i would say what economists would say based on data, but on theory is that health care is a market where there is a huge disconnect between the people who are paying and the choices that are made. when i go to the store and i want to buy oranges or apples, they cost me $0.50 on the margin. i decide how many i want to buy. if i want to buy a car i pay for. i think that ultimately if we want to rationalize the health care system, the stronger we can make the connections between what people are buying and what they are paying for that, is going to be the answer. that's number one, not a very politically viable answer. . .

>> and cut costs was by harnesses information, gathering it better, storing it better, analyzing it better and using it better both in a treatment and in a financial sense. and the good news is that their system has caught on and is being distributed because the cost savings that come from just very, very, very simple fixes like manipulating and handling information better can go a long way to providing better treatment medically and financially. >> well, thank you both so much.

authors of the new book, super freakonomics. >> jeremiah denton appeared on g. gordon liddy's radio program to talk about his book, "when hell was in session." it's about his years as a p. o.w. in vietnam and his efforts to inform the outside world what was happening at the hanoi hilton. this is 25 minutes. ♪ finish >> liddy. ♪ eternal father -- >> all right, ladies and gentlemen, my guest in the studio is one of my all-time

heros. he's jeremiah denton jr., he has been many things in this life. he's a naval academy graduate, he became what in the navy they call an aerodale, i say that because one of my sons is retired navy, he's a seal, and he was shot down over north vietnam and it was the longest-serving prisoner of the vietnamese and probably the most abused of those who lived to survive it. >> alvarez was actually longer than i, shot down the the previous year. he was by himself there a long time. >> i see. and subsequent to his release

became a united states senator from the state of alabama, and he has authored a remarkable book. it's called, "when hell was in session." it's about his experiences all those many years when the vietnamese tried to break him. they tried to break everybody. and it was he, it was admiral denton who when forced to appear in a propaganda film did two things. using his eyelids, he blinked out the word torture, got the word out that they were being tortured, and he said he didn't know what was going can on because he was in prison, but whatever it is his government

said he believed it and supported it. that earned him even more vicious abuse. so, admiral denton, congratulations on a life of service to your country. as far as i'm concerned, way above and beyond the call of duty. we, we really appreciate it. i'd like to talk to you about some of the things you have in the book here. >> let me first say, mr. liddy, you serve our country in many, many ways -- business, fbi, cia, government -- and i defer to you in the magnitude of the solidity of your service. >> well, sir, as i try to explain to people, any damn fool can keep his mouth shut, and nobody was, you know, whamming on me the way they were on you.

[laughter] thank you, though, for those very kind words. now, tell me about this very elaborate communications system that you have. you're all isolated in separate cells, and yet you had a communication system where you could identify who was where? you had code names for different parts of the prison in which you were held. you, you had a command and control set up that was based on rank and data rank. who created that system? when you got there, was it in existence, or did you create it? how did it work? >> when we went to survival, evasion, resistance and escape, we learned there was a tap code by which you blocked off the

alphabet five by five and just indicated a row and column for each of the letters. there's one more word so in the end -- one more letter, k, we put that outside the second line. but we had so many means of communication, sir, it would take a lot of time to elaborate on them. i will, but first let me say this book is not just a reprint of the one issued in the '70s. this has an epilogue which updates the things that i have observed, participated in in the senate and other roles with respect to my reaction to the shocks and cultural shock i received after coming home and the security shock after we -- congress did, on vietnam. >> yeah, i wanted to get to that. >> yeah. but besides the tap code which, god bless you would be -- good night, god bless you.

>> okay. franklin being technical, he wanted do you tap it on the mic so listeners could hear it. >> yes, so the listeners can hear it. >> okay. good night, god bless you is gmgpu. there we go. nope. that's an error. that's the way it comes out that way. but we also had other means of communicating. the fbi was very good to be able to decipher a code i devised for my own personal mail, and i sent 16 messages. they finally caught me, but i let two years go by and hurt me pretty bad, but i let two years go by. and then when i thought maybe they'd forgotten about the thing

