil rights. you have lived through history. and before yielding, mr. speaker, i would like to thank the members of the house page board who provided such fantastic service to this institution. the chairman, congressman rob bishop, the vice chairman, congresswoman diana degette, congresswoman virginia foxx, clerk of the house karen haas, sergeant at arms bill livinggood, and mrs. lynn silversmith kline. i want t

mr. speaker, there is much in this plan i don't like. we did not succeed in shutting down special-interest taxopholeh loopholes that add hundreds of billions of dollars to our our cit. republican colleagues refuse to cut the subsidies for big companies, they refuse to cut the others and now we are going to have anow we great debate abw to grow the economy and reduce our long-term deficit. will be a debate about the national priorities. i ho i hope we will support the balanced approach.hat ththe president hase called foi limited time.me, one that refuses to put greateru burdens on medicare beneficiaries in order to provide greater tax breaks top rthe wealthiest americans and it the coming months our republican colleagues will be given theg t ollowing test. protect will they choose to protect sp toecial-interest tax breaks ove investments necessary to keep the nation strong and secure ani find a willingness to pay for the national defense rather than put it on the creditthan put ca? and let

thank you, mr. schmidt, for doing that for us. in addition, mr. pll schwab donated $25,000 worth of graphic artwork design. this banner is made for this occasion only. we will give out free posters of this design today and that will be available for you. we also have half a dozen city guides here today to do commemorative tours of the tower the you can ask any question you have, no matter how esoteric, and they'll be able to answer it. also we will have jail productions, down here, to perform ragtime music. also, again, lots of history going on today, mitch morea zachaim, the author of the most influential book every written about coit tower, this book here, you have a rare opportunity to meet the author today and obtain a copy if you would like. this copy is for madame speaker. >> oh, thank you very much. >> judy irving, the producer and direct -- director of the document orie paris on telegraph hill, is here today and you can meet here. also we have arts and crafts. you can make a commemorative coit tower button. there is food in the back. all t

mr. duffy that the department is to do something with the permit and can provoke it. i am satisfied with that. >> if you choose to overturn the department, the pilot would have -- >> my concern about this is that this would be the one-year statute that they cannot be applied. it seems cleaner since we have heard from mr. duffy then they need to do something with the apartment. i don't know if that is agreeable to the other commissioners? >> i will make a motion. >> might give the permit holder an opportunity to speak. >> certainly. >> my comment is that it is not our intention to do any more work than is permitted. there is a separate permit under this application for the heaters in unit 358. there is at least one other permit that has been pulled under this application. we have been working within the rules, even though the application itself might be broad. i'm committed to make sure the paperwork is right. it is our belief that the work itself has been done under the permit has been pe

mr. hoyer with make it in america, mr. clyburn with the suggestions he had especially in terms of rural america, ms. delauro on the infrastructure banks issue, i want to mention we have a bill on china with over 170 already signatures to a discharge petition on that bill which as our whip said has already passed the house in a bipartisan way. and now we want it to come up again. what mr. israel said, this is not only about creating jobs, it's about developing small businessmen and -- small business in an entrepreneurial way, in a way that take peoples from survival in terms of do they have jobs but to success in that they are job creators and transforming our country to where people are back to where they were before the last 10 years with the financial crisis and deep deficits, where they know they'll be successful and they're willing to take risks and we can lead the way and continue to be number one. it's about innovation, as steny said, we'll out-innovate, out-educate and outbuild and america will continue to be number

mr. franks: let he me yield to mr. duncan. upping mr. duncan: i thank you for talking about america living within its means. we are $14.3 trillion in debt. and the legislation we passed this evening, it's no residing over in the senate, includes what i think is the most important language within that legislation and that is a vote on a balanced budget amendment. i'm a small brings owner for 16 years and when i did my budget i had to think what my revenues were going to be for the coming yoor and had to set a budget based on that. i couldn't hope there was ag money tree and i continue spending money that i didn't have. the americans have been engaged in this process of the debt ceiling debate and we are urging them to get involved in this process of a balanced budget amendment. once that requirement and that amendment does pass both the house of representatives and the nunes senate, it will be sent to the states to be ratified. at that point in time, americans will be able to rally their state legislatures, their general assem bliss to ta

mr. conrad: mr. president, i have two unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. conrad: mr. president, i rise today to discuss the agreement that has been reached between leaders in the senate and the house, republicans and democrats, and the president of the united states with respect to an extension of the debt limit and certain deficit-reduction steps to be taken in conjunction with that action. mr. president, i want to remind colleagues that if we fail to act, most economists believe we would face an interest rate spike and for everyone percentable point increase in interest rates, we would add $1.3 trillion to deficits and debt over ten years. mr. president, if there was only a 200 basis point increase, that would wipe out all of the deficit reductio

mr. altmire? >> no further questions. >> thank you for coming down to capitol hill and testifying today on this very important manner. with that, committee's adjourn. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the senate negligence committee took up the -- the organization charged with gathering and analyzing counterterrorism intelligence. before going the nsa, matthew olsen directed the task force overseeing the administration's detainees at the guantanamo bay. a vote is not expected until the senate returns from its august recess. this is an hour and 35 minutes. >> the hearing will come to order. the process will be as follows. i'll make remarks, the vice chairman makes remarks, and then we'll call on the distinguished senator from south dakota for remarks, and then we will proceed. i trust that is agreeable with everybody. the committee meets today to consider the president's nomination of matt olsen to be the director of the national counterterror

