Kevin McCarthy

Mr. McCARTHY of California

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman talks about the three committees, Ways and Means, the Energy and Commerce and the Education and Labor, and that bill that they took up was 3200. And you say there might be some other debate. Just to remind the gentleman, that bill didn't take effect, the actions within health care, until 2014, but the taxes and the Medicare cuts took effect next year. So I just want to stress the point that we have 72 hours in making sure, in business time, that people can see it. The gentleman says it is going to change, and you have public out there, and the public has knowledge of H.R. 3200, that they can be able to see whatever changes. So very cognizant of not being someone running the clock late at night while people are sleeping, I understand time difference. I come from California. But the most open transparency we could would really be one that would bring respect back to this House. I thank the gentleman for talking about that. I do have another thing I would like to talk to the gentleman about. You always hear rumors. That's what's nice to have this colloquy, to try to make sure we get them, if they are right or if they are wrong. I have heard rumors during the week of a plan to attach that D.C. voting bill that we all know about to the Department of Defense appropriation conference report. That would be of concern to me because it would be showing a propensity to use our men and women in uniform to carry controversial legislation, much like a debate we had last week. So my question to you is, when do you expect this conference report to come to the floor? And the second part would be, will it include the D.C. voting bill as rumored? I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I yield.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman. I do agree with the gentleman that the public has been very aware of this bill. The gentleman is saying that the majority of this bill is going to be the same as H.R. 3200, but you may change the number, and knowing that the public has----

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Gladly.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I'll just ask the gentleman, knowing the size that this bill will be, one, to make sure that we have a scoring; two, the amount that the American public has been engaged in this process from the town hall meetings that many people have had and the knowledge of what they have in going forward and knowing the changes that have been talked about; but three, not from a Republican side or Democrat side, but truly, when I sat and listened to the town hall meetings, one of the frustrations they had with this House--I know people think process is wrong--is the transparency. And I applaud you for telling us the 72 hours. I would just ask the majority to be cognizant of what happens if you start the clock at 5 o'clock in the morning, you start the clock at 3 o'clock in the morning, the public has a real concern about that, and we would as well.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for that. The only thing I would follow up to that and ask, knowing some of the behavior on some of the other bills and some of the concerns that people had of when they were posted--some posted at 3 o'clock in the morning when the Rules Committee filed when it came to Energy and Commerce and the cap-and-trade bill--when you count the 72 hours, would this be like business hours? Like, if it's late into the night, can we wait until the morning so people will have the ability to start the clock? I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman. I just want to make sure I heard correctly. You will wait until the bill is scored and you will allow 72 hours for the public to also be able to view and read the bill; is that correct?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I thank the majority leader for that information. And knowing from time to time we do this, in watching the colloquy that you do with our whip, Mr. Cantor, I know last week you told him not to expect the health care bill on the floor until the last week in October at the earliest. Do you still think this is the case, the last week of October?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland, the majority leader, for the purpose of announcing next week's schedule.

