coburn: thank you. i want to do a couple of things. i want to talk about an amendment, but i also want to -- i have one of my colleagues sitting in your position as president pro tempore noticed an error i made on july 27. senator whitehouse questioned my numbers. in fact, he was right. i said 115 million in regards to the savings on limousines. it was 11.5 million per year, not 115. it was 115 million over ten years. i stand to put that in the record that i was in error, and senator whitehouse as a cordial colleague, questioned me on it and i thank him for his accountability. we have before the senate now a patent bill, and there's no question that there's a lot of work that we need to do on patents. i know the president pro tempore sits on the committee that i do, and we spent a lot of time on this. but i'm really concerned, toeuf say -- i'm really concerned i have to say with what we're hearing in the senate about why we wouldn't do the right thing that everybody agrees we should be doing because som

he's not saying do what i think tom coburn wants. he says we have tense of millions of jobs to create that's going to cost trillions of dollars, we have trillions of dollars in taxing and things that need to be debated. i, tom coburn, don't have all the answers. i have proposals and the balance of d.c. and the media refuse to even acknowledge the scale and size of the project because they are so lost in whether obama is a liberal or whether rick perry is a nut job. >> if obama sat down with coburn can we get back to the grand bargain. >> or how do you just change the delta? how do you change the conversation to talking about solutions that can actually address the scale of our problems? >> right. a piece of that is the narrateors. >> 100%. >> here it is. >> this is the plan. >> this is the coburn strategy, to win over the coburn voters and here's how they split in the last election. i don't think that's what's going on. there's a right wing program that focuses on deficits only when democrats are in change. >> a well-funded apparatus

we spoke with senator coburn earlier tonight. nice to see you. >> good to see you. >> greta: you have had a chance to look at the president's jobs bill, what do you think about it? >> it is a big tax increase that's what it is. if you look at it, it is maybe 81 billion dollars in spending cuts. and 1.45 trillion in tax increases. that's not a jobs bill. just read a report, number one detriment to job creation in this country is the president's health care plan. businesses aren't going to hire people that they know they are going to be mandated to cover that's the number one thing keeping people right now from hiring new people. because they know next year, and the middle of the year after that they have to have an additional benefit that they don't now cover. >> greta: yours and mine favorite issue, lightly, a year ago you commissioned the gao to do a report on waste and fraud. i still have it on my desk. they are now getting cut. >> it is very disappointing that the appropriations committee would cut the member of congress budge

about this part of the story and for that earlier i spoke to the editor of counterpunch alexander kopp coburn and to start off i asked him to give me his take on the u.s. ambassador susan rice his claim that we saw that recent bid for palestinians statehood that we plan to do plan to stay on friday would quote not create a state and that fundamental issues that divide the parties still remain here is what he had to say what is the issue really is the. the fact that for twenty long years the united states has been total support of israel and the palestinians have gotten nowhere and it's very comical and disgusting to hear the united states well please know now we can really do a deal obviously no one believes a word of this what the palestinians might get out of this maneuver is open to discussion but something is better than nothing they had absolutely nothing the credibility of israel in the world at large is zero and with it the credibility of the united states is near zero as well so why do you think that president obama has said these things he certainly come out a little stronger at leas

we start with republican senator tom coburn who will be in attendance in the chamber this weechk. heard any rhetorically on jobs over the past few weeks or anticipating anything tonight you can consider val ed or inspirational or actually legitimately addressing any of the problems, senator? >> oh, i think i'm going to go into it with an absolutely open mind. we all know what the problems are. i'm not sure we all understand. we know whatted problems are. i don't think we understand the complexity of them. you know, we had a credit crisis. 23 you look at the history of those, seven, eight years before you work your way out of that, everything to get deleveraged. typical economic responses don't always have the same type of effect. i think you and i have talked about that before. i want to the have an open mind for the president. i think he wants what's best for us, and i hope we're going to hear inso vative innovative idea thasz will work and won't just throw money as a problem p. there's two other things we ought to consider. wasting $350 billion a year, and before we spend anothe

