leads us you are a mystery but not a puzzle profound but not in comprehensible you are loving patient and longsuffering you are all things that we are not but need to be you don't make promises to forget th lawmakers to your ennis capable presence keep them from thinking that you are absent from our world or disinterested in it enable them to feel you in their midst as they grapple with the problems of our time we pray in the name of him who promised never to forsake the clerk read a communication to the senate washington d c january thirtieth two thousand and eight to the senate and the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate i hereby appoint animal benjamin l card and  minutes of the control of the republicans the next thirty minutes under control the majority without objection so order mr president we were able late last night to work out something on feis a fifteen day extension there's a path forward we're going to try very quickly to get a an agreement that we can move forward on this i had a meeting in my office at six o'clock last night following that meeting i called the republican leader and i think that we have a way of moving forward on this legislation that would be one that would be agreed upon with by senators bond rockefeller leahy and specter so that we can complete that a lot of that legislation i think will probably take a good long day to do that but i think that would be all that would take and i hope we can get that done and very soon i do not want to wait and whatever we do whether we do something or nothing i am i do not want to wait until the last minute we hear this is something we need to do i think there would be everyone interest to get that to the house as quickly as we can so that we can move forward on a conference to send something to the present that he can review and again i we have the stimulus package we have to deal with that and we're going to do that but i'm going to and that's why me now spent last night that they were going to have to have some do some work on monday we're going to vote on monday they will be early in the day but we will have votes on monday and whatever we're working on him and try to work monday so that we can have some votes monday night so there will be likely more than one vote monday night and tuesday we're going to have to work we really do need to complete this work on the floor intelligence legislation quickly and whatever we do on the stimulus we also need to do that quickly again  whether we come up with our own package here in the senate whether we accept that the house is not or do nothing it's not fair to the american people and the other body and the president not to take action that would be fairly quick and we're going t do that both dealing with the fight for legislation and the stimulus package spread of republican leaders recognize that based on a majority leader's representations that we're going to move forward and make our best effort to finish the job i agreed to  the fifteen day extension last night is a man of his word and i know that we will do everything we can to wrap that important legislation up it's a rare opportunity for a bipartisan accomplishment it came out of the intelligence committee thirteen to t o it is the rockefeller bond proposal it is very important to our country and i know the majority leader shares my view that we need to act in order to act on land and commend him for  his decision to try to move this forward as rapidly as possible leadership time is reserved under the previous order there will be a period of mourning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each mr president senator from tennessee is recognized mr president i rise in morning business today to talk about the so called economic economic stimulus package they will be dealing with and this body over the next few weeks i think the president knows that it's very seldom that i come to this floor to speak i try to only speak when i have something to say and i realize that today i'm probably a voice in the wilderness and probably will be over the next few weeks like many americans all americans that are familiar with being around railroad i know a freight train when i see it coming and i realize that the action that was taken yesterday in the house by overwhelming majority sending over to our body stimulus package to deal with know that contrary to much of what the american public thinks there are many things that happen on this floor that actually show greatness of this body and brightness of individuals i've seen on up and thank them for taking the positions they did even if it was a private position to make something good happen i've seen other senators take politically courageous votes that were maybe not in their own best political interest but were in the country's interests and i've tried to in those occasions when i recognize that to go up and to thank them for what they have done and then on the other hand i've also seen  when we in this body does battle to the political winds and do things that parks pedia it because they are expedient even though in our hearts we know that it's really not the best thing for our country today all across america there are young people young children gathered in classrooms and they're learning in those classrooms things that will equip them to be productive in life they're learning not just about facts and figures but they're also learning about character they have teachers that they look up to they have parents hopefully that they go home to and look up to coaches and others sunday school teachers and hopefully some of the people that they look up to from time to time are us in this body i know that right now in our country we're going through tremendous economic turmoil as it relates to the markets in general and i think most of us know that that's due to excesses that have taken place in the marketplace and that in our country and in this world we have business cycles that exist and that's what happens in a free market society like we have those excesses work themselves out and over time we begin building again i know in the process of these excesses that in some ways are beyond the control of the average citizen there are people in this country that are hurting and i know they are in my heart goes out to people across this country that find themselves in economic situations that in many cases are beyond their control they have to do with markets they have to do with the way that we ourselves have conducted ourselves as it relates to fiscal policy they have to do with things that are happening in other parts of the world