even more worrying is the example of greece. a sudden loss of confidence and a sharp increase in interest. that me be clear. we are not as bad as greece. our underlying position is much stronger than theirs. are week -- we now have a government, that are would argue, that has the ability to deal with the problem. let greece stand as a warning of what happens to countries that lose their credibility. thankfully, this is a warning to focus the into it -- the focus of the international community. we need to take immediate and decisive action. we have completed a spending review to save 6 billion pounds of public spending. we have a new independent office of budget responsibility. it will send out independent forecasts so that never again can this country slip into another massive debt crisis. our actions have already been noticed around the world. i am a glassg-de20 -- i am glad the g-20 endorsed this. this is the sober reality i have to set out for the country today. the legacy left by the last government is terrible. the private

debt that meets or exceeds that that we see in countries like greece or spain or ireland or italy. the european union threatens to collapse under the financial stress that they have because they have loaned money -- it's almost like they're sitting at a poker table playing for chipping that are writing each our i.o.u.'s around the table. at some time you have to pay fo- the drinks and the food that's coming along. those chickens are coming home to roost in europe. we don't need to be there in america. we're a different kind of people. we have a unique vitality in our character, in our soul. one of the things that is part of that vitality is that we've skimmed the cream off of the crop of every civilization in the world. everybody that were immigrants to the united states, they didn't get people who were sitting out there on the porch that didn't go to work. these were the entrepreneurs, the creative ones, the ones that had a dream, that were frustrated because they had the shackles of a dictator that kept them from using freedom to grow their own lifetime success. can you imagine i

you know the whinings of the economists and lessons of greece and other debt burdened european countries collapsing under the weight of their cradle to grave welfare systems have done nothing to restrain the democrats in washington. they fail to heed the warnings from abroad and continue to simply declare that out-of-control spending as emergency spending to try to cover up their fiscal irresponsibility. as a constitutional conservative with grave concerns with the democrats' out-of-control spending, i support a different plan. i say balance the budget. cut the deficit, pay down the debt, fire the czars, and grow the economy. with president obama in control, the term g.d.p. has taken on a whole new meaning. growing democrats programs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> we are two weeks into the hurricane season and already the first tropical depression has formed in the atlantic

on other occasions, and greece have not when we may be thought they have been prompted. we look to israel to cede to the international calls for such an inquiry and investigation. it would not be logged -- belongs if they refuse to that we would add our voices in that case for one conducted under international auspices. he is right to say urgent workings should be taken on providing the mechanism for access to aid into gaza and trade in and out of gaza while ensuring israel that will not be used for the smuggling of arms. that is the urgent work we are kicking forward with our partners in the eu and u.s. and it is something we will have to come back to the house on. >> it is easy to beat contemporary -- to condemn israel. the questions we must ask ourselves is that these things taken by themselves will bring about the solution that we all seek. drawing on our own colonial experience and lso on our recent experience in northern ireland, is it not clear that sooner or later, however controversial it may be, that hamas have to be brought into the circle of discussions? >> i

and greece raced their rate to 21% as part of their bailout agreement. this is yet more evidence that the v.a.t. taxee are easy for countries to raise during times of fiscal crisis. with so much discussion about an american v.a.t., we have to be aware of what the true cost of such a tax would be to our own job growth and consumer spending. early proposals might calling for a 5% v.a.t. tax but in truth the seemingly easy revenue would take it all too easy for the u.s. government to quickly raise taxes to european levels. this seemingly easy tax revenue would have a great cost. american jobs. the v.a.t. tax is one tax we can't afford in america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> permission to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. klein: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise to honor marma davidson a great educator and leader. varma has worked in the south florida office for

we talk about greece and their challenges, we are the next greece if we don't balance the budget and get serious about our national debt and our deficit. mr. by can nan -- mr. buchanan: last year $1.4 trillion in deficit. this year we are expected to exceed $1.5 trillion. we need to balance the budget now. my first year 3 1/2 years ago i introduced a balanced budget amendment that just says we don't spend more than we take in. we need to do that or we are going to be the next greece. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida rise? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker. in the last 50 days approximately 35 million gallons of oil have spewed into the gulf, resulting in the worst environmental disaster in american history. the oil spill has destroyed wildlife, wreaked havoc on our marine echo system, and debilitated thousands of families who depend on fishing and tourism for their way of life. and while b.p. has stated it

there are some countries -- greece is obvious -- that have to face measures immediately because they are facing a crisis. and there're the countries where the issue really has to do with -- there are countries where the issue really has to do with how we start doing plans. for example, germany, which cares deeply about fiscal consolidation. if you look at their plans, they are no more fought -- no more front loaded than ours are. in fact, you could make the argument that some of the steps i have already taken, the freezing domestic discretionary funding in my budget for the next three years, many of those decisions are comparable to some of those decisions that are made by promoting fiscal consolidation. this has been an issue in which there is violent agreement. we have to make sure that we are not rushing to the exits too quickly, but we also have to be mindful that the debt levels and deficit levels that many countries r & r unsustainable. with respect to north korea, our main -- are unsustainable. with respect to north our main focus right now is to make sure that there's stand t