and then senator coburn. >> you have a meeting at 3:30, d want to go ahead? >> no, no, go ahead. >> please, go ahead. it's been a call is the operative word. >> we put back to the restrictive business model. i sit here and think about we're talking about the editorial changes of the $55 billion over 40 years how does it take 40 years to figure out $55 billion off in terms of what was compensated? the absolute stupidity of congress and what we've done is totally amazing to me. >> the other thing i've heard and i've had this discussion with every postmaster general since i've been in congress is the revenue estimates. the revenue estimates we have for 2020 are absolutely in exaggeration that means 401st class pieces of mail nine years from now will go to every household in this country i don't believe it. i don't believe that its half of that so unless you are going to double the rate on the first class mail the revenue estimates are totally bogus and every of revenue estimate that i've heard over the last 12 years has been bogus coming from the postal service

coburn. we have not stopped asmany of them as we should, but i'm very proud of the work you have done. um, i want to talk about something that i meioned and you mentioned in your report, but i think it's something we need to flush out for this committee, and that's contractors being summit to the jurisdicti of the -- subject to the jurisdiction of the united states of america. heartbreaking incident in iraq that i'm sure you all are aware of where the negligence of one of our contractors killed one of our soldiers. and, um, in trying to find justice for that family, the contractor avoided the jurisdiction of the united states, and the most insulting thing about it was he then got another -- that company then got another contract. with our government. after they had used the fact that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of our country as a way to avoid justice for this man's family, we then decided we should sign up again with them. by the way, they are now accused of also doing business

. >> republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma was also at today's hearing on the future of the postal service. you just heard your colleague there, senator, saying by this time next year the postal service as we know it could be gone. what needs to be done and does what need to be done include some form of taxpayer-assisted, taxpayer bailout? >> no. look, the business model that the post office is run on is failed, because technology has outstripped first-class mail. and i've been working on this subject for 12 years. and we continue to have estimates that are ereasroneouse need to have a business model that adjusts. senator carper is right, if we don't do anything or change the flexibility that the management needs at the post office, if we don't let them run it to meet what the market says is out there in terms of delivering goods to homes, then they're not going to be able to. there's two or three critical problems that haven't been addressed by congress that are going to have to be addressed if you want to continue to have a postal service that has a monopoly mandate and delivered

coburn. unless senator carper would like to yield? >> there is no way. i would be happy to yield. i would be happy to yield. ask, do you have a meeting at 3:30. want to go ahead? >> [inaudible]. >> no, no. go ahead. >> please, go ahead. i know senator carper is in this for the long haul. [laughter] >> yeah he is. >> haul is the operative word. some things that i've heard today i just want to put back. restricted business model. you know i sit here think about we're talking about acutarial changes of $55 billion. over 40 years, how did it take us 40 years to figure out we were $55 billion off in terms of what was compensated? i mean the absolute stupidity of congress in what we've done to the post office is just totally amazing to me. the other thing that, i've heard today, and i've had this discussion with every postmaster general since i've been in congress is the revenue estimates. the revenue estimates we had for 2020 are absolutely an exaggeration. that means 400 first class pieces of mai

go to work and mitt romney wants to devolve that to the states and not have all the redundancies tom coburn's put out some great reports about redundancy in the federal government we need to get rid of that in our federal government's way too big i'm sure there's some are good for government sure that there's lots were done it's in there in the private sector as well so you're saying that back during the eisenhower administration terminal ministration the kennedy administration the johnson industry nixon administration. the ford administration the carter administration when taxes were well over fifty percent millionaires and billionaires they were incapable of creating jobs i did nobody paid that high tax rate people had actually massive exemptions you didn't pay all that much i mean that was the reason why l.b.j. and you know kennedy's campaign promise nine hundred sixty was to drop it from ninety one down to seventy four percent because then they could actually because nobody was paying the ninety one percent is getting pointed out and people actually started pain you know the federal tax c

i been talking so much to senator coburn today. in this work we have good days and we have some bad days. this is a good day. it is a good day to be able to go home and say, we worked together in a bipartisan way to save almost 2 million jobs. these jobs were threatened. we could have seen a protracted debate. i met with a lot of people before with senator schumer to explain what the problem was, and why we were very concerned, that if there was demand a filibuster continually, we couldn't get to vote until wednesday on faa and highway. we showed today that we can, in fact, work together. so i am very pleased. and i am pleased that the house sent over the faa and the highway bill, that it can't be at the current levels of funding. they turned away from their one-third cut in the highway bill that was part of the ryan budget to pass. they seem to be backing away. this is a very good signal for the two-year bill that i'm working on with senator inhofe. my closing comments are these, senator inhofe has been a very strong partner with