and i truly feel for people who won't go home at night with tremendous economic distress i'm also always happy just honestly always happy  americans receive back refunds from the federal government that's a good thing and i'm happy for people when that occurs and i really mean that but in this backdrop i must say that i found it so odd that today in america we would consider a stimulus package a package that in essence is built on sprinkling money a matter around america sprinkling money amount around america and then encouraging people to quickly spend that money to create an economic stimulus in this country and i doubt there are i doubt there are many people in this body and there may be some and i don't want to in any way criticize anybody because i know there are some who may believe that the stimulus package it came up from the house yesterday really is going to do any good there are some and i understand that but i bet there are not many in this body that believe that sprinkling money around america and asking people to spend it is going to do much is going to do much to affect the long term status of this economy but what i see happening is all of a sudden in the name of bipartisanship and i want to say that i have been excited to see bipartisanship taken up and i want to know that go on the record that i have exercised as you have mr president bipartisanship in many cases to try to make something good happen but in the name of bipartisanship what has happened is we've come what's come out of the house is a bipartisan bill in the name of economic stimulus that to me is nothing more and i hate to be this crass nothing more than political stimulus i hope that this body i hope that this body will have the responsibility and the character to deal with our economic situations over the long haul and it may be that this body takes up this stimulus package and it may be that this body makes changes and it may be that this body actually passes a stimulus package that sampler to what came out of the house but to me what i see in this package is nothing but a political stimulus aimless to to make the american people think that we as a body are doing something to actually call the economy to be stronger and so at this moment i fear i'm going through one of those moments where i'm less encouraged about what might happen but i'm hoping i'm hoping that somehow or another we will deal with this in an appropriate way i think all of us know know that our country that way to get they are have been physically reckless over the last several years and i think that we know that generations who come after us will be dealing with the bronze of our actions not to be misunderstood i'm a strong believer in low taxes and creating a structure in this country that people can count on to move ahead and to make and make investments but with that has to be the reality that spending has to be under control and yet there's always a reason in this body and in the other body always a reason to spend money that we don't have back and go back inside example after example after example and for some reason i sent that today we're in another one of those situations i know that this package is going to change and i know that some of the components of this package cannot be calculated exactly this way but what i would like to say is that if you take one hundred fifty billion dollars and spent money today i look at these pages on the floor who come here so excited about their work i want them to know that actually we in this body will never deal in my generation with paying with one hundred fit paying for the hundred fifty million dollars but the next generation my doubt it would be actually be three hundred twenty nine billion dollars in twenty years at present rights and ended generation after that seven hundred and twenty seven hundred twenty two billion dollars mr president i know that my time is is drawing to close and i know that i'm probably a voice in the wilderness and i'm very discouraged about the the wind that  y blowing at this time and i'm very disk about a package that i think many people if not most in this body doubt is going to have any long term effect on our kind of me and so i would just ask that my colleagues consider this my colleagues that i enjoy serving with that number one we call this package what it is a political package a political stimulus package that we began today lying in a bipartisan way with the tough decisions that we have to make and if there are anomalies out there that we need to deal with where people truly are being hurt let's deal with it that we adopt the bill the conrad drag gregg bill to truly deal with long term entitlements and that we ask the administration when they bring their budget for a film february fourth to bring forth a real budget that lays out to the american people the deficit that we will have to deal with in the future this country has been built on sacrifice is been built on us on generations on for us making tough decisions and making sacrifices and i hope that this body in a bipartisan way will do this thing do the same mr president thank you for this time  mr president senator from new hampshire is written mr president let me begin my remarks this morning by addressing the points made in the close of senator corker's remarks he talked about the need to look at some of our long term budget problems social security medicare even our tax structure areas where we can see that the tax code isn't as simple or straightforward as would want it to be where we know there are imbalances in the amount that medicare there is taking in and what it's going to have to pay for word for younger generations that will be retiring these are tough and important long term problems we need to deal with and senator corker mentioned bipartisan legislation that i've co sponsored senator gregg of new hampshire and of also led the effort for a bipartisan commission that looks hard at these issues but doesn't just prepare a report actually prepares legislative recommendations that will be brought to congress that will get an up or down vote and sometimes that kind of an approach is is the best way of dealing with what appear to be intractable problems because it cannot just develop consensus but in some ways force congress to take action even if short term political issues might discourage action so i hope that's an approach that will be adopted i hope it's an approach that will make an impact because as i've spoken here on the floor and at home in new hampshire these are long term issues that have to be dealt with and it takes leadership about it it also