[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8675-8679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                THE MANY CHORDS OF MAKING IT IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
  When we finish what sometimes may seem a complicated debate, where 
both sides can seemingly make sense when we have the time to reflect 
upon the week's work or the work and philosophies of the different 
political perspectives in this House, I believe it is very important to 
communicate with your colleagues, so let me be as clear as I can be.
  As I heard my friends on the other side of the aisle, one after one, 
claim that the Libyan war was the President's war, well, today, on June 
3, 2011, the President of the United States happens to be President 
Obama. Yet if you look at the Constitution of the United States, which 
provides provisions for the separation of powers, there is a section 
that articulates that the Congress, irrespective of any Presidential 
person in place, declares war.
  So I would ask my friends on the other side of the aisle: Would they 
have been as quick to rise to the floor on the Iraq war, which could be 
called the ``Bush war''? or the continued 10-year plus war in 
Afghanistan the ``Bush war''?
  When we discuss these issues for the American people, we have to be 
true to ourselves and the Constitution. There was a reason the Founding 
Fathers separated out the right to declare war. That reason, of course, 
was to protect you, the American people. When we send men and women 
into battle, it should be a deliberative process, but we should also 
have the right to defend ourselves.
  The initial attack in Afghanistan--that was the first act--was in 
response to the heinous and horrific attack of al Qaeda on the soil of 
the United States. From my perspective, the immediate response of 
President Bush was legitimate. The question becomes: What came 
afterwards? The Congress was never given the chance to declare war. 
Subsequently, there was a statutory discussion and vote that gave 
unending opportunities and authority for the war to go on and on and 
on.

                              {time}  1410

  Buried in the Afghanistan decision was the authority to go on and on 
and on. The sad part about it was that we did not go on in Afghanistan. 
We distracted our troops and went into a war that saw the large numbers 
of our soldiers lose their lives in a war that had actually never been 
declared by the United States of America and the United States 
Congress.
  We have something today in 2011 called the Arab Spring. But I don't 
think Americans understand that, and they, frankly, believe that we 
cannot promote democracy everywhere in the world. Policymakers 
understand the crucialness of what is going on in the Arab area as it 
relates to the geopolitics, the political structure of the world.
  But I know what Americans of goodwill do understand: the slaughter of 
a people. The slaughter and the misuse of power in Bahrain; the misuse 
of power in Egypt; the gruesome misuse of power to the extent that a 
mutilated body of a 13-year-old boy can be dumped in their parents' 
home in Syria; and, yes, the violence in Libya. Americans understand 
that and I understand it.
  So I applaud the President of the United States for going in in Libya 
to stop the horrific violence. He went in in coalition with our NATO 
troops. That same action occurred under President Clinton, going in 
with NATO, taking the lead in this instance, in the slaughter of 
Muslims in Kosova and the horrible wars in Bosnia.
  I happened to have been able to go on an initial inaugural mission 
into Bosnia--the former Yugoslavia--and Croatia, and I walked the 
streets of Sarajevo and I saw mothers who had not seen their sons for 
10 or 12 years and asked us where they were. It was a violent time.
  So the Libyan action by the President was an appropriate one. He 
happens to be a Democratic President. I applaud his action. But the 
Constitution is not labeled by Democratic or Republican. It has no 
provisions to exempt if you happen to be a Democrat with a Democratic 
President. So my values argue for consistency, and that is adhering to 
the Constitution.
  I believe Resolution 292, Mr. Boehner's resolution that was crafted 
in the last 24 hours, was a nice statement about a report. But I don't 
vote on actions on the floor out of contempt and dislike for anyone.
  Let me be very clear. I applaud President Barack Obama for the 
courage

