senator tom coburn for the republicans and debbie stabenow for the democrats. and congressman hensarlingg. the president said that for there to be a big deal, tax rates on the wealthy are going to have to go up. if that's his bottom line, can there be a deal? >> again, as the speaker has said, unfortunately what we see out of the president is my way or the highway. one dollar revenue for 2.5 of spending reductions. now, after the election, it's a little bit of bait and switch. now he's asking for $1.6 trillion. and if you look closely, for every one dollar of tax increase there's about 20 cents of spending reductions. >> i'm talking about the rates. if the rates go up, can the republicans in the house accept the tax increase? >> no rep wants to vote for a rate tax increase. what that's going to do, is cause 700,000 americans to go from having paychecks to unemployment checks, because of what that's going to do to the economy, george, hardworking americans are going to see a 2% reduction in their paycheck if they keep them. listen, the president, again, if he wo

debbie stabenow is here on rule changes. stay with us. we're right back. >>> to all the small business owners who are tired of the system rigged against them, we're going to hold the big guys accountable. >> welcome back to "the ed show." that's elizabeth warren of massachusetts who has been a true champion of holding the big guys accountable. they might be in for a rude awakening. warren will likely become a member of the banking committee. nothing is final until it's confirmed by caucus. warren will have influence over proposed regulations of wall street and the banking industry. it would be a perfect development for progressives in the country. elizabeth warren practically created the consumer financial proex bureau as part of financial reform. warren would be and has been a great choice to the agency. but republicans threaten to block it. lobbyists reportedly fought warren being chosen for the committee. if she gets the spot, she'll be one of the senators making sure financial reform has real teeth. i'm joined by senator sherrod brown

let's turn now to senator debbie stabenow of michigan. there's been a lot of conversation in the liberal community in this country about this. and democrats seem to be chomping at the bit. is this going to happen? are we going to see change? >> yes, i believe that we are going to see change. we have the support to make the changes and i think it's clear the public wants us to get something done. of course, we're going to work across a shouldn't be able to hold up the department of defense bill or in the case of my bringing jobs home act, which is so important for shipping jobs overseas, we had 57 votes but we couldn't get 60 to stop a filibuster and they didn't have to stand on the floor and talk so nobody knew who it was from block us to closing loopholes to bring jobs home. this is common sense. >> so senator, what's your response to mitch mcconnell when he says the filibuster reform is an effort to marginalize the minority party? >> it's crazy. he has been marginalizing the majority party. the last six years, there were 386 filibusters

democratic senator debbie stabenow. senator stabenow, thank you for being with us tonight. >> absolutely, ezra. and i wanted to thank you for what is a very good summary of where we are. and it is the most frustrating thing i've ever gone through in my entire life, i think. >> i appreciate that. and covering it, what has been striking to me is the level of not just substantive disagreement on things like tax and spending but the procedural breakdown. every procedural effort that gets begun to solve this, either negotiations or the house plan b or maybe reid and mcconnell negotiations, it is dissolving very, very quickly. so what comes now? what is actually the process by which we can move forward? >> well, first of all, we have to be able to govern. we have to have an adult conversation, getting people in the room who actually want to solve this problem. and i think it's very important to step back and see the fact that we have already -- there are three parts of this deficit reduction stool. we've already in the past t

let's bring in senator debbie stabenow. senator, this is a real stuff one to stomach for a lot of workers and middle classers in this state. in the big picture, what does this mean for michigan and the country? >> first of all, ed, it's really outrageous what's happening. as you were talking about, michigan is the home of the middle class in our country. we're the state that started building things, making automobiles and to find ourselves in this situation is terrible. i want to step back and remind everyone that in 2008 and 2009, when the auto industry was on the brink, it was the uaw and workers coming together working with the companies that agreed to cut their wages in half to save the companies, to take on retiring health care costs, to save the companies. you know, we thought we had turned a corner in michigan. we have been moving forward in a positive way. people working together. and this is taking us way back, huge steps back and the governor and the legislature are going to be held accountable for that. because w

