$600, $800 on the health care you buy, you've got $800 to go fishing in oregon. and i suspect the senator from delaware and georgia may have some other ideas for where people can use their savings. but the point is we will have created a market where there is none now. i consider the current health care system today for all practical purposes a money laundering operation. what we have done large the since world war ii is set it up so that third parties really call all the shots and there really aren't any opportunities for individuals who want to make a cost-conscious buy for a good-quality package to benefit from it. in effect, the individual has been divorced from the process completely. now, i am not calling for individuals to go off into the

health insurance marketplace by themselves. what i am saying is they ought to have the opportunity like we have as members of congress to be part of a large group where they can have clout, where they aren't discriminated against, where they do have power in the marketplace to make a sensible choice for themselves and their family. so in each of these areas, mr. president, and it's why i wanted to come to the floor of the senate today because i know emotions are starting to run hot on this health issue, i've outlined ways in which democrats and republicans can come together. and by the way, the congressional budget office, which is the independent arbiter of all of this, has largely scored these proposals, the proposals i've outlined, in the legislation that 14 united states senators are in support of.

so they make sense from the standpoint that democrats and republicans are already onboard and they have largely been scored by the congressional budget office as being budget neutral over a two-year phase-in period and in the third year would actually start bending the cost curve downward. i close with this, mr. president. i thank my colleague and friend from georgia for his patience. i think we have four -- actually five of our most dedicated legislators working now on a bipartisan basis in two committees to bring democrats and republicans together. the leaders of the committee on which i serve, the finance committee, chairman baucus and senator grassley, have been extremely fair and gracious. they have put untold hours into this issue. both of them have spent an exceptional amount of time with

me, and they have done that literally to offer to any member of the senate to sit down and spend time with them to try to address this bill in a bipartisan way. in the "help" committee, senator kennedy, senator dodd, senator enzi -- senator enzi serves on both committees -- are reflecting the same kind of good will. i've told the leaders of both of these committees, i'm going to do everything i can to bring to them the ideas that i've outlined today, that have strong bipartisan support, that have been scored by the congressional budget office as saving money and pushing the cost curve downward. i have great confidence in the leaders of those two committees because they are showing they want to spend the time to bring the united states senate together. a lot of us on this floor -- i see the distinguished senator from mai -- have worked

together on health care over a lot of years and a lot of issues. this is a historic opportunity. this is the place, the united states senate, this is the time to get it done, and i believe democrats and republicans coming together can make it happen. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor. ms. snowe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. snowe: i ask unanimous consent to speak for 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. snowe: thank you. i rise to speak in support of the family smoking prevention and tobacco control effort. before i do, i want to compliment the senator from oregon in his passionate and eloquent statement on behalf of renovating and reforming our health care system. that certainly will be an historic occasion. i've worked with him on so many instances in the past in a bipartisan fashion on key issues, such as the prescription drug and adding the critical part-d benefit to the medicare

program. that also was an historic event to the medicare program, the first major expansion of medicare since its inception, and look forward to working with him in a genuine bipartisan way to build a consensus for this historic occasion that's so essential and so important to all americans. it's important to get it right. it's important that we work together in a concerted fashion, as we have in the past, and certainly on the senate finance committee, and as we begin to proceed to mark up legislation in the future, i certainly am looking forward to working with him. mr. reed: would the senator yield for a prl meantry request? ms. snowe: yes. mr. reed: madam president, at the conclusion of the senator from maine's remarks, i would ask unanimous consent to be recognized for five minutes and then following me, senator isakson of georgia be recognized for 10 minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. so ordered. mr. reed: thank you, senator. thank youment ms. snowe: thank

