. >> this just says that cer can't be used exclusively for cost containment, et cetera, et cetera. if you wish, mr. chairman, i can begin and just -- >> yes, please do. >> first, let me say that i don't know whose glasses these are, but they were lying down right there, and it looks to me like they would be a pair of women's glasses. i don't know whether they belong to somebody on that side. if they do, i'm not sure i could -- i want to give them the glasses. >> are they rose colored glasses? >> no, they're more like cbo glasses. >> rather opaque then, i presume. >> they are sort of bent up and they are -- but at any rate, i don't know whose glasses these are. it might belong to some camera person or whatever. and so i'm going to -- i can't hand it to anybody. i'm just going to leave them right here and proceed. >> thank you, senator. whoever these are, you can see your way clear to support my amendment, that would be great. this amendment in my view protects patient choice and physician independence in making treatment decisions when, as we all know, we all support when a loved on

cetera, et cetera, et cetera can't be adequated ely compensated. why we have to put 100% of the cost on that woman, i don't understand and even if we did save millions in texas, guess who paid? >> i thank my colleague. this is an issue where -- there still is the issue of premium costs which are high. my point being simply that the correlation between that and caps on damages does not square up in my view. anyway, this is a subject matter, senator casey has said has been around for a long time. it's not going to go anywhere. this debate is here. lisa, i see you. >> you have suggested this isn't necessarily the solution and it may not be the solution for the high costs that we experience with health care, but i think it has to be viewed as a piece of it. when i met with a group of doctors when i was home on friday, we would kind of go around the room saying okay, within your practice, what are the things that you can do, that we can do, you can do from your side and we can do from the federal side that would help reduce the health care costs that we

cetera, et cetera -- it's a good thing. but the first problem with c.e.r. is that not every patient is the same. what is better for one patient may not be better or could actually be worse for another. for this reason, doctors and patients must be able to deviate from the results of something called c.e.r., or a master plan, or a master evaluation that could come out of washington from an outfit called c.m.s. under the department of health and human services. this is -- the situation is that the patients must be able to deviate from the results of this and make treatment decisions on a case-by-case individualized basis. that's what we want want in terms of our -- that's what we all want in terms of our treatment with our doctors. now, it is other major problem, i would submit, is that c.e.r. has been used by other governments, such as the united kingdom, to base treatment decisions not just on relative effectiveness but on relative cost. and there's the rub. if c.e.r. is going to inform doctors and everybody in the medical

and other means and also immigration, et cetera, et cetera. so she has a two-task -- a twofold task of which she does with great drama, with great meticulousness and intellectual acuity and with great courage. >> robert, you've written across various genres, various styles. what about telling history through biography? what are -- what are your experiences in that regard? >> well, all of my books are about people, characters but i feel like i was in some ways i've been stalked by walt whitman for a long period of time. it began when i was in high school and forced to read o captain my captain. other bad poems of whitman's. [laughter] >> then when i was in college, i stumbled into a class where we were reading a lot of whitman and again, we read a lot of the poems of the o indiana, o nebraska school. and when was the excitement about this guy? and it wasn't until some years later that i realized that we were reading poems exclusively out of the death bed edition. many of you know whitman was this rare poet who appeared to write the same book ov

like a mental health court, et cetera. but really, what a health court would be, it would be a new entity emerging within our legal system and health courts don't have juries. okay? they don't have juries, they're like workman's compensation courts, if you will. so you don't have a trial by jury. and then there's this whole section of voluntary which is where do you -- at what point do you choose when they're going to trial or when you're being admitted to a hospital. so we can continue that this afternoon. but i want to respect where senator enzi is going and also the extensive work he's done this with senator bachus. i'm just apprehensive about what a health court does. so let's continue that this afternoon. >> i may suggest 12:30, my intention is to take a break and come back at 2:30. let me just inform our colleagues. of this is the eighth amendment we've considered over the last couple of hours, some of them were agreed to obviously early on. >> why would they agreed to? >> well, it's -- i never suggested this was goi