stabenow: thank you very much. i first want to thank senator merkley who has been tireless in bringing forward the issues of the farmers and ranchers in oregon and to my colleagues who are here on the floor from new york and new jersey. i had the opportunity to be in new jersey with senator menendez and to see firsthand also with senator landrieu and senator tester, and it's very, very clear that this is a horrific situation and deserves our attention and support. what we are doing with this amendment, as modified -- i want to thank senator blunt for working with us in cosponsoring the amendment stk-rbs to basically -- is to basically take what we have done and passed in the farm bill and putting it into this very, very important disaster assistance bill. in the spring we experienced late freezes that wiped out many fruit crops in a number of states, including michigan, new york and pennsylvania. in my home state we had a 98% loss of cherry crops. and they don't have access to any crop insurance. we're talking abou

stabenow: thank you. madam president, i rise today to once again speak about the fact that in july -- july 25 of this year, the senate passed a middle-class tax cut bill guaranteeing that the first $250,000 of income that any american has would be exempted from any tax increase. now, we all know that the vast majority -- in fact, 98% of americans -- make less than that amount of money. so we are talking about 98% of americans receiving tax cuts under that proposal. back in july, we passed this proposal, and it is now still waiting in the house of representatives. so far the house leadership has refused to even let the bill come up for a vote, even though we all know that there are a majority of members in the house that would vote for this and guarantee that, as we go into christmas, middle-class families across america would know that they would have $2,200 in their pocket, more in their pocket right now next year than they will have if their tax cuts expire. so we have passed this, and we are urging the

senator debby stabenow of michigan is on the finance committee. she's going to join us in the next hour. but, up here first, number three on the first five web stories. >> you see that? that was the moment of impact of a deadly plane crash in moscow. a plane veered off the run way and on to a highway, broke up into pieces, caught fire. investigators are examining the flight recorder to find out what caused the crash. five people on board that plane were killed. nah, i'm good. ♪ [ male announcer ] every time you say no to a cigarette, you celebrate a little win. nicoderm cq, the patch with time release smart control technology that acts fast and helps control cravings all day long. ♪ quit one day at a time with nicoderm cq. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. ha

stabenow: thank you very much. mr. president, i rise today as so many colleagues have done throughout the day to pay tribute to a tremendous colleague that we lost yesterday, a friend to all of us, someone that we have all learned a tremendous amount from on both sides of the aisle, but how to work together. senator daniel inouye of hawaii. he was an outstanding senator, a cherished colleague, and a dear, dear friend. we all know he dedicated his life to serving our country first as a soldier in world war ii, being willing to put his life on the line for our freedoms, for our country. and then as a member of congress for 53 years. senator inouye was hawaii's first congressman. think about that. the first congressman. and today marks the first day in the history of our country that the state of hawaii has not been represented in congress by dan inouye. he also had a special connection to my home state of michigan, as senator levin and i both have been very proud of that fact. he was a patient at a hospital in battle cre

and if we can do it on the highway bill, if -- if i could do it with jim inhofe, if debbie stabenow can do it with pat roberts on the farm bill, i know -- and there are other examples i could give. i could give examples of senator feinstein with her republican counterpart. i could give many examples on the appropriations committee. we know we can do this. we just have to take a deep breath and put our ego as side for this country's sake and make those compromise that allow us to still stand tall. now, i'm only five feet so that's hard, but you get the point. we can do this and we should do it now. and if we don't do it now, we should vote on the president's plan because the people of this country deserve better than to be left hanging on a cliff. they don't deserve that. it's not right. thank you very much. i yield the floor. note the absence of a quorum and ask that the time be charged -- the presiding officer: who yields time? mrs. boxer: i would note the absence of a quorum and ask that the time be equally divided between the two sides. the presiding officer: without objection. the c

i want to bring in michigan senator debbie stabenow now. thank you so much for being with us. >> sure. >> it really is disconnected. everywhere i go, people ask me a simple question. why can't they get this deal done? harry reid got up and said we're just procedurally not going to get this done in time, it caused people to say why not? this is the most anticipated problem we've ever had. it just -- regular folks folks look at washington and say what is going on. >> ali, i'm here and saying what is going on. there are basically three pieces to solving the deficit, right? one is spending and we have agrowed to $1.6 trillion in spending cuts in the last two years and the other is spending cuts. we put forth spending cuts of over $700 billion. not cutting care to seniors, but cutting overpayments to insurance companies. the burden of the deficit must not just be on the middle class. the wealthy have to kick in. we sent a bill to the house in july that says 98% americans, income up to 240,000 would continue to get tax cuts. above that, people wo

