John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. And from Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mr. GARAMENDI. How about the view from Colorado?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Indeed, we do. If we're going to have the American Dream continue to be a reality, we've got lot of work to do. We've got to put the American people back to work, and we're going to have to deal with the deficit, and it will take us a while to do it. Mr. Courtney, you very well and eloquently pointed out how we got into the deficit. Please, your final thoughts.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. Let's move to the great State of Virginia, down in the tidewater country.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Jackson Lee, thank you so much. We have about 10 minutes left here, and I'd like to do lightning rounds. My colleagues, you've been so eloquent and have really brought these issues to bear, but why don't we all do a wrap--we'll do about a minute--and we'll just pass it around. Let's start with the great State of New York. So we'll go to the east coast first. Mr. Tonko.

Mr. GARAMENDI. And there's the voice from the central part of the heart of America from the great State of Ohio. We know that America can make it. This is still the greatest manufacturing center in the world, and part of our job agenda on the Democratic side is what we call Make It in America. The gentlewoman from Ohio very quickly pointed out several elements in that. I put this up while she was talking so we could think about it. Trade policy. We can't give away our jobs on trade policy. Taxes. We talked about the tax issues, corporations getting tax breaks for going offshore. Energy. We need energy security. We can't afford to continue to pay all of our hard-earned dollars to the petro-dictators of the world and the most dangerous places of the world. We need a domestic energy policy, a green energy policy, a clean energy policy, with the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of jobs there. Labor policies. We talked about educating our kids. Bobby Scott from Virginia talked about the cuts that are in the Republican budget when we need to educate, re-educate and prepare our labor force. Education. In this budget that they just put forward are tremendous cuts to the Pell Grants that allow kids to go to school. Research. Again, Bobby, you talked about the research cuts, and the infrastructure we've talked about several times. This is all part of our agenda. This is how we're going to build America, how the American Dream can become a reality once again by making the critical investments on the public side, bringing the private side along. I know that Texas likes to say everything is great in Texas, but I have talked to our colleague, Sheila Jackson Lee, many times we've talked to her on the floor, and it's not all perfect. Could you share with us the view from Texas?

Mr. GARAMENDI. There you have it. Our colleague from Ohio, if you could comment. We're going to do this kind of moving along more rapidly. We've got several different comments. Our colleague from Texas is back. Please, if you would, and then I'll turn to our colleague from Texas.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might, my good colleague from Virginia, on the floor today it was perfectly clear that the Republicans are refusing to even consider any increases in taxes or the elimination of tax breaks, on oil, on corporations that send jobs overseas, it's no. On the high end, the hedge fund managers that have a billion dollars of income, no, they're going to keep those tax breaks.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me for a second, if I might interrupt. One of the proposals coming from some of the Republicans was to sell America's assets. Do you suppose they intended to sell the U.S. Capitol?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me. You said that Arizona has a balanced budget amendment in their Constitution and somehow they balance their budget.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Earlier this afternoon before we started this 1-hour, one of our colleagues on the Republican side brought up a nice little picture of a woman balancing her budget, presumably at home, and a checkbook. She said that 40-some States have a balanced budget amendment, and they balance their budget. Earlier this afternoon, I was talking to my friend from the great State of Virginia, and he said: Let me share with you how one State balances their budget. I yield to Bobby Scott.

Mr. GARAMENDI. What took place here on the floor, Mr. Tonko, over the last couple of hours was really a charade. It was theater. It had no sense of reality. There is no way that piece of legislation is going to move forward. You said it so very well: It became more and more radical with each iteration over time. It seems as though there is a small group within the Republican Caucus that really doesn't want government at all. Almost an anarchist attitude about government is bad, get rid of it in every way. And then there is group in that same caucus that actually published a piece of paper, it came from the leadership, and one of the things that they said that they wanted to do was to bring down the President. Well, we have an election coming up, to be sure. But to use the full faith and credit of the United States, that is the honor and really the dignity, to say nothing of the financial strength of this Nation, to bring down the President seems to be unconscionable.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Perlmutter, you are so very correct. The American Dream, you laid it out there so well--job, family, home, ability to take care, kids off to school, good health care--the American Dream. When you get old, you've got Medicare, you have Social Security. That's really the foundation. However, what happened on this floor not more than an hour and a half ago will destroy that dream. Now, we have work to do; indeed, we do. And now I would like to turn to my friend and colleague on the floor, sometimes we call it the East Coast/West Coast show, my friend from New York, Mr. Paul Tonko.