cetera, et cetera, we need something standardized, harmonized that we can agree with. i think the office of insurance information is a great idea, don't get me wrong, i think what perhaps you'll end up with. i think we still have a fundamental which underlies the exact way in which we approach each other over specific laws. and where there is an absence of that political bridge, there's always going to be a gap. we have to find a way through that. i suspect that behind the imagination, that this company isn't anywhere else to come up with ideas and talk to us. and we should be an open door for you. we're not going to see how you should do it. but we are a compliant group ourselves inside the european union. we wrestle the same issues you wrestle with. we want to work with you to make sure what's best for policyholders and as well as the competitiveness of companies. >> thank you, mr. skipper. thank you, mr. chairman. >> miss mccarthy. >> thank you, i appreciate it. many of my colleagues have said this has been a very interesting journey that many of us have taken over

people were imitating him, et cetera, et cetera. so as happens to every figure of the media, part of him has now passed. now, he will endure and he will remain, but there needs to be an act -- an ax of recovery and that was one of the motives that impelled me to write this book. among the many thin1j i tried to recover was his affect as a public figure. now, he was stylish and he was funny, and those who remember him both conservatives and liberals now universally acknowledge that. the conservatives because it was so important to us that there be a conservative who was stylish and funny, the liberals because it pleased them. they were entertained by the spectacle and not threatened so much by the style or the humor. but we also have to remember that bill was very aggressive, especially, the further back you look. and if you look on some of those youtube segments, bill could be a killer if he thought you were arguing from unearned authority, authority conferred only by fashion or that if you were threatening the country or its well-b

there's the institute of medicine, there's the national academies of pediatrics or cardiology, et cetera. so and it is -- in the agency for health care research and quality which has been around for more than 20 or 30 years. >> let me just say this. nothing in the bill prohibits cms from using cer to contain costs and it's peter orszag who is the omb director, obviously, said cer's principal purpose to is to retain cost,s a direct quote. the acting nih dector said costs will be a key factor in cer it just seems to me that we need this amendment to ensure that cer is not used to ration health care. >> peter orszag is not a member of congress. no matter what they might think. >> i'm going to do a hatch thing but i'm much louder than hatch so people don't listen to him. he's been doing this for a lot of years. now, i used to be a bucket toter, i was a bucket toter here in the senate for two year, went to the house, i was a bucket toter over there as a staff member. my box kathleen sebelius says you're in charge of health care. well i was in charge of everything, window, rug, administrative

on other plan et cetera. -- planets. in recent years, we have been treated to the outcries of agony about the melting that is taking place in the arctic. this is being used to touch peoples' hearts to get them alarmed so they will accept the draconian controls that will come from those people who are advocating policies to deal with manmade global warming. they're saying, it's our activity that's causing the ice caps to melt. well, who hasn't seen these pictures of these polar bears? the poor polar bears on the ice flow, obviously the victims of manmade global warming. not so fast. yes, the ice cap is retreating. no doubt about that. but what about the ice cap on mars yes, right now at the same time we have our ice cap that is retreating, the ice cap on mars is retreating at exactly the same time and it seems to be paralleling what's going on on the earth. doesn't it indicate that it might be the sun and not somebody driving an s.u.v. or modern technology that is creating such a cycle, creating the situation that left th

et cetera, et cetera. except i found that i would go to sleep and there would be a mark down on the reporter's notebook. so i'll try to make this as succinct as possible. you've heard it before. if you read my bio, senator dodd, mr. chairman, in cq, i am described as being pleasantly harassable. will try to be pleasant, but this process that we've come through would make anybody arasable, including yourself. >> moreover, i think this bill costs too much for not enough results. i think apparently the cbo has, in effect, stated the obvious. there's simply not enough health care bang for our buck. finally, my worry is that this bill will increase government control over health care and will cause health care to be rationed, especially for our seniors. i went keown to the senate floor to express my discontent with a process, made a wonderfulful speech. i think probably senator harkin heard it and that's why he's leaving. and i expressed my discontent with the process, the cost and substance of this bill. marve

what we see as far as heavy industry, factories, et cetera, it typical is this notion that bosses want a compliant and complacent workforce. one that won't complain they're being sent to a chemical area without the proper equipment or things like that because they're afraid the immigration service will come not help them, but arrest them. i think that is one of the things. on the one hand, we have to figure out what we will do as far as rimgration reform and immigration enforcement, border security. at the same time we have to have the baseline, the constitution, the 13th amendment said involuntary slavery shall exist. the first thing congress did after the civil war is pass a law to make it clear it is applied to everyone, including hispanics in the southwestern united states. it made it clear, the 13th amendment was not just a way for child slavery, for foreigners, immigrants, everyone in the united states. host: this sweet says obama announced he's going after immigration reform. would that include prosecution of traffic illegal workers. guest: undocumented aliens that find themselv