i did. so the president nixon said that we were, we were going to hit their transportation and communications centers, knock the hell out of 'em. and they were going to move -- did move -- half of our prisoners up there to the place where he was most centrally going to bomb. and i decided i'd take the risk. i said, half moved to dung hai, and they got it. so they didn't send the bombers there. so the communications were really important. not only for morale and for the chain of command because the senior managed to take over and decide what we couldn't do like a hunger strike or don't write anything, that kind of stuff, went on during the war. >> and you had a rule in your

book you talk about it, there was one man who was, you know, just in terrible shape, and you had the distinction between amnesty and parole. will you explain that distinction for the -- >> yes. and it was sort of a delicate thing to handle throughout because in one case we wanted the guy to get out. he was an enlisted man shot down, captured at sea, a good man, and there was no reason for us to say, you can't go home. but in general everyone who had the word, we're going home altogether. sick and wounded first followed in sequence by the dates of shootdown. and we pretty much courted that. as you say, some people were rather dishonorable in accepting what they were told was amnesty for giving them so much information and propagandizing

on their side. there would have been more court-martials, but the secretary of the navy, i think, and the services in general thought why spoil the only good thing to come out of vietnam? because there was so much antiwar tough. and then -- stuff. and then we come home, and everybody turns on us. so they didn't want to botch it up by having a bunch of trials for these guys who most of us did a really great job. >> yes, indeed. and you certainly, especially. now, tell me about the shock you received when you finally came back after about eight years? >> yeah, seven years, seven months. >> seven years, seven months, all right. and you found, what? >> well, i had already received information on their radio, propaganda radio which they played to us about what our people were saying about the war, showed us woodstock and a little bit of that, and all of

that. so i was prepared for some kind of shock. but remember in 1965 when i was shot down, the worst, the most risque thing i'd seen in movies was when clark gable, roett butler said to o'hara, frankly, my dear, b i don't give a damn. the audience just giggled, ooh! we're liberated. [laughter] and then you can imagine, i met jane and my children at the airport and drove in from the airport in norfolk to the hospital which is in portsmouth. so we had to go through downtown norfolk. although i was hugging jane most of the time, i looked out the window and saw all these massage parlors, one after another. hey, what's all this massage? she wouldn't even tell me. and i said, well, there's all these xxx movie. what's these triple x movies? she told me they're pretty bad movies. so that was different.

popular songs back in the -- i remember in the '60s love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. the different. in fact, we were already in a countercultural revolution as you well know that was accelerated during the vietnam conflict and is still traveling at pretty good velocity right now. >> yeah, it is. >> and that's more of a poison to our ultimate fate as a nation than the military threat which we, i think, are prepared by virtue of what we have in the armed services to be as secure as we were when reagan said, mr. gorbachev, tear down that wall. >> yeah. and it seems to me that the american people now respect only one institution in this country, and that's our military. i mean, they despise the congress and the white house an everybody else, but they revere the military with very good

reason. >> that's true. the media -- not congress, the military. but thank god for that because those guys have laid it on the line. they bet their lives on the fact that they can help protect us, keep our rights and so on. >> yes. >> but if i may on the cultural side the biggest shock then and increasing now is this country was founded as one nation under god. one nation indivisible and under god indivisible, and the most revolutionary event in international politics was when we wrote our deck -- declaration of independence with a sort of letter of apology for why we were breaking off with great britain. and one of the key elements there that we are forgetting today, the basis of our whole government, we hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal

and, of course, we were lying -- we still had slaves, but we ended up finally doing away with that -- that all men are created equal, endowed by their create to have with certain inalienable rights. now it's government is deciding what our rights are. >> amen. well, government is certainly trying. my guest is admirable jeremiah a. denton jr. he is the former senator from the state of alabama, rear admiral in the united states navy, almost eight years prisoner in north vietnam, the author of the book, "when hell was in session." and we'll be right back to talk more about his experiences after these words.

>> from what i was then -- where i was then to where we are now. the new thing here is in that epilogue -- [inaudible] and i think you'll like some of it, especially there's this thing in there called the single poker hand in the epilogue. you'll like it. >> okay. >> because you played some poker hands too. >> occasionally. [laughter] knox no,. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> you don't have to listen to the commercials? >> no. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] >> she acquiesced in that? >> well, she requires licensed practical nurses day and night. she can't even move herself out of bed because the bones are so bad that they break. they've broken her leg and they'd broken her arm. so she's -- my next door neighbor lady is dying of cancer, b something in her stomach. a horrible kind of cancer.

