John Kerry

I would like to thank you for your leadership over the many years on fisheries, oceans, and climate issues.

Following decades of problems, there are now glimmers of hope.

Together, I believe we can and will do better.

I have taken fishing issues in this region very seriously. And I am firmly committed to many of the reforms that have been set in motion and others that are yet to come.

I want to thank you in particular for your leadership on fisheries, on oceans, and on climate issues.

If we're going to have any industries left of any kind, we need to be successful in that Super Committee work.

I want to thank you for taking our request seriously.

I intend to introduce legislation called the 'Fishery Research and Conservation Investment Act,' which will focus Federal funding under the Kennedy-Saltonstall Act on identifying the critical research, conservation, and management needs in…

We were partners. We were a team. And he was passionate about fishing, about the oceans.

This has been a long fight. But throughout that fight, there has been a history of Alaska-Massachusetts cooperation.

It is time for the road blocks to come down. It's time for NOAA to begin to work with our fishermen.

In many cases, our fishermen have been seen as guilty until proven innocent.

Sadly, each year, our fleet is vanishing. Each year, families who for generations have bravely and proudly fished our waters are forced out of their livelihoods.

Just as Massachusetts was the foundation for this nation, the fishing industry was the foundation of our economy.

I need to ask you--does that wrap----

It is possible to put revenue on the table to the tune of $1 trillion-plus, whatever, with tax reform, is it not? You do not have to raise the tax rates.

I believe all people ought to have health care, but I don't think anybody should get, on the government's checkbook or the taxpayers' checkbook, a Cadillac plan.

You know, we have 50 million, roughly, people who don't have health-care insurance.

This is the most predictable economic crisis in history that we are looking at coming at us

So in terms of the duty that Co-Chair Hensarling has talked about to provide language to significantly reduce, the most important message to the marketplace, I am told, comes if you achieve a $4 trillion total, which is the only way to…

Is it not correct that without the policies of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that GDP would be lower and unemployment would be higher?

But you can analyze--I mean, you have told us that if we fail to come up with anything that deals with the unsustainability, we are sending a bad message to the marketplace, aren't we?

So if all we do in this committee is $1.2 trillion, we, in effect, are not reducing the deficit below the current levels or rates?

Is it possible, in your judgment, to structure a system that lowers the rates, broadens that base, and improves progressivity and creates growth in your judgment?

Didn't we contribute to them relatively substantially when we passed the preferential treatment on capital gains and dividends?