so what i'd like to do, i'll be happy to read senator coburn's language, et cetera, and what i'd like to come to closure now in the roberts amendment for a voice or recorded vote. >> you've had the voice vote and you've had that. the only question is if i can get a recorded vote. if i can get a commitment from the distinguished senator from maryland on the amendment that we can continue to work on this even though there seems to be great distaste for doing that, for me, this is probably the biggest issue in this whole health care business. >> it's not distaste for what we're trying to achieve. we haven't been able to reach an understanding of the language and it's my intention in matters like this to continue to work where we can reach some accommodati accommodation. you have my commitment on that. >> i think we have been working together. i accepted 17 amendments yesterday. i mean, what was that? 17 amend ams. we go up to every sing will one. we've tried to do it and of that -- >> i'm not questioning that. >> i'm not questioning all of that. there's been a voice on it. it's a voice v

it causes the dealerships to not be as attractive in terms of their physical makeup, et cetera. and the company is determined that to be successful they needed to realign their dealer networks. in that context, they persuaded us that that was a generally sound business decision. that to do it quickly, relatively quickly was, in fact, appropriate and would get to the good result as quickly as possible. from there it was the company's decision how to do it, which dealers to choose. and that was the decision they made. we believe -- we insisted and i think they did do it using fair and objective criteria of what were the dealers that were selling the most cars, had the best through-put, had the best other metrics that were objective metrics and on that basis, the company has determined that it cannot bring all its dealers forward and be successful. this is, obviously, again a difficult sacrifice for those dealers but without these sorts of difficult changes we're not going to have a successful general motors. >> well, i thank you. i'm still uncomfortable with your willingness to ac

we are talking about drugs coming in from estonia, romania, bulgaria, et cetera, et cetera, and you move to the mideast and it gets shaky. we had that one case and you'll remember it, i think, senator mikulski that, bottle or prescription bottle that came in from iraq, of all places. so i think it is a very real threat. my modification since i have missed the deadline on the amendments, but again i thought we were going to do this under the coverage section and my deadline on the amendment on that would be next week. it simply says this act shall become effective only if the secretary certifies to the congress that the implementation of this act will oppose no additional risk to the public's health and safety and result in a significant reduction in the cost of covered products to the american consumer. it's that section a that is absolutely essential if i'm going to support this amendment, although i know exactly what the senator from arizona is trying to do. i respect that. i don't mean to throw a clinker in here or be a johnny-come-lately, but i did want to share the concern of the se

cetera, et cetera. you're inability to understand my question and the inability to answer it is based upon the fact that i don't think that you're organization knows anything about real estate closings. the people that came up with this rule that was. >> the people that came up with the rule are the biggest mortgage lenders in this country. i mean it's fanny and freddie that came up with the rule. >> i understand that. my question is -- >> and the point is that if there is a mistake the mistake klg corrected. not under you're rules if you read it oh. >> every state has an appraisal regulatory board. >> so here we are trying to close a real estate sale and there's i a big problem with a appraisal -- let me give you an example. in a townhouse area i know end units are $500,000 and inunits were $470,000 and an end unit just sold for $350,000 because the party died and it was out of state heirs and they were in a hurry to get the sale done. so the appraisal comes in at $350,000. and the guy who wants to sel

cetera, et cetera. now, again, there's been real progress here. there was a bipartisan statement of principles with which members of our committee strongly agreed, that was signed by former people of the democratic and republican parties that was adopted and several of the individuals who signed that are already working in the office of legal counsel today and one of the drafters of that principle, dawn johnson, has been nominated to be head of the office of legal counsel, a nomination that we hope will come to the senate floor, and which we hope will produce even more in terms of reform. we've had some success already in the sense that olc has released, as you know, many opinions that were held secret by the prior administration. there are more to come, and we continue to be in discussions with the justice department in the hope of trying to pry more of those loose as we go. but there is more to do in this area, as well as what's happened in the past. and the final area i want to mention are abuses wit