Mr. McCARTHY of California

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank my dear friend. Mr. Speaker, as I sit and listen to this debate, I have many colleagues on the other side that happen to be in the majority. They not only show it in committee by the number of one on one side and fewer on the other, but they show it when the bills come to the floor. The idea that the power of the idea would win at the end of the day doesn't happen here. They go to the Rules Committee and they deny an amendment to even come forward. They do a colloquy on the other side to talk about bills that have been brought up. I would like to see a colloquy that talked about the bills that have been denied. I come from the Central Valley, where unemployment is double digit. Some cities have 40 percent unemployment. But I don't hear the colloquy from my friends on the other side of the aisle to talk about H.R. 3105, the Turn the Pumps on Act. You have 200 billion gallons a year being denied to the Central Valley. The party in power shows where their desire is to go, to deny the valley the ability to grow, to deny the valley the ability to go create jobs. I want to remind my friends on the other side of the aisle when we had the Rules debate of a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He once said, the Nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself. The pumps are off, the pipes are dry, the land is no longer able to produce, so the soil is being destroyed. But it does not have to stay that way. Man-made droughts can change. And what the debate today is about and what the passion you feel from this side is, it is not a partisan passion. This is a passion of Independents, a passion of Democrats and a passion of Republicans, that you allow the bills to come to the floor. I listened to a colleague on the other side of the aisle say, well, these bills will fail. Well, bring them here. You have the power. You have the majority. Do not deny them. Do not deny the amendments. Let the people who have the power of the idea win at the end of the day. When you talk about a bill that will produce 2.6 billion gallons a year, but you deny bills that provide 200 billion gallons this year for the Central Valley, no longer do you talk of the valley feeding the world; you talk of the valley being dry. You look at the rallies that are being created and you look at the faces in the rallies. They are a microcosm of America, from every walk of life. They come there with one sign, ``Turn the pumps on,'' and that is our message today. That is our message with this bill, that we have the power to make the decision to get the water pumping again.

Mr. McCARTHY of California

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank my friend from Florida. As I listen to my colleague from California, I rise opposed to this rule. You cannot bring water to California when you bring another closed rule to the floor. You cannot bring debate to the floor when you don't allow amendments. Madam Speaker, the people of the Central Valley are being crushed with record unemployment from a man-made drought, from 14 percent to over 40 percent. Plain and simple, the majority that runs this House is failing to fix this problem. Jobs are being lost because the pumps were shut off. At a time of crisis, when there is no excuse for partisanship, some appear to be playing partisan games at the expense of people's livelihoods. Instead of coming together as Republicans, Democrats and Independents, the solution to get the water flowing sits behind post office bills and this bill that would recycle water for use in San Francisco Bay. I ask this simple question: why are we failing to take up a needed bill to turn the pumps on to get the water flowing again? This is not a liberal, conservative or moderate issue. This is a commonsense issue. Madam Speaker, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said the Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Well, the pumps are off, the pipes are dry, the land is no longer able to produce, and the soil is being destroyed. How do you bring water to California with a closed rule? How do you sit on this floor and say you are bringing all these bills up for water but you deny the Valley, you deny the breadbasket and you deny the ability for the pumps to be turned on? I ask for a ``no'' vote on the rule.