>> well, hell, everybody's going to go. my wife's -- [inaudible] >> my wife was 77 years old. >> she was, i was 81, she was 7 9. [inaudible conversations] >> craziest thing i ever did was jump out of a perfectly good airplane which i didn't have to do. >> that's right. how old were you then b? >> well, i started jumping in

the late '70s, i guess. and then i went over to israel to do a broadcast from there. i had some spare time, i was 62. they said is there anything you'd like to do? i said, i'd like to parachute with the famed israeli parachute battalion. they said, nobody does that. i said, all right. they said, you're 62 years old. and i said, that's all right. so they made me sign a release. so i trained with them, jumped with them. the last time i did it i was 75. i did it three times. and each time they'd make me go through the school again. >> [inaudible] >> well, i wasn't doing those tethered jumps either, i was jumping with the -- [inaudible] into the desert. last time i got caught by the

wind and slammed on the ground, really rang my bell. [laughter] my son retires commander in the navy seals, he served in 37 different countries mostly as a black hawk -- [inaudible] especially trained by the agency. laboratories that they have. my youngest son is a serving full colonel in the marine corps. >> [inaudible] my second son was in the peace corps in the -- [inaudible] made lieutenant, but they

watched jane and me separate, and they knew it would be better to go not quite as far as i did -- [inaudible] but the girls -- five boys and two girls, and they're better. they're improving on the previous generation. jane was a saint. >> my grandson just, just graduated from paris island. >> boy. the marines are good. my fifth son, he went to bmi and got in the navy first class out of bmi. >> that's a good school. >> it is. the marines are standing up better to some of this politically correct stuff that doesn't help the services be

part of it -- [inaudible] social revolution. >> i have to watch to see -- >> ready to go, gentlemen? ♪ >> hi, ladies and gentlemen, my guest in the studio is admiral jeremiah a. denton jr. we're discussing his book, "when hell was in session," and i want to tell you folks, 30% of this book is brand new. and it deals with something that's very important to admiral denton. and, admiral, why don't you tell us about this new part of your book, "when hell was in session." >> well, as you introduced the program, i encountered cultural

and security shock when i came home. and i appreciate your playing the navy hymn and "anchors away." [laughter] >> yeah. >> my wife and company thought i was kind of 16 inches off the ground about it, which i was. i threw up when i saw the woodstock thing on television. they wanted to update us, i couldn't watch anymore films. and i had been involved in both the security situation trying to improve that which -- [inaudible] after vietnam and the cultural thing. and the cultural poison, as i said, i think is more certainly to destroy this nation, as it has every other which undertook to make the state the decider of rights. when the roman army went from

saying, virtue to saying, hail caesar, that was the beginning of the time, binning of the decline of their army and their populace because they came off of even their own gods, such as they were. and let caesar be -- decide what people could do and can't do. now we're not willing. if the creator is going to endow the rights and we are going to use those rights, we have to play according to the creator's rules. those rights were established with certain limitations. the ten commandments. and the jewish people and the catholic people, there were 98% catholics, 2%jews, in the states when we were founded. and we have a right the maintain the founding principles which lord gladstone, after he watched us get independence from britain, he said some 30 years later, the united states has established the best form of government ever conceived by the minds of men.

that government's not there anymore, it's not doing that. but about 80% of the public want us to do that. we don't want to kill 61 million babies before they're born, we don't want to have same-sex marriage, we don't want to have free sex and encourage our kids in school to go get an abortion and not tell their parents. that's all going on, and that means that all of us are affected by the sexual thing. it makes everybody come down somewhat, and people abandon themself to this, ahead of this stuff. and i don't like it. and i introduced bills in congress which passed, i introduced a bill by which instead of just doing planned parenthood which we were giving a million dollars to, let the parents take the child, go talk to a rabbi, a priest or an adviser and let's get a little bit of god's law into this.

