Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150202

Chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. 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 minority whip limited to five minutes. But in no event shall debate continue beyond 1 50 p. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Thompson, for five minutes. Mr. Thompson thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the 25 fund act of 1980 required 25 of the tax receipts from timber harvested from the u. S. National forest to be returned to the counties where the tax receipts originated. Since local property taxes cannot be leffveed on federal lands, these dollars along with payment in lufe taxes, or pit funding, are critical in National Forests and other federal lands. This is because the 1908 law specifies that they directly support local schools and road activities in National Forests. Unfortunately, timberg has dramatically decreased in the National Forest system since the late 1980s. According to the Forest Service the agency was annually harvesting over 12 billion board feet by the end of the 1980s, but today this amount has decreased to less than two billion board feet per year. Make no mistake activities such as removing unhealthy wood waste, and others play a fundamental roll in the core mission of the Forest Service and lends to forest health. Leading up to the turn of the century declining timber praugs has resulted in less Forest Management and decreased forest itself. Fewer local Employment Opportunities and dramatically less funding for schools and roads in forested communities. As a result, the secure Rural Schools Program was created in 2000 to help offset the lack of funding for local activities. Unfortunately the program was allowed to expire tend of september, 2015. Resulting in payments to counties reverting back to the previous law which again requires 25 of the tax receipts from timberg to be returned to the counties of origin. Earlier this month the u. S. Department of agriculture, the Parent Agency of the Forest Service announced 25 of the receipts will be paid to 41 states throughout the coming months in 2015. These funds are very much needed in Rural Communities located on federal lands, including thal gainey National Forest where four counties in northwestern pennsylvania directly benefit. While these funds amount to nearly 50 million nationally, they represent only 1 6 of the funds that were provided through the Previous Year through the secure trurel schools program. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the education and Work Force Committee and former School Board President , i can attest there is no School District in america that could have 94 of a funding stream pulled out from underneath them and still manage. Make no mistake, secure Rural Schools Program has gone a long way in helping communities bridge the financial shortfalls for the lack of taxable land over the past 15 years. But the program alone does not solve the underlying challenges faced by counties and communities colocated in National Forests and other federal lands. In order to ensure the longterm ecological sustainability and the Economic Prosperity of our National Forest and our local communities, the Forest Service must adhere to its Historical Mission of active Forest Management and Timber Harvesting for our nation. Mr. Speaker, let us not be confused, National Forests are not national parks. They are home to the peoples resources. We must encourage sustainable and increased production of the publics resources which directly support those communities that are colocated on federal lands. This will be a winwin for the country. The American People deserve as much. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from North Carolina, ms. Foxx, for five minutes. Ms. Foxx thank you, mr. Speaker. Today i rise to recognize Stacey Eggers jr. Of boone, North Carolina. On march 20, stationy will be 91 years old but he stacey will be the 1 years old but he hasnt let age slow him down one bit. He still goes daily to his office on west king street where he has been continually practicing law since 1950. Back then he was one of only four attorneys in the county. Stacey is one of the last attorneys in the state of North Carolina who did not attend law school. He was admitted by the North Carolina state bar to practice law on april 19, 1950, and eventually his law practice became a family affair. He formed the law firm eggers and eggers with his son Stacey Eggers iii in 1974, and later formed eggers eggers, and eggers when his daughter rebecca joined the practice. His grand son Stacey Eggers iv, who is known as four, joined the firm in 2001. His granddaughter inlaw, kimberly eggers, joined the firm in 2010. And another grandson, austin eggers, joined the firm in 2011. I think it bears repeating that stacey still goes to work every day at the age of 90. In fact, he tried a Property Rights case with grandsons four before a local jury at the age of 88. You rarely see that kind of dedication to ones profession anymore. In addition to his work and private practice, stacey has served as county attorney for wataga county as well as town attorney for blowing rock and seven devils. His service to the bar also includes terms as counselor of the North Carolina state bar for the 24th judicial district, president of the watauga Bar Association and president of the 24th judicial district Bar Association. Hes an active member of the North Carolina Bar Association where he served on the Client Security Fund board which helps reimburse individuals who have suffered financial loss as a result of the dishonest conduct of lawyers. In 1996, stacey was inducted into the North Carolina general practice hall of fame, and received the liberty bell award in 2008. The liberty bell award is given annually by the North Carolina Bar Associations Young Lawyers division to one individual who, quote, has strengthened the american system of freedom under law, end quote. Active in the local community, stacey has served as a member of the Watauga County Hospital Board of trustees, board of elections, the boone rotary club, the executive committee of the watauga republican party, the Boone Chamber of commerce, and the watauga savings and Loan Association board of directors. He also currently serves on the board for life store bank. Prior to his career as a lawyer, stacey served in the Army Air Corps during world war ii. When describing the experience to his children in later years he would say he received a personal invitation from the president to take an all expense paid world tour. He left on a transport out of charleston, south carolina, and by the time he arrived in los angeles at the end of the war, he served his country in locations across the globe, including after carks the mediterranean india, and other places. Hes a lifetime member and past commander of the American Legion and lifetime member and judge advocate of the veterans of foreign wars. Stacey raised four children with his loving and supportive wife of 56 years, elizabeth, who passed away in 2004. Hes blessed with eight grandson and three great grandsons, and has another great grandbaby on the way. His family is one of the most respected families in Watauga County. Stacey is a man of few words but great wisdom. He has tremendous insights into human nature, and his observations are well worth hearing. Watauga county is fortunate to call this hardworking citizen one of its own. I yield back, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from West Virginia, mr. Mooney, for five minutes. Mr. Mooney thank you, mr. Speaker. Its a great honor of addressing the nation as a newly elected representative for the people of West Virginias Second District. My name is alex mooney, and grew up in a home where the american ideal of the personal freedom and limited government were cherished. My mother was born and raised in cuba, where at age 21 she was thrown in jail for seven weeks as a political prisoner by the communist regime of fidel castro. After her release, she fled here to the United States where she was welcomed with open arms to restart her life in freedom. My father was a feisty irishman from new york, and a vietnam veteran. He was an ardent conservative and had great pride in leaders like ronald reagan. Through the hard work of my parents, my three siblings and i had the chance to live the american dream. My older brother, vincent, is a professor of Electrical Engineering at georgia tech. My younger brother, patrick, is a successful businessman. My younger sister, margarita, is a professor of sociology at Yale University where she conducts research on happiness virtues, and the common good. I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend Dartmouth College where i played football and rugby and graduated in 1993. In 2001, my father suffered a stroke and was dying. There was one doctor who was particularly compassionate in her efforts to comfort my family and me through that difficult time. She also happened to be very pretty. One year later that neurosurgeon, dr. Grace gonzalez, agreed to marry me. My wonderful wife and i have been blessed with three beautiful children. My son, lucas is 11. My daughter camille is 9, and we are pleasantly surprised on october 13 of last year with the third child, gabrielle. My wife and i have been doing the hard work of homeschooling our older children imparting on them an appreciation for the special place america holds in the world, just as my parents did for me. My parents also taught me personal responsibility enshrined in the constitution must always be protected. Their example showed me we must never cowher in the face of tyranny. Never give up on the god given rights we are entitled to, and never stop fighting for the american dream. They taught me the importance of serving one nation and community. I knew early in life i wanted an opportunity to fight for the values which have made our nation a beacon of freedom and prosperity around the world. As a young state senator, i fought for relief for hardworking taxpayers, for more personal responsibility, for the right to life of unborn babies, for a prosperous business climate, and to protect our Second Amendment rights. Last fall the people of the Second District of West Virginia afforded me the tremendous honor of representing them in congress. Our nation faces great challenges. Our president and