this more and to talk about this part of the story let's bring in the editor of counterpunch alexander coburn who is in petroleum gornja. hey there alexander let's start with something the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice said she said that the move by president abbas is quote not going to create a state not in reality and not even in theory she said the fundamental issues that divide the parties will remain i guess i just want to get your take on this and what you think is really at issue here. is really. the fact that for twenty long years the united states has been supportive of israel and the palestinians have gotten nowhere and it's very comical and disgusting to hear the united states please know now we can really do it. obviously no one believes a word of this what the palestinians like get out of this maneuver is open to discussion but something is better than nothing they had absolutely nothing the credibility of israel in the world at large is zero and with it the credibility of the united states is near zero as well so why do you think that president obama has said these thin

coburn. we have not stopped asmany of them as we should, but i'm very proud of the work you have done. um, i want to talk about something that i mentioned and you mentioned in your report, but i think it's something we need to flush out for this committee, and that's contractors being summit to the jurisdiction of the -- subject to the jurisdiction of the united states of america. heartbreaking incident in iraq that i'm sure you all are aware of where the negligence of one of our contractors killed one of our soldiers. and, um, in trying to find justice for that family, the contractor avoided the jurisdiction of the united states, and the most insulting thing about it was he then got another -- that company then got another contract. with our government. after they had used the fact that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of our country as a way to avoid justice for this man's family, we then decided we should sign up again with them. by the way, they are now accused of also doing busi

might evolve in egypt and so their mere clearly trying to maintain a little detachment now is alexander coburn editor of counterpunch. well there is very little sunshine in the forecast when it comes to global growth in the year ahead this according to the international monetary fund who also says if major changes are not made soon the united states and the eurozone will plummet back into recession earlier i spoke to michael pancho the president of pens or portfolio strategies here's what he had to set up for us. something big has to happen soon and what does that really mean how could they possibly be surprised that global g.d.p. growth is going to be sub par both this year and next year and indeed as far as the eye can see japan is in a recession europe is falling apart and us g.d.p. has less than one percent annual growth and it's only because we miscalculate the rate of inflation so even emerging markets are going to suffer because their export driven economy and who they sell to well they sell to europe japan and the united states so it's no surprise to me you know we really never came ou

a kind of political correctness, and we get to a point not that many years later where you have tom coburn, a conservative republican, leading the charge to keep the federal government from helping first responders and their families from 9/11. that's an enormous seat change, matched, by the way, the new isolationism in the republican party. that's the other big change. the mccain, lindsey graham view, the bush view, the bush-cheney view, is now also not the mainstream of the gop anymore. it's going back to its isolation as pre-9/11 mindset, as they would say. >> it is a compelling and grim piece. frank rich, writer at large for "new york magazine," thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> delighted to be with you. >>> coming up, how corporations pay their ceos more, more than they actually pay in federal taxes. that gets tonight's rewrite. >>> and later, mayor michael bloomberg's hurricane briefings in spanish provoked what has been called the best thing about hurricane irene, the tweets of el bloombito. [ ticking ] [ grunts ] we are! got it. [ male announcer ] don't be the last to

oklahoma republican tom coburn wants to revise a disaster aid legislation first. >>> time now 5:44 general motors and chrysler failed to work out an agreement last night gm broke off negotiations but should resume at 5:00 this morning pacific time. however there is no threat of a strike. leaders agreed not to walk out as a condition of bailouts. >>> back here, governor jerry brown will veto many of the bills sitting on his desk. he is not saying which ones he will reject but he is focused on common-sense laws that will not add to the budget problems. he has until october 9th to make a decision. >>> changes could come as the city looks for ways to increase its staff. the examiner reports 21 officers make up the police force. outsources is one option consider leaders have considering and another option is to hire more officers but the top priority is to hire a police chief. the interim police chief also works part-time. >>> time now two bay area teens add iphone apt developer to their college makes. they were honored last night in fremont and they created the first iphone app for a school di

