I thank the gentleman for his comment, and I agree with it. Some progress is progress, however you describe it. Let me clarify, because I want to make sure in terms of coming together and reaching some progress; you mentioned the--I'm not…

I thank the gentleman for his comment. I take from his comment, however, that he doesn't have an economist who has said that these bills are going to grow jobs. I agree with him that economists certainly believe that over the long term…

I thank the gentleman for his comments. I think that both sides have shown some flexibility in some respects. Certainly a number of Republicans and Democrats showed flexibility on the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Now, none of the House…

I thank the gentleman for his comments, and I appreciate Mr. Panetta's quote. I believe Mr. Panetta's quote is an accurate quote and, I believe, substantively correct. Let me give the gentleman another quote from the former chairman of the…

I thank the gentleman for that. I was profoundly disappointed that the so-called supercommittee, or the special committee on deficit reduction, either was unable to reach an agreement on at least a $4 trillion agreement to reduce our…

I thank the gentleman for that information. I am pleased to hear that he is going to be sticking with the level of funding that we agreed upon. I think the gentleman's observation is correct: there are many people on my side who believe…

That doesn't clarify it very much, but I understand the gentleman's problem with respect to what is being done. Let me ask the gentleman: If we can't get agreement, in light of the gentleman's focus on the 16th as the date of adjournment…

I want to tell my friend that there is overwhelming bipartisan unanimity on the gentleman's hope; but for the purposes of my Members, I will say that I would hope our Members would take the flexibility beyond the week ending on the 16th…

Reclaiming my time, thank you for that. Let me posit a possibility here. Thursday at 3 o'clock we clearly, I don't believe, aren't going to finish the business that we need to finish before we leave. Therefore, my presumption is we will be…

Further on the schedule, just so our Members have pretty clear information, the week of the 19th, which is the following week, can you give me some thought on what you are advising your Members with respect to the week of the 19th? I yield…

I thank the gentleman for his information. If I can clarify, and I understand that we are coming up to the end of the year. There is a lot of business which needs to be done in the time remaining, and so I understand his urging to be…

First of all, we ought to be talking about jobs. The contention that this bill funds bills that are about jobs is spurious, in my opinion; and no economist, in my opinion, will assert that that is the fact. We ought to be dealing with…