Madam President, how much time remains? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. On the Democratic side, 15 minutes remains, and there is no time on the Republican side.

Madam President, first let me thank the Senator from New Mexico for his heartfelt remarks. I know how much he cares about his constituents and our country. We too at the opposite end of the country thank our soldiers for their sacrifice…

Madam President, I rise to speak about a subject that is foremost on my mind and the mind of my Democratic colleagues here today; that is, the danger of defaulting on our debt. In the entire history of this great country, we have never…

And my colleagues, last week, I tried to point out that there was a serious meeting going on in the White House last weekend between the President and our congressional leaders to point out that we were facing a serious crisis and that we…

I respectfully suggest a small correction to the Republicans' statement that their position on the deficit negotiations is no new taxes. It would be far more accurate for them to state their position is no new taxes except for seniors…

This evening it is my pleasure to initiate discussion as to the events here in Washington as they affect our debt ceiling limit. There is much attention being paid to the efforts for America to pay her bills, and obviously America's…

Thank you very much. With that, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________

Very well said, Representative Edwards, and I just want to attach my comments to yours about the impact of Medicare, an investment that has produced a lucrative dividend. We have kept the dignity factor alive for seniors, we have kept our…

Absolutely. Representative Edwards, you struck on a chord that is just repeated over and over again in my district. Many thought, well, if the seniors are told that this will affect senior communities into the future, that they will get…

Again, if you would suffer an interruption, when we talk about the beginning days of Medicare, the propensity to do something then would become the same cause today, because people were being impacted by cherry picking, by unaffordable…

Representative Chu, you raised an interesting fact with the end to Medicare proposed by the Republicans in the House. The cost shifting that takes hold, it's about a two-thirds/one-third split today. And the out-of-pocket expenses to a…

Representative Edwards, when you talk about this debt, I think we need to state too very clearly that these were off-budget. All of these tax cuts, the wars during those Bush years were paid for by borrowing, and we borrowed from China and…

Well said, Representative Jackson Lee. You know, for us to now quickly approach this deadline by which the debt ceiling has to be raised and to put the added pressure of ending Medicare into that discussion is vulgar. {time} 2030 Forty-six…

Congresswoman Edwards and Congresswoman Jackson Lee, I would say, too, that Medicare, yes, speaks to the health care needs of senior households, but there's also a stability there. There's a security so that some of the available…

Very well said. We have about 5 minutes left. I'm just going to do a bit of close and then ask for each of our Representatives that remain here on the floor--we were joined earlier by Representative Chu from California--to offer your…

The Representative from Texas talked about strengthening and improving Medicare, not ending it. Some have suggested as much as $156 billion could be saved by bulk purchasing for our pharmaceutical needs for the program, for Medicare. That…

For a point of clarification, I would just point out the statutory deadline for the weatherization program and the State Energy Program is on March 31 of any given year, in this case 2012. So, of course, it's not all spent yet. There is…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment. The Clerk read as follows: Page 23, line 4, after the dollar amount insert the following: ``(increased by $226,800,000)''. Page 33, line 20, after the…