[[Page 8676]]

that he has taken in moving forward to establish America's mark as a 
believer in democracy and justice and encouraging the people in the 
Arab States to stand up for their rights and to object and reject the 
oppressiveness of their regimes, and I hope that NATO becomes strategic 
in what they're doing so that we can be successful.
  But if we are going to be true to the Constitution of the United 
States that is, in fact, part of the document that we hold true, then 
we must hold any Commander in Chief to the same standard.
  The War Powers Resolution asks that the President of the United 
States come to the Congress within 60 days. The constitutional 
provision in article II requires that the Congress declare war. One 
could argue that we have not declared war on Arab States and we've not 
declared war on Libya. We're at war. We're at war because al Qaeda 
declares that they are at war with us. So it is a dicey circumstance.
  I, instead, voted for the action to occur under the War Powers 
Resolution that was just occurring today, a vote that we lost, a vote 
that I would have voted for under President Bush, under President 
Reagan, under President Carter, and with the opportunity, under 
President Clinton, as the wars proceeded to a long extent of time.
  However, we are dealing now in the backdrop of a failed resolution. 
But I voted because it is necessary to be consistent as to whether you 
believe the Constitution and the authority of the Congress and the 
separation of three branches is a valid one to protect the rights of 
the American people. And I believe that.
  But my message to General Qadhafi is this: If you have any sense of 
human dignity left, you will stop the murderous attacks on your people. 
I am sensitive enough to offer my sympathy to you for the loss of your 
family members because I believe in the value of human life. War is 
ugly. But every effort of peace that we have made has been one that 
you've ignored. Every effort that we have made, every step that we have 
taken toward peace you have ignored. You have arrogantly insisted on 
the world stage that you're in charge, while your country is in a state 
of confusion and disaster. You have opened the doors to the confusion 
and the violence of terrorist cells, al Qaeda and other ne'er-do-wells 
who desire no good to you or your people. You've allowed groups to, in 
essence, begin to spark so that the continued frustration of world 
leaders in trying to bring resolution continues; but, more importantly, 
the violence of all falls on the backs of innocent women and children, 
young boys and families in Libya.
  I feel a kinship to the Libyan people, as a human being and as 
someone whose heritage started on the continent of Africa. But the one 
good thing about America is that we care about all people no matter 
what background they come from, no matter what country. I know that 
because I've had the privilege of representing the United States in 
South and Central America, in Asia, on the continent of Africa, in the 
Mideast and Europe and other places maybe not mentioned--because we 
care.
  Mr. Qadhafi, I beg of you, as an African who has met with the 
President of South Africa, who knows that the African Union would like 
for you to cease and desist this violent attack on your own people, 
stand down. And I would ask, as I have asked before, leave the country. 
Let us find the kind of government that might, in fact, move Libya 
forward. And if your people decide that you should stay, then you 
should have a reformation and a change not only of mind but of heart. 
The violence does not get you anywhere and it is both insane and 
absurd.
  So I would hope that as this vote was taken, that it is not in any 
way, as was evidenced by the discussion in the debate by the 
Republicans, it is not Mr. Obama's war. He is the President of the 
United States and the Commander in Chief, and it was a determination to 
go in to stop the murderous acts of those who were killing innocent 
people.
  Read your early history. The early Founders of this Nation in the 
Revolutionary War against Great Britain had other countries come to the 
aid of this little, tiny, baby series of States that called themselves 
the United States of America. It has been the world order for centuries 
that big countries or those who are able will go to the aid of those 
who are not able. And this vote today should not in any way deny the 
respect that is owed to the President of the United States. This is a 
vote premised on the Constitution and reflecting the desires of the 
American people, that we do not live in a dictatorship and that if 
you're a Member of the United States Congress, come here and do your 
job.