cetera, et cetera, did anybody with the administration, with the task force, ever say you know, it seems like buying 60% of general motors is a big enough decision where we should go to congress and ask them what they think of this. >> i think the president was proceeding under the authority that was created through the creation of the t.a.r.p. and the prior administration made loans under that, and the president determined that these investments were appropriate and proper under that legislation. >> you agree with me, i would hope, that loans by the prior administration are a vastly different creature than ending up with ownership of 60% of general motors. >> i would certainly say what i said which is the administration believes it was proceeding under statutory authority that it was granted and doing the best it could in a very difficult circumstance. >> last question -- >> go ahead, take a last question. this is your third last question. this is really your last question. go ahead. >> i'll stick around. thank you. >> go ahead. we may not do a second round. go ahead. >> just in your ro

disqualifies half or two-thirds of them, et cetera, et cetera. you know that better than i. and i think you can talk about that or please do. >> sure. well, certainly, i don't think anyone would call iranian elections perfectly free or democratic in the sense that we think about those terms. they are not free, of course, because the government does screen candidates in advance. but that said, they are often unpredictable in outcome. they are often fiercely competitive. there are also meaningful differences between the candidates. and people at times and perhaps in june will go and vote there's voting for and his -- it's always his because women run for president but his competitors. and i think your question sort of gets at the heart of really iranian politics and how at the same time, it's a very closed and repressive system but at the same time, it does permit some measure of openness or at least competition where politicians with very different visions of iran's future with very different ideas about how they run the country can compete. i think especially the experience

this program is not working et cetera. i think the question is account ooblt, that the accountability should be here. we have to stand up. otherwise, i mean, again, can't think of any other situation or week to tell a secretary, for example, secretary gates, can you terminate the f-22 program at any time you want if you don't think it works, and we have no say about it, and can you direct that money into helicopter lifts. this is essentially a legislative process, and, again, the final point i want to make is that this is done with what senator coburn is suggesting, it's done every year in the budget. the secretary makes recommendations to omb. the president sends up a budget and some items zero funded, presumably because they don't think they work or for other reasons. sometimes it's good evidence or not evidence, and some programs are funded in excess of what we think they should be funded and then we make those judgments so i think accountability is the in the legislative process. >> you know, it's amazing to me, 227 ti

for all of the future visitors and et cetera. those are the things that are hitting me now. >> how did you get the commission? >> a competition. i read the paper and noticed that california had decided to swap out a statue. i realized that would be a new statue. i tracked down the legislature and wrote him a note saying i would love to have my name in. >> do you know how many artists competed? >> i was purposefully o'baliffius to that and how many were in the finals. >> when did you know you had the commission? >> summer 2007. >> and how duget to work? >> that was the most unique thing about this project as the other ones. i did my two-foot model of what i thought the statue would look like. soft clay. it got there. and then i was asked to make some changes to it. so i went to the basement of the reagan library and worked in their workshop. that was a fantastic experience. just down the hall were his archives. i could look at his clothes and his shoes. i changed the pose and the exegs on the spot all before knowing that i had the

cetera. i think it continues to be something that we watch very closely and are in very close contact with the iraqi authorities about. >> thank you very much. >> a speech now on the recent iranian elections with remarks spoken yesterday at prayers. this is courtesy of iran state-run press tv. >> i recommend all the respected brothers and sisters who have attended the friday prayers here, i recommend them all to piety and to refraining from evil. what i'm going to raise in this sermon is the issue of the election. which is the topic of the day in our country. for the time being. there are three issues i want to address three different groups. the first one is i address the general public wherever they are in the country. i would like to mention some points. here at this point to your respective people. there is one thing i want to address the political aliege and the candidates of the presidential election activists and those who have been active in the process of election as well. and also i

you have to have the people in israel, you know what i mean, because you were voted in, et cetera. i understand it's a democracy. the thing is, i will tell you i can already see this happening, especially if hillary clinton says it, forget it. when the american people -- the obama administration including hillary clinton and the state department, then it doesn't matter if he does a fine line they're not going to change course, hard-line, no more settlements, no more natural growth and no more outposts and it's done. i think the american people including the obama administration is over it. it seems like oh, yeah, what are you going to do about it. like he said, what are you going to do about it? they're going to stop giving israel money and not help him with this iran thing. host: sir? gues guest: not living up to the palestinian settlement freeze. i'm not sure that is a good argument to make. that is what the israeli opinion is. in israel, both sides agreed to accept, but none of the players actually ever lived up to the agreements. about him using foreign aid to israel as a stick

