Sequester. They wouldnt allow a vote on the plan we offered to prevent the sequester thats going to hit on march 1 and which our republican colleagues in statement after statement on this floor have said is going to hurt the economy and which we know from the last quarters economic report is already hurting the economy just because businesses are anticipating the possibility these acrossthe board cuts. So thats the plan that we should be focused on. Thats a plan that helps the economy, that will help save jobs and its just unfortunate that weve been denied an opportunity in the peoples house to even have a vote on the one plan thats been submitted in this congress, in this house to prevent those job losses and prevent the harm being done to our economy. So i would hope, madam chairman, that we put aside this political gimmick. The president will submit a budget. Our republican colleagues can do with it whatever they want, but lets put aside the political games and focus on jobs and the economy and lets have a vote on the plan that we have introduced to prevent that sequester from taking place and prevent the economic damage that it would do. Thank you, madam chairman. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from georgia is recognized for 15 seconds. Mr. Price thank you, madam chair. Madam chair, this is Pretty Simple stuff. Its what families do across this country, it is what businesses do across this country and that is to make sure they dont spend more than they take in. All this bill does is say to the president , when you bring your budget to the congress, mr. President , let us know when it balances and hopefully its not never, as hes had the last four years. I yield back. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. All time for general debate has expired. Pursuant to the rule, the bill shall be considered as read for amendment under the fiveminute rule and the bill shall be considered read. No amendment to the bill is in order except those printed in house report 112 1138. Each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the bill, may be offered only by a member designated in the report, shall be debatable equally divided by a proponent and an opponent and shall not be subject for demand for division of the question. It is now in order to consider amendment number 1 printed in how report 1138. In house report 1138. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Takano madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk made in order under the rule. The clerk amendment number 1 printed in how report 1138 offered by mr. Takano of california. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 48, the gentleman from california, mr. Takano, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Takano thank you, madam chair. Madam chair, id like to call this the dont shift blame amendment. The bill before us today tries to blame president obama for all our fiscal woes. Judging by the language of this legislation, im convinced that House Republicans live in a world where our entire National Debt suddenly appeared on january 21, 2009. But lets be clear. Our debt was not created by the president alone, and while the president may be responsible for sending us a budget blueprint, it is ultimately congress that holds the power of the purse. I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are forgetting a key part of our job. The president does not pass budget, nor does he appropriate funds. Congress does. My amendment makes a simple change to the finding section of the bill that clarifies that congress has the constitutional responsibility to fund the federal government. Now, i can guarantee that when the majority introduces its budget this month it will be so extreme that it has no chance of passing both houses. The republican majority seems to be able to come together for meaningless proposals, but they know that when it comes to sensible legislation, such as preventing us from going over the fiscal cliff or providing aid to sandy victims the 218th vote will come from a democrat. The only thing allowing the House Republican caucus to govern is the House Democratic caucus. It is the majoritys failure to negotiate in good faith on the budget that has gotten us here today. Year after year the House Republican leadership has chosen to do anything within its power to discredit the president instead of working to solve our nations challenges. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Price thank you, madam chair, i claim time in opposition. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Price thank you, madam chair. I appreciate the gentlemans amendment, and although possibly wellintentioned, were not saying at all that this is just on the president s watch, that this is simply this president that is culpable. But youd have to ignore the president s fiscal issues that hes had over the past four years to think he didnt have a hand in this. On taking office, president obama promised to cut the deficit in half. Madam chair, the deficit when the president entered office was 458 billion. We all know that the deficit last year was 1. 