his liberal allies on the left would see us lose the values which make us who we are. Lose the values my father fought for and my mother escaped despotism to enjoy. West virginia is blessed to be abundant in Natural Resources. I will fight so that West Virginians and all americans are able to seek prosperity from our natural bounty. I expect to spend much of my time at my home in charlestown and crossing the district listening to the citizens i serve. During my first week in office, i didnt wait to begin delivering on West Virginia priorities. I cosponsored legislation to gut onerous provisions of obamacare, to audit the federal reserve, and authorize construction of the keystone x. L. Pipeline. I also cosponsored Bipartisan Legislation to protect the unborn after 20 weeks when they are capable of feeling pain. I am fortunate to serve on the natural house Natural Resources committee, while focused on policies which contribute to the Energy Security of our nation and the expansion of our production here at home. Ive also been selected to serve on the important House Budget Committee where i will fight to fulfill my commitment for a balanced federal budget. It is totally unacceptable for West Virginians and all americans to live within their means while the federal government continues to allow its spending and debt to run rampant. We are a nation whose values are emulated around the world by people seeking freedom justice and constitutional selfgovernment defined by the rule of law. This legacy faces great challenges today and im proud to stand here on the floor of the United States congress vigilant in defense of our defining principles and West Virginia priorities. I yield back my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Poe, for five minutes. Mr. Poe mr. Speaker isis has beheaded yet another person. Just this morning we also learned that taliban assassins murdered nine people in afghanistan. A few months ago the taliban did a most vicious act of jihad. They attacked a school and murdered 150 children and their teachers in pakistan. And last week we learned that one of the taliban five that was unfortunately swapped by the president in exchange for beau has recently called his buddies in the group taliban. According to the White House Press secretary, and i quote, they do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. They do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda. Well, then why not call them terrorists . Why is the white house so timid and so intimidated by refusing to call the taliban terrorists . National review reports that Al Jazeera News Service has banned the terms islammists, jihad and terrorists from their reporting. Is the White House Press secretary getting political correct language and censored statement from al jazeera . Who knows . Even secretary kerry refuses correct language and to define the Foreign Terror Group isis as the Islamic State of iraq and syria. Mr. Speaker, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing september 18 entitled the isis threat weighing the obama administrations thoughts, i ask secretary kerry this question, who would you call them . Secretary kerry, well i would call them the enemy of islam, because thats what i think they are. And they certainly dont represent a state even though they try to claim to do so. So officially, mr. Kerry we should refer to them as the enemy of islam . Mr. Kerry, well i do. Mr. Speaker, this administration also refuses to say that we are at war with radical islam. There is so much sensitivity in the white house over statements one is puzzled to wonder why are they sensitive about calling terrorists terrorists. Radical islam is a cancer that is spreading throughout the world jihad preaches hate and murder in the name of religion. Even other World Leaders have publicly recognized this and called our enemy terrorists, but not the United States. The leader of the of religion. Free world dances around the topic instead of telling it like it is. Why does the administration refuse to define our enemy . We are at war with radical islam. We are at war with the taliban. We are at war with isis. And we are at war with terrorism and terrorists. And mr. Speaker, they are at war with us. Is the white house worried about hurting the feelings of radical terrorists who make it their mission to kill us by refusing to call them terrorists . We need to call them what they are, terrorists who kill in the name of radical islam. Political correctness and political jargon will not win this war. Americans and our military must have a clearly defined enemy, not some nebulous undefined name enemy that the white house advocates. The threat of islamic extremism has never been greater. Their mission is clear they are ruthless in pursuing it and to kill anyone who doesnt agree with them regardless of their religion. These killers are at war with america and humanity. We cannot defeat this enemy without first knowing who they are and then define them. Mr. Speaker, they are terrorists and thats just the way it is. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 12a members taking another reef break brief break. They will all gabble and again at 2 00 p. M. Three bills will be discussed today. One about social media. Tomorrow, members will speak on repealing the health care law. More on that from a capitol Hill Reporter. On tuesday the house again voting on repealing the Affordable Care act. The first vote in this congress but the 60th vote since you thousand 11. What can we expect . I think we can expect it to pass. When they say 60 votes on repeal, that is somewhat misleading in the sense that a number of the repeal votes have been to undo certain aspects of the law. There have not been as many that are full repeals. Either way obviously, this will be vetoed by president obama if it passes the senate and gets to his death. You have a lot of new members coming in who have not had a chance to vote against though on repealing obamacare. Nevertheless they ran and campaigned on repealing obamacare. This will give them the chance to vote against it. They will probably move on to other sorts of legislation. Host the way it has been written, not only repealing of what act, but it directs people to producing an alternative. Guest i get is necessary. I have a new book out, overcoming obamacare. The problem up until this point has been that there are fundamental differences among republicans on what the best type of alternative would be to obamacare. As a result of that, it has been easier to not release an alternative and then unify around repealing obamacare which everyone agrees on. However, as i argue my book, i think that that is shortsighted and misguided. If obamacare and other programs are able to go on autopilot, government would take a larger role in the u. S. Economy. Eventually, democrats will, when they are in charge again implement and even more topdown Government Run Health Care system. If republicans are to prevent that, they will have to present an alternative and start making the case for it. Also, i would add, there is a Supreme Court case coming up that is expected to be decided by june that has huge ramifications for obamacare. Depending on how that is decided , there could be a lot of pressure on the republicans to have some sort of six or alternative. This is the decision that could theoretically strip away federal Exchange Subsidies for millions of people. If that gets decided that way and republicans do not have an alternative to present, they will be forced potentially into trying to sign on to a socalled technical fix, that would actually further entrench and sign on to obamacare. That is why i think you see a number of things that are now forcing them to the realization that this may finally be the year to present an alternative. Host i want to follow up on the president s comments in just a minute. He spoke to House Democrats in philadelphia this week. But, first, what will paul and his committee propose . Guest it is unclear. Paul ryan, in the past, has signed on to various alternative health care plans. However, that was before obamacare. Obamacare has change the playing field. Now, republicans have to deal with the pressure of what to do with the people who have some sort benefit from obamacare. Regardless of the fact that there many losers from obamacare, there are also people who are getting Subsidized Health and churns. What you have among republicans is a divide amongst many issues. Such as, canada now be fully repealed . Does any sort of replacement have to account for the beneficiaries, whether it is some sort of transition a relief or is there another way to subsidize people to Purchase Health insurance . Another big question what budget baseline to use. This gets a little wonky, but as you know in washington, we have a way that the budget Congressional Office evaluates all proposals against the baseline of what taxes and spending would look like if those proposals were implemented. Now that obamacare is in the books, the question for republicans, who have opposed all the taxes and spending in that, is whether they wipe it all of the books and start from scratch, or if they work against the baseline that assumes that obamacare taxes and spending continue. If they do that, they can have some sort of alternative. However, it could be seen as a tax cut and spending reduction relative to obamacare. On that point, paul ryan said that he thinks that all the spending and taxes should be wiped off the book. If he sticks to that, it could affect what sort of alternative you can produce. Host i will have you respond to what the president said this last week in philadelphia. [video clip] the bottom line is this. We have to make sure continues to work. We should protect the progress were making. I hear republicans are holding their 50th or 60th vote to repeal the formal care act, i have lost track at this point. If that were to reach my desk, i would happily be to it. Host am again, another veto threat from the president. You can sense the frustration in his voice. Guest i think this is part of the strategy, and has to be part of the strategy for republicans going through and looking towards 2016. Republicans have to state what they are for. That is why think it is important to advance an alternative. What republicans have to do do if you look back to democrats as an example. When i took over the house and senate