takes consensus the one thing we also have consensus on in the country right now and certainly in new hampshire is that we've we've witnessed a weaker economy over the last six to twelve months and new hampshire just as in any other part of the country that's felt first by by families by working families who see the slower growth of families that feel the pinch of higher energy prices and families that see credit tightening and are struggling to deal with that slow down where the strongest country in the world the strongest economy in the world but that doesn't make us immune from the economic cycle and when we see an economic slowdown we understand that we can't wearily turn the economy around instantly but we need to take action we need to lay the groundwork for near term economic growth and the groundwork for long term economic growth and i think that's what we need to focus on as we debate an economic package here in the united states senate we've begun to act with a housing modernization bill called f h a modernization that will help states and help homeowners  modify their mortgages stay in their homes and deal with the slow down and real estate prices and and the impact of the credit crisis is having on homeownership we passed that bill in the senate last month the house has also pass version this is an area where we need to act and act quickly to resolve the differences and send it to the president for signature and the issue of timeliness is going to come back on us again and again as we debate this economic package because the one thing we understand and know about any economic package is that if it's going to have an impact it needs to be done in a timely way and should focus on the new york term it should include provisions that we believe will have an immediate impact on investment in growth and it should be temporary we know we have to deal with long term problems that the senator from tennessee spoke about but we also understand the impact the slowdown is having we can put together a package that meets all these criteria that's focused on the next twelve months but that encourages investment and an economic growth  also that's done in a timely way which is the main provisions of an economic growth package be a trigger it should put money into the pockets of families and do it through a tax rebate people pay taxes at the end of the day every every dollar of revenue that's collected by the federal government ultimately started with an individual a family a worker whether it's excise tax on gasoline income taxes even the taxes we levy on businesses ultimately are passed through to consumers and the products and services those corporations sell people pay taxes and i think it's no mistake to allow family to keep a little bit more of what they earn to give them a rebate over the next twelve months in order to help deal with those energy prices help deal with their mortgage payments or help invest in things that will make for a better quality of life for them and their children that needs to be part of this growth package business investment needs to be a part of this growth package in in new hampshire that means small businesses they provide the jobs they cover their employees with health care of they're the ones that are responsible for most of the the investment in new hampshire and across the country and i think one of the most important provisions that's being discussed in this growth package are ways to encourage those small businesses across the country to make new investments in their plan to improve productivity make investments in their employees and create new jobs and jobs aren't created here in washington they're created across the  country businesses large and small that put up capital take a risk hire that new worker train that new worker that's where the difference is made and this package needs to include very real and meaningful incentives for those businesses to spend build create new jobs and improve productivity if we're going to have any impact though we can't just stand in washington and debate we need to act this has to be done in a timely way this can be done over a four month or five month or a six month per track the debate if it is by the time we get anything done at all it will be too late too late for it to have any impact well congress doesn't often act in a very timely way mr president we know that we understand that the key to getting  soon is to work in a bipartisan way that means compromise that means everyone won't have everything in the in the package that they might like to have we can't have five hundred thirty five members of congress all writing their own economic growth package and we do have the basis for a bipartisan agreement in legislation that has passed the other body very strong bipartisan vote democrats and republicans supporting the two co principles that i talked about tax relief for families and individuals and encouraging business investment for small businesses and larger firms as well or creating jobs every day that bipartisan approach has to be the approach that we take here in the senate and we all understand that the rules of the senate allow unlimited debate unlimited amendment but this is one case where we need to exercise a little bit of discipline  we need to exercise a little bit of common sense we can't have every senator offering three and four and five different provisions to this piece of legislation it will collapse under under the weight it will delay its implementation it will delay its passage and make it much more difficult for anything we do to have a positive impact so i hope as the debate moves forward that we work to keep this package in line with a bipartisan agreement that that's bene stablished a framework that ben put together that doesn't mean that we won't have the opportunity to debate the package and even to make some modifications but if we go astray if we let our own egos in our own personal needs drive this debate we won't get legislation done and the american people will look at the institution of congress yet again and be frustrated at its inability to act in a the distinguished senator from new hampshire and expand on the theme that he spoke to along with the senator from tennessee earlier when i was younger and was going to college i thought i wanted to become a doctor but that was until egg counted organic chemistry and physics and persuaded me that maybe there was something else out there for me to do but i did learn about the hippocratic oath which is what the medical profession takes this both basically to first do no harm and i think that ought to