you. madam president, i'm proud to join my colleagues in expressing, first and foremost, my admiration for senator kennedy phos long-standing -- kennedy for his long-standing vigorous leadership which has certainly been the impetus behind this critical legislation. undeniably, senator kennedy continues to serve as the strongest of champions on so many issues related to health care and we are all grateful for his tireless contributions to this major initiative. i also want to commend senator dodd, who has been guiding this legislation here in the united states senate, and i certainly appreciate all of his efforts to make sure that this legislation becomes a reality. i also appreciate the public health agencies and the advocates who have work ceaselessly to address this serious public health problem associated with tobacco, as we all well know, and who are committed to the task of reducing youth smoking. i certainly want to commend states like maine that have used

their funds from the 1998 tobacco settlement to reduce smoking rates. madam president, first and foremost, it's regrettable as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, that we're even having this debate when the american lung association reports that cigarette smoke contains more than 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer, and that smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90% of lung cancer deaths and that 8.6 million people in the united states have at least one serious illness that's caused by smoking. in addition, the centers for disease control and prevention estimates that smoking costs the country $96 billion a year in health care costs and another $97 billion a year in lost productivity. didn't have to be this way. looking back over the last several congresses, and i can tell you that many of my senate colleagues have been engaged on this issue of tobacco use and its ill effects for the better part of a decade. i well recall during the 105th congress at least five

comprehensive tobacco policy bills were introduced in the united states senate. the senate commerce committee, on which i've served, held no fewer than ten hearings on issues ranging from thousand implement the tobacco settlement, to protecting children from the health risks of becoming a smoker, to reviewing marketing and labeling restrictions that were under consideration at the time. 1997, senator mccain, who then chaired the commerce committee, introduced the national tobacco policy and youth smoking reduction act which contained many of the very same safeguards as the measure currently before us. while on the one hand it's irrefutable that protecting youth from the harms of smoking and ensuring tobacco products are manufactured under high standards was the correct course of action in 1997, how is it conceivable that it has taken 12 years to get this right? why after the first warnings 25 years ago by the surgeon general on the hazards of smoking has that message not been translated into law?

so why is congress taking this action now? what has changed since 1997 to prompt this renewed action? for one, there's been a justifiable drumbeat of outrage over fraudulent findings that has grown louder by the decade as the tobacco industry has been less than forthcoming and at times deceitful in providing consumers with information to make informed decisions about smoking. in fact, in august of 2006, a district court judge found that several tobacco companies intentionally manipulated information and lied and conspired to bring new, young and hopefully long-lived smokers into the market in order to replace those who die or quit. furthermore, a harvard school of public health study in 2008 found that cigarette companies strategically manipulated men that will levels in -- menthal levels in cigarettes to attract and addict young people. it's bad enough that congress could have acted and chosen not to do so but what makes the situation even worse is that in

the interim, tobacco companies have ratcheted up their marketing campaigns. congress is tackling the tobacco issue again in the wake of discovering how tobacco manufacturers add substances to cigarettes to increase their addictiveness, enhance the taste, and this is unbelievable, making them more palatable to children. men that will makes an -- man thole makes an individual's airway less react turf the harsh effects of smoking and ammonia is often added to speed the delivery of nicotine to the smoker's brain. that's not to say we haven't made progress in trying to limit some of the negative health effects of cigarette smoking. we have since 1983 the proportion of americans who smoke has declined from 30% to 34% and since the landmark 1964 surgeon general report, our knowledge of health risks of tobacco has expanded greatly. and yet without substantial initiatives by congress in the past ten years, the rate of tobacco use has not dropped but

merely stabilized. and today, approximately one in five youth and adults smoke regularly. the first step towards addressing the enormous toll take enon our nation by smoking is to equip the federal government with the tools it requires to hold purveyors of tobacco to account. for too long, there's been a vacuum in authority when it comes to regulating smoking at the federal level. our bill, the family smoking prevention tobacco control act, would create the kind of restrictions that the food and drug administration unsuccessfully tried to impose on the tobacco industry in 2000. unfortunately, the supreme court held that congress had not yet granted the f.d.a. explicit authority to regulate tobacco. the purpose of the f.d.a. restrictions was to prevent the tobacco industry from marketing its products to kids to create products that are specifically attract turf children, such as flavored cigarettes.