                              {time}  1420

  And our job is defined by the Constitution.
  I believe that our duty was partly handled today, and I would 
encourage our President, as he has done over the stages of the Afghan 
war and now the continued redeploying in Iraq of our soldiers, and I 
would add that we are in an engagement of discussion that gives us the 
roadmap for redeploying or moving toward a resolution in Libya.
  I would also join in the debate that I've just made on the question 
of Libya with the need for the immediate review and designation of time 
for redeployment of our troops out of Afghanistan, and the President 
has indicated that he expects that that redeployment will begin in July 
2011.
  My plea to the President is, as we look at these economic times, when 
America is crying out for jobs, when the middle class feels splashed 
and unattended to, when others believe our jobs are not creeping 
offshore and overseas, but fleeting and flying and literally by way of 
speed that is faster than sound, it is time now to find the mutual 
courage to say to the people of Afghanistan that we have provided a 
duly elected government, a parliament. We have laid down our lives. We 
have built up the Afghan national security forces, which I was 
introduced to in the many times that I've been into Afghanistan, all 
parts, including Kabul and Kandahar and places beyond. I know there are 
good people there.
  So I'd ask the President of the United States to ramp up the 
redeployment, bring home 50,000, 100,000 troops and begin to let those 
troops rebuild their lives. Invest in military readiness and 
preparedness and find a closure to the presence of United States boots 
on the ground in Afghanistan.
  To President Karzai, I ask you to stand up and be counted, to 
initiate policies that would end the poppy growing and heroin 
production, to allow girls and boys to go to school, to produce your 
teachers and lawyers, doctors and scientists, generals, captains and 
leaders of government. I would ask President Karzai to provide the 
funding and resources for your Afghan national security forces. I would 
ask him to weed out the Taliban that is destroying his own people in 
the mountains of Afghanistan. And, yes, I would ask whether or not it 
is even possible that all of us could claim the value of peace, and by 
doing that, it would not be non-courageous to stand up and accept the 
fact that we have won in Afghanistan and we've won in Iraq, and we 
thank our soldiers.
  And so I'm on the floor today thanking my colleagues because last 
week we voted 419 votes to declare a National Day of Honor for our 
returning troops from combat areas, more than we've ever done in any 
other war, and to celebrate them all over America. So I am not asking 
for America to leave any battle place with her head held down. Our 
Vietnam vets, during a very tumultuous time and a war that we disagreed 
with, should have been welcomed home for their service, for their duty, 
for the reason that they took up arms--not of their own accord, but 
because a President called them.
  I believe America learned her lesson as she focuses on trying to help 
our returning combat veterans with jobs and education and health care. 
We know that we should honor them. So with the amendment that I passed 
on the floor, 419 votes, I hope the American people will call their 
Congressperson and thank them, but also ask that that proclamation be 
declared and that we have a National Day of Honor to welcome our 
soldiers home from all around the world in combat places.

[[Page 8677]]

  As we welcome them home, I think it is extremely important to 
recognize that America has a number of concerns. Those concerns are the 
tragedies that we face, the horrific loss of life in Joplin, 
Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, all the flooding that has gone on. People in 
the United States are suffering.
  So what does it mean to raise the debt ceiling? What it means to 
raise the debt ceiling is not what Americans believe--there they go 
again, spending, spending, spending. What it actually means is that 
we're saying to working Americans and middle class Americans, we feel 
deeply about your inability to pay your mortgage, to pay tuition costs. 
If you have one or two credit cards with those old interest rates of 
19, 20, 21 percent that we've been able to bring down somewhat because 
of legislation we've passed, we understand that. If you don't have a 
job, if someone in your life doesn't have a job, we understand that. We 
understand folks that don't have a job, but they don't have a job, a 
home, a car, a place to live.
  The debt ceiling actually is the ability to pay our bills. It is not 
the ability to spend and find ways to spend money unnecessarily; it is 
the ability to create the jobs that America is crying out for. The 9 
percent is not a reflection so much of the President of the United 
States not desiring and working hard to create jobs. Let me remind my 
colleagues that it was Democrats and the President that helped to, in 
essence, provide a safety net for the automobile industry. A lot of 
people complained about that. But we were in the middle of the fight 
not to pay special interests off; we were in the fight to save the auto 
industry of the United States of America.
  It was the right thing to do. Two big reasons: one, the 
infrastructure of automobile building was car dealerships across 
America that had thousands, millions of workers selling American cars. 
You let that industry collapse, and you would let, in essence, some 
small town in America literally have no economy. It might have been 
that the car dealership was the largest business in that small area.
  I'll add three. The second is we obligated the industry to pay us 
back, and we have been paid back. We, the United States taxpayers, have 
been paid back. And you know what else? They have actually brought jobs 
back to the United States of America. If I wasn't in this very august 
place, I would say hallelujah, celebrate, applaud: jobs have been 
brought back to the United States. Ford, of course, did not take those 
resources. We applaud them. Some of you are buying some new smart cars 
by GM. Some of you are buying new smart cars by Chrysler--better gas 
mileage, got a new attitude.
  We gave the American innovative genius the opportunity to survive. We 
allowed inventiveness to thrive. We built on Henry Ford's genius, and 
we let it spread around. And as well, as we developed jobs for monies 
that the taxpayers invested, and we put the right kind of restraint for 
you to be reinvested.
  The debt ceiling means that it allows us, the government, to create 
jobs for you. You turn the economy and invest back. We then provide the 
protection for you through jobs or maybe unemployment insurance or 
maybe Social Security or maybe Medicare, or maybe when you're at your 
lowest end. When you have lost loved ones in a natural disaster that 
you cannot comprehend, it is the cause of the Federal Government to be 
able to pay the bills, to be able to come to a place where there is no 
fire station, no houses of worship, no hospital, no schools, no homes, 
for us to come and to be of help.