be one of the things that guides us as we look at to how do we deal with this impending challenge with regard to our economic situation here and in the united states i do think that we have started off on a in a very strong way and would like to express my congratulations to speaker pelosi republican leader boehner and secretary of treasury hank paulson for the work they have done which that with as close to universal approval on a bipartisan basis as you can get in the house of representatives or what the speaker called targeted temporary and timely economic stimulus that will hopefully allow us to avoid a recession and of course all of the fallout that would result from that including people out of work and obviously negatively affecting the quality of life for a lot of americans including my constituents back in texas i do think we have to look at this is both a short term issue and a long term issue and i hope the kind of bipartisan cooperation and the the movement we've seen will start a trend and i'm encouraged as you've already heard by some of the work that's being done on a long term basis by senator kent conrad and senator judd gregg both the chairman and the ranking member of the budget committee on which i serve to deal with the impending long term crisis of entitlement spending if we don't do anything in the next thirty years the only thing that we will have money to spend on here in the as as part of the federal government is medicaid medicare and and other entitlement spending plus interest on the national debt that's it we won't have any money to spend on national defense on research innovation education other things that are very important to the continued prosperity in future of our country and that is a looming disaster out on the horizon that i hope that we will respond to we can't afford to take the year off here in congress because we know we're in an election  cycle we have a presidential election coming up in in november and a third of this body will stand for election as well but as a the republican leader senator mcconnell has pointed out we've had a an election every two years since seventeen and this country we're going to have another one in november and we can't use that as an excuse for simply sitting back and becoming spectators rather than active participants in trying to solve the challenges on the economic security and all other fronts on both a near term basis and a long term basis course are other things i think we need to do to be able to restore public confidence  in the united states congress and government and one of the things that you'll be hearing more about is a proposal that will be making for a two year budget the idea being that as we saw last year that we're on an annual budget we basically spend all year and in the appropriations process with very little opportunity for oversight of this huge bureaucracy the the executive branch of the federal government and without oversight we know that bad things can happen perhaps with oversight bad things can happen but we can't be asleep at the switch when it comes to the oversight responsibilities we have for the federal government in federal spending and one example of that i'd like to point out is something that my colleagues have heard me comment on the four but this is a website called expect more dot gov and i hope people who are within the hearing of what i'm what i'm saying here today will take opportunity to look at this expect more dot gov this is a web site created which show will which demonstrated a review by the office of management and budget of over a thousand federal government programs and you know what they found out is that twenty two percent of those programs either are ineffective or else what may be even worse they were unable to tell one way or the other with whether they were effective as congress intended or not twenty two percent of a thousand different programs and yet congress has done virtually nothing to eliminate those any effective programs or to make sure those that could be improved and could be effective are in fact improved and the problems corrected and so i would hope that we would use this as an opportunity to deal with our budgetary problems both on the near term and the long term i've proposed another an initiative after the t sunset commission that still exist in my state and exists in a number of other states where periodically would go back and look at the very reason for existence of federal programs in my state the sunset commission has been very effective i allowing the state legislature to look at at programs government programs to determine whether they're still needed and to start at zero zero based budgeting to force these fat these agencies to justify their budget rather than what happens here in washington is that things tend to grow and grow and grow they develop their own constituency and then a bureaucracy that has a vested interest in their in their growth and proliferation and there's very little impetus very little pressure on congress to eliminate ineffective and unnecessary programs so i hope we will continue this early spirit of bipartisan cooperation on the emergency stimulus package that came out of the house and we will do more to carry up this carry on this trend when it comes to dealing with our mid and long term economic problems not for ourselves but for our children and for our grandchildren i would say mr president that there's things in the economic stimulus package that came out of the house that i had some questions about but i do agree that it's important for  confidence building in the markets and to demonstrate that we're actually capable of acting when action is required that we act on a timely basis to pass this house passed measures i believe there are only thirty five votes against the the house stimulus package yesterday and as i said earlier that represents a overwhelming bipartisan support for this negotiated product i know there are members of the senate myself included who have some other  ideas about about what we might be able to do to improve that the problem is as we all know under the rules of the senate it's basically a free for all once that bill comes to the senate floor and that could be numerous amendments there could be filibusters there could be other delays which i think are are dangerous indeed when a timely response is called for in terms of this targeted temporary stimulus package so my my conclusion is that i think we're better off in the country is better off in the long run showing that we can act on a prompt basis by passing the house version now that does not mean