mr president am i correct to assume that the way you see it that visit by the u.s. secretary of state was meant to urge president saakashvili into war. no i don't think so the united states is a very large country headed by pragmatic people but in politics connotations a nuance is a very important there was a time once back when i was head of the presidential administration when i paid a visit to the white house and met with none other than condi rice and the then head of the president's executive office and at some point we were joined by george w. bush he simply walked in in a common casual manner like hey hello and the first thing he told me was you know misha really is a great guy i said to him mr president i don't know i've never met him maybe i will one day. unfortunately his words have proved to be darkly prophetic mind you know those were the very first words i heard from george bush during our personal meeting. as it is i don't believe the american said georgia's president to invade but i do believe that there were certain subtleties and certain hints made

mr. dreier. >> the house will be in order. members please take conversations from the floor. members in the rear of the chamber please take your conversations from thee ta floo. [inaudible conversations] the >> thank you very much mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent all members have five legislative days the measure before is. >> without objection. >> mr. speaker i yield myself such time measu ask unanimous consent to revise my remarks. mr. speaker, at this moment, we aree beginning debate on a measure which i believe will finally send a signal to job creators in this country and in the global marketplace that we are finally, finally getting serious about getting our fiscal order.n we know that we are dealing with a very sad night -- 9.2% of employment rate in this country. we know that there are people. hurting. we all have constituents who have lost their homes, people who have lost their jobs, people who have lost their businesses,e people are a hurting. it is absolutely imperative th

the neighborhood associations have not had a chance to meet with mr. aowen. mr. feldman has not sat down and met with him. when patrisha was meeting with him, they met casually but did not have a meeting. also, our office has never been contacted and as commissioner joseph stated, the past owner created a serious situation for the neighborhood. and past owners created serious situations for the neighborhood. it is a bone of contention and neighborhood outreach, a good neighborhood outreach is what is required when moving forward. i would note that given the fact that we are discussing the board of supervisors limited life permit, may be an accessory use is more appropriate for this location. that needs to be discussed also. my boss would love to discuss what mr. owens sees for this location. it is important to the neighborhood. i was in mr. caen's office, concerned about what happened there. i have not heard anything since. eight months later and all of a sudden this comes up. we want an opportunity to work with mr. owens and make sure those type of activities do

mr. sessions: mr. president, we just passed legislation that would raise the debt ceiling and as a part of that was an effort to reverse the debt trajectory we are on, but it can only be called at best a first step. i think pretty much we could all agree on that. indeed, there was an article in the "financial times" about professors rogoff and reinhart who've written a book that's gotten a great deal of attention. it's widely respected. describing and analyzing sovereign debt, national countries who've gone -- which have gone bankrupt around the world. and their comments were it's -- much of what occurred in our debate is like those other nations. we -- the other nations scramble around when the pressure's on with something like a debt ceiling and they don't really change anything significantly but they meet the crisis and tell everybody everything's okay. and they say in this article in the "financial times" everything's not okay. indeed, the debt will increase over the next ten years approximately $1

mr. foster during the health care debate? i think he was hardly ever heard from at all and it was really kind, i found it kind of almost somewhat -- a little bit --. . . to additional scrutiny. the funding support seems to be questionable from year to year. can you comment on that? >> that is the kind of question our public trustees have often and put it aside as a former member of the medicare advisory commission. it is still true after the reforms medicare advantage plans are being paid more than it would cost the government if their members were participating in a fee-for-service medicare. a level playing field is the right way to go unless you can show convincing evidence that the outcomes that are associated with medicare advantage plans are superior. then we would have properly a national debate whether excess payments for additional bonuses through the medicare advantage plan should come out of lower performing services. >> mark, why don't you have the last word? >> the last panel

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the the senator from kentucky. mr. mcconnell: over the past few weeks congress has been engaged in a very important debate. it may have been messy, it might have appeared to some like their government wasn't working, but in fact the opposite was true. the push and pull americans saw in washington these past few weeks was not gridlock. it was the will of the people working itself out and a political system that was never meant to be pretty. you see, one reason america isn't already facing the kind of crisis we see in europe is that presidents and majority parties here can't just bring about change on a dime. as much as they might like to from time to time. that's what checks and balances is all about. and that's the kind of balance americans voted for in november. the american people sent a wave of new lawmakers to congress in last november's election with a very clear mandate: to put our nation's fiscal house in order. those of us who'd been fighting the big-government policies of democratic majorities in congress welc

mr. durbin: amen. mr. mccain: number two is that to insist, to insist that any agreement is based on the passage through the united states senate of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution of the united states, as i said before, is not fair to the american people because, because the terrible obstructionists on this side of the aisle, the terrible people, their flawed philosophical views about the future of america is not going to allow to us get 20 additional votes from your side, assuming that you get all 47 since it requires 67 votes to pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. so i think it was not only wrong assessment, continuing's not fair to the american people to -- i think it's not fair to the american people to say we can pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution through the senate at this time. now maybe after the senator is defeated in the next election and we get rid of a lot of -- maybe that will happen. but certainly let's not tell the american people that tha