in 2000 2006 and bush controlled everything, what it did was to pass a live pieces of legislation that were popular. They made the case for them. Bushmeat of them. Then, when Hillary Clinton and obama, and all the democrats run the campaign trail, they were able to say, if you let even let a democratic president , we will be able to sign these pieces of legislation. Republicans need to do that. That is what they doing with keystone pipeline. I think they should do it with another a number of other issues. I think they should do it within a with an obamacare alternative you have to show people that you are not only opposing obamacare, but you have an idea on how to make the Health Care System better by giving more choices. The republicans talk about that a lot but they have not had people do not think a recent kaiser poll came out saying that the majority of americans do not think they have an alternative on health care. Even if obama vetoes it, they can take it to twice 16. We will have live coverage of that House Rules Committee tomorrow. It will be a 5 00 eastern on a companion network, cspan 3. With the sec focusing on Net Neutrality in february, we talked to two experts. Chris riley with mozilla and hank holquist with at t. At the end of the day, the internet needs strong enforceable rules. Including, nondiscrimination, no blocking, subject to reasonable management. They need to be effectively enforceable. The problem we have now is where the Net Neutrality issue has gone. It is focus on the fcc Legal Authority to adopt rules and what Jurisdictional Authority they should use. Our concern really is that they will undo but eventually a regulatory status that has existed for over a decade. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan 2. We have more of state of the state addresses for you. We had now to alaska from governor bill walker. [applause] thank you. President kevin meyer, speaker mike chennault, Lieutenant Governor, members of the legislator, members the cabinet and my fellow alaskans it is an honor to stand before you. Im humbled to serve alaska as your governor. You have my pledge that i will always put alaska first. I will forever be ready to work with anyone who shares my values. Tonight, i deliver the state of the state address. This is a rare privilege to which i oh so much of my family. I want to begin by recognizing my first lady of 37 years, and now alaskas first lady, donna walker. [applause] as all of you who have met her know, she is one amazing and smart lady who truly has a service heart. I also want to introduce two of our four children, our daughter lindsay, and our son jordan. [applause] next, i want to recognize my friend and alaskas Lieutenant Governor, byron melodic moloch. I also once to recognize his bride of 42 years, tony. Donna and i treasure our friendship with you both and your entire family. I also want to thank the cochairs of our transition team. [applause] i want to thank them for all of their hard work. Hundreds of alaskans contributed to our and mistress and transition process. Alaska the Lieutenant Governor and i have found refuse our profound gratitude. Im committed to creating a more collaborative approach to solving alaskas problems. Now that we are in office, byron and i have made a few changes. Traditionally, the Lieutenant Governors office is on the far end of the third floor. Now, he has an office right next to mine. He has a standing invitation my calendar is open to him, and he has a standing invitation to attend every meeting that i have. I thank you for that byron. Alaska is a Resource Development state. As we have witnesses past year our economy rises and falls on the tide. Yet, we remain prosperous and blessed in so many ways. We are tempered by the elements and bound by the faith that when we hold true to our values alaskans emerge stronger. As owners of alaskas resources, we must make decisions based on our longterm responsibility. Not on shortterm political experience. It is our obligation to make sure that all alaskans experience the bounty and opportunity that the state provides. Our challenges mean that we cannot afford zero sum, zero result politics. This administration has put a premium on solutions and strong ideas. Regardless of where or from whom they come, being an alaskan transcends party affiliation. As my friend says, no one Political Party has a monopoly of good ideas. I know i be for everyone in this room when i say that we look forward to working together with alaskas federal delegation. Donna and i were honored to attend a meeting of senators earlier this month. Ive also talked to senator murkowski and senator don young. We pledge to Work Together to make the most of our godgiven resources. Best, this means that at long last responsibly accessing the vast oil reserves under an war. We can, we must, and we will. It is beyond time. [laughter] [applause] members of this legislator, i am so honored to stand before you. I look forward to working together to overcome the challenges before us. The men and women in this room are no strangers to adversity. Some of you had been cancer, others have known childhood poverty and overcome terminus challenges in life. You are educators, lawyers farmers, veterans, health care providers, pilots, engineers accountants and yes even a reindeer herders, just to list a few. United is a shared love for our state and our people and a desire to give back. The opportunity, and obligation we have over the next four years is to leave alaska better that we received it. And to secure blessings for future generations. Opportunity is what inspires and motivates alaskans. The desire to get out, put in a good day of work, and build a better future. There are those of us here by birth. And many of us here by choice. Whether your family has been here for five years, five generations, or five millenniums, we are all alaskans. We are descendents of adventures. Of dreamers. The restless, and survivors. Those who refuse to accept no for an answer. Those who saw opportunity when others simply saw cold temperatures and impossibly high peaks. So far, we have been resource line resilient. Deeply rooted in the land. Alaska continues to prove its bounty to those who the who feed of village with a well. Turn when and water into electricity. This is who we are, alaskans. There is power in who we are and where we live. That is what gives me, and those in this room, great hope for the future despite the challenges ahead. Tomorrow, i will present to this body, the state of the budget. We know that alaskas it is experiencing a significant drop in revenue. The price of oil has just more than 50 over the past month. This is moved us from a seven Million Dollars per day deficit to a 10 million per day deficit. This is unsustainable and other acceptable. We can and will do better. As we know, this is not the first time our youngest he has been through these times. Many of you in this room served during the days of 90 per day barrel of oil. Today, we have fewer than 5000 Barrels Per Day flowing through the pipelines. The impact of low oil prices is worth due to low production. Again, i said, we are using 10 million per day from our savings. Someone call this a crisis. I would call is a challenge and opportunity. We have the opportunity to make impactful choices and change the way of doing business. My family had the only Home Building business in our town. When the earthquake struck, it devastate my community. Not only did we use lose all of our materials and tools, we lost her livelihood. We faced a down. With few assets. We cannot practice our trade since new homes cannot be held in the new home old town. But, we never stopped looking forward. Our focus was on future prosperity. We had to continue on and we knew we had to do things differently. We had to be creative. We had to pull together as a family. We make sacrifices. Lots of sacrifices. While there were no houses to be built, the school and post office were open and need to be clean. To financially survive, we seize the opportunity, and the Walker Family became janitors. Our hard work paid off. When the new talent settlement was ready several years ago, we were ready to invest in houses in the old town, have them moved on to foundations and the new town, and have been sold. However, we want to get had to adjust. We became house movers. This is why learn from my parents. Dont panic. Make a plan. Stick to it. Stay focused. Stay positive. Get to work. Now is not the time to sound the alarm, my fellow alaskans. Now is the time to pull together and make a plan. To shargh and sharpen our focus and get to work. We have the tools and ingenuity we have a team and will work our way out and build an Even Stronger alaska. [applause] undeservedly six, i took immediate action. I issued an administrative order directing that all megaprojects standdown until we can assess their overall costs and benefits of the state. I think the leadership of both bodies here tonight for your offer to this assists and your suggestions on our state financial situation. We have reached out to all alaskans to solicit their input on the budget situation as well. My website has a form for anyone to use and we have received thousands of responses. We have asked students at three of the university of alaska campuses to analyze the suggestion. My staff says this is something called crowdsourcing. I just caught reaching out to alaskans. Reducing energy costs across alaska is one of the highest priorities for my administration. We are the most energy rich stay in the nation. God has blessed us with almost limitless resources. It is unacceptable that so many of my fellow alaskans wake up each morning in a cold house, as i did growing up in rule alaska. If alaska were country, we would be among the top eight energy produces in the world, and yet, we have a highest cost energy in the nation. We can, and must, do better. This administration has made it a priority to reduce Energy Consumption in state owned buildings, including schools. Increasing Energy Efficiency will make us stronger. What it comes to our schools waste. Every growing economy and the world has one thing in common. That is low cost energy. This administration will not rest until alaska is squarely on track to become an economic powerhouse thanks to low cost energy that will bolster and diversify our economy. [applause] this legislator has done good work in this area over the past two years. From widely and set of icing natural gas incentivizing natural gas to investing in Renewable Energy projects. Your leadership has made a difference. 