Mr. McCARTHY of California

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the gentleman's willingness to work together. And knowing that with the stimulus the President said unemployment would not go above 8.5, and now it's 9.7, and sitting on Financial Services listening to Mr. Bernanke saying that it will continue to rise, would your side of the aisle be willing to work with us so we could reprogram the money in the stimulus to actually be job creation or help pay down this national debt so our country could actually be stronger? Do you see any future ability of making that happen? I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, when the President first got elected, this side of the aisle invited him to our conference and we sat down and had a discussion about which direction the stimulus bill should go. We actually had a very honest debate. This side of the aisle wanted to focus on job creation. Our focus was about small business. That's where 79 percent of the jobs are created. And the President said, Well, why don't you write out a bill and bring out some ideas? So a number of us worked together, a lot of hours, a lot of nights, crafting legislation. And we put this together, and we actually sat down and said, You can't just write down legislation; you need to score it. The idea is for the American people to know what this would cost and how many jobs would it create. And as we put that scoring together, do you know it created twice as many jobs with half the amount of money in the stimulus bill? And we handed that to the President. Unfortunately, it did not get into the bill. And the President said that it was more important on the time of when the stimulus bill passed, and not what was in it; he said if the bill was passed now, unemployment would not go above 8.5 percent. Well, I don't need a CBO study to understand that's not true. It's now at 9.7. And I think the American people want us to work together to create jobs, not to sit here and somehow celebrate the idea that only 21,000 jobs were lost. We need to be able to work together and celebrate a million new jobs created. We have legislation that allows it, that focuses on small business, focuses on job creation. And I look forward that this Congress could come together.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I'm glad to yield to the gentleman.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, the gentleman is correct. The bipartisan vote for the stimulus bill was a ``no'' vote. A number of people on the other side of the aisle also saw that that bill would not hold us to only 8.5 percent unemployment, that there was a better way, a better idea. The one thing I would always ask the gentleman and those on the other side, bipartisanship means the power of the idea wins at the end of the day. So when a paper is presented that shows it creates twice as many jobs with half the cost, the pride in ownership should not be there. We should allow the American people to actually win, that jobs being created is a much better place for America. And when that is presented again, which we will always gladly do, to sit here and work with you, because we want to put people before politics. We want to create an America that is strong, and we want to leave America not in debt. So as we move forward, I would always challenge everybody on this floor: The amount of the national debt that is accumulating in this administration is unheard of, and we have to make sure, this generation that's going before us, that we leave an America better off than we were before.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. It's to the end of George Bush's term.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I would be glad to yield.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if the President only slashes it in half, it's still the highest deficit that we have ever had. I am one who likes to look forward. I may have only been here 3 years, but the one thing I have seen, if you take the entire history since the creation of this country, there have been 44 administrations. If you just take the first 43, from George Washington to George Bush, and you add up all the amount of debt that was accumulating, and that's from the creation of this country to our battles with Britain, to World War I, to the Depression, to World War II, Katrina, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, the creation of a highway system, it is equal to the amount of debt that is going to be doubled. That is something that cannot be maintained. That is something that cannot be happening. The way to get out of it, you have to control your spending and you have to create jobs. That's why the power of the idea needs to win at the end of the day. So we will continue to come up with the ideas. We will continue to try to work in a bipartisan manner, and we will continue to hand them to you. But the only thing I ask of you is when you see something that would create twice as many jobs with half the cost, let's put people before politics, let's put America first, and let's move forward to the future.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York for the purpose of announcing next week's schedule.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, according to Politico, the Speaker announced at your caucus meeting on Wednesday that she intends to have the final version of the Democrat health care bill drafted by the end of next week. My question is: Was the Speaker's statement accurate? And do we expect floor action on the health care bill in the House?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Was the Speaker correct? Do we think it is going to be brought to the floor or ready by next week?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Will the bill be drafted by next week so people on the other side could actually see it?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Well, I thank the gentleman for his answer. Earlier this week on Monday, our Republican whip, Eric Cantor, held a bipartisan town hall on health care with Democrat Bobby Scott, both of Richmond, Virginia, showing bipartisan action. Following the town hall, the majority leader on your side told the media that he would like to meet and discuss health care reform with us, and we have expressed our willingness to meet with him. But we have not been asked by the majority leader yet. Do you believe that we will be at any time soon, so that our leader can continue to carry on that bipartisan conversation? I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. We look forward to that. Being one of the signatures early on in this health care discussion to a letter that the leadership on this side sent to the President saying that we were willing, able and wanting to sit down to discuss health care, we're still waiting for the President to allow us to have that discussion in a bipartisan manner. I do believe that the work that our Republican whip, Eric Cantor, and Congressman Bobby Scott on your side of the aisle, that the bipartisanship that they showed down there was very positive. We look to your majority leader coming forward and following up and having that discussion with our leader.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman. I would like to know from one standpoint early on and within here as we look across America and we look at the jobless and the idea that we want to create jobs here, many on this side of the aisle worked very hard on a stimulus bill that focused on small business, where 79 percent of all jobs are created. We wanted to focus on job creation. We presented that to the President. Unfortunately, that did not get put into the stimulus. But the President told us that unemployment would not rise above 8.5 percent if we passed the Democrats' stimulus. Since the signing of the stimulus bill, Americans have lost another 2.5 million jobs and unemployment is now at 9.7, much higher than what the President said it would be. Will this House bring any legislation next week to help create jobs? I yield.