i was pleased to be a partner with senator stabenow, chair of the agriculture committee, who worked closely with us to arrange for this senate amendment to be possible tonight, to be able to have this vote. so i thank her. i thank senator blunt. i thank the other senate cosponsors. and i thank everyone who voted tonight to say that disaster relief should no longer be delayed for the victims of the fires and droughts of the summer of 2012. thank you, mr. president. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent an amendment to title h.r. 1, the title of which is at the desk be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that a time determined by the majority leader with the concurrence of the republican leader, t

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to bring attention a critically important piece of legislation that the senate has passed and that the house needs to pass immediately. it passed the senate with bipartisan support. there are those on both sides of the aisle in the house of representatives that support passing it and i'm here to urge in the strongest terms possible that the speaker bring this bill up before the house and get it passed. now, many people, because of my speaking in the past, may be i'm referring to the farm bill, which i also believe we need to have the house take up and pass, because of our bipartisan work, but i actually after referring today to the fact that we have only 27 days until we go over the fiscal cliff, or for middle-class families, what this means is 27 days before their taxes go up on average $2,200. so what we're talking about is the fact that we passed a bil bill -- we didn't just pass a bill. we passed a bill in july, july 25 of this year, the senate passed a bil

stabenow. >>> these are without a doubt the most difficult of times. can faith heal all wounds? >> let the little children come to me jesus said. do not hinder them. for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. god has called them all home. may god bless and keep those we have lost in his heavenly place. may he grace those we still have with his holy comfort. >> with me is jack monday a member of billy graham's rap hid response team and jarrod murray past fore pastor of holy family parish. >> i am going to start with you. you were part of billy graham's rapid response team. i understand your team arrived in newtown on friday the very g day this happened. tell us what you saw? >> yes, after arriving we made contact with the state police and the fire here in newtown. because of our chaplain having a police back ground and fire background they were welcomeled immediately at the volunteer fire departments and escorted to the emergency operations center. >> and jack you do this regularly as parted of this response team you go all over the country. >> actually, we have been doing this s

these questions matter.couple neil: but they come with a haven couple of days to go toe proces debbie stabenow line to the across us.know, he >> the president has to givemore up anund republicans have to give up on the spending butline. they are dancing around andat well get it done before becomes a problem. we are pretty close. i cannot see a big with certainty but i am feeling good. i would expect nothing less as part of the process. mark zandi. we will see if it works out. chigan becomes a 24out state with the right to onrk. theirrustrati the unions were not happy expressing frustration a tole alienate said governor.for preside wisconsin?re-lec the top fund-raiser forhis president obama and how that affects the mood and tone here in washington. after this. and then treats day afr da.. block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] e pill eachmorning. 24 hours. zero heartbur neil: ichigan en roue to be another wednesday? could be jt as devive and could be the 24 #th right to work state, but that created enormous tensions prompting the presiden

stabenow. >>> these are without a doubt the most difficult of times. can faith heal all wounds? [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ breathes deeply ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! 7,000 students drop out every school day. that's a line of desks more than 4 miles long. keep students in school. visit boostup.org and take the first step. >> let the little children come to me jesus said. do not hinder them. for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. god has called them all home. may god bless and keep those we have lost in his heavenly place. may he grace those we still have with his holy comfort. >> with me is jack monday a member of billy graham's rap hid response team and jarrod murray past fore pastor of holy family parish. >> i am going to start with you. you were part of billy graham's rapid response team. i understand your team arri