37 years ago, donna and i cheered, and actually danced in the streets, as the first barrel of oil arrives. A few short months later, don and i were married. I began licking on a large oil and gas line and lg project. Alaska, it is time to build a gas line to provide alaskan oil and gas to the world market. [applause] under ministration, we will finally begin building the alaska gas line to tidewater. Let me say that one more time because ive waited 37 years to say that. [laughter] undermine ministration, we will begin building the gas line to tidewater. [applause] it will be done with alaska higher to the mat simone to the maximum extent. It will comply with our mandate that our resources be used to the maximum benefit of alaskans. I was honored of having the presence of a major japanese Energy Consumption consortium f last month. About 10 days later, they returned to you know do know. Other energy bars and asia have contacted me with similar interests it on christmas eve, i received a call from a major japanese company. I took the call. The gas is available and the market is responding. We know, alaskas across is the cross world crossroads of the world. It is beyond time to complete the work that those in this room have started on this critical project. I thank you. [applause] it is also long past time for alaskans to focus on value added Job Opportunities with the extraction of our Natural Resources. Again, i believe that is also our constitutional mandate. When we explore our resources as Raw Materials and important import as finish products, we act as a colony. When we we should be making an exporting on the rail available. We should be refining products from our own oil. All he dont we need is affordable energy. A 1986, 2 onto viewers, marcy and jeff larson, committed and 88 people to invest 5,000 each to start what is now the largest ruby in alaska. Today, the Alaskan Brewing Company employs dozens of fulltime workers. The Alaskan Brewing Company has become a loop leader in Energy Efficient brewing by employing Innovative Technology and reducing the deep their diesel consumption. We have a duty to future generations to make the most of our resources. We can do this without added projects. If marcy and jeff can create genuine 70 jobs, just imagine what we can do by applying the same ingenuity to our fish, oil natural gas, timber, and mineral resources. And perhaps our greatest renewable source is the majesty in laura alaska. Our Tourism Industry creates almost 10,000 jobs and has a direct Economic Impact of nearly 4 billion per year. This is a healthy and vital industry, which showcases a Dynamic Partnership between private and state and local government. An industry that has potential of limitless growth and contribution to our economic wellbeing. This evening, there are tens of thousands of alaskans with no Health Insurance who could be covered at no cost to the state. These are mothers and fathers sons and daughters, entirely families who will go to bed tonight in fear. Despite the best efforts they are just one injury or diagnoses away from losing everything. That is wrong and unacceptable. We are going to put an end to that on my watch. [applause] i began taking steps to the 100 Medicaid Expansion on my first day in office. Many in the face the Medicaid Expansion is not just good for citizens it good for our economy. It is estimated that this could create as many as 4000 Health Related jobs in alaska. My selection of the commissioner of health and Human Services was the first objective of expanding medicare. Thank you, commissioner davidson for all of your hard work in this area. [applause] the health of our communities and villages is also a top priority of my ministration. The act to at the doings of rape, sexual soul, domestic us violence, must end. We all know the numbers. Even one case is one too many. Often lost in this facts and figures are the victims themselves. These are real life men and women and families torn apart. All of us deserve to feel safe. The wellbeing of alaskan families, especially children, is something that donna and i and each of you, care about deeply. In 2009, donna worked as a caseworker. She saw firsthand the heart breaking neglect and it use being felt by our most affordable population, alaskas children. Her First Official act as first lady was agreed to serve as honorary chair of the Alaska Childrens trusts. An organization dedicated to find a Real Solutions for child abuse and neglect. I have looked i have asked of my commissioners to look to states that leave the effort in fighting this epidemic. I will also work on fighting communitybased solutions. We will continue to work alongside agencies in these areas as we create a solid action plan. I also as his legislator, make alaska the next state to pass the loft. Law. [laughter] this is the bill that would allow members of the legislator, if you send this build my death, i will sign it. [applause] we will take an important step towards protecting the lives of some a young precious alaskans. We think the men and women who serve in the Alaska National guard with honor and integrity. Because of the sacrifices and commitment we honor your service. Tomorrow the attorney general cry Richards Will name an independent special investigator to examine what went wrong in the Alaska National guard. Investigator will have full access to all papers and electronic evidence to get to the bottom of the allegation of sexual soul and misconduct. As commanderinchief of the Alaska National guard, let me assure you, the perpetrators will be brought to justice. They were will face expulsion incarceration, or both. [applause] i also want to thank the men and women in the military and Law Enforcement who put their lives at risk every day to protect us. On may 1, Patrick Scott johnson and one other were killed in the line of duty. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and with families of other Law Enforcement officials who made the ultimate sacrifice. Please join me in honoring the families of Sergeant Johnson and trooper rich who so graciously accepted our invitation to be here with us this evening. [applause] to our military and Law Enforcement families, i speak for all alaskans and say thank you for your sacrifice. Your fathers, husbands mothers and daughters, these are the heroes who protect our freedom and keep us safe. These are the gallant and brave who help us all sleep a little better at night. Please join me once again in honoring all the men and women in uniform for their sacrifices in service. [applause] now, i want to turn education. We are perhaps facing the largest budget deficit in alaskas history. To get on track, we must make difficult decisions. Sometimes, we have to make sacrifices. We will protect Education Funding insulated from the states fiscal situation to the greatest extent possible. We will continue to invest in education as it is one of the highest educate priorities of the state, but not at the rate that we could have when oil was over 100 per barrel. 46 per barrel oil brings a new day in alaska. We must respond prudently and carefully. I asked legislators to pull together. I hold our degrees in the highest regard. I will do all i can and work with teachers, principals, and administers to assist and provide for the needs of our schools statewide. Public education is a constitutionally mandated responsibility. I have not, and i will not forget that. The days of export our resources and an imported workforce must come to an end. Alaskans are some of the hardest working people in the world. Lets make sure our use get the training and skills that they need to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow. [applause] we do that by being creative. Parents stepping up. Teaches administrators being outside the box. I began my education while School Facilities were a bit rustic, the high quality of education that i received is what i remember so much. I think each and every teacher who is taken on the high calling of educating our children. While we certainly have room for improvement in our schools, we should also celebrate our achievements. In nevada last month, at one of the toughest High School Wrestling term is in the country, and alaskan senior won the turn its outstanding wrestling award. [applause] josh is the first allamerican athlete and has been accepted to the u. S. Naval academy. This past spring, a woman from a high school captured a medal from a competition that teams from around the world. These individual successes serve as a reminder that the next generation has talent and drive to succeed. It is up to us to provide the opportunity for them to do so. We need to increase career and Technical Education opportunities in alaska. We can build upon the success of programs like the fairbanks pipeline training center. There are other wonderful examples. For those who choose College Alaska is fortunate to have great universities. It is time for the state to develop a different relationship with our universities. We all too often reach out to our lower 48 consultants without first seeing if the same or better analysis could be achieved in our own universityie s. Arguably, the a leading authority on management. A kodiak seafood and Science Center serves the state through research, education, training activities. These are fundamental to marine science and the competitive seafood industry in meeting important workforce needs. Last week, i held our first Cabinet Meeting. We renamed the governors Conference Room to the cabinet room and planned to use it extensively and regularly with the cabinet. At my invitation, also attending the Cabinet Meeting is a ceo. A standing invitation for these and hes to be represented in Cabinet Meetings. The purpose is to ensure we are fully harnessing our university infrastructure, and financial resources. I also want to thank the legislature for all you have done on the critical issue of policy. For the next two years, our nation will chair the council. If not for alaska, the United States would be would not be at all. For this reason, of the estimated meetings the United States will hold, most will be held in alaska. I have named craig to the post. He has previously served as a permanent member