put together the gao put together which lists billions and billions of dollars of waste that senator coburn commissioned that has been out since large march. if you want money go get the waste it is simple that has not been done. tonight the president says he has this big plan and lays it out but says we have to wait for his more ambitious deficit plan until a week from monday. so it is hard to think everyone does give a damn it is just talk and khaet are -- and chatter, nothing moving forward. >> we had three summers of talk and discontent. let's get real. washington doesn't have a vacuum of ideas. the ryan plan is on the table. simpson-bowles is on the table. what we lack is leadership. >> greta: if you become president, chances are you are going to have a divided house and senate. that's the problem the president has now. let's assume you are the president. what can you do differently in terms of leadership to unlock this problem we have in washington? what is special about you? what would you do differently? >> first, i believe the 2012 election cycle is going to be a referendum on gett

we have senator mccain, senator coburn. louise story of the "new york times". governor daniels from andian that, he's back. -- and we have a ceo who wants to hire people, but there's a problem. the federal government is in his way. >> sean: if you read the jobs bill if somebody is unemployed and they go for a job in this new bill, they can claim discrimination because they are unemployed so nobody is going to interview an unemployed person. e est thing i've ever read that the federal -- the dumbest thing i've ever read that the federal government has done. >> greta: i have a jobs plan. >> sean: i have a jobs plan too, fire obama. >> greta: i think you would like mine. >> sean: let not your heart be troubled our great, great american panel is next. to be more environmentally aware, we are now printing on the back sides of used paper. and we switched to fedex 'cause a lot of their packaging contains recycled materials. tell them what else fedex does. well we're now using more electric trucks and lower emission planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't

put together the gao put together which lists billions and billions of dollars of waste that senator coburn commissioned that has been out since large march. if you want money go get the waste it is simple that has not been done. tonight the president says he has this big plan and lays it out but says we have to wait for his more ambitious deficit plan until a week from monday. so it is hard to think everyone does give a damn it is just talk and khaet are -- and chatter, nothing moving forward. >> we had three summers of talk and discontent. let's get real. washington doesn't have a vacuum of ideas. the ryan plan is on the table. simpson-bowles is on the table. what we lack is leadership. >> greta: if you become president, chances are you are going to have a divided house and senate. that's the problem the president has now. let's assume you are the president. what can you do differently in terms of leadership to unlock this problem we have in washington? what is special about you? what would you do differently? >> first, i believe the 2012 election cycle is going to be a referendum on gett

we have senator mccain, senator coburn. louise story of the "new york times". governor daniels from andian that, he's back. -- and we have a ceo who wants to hire people, but there's a problem. the federal government is in his way. >> sean: if you read the jobs bill if somebody is unemployed and they go for a job in this new bill, they can claim discrimination because they are unemployed so nobody is going to interview an unemployed person. the est thing i've ever read that the federal -- the dumbest thing i've ever read that the federal government has done. >> greta: i have a jobs plan. >> sean: i have a jobs plan too, fire obama. >> greta: i think you would like mine. >> sean: let not your heart be troubled our great, [ male announcer ] one-hundred-nineteen data points. this is what we can gather from an ordinary crash test dummy. two million data points. this is what we can gather from a lexus crash test genius. [ engine revving ] when you pursue industry-leading safety, you don't just engineer breakthroughs in simulation technology, you engineer amazing. â™

. >> greta: the patent bill the president will sign friday senator sessions and coburn it has a row vision which is a bailout for a law firm in boston apparently had a malpractice and this bill covers for them so they don't have to pay this 214 million dollar malpractice issue. washington bailing out bad companies. bailing outlaw firms and everybody. >> part of what makes this damaging for president obama with solyndra in particular this was held up as a centerpiece of the president's stimulus program. the program to get the economy moving again. >> greta: he was there in may. >> vice president spoke about the importance of investing in companies like solyndra. to have these political connections all this interference that seems to have happened all the investigations, it doesn't smell good. >> greta: rick, thank you. >> now to donald trump, why was he been making robo calls? your candidate last night in new york won. i bet you are happy about that? >> i am. he's really a good guy bob turner. he's a terrific guy. and he asked know do a little work for him. i did a robo, we are in a differe