and well, i think that senator stabenow down there in the blue. other than that, it's pretty empty. we did get word moments ago there is a democratic caucus meeting around 7:00. maybe 7:30 where vice president biden will update the caucus on the state of the deal. senate democrats we're told have not signed off on the deal. after the caucus there is an expectation of votes around possibly 10:00 p.m. maybe later. as we get word about the senate action. and knowing about it. but it will be a while. 10:00 p.m. we're going to be back here at 8:00 p.m. you were saying about this deal, we rudely cut you off before. that the entitlement reform is not specific on the republican side. democratic side, frankly there is no spending cuts in this deal. no additional spending cuts. >> there this is the other part of this. obama doesn't -- obama believes in stimulating the economy through spending. he doesn't believe in making all the cuts. so again, like you are asking him to adopt a world view he doesn't have. >> bret: even though he talked about it many times. >> he does talk about it. >> expou

just re-elected debbie stabenow to the senate. you are as blue as a state can be. what explains this tension almost this schizophrenia where you have a state legislature that seems to be taking away one of the core principles, one of the core values in fairness and equity not in -- in negotiating power so that you can do what mark just said that is right for the economy and workers. >> great question, eliot. i think it really boils down to this. that the republicans have managed to gerrymander state legislative seats in both the state house and the state senate which has allowed them to win fairly consistently majorities in both the house and senate. despite the fact that the state as a whole is very blue and they have used that power to access. we're talking about a republican power structure and republican legislative leaders and governor who are drunk with power and who have become hell bent on destroying the middle class in this state. as you rightly said, this is not about sound economics. we know that in states that have gone so-called right to work, that wag

of course it never would have happened, but arguably stabenow as you know himself who is the head of the communist party told the communists and 45 get ready for the class war to continue in effect. don't believe the peaceful coexistence is going to last. and at the same time as roosevelt is dying actually. >> i would like to -- not as a historian, but as a person came to look at this in a different aspect than i ever did as a young person when i was the victory at sea. they have nothing compared to the provision higher in the coming power saws russia because they grow during the war and the soviet union, don't forget the arm themselves across the mountains and we make themselves. it's an extraordinary story. migration and reconstruction and dedication of the people and of the losses of the soviets with this 22 or 27 million the stalin's it doesn't matter they plunged into this thing and it was a crucible for them at the war. but the british churchill has a fascinating overlay on this because he has a different motive it seems. once the british islands are saved in the battle of brit

we just overwhelmingly re-elected president obama and senator debbie stabenow. pro-woman, pro-worker people. that's what this state wants and that's not what we're getting in the executive office right now here in michigan. >> jennifer: i know that you have to be -- you and your senate colleagues, have to be pulling your hair out. i know you've been in the minority in the senate for awhile. you were in the minority when i was there but at least we had a house as a backstop. now this ramrodding of stuff through the legislature has got to take a toll, i would imagine on senate relations. how are they? >> there's no question that there is nothing more divisive that this governor could have pushed through in a lame duck session. in any part of session but doing it during lame duck is especially gut-churning because we saw seven republicans lose their seats in the last two years because people reject this kind of extreme divisive agenda. it is like they drop an atomic bomb on the place. no one should be surprised if the environment on every single issue before us has

the entire democratic delegation called a special meeting with the michigan governor, senator debbie stabenow. they all asked the governor to either veto or delay the legislation. >> we told the governor something that we're not sure he fully, frankly, understood. which is that nobody is required to join a union. quite the opposite under law. >> congressman dingell and conyers say they tried to explain to the governor that people won't lose their jobs if they don't pay union dues. the meeting might not have helped. the governor said this moments after the congressional press conference was held. >> michigan workers are hard-working people. and shouldn't they be able to make the choice to say they see value in the union? and again, hopefully it would make the unions more accountable and work harder to show the workers the value proposition as to why they should pay. >> governor snyder is set to sign the bill tomorrow to make michigan the 24th state to become a right-to-work state. senator carl levin called this a tipping point. the president calls it a race to the bottom. >> we don't want a ra