of the council. He will be an advocate for the council of transportation navigation, Climate Change telecommunications, and public and private partnerships for development. Given current oil prices, there are a lot of discussions about the fiscal challenges in alaska. I do not dispute the numbers but i do dispute the gloom and doom. To those who say alaskas finest days are behind us i say they are looking in the wrong direction or the governor used to say, before we have money, we had guns. Alaska has trillions of dollars of value in our waters. Is taking office, i have twice been to washington dc for meetings at the highest level to discuss infrastructure and revelatory event we need to fully develop our resources. The potential for money prospects are nearly limitless. We cannot keep having the same fights with National Leaders and expect a different result. Facts are on our side. We can and we will use them. We can also address the agency concerns head on and forge a plan a path forward. Theyre also under our boat. We will work with the crucial sector to strengthen. In alaska, every vote is a small family business. We will work to keep boots on the deck and bolster demand frosts for demand for highquality products. We take all the industries for the solid investments they continue to make in alaskas communities. My goal is to continue to work with them to further develop the resources. We will do it on alaskas timeframe and follow the mandate to develop them for the maximum use and benefit for alaskans. To me, this means having alaskans do the work. I have long been a fierce ethic it for local hire. Workers to commute not from mississippi. [applause] in houston, alaska, is not houston, texas. [laughter] [applause] it will be a priority of the administration to i alaska when possible. Whether it is the special services, food equipment, or just about anything else, i urge all alaskans to do the same. One of the biggest commodities we export from from alaska is our money. It is something we can all do in our businesses and personal lives. When we make a purchase outofstate rather than support local businesses, we and the Multiplier Effect in his damages Economic Growth and sustainability. Think about which business will be making the Little League donations and the contributions to the u. S. Hockey donations. Lets help the businesses in alaska, the ones in our home help us. That is part of what alaska first means. When alaska became a state, approximately 50 of the food was grown, raised and harvested in alaska. Today, that percentage is under 5 . We can reverse that. Our administration will have a renewed them and to manage our wildlife population in abundance in order to provide for assistance and Economic Needs of alaskans. We should also be marking our vegetables in the valley and elsewhere, likely market the copper red from cordova. Do you know our carrots are eight times sweeter than those grown in california . Used and two summers manning a booth in the state fair and you will learn this kind of stuff. [laughter] alaskans, there are challenges ahead, will but so many of our own, should have come in the face of adversity than times we have worked together with no agenda than to strengthen and prosper our state. I remember so well alaskans fighting for statehood. I remember as a teenager driving to fair to following the flood. Whether there is a fuel shortage , forest fires flooding on the yukon, the threat of a military base closure in the interior, or the closure of a mill, we rise and survive as one when we support our fellow alaskans. [laughter] [applause] when we build each other up, and we Work Together, nothing can shake us. We persevere. We work hard. We dare to achieve. I urge all alaskans to be cognizant of the fiscal situation facing us and like my family do not let yourself become overwhelmed by the minority of the task at hand. Let us understand the work that must be done. I look ahead toward rebuilding and creating a prosperous future. To the members of the esteemed body, i say to you that yes, the task ahead of us is great but it will not consume us. Our foundation is one of ingenuity, camaraderie, and hardware. It is time to put the principles into practice, make the tough decisions and tackle the work ahead of us. We must deliver. Just like generations before us who so bravely built this great state, we must not seek the republican or the democrat answer. We must seek the right answer for alaska. [applause] it will be tough and we may not always agree. But i am confident we will be pulling from the same end of the rope to achieve the best outcomes for alaskans. Lets not focus on party lines, but on alaskas bottom line. But honor the legacy of our past as we create opportunities for the future. We are alaskans and darn proud of it. As the late senator ted stevens once famously said, to heck with politics. Lets do what is best for alaska. That is exactly what we will do. May god bless you and may god bless the state of alaska. [applause] president obama submitted his budget request to congress this morning. Fortunately dollar budget proposed to spend more cash than the sequestration would allow we will take a look in a moment. House is expected gaveling in about 50 minutes, 2 00 user time, and then scheduled work at 5 00. Putting a Homeland Security social media plan for National Merchants these and any vote to be held after 6 30. And tomorrow, a vote to repeal the federal health care law. In the senate, 4 00 eastern working on a bill to prevent suicide among those kerry veterans and tomorrow, working on the Homeland Security bill. A closer look at the budget request with a capitol Hill Reporter earlier today. Woodrow call, a staff writer there, he joins us once again on the washington journal. Even before the budget arrives on capitol hill, republicans have been panning some of the information that has come out about romance in it. Is the budget dead on arrival when it arrives later this morning . Guest well, the budget is dead on arrival just as it is in the same sense as it is most years on capitol hill, particularly whenever you have divided government. The budget what the budget document is used for by the white house, regardless of party, is to lay out his vision for how in sort of an idealized world it would restructure parts of the government, restructure parts of the tax code. And where the executive branch would prioritize investments if it were left to its own devices. But since it is divided government, what really happens is that you will see lawmakers in both parties try and go through this document and on one man certainly pan things, and you have seen that from republicans, but you will see lawmakers in both parties go through the document and try to find things and match things that the frb proposed and they are otherwise interested that they have already proposed and they are otherwise interested in to pick out little pieces in order to advance their own priorities and find places they might be able to find Common Ground with the white house. Host what are the areas of potential agreement in the spending plan . Guest well, one of the things that has released a little bit, came out over the weekend, is the significant investment that is being sought to get a full sixyear Service Transportation highway built on highway bill done. It is a certainty, i think, already that the particular mechanism of paying for it using attacks using eight tax on foreign profits and foreign earnings, the way the white house has structured that and the way the treasury department, i suppose, would be proposing that, its not something that is going to be viewed terribly favorably at the capitol, but there is a bipartisan understanding that there is a gap in the funding for the Highway Trust Fund, and if people are actually willing to come to the table and find some other alternative tax policy reason or way to pay for it that is one area where you might find Common Ground. The other thing, going through some documentation that has come out this morning, we are noticing that there is a 561 billionbased defense funding request in here, along with another amount of money 58 billion dollars for the overseas Contingency Operations fund. I think there is bipartisan perhaps, agreement that the defendant level defense level has got to the above where it was in the sequester and that is another area where we will try to find Common Ground. Host talked us through what is going to happen specifically today after the budget arrives and the coming days this week. Guest well, one of the things that is happening today in particular is you will see the president himself going to the department of Homeland Security to lay out his Budget Proposal. That leaves with it the implication that the president is probably going to be talking at least at some level not of anything in the fiscal 2016 budget but in the upcoming looming crisis in the fiscal 2015 spending situation with the department of Homeland Security funding, which runs out towards the end of february. You will see Agency Briefings by the office of management and budget in an assortment of apartments and agencies that will all have Conference Calls or briefings to outline their various plans, and then what happens very quickly is that the attention turns to capitol hill when the books are delivered at people at people have a chance to digest things just a little bit. You will see agency heads and i won the and omb going back and forth to the hill and outlining their vision ahead of the drafting ahead of the of the annual budget resolution by lawmakers in the capitol. Host Niels Lesniewski writes for is. Com cspan, or tweet us using cspanchat. Patricia says we will be looking for more of your comments throughout the day. With the fcc focusing on Net Neutrality of february, we hope with industry executives in las vegas. Chris riley with mozilla and at t. We believe at the end of the day, the internet needs strong enforceable, effective rules to affect neutrality for users and developers on the west. Those need to include nondiscrimination, Network Management and they need to be effectively enforceable. The problem we have now with where the Net Neutrality issue has gone is that it is really not focused. There is a lot of consensus around it, but it is a quiz on the Legal Authority, and what jurisdictional they should use. Our concern is they will undo, potentially, a regulatory status that has existed now for over a decade. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan two. Before the house goggles back in in 45 minutes, we will take a closer look in the budget increases in president s 2016 request. This is from todays washington journal. Et day, we are joined by congressman john delaney, democrat from maryland, member of the Financial Services and joint economic committees. I want to start with the headline in the lead story of the Washington Post this morning. Obama targets public works. A topic that you have been talking about, infrastructure, for a while. You have been on capitol hill. Take us through his program and how it differs from what you have been pushing for a while. Guest sure. So we have been working on this for about two years and is building huge Bipartisan Coalition around this notion of increasing investment in infrastructure in the United States and which we think is important for a whole friday of reasons competitiveness, jobs, improving peoples lives and paying for that through reforming our broken taxes them some of the system that takes all our money overseas. We are really pleased that the president s Budget Proposal takes our idea and animates it in this new budget that we have. The levels are different than ours. The tax levels that are being charged we are suggesting a. 7 tax rate on all the cash overseas. The administration is at 14 . Our go forward taxes them is a little more complicated than what they are proposing. Theyre proposing a flat rate of about 19 and ours starts at about 12. 25 and goes down as Companies Pay more tax overseas. In general, the revenues race for our proposal is less than what the president is proposing but in general, almost exact same proposal that we have put forth, and the nice thing about the levels we are at we know we can get bipartisan support. We were excited to see it in the budget. Host you know you can get bipartisan support with the. 5 guest 8. 75 . Host to get these corporations on board as well . Guest this is new in the president s budget. We have a Stakeholder Group of over 70 organizations, business organizations, labor groups, who are supportive of this. In the last congress we had 100 members of congress, and about 50 on each side of the aisle supporting our concept. I think the levels we are at our the levels were a deal can get done and where the administration is coming at will be part of the negotiation host start a little higher guest that may either strategy. I think the levels we have in our bill are the right answer and i know that is where you can get a deal done. Host some stats on the money corporations have overseas, from the wall street journal, a chart on former prophets accumulated offshore as countries reinvest that money overseas. General electric leads the way with the amount of money that sits overseas, 110 billion followed by microsoft, 76. 4 billion pfizer, 69 billion merck, 57. 1 billion apple 54. 4 billion ibm, 52. 2 billion, and so on down the line guest about 2 trillion in total. Host any of those committees on board with your proposal . Guest those Companies Think of our proposal in the context of broader tax reform. It is my view that we will not do broader tax reform and just do international, the piece were talking about here. I believe those countries would be very much on board with what were talking about. Theyre reserving supporting any specific proposal because the question for them is standalone International Tax reform or is this part of something broader . That is an open question. I believe we will just do international. Host if you want to talk to corpsman john delaney about these issues and his proposal and spending plan, budget plan, infrastructure 2. 0 act hr 625 for those who want to go online and read about it, the phone lines are open. Host he is with us for about the next 35 minutes or so. Before we get to calls, also want to ask about about sequestration. The president s budget on Discretionary Spending is expected to be about a 7 increase over sequestration, you agree to levels under the budget control act of 2011, 30 7 billion over the spending caps for nondefense Discretionary Spending, 38 billion over spending caps in defense spending. In general, how do you feel about sequestration and going over these caps . Guest i, like most of my colleagues, think that sequestration is a dumb way to go about budget issues. I like that we are moving away from the sequestration model. I havent read the president s budget in deal because it just came out this morning, but it sounds to me like an investment budget. He is investing in infrastructure, basic research putting money in cyber. I tend to be in the camp of those investments pay off really well. One of the things we dont do in government right now is dynamically score the investments we make. Host explain that. Guest sure. If we spend a dollar on infrastructure soon the cost of government as in the cost of government at dollar, and there is no compensating benefit in the budget forecasts for investing in infrastructure, the jobs that are created, etc. In other words, every dollar we spend is assumed to be a lost dollar. As someone who has spent my whole career in the private sector and thinking about investment in building businesses, i know thats what investments can have a very good payoff. Infrastructure has been proven over 50 is that for every dollar we spend as a nation on infrastructure, we get almost two dollars in Economic Growth. In my judgment, Smart Investments not all investments are Smart Investments been very targeted investments in infrastructure and basic Research Like the president is proposing pay off in the near to longterm. Im actually very least with what he is doing on the investment side of the ledger because it is what we need to do as a nation and i think these things dont score nearly as bad as people think they do. We have gotten a little too caught up in this pay for framework where we insist on paying for everything dollar to dollar and some things the government pays for you get no return on investment, and that is the right way to think about it, but a lot of things the government invests in actually do produce good returns and we ought to be modeling that into the framework that we use. Host congressman john delaney, one of the few former ceos in congress, when are at the ernst young entrepreneur of the year award, founded two new york stock it change listed companies before the age of 40, now in his second term in congress, representing the six the district of maryland, here with us for the next half hour. West virginia on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Congressman delaney, can i ask you a question . Guest yes, sir. Caller i would like to know what you are going to do about the preexisting conditions that are allowed in the Medicare Supplement Insurance Program where they discriminate against seniors. I asked you 20 questions that are preexisting and they turn you down or they will accept you if you say that you are perfectly healthy. Are you going to get that out of the law so that people will not be discriminated against . Guest so, sir, your question is about preexisting conditions in medicare. Most preexisting conditions that people have, best of my knowledge, are in fact addressed in the medicare program. But if you have any specific questions on that, you should reach out to our office and we may be able to help you. I think most of the stuff you are getting at is in fact covered. Host bonnie isnt maryland is in maryland on our life replicas. Caller yes, good morning i have 2 in the paper it all the way in the back it had one time borrowing money, the state is going to borrow money for transportation to pay state Workers Compensation that are retiring. This is a fact because it was in my paper. My second one is medicare pays for nothing for seniors. I had to go on medicaid when i had to go on medicaid it do to an accident, medicaid pay for it all. When i turn 65 you go to any senior place and you see every senior in there, they cannot see. If you cannot get glasses and for what i get, i cannot afford them. My sign is in the pharmaceutical business. You see six out of 10 who use medicaid, they get paid health. Host lets let the congress a respond. Guest i agree with you about how funds deposited into the Transportation Trust fund im not sure, i think you said you are calling from maryland. In maryland, we passed a new law last year that would help protect those funds. Weve seen what a lot of people call a rating of transportation funds for other purposes. It happened a lot in the last several years. I think we will have a new approach Going Forward. Last year, the legislative session in maryland passed a law , which i think is a good law to protect those funds. I do not think youll see as much of that Going Forward as we did in the past. I agree, it is a problem. As far as the medicare benefits i have seen the situation with i care benefits. It is not sufficient for what a lot of our seniors need. Or are a lot of holes in the program. The copay can be a little high. The deductibles are high. There are these talks going on in congress right now about merging the two parts together. I think that might improve some of your concerns. Those are good questions. Thank you. Host them jeff is up next, republican. Caller good morning. Just a little background, then i have a question. I wanted to repatriation of profits from these american code corporations oversieas. These Companies Going overseas, they get help from the u. S. Taxpayer to set up plans and equipment. They are getting subsidies to set up for divisions for which they make profits. Then, they do not want to read patriot profits back to the u. S. To pay taxes on them. Now, my question, i as an individual taxpayer, i am subject to worldwide income. If i go overseas and make money i cannot avoid paying taxes on that. Why can corporations do so . Yes bantu questions there. There is one about the government supporting corporations in setting up overseas operations. That actually focuses more on domestic manufacturers. That is actually more targeted to people running operations the United States, but youre right that parts of our government to facilitate u. S. Corporations getting into new markets. The Commerce Market does that in a whole number of ways. I think those are good programs. They are really not that expensive. They facilitate particularly development in the about the world. What we have in the tax will right now survey called the furl. That allows a corporation to effectively say that if they do not repatriate money to United States, they do not have to pay taxes but they have to keep the money overseas. That has been a longstanding part of our tax code. I figured is very done. I think we should not allow that. I think corporations and they make money overseas, they have to pay taxes on that money. And they should be able to bring that money back freely. Host the wall street journal has a chart on those deferrals. You can see how they decrease over time. They are at 2. 