                              {time}  1430

  I don't know how we can abdicate our responsibilities. I don't know 
how we can frivolously play with raising the debt ceiling. I don't know 
how Republicans can put on the floor of the House a bill under 
suspension, which requires a two-thirds vote, to make a joke of helping 
the people in Joplin, in Alabama, up and down the Mississippi and 
whatever other disaster may come. How do you make a joke with that? How 
in essence do you in the face of the frustration of those who have 
suffered? I have not experienced a tornado, but I have experienced and 
walked the streets during hurricanes. I have seen in my own town the 
pain. I have come up to doors and knocked on persons' doors where 
someone has laid dying because they have just gone through a process 
where all the lights are out and they're on oxygen. I've seen seniors 
in homes that cannot be repaired. I've seen people lose items that can 
never be replaced. And so that is what your Federal Government does. 
And do you mean to tell me we would make a mockery of raising the debt 
ceiling so that America can simply pay her bills?
  There is a value to reducing the deficit. And might I just say 
something with all good intention. It is always the person who has got 
money in their pocket, who's got a wallet full of credit cards that 
they can pay for, that can smile when you're talking about Social 
Security and Medicare and has an uncaring spirit. Because it doesn't 
matter to them. It is the philosophy that has not made this country 
great, the philosophy of ``I've got mine, you get yours.''
  Young people, I have gotten my college education. I don't care 
whether you can go to college or not. I don't even care if you get a 
job. ``I've got mine.'' That's not what this Nation is all about. I 
will not tell the people of Missouri, Alabama and places around, ``I'm 
okay in Houston. My house is still functioning, the hurricane season 
hasn't hit me yet, so I'm not going to worry about your tragedy.'' Is 
that America? Is that how we built the greatness of this country? Did 
we ignore our returning troops coming home from World War II? Or did we 
say to them, ``We're giving you the GI Bill''?
  The Democrats gave the second GI Bill. President Truman gave the 
first. We gave with President Obama the greatest GI Bill in the history 
of America except the one that was passed by President Truman. We said 
that we care. We built on the values of a country that always rises to 
the occasion. And because of that, those people who desire goodness and 
greatness, they look to the United States of America. I am glad, 
regardless of whatever faith we believe in, whatever our background is 
or whoever's our neighbor, that we're a country that cares. And I will 
tell you just if you follow what your grandmother says, being a good 
Samaritan will always come back to you. Being kind to someone will 
always come back to you.
  Therefore, I believe that it is imperative that we lift the debt 
ceiling for America to pay her bills. I am tired of smashing the middle 
class. I am tired of leaving them on their own. I am tired of them 
watching jobs go overseas when we have such a brilliant population of 
innovative, creative, loving people. We overcame some of the hills and 
valleys in America. We went through the civil rights movement and the 
era where those who were of a different color suffered under the 
devastating indignity of segregation. America rose to the occasion. It 
is not perfect, but we recognize the value of equality of all. You're 
not relegated to the back of the bus. You're not dismissed from hotels 
and restaurants. You are open and allowed to travel on America's 
transportation modes. You even can be accepted into colleges on your 
own merit and not on quotas. And yes, if you apply for a job, the laws 
at least protect you, that no matter what your background, that you're 
given an equal opportunity.
  America has traversed some of those difficult valleys. We respect 
women and a woman's equality. We are able to say that women can be 
pilots and Presidents and Senators and doctors and heads of 
organizations and engineers and train conductors and anything a little 
girl can admire and aspire to be. That's the kind of America that is 
understanding of the crisis that these people face.
  And I'm sorry that the debate on the debt ceiling has been 
characterized as Democratic and Republican and these are the deficit-
cutters and these are the wild-eyed spending-spreers going into the 
shopping malls of America and grabbing things off shelves. It is 
important to note that one of the greatest