that we can take the rest of the year off or we don't have to be responsi to other concerns that arise as i've indicated earlier if there are other things we need to do that i think there are other opportunities for us to do them but i do think it's important early on in the year to demonstrate our commitment to working together to solve america's problems i saw a poll the other day that said ninety eight percent of the respondents were sick and tired of the bickering in the partisan that ship that they see in congress i was just shocked anybody would have to take a poll to conclude that and why it was one hundred percent rather than ninety eight percent but here's a chance for us to act and i hope we will act in the short term to deal with this economic challenge we face in the markets but then in the long term to make sure that the prosperity that we've enjoyed thanks to our parents and grandparents will be handed down to our children and grandchildren as president  gentleman's recognized will thank you very much mr president i commend senator corner his remarks and i want to add on that i think it is important that we address the stimulus package has come from the house quickly and decisively after all in the category of one of those that has some other is as well but i think that while the iron is hot and we do have a surgical and strategic proposal before us we should act because immediate action can make a large difference and when the infusion comes back into the economy when the tax breaks can be taken advantage of the business in terms of the appreciation and expensing and in particular for the housing market the increased loan limits for fannie mae freddie macin f h a will be essential in saving some houses now in foreclosure from ultimate foreclosure because will be purchased by people with who qualify under the new loan limits and will be able to take that home and put it back as a performing asset but as to that subject that i want to talk for just a second mr president you know experience is a great teacher saying if a cat that's on a hot stove the never set on a hot stove again of course in arizona coal stove either they just get out of business a known stows will in my business is a private sector business man the years i was in the role state business in the one nine hundred seventy s in particular in the period of time huge housing boom increasing values credit got easier loan limits got higher and underwriting got lower and what wind of a happening is a battle a lot of bad loans were made in that particular period many of them were the home builders rather than  homeowners but suffice it to say it was the same underwriting problem the same deficiency in terms of lending a plethora of foreclosures took place new homes went back in united states of america found itself in one thousand nine hundred seventy in a recession with a three year supply of single family houses on the market unsold and no housing market the president as states in the congress the united states took action they passed a three to a six thousand dollars tax credit where you could take collected two thousand dollars a year for three years to any family that purchased any standing new home in inventory and occupied it during those three years within the course of a year we had reduced as a country a three year supply of housing to a one year supply of housing we had rented it re entered they graded the reconstruction trade the sub contractors the building suppliers those that manufactured carpet washing machines dryers all the components that are so important in the overall economy that are spurred by home purchase so yesterday i introduced along with senator gregg senator craig senator allard and senator chambliss senate resolution twenty five sixty six calling for us to review repeat history in this country to reenergize the housing market that so sluggish senators strategic plan where we can save houses pending foreclosure from actually being foreclosed on turn them into owner occupied single family dwell very simply twenty five sixty six would do the file it would provide a fifteen thousand dollars tax credit bath as in dollars a year for three years to any individual couple are two people living together filing separately a fifteen thousand dollars tax credit if they purchased and occupied as their home anything the family dwelling on the market that was a new home permitted for construction before september first of last year and break the a home that has been foreclosed on that was o foreclosures are going up in geometric proportions what's about to happen in the first quarter of this year is the largest round of foreclosures have taken place in this country in years and what's going to go in the second quarter of this year is those banks being told by regulators that they have to get rid of that inventory they can't keep it on their books and banks are going to do in essence and the lenders are going to do what they have always done they're going to get rid of them by deeply discounting the prices to try to crack people to come in the market to buy those as and mr president what that does to mr and mrs america who lives in a house and is making their payments is it depresses the value of their house it lowers their home equity line of credit availability because values go down and it stagnates the very consumer this economy has depended on over the last decade for the longest protracted period of growth in our history so mr president come to florida day to ask all the members of the senate to take a look at twenty seven to twenty seven sixty six to take a hard look at it to make sure they look back at the history of one nine hundred seventy five when we faced almost on a dental problem took the strategic action that this bill recommends and had a result that was absolutely right for the economy right for the american homeowner i understand all kind of incentives i understand giving money back i understand trying and sent people to do things but nothing better than helping to make them the number one investment every american family wants to my an incentive to do that at a time that very market is in trouble is one of the key thing to it that whatever lies ahead for us in our economy is a much lower trough and maybe even a peak where we are at the right time strategically invest in the american family and home ownership time h r fifty one forty one act provide economic stimulus through recovery rebates to individuals incentives for business investment and an increase in conforming and f h a loan limits as president i now object to any further proceedings at this