11 trillion. Guest it is a huge number. What we have to make sure is that they are there are two types of jurisdictions. There are tax havens. Jurisdictions specifically set up with no taxes. We should not allow companies that make money in tax havens to bring that money back taxfree. Our build is not do that. It allows for a minimum number of tags. Then, there are other companies lets look a company like starbucks. Their running operations in a place like germany. They have to pay german taxes just like a german Coffee Company would. They have all the cost over there. You have to make sure that companies are paying playing on a level field. What our bill does is if a company is paying a competitive level of tax in a jurisdiction that has Corporate Tax rate similar to ours, then they have to pay very little additional u. S. Corporate tax. What we are talking here is the double tax. By now we have a system that would effectively charge a double tax. Double taxes there is there in a tax haven, but is not fair if they are in a jurisdiction artie charges a decent amount of taxes already. Our bill gets rid of deferral. This money would come back. They would have knows it no incentive to keep the overseas. Some things are put in place will reflect the inconsistency. If theyre in a competitive country where they are actually paying competitive tax rates to that jurisdiction, the amount of tax they have to pay as much stop smaller than in the tax haven. Host one person wants to know about the congressional pay raise. Is there a raise on the horizon . Guest i am not aware of a congressional pay raise. I do not think that members of congress should get a pay raise at this point. For someone who comes from the private sector, you are rewarded by good performance, and i do not think we can say we had been paying performing at a level that merits pay raise. Host what about pay raise for federal workers . Guest i am in support of that. I think a pay raise for federal workers is good. I think the members in my district, if you look at some of these agencies, they work in the department of Homeland Security, etc. , i do get would be hard to argue that they are not doing a good job. Host mike, youre next. Caller good morning. I was like to ask the representative i understand recently that the Democratic Party wanted to pass at bill that sales tax on Financial Transactions including stocks, bonds, and future contracts. I have two questions. First, how much exactly is in this pool . I have heard that there are 1000 trillion dollars of transactions per year. A 1 tax would of course make 10 trillion. It is not only how much is in there, and a no have probably study this, but also, what would be the negative consequences of an acting as sales tax on Financial Instruments . Guest there are two things. The question is about a proposed financial transaction tax. People look at it and think it is a great opportunity to raise revenues for the governor. Government. They say, if we were to tax that, we could make a lot of money. As technology has worked its way into Financial Services, we see a lot more frequency of trading people do more transactions. I think we have to look at it carefully, and cautiously. There are a couple things that my high level view informs my opinion. I like income tax better. In general, i like taxing income and not behavior. Often times, you can tax at a high level behavior, but if the companies are not making any money, you are really hurting those businesses. I like taxes on income. I also worry, if you do not do financial 10 transaction tax, in a global environment, making sure that the United Kingdom and asia if you do not have a similar regime across global key financial markets, than all of the companies that engage in Financial Transactions will simply relocate to those other jurisdictions. This business is the most movable of all businesses. There are a lot of people that move in the industry, and the ability to move those overseas is very easy. I think it is very naive when people proposing things and not doing it as part of a global agreement. I worry that the minute the United States taxes these things, the businesses, which include the bangs that get a lot of attention, but also things like schwab, fidelity, they would look great locate their operations overseas. I also worry that this would have an effect, again, it is painted sometimes very quickly as something that is against the biggest Financial Institutions in the world. Why do we want to charge soak skies more taxes . Charge those guys more taxes . All of those things would be subject to more tax. You have to remember that ordinary americans would be paying that tax, not just banks. I think what the president proposes is a little more carefully crafted. What is is an additional lead the on the assets of very large Financial Institutions. Again, i have to do bunch of work on that to get my final opinion, but it is a little more targeted. I think it is one of these things that sounds good, but you have to get into the details and make sure does not cause businesses to leave the United States and disproportionally her average americans who have their Retirement Savings in stocks and in accounts. They would be paying this tax also. We have to think of the consequences. Sometimes there are unintended consequences to these things and they sound good, but you wake of the next day and are not making the revenue that you think. And a lot investors would figure it out and go overseas, and the person paying it would be the average american. Host congress will be getting its hands on the 2016 Budget Proposal from the resident. It is expected to be delivered in the 8 00 hour in capitol hill. There is a picture of the budget itself eating printed. It is a 3. 9 trillion legit budget. We are with congressman don delaney. We will get through as many of your calls as we can. Jonathan is in fairfax virginia. The morning. Caller congressman delaney, you proposed a bill that had a find that C Corporations could pay into and repatriate their dollars. It was most go towards infrastructure. I was wondering if the bill usb he have now has anything that would allow people to go through such a methodology or if you think obama will put repatriation on people in the near future . Guest good question. The president didnt put repatriation in the forefront of his budget. They released some of these details. What they do in the budget is deal with the money that is sitting overseas, then he makes some changes to be go forward system. It is very similar to what we propose for a long time. Our rates and levels are a bit different. We also proposed what youre talking about, the american infrastructure fund. Host and that is a different bill . Guest yes, we have two versions going. This one deals with the International Taxes done. The other one is a smaller version, dealing with money overseas creating the infrastructure fund, and Encouraging Companies to invest in a fun. What it did is is it allowed companies to bring some earnings over taxfree while putting money into this fund. Host is that bill any closer to infrastructure 2. 0, will it be easier to move . Guest i think it will be easier to move because it deals with the Highway Trust Fund. This one ended up with about a hundred members of congress on it. Then, it expanded because we have so much money support for the project. We say, lets get more money back and this is a revenue opportunity for the trust fund. The Highway Trust Fund funds 90 of the highways in this country, and it is running out of money. This fixes the Highway Trust Fund, it is a massive acrosstheboard Infrastructure Program for this country. It creates jobs and make us makes us more competitive. It increases in investments and infrastructure, gets money back from overseas, which is great. It also puts forward a go Forward International sat tax system. We believe it was will score a very positively. Host you are projecting up to 120 billion in new money for the Highway Trust Fund. Guest plus, 54 the other thing. That was the same rate that chairman dave camp propose last congress. Host it is a chart 2625. David is waiting on the line from new york. Caller good morning. I have comments more than a question. Ronald reagan lowered our taxes to 28 . Revenue has doubled from 500 billion to 900 million. I have another comment about the tax code in general. If you look around this country, cities are collapsing under the weight of its own bureaucracy and their own spending. Spending has never been under control. D choi being the poster child for this whole situation. Right now, i am in new york. We have a situation going on now with our speaker. Speaker silver. This looks just like more of government grabbing at the resources, rather than those resources ever getting to the problem. All they are doing here is encrypting more businesses with legal manipulations. Weve known it. Until you take power away from Government Spending, and get back into the hands of people who really know how to spend money, the Small Businesses etc. You will have this problem. The minutia of the budget what we will do here and there, it is too complex for any group of people. Host to claim at your concern is it specifically about State Government or you think the same applies to the federal government . Caller right now the tax code just goes up and up. Social security, that tax actually contribute as much the federal budget as income tax. You have 59 Million People on Social Security people. There are so many issues. Guest there are a lot of issues. I think you ring up a good point. Government can in fact be very wasteful. We need to make sure that whatever programs the government launches they are done at a High Standard with high transparency, ethical behavior, and are targeted towards producing a positive result. That is to go back to an earlier comment that i made about how we think about budgets. As someone whos spent my whole career in the private sector, i think that i think differently about some of these topics. The one thing that has shocked me in the budgeting process a government is the scoring process. The way that everything is scored the same. Things that are proven to these smart, like investing in infrastructure or in basic medical research, which has proven to produce Economic Growth in this country that is scored the same as increased spending to build the government bureaucracy. It does not make sense of a look in the at these things the same way. I think the problem is that we dont look at these things the right way. If we do not do real analytics dynamic scoring, and use data to predict outcomes of the spending we may, we tend to not make the smartest investments that week could. We tend to view all Government Spending as a same. I think this contributes to seller some of the things that the caller is identifying. To avoid b wasting government, we need cap transparency. We also need to think about Government Spending the right way. Host a lot of numbers today coming out on budget day. The caller was talking up Social Security. 