3 trillion. Hardly in half. Not even with new math. Instead hes presided over four straight trilliondollarplus deficits. Spending is 22 higher at the end of this president s first term. Under his own budget, spending will be 40 higher at the end of his second term if congress were to go along with the proposals that he brings forward. Finally, the president s on track to double, double the National Debt by the end of his term in office. Now, my new colleague from california says that all you got to do is pass a budget through the congress and all things will be wonderful. And the House Republicans have passed a budget. Madam chair, its been a budget that has put us on a path to balance, yes, and well do that again this year. I remind my colleague that the senate hasnt passed a budget in nearly four years which is why two weeks ago this congress, this house passed a bill, no budget no pay when we got the senate to admit they havent passed a budget and they will do one this year. We got their attention. Madam chair, while wellintentioned, trying to change the subject a little bit, this amendment doesnt, doesnt assist in getting us to the point where it is the president s responsibility to tell the American People in fact, its only fair to tell the American People when it will balance. I reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Takano madam chair, the House Republicans have been more focused on passing budgets that message well than introducing a budget that both the house and senate can agree on. These are budgets that dont stand a chance of passing the senate simply because the g. O. P. Refuses to compromise on anything. How many of their budgets end medicare as we know it . What makes them think that the senate will pass a budget that goes back on the promises we made our seniors . The budgets passed by House Republicans is less valuable than the paper they are written on. They dont bring both sides of the aisle together and are a complete waste of time and the taxpayers money. Madam chair, i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Price madam chair, what time remains for each side, please . The chair the gentleman has three minutes remaining. And the gentleman from california has 2 1 2 minutes remaining. Mr. Price thank you, madam chair. Im pleased to yield a minute and a half the vice chair of our conference, ms. Jenkins. The chair the gentlelady is recognized. Ms. Jenkins thank you, madam speaker. I thank the gentleman from georgia for yielding. Today there are still more than 12 million americans unemployed. Parents are taking home lower wages to support their children and families are paying more for everything from gas to groceries. For these americans, the recession never ended. If Government Spending was a key to Economic Growth and job creation, the economy would be booming right now. But instead last week we found out things are getting worse. We all know the problem. For four years we racked up trilliondollar deficits year after year adding another 1 trillion to the National Debt. Its not a partisan issue. We all agree we need to fix it. Serious problems call for serious discussions, and serious discussions require everyone to put their plan on the table. We took a solid step last week by requiring the senate to pass a budget for the first time in four years, but we must continue moving forward by requiring not just a budget but a plan that actually fixes the problem. We need to pass the require a plan act so the house, senate and even the white house are all forced to step away from Campaign Rhetoric and shortterm gimmicks, unlike the president s previous budget proposals, the plan act will require the president to finally tell the American People when and how his budget will achieve balance. Its time to get serious. Americans deserve better than gimmicks and Campaign Rhetoric. They deserve a plan. I yield back. The chair the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Takano madam chair, i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Price thank you, madam chair. I urge a rejection of this amendment and yield back the balance of my time. The chair the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Mr. Takano madam chair, i request a roll call vote. The chair pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california will be postponed. It is now in order to consider amendment number 2 printed in house report 1138. For what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition . Mr. Schrader amendment at the desk, madam chair. The chair the clerk will designate the amendment. The chair amendment number 2 printed in house report 1138 offered by the gentleman from oregon, mr. Schrader. The chair pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from oregon, mr. Schrader, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon. Mr. Schrader thank you, madam chair. I yield myself one minute. I am pleased to offer the only bipartisan amendment to this bill and maybe one of the few bipartisan amendments well see this congress. I hope not. This is actually an attempt to rectify some of the defisheses in the underlying bill. Deficiencies in the underlying bill. I dont agree with the findings. The lack of budget at this point in time is because of the fiscal cliff negotiations. Congress frankly is to blame for that. The president usually starts his budget november, december, and that was impossible. Also, i think theres little revisionist history regarding the debt that the president did inherit almost a half to 2 3 of that 1 trillion he inherited from previous administrations and previous congresses. There is a debt and deficit problem that needs addressing. The only bipartisan solution to that has been put forward by simpsonbowles. This has had widespread recognition by folks here in congress, folks outside of congress, business men and women as a possible solution to a longterm unified approach to our debt and deficit. The tenants of that of course deal with the tax expenditures that we deal with that and the Health Care Costs that are going up. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Schrader with that i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Price i claim time in opposition. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Price thanks, madam chair. I want to commend my colleague from oregon and colleagues that came together to submit this amendment as i believe it truly to be wellintentioned but i think it misses the mark. I think for two reasons specifically that it ought not be adopted by this body. First, it unnecessarily restricts the ability of the president to determine how he would balance the budget. Remember, the underlying bill doesnt tie the president s hands in any way. It simply says to the president , when you submit your budget to congress, just let us know when its going to balance. Its not going to balance within the period of time thats defined by the budget window, then tell us when its going to balance and tell us what youre going to do to make it to come into balance. The reason its important, madam chair, it doesnt make zero equal zero on a page somewhere. Its because its about the economy, to get the economy rolling again and get jobs being created, thats why its important. Secondly, this amendment would have the president build his balanced budget around a foundation that never balances. A lot of talk about simpsonbowles and i commend them for the wonderful work that they did. However, if you get down into the details of that, there are some things in there that just simply will not work. And the biggest thing is that it never gets to balance. So the underlying bill again, madam chair, is crafted very carefully so it gives the president the greatest amount of flexibility, to propose how he believes the budget ought to be balanced. And finally, maybe the most important thing about this, the inadequacy of this amendment, is that the president has already rejected the findings in the simpsonbowles commission. The president s already rejected it. His own commission that never mind, thats not the way we want to do it. We allow the president s the greatest amount of flexibility on how he would propose to balance a budget, something that hes never done, but we want to leave him with the greatest amount of flexibility so we ought to retain the underlying bill. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Schrader thank you, madam chair. Id like to yield one minute to my respected colleague from new york, mr. Gibson. The chair the gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Gibson well, thanks, madam chair. I want to thank my colleague, mr. Schrader, for offering this amendment. I rise in support of it. And madam chair, were only about three weeks away from the specter of sequestration. Always meant to be a forcing function for us to come together to get a grand agreement, and what this amendment says is that the president should use the framework, the simpsonbowles framework as a starting point to get the conversation going. The president said when he initiated that fiscal commission, quote, for far too long washington has avoided the tough choices necessary to solve all fiscal problems, and they wont be solved overnight but under the leadership im confident that the Commission Im establishing today will have a bipartisan conis he census to put america on a path toward fiscal responsibility, closed quote. We had an amendment inspired by simpsonbowles, although we modified it some. What im asking is that the president come forward and recognize this commission as a starting point so that once again we can come together, that we can address these unsustainable deficits. I ask my colleagues to support it. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Price i reserve the balance of our time. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Schrader id like to yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from virginia, mr. Wolf. The chair the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Wolf i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. America is broke. America is in trouble. And the simpsonbowles plan is the only framework out there that truly reforms Social Security and saves it for our children and grandchildren. When i go into high schools in my district and i ask students how many of you believe the Social Security system is sound . In the last four years not one senior has raised their hand. The seniors know more than the congress. Both the democrat, republican party, and more than the president. Just yesterday a number of seniors receiving Social Security and medicare benefits will increase by 40 over the next decade. In order to he preserve Social Security and save it for our children, the president used simpsonbowles as a starting point. He created the commission. It received bipartisan support. Then he walked away. Some members on both sides are afraid of this vote. You know what you ought to be afraid of . You ought to be afraid of facing your children and grandchildren and your constituents. When this country goes bankrupt and goes into decline. I thank the gentleman for offering the amendment. I strongly urge a unanimous yes vote. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from georgia. Mr. Price continue to reserve. The chair the gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Schrader thank you, madam speaker. Id like to yield one minute to the distinguished budget chair for democrats from maryland, mr. Chris van hollen. The chair the gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Van hollen thank you, madam chairman. I thank my colleague, mr. Schraderer, and his colleagues for offering this amendment. I support the overall framework of simpsonbowles. I said that many times. If you look at the balance in simpsonbowles between the cuts and the revenue, its something i think that is the model that we should be using in this body. I do want to submit for the record an analysis done by the center for budget policy priorities that shows exactly what that breakdown would be. I dont the chair covered under general rule. Mr. Van hollen i dont support every single recommendation within simpsonbowles. I think we have an Osama Bin Laden obligation to come up with an alternative cut. If he we dont like the revenue, we should come up with alternative revenues. With the simpsonbowl