[[Page 8678]]

Presidents that we have admired--my little girl used to call him 
Grandpa--Ronald Reagan asked Congress to lift the debt ceiling in 1983, 
not because he was a spendthrift but because he understood the 
responsibility of paying America's bills. And, my friends, I remind 
you, can we not pay America's bills?
  I want to discuss how we do that, how we lift the condition of 
Americans. We do it like we've done it before. We make it in America. 
Now I like one part of it that says, We make it in America. Everybody 
needs to have a chance to make it in America. The young people that are 
graduating in 2011 should have the right to make it in America. By the 
way, might I just say, congratulations to all of the graduates across 
America. From the preschooler that's going to kindergarten, to the 
elementary child that puts on the robe and is inspired, to the middle 
school and to the high school graduates of whom I will go home to this 
weekend and greet any number of high school graduates in my 
constituency who are making that first leap of faith, to the college 
graduates who are feeling so empowered to graduate in such a great 
Nation, to those who are getting graduate degrees, our new lawyers and 
doctors and business persons, our physicists and chemists and 
biologists, the geniuses that will go into the laboratories of America.
  Congratulations to all of you.
  That is why I believe it is important to make it in America. The 
Democrats have launched a major initiative. I wish we could get our 
friends to join us in a real jobs bill, of which the President of the 
United States has committed to introducing a real jobs bill, to make it 
in America. Many of us in our hearings will ask the witnesses that 
represent the United States Government, we want you to buy America and 
make it in America. And I'm not an isolationist. I believe America has 
been enormously generous in buying goods from other countries, proud of 
them. We're glad to help developing nations. We're glad to support 
microcredits and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation that 
allows investments overseas, but we don't want our jobs to be taken 
overseas. I don't want to see teenagers with double-digit unemployment, 
particularly in the African American community. I don't want rural 
communities to suffer because of the lack of employment. I dread this 
coming summer when there's no money for summer jobs for young people 
who are trying to save for going into school in the fall. Sometimes the 
only resources a family has may be the summer job of a teenager. But we 
have always encouraged teenagers to learn how to work in the decorum of 
the workplace. Just look what we're doing now.
  For that very reason, can I give a challenge to this Nation, can I 
give a challenge to the businesses, can I give a challenge to corporate 
America: Bring some young people, maybe unpaid, to be able to be 
interns.