you see coburn take $6 billion off of ethanol and call that a tax increase it's ludicrous, it's ridiculous. >> a card-carrying strong republican but willing to go along with getting rid of some of the tax breaks. what about trying to cut through the political gridlock in washington. would it have been better if the president and others had fully endorsed your commission back when, when it first came along? >> i think that's exactly what bill clinton would have done, knowing him as i do, he would have embraced that. come in with five dems and five republicans. >> president obama appointed you all. >> obama couldn't have done it because he would have been torn to bits so ryan, who got the gots to address the elephant in the bedroom, he goes after medicare and gets torn to bits so it's a case of throw out something workable and you'll get ripped to shreds. these groups are tough. you got the aarp, these guys are unforgiving and not ready to do anything. they're loading up. >> when you say the republican presidential debate, you know presidential politics, you were in and out of it for years,

chairman. >> thank you, senator coburn. >> thank you. i think the commissioner mentioned the culture changes. the senator from misery and myself demanded the culture change and i don't know if we have gotten it or if you've done more follow-up hearings but we have had a change in the top but what we found was no truth of it experience. they didn't have any formerly trained auditors it was a culture that goes with in the agency but you never have outside training or outside experience in terms of auditing and in terms of what you recommended. any other things he would recommend for the -- dcaa and water they doing in terms of what your observations were in your study? >> it's too bad the co-chairman is in here because he would love to speak on this issue. the one thing we did mention this if you have a 600 million-dollar backlog of bills paid but not audited, think of the records people have to keep and we pay them to keep those records. we pay tens of millions of dollars for people to keep records that we are then going to audit six or s

now, republican tom coburn of oklahoma is the only holdout. he is demanding a change in the highway portion of the bill. >>> 5:39. more than 600 bills sit on his desk. they are stacking up. this morning the hint governor brown is giving about the ones he will veto. >> talk about a close call, the dash to avoid a car that smashed through a bike store. we got video coming up. ,, 3q you disgust me. prove it. enough's enough. d-con baits are specially formulated to kill in one feeding, guaranteed. d-con. get out. >>> closed captioning of eyewitness news is brought to you by shreve & co. jewelers, a san francisco original. >>> welcome back. 5:41. those higher gas prices have encouraged a lot of americans to stop buying smaller cars. >> indeed, but now it looks like they are getting an added bonus beyond that fuel efficiency. jill schlesinger, editor at large for cbsmoneywatch.com joins us live. jill, the small cars are safer than before, right? >> reporter: absolutely. in fact, when you look at the top ratings, we have something that's really kind

sandra coburn has brought up a few of them like bike paths. my sense is those with all be work out. this has become a question of how much the top line that you can swallow. and so i'm asking all of our panelists here to tell us what we can do. how do we solve it? if you want to give us a quick overview of where you think the debate can go, where you are and what you would like to do. the rest of you down the line, what i would like to hear is specific ideas of how -- even if we can't get the whole enchilada this time, the whole investment structure can be improved. >> glad to be here this morning. fawn did a great job outlining where we are headed. where we are going. we do have six months at least now that the senate has passed an extension. unfortunately we have been really good at passing extensions for a number of years both in the service side and more so on the aviation side where we have had actually 22 extensions. nothing to be proud of but nonetheless better than shutting programs down. the only terminology that i would change with respect to what fawn had mentioned is peo

the republican tom coburn of oklahoma dropped his one-man effort to block the measure. >>> a big crash and now a mystery. police in petaluma are trying to figure out exactly how a camera lens fell through the roof of a house. in a big way. it happened two weeks ago on walnut street. ripping a six inch hole in the overhanging roof and slammed down along the outside of the house and the lens came from an airplane, helicopter, something. the pieces are from a 6 to 9-inch cannon zoom lens. >> and all of a sudden, i heard this huge crash. and the whole house shook. it was a little different than an earthquake that we've had here. but as far as the house totally shook. >> it had to reach a velocity that was substantial. it reached a terminal velocity which i believe is in the 200-plus mile-an-hour range. >> of course, then it hit someone, if it killed someone, petaluma contacted the faa and talking to camera shots in the area and so far no one was come forward. >> a big oops. >> yes. >> my camera. >> 6:20 now. a recall for some birth control pills, the packaging error that could lead to unex