Mr. GARAMENDI. It is about jobs. There are very few economists-- except maybe some that supported the proposal that the Republicans put together today--but nearly every economist in this Nation said the only way we will ever get this Nation back to a balanced budget is with full employment, putting people to work. And that is the Make it in America agenda. Let me now turn to Mr. Perlmutter from the great State of Colorado, who has some concepts and ideas he would like to share with us this evening.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. DeFazio, thank you very much. You clearly pointed out the dichotomy between the Democratic proposal, which is one of building and creating and putting together a society and an economy that actually works, and the Republicans seem to be just dismantling time after time. I would like now to turn to Congresswoman Betty Sutton, our colleague from the State of Ohio, who has seen the effect of the cuts and what they mean in her district. So, Ms. Sutton, if you would care to share with us your thoughts.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much. This evening I am going to be joined by several of my colleagues. And as they come to the microphone, let me just lay down some of the facts. Not more than an hour ago this Chamber voted on Speaker Boehner's proposal to deal with the debt limit. Very interesting comments that he made prior to the speech--and while I can't quote them precisely--he did say that his whole strategy started way back in January when he told the President that he was going to use the debt limit as a way of getting his way. Well, we saw what his way is, and that's what was voted on today without any support at all from the Democrats and a lot of Republicans saying that it was not the right way to go. So what did he propose? We have two very, very basic paths that are facing the American public today. One of those paths is a path that we voted on, which is a path to basically unravel most of the things that America holds dear. In order to carry out the caps and the $2.5 trillion in reductions that are in that legislation, we would have to decimate Medicare. There is no way it could possibly continue to provide the services to our seniors and similarly Medicaid, of which 70 percent of that money goes to seniors who are in nursing homes. And so those two critical parts of the foundation of the American society--that is providing health care to our seniors and the aged, blind, and disabled--are going to get unraveled as a result of the legislation that passed. Similarly, there is no way to meet those spending reductions without going after Social Security. The other path is one that we have suggested on the Democratic side, and we are going to spend some time talking about these two today, and that is the path that maintains these pillars of the society of America that basically express the values of our country, that our country is one that cares deeply about our citizens, whether they are aged, seniors who may need medical care and who need an income, Social Security and Medicare, or whether they are young children that need an education and those in between that need jobs. That's the path that the Democrats have offered in the budget that we put forth on this floor that we voted on, that was our recommendation on how to move forward. It failed without any Republican support, but it was a path that basically spoke to the values of this Nation that we have held dear for these many, many years. I would like to turn now to my colleagues here. I would like to start with my colleague from Oregon, Peter DeFazio. Peter, I know that you have some remarks that you would like to share with us this evening.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. A very interesting point in our progress here in America. There is a real difference in view, and we're in the process now of choosing which path this Nation will go. This is not about a deficit. This is about the very nature of America. It's about our heart and soul. Are we going to be a country that uses all of our resources, whether they are the public resources or the private resources, to fill the needs of our people--their education, their health care, their well-being after they retire--or are we going to go a different path and not use all of our potential? The Republican proposal that's before us--this is not the first-- would change America and really drive us back to the 19th century, a time in which the government did not have a social welfare program such as Social Security and Medicare. Make no doubt about this and have no doubts that the proposal before us is a very significant step towards ending Social Security and Medicare. If that's what the American people want, well, we shall see.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Heads up America. This isn't just about raising the debt limit; this is about fundamental change in all the things that we hold dear here in America. If you care about Medicare for your parents, or if you happen to be 65, pay attention to what's going to be on this floor in the next couple of hours. If you think Social Security is important to you or to your parents and to your future as the foundation for your pension, pay attention to what's going on here. Because have no doubts, America, that the Republican Party is putting forth, using the debt limit as a lever, putting in place fundamental changes in Medicare, basically looking to terminate Medicare as we know it, and changing Social Security so that it is no longer the foundation for your pensions. Heads up America. Watch carefully, because the Republican Party is going right at the very heart of the most stable and most important parts of every retiree's future. Pay attention. Pay attention. Because this is a critical moment.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I believe that's precisely what they're trying to do is tell the Secretary not to follow the law.

Mr. GARAMENDI. In fact, the Secretarial order does follow the law. It precisely follows the law.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from Washington and our colleague on the other side. It's useful to read the Secretarial order rather than all of the hullabaloo of what this is all about. The Secretarial order follows the law. It says that the BLM shall do an analysis as to the wilderness characteristics. That is in FLPMA; that's the law. And so it says that's what it's doing.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GARAMENDI. I think you're down to parsing words here. The study that was attempted to be undertaken by the Secretary was to study the lands for their wild land values. He obviously could not designate a wild land that doesn't exist. But that study could give us information that we would need to open land to more drilling or other purposes, or to hold it aside for scenic and other values. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.