{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2012-12-31-pt1-PgH7471-4", "2012-12-31", 112, 2, null, null, "THE FISCAL CLIFF", "HOUSE", "HOUSE", "ALLOTHER", "H7471", "H7471", "[{\"name\": \"Earl Blumenauer\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "158 Cong. Rec. H7471", "Congressional Record, Volume 158 Issue 171 (Monday, December 31, 2012)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 171 (Monday, December 31, 2012)]\n[House]\n[Page H7471]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                            THE FISCAL CLIFF\n\n  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from\nOregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.\n  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, Congress is here on New Year's Eve with\nthe people they love: themselves, the special interests, and the\npolicies of the past.\n  The overhyped fiscal cliff may well be upon us, and we will find $600\nbillion of deficit reduction with tax increases and spending cuts, and\nthen there will be the howls that we are doing it too abruptly from\nsome of the same people who demanded this system of expiring cuts and\nsequestration in the first place.\n  Make no mistake. There will be some real damage. We will be squeezing\nsome people who deserve far better, and then we'll be scrambling to\nrefine the budget reductions in a way that makes sense. And some time\nin the hours, days, and weeks ahead, we will get a semibalanced small\nagreement, very likely, struggling throughout the new Congress with\nbudget bluster, especially in the House, moving from crisis to deadline\nto showdown.\n  It's ironic because it doesn't need to be this hard. We could use the\npressure and revenue from expiring temporary tax cuts to enact tax\nreform to provide the money that a growing and aging American\npopulation needs, but do it in a simpler, fairer way. We could actually\nreduce entitlement spending on Medicare by accelerating the health care\nreform, which is what, in Oregon, we've committed to do in exchange for\nsome flexibility and some upfront funding. We have in place a program\ngoing forward that, if done on a national level, would save over $1\ntrillion over the next 10 years.\n  We shouldn't be fooling around with patching an outmoded, unfair farm\nbill. Let's reform it to support family farmers and ranchers, beginning\nfarmers, especially those who grow food, not large agribusiness\nproducing heavily subsidized commodities. We can save money, protect\nthe environment, enhance wildlife, the experience for hunters and\nfishermen, and have a healthier America.\n  The military is the greatest source of money. We can start with\n135,000 soldiers scattered in over 1,000 bases across the globe. We\nhave a nuclear arsenal where we are spending several hundred billion\ndollars on weapons we can't use, we don't need and can't afford.\n  Mr. Speaker, the good news is that the public would support us in\nthese steps. The good news is that, if we ever got the chance to\nconsider them in a fair and open debate on the floor of the House, we\nwould find bipartisan support for each of these real saving options.\nThe good news is that, ultimately, we are going to take these steps,\nproving, once again, the wisdom of Winston Churchill when he observed\nthat you could always count on the Americans to do the right thing\nafter they have exhausted every other possibility.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2012-12-31-pt1-PgH7471-4"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 20.911397063173354, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}