worried are you about identifying those minorities who want to know about chopin, schopenhauer, einstein, greece, rome -- even if they are not in those fields? what are you doing about that? >> liberal education. you want students to study history, literature, philosophy, and to ask the big questions about life and what kind of empathy they have appeared the best education has to be abroad. but it is not about training. >> it task to be broad. -- . >> it is not about training. >> it has to be broad. >> we have to have our students take more courses in the arts and sciences. >> let's thank our panel. [applause] i hope everyone sees that there are some fantastic agents or changed sitting here. being the optimist that i am, i think we can expect a tremendous improvement as we move forward in this very technically complicated business of education. thank you for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> pulitzer prize winners today on prime time. he talks about the final decade of the cold war. we also l

i do not think greece, for instance, it is -- raises a specter of competition so much. it raises a warning flag to us. but what we think about the emerging high energy productive cultures that are going to be challenging in terms of the productivity, like china, and india has great potential as well, i think we have to be careful that we do not find ourselves so burdened with debts that we inhibit our capacity to exercise the leadership that the world expects from us and that we deserve to provide for the next generation in terms of securing freedom. i am very concerned about our finances and i do not think that the american people are so ignorant that they do not want to buy more government. i think they are so intelligent that they do not want to buy more government. i think they understand that being in debts significantly in paris the ability of one to be as free as one would otherwise aspire to be. [applause] >> thank you, a very -- thank you very much. i want to prevent -- presented with the heritage foundation necktie. >> this is good. >> we match. at this time,

providing help to greece has proved to be a difficult proposition. nevertheless, europeans are committed to avoiding default increase and in other countries on the so-called periphery because they fear that the default of agrees, even though it is a small economy, might lead to defaults and other countries if investors got spooked by the first default that in turn could put pressure on the banking system which holds lots of securities from those countries and the banks and other businesses in those countries. it has been a relatively slow process. the europeans have put together a program, a special purpose vehicle with 500 billion bureaus in which is being partially match by the international monetary fund. >> is that enough? >> it is quite a bit. 500 billion here and there and you are talking real money sent. oon. [laughter] >> not what we have been spending. >> it is a lot of money and covers the obligations of portugal and spain and greece for a couple of years. the imf is there and more european money might be necessary. there needs to be worked

recely theuropean unand e international netary fund pledged $5 billion to bail out e bant nation of greece. americ taxye are on th hook for $4.8 billion in loan e i.m.f. s foth the euroan union the i.m.f. have alsonnounced a $1 trlibailout plan that could pu tax -- aerican taxyers on thhook for $50 billion in additinal loan guarantees to bail out other financially irresnsible members of the eupean union d news tay is that spain is aost ready to go banupt andt our suor and yet thng liberal democrats ntinue tspend our nation inta financial yss. ve jt go over a t mbers, a i want too over th one more time to ma sur the americ peopleully undersnd what theeople in chargee agenda of this congress are doing. they've been in charge, by t way, mr. spear, since nuary2007, which is w most ofur problems began haening. so l me go over it again $700 billfor the megabank, a $38 billio sndg bill, a410 billion omnibus ending bill, a $6 trillio fiscal year 2010 budg, $1.9 trillion deb ceiling crease, $6.8 billion to international monery fund loan guaraee programor countriesn europe -not even stes- and an add

that's how it started in greece. and eventually it basically started to collapse, which is why the european union had to %- bail out greece and then they had to talk to spain about not spending any money, about cutting their spending, etc., and so when we talk about how -- and then when economists around the country, even now around the world and leaders around the world, say it's unsustainable, it's because that's where we're headed if we don't change that. but you know what adds insult to injury to me? i represent the great state of florida. i will tell you it's one of the greatest places to live in the entire planet. we have a lot of senior citizens. many of which, many of whom depend on medicare, for example. well, we know that medicare will be going insolvent in i think just a handful of years. 2016 or 2017 is when it goes insolvent. so here we are borrowing and borrowing and spending and spending and borrowing and spending, are we using that money? is the speaker and is the president using that money to shore u

the uk market was over valued and those came down and greece borrowed too much and spent money without really paying attention to it's finances, so in some ways it's similar but it's really not because of the u.s. and what we did in our housing market. now they're sort of in the second phase which is their own problem. host: just to build off the last two callers. what internattonal provisions are included in the financial regulations deal struck at 5:40 am this morning? guest: what do you mean why i want independent? host: anything you can speak to that deals with inteenational financial? guest: not that i can think of. well, i mean there's sort of discussion of resolution and sort of how to wind down systemically important banks and institutions and that, those are all international active stuktss so that addresses some of the issues. but there is, there are separate efforts to set up regulations for all banks globally that would be international and you know there's a committee on banks supervision that really brings together all the regulators of european asian and u.s. together an

we should note the images of riots in greece. what i ask, what will it take for real change here? in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. the clerk: senate joint resolution 33, joint resolution to provide for the reconsideration and revision of the proposed constitution of the united states virgin islands to correct provisions inconsistent with the constitution and federal law. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? mr. etheridge: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr.th ridge: i rise today to talk about wall street abuses. for too long wall street fat cats gambled with our future and ran our economy into the ditch. north carolina families who i hear from every day paid the price. why? because wall street's protectors look the other way while abuses ran rampant. we have seen what that means to main str