national level right now in congress, this is where i give senator stabenow and also our president, who are trying to protect the s.n.a.p. programs and a house bill that savagely is cutting this. >> $16 billion. >> $16 billion. right. here you have veterans, families, over a million veterans, people who are depending on this program. you have military families, thousands of them depending on this program. you have kids because but for programs like this, they would be going to school nutritionally unfit to learn. the point about the economy, this is the short-sighted thinking so many people have about government expenditures, there is absolutely government waste, fraud, abuse, but when it comes to programs like this, you actually get a long-term and immediate benefit from that expenditure of taxpayer dollars. >> nobody can tell me this is a wasteful amount of food for an american. >> if i was on food stamps or s.n.a.p. program and i used my money, that dollar that i spend on my food actually comes -- recycles through the economy and produces $1.70 or more of a benefit to our gdp because

today's guests include finance committee member tom coburn and democratic senator stabenow. share elect republican representative henserling and the co-chair. fox news sunday with chris wallace, today's sitting down with chuck schumer of new york and republican senator bob corker, a member of the senate banking committee. also today, the israeli ambassador to the u.s. talking with managing director of the imf, christine lagarde. at 4:00, "face the nation." bob schieffer talks with alan simpson and erskine bowles, co-cahairs, and cory booker. they're all brought to you as a public service by the networks. they begin at noon with "meet the press." 1:00, abc's "this week." and 4:00, "face the nation" cbs. listen on 90.1 in the d.c. area and satellite channel 119. you can listen on your smartphone or go online to cspanradio.org. >> the supreme court will look at what was passed in 2008 by a majority of 6-3 and they will say it is precedent. indiana had a voter i.d. -- >> the indiana case was constitutional for them to establish identification. they did not say that all of the st

i watched debbie stabenow did it with pat roberts, come forward with a farm bill. i've watched senator feinstein in intelligence, and senator levin and senator mccain. it can happen. we can make it happen. we have to make it happen. but i'll close with this: i served in the house for 10 years. i served with incredible members, and one of them was tip o'neill, and he was the speaker. and tip o'neill had a certain magic about him, but the magic was that he understood how to get things done because he didn't consider himself speaker of the democrats; he considered himself speaker of the house. and he knew the magic was 218. that was the number. he'd come over to me and every member when there was a tough vote and he'd say, well, barbara, can you be with me on this one? and i'd say, gee, mr. speaker, i don't think so. it's not good for my district. i really don't think i can. and he would say to me, well, you know what? if that's how you feel about it i understand. if i need you, i'll come back to you. and then he'd go do the same thing and pick up some republicans on

stabenow: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: let me just take a moment and thank senator merkley, senator baucus, wyden and mccaskill for joining us. i know others will join us as well. we are still working very hard to complete a farm bills to have the house take action, but in the meantime we have disasters that have occurred, and this -- these provisions are lifted directly from what we already passed in the farm bill that address what has happened in terms of livestock drought and fires and assistance for fruit tree growers, and we will be speaking at a later time about it, but these are essential to be included for thousands and thousands of farmers and ranchers across the country. i thank my colleagues for allowing us to step in. ms. landrieu: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you, madam president. i am going to truncate my remarks to five minutes. i came to speak on the supplemental and the great needs in the northeast. generally, because i know that there ar

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. i want to take just a moment to thank our distinguished colleague and my dear friend for his wonderful service. we serve on the one hand three committees together. it's been my honor to serve on the committee that senator conrad chairs, the budget committee, and to have him serve as a senior member of the agriculture committee, which i chair, and to have both of us sit on the finance committee together. today he has done what he has always done for us, which is to provide vision, common sense, intelligence, and a lot of numbers. and they add up, and they make sense, and so in listening to senator conrad's farewell speech, i want to thank him again for giving us a path forward. this is someone who will forever be in the senate history record as one of the great statesmen of our country, someone with intelligence, respect on both sides, compassion, a fighter from north dakota like i've never seen, and someone who serves in the best tradition of what it means to be an honorable public se

and if we can do it on the highway bill, if -- if i could do it with jim inhofe, if debbie stabenow can do it with pat roberts on the farm bill, i know -- and there are other examples i could give. i could give examples of senator feinstein with her republican counterpart. i could give many examples on the appropriations committee. we know we can do this. we just have to take a deep breath and put our ego as side for this country's sake and make those compromise that allow us to still stand tall. now, i'm only five feet so that's hard, but you get the point. we can do this and we should do it now. and if we don't do it now, we should vote on the president's plan because the people of this country deserve better than to be left hanging on a cliff. they don't deserve that. it's not right. thank you very much. i yield the floor. >> next, joe manchin talking about his plan for the fiscal cliff. their diligent work. they have committed themselves to this work and i appreciate it and they keep us all informed. mr. president, i rise today frustrated, embarrassed and angry. it is absolutely ine