and then senator coburn. >> you have a meeting at 3:30, d want to go ahead? >> no, no, go ahead. >> please, go ahead. it's been a call is the operative word. >> we put back to the restrictive business model. i sit here and think about we're talking about the editorial changes of the $55 billion over 40 years how does it take 40 years to figure out $55 billion off in terms of what was compensated? the absolute stupidity of congress and what we've done is totally amazing to me. >> the other thing i've heard and i've had this discussion with every postmaster general since i've been in congress is the revenue estimates. the revenue estimates we have for 2020 are absolutely in exaggeration that means 401st class pieces of mail nine years from now will go to every household in this country i don't believe it. i don't believe that its half of that so unless you are going to double the rate on the first class mail the revenue estimates are totally bogus and every of revenue estimate that i've heard over the last 12 years has been bogus coming from the postal service

republican tom coburn out of oklahoma is the lone holdout, demanding a change in the highway portion of the bill you. >>> thousands of southern californians were awake and by an earthquake this morning. it hit a couple of minutes before 3:00. it was a magnitude 3.5 with an epicenter near newport beach. so far no reports of damage or injuries. but quite a wake-up call i guess. >> it was. >>> an emergency evacuation from a plane that was bound for san francisco. the united airlines flight was taxiing outside of washington, d.c. yesterday when the pilot saw smoke coming from the engines. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsberg was among the people who was forced to slide down an emergency chute. three people suffered minor injuries. ginsberg was not heard and tonight she will be speaking at uc's hastings law school here in san francisco. >>> let's check traffic and weather. >> good morning. it's a cool morning. we are seeing temperatures that are well below average for this time of year. we are definitely going to need to grab the scarf heading to the bay or some of the coastal locati

coburn: i understand that. my commitment is to work with the senator from new jersey to try to solve this problem before any funding will change, and i don't think it's going to change. i would also note to my colleagues that last year we had over $450 billion appropriated by the appropriators that was not authorized for anything. there was no authorizations at all. so this money isn't going to go away. there's no hurry. there's no tragedy. we can continue and we can work as colleagues to try to solve our problems as well as meet the demands that the senator from new jersey thinks must be met. with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: mr. president, first of all, i appreciate my colleague's offer. certainly we will take him up on it to have discussion and see where we come to common cause, because the issue is far more important than any one's ideological views. so i look forward to working with him and others about our concerns. let me say there are some in

the bowles-simpson got everyone from dick durbin to tom coburn to sign on to the same thing. if that was possible then, it should be possible now. this is the solution that paul volcker are among others have said this should be the minimum that we should consider. to get together privately at first and then have this before thanksgiving to put the country first. >> what kind of mechanisms do they need to make sure this stays in place over the coming years? . >> they are worried they will be villano villano villified. >> given the current fiscal situation -- >> given the current fiscal situation in the united states, would you advise more stimulus spending as the than the president is proposing in his jobs plan. >> my personal opinion is, in order to create jobs it has to be about confidence and the way to get confidence back in the market is to get a long-term fiscal plan. you can talk about fiscal, the real plan is for members of congress to grow up, be adults, and put what's on the table that we have seen, whether it be the blueprint, the fiscal commission, other possibilit

one of our senators from oklahoma, senator coburn, says he wants to hold up the transportation bill, which includes transportation and f.a.a., because he doesn't like one part of the program. 2% of the funds go to things he doesn't like. well, he has every right to that opinion, and eve every right tok with us on an amendment and get it done. but he's holding it up. we could have had that amendment yesterday. he doesn't like the transportation enhancements program. and, for the record, there are a number of things in that portion, which is a relatively small amount of the bill, 2% of the bill, and we are reforming that section next year when we get to the new bill. but he's holding it up. now, he's wrong to hold it up because of what i told you. he's putting at risk all of these safety improvements at our armets, he's putting at risk, you know, 1.8 million jobs on the transportation bill, he's putting at risk 70,000 jobs on f.a.a. because he doesn't like this program. now, he also misled people. he said that we spent 10% of our transportation money on this transportation enhancements