. >> since you go to cicero, et cetera, is there anything peculiar about your approach to history and art that makes you such a fantastic sparkling with all sorts of things? >> i paid her to say that. [laughter] >> awe, shucks. i tell you, what's your name? [laughter] >> what's your telephone number? [laughter] >> i'm joking. i'm joking. yeah. i always -- you know, it i was laughed out. i wrote out reviews when my friend john gray started to introduce nonbook reviews and he knew i was doing this weird analysis. when i wanted to write a book about daily life in holland, about the culture being the richest and mightiest place in the world for brief generations. this is a kind of culture that is absolutely engorged on images, on tiles, engraved glasses, wall paper, stamped leather. you cannot do it without understanding the purchase and power of images of all kind, not just high art images. and then as the years went by and i mentioned that of course i very happily and greatly taught at hear varmint i came to think that on the one hand art history can't be taught without understanding th

give us an opportunity to hear the palestinian, jordanian side, syrian, et cetera. so we can have the opportunity to judge for ourselves, our tax dollars. our children are put in the conflict in the middle east. you should focus on africa and cuba. give us other perspectives to see other opportunities. host: we will take your request into consideration. guest: i can understand your caller's concern in regards to why i'm here today has to do with the fact that there is somewhat of a crisis in a given part of the world. i think the one point that i would make, maybe not directly related to the caller's concern, there is a great deal of thought about change in iran and whether how far the change is going to go. i doubt that there are that many people that expect, as i have seen or suggested that there is a good time that the regime is vulnerable and may be a good time to change the regime and all. i want to caution to the degree that the regime is going to take place. after all, we're talking about a country of immense political importance. the country that is sitting

when we had the revival of the islamic groups and the christian groups, et cetera. and the muslim brothers wanted to have -- to connect with the government and the government wanted to connect with the muslim brothers who have power. they sacrifice. that's why it's very important to have principles. religious people are a bit -- are not generalizing but religion encourages fragmentism, you know? not ethics. people think morality and ethics in religion, no, it encourages pragmatism. we need to stick with principles, justice, love, peace. what is peace in religion? what is peace? there is war all the time. if you are fighting the infidel, if you are fighting the stranger, the other, what is peace? i didn't find peace. did you find peace? >> well, again -- [laughter] >> i find myself -- i'm not sure i like being where i am in this -- [laughter] >> in the place where i am but it is important that in those large crowds that you said rightly were ignored when they spoke around the world against the invasion of iraq, there were many people who were there speaking for peace

some were duplicative, et cetera. there are some i know i'm going to be able to take. there are some like on adding indian tribes that i believe we can accept frommer? macaoski, as well as senator bingham, that we hand language we didn't have unintended disenfranchising consequences to other services. we have several things like administrative simplification and comparative effectiveness. if the other side could look at their own amendments or talk with us. i'm willing to do every amendment so i don't mean to be misunderstood. in the interest of comity, and also if we could finish, quality tomorrow, that would be great. if not, i'm fine, i'm here friday, whatever you want to do. if we could just really get to the meat of the matter on some of these amendments. and i like taking a break at repossessions working group and provide advice who is facing court proceedings. >> allen whitehead. >> question number one, mr. speaker. >> mr. speaker, before listing my engagements this is your last prime ministers question. and the whole house will have a chance to knowledge your g

. >> rob: you see that warning track right there that's like crushed rubber, higher sneakers, et cetera. that's the warning track around the entire field. this is kicking up a little bit. one thing about being out here for the world series, that stuff is loose and it could kick up more like it does. you need that advantage when you are going towards the wall or towards the foul wall or anything to slow you up before you maybe run right over the wall. >> bob: 2-2 to josh willingham. that's ball 3 i 3 iwillingham may be about to add more to that batting average. rob, i know that you think it's unusual to have a turf field and then the full infield? >> rob: the only time i had seen that was during a tour -- there is a strikeout by garza, second out of the inning. that will bring up willie harris. but there is the edge. >> bob: you had some interesting thoughts on your defense behind you when they were playing on an all turf field. >> rob: when they are playing on an all-turf field, at night , it was a bounce, like a true hop. it was a very fast surface but i had really good defense behind