it lasted, it passed unanimously by the committee. orrin hatch was the chairman. and then the supreme court slowly passer waited -- exacerbated, decreased what it can do. and abstinence groups throughout the country do improve the girls and boys who were in their schools. they started out something like 30% think free sex is okay, they end up saying 80% are opposed to that. but that isn't what congress -- we go after abortion and contraceps as a way to take care of that, and with aids, get the cure for aids, not suggest maybe it's not a good idea. >> yeah. ladies and gentlemen, my guest has been admiral jeremiah a. denton jr. this is a new edition, 30% new material, this book, "when hell

was in session." i cannot commend it to you more highly. he is one of the great americans, a great american hero. what he has to say is important. thank you, sir. thank you for your service to our country. >> thank you, mr. liddy. >> radio has never sounded so red, white and blue. [inaudible conversations] >> admiral jeremiah denton represented alabama in the u.s. senate from 1981-1987. he's the founder and president of the admiral jeremiah denton foundation. for more information visit admiral.dentonfoundation.org. >> author robert carroll, what are you reading? >> rereading the prime minister by anthony. he wrote six political novels about england in the 1870s.

wonderful political understanding of how human beings in politics, how human nature influences politics. >> why are you rereading those? >> i just think he's got such a wonderful -- well, first his sentences are great, his paragraphs are great. you say, boy, how did he do this? so i'm always looking to see how he did it. but even more than that i write about how, i try to write about how human beings and presidents and cabinet ministers are affected by being in politics, and he's really doing the same thing in a fictional way. and as i try to learn from him. >> american icons, three original documentaries from c-span now available on dvd. a unique journey through the iconic homes of the three blanches of american government. see the exquisite detail of the

supreme court through the eyes of the justices. go beyond the velvet ropes of public tours into those rarely-seen spaces of the white house, america's most famous home. and explore the history and architecture of the capitol. american icons, a three-disc dvd set. it's $24.95 plus shipping and handling. order online at c-span.org/store. >> we're leaving c-span2's booktv programming to go live, now, to the u.s. senate in just a moment. when the senate finishes its work for the day on this sunday session, we'll return to our booktv coverage. the senate expected to vote on six spending bills that would fund a number of domestic and state department programs. the package of bills, known b as an omnibus, provides money in discretionary spending and about $1.1 trillion when mandatory spending is included.

that vote is scheduled in about 30 minutes coming up at 2:00 eastern. after that the chamber could continue debate on health care legislation. yesterday republicans talked about voting on two drug importation amendments. minority leader mitch mcconnell also proposed votes on two other amendments. a republican motion to send it back to committee, so we could see possible votes on health care amendments today. live coverage, now, of the u.s. senate on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chap lane, dr. barry black will -- the chaplain, dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. compassionate god, we need your help to meet the challenges of our time.

manifest your might for the honor of your name. surround our lawmakers with the shield of your favor so that their work will accomplish your will on earth. use them so effectively that the hopes and dreams you have for your world might be more fully realized in our day. lord, open their minds to a wisdom that can change and shape our times according to your plan. and, order, bless the many faithful staffers who labor long hours behind the scenes of the

legislative process. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, december 13, 2009, to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable mark udal, a senator from the state of colorado, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is read served. under the previous order the senate will resoup consideration of the conference report to accompany h.r. 3288, the clerk will report. the clerk: conference report to accompany h.r. 3288, an act making for housing and urban development and so forth and for other purposes much -- purposes. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president -- if the senator from iowa will -- the presiding officer: the time until 2:00 p.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the leaders or designees. the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: parliamentary inquiry. how much time will i be recognized for now. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa will be recognized for 13 minutes. mr. harkin: mr. president, i don't intend to use it more, if others on my side are seeking it. but, mr. president, today and

every day an estimated 14,000 americans will lose their health insurance coverage. the historic legislation before us takes unprecedented steps to expand this coverage to the great majority of americans. while cracking down on the abusive practices of the health insurance industry. however, expanding coverage alone is not going to solve our problem. the additional 31 million americans who will gain coverage, thanks to this bill, are going to need health care providers. mainly primary health care providers. the doctors, the nurses, many other health professionals whose skills an hard work -- and hard work provide patients with the high-equally health care they need. we're going to need public health care professionals who can provide assistance during times of emergency, such as the current hn1 pandemic, they'll