and then senator coburn. >> you have a meeting at 3:30, d want to go ahead? >> no, no, go ahead. >> please, go ahead. it's been a call is the operative word. >> we put back to the restrictive business model. i sit here and think about we're talking about the editorial changes of the $55 billion over 40 years how does it take 40 years to figure out $55 billion off in terms of what was compensated? the absolute stupidity of congress and what we've done is totally amazing to me. >> the other thing i've heard and i've had this discussion with every postmaster general since i've been in congress is the revenue estimates. the revenue estimates we have for 2020 are absolutely in exaggeration that means 401st class pieces of mail nine years from now will go to every household in this country i don't believe it. i don't believe that its half of that so unless you are going to double the rate on the first class mail the revenue estimates are totally bogus and every of revenue estimate that i've heard over the last 12 years has been bogus coming from the postal service

this does not come as a surprise to republican information tom coburn. his office investigated government payments to dead people and found $1 billion taxpayers dollars had gone out to the doors to deceased since 2000. he said sending federal funds to dead people is a result of congress being more interested in spending new money instead of creating oversight over programs we already created. the inspector general says there is a high probability this loss of taxpayer dollars will continue. megyn: palestinian president mahmoud abbas filing for u.n. membership. what does this mean for the peace process? [ barks ] [ cat meows ] [ woman ] ♪ i just want to be okay ♪ be okay, be okay ♪ i just want to be okatoday - ♪ i just want to knowoday - [ whistles ] ♪ know today,now today - [ cat ows ] - ♪ know th maybe i will be okay ♪ [ chimes ] travelers can lp you protect the things you care about... and save money wi multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need... and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-covera

part of the debate from earlier today on the coburn amendment. the amendment would allow the patent office to keep off is collecsanpending. this is 35 minutes.i wanto tal >> i wanted to a couple things. i want to talk about an amendment. one of my colleagues in your position as president pro temr i does an error i made. questioned senator whitehouse questioned my numbers numbers and in fact heas was great. i said 115 million in regards t. .he savings it was .5 million coming up 115t i stand to put that in therd thw record that i was in error and a senator white house as a quarter on itgue questioned me and i thank him for his the accountability. we have before the senate now bt patents bill and there's no question that there's a lot of work we need to do on patterns.e pro tem timeesident sits on the committee i.q. and we spent a lot of time on this. but i am really concerned, i have to say, with what we arelle rnhearing in the senate about wy the right thing ebat everybody agrees we shouldm ee doing because somebody that wants to do that in the h

senator warner's essentials letter in june on that issue, senator coburn's subcommittee is looking at the effectiveness of the fusion centers, and i know that the dhs has conducted a study to identify baseline keep the peace that every fusion center should have. so tell me why we should have fusion centers. >> i can speak both as a former u.s. attorney general and governor has to the utility of the fusion centers. they do not duplicate. they complement. their portals of entry where we can share information, and as i mentioned in my opening comments all but three we are now connected at the secret level and get information back as the director mentioned and then director mueller, of the phenomena we are dealing with now was the growth of the homegrown terrorists and the so-called loan actor were lone wolf. we need more on is on the ground and the federal government itself can supply. the training and ability to share information about tactics and techniques, early trips that should be looked for can be very, very helpful, and it's not just sharing information, senator that is important

senators alexander grosso boozman chambliss, coats coburn, cornyn copeland, hutchison, isakson, kyl, moran and then.lleahe mr. president, i urge all of our colleagues to support theegulor regulatory timeout act which is are a critical step towards easing the regulatory uncertainty andns costs that are keeping our job creators from getting americans back to work. thank you mr. president.eard >> mr. president, we all hope h heard thisis president's speech from the joint sessions of was congress last week about his proposal to bring forward a jobs bill that was released this an morning and the president indicated that he wanted to take his case to the people. and i'm glad he is doing so. i hope that as he travels abouthe the country, i think he will be hearing what many of us heard during the august recess when welked t were back at home. as they travel across the state of indiana and talk to people from all different categories of work engagement small to medium to large businesses, homeowners, other constituents one thing came through loud and clear, ando that was i needed to listen t

according to a february 2011 study by senator coburn entitled "help wanted: how federal job training programs radi are failg workers," quote, "taxpayers may have a case of indigestion when they learn that nearly two years after the stimulus us will was enactedder their money is paying blobster men, blueberry farmers to attend job training sessions on jobs they are already trained to do. the stimulus reauthorized the trade adjustment assistance for farmers' program administered by the u.s. department of agriculture, a program that provides subsidies to producers of raw agricultural commodities and fishermen so they can adjust to import competition. under the stimulus, t.a.a. benefits were enhanced to focus more on employment retraining. while the reid substitute includes a compromise to -- quote -- "pare back some of the expansions in the temporary stimulus spending legislation of 2009, it still expands t.a.a. benefits and eligibility beyond the prestimulus levels by approximately -- by my calculations at least -- $600 million a year. i acknowledge that expanding trade does temporaril