                              {time}  1440

  City governments, maybe unpaid, bring some young people into your 
offices. Teach them something else but hanging out on the streets. Let 
them see an adult role model working. But we might not have to have 
that kind of plea if we could make it in America again.
  In the 18th Congressional District in Texas and all around America, 
we're going to be honoring the individuals who have manufacturing 
businesses. I would ask you, colleagues, to go and shake the hand of a 
manufacturer who's making something, who's struggling to keep the doors 
open, who's making a widget or a gadget. That's what we're talking 
about.
  Solar panels. Wouldn't it be a shock if we went across America and 
began to make our own solar panels, our windmills of course, that 
create wind energy. Unfortunately, I hate to tell you that that 
equipment, that kind of technology we get from overseas. If I wasn't on 
the floor of the House, I would hold my head down.
  When has America needed to depend on someone else, something that was 
their idea or that they could make better? Again, as I said, I don't 
mind being part of the world family, where we share and we buy items 
and we help develop economies, but not to the point where all our jobs, 
like I said, are taking wings and flying away. What kind of America is 
that for our young people that are graduating in 2011?
  So I want us to focus on building buses, building submarines, and 
major aircraft carriers, building bridges, freeways, improving dams, 
building the rails, or the trains for high-speed rail, of which I am an 
avid supporter, and requires an investment in this country to be able 
to be fiscally conservative as well as to ensure that we use our energy 
resources right.
  To have an energy policy as well that speaks about all of the energy 
resources, to do them effectively, as the President has articulated; 
and to make sure that if we are using fossil fuels, whether it's oil or 
gas, that we are doing it here in the United States and that we are in 
fact doing it safely and securely.
  That we appreciate wind and we make the equipment or the kind of 
technology right here in the United States. Solar, that we make all of 
our panels. Natural gas, that we do it safely and securely, and that we 
create jobs that way. That we bring down the cost of energy. That we 
stop calling upon the American people to take $5 out of their pocket 
and put a few ounces, if you will, of gas in their car.
  That we begin to recognize the pain of America, and the way that we 
recognize the pain of America is that we begin to go aggressively 
toward the American people with solutions. And the demagoguery of 
raising the debt ceiling, and I'm not going to vote on it unless you 
burden it down with draconian cuts that will end Medicare as we know it 
on all seniors, eliminate Social Security, destroy Medicaid and throw 
it to the winds so that disabled children suffering from autism or 
those who have other diseases cannot be taken care of, that's not the 
America that has made us so great.
  It is one that pulls up our pants and puts on our shoes, pulls up our 
skirts and gets empowered by the joy of work and helping others. And 
when we did that, we were able to invest in this Nation.
  I will not vote on a debt ceiling increase that destroys Medicare as 
we know it. And I will not vote on a debt ceiling increase that 
destroys Social Security, or Medicaid, or violates the premise that 
this country owes a debt of gratitude to veterans and returning 
soldiers. That's what my friends on the other side of the aisle are 
trying to sell the American people, a bill of goods. A bill of goods 
that the philosophy that is anti to President Reagan, who asked for the 
increase in the debt ceiling himself, that we cannot count and speak at 
the same time. I believe America is greater than that.
  We can bring down the debt with a very meticulous plan over a period 
of time, the same way you save for college or plan to bring down your 
debt, or stop using credit cards. We can do that. But at the same time, 
we can pay America's bills. And we cannot leave one American alongside 
of the road, languishing and reaching out for help, and we say there is 
no room at the inn.
  Where is the America that is a Good Samaritan? Where is America that 
sent young men to war, World War II, and if you talk to any of that 
generation they say, I didn't know all the facts, but I was glad to be 
part of what America was standing for, helping those who were 
languishing alongside the road.
  We have had any number of conflicts, and some that I have agreed or 
disagreed with; but the premise was, whether we had the agreement of 
the American people on the premise of that conflict, it was to help 
someone along the road.
  I am now calling in a clarion cry for Americans to help America. I am 
calling on this Congress for this Congress to help America. I am 
calling on the President, as a friend of the American people, to help 
America. And to do that, whatever is heard that will now come behind 
me, and disjangled chords will sound attractive, and it will be about 
who is going to burden our grandchildren and the long-term debt, but it 
will not be infused with values by many of our faiths.
  Those of us of a Christian faith and many other faiths have an 
element of

[[Page 8679]]

the document under which they worship that talks about the Good 
Samaritan and charity and love. And albeit that you are asking why on 
the floor of the House, it is because the infusion of those tenets were 
part of the design of this Nation when we organized around the concept 
of forming a more perfect Union. And when the Declaration of 
Independence said that we seek to pursue happiness, we hold these 
truths self-evident that all of us are created equal, we don't abandon 
that just because it happens to be June 3, 2011. We are able to keep 
those values, and those values have kept this country on a straight and 
productive path.
  All the noise that comes sometimes in a confused sound to the ears of 
the American people, if as Members of Congress we can declare our 
commitment to helping the American people and keeping the values of the 
American people in place, and that of our faith, that is to help, to 
love, and to present charity to those who are in need, there is no 
limit to the greatness of America. And there is no limit to the 
restoration of making it in America, both in terms of our success and 
survival, and then in terms of making things that we need and putting 
America back to work.
  Madam Speaker, I am grateful for being yielded this time by the 
Speaker of the House, and I am grateful for the opportunity to live in 
a Nation where disagreement does not result, in this century and even 
in the past century, of taking up arms against each other. I am 
grateful that maybe in the debate that we have on the floor of the 
House at some point my colleagues can hear not disjangled sounds of 
discord and disrespect and dislike, but they can actually hear the 
chords of reason, my friends, that to pay for our bills as you pay for 
yours, we must do the right thing: raise the debt ceiling, and to be 
able to preserve Medicare as we know it, and not to destroy it as it is 
being destroyed by the budget proposals of the Republican Party.
  It is necessary, if you will, to be able to come together and to 
listen in one voice, finally, that we act to help America.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________