granting f.d.a. the authority to protect our children from these potentially deadly products is paramount. thus, the legislation before us would allow regulation of manufacturers of tobacco products in order to assure standards of content, label and marketing. under our bill, the secretary of health and human services would be authorized to develop regulations that impose guidelines on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products consistent with and to the full extent permitted by the first amendment to the constitution. these regulations would be based on whether they would be appropriate for the protection of public health. it's imperative that we provide the f.d.a. the flexibility to respond to inevitable tobacco industry attempts to circumvent restrictions while acknowledging the rights that the tobacco industry to sell its products to consenting adults. while this bill allows that informed adults ought to be able to purchase tobacco products, we must also understand that many

smokers want to quit smoking. in 2006, 44% of smokers stopped smoking at least one day in the preceding year because they were trying to quit smoking completely. undoubtedly, for some, cessation is more difficult, and as they struggle to limit their risk, those individuals who seek out products while they understand to be less hazardous, such as lower tar and nicotine products. and while these actions are admirable, their benefits are indisputably limited. that is partially because the tobacco industry has waged a marketing campaign to convince consumers that they can continue to smoke and mitigate the negative health impacts of smoking by choosing alternativ alternatives, like light, low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes. and so, again, the f.d.a. with the authority to regulate the production and marketing of tobacco products is the most viable answer. our approach would also ensure

that scientific expertise of the f.d.a. is applied to appropriately regulate tobacco. current smokers deserve to learn more about the products they consume. additionally, we must have much-improved marketing oversight so that children and adults are not targeted with false or deceptive advertising of a dangerous product. to that end, i was pleased to join with senator lautenberg in sponsoring legislation to end the fraud of allowing the tobacco industry to perpetuate the orwellian idea of the safer cigarette. the truth in cigarette labeling act was a bill senator lautenberg and i introduced to prohibit the cigarette companies from using the f.t.c. method for measuring tar and nicotine which has been found to be a deceptive method of presenting data on tar and nicotine exposure through smoking. thankful, the f.t.c. agreed to implement the lautenberg-snowe bill by not allowing tobacco companies to label their products with low-tar, low-nicotine, and light. to augment that effort, senator

lautenberg and i sent a letter to the f.t.c. supporting the decision to curtail these deceptive marketing tactics and finally holding cigarette producers to higher standards in as i stated at the outset. since 2000 smoke reduction has >> stephen strasburg moments away from becoming the number-one overall pick in the 2009 major league draft. he'll be taking by the washington nationals. signing him might be another topic. he's considered one of the all-time great pitching prospects and will go number one. joined once again by keith law. when you look at strasburg's numbers, he's amazing.

the strikeout-to-walk ratio is something out of a video game. it is that astonishing. he's been... they say he's hit 103 on the gun. we had a chance to cover his game in the college world series and he was really hitting 94 through most of the game. it's official, he's the number-one pick of the nationals. there's a big difference between 103 and 94. a lot of guys in the minors throw 94. what's going to separate him? >> one, it's the second pitch. it's the fact he's got an out pitch breaking ball. plenty of guys can throw hard. it's a relatively easy thing to do. it's a lot harder to find a consistent curveball or slider where you get good break on it, get some deception, something to get hitters off of the fastball. 95 and straight is actually a pretty hittable pitch for a big league hitter. the other thing that separates strasburg for me is he has good command of the fastball. when he was a freshman, the summer after his freshman year, he threw hard certainly, up to

97, but his location wasn't great. it's gotten better every year to the point now where i'd say it's better than major league average, part of why i the he could come to the big leagues if they wanted him. to. >> the comparison we hear, justin verlander of the tigers. do you have a guy he reminds you most of? >> of current big leaguers, that's probably the guy i would name as well. he had a similar development path, too. when he was in college, he was known mostly as a thrower for most of his time. in his junior year he started to show advanced secretary stuff. but strasburg has better command today than verlander did at the same time out of his junior year. and both had a significant question about their statistics and that they played in lesser conferences. they weren't in the s.e.c., a.c.crrjts pac-10, big 12. those are the big four college baseball conferences. when you feel like, all right, every friday night this guy is facing a high quality lineup, at least good college hitters, but for verlander, faced lesser college competition. didn't matter for him. when he got into the minor league, didn't miss a beat.