my father had a library with some islamic books, et cetera, which i couldn't read. it's very difficult for me. the big yellow books. and i used to buy in the village, you know, where i used to live. so i -- and in the village usually they sell this little candy or something for children in papers which they cut from books, so i used to read the paper. [laughter] >> after i'd eat the candy or something and i'd -- i was very hungry for knowledge. but i didn't find books in the village. that's why a few years ago i established a library in my village for children to read. [applause] >> so -- i mean, the idea of being a writer is a strange idea. >> the idea? >> of being a writer, it's a strange idea. and you seem to have had this idea from very young. >> uh-huh. >> without too many examples. i mean, who were the writers that you -- if i had said to you when you were 15, a young woman of 15, who are the writers that you think about. >> of course, when i went to the medical college, after high school -- in high school the library was very small and i found a book by a nov

cetera, would have legal direction as to what the patient would have had done. >> well, if i could just comment, first of all, i understand the objective that the senator from georgia seeks but this is legislation that would affect the eligibility for medicare and i believe it is truly outside the scope of our committee. is there -- i don't want to sound like a parliamentary fussbudget here, but -- >> i think the senator, i think she's right, it's a finance committee matter. i must say, i like the direction you're going with this, because i think there's some validity in pursuing these ideas with people but i'm concerned about us -- we raise all the time with the finance committee when we begin to encroach on the jurisdiction of the committee, so i want to be careful about imposing ourselves on their jurisdiction which is the first concern i'd have, trying to deal -- i'm not sure what title this is even in. we're trying to do title two and it may be appropriately in this title but it doesn't seem to be a section 1899. i don't know where that is. >> mr. chairman, if i could say, perhaps

cetera. the following week we were told we were receive the missing pieces soon or early last week. then we were told they would come foortsdz with the missing -- come forthwith the missing pieces last friday and now it is monday and we have received nothing. while we've waited the congressional budget office told us what many of us had expected and feared about this bill. the cost of the bill would have a cost exponentially higher than many predicted. in fact, the incomplete bill would cost over $1 trillion. but this cost would only cover one-third of the 48 million americans who are currently uninsured. so we wait and wait and wait. having no details of the much-funded government plan or the proposal regarding penalties that the government wants to impose on employees are can't provide coverage or are not able to provide the coverage. now we hear that this friday might be the day we have a chance to see what they've been working on behind closed doors. friday also happens to be the day of t

cetera. cbo has reported that 5% of medicare beneficiaries account for 43% of overall medicare spending, and cms has noted that approximately 20% of medicare beneficiaries are with five or more chronic conditions account for 66% of program spending. could you talk a little bit about how we can focus on those medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic diseases, and how perhaps a program like that focusing on home and better coordination can help reduce the costs? >> well, we have not only the demonstration that you are responsible for, but i think a number of projects under way looking at coordinating care, particularly for the vulnerable high-cost individuals, and certainly having an opportunity to do that in a home base, instead of a hospital based service is not only better for the patient, but may provide some enhanced cost savings. so we are eager to work with you, mr. markey, to continue to figure out better ways to not only coordinate care for individuals who suffer from various chron

it would be a burden on people, et cetera. with that said, we take it very seriously. i think there's three important things that can be done with the tax gap. one is simplification. as long as the tax code is this complex, people will make mistakes and have opportunities to use the complexity of the system for evasion. second is information reporting. all of the statistics show if we get a w-2 from an employer and it's withhold at the source, we have 99% compliance where people operate cash businesses and there's no information propertied to us, it's all voluntary, the compliance rate is much lower. congress passed a couple of very important information reporting provisions last year. credit card reporting for small businesses as well as basis reporting. they'll be helpful. the president's budget this year has very important information reporting, especially in the international context where we get more information about cross border wire transfer. that's going to be important. so first the simplification, second is to information reporting. we also are taking a look

cetera, they tended to survive and get bigger because they needed to get big tore pay the cost of the -- bigger to pay the cost of the regulation. the small operators went out of business. they just could not endure what you were asking them to endure. and over time you ended up with exactly what we're trying to deal with here, is the big got bigger. >> right. i completely agree with that. we have to be sensitive to costs going forward. one of the segments of our financial services industry that tellly weathered the past year reasonably well were smaller and medium-sized financial institutions, and so i think it's -- and which shows to me that the diversity of financial institutions in this country is important to safety and soundness feature in and of itself, and i think it's going to be very important for the regular laters as we create a new regulatory structure of congress to be sensitive to cost particularly those borne by smaller and made yum sized businesses who are very important to access to financial services for americans who will not be going to the largest dealers. >> if

cetera. yet, we're in a position to be able to continue paying our claims because of the structure of the reserve system that we have with the states and what we found is that that has been a structure that has helped us really survive through this challenging time. at the same time, it's been very clear that the regulateser etor themselves have been coordinating and as well as sharing information with the fha. we believe that that structure is working and will continue to work. >> thank you. mr. scott, may i add a comment to that? going back to the chairman's opening statement, there are some aspects of insurance, some lines of insurance and in our okay reinsurance where a financial regulator would in fact enhance the kind of relationship at the consumer level you want, the lack of a federal regulators calls outs for the problems associated with international agreements, focus on international insurers and reinsurers doing business in the company. i would suggest even suggesting your promise

cetera and to the extent the greater variation undermines the very savings. so we want to decrease variations and we're concerned that the very intent of it -- instead would goa against the whole concept of administrative simplification, so i don't object -- this is not a volcanic objection here. >> well, we're very close on it and where my request came from that part is from cms so we ought to check with them, too because they said that they -- >> rather than voting you down, why don't we put you aside and let's make sure that everybody in terms of the white house team, both cms and omb have conferred and give us the best advice where we could have the best practices to achieve the greatest savings, because the whole point of administrative sent riification is not an end into itself. it's not quality. quality is an end unto itself. administrative simplification is administrative procedure, and if we can iron out this, i'd be happy to do so. >> i agree. we're both talking about the same thing. cms seemed to have the operating rules in the same way and it turn

somebody says the delivery companies use the local roads and ups et cetera. >> well, the delivery company should be taxed rather than the internet companies. that would be an argument. my guess is that they don't use for the same amount of goods. i wonder if they use the road as much as the 18-wheelers pulling up to the back of a target and customers who are driving in and picking up. the one local service we do use i think is the roads. they said that the ups and post office uses the roads. probably not used as intensively as a brick and mortar store but there's a range of other services like electric system. >> how many employees in your company? how are they broken down with those who take orders and processed orders. >> broken down to 500 at corporate and those are computer programmers. accountants and people that work in marketing and such. there's 250 people customer service agents and 250 people that work in the ware house and i'll give them a shout out. we've recently been voted number two in customer satisfaction in american. second only to,ll been. >> as far as that's concerned,

cetera but almost as important, coordinate and help us to continue our situational awareness of all situations, within iraq. and that will help us to better support the iraqi security forces. >>>. >> general to follow-up briefly i'm disappointed you did not give us this scoop after a month of holding out but i wonder if you could at least give us a -- as -- is it a few thousand, if you can give us a ballpark, several thousand would that be a reasonable ballpark to use? >> again, again, there is hundreds of cities around. and we have hundreds of you know -- and i have let the local commanders work this out and so for me to give a number would frankly be inaccurate and i don't want to do it. there will be trainers, advisors, helping throughout all of the iraqi cities, where we continue to support and advise the iraqi security forces. >> whatever the number is, how are you going to convince them, basically, the u.s. forces remaining, not to jump in and be helpful where, perhaps, you would prefer that the iraqis take the lead? what will be different about what they are told to do in a s

cetera. this has been, again, agreed to with the ranking member. we do not intend actually to displace the decision of the fda, we're telling them to study this for a year, if this propose it go forward, they have a year to pro mul gate the rule. i think it is entirely consistent. >> senator -- >> i thank the senator for working on this and i don't think that the current presentation of drug labeling is technical rkts i think senator reed is on to something with the study and the study proposed, i'm pleased they were able to work out the solution and i'm pleased we've been able to reach agreement on the provision. i co-sponsored it and i want to thank senator reed and senator hatch for working on the issue and coming up with a solution. >> any further comment on this amendment. we're missing the necessary votes we'll have to lay this amendment aside until the requisite number of voters show up. any additional amendments you want to propose? >> there were amendments to be suggested by senator

cetera, say, oh, no. we think we've got a better way. i'd be open to hearing. but right now, i don't want to change what we have in the law just based on a back and forth hearing. >> mr. chairman? >> there's also some other legal wordings that are suggested, but i think we need to really look at that. >> mr. chairman? >> yes, sir. >> i am going to ask unanimous consent that -- on page 323 of the bill, line 5 where it says senator reports and recommendations shall not be construed as mandates for payment, coverage of payment that the word on line 6 construed be stricken and that the bill would read recommendations shall not be used as mandates for payment coverage or treatment and i think that would satisfy a lot of the concern raised here. >> that is exactly the suggestion that was given -- >> by senator harken. >> i call it the harken rule. >> and what i said to harken, which i will say to you, is i am going to be sure i know the consequences because words have meaning. i do not want to -- so i'd like to

you would be punished if you molested a woman, et cetera. later on, of course, the taliban rule becomes oppressive but clearly it was res resonating with those people. >> guest: there was no police no security services, so the taliban were the only one racing around in pickup trucks to stop kidnappers, they were punishing people. so it's hard to define the main driving behind the initial thrust of the taliban appeal. the second one is they never had, unlike india, significant land reform so are there are massive landowners. >> host: like bhutto's family. >> guest: exactly. this is why parts of pakistan that have yet to be infected with the taliban problem are ripe for it because you have hundreds of thousands of people living on landlord property, very opressed and if the taliban can come in to promise to give them strength and no longer to be deciding laws based on sharia and not on the whims of the landlord, that that struck a chord. >> host: based on my own experiences in pakistan, it's only half a jobe -- corruption is so bad it makes my

cetera, i think that what's happened -- what you can see is when the agency runs properly, it can help resolve these issues before the industry gets to a chaos point but i think in the last few months, what you've seen is with some actions of the agency or individuals there or whatever the case may be, statements made by them, you saw almost a panic in a lot of sectors of our economy with people not knowing what to do and i think you've done a good job of addressing that today. so i think those with commonsense and that people talked about and that spirit of cooperation and working together to resolve this and get to a resolution that's good for everybody, i think that'll be a great breath of fair share. now one last thing before i close and that is the chairman who senator rockefeller and senator hutchison, the ranking member have asked all senators to get their questions for the record in today by 6:00 pm. that's good news for you because that means what they are hoping is we'll be able to move this nomination quicker. normally we leave the record open for a couple of weeks but they

cetera. and once they came up with the doctrine of informed consent, rather than the standard of practice in the community, every case went to the jury. with the language in this bill, every case will not only go to the jury but they'll have good -- they'll have an easier time making a case to the jury in certain cases. i don't want to interfere with the physician/patient relationship. i think we got to allow physicians to practice medicine without the fear of frivolous lawsuits. in my experience with medical malpractice lawsuits, a high percentage of frivolous, they are brought because the personal injury lawyers can make money off of defense costs, generally between 50 and 200,000. i think they may be higher today. what insurance company is not going to bow out of the case with whatever the defense costs are and leads to a multiplisty of suits that really will go to the jury but should be found by the jury to be frivolous in nature. this would add to that in my opinion and add to it in very

s took on senior kay, medicare advantage, et cetera, i went to one of my providers in my district, and they were telling me about this wonderful plan that was very good and i say, what are you going to do when people start using it? and they looked at me. and guess what? in 2 1/2 years when seniors started using the plan they purchased, this group went out of business. and those seniors had to find someplace else in the district because people were using the plan. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady yields back, it's easy to make money after you have collected the money than when you have to pay it out. ms. schakowsky: there are a lot of people who feel as if the health insurance is for the healthy. if you get sick, forget it, it's not always there for you. we all know that. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady would yield back. many insurance companies, i think the whole industry identifies when a person goes to a doctor and needs to use that coverage, they call that a medical loss. they see that as a loss to them thates messing with their money when somebody says, hey, i actually need to use th

obama's medical records, educational records, birth certificate, et cetera. there are a lot of things missing that we haven't seen. and then my third point here and i guess my question is in the press conference, there was no question about the committy and the playing. i mean, it was supposed to be for publicity. for who? what was it for? >> are you talking about air force one in new york? >> i am. >> which goes to theer issue of biggest mistake thus far. can you point to anything small or big that -- guest: in the presidency so far host: campaign or presidency. guest: i think the tom daschle situation, let's not say that the pig, but the way that developed, the way it was handled has caused them no end of problems in getting the right people in the right jobs, in defining what the line is lobbying or making money on taxes, it's become a sort of mush bowl of litmus tests for who should get what jobs and what the line is and what they're willing to defend. and i think the lack of clarity has been a serious impedment to getting this moving. in the campaign, bi