need places to go. today there are shortages of primary care practicers and other health care providers. this map here gives an kaiftion the lack of primary health care providers in america. the darker areas is where we have the lowest number of health care -- primary health care practitioners. and you can see it's mostly -- mostly rural america. but that's not entirely true. but mostly rural america in which we lack that kind of care. currently 65 million americans live in areas suffering from a shortage of health care professionals. the department of health and human services submits it will take more than 16,000 additional practicpractitioners to meet ou. as i'm sure that our constituents can tell you that they don't have the primary care practitioners they need in america. i was up this morning, working

out, watching cnn news, along came a blurb about primary health care people in america that's going to really put a crunch on us in terms of meeting our health care needs. so people are now beginning to pick up on this all over the country. so what are we doing about it? well, first of all, we have to recognize some of the root causes of this. one of the root causes is debt. and it's the amount of money that health care students pay to go to school. here's the debt right now of graduates of medical school. 44% had over $175,000 of debt. another 14% in here -- you can see that -- that the vast majority have over $125,000. some -- almost half have ove over $175,000 of debt. and, so, what happens is with this huge debt, they can't

afford to go work in rural areas or areas where they don't get re recompense. and a shortage of members are not admitted because of a shortage of faculty members. 50,000 applicants were turned away from bac schools of nursin. this is unacceptable. not only do we have to have more primary care practitioners, we need the faculty. well, it's a growing problem. the bureau of labor and statistics estimates by 2016 we'll have a shortage of over one million health care workers, including home health aides, nursing aides, and others to care for our aging population much that's why expanding access to primary and preventive care has been a key focus throughout the health reform efforts. with senator murray's leadership of the workforce group, the "help" committee has focused on

expanding resources to provide qualified health care providers. senator baucus made expanding access to primary care a righty as well as expand -- priority as well as expanding residency for a primary care practitioner. under the majority leader reid's helped to combine the "help" committee and finance committee provisions to expand our health care workforce, especially our primary care workforce. let's see what this does. first of all, the bill will train an additional 24,000 primary care physicians, via the hlt services. it provides loan repayment, scholarships and higher reimbursement for primary care providers in underserved areas. it increases the supply of public health workers at the

tribal health agencies. we provide new resources for more community health centers and nurse managed health centers. we expand primary care residency and training initiatives at hospital and community health centers. our bill, mr. president, will improve health care providers' ability to serve the increasingly diverse population by providing training in cultural competency, in working with individuals with disabilities, in providing care within the medical home model. because innovative health home care delivery models emphasize team-based care, we invest in health care professionals from physicians to dentists to nurses to home health aides to all alld health professionals. to increase the capacity of our school and faculty to train new providers, we offer loan repayment programs to doctors,

nurses and dentists who will serve as faculty members at the schools. we will have a national independent workforce commission to examine and provide recommendations to congress on how federal workforce programs can be improved and how federal dollars can be most effectively spent. mr. president, it is critical that we act on this historic legislation for many reasons, most of the debate has been about expanding coverage. cracking down on health insurance abuses. expanding preventive care to keep people healthy in the first place. but there's also one other aspect of this bill that's not been talked about. and that is what we're doing to increase the number of people that we're going to have to have -- have to have for primary care, for our community health centers, for our faculty members in the future. this is something that we have

ignored for far too long at our own peril. so we can't forget while we're expanding coverage, and we're going to cover 94% of the american people can this health care bill. while we're going to make it more affordable. while we're going to protect medicare, while we're going to do all the things to really make our health system more affordable, more quality conscience, cover more people, make sure people can get in to get their primary care first rather than go to an emergency room, we can't forget that we need the faculty. we need teachers, and we need to help in the debt repayment, loan repayments by giving more scholarships to these young people, the nurses, the nurses aides, the physical therapists, the people that work with people that work with disabilities, doctors, dentists, the people involved with primary care. we have to help them get through school so they don't have a mountain of debt on their head,

so they can practice medicine where they want, not where they're forced to go in order to pay back their debts. so, mr. president, i just want to thank senator murray on the "help" committee who did so much to put all of this into our bill. this is, again, a major provision of the health care legislation that we're not hearing debated about here on the floor of the senate very much. but it is one of the most critical parts of the bill. again, i thank senator baucus, and all the work they did on the finance committee to put in the tax provisions and other provisions that are going to help us, first of all, invest in and grow the primary care workforce, and also to make it possible for people to become faculty members and teachers by helping them pay back their loans and their debts. so i wanted to take this time, mr. president to, again, highlight this part of the bill. not talked about much. but i believe it's one of the most important parts of the health care reform bill before us.