i think you'll see the same thing with strasburg. >> it became official moments ago. you hear it first on espnews. >> with the first selection in the 2009 first year player draft, the washington nationals select stephen strasburg. right-handed pitcher from san diego state university, san diego, california. >> bud selig making the call. so now it is the seattle mariners that are on the clock coming into this draft. all the publications really said it was a two-man draft, strasburg and then dustin angerley, the first baseman/outfielder for north carolina who hit over .400 this year. no brainer the mariners take ackley? >> absolutely. it's the one chance any team has the take an impact position player. center field, above average glove, average or better arm as he continues to recover from elbow surgery. he's going to hit for a lot of

average. big question, is he an okay power guy or above average power as he continues to fill out physically. love the swing, love the bat speed. a positive glove in center field. >> the mariners taking your time. you think it's a no-brainer? >> absolutely. >> when that pick happen, we'll bring it live to you right here. just a reminder, a "sportscenter" special tonight, from 9:00 until 10:00 on espn. karl ravech and his crew break down the key picks of the draft and tell you which guys are most likely to make an impact at the major league level. once again, that's 9:00 on espn. still to come, phil mickelson making a surprising stop today on his way to memphis for the st. jude classicment we'll tell you where that stop was coming you where that stop was coming up. i asked for blueberries and soy yogurt.

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>> as expected in the major league draft, stephen strasburg goes one and dustin ackley takes him. he should recei z z

he was dropping balls, really focusing on his short game. i saw him first hole. i saw him on the 18th hole. he took several tee shots, four first hole, six on the 18th hole. and really, you know, he took several putts. he was dropping balls all over

the approach. it really was clear that he was here for an intense round of practice. >> as he moves through the st. jude classic, does phil mickelson go to the st. jude trying to win the tournament, or does he almost use that as a practice round to prepare himself for bethpage? >> i think it's definitely going to be a practice round. obviously winning is such a positive and we saw with tiger woods, i mean, i think the thing from tiger woods that i took from a couple days ago from yesterday i guess is that he actually started on first tee in front of everybody when seven years ago he basically tried to avoid the public eye by starting on the third tee away from where all the people were. that said to me he was in such a good mood from winning the day before at the memorial. without a doubt winning helps. and i think winning would be a nice boost for mickelson coming into the bethpage black, but that said, it's there for practice. he's not there... he doesn't want to come away from this winning the st. jude and

finishing tenth in the u.s. open. he wants to win the u.s. open and finish tenth at the st. jude. >> last thing, just watching him for as long as you were able to see him today, i know much of the round was private. phil off the tee, how was it? it's always an adventure. how did he look to you? >> i tell you, in the rain, of the four shots i saw, on the first tee, it was really raining. the first three were in downpour. there was at one point thunder and lightning. he walked in and came back out. of those four, all of them were on the fairway. it's hard to tell the distance, but they were not where tiger put it yesterday, but it was pretty much in the vicinity. it was by no means erratic by any stretch. as we know, phil has a tendency to do. on the 18th hole, he took six of them, and of the six, five of them were on the fairway. they were all over the fairwayment on his way out i asked him what club he used, and he said he used four different

ones just testing it out. so it's hard the take from that 18th hole what he really... what his drive is doing just because it was clear he was really just trying to see which club is the best to use in the hole, but all things considered, the drive really wasn't... didn't seem to be that much of an issue for the ten shots i saw. >> great information. jim baumbach. thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> continuing our coverage of the major league draft, we can tell you the padres have taken donovan tate number tree three. much more coverage from the nan