he totally flipped and rejected the pleas of senator debby standard of care stabenow, sandy levin, all of the rest of the delegation john conyers. they asked him, don't sign this thing. let the legislate do its thing. don't sign this thing. if you do sign it, if you feel you have to sign it, then at least veto out the money in it. and if there is no money in it, then that right-to-work legislation could be subject to a referendum. it would go to the people and the people would get to vote on whether the they approve it or not. governor rick snyder having already, number 1, again, flipped from non-support to support, he then rejected their pleas. he signed the legislation and he left the money in meaning it cannot be the subject of a refer endim. there is no doubt why he did it. let's talk about it. 866-55-press. as president obama said the other day, this will legislation is anti-worker. what it means is it encourage people to freeload encourages people who work in union shops to refuse to pay their dues but yet they still get all of the benefits that all of the other dues-paying membe

i talked to chairwoman stabenow and she and her ranking member worked very hard on that. i know our committee's reported out a bill 35-11, but that has not come out of the -- come to the floor. i hope the farm bill could be moved. i know i will be talking to some of my ag community today. they're very hopeful not a stopgap but a farm bill of sufficient length, and i think they would op-ed -- i don't want to -- i think they would opt, i don't want to speak for them, for a senate bill. no crisis will spike dramatically on january 1 if we don't pass a farm bill. also, on the violence against women act, i know last week we had a sponsor in the chair -- i didn't know that. thank the gentleman for remind me, but the violence against women act has been passed by this house and by the senate. i would urge the majority to get us to conference on that rather than go through why i think the senate bill's a good bill and you think the house bill's a good bill, the way to resolve that is to go to conference. i urge the gentleman to go to conference on the violence against women act. i

democratic senators chuck schumer, stabenow, beg et are holding a press conference about an hour from now to ask house republicans to allow a vote on the middle class tax cut act which they passed in july. it is just the latest step to push to get a deal before the end of the year that will protect 98% of individuals and 97% of small businesses from seeing their income taxes go up. as the two sides deal with our fiscal future, politico reporting today that democrats are trying to get the white house to play nice with others and share its unprecedented database from the campaign. multilayered information could be valuable and incredibly valuable to 2014 candidates, state parties and outside progressive groups by giving them insight and everything from people voting habits to their tv watching habits to who may be most inclined to volunteer. they have not made a decision as to how to share the list if they're going to at all. they're using it to try to generate support for the president's legislative agenda. campaign manager jim messina warns, however that the list is specific to this p

we are talking to debbie stabenow and olympia snowe. and ken rogoff, one of the world's foremost experts on financial crises. >>> a crime reverberated across this country. a woman jogging in central park, brutally assaulted and left for dead. central park five arrested and after years in prison, all exonerated. a new documentary. we'll talk to the director along one of the members of the central park five. >>> and find a dog, and he'll write you to his new novel. dennis lehane pleading for your help to help find tessa. we'll talk to him live, that on "starting point" kicking off at the top of the hour. i'll try and keep the fiscal cliff talk to a minimum. >> talking to tessa the dog? that's incredible. >> talking to someone about tessa the dog. >> we have to find her. >> thank you, ali, so much. >>> and critics say that the atlanta braves are bringing back a savage logo. and we got the first look at the hats. the native american groups consider the caricature really offensive. the great hank aaron had it on his shoulder during most of h

we passed a bipartisan bill under the leadership of the chair of our committee, debbie stabenow. we passed a bipartisan bill that renews the plan for basic agriculture, nutrition and conservation programs but also saves taxpayers $23 billion. now, what i have been told privately, if the house leaders would permit a vote, this bill would pass in the house. just as republicans and democrats came together in this body, they would in the other body. if we passed it, it would end this stalemate. it would contribute billions of dollars to deficit reduction. but now it appears that nutrition programs to help millions of our most vulnerable fellow americans are the latest excuse for preventing a house vote to get the farm bill done. in this, the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. we say we'll hold this up because we have hungry people. we have so many americans still struggling to put food on the table. it's regrettable, but more than that, inexcusable. some house republicans have turned to slashing nutrition help for struggling americans as a means to prevent action on the farm