920 billion dollars is projected to be marked for Social Security and an increase of 6 annually over the next decade. We will try and stay on top of the numbers as much as we can. A lot of is coming out on the budget. Kylie is waiting from arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning. Ive ask if of hawaii. I just want to say that obama is proposing a plan that would help our country. Right now, the middle class is being tax 30 to 35 . The rich, they are getting tax 35 , but there is a separation between middle class. You make 35,000 and you are being tax 35 on that . You are not making the cut. The big companies, as far as what he is proposing overseas, the tax overseas, these companies are going overseas and pay no tax. They are not contributing back to our country and they are selling products in our country. Now, i pay 35 in taxes and i am still bluecollar. I work five or six shifts per week and i try to get overtime in, 12 to 13 hour shifts. I am still struggling. If you want to have a family, or just the basics, and not have to work your whole life, and enjoy anything, the middle class is screwed. The companies overseas, why should they get a break . If i went overseas right now the last caller actually or a few callers ago had a good point, if i were to go overseas right now and make money, you would get taxed on that. I would get taxed by the u. S. 35 depending on the income. It is usually 35 percent. Guest kylie, two good questions. Your point about the middle class is the most important. Let me deal with the corporate sufferers. I agree with you, right now what goes on with corporations they have this deferral option. I think everyone thinks it is a really stupid system that we have now. Companies can make profits overseas i like to not bring it back and therefore not pay taxes. That for us, bad for them. None of them really want to keep all that money overseas. They want to bring about United States. We need a new system. Hopefully now we will talk about that new system. The debate about what is happening on the milk labs part of what is happening is changes all over the world, technology and globalization. We have hollowed out a lot of middle skilled jobs held by middleclass americans. That has really hurt the backbone of the country, the group of people who built this country, save this country, and arguably save the world. We have let them stay in a very Weak Division in the job market. It has put us in a situation where wages of middleclass workers are not growing. One reason i care so much about infrastructure is because it is something we need to invest in it is a middleclass jobs program. Building the infrastructure is a middleclass jobs program that would put people to work and create demand for middle skilled middleclass workers. It would help everyone in the middle class. If we combine that with the smarter tax policy where we give some middle class americans of break, i think you can see how the middleclass could thrive again. Host one thing on infrastructure spending, one more try i went to show our viewers today. This is infrastructure is ending by country. It is weighted as a percentage of gdp. In that time, china 8. 5 spending on infrastructure. Japan, 5 . India, 4. 7 the United States 2. 6 guest it is insane. When you combine that with the fact that we have a lot of data that says for every dollar that you get 1. 92 back. It is a very good return. The nice thing about infrastructure is that people actually believe that government is competent in building infrastructure. Going back to this question from an earlier caller about how sad if a satisfied he was as to how government performs. If you ask people what they think the government is good at, they think we are very good at military and in second place is infrastructure. It is viewed as an appropriate and proper role of government. It is very bipartisan in that role regard. These other countries that you are referencing are being much smarter about how they spend their taxpayers money than we are. Host lets get to paul. Caller good morning, congressman. I would like to ask whether you have ever considered the idea of simply getting rid of the Corporate Income tax altogether and taxing the income divide derived from wealth at the same rate as all other income. I look at the numbers online and it turns out that you would actually in up with more money assuming that Everything Else stayed the same, then you would as the system we have now. You would greatly signify the code. I am a retired cpa and i know you get rid of many thousands of pages of tax law by getting doing those two things. Corporate income tax we all know that corporations do not pay those taxes. They either take money from the dividends or investments, or employees. That is my i really am an independent. I am a prolife progressive, i sit on the slide. Guest it is a smart question. When you look at what is happening to the Corporate Tax income for the government has fallen a lot. One reason has fallen is a point you are getting at. So many companies, or businesses, are not choosing to incorporate. They are choosing to be limited partnerships, limited liability companies. Their owners hate hats on the earnings as individuals. The reason why so much of a is occurring is because of the complexity of our Corporate Income tax system. You look at corporations and you see some paying the full rate, in the 30 percent range. You see other Companies Paying 10 . It does not make sense. The other thing is all of these reductions. Or are all kinds of strange things in the Corporate Tax. There are lots of ways that it could be simplified. And it would be good for the country and companies. Wealth tax is something that we have some prohibitions against doing in this country. The only places where you can do wealth taxes at the state level. The federal government cannot do it. We can do income tax, but not a wealth tax. We have looked at, and not to delve into a completely unrelated topic, but we have done a lot of work on the carbon tax. It is taxing carbon, which i think is important. I want to change our behavior as a nation around carbon consumption. Using all the revenues generated by carbon tax to reduce the Corporate Income tax rate you put in place the carbon tax at the right levels, you could raise a lot of money and cut the Corporate Income tax down by one third. If you were to simplify even more, you can probably cut it in half. That is where i think there are a lot of opportunities. As an american who cares about business and the environment i would much rather tax carbon that profits. Profits correlate with making jobs and putting money into peoples pockets. I think theyre both ways is that levine the tax code, as you reference, and also of lowering it significantly. I do not think it is a well tax, i figure is through a carbon tax, for example. The clinical landscape has changed with the 114th congress. Three new republicans and 15 to democrats in the house and 12 new republicans and one new democrats in the senate. Eight women in congress including the first africanamerican republican in the house and the first letter and in the senate. Keep track using rational chronicle on cspan. Org. The congressional chronicle. Org has a lot of information including s then, cspan two cspan radio and cspan. Org. With the fcc focusing on Net Neutrality in february, we spoke to industry executives in the show in las vegas. Senior policy and at t Vice President hank. We believe at the end of the day, the internet means strong and enforceable rules to attack people on the web. Those need to include nondiscrimination, management, and they need to be effectively enforceable. The problem now is, where the Net Neutrality issue has gone, it is not focus. There is a lot of consensus around this, but it is focused on the legal quality to adopt rules in which they should use and our concern is really that they will undo potentially a regulatory status that existed now for over a decade. Tonight, on the communicators, on cspan two. The house is about to gather in and working on three bills today, including one to work on a Homeland Security and social media plan in the event of a national emergency. Those votes will be held at six 130. Tomorrow, looking at a bill to repeal the health care law. President obama submitted his budget request this morning to congress. A 4 trillion budget that proposes to spend more than the cap sent by sequestration would allow. The other side of the capital, the senate will be in in a couple of hours, 4 00 eastern time, working on a bill to prevent suicide among military veterans. Tomorrow the Homeland Security spending bill. Tomorrow in the house, we will see work on the repeal of the Affordable Care act. You can watch the markup of that bill on our companion network cspan three, at 5 00 eastern time. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray. Eternal god, through whom we see what we could be and what we can become thank you for giving us another day. Send you are spirit upon the members of this peoples house