mr. president, with that, i would yield the floor and reserve the balance of my time. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: how much time's remaining on both sides? the presiding officer: the minority has 13 minutes, the majority has four minutes. mr. mccain: i yield three minutes to the senator from florida, senator lemieux. the presiding officer: the senator from florida is recognized. mr. lemieux quickly, mr. president, i'm here to speak about the omnibus spending bill that we're going to vote on here today. mr. president, it is more proof that washington is out of control in its spending and that the leadership on the other side of the aisle is wanting to spend our children's money. this is a $445 billion bill. i know my colleague from arizona will talk about the 5,000 earmarks in this bill costin costing $3.9 billion. and it's a 12% spending increase over last year. $46.7 billion more than the

bloated budget that we passed in 2009. $46.7 billion. a 33% increase in state foreign operations, 44% increase in transportation an h.u.d. these -- and h.u.d. these are unsustainable. we have a $12 trillion debt. a debt that our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay. here we are again with a 12% increase and a bill that's full of earmarks. earmarks for $700,000 for a shrimp fishing project, $37,000 for the woodstock youth film festival initiative. i'm sure these are great programs. but when we have $12.100 million in debt, if we can't afford that debt, how can we afford these programs? mr. president, 2009 has been a record-setting year for debt. we had a $1.4 trillion budget deficit. now in 2010, even though we're new in the year, we are already

running a $296 billion budget deficit. in october and november, we took in $268 billion in tax revenues. that's a hard number find around here because most people don't look at the money that we take in in washington, they can spend whatever they want to we took took in $268 billion, but we spent $565 billion. this is not how families make their decisions around the kitchen tables where they they have to e ends meet. this is not even how the states do it. the spending in washington is out of control. the members in this body should not vote for this omnibus spending bill. mr. lemieux: i yield back the balance of my time to my colleague from arizona. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona is recognized. mr. mccain: mr. president, i understand that there will be debate until 2:00 and then a vote on appropriations consolidated, consolidated appropriations conference report.

what is consolidated appropriations conference report? it means that there are six bills, three which were never considered on the floor of the senate. that's what the senate means by consolidated, my friends. and so three of the bills were never -- we're never allowed to debate or amend or accept or reject. they are now spending spending $450 billion loaded up with 4,752 earmarks, totaling totaling $3.7 billion. 1,350 pages long. and of that, 409 pages are dedicated to listing congressional pork-barrel spending. i know that most americans are watching nfl football today, and they probably don't pay much attention to what we do on a sunday afternoon here on the floor of the senate, but if they knew, if they knew what we're about to pass, a bill that's increased spending by 14% over last year's level, with the

exception, of course, with veterans which is only -- our veterans' care which has increased by 5%. so here we are with with $1.4 trillion, now now $1.5 trillion debt this year, an aggregate debt of over over $12 trillion, unemployment at 10%, 900,000 families lost their homes in 2008, and the numbers -- in 2008, and the numbers for 2009 will be greater. so what do we do here? we spend and spend and spend and spend and earmark and earmark and earmark. so that the -- the price index went down 1.3%, so we're going to increase spending by 5%. what could the american people do with the $3.7 billion in earmarks that are on this bill? let me tell you a few of them. and you won't believe it and i'm not making it up.