stabenow: mr. president? the presiding officer: the to sphrr michigan. stab thank you, mr. presidenms., mr. president. first, i rise to congratulate and thank a terrific u.s. senator, kay bailey hutchison, and to wish her much success in her further efforts. i know she will provide great leadership in whatever she's doing. it's been wonderful to watch over the years. bailey and houston, as they have grown, to be able to go to baby showers and celebrate and see the pictures and know that on top of all the other accolades today that senator hutchison is a devoted and wonderful mother to two beautiful children. she, as everyone has talked about, is the first and only woman to represent texas in the united states'united states's sl always have that distinction of opening doors and barriers. i know she agrees with me that once the doors open, we want to make sure more women are able to walk through that door as well. and so i want to congratulate her for that you will she has done. -- for all that she h

you have senators like senator stabenow saying we'll do innovative things, with access like to fresh and healthy foods. we want to protect recipients. and the president is saying he won't make cuts with the house bill. the house bill makes deep cuts, hurting the 46 million american who's are receiving this benefit right now. i can tell you from very personal experience, ain't that much money. >> did you it for a week, a suppleme supplement. veterans are on the snap program, even a small percentage of military families are on snap. they rely heavily on it. a large pestarcentage of americ who rely on snap, it pulls them above the poverty line. >> are you going to run for governor? >> that was a magic johnson. a no-look pass. a great move. you know this is the next week to two weeks. -- >> polling shows christie way ahead. >> the polling showed george bush way ahead. you look at head-to-head matches, doesn't put him that far over 50%. so we think that any democrat -- christie is vulnerable. a lot of issues on the state he's not falling in line. from women's issues, environmental issues,

senator debbie stabenow is calling michigan developments like wisconsin but worse. in a statement this morning senate majority leader harry reid calls the michigan anti-worker legislation a dangerous nationwide trend by republican-led state legislatures to attacking and collective bargaining. >>> a new poll out today on immigration shows that a majority of american voters support citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 62% support a path -- a proposal that lays out a multiyear process. according to the politico gw university battleground survey. the results are similar to those from an abc news "washington post" survey taken right after the election last month. cnn suggesting the president may turn his attention to immigration after he is done dealing with the fiscal cliff. an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are currently living in the u.s. we're back after the break. stay with us. (vo) this friday current tv presents a special event. >> nobody knows disasters like comedians. that's why for my upcoming benefit for victims of hurricane sandy, i booked t

i talked to chairwoman stabenow and she and her ranking member worked very hard on that. i know our committee's reported out a bill 35-11, but that has not come out of the -- come to the floor. i hope the farm bill could be moved. i know i will be talking to some of my ag community today. they're very hopeful not a stopgap but a farm bill of sufficient length, and i think they would op-ed -- i don't want to -- i think they would opt, i don't want to speak for them, for a senate bill. no crisis will spike dramatically on january 1 if we don't pass a farm bill. also, on the violence against women act, i know last week we had a sponsor in the chair -- i didn't know that. thank the gentleman for remind me, but the violence against women act has been passed by this house and by the senate. i would urge the majority to get us to conference on that rather than go through why i think the senate bill's a good bill and you think the house bill's a good bill, the way to resolve that is to go to conference. i urge the gentleman to go to conference on the violence against women act. i

senator stabenow, senator mccaskill, senator baucus, senator wyden, senator tim johnson, senator franken, senator tom udall, representing all kinds of parts of our nation, who understand the impact that drought has had, who understand the impact the fires have had, they've come together from different parts of the nation to say, we are in this together. let us not leave stranded our ranchers and farmers when we gather to debate tomorrow. let's let this amendment be brought forward and let's get it passed as part of this very appropriate response to this very terrible disaster called hurricane sandy. thank you, mr. president. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent the veterans' affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4057 and the senate proceed to its consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the cle