and his equally conservative republican colleague senator coburn. they were willing to think outside their usual box and worked through the arithmetic and realized this is going to take some revenue. i have always been a fan of senator durbin but he also came to the difficult conclusion that this is going to take raining in the entitlements. that is not really good for me. but i am going to have to join with the others. it was a display of courage and compromise that i hope will spread to the rest of the congress and the select committee. >> one point you have made or most of you made is $4 trillion is more like a minimum than a maximum. you stabilize the debt on a downward trajectory but well above the historical averages. historically debt levels were below 40% of gdp. if we pay $4 trillion that is closer to the high 60% of gdp and moving down. you don't want your debt level too high because you would find -- fiscal flexibilities your hit with more emergencies or other wars which we will be. it is important people understand as much as we wish we

guest: it is interesting that you should mention tom coburn. he is someone to a lot of conservatives deem a hero around the country. his argument is going to be -- you sort of crystalized some of the problems that he is going to have. he will have to go up to capitol hill and he will have to explain to the country that he is doing the best job that he can. and what his path forward is going to be. he is not going to have a real concrete successes 2.2. that is a hard thing to do. i should be reelected without having had jobs figures that he would like to have. host: republican candidate turn attention to one another. the republican field is entering -- one of our followers sane, who will get behind ron paul? guest: paul sort of joins them with rick santorum. as someone who is in the lower tier and having a part-time getting traction -- having a hard time getting traction. hard time getting traction. we have three real front runners. host: jon huntsman outlined his jobs and economic package. we sat down and with him about a week ago about the gro

five hours debate have been allotted for three amendments including one by oklahoma senator tom coburn that will allow the patent office to control all the fees it collects rather than having them placed in congress's annual appropriation fund. on all three amendments as well as final passage affected at 4:00 p.m. eastern. at 6:20 senators will gather and proceed to the house floor to receive the president's speech on jobs. live coverage on c-span beginning at 7:00 eastern. following the joint session the senate will reconvene to vote on whether to proceed to resolution of disapproval of raising the debt ceiling. we now take you to the senate floor for live coverage here on c-span2. senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. lord god, through whom we find liberty and peace lead us in your righteousness and make the way straight before our lawmakers. as they grapple with complex issues and feel the need for guidance lead them to the decision that will best glorify you. looking to you to guide them, may they not be

people being appointed, the fact that mitch mcconnell appointed pat to me, and from someone like tom coburn, an impeccable conservative who worked both on the gang of six, that sent a bad sign. so i think you always want to hope for the worse, you should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. the reality of congress decided to kick the can to the super committee. president obama and john boehner have encouraged them to rate sites from the 1.5 to something more ambitious, to open the door to tax reform. on one level it pathetic to delegate to super community, but that is part of the reality. there is common ground to be built on. that's the point of the jobs plan with the bipartisan legislation. but it takes political courage to reach across the aisle and this preclinical environment. that's the responsibility of the super committee. also john boehner and president obama to try to meet their respective sites with some type of agreement to get the economy moving again and put america on longer fiscal footing. >> host: john avlon as their guest in our new york city. if you're watching c-

he is equally conservative republican colleagues senator coburn because they were willing to think outside of the usual box. they work through the arithmetic and realize this is going to take some revenue. i've always been a fan of senator german, but he also came to the difficult conclusion that this is going to take precedent entitlements. my party doesn't like that. but i'm going to have to join with the others and it was a display of courage and compromise that i hope will spread to the rest of the congress and especially to this committee. one of the points you all have made is that really 4 trillion is more like a minimum about books we should be thinking about. if you get to for trillion and savings coming stabilize the debt and from the downward trajectory. still, it's well above historical averages. our debt levels will reload 40% of gdp. everything for trillion dollars, though it put us closer to the high 60s in gdp and you don't watch her levels to be high because you want the fiscal flexibility who need to borrow in the future again, if you're hit with more emergencies, like we