$2.7 million to support surgical operations in outer space at the university of nebraska. now, i know trekkies -- trekies all over america will approve of that. i know that leonard mccoy, dr. leonard mccoy, bones, and even dr. spock and captain kirk will call them all to the bridge and be happy to know that that $2.7 million is going to go to dr. leonard mccoy and his friends to support surgical operations in outer space, while thousands of americans are losing their homes. now, another one that i -- i have been unable to describe adequately without violating the rules of the senate. $655,000 for cedars-sinai medical center, los angeles, california, for equipment and supplies for the institute for irritable bowel syndrome research. the only thing i can say is that

that problem will not be reduced when people read this legislation. so there may be a need for it. so -- so what -- so here we are. and the list goes on and on. i mean, it's crazy stuff. $200,000 for a visitors' center in bastrop, texas, population 5,340. $292,200 for elimination of slum and blight in scranton, pennsylvania. the cast of "the office" are rejoicing. $200,000 for design and construction of a public market in the northern marianas. the woodstock film festival youth initiative is going to get get $30,000. it's -- it's -- it's beyond imagination when you put it into the context of americans are suffering more than they have at any time in their lives, thanks to the greed and avarice of wall

street, main street is under tremendous dur rest. -- duress. so this is shameful. so when signing a huge -- i want to remind my colleagues, just last march, not that long ago, the president of the united states signed another pork-laden omnibus bill, and what he said, the president of the united states said, and i quote -- "i am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it's necessary for the ongoing functions of government, but i also view this as a departure point for more far-reaching change." and he also said, quote -- "the future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past, so let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation, the one that he was signing last march loaded with pork, he said this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the american people have every right to expect and demand." mr. president, if the president

of the united states really is going to carry out those words, he will veto this bill. he will veto this bill and send it back and tell them to get rid of this pork. tell them to get rid of it. and so what's going to happen? in a few minutes -- we all know what's going to happen in a few minutes. by a very large vote, the senate of the united states is going to vote in favor of this bill. now, there will be -- there will be on this side of the aisle the party of fiscal conservatives that lost the last two elections, one major reason because we let spending get out of control, there will be members on this side of the aisle who will vote for this pork-barrel bill. on the other side of the aisle, a majority over there, overwhelming majority, all but maybe one or two, will also vote for the bill, and then they will go home -- if we ever get out of here -- they will go home and they'll say i'm a fiscal conservative and i'm going to appoint -- i'm all for a commission to cut spending, and let's appoint a commission. let's not take any

responsibilities ourselves. let's appoint a commission. and that commission will recommend how we can reduce spending. if you really want to reduce spending and eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending, vote against this bill that increases spending over last year by some 14%. and if you want to vote for it, fine, but isn't it a little hard with a straight face to go back and tell your constituents that you really are against elimination of this waste and pork barrel and corrupting spending? it corrupts, my friends. it's a gateway drug to corruption. we have former members of congress in federal prison because of this. so i urge my colleagues -- first, i urge the president -- since it's going to be passed, i urge the president of the united states -- no, i don't urge. i demand the president of the united states keep his word when he signed another pork-barrel-laden bill last march to veto this bill, and i urge my colleagues, i urge my colleagues let's stand up

against this for once! a bill that has $3.7 billion in earmarks. immediately, colleagues of mine are saying well, this is a legitimate earmark, this is important, that's important. the problem with it is nobody ever saw it before. it never competed. maybe we need a -- to support surgical operations in outer space. do we need it at the university of nebraska? no, it's eermd for the university of nebraska -- it's earmarked for the university of nebraska. i don't think, except for trekies, that many americans think we need to spend spend $2.7 million to support surgical operations in outer space. so all i can say, mr. president, do not be surprised when the american people a little less than a year from now, next november, rise up and reject this kind of behavior and practice of irresponsible spending while they are hurting more than they have ever been in their lives. they deserve better than what they are getting out of this legislative process, and they

have every right to demand something different. let's -- let's show some courage and vote against this bill, send it back to the president, get rid of the pork-barrel spending and send it back and let us vote for it. we could do it immediately. i urge my colleagues look at this bill, vote against it. i -- i reserve the balance of my time. the presiding officer: time will be charged equally.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i ask consent that the time during the quorum call be divided equally and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll. a senator: mr. president, we withhold. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: i ask that a colloquy between myself and senator durbin be inserted in the record at this time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. levin: i ask unanimous consent that my statement be inserted in the record at this time as well. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. levin: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. all time has expired. the question is on the conference report. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

quorum call:

vote: