Managed to be in default on small bond issues by doing things almost unthinkable in terms of financial management. When you talk about prematurely emptying out Pension Funds to pay bondholders, that is not something you do if youre not already bankrupt. When you talk about taking money dedicated to one bondholder and shift it to pay another bondholder, that cant go on for very long. I cant tell you at what point they run out of those extraordinary and very unhealthy kinds of tools but it cant go on forever and restructuring authority has to be in place enough in advance to restructure to meet may and july as they come. So i think the First Quarter is a meaningful period if the deadline, the speak et set for the house to act is very important. We are willing to work with everyone and anyone that approaches us with the intention of solving the problem. We know that there is going to have to be oversight with restructuring. I do believe doing something on the medicate reimbursement is imp
About the president s 2017 budget. He answered questions about puerto ricos debt crisis, tax code reform and a proposal for a new tax on oil. This is two hours, ten minutes. The committee will come to order. Todays hearing is on president obamas budget for fiscal year 2017. I particularly want to thank secretary lew for providing for appearing before us this morning and providing his time for us. While there are some hints about some of the details in advance, Congress Officially received the president s Budget Proposal yesterday. And as has been the case particularly under this administration, what we received was not a practical vision for the future. Weve going to have to have order here. As has too often been the case, what we received was a not a practical vision for the future but designed to sewuency constituencies. He looks to raise taxes on hard working americans, including some special new regressive taxes that are being packaged as, quote, fees unquote. With all the revenue
Way. Yesterday we made progress advancing two of the major components of the u. N. Resolution. The trucks are lined up. The permissions are being granted. They should flow today or tomorrow. In the wee hours of friday morning, we agreed that the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid will begin this weekend. First to the areas where it is most urgently needed, then all those in need throughout the country, particularly in the besieged areas. The u. N. Has said that the trucks are loaded and ready to go. We established a task force which has met already for the first time in a geneva, and will report regularly on the progress to guarantee the delivery of this aid. The issg also agreed to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities to begin in one weeks time. Why a week . For the simple reason that the modalities have to be worked out. And people have to be communicated to in order to not have it start with failure. This will apply with any and all parties within syria, with the exce
Exactly that. So im grateful to be here. Im also grateful for the opportunity to talk with a room of leaders who have a tremendous opportunity to have impact on behalf of or our nations children. So i know were going to get to a q a, so i wont speak for long, but i wanted to first try to frame a bit about our progress that weve made over the last seven years, some of the challenges that we face and the opportunities, the tremendous opportunities ahead. Since the beginning of the administration, we have seen significant reductions in the dropout rate. Even in this room knows last year we had the highest Graduation Rate from high school that weve ever had as a country. Thats thanks to leadership from folks in this room. [applause] much of that improvement has been driven by reductions in the dropout rate for africanamerican and Latino States in particular. That is a very encouraging sign. It is encouraging sign we have tens of thousands of more students with access than before the admini
It is the Prime Ministers first visit and the first visit since 1977 from a Prime Minister of canada. Chuck grassley said his committee will not take up a Supreme Court nominee until a new president is elected and sworn in. The committee met today. That is coming up next on cspan2. Then Charles Bolden testifies about his agencys 2017 budget request. And later a discussion on the use of executive power. Join cspan friday at 1 30 p. M. Eastern for the Funeral Service for former first lady nancy reagan. First lady michele obama, and former president george bush and laura bush will attend the funeral. Ms. Reagan will be buried next to her husband at the library. Live coverage on cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org. The republicans are saying they will not vote on any nominee for the Supreme Court that is sent in them. Senator grassley is the chair and senator leahy is the leadcrack on lead democrat on the committee. [inaudible conversations] i cant officially start this meeting until we get