an expensive tobacco habit. when sharon reached the age of 37 -- 37 -- she was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. thankfully radiation and surgery saved her life but she had to have her voice box removed and now speaks there an electrolarynx. last year, sharon was courageous enough to allow her story to be used as part of the center for disease control's 12-week antismoking campaign, a federal-fundedded antitobacco campaign with hard-hitting ads. it sounds like a good plan for the federal government but compared to the $10 billion a year spent on marketing, the c.d.c. spent only $50 million. the tobacco industry, $10 billion. c.d.c. expects the campaign to help up to 50,000 people quit. one of those who called in to the quit line at c.d.c. was a woman named kim in rockford,

illinois. she was watching an ad with her son that showed the devastating effect of smoking on a north carolina woman named terry. kim said the commercial scared her and that her son turned to her and said mom, you have just got to quit smoking. kim called the illinois tobacco quit line run by the american lung association, and was connected to the nicotine replacement match program. c.d.c.'s antismoking campaign is one of the many tobacco control and prevention measures that saving lives and shows that we must continue investing in effective tobacco control measures. this is a tough habit to break. one of my best friends in politics happens to be the president of the united states who used to be a smoker. he's not now, thank goodness, and his family's thankful, we're all thankful that he isn't, but he still takes a little nicotine gum to crew from time to time to deal with that craving that is there. it's tough, but if people work at it and work hard, they can get it done. this week, we commemorate the importance of the first surgeon

general's report on smoking and health, but as we look around at the proliferation of new dangerous products luring kids to tobacco. with the right commitment, we can spare future generations from this deadly epidemic of tobacco use. madam president, i have seven unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate with the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president -- the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to consideration of h.j. res. 106, which the clerk will report. the clerk: h.j. res. 106, joint resolution making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be 15 minutes of debate equally divided.

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i would like to speak on another matter that's pending in front of the senate, the flood insurance bill. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. nelson: to the chairman of appropriations, this will just take 30 seconds. i want to say that senator landrieu has been a real champion out here. we are still insisting that we are able to bring up the bipartisan bill to delay for several years the flood insurance hikes that in my state where 40% of the policies are, we have seen spikes by 10-fold

of the rate on the flood insurance policies. thank goodness there was in this omnibus appropriations a provision that would provide some partial relief for some homeowners facing huge rate hikes. the estimate is that it would only cover less than a quarter of all the flood insurance policies that are being affected by the huge rate hikes, and that's why we need to move forward with passing the broad bipartisan bill that will delay these hikes for several years while fema does an affordability study, and i had told senator landrieu earlier that i wanted to come in and support her in the comments that she made earlier today.

madam president, i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, what is the pending business before the united states senate? the presiding officer: h.j. res. 106 is the business pending before the senate. ms. mikulski: which is? the presiding officer: the short-term c.r. ms. mikulski: thank you very much, madam president. and i wish to rise in support of this. what this is is a simple short-term extension of the continuing funding resolution we passed some weeks ago. this is washington speak and

budget speak for saying this. as of today, the money that keeps the federal government in operation expires. however, we have being debated in the house this afternoon a consolidated appropriations bill that will fund the government through fiscal year 2014 and will come to the senate either late this evening or will be on the floor tomorrow morning. madam president, i ask the senate to pass this short-term extension because it is a technical situation. this isn't the usual delay, drama, fiscal cliff situation. we did not finish -- when the budget committee acted and we passed the bill on a bipartisan,

bicameral basis, we the appropriations committee were given a very stringent deadline for january 15 to produce an appropriations bill for fiscal 2014. we have worked all the way through the holidays and all the way up to sunday evening, and we have completed our work. it is now for the senate and the house to be reviewed. it's on our web site and so on. we just need a couple of hours to now complete the job. i can assure my colleagues that this very short extension is status quo. it makes no changes in funding levels. it makes no changes in conditions for the operation of the government. the appropriations committee, as i said, worked over the holidays. the agreement was made public on

monday. the house will vote on the agreement this afternoon. as soon as the house completes its work, it will come to the senate. this very short -- and by the way, this is a short-term c.r. it is for 72 hours. it will provide the time needed for the senate to consider the agreement, for the paperwork to be prepared and for the president to sign it. this is a very short-term extension, which will enable us to complete our work and even have a temporary shutdown. i urge my colleagues to allow the short extension to pass the senate expeditiously so we can move on to really the diligence we need to provide in debating the appropriations bill. we will have a vote at 12:15. the vote on the -- at 12:15, i

want to be clear, is on the short-term extension of the current continuing funding resolution. it will be for 72 hours. it takes us through saturday. i hope we're done before saturday. this is not a vote on the appropriations bill itself, nor should it be viewed as a proxy vote. it's just simply a technical time bridge to enable us to have adequate debate in the house and adequate debate and review in the senate to do this. i really hope my colleagues support this 72-hour extension so that we can not have the usual drama we have of fiscal cliffs and shutdowns and so on. i must say i'm speaking here. the gentleman from alabama,

senator shelby, who is my vice chairman is involved in other duties in the senate, but he, too, supports the 72-hour extension. and we have been working so diligently on our bill, through the holidays so that we could have a bill before the senate, and i must say it's been characterized by diligence, determination and courtesy. but it takes time. it takes time to review. it takes time to scrutinize. and quite frankly, it took time to discuss the issues involved in the appropriations. all 12 committees are represented, but i will say more about it when we can bring the actual bill to the floor. and, madam president, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

ms. mikulski: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: i ask the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: i ask now for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for a third time. is there a sufficient second?

there appears to be. there is. the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will read the title of the bill for a third time. the clerk: h.j. res. 106, making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question occurs on the passage of h.j. res. 106. the yeas and nays have been ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: does any

senator wish to vote or change his or her vote? the ayes are 86, the nays are 14, and the joint resolution is passed. without objection. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. scott: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. scott: thank you, madam president. madam president, when i was growing up, my now 93-year-old gran daddy would hold the newspaper and read it while he drank his coffee. every morning, it seemed that he was always focused on reading the paper. he lived like an an executive, an a doctor, or an attorney, always making sure that his

grandsons saw him reading. i learned several years later that my granddaddy couldn't read. but he was wise enough to model the behavior that he wanted his grandsons to follow. the circumstances of his life forced him out of the classroom at a very young age, and into the cotton fields to help support his family. but granddaddy has now lived long enough to see a grandson elected to congress and another grandson earn the rank of command sergeant major in the united states army, only 1% of n.c.o.'s reach that rank. in a single lifetime families can go from not having a fair chance to learn to read, to seeing their kids graduate from college as my grandfather has seen two of his grandsons graduate.

that is the power of america. that is the power of opportunity. over the last several months i've spent many hours talking and working with people from every walk of life, being -- beginning when i was bagging groceries at the local pigly wiggly or waiting tables at the california dreaming or two weeks ago when i took a ride on the public bus just to have an opportunity to sit back and talk with everyday americans about their hopes, their dreams, and their fears, or last weekend as i swept floors at the local moon's restaurant. what i have heard is that people in america and throughout south carolina, they are hungry, hungry for opportunity. working hard, but still struggling. people want to work. they want to get ahead, and they still want a better life for their children and their

grandchildren. so the questions for those of us in government are simple: are we a part of the problem or are we a part of the solution? do we make things more difficult, or are we an ally in this struggle to get ahead? madam president, are we trying to the same tactics, getting the same results? you know, it's once again said several times that insanity is doing the same things the same ways and hoping for different results. and after a nearly 50-year government-led war on poverty, the poverty rates are increasing. were this a military conflict, we would have changed our strategy decades ago but somehow we've failed to learn and continue to believe that next

year it will be different, and it has not been different in nearly half of a century. madam president, i propose a new way forward, a new way forward so a little girl can rise from the depths of poverty and become the c.e.o. of a fortune 500 company. a new way forward that will create a place where young men raised in a single-parent household living in theer in city housing projects can become a world renowned surgeon, a new way forward so that an intelligent young lady living in rural south carolina who ages out of the foster care program can still afford a college education. a new way forward. and our opportunity agenda does just that. we will help to turn neglected

neighborhoods ravished by poverty into centers of excellence. madam president, we will see that these amazing centers of excellence will become engines, economic engines because of the creativity of the people living in the neighborhoods. we will see economic activity in a place that we once thought not possible. today, madam president, too many americans are trapped in low-paying jobs because they lack the skills to improve their incomes. these folks are not asking for a handout. they're asking for a hand up. everyday americans, struggling, working hard, looking for a way to change their destiny. and, madam president, that's why we have introduced the skills act. with more than nearly four million jobs vacant in america

today, we believe that the skills gap can be covered because of the skills act. our second bill that we have filed is called the choice act. creating hope and opportunity for individuals and communities through education. one of the opportunities that we see within the skills act is that for those kids that have special needs, to have the opportunity to make their education dollars portable. i believe every american, every single american deserves the opportunity to realize their full potential. but too many of these young kids, bright kids with special needs do not receive the education that is best for them. so the choice act provides their parents with portability so that

they can choose the school that best fits the needs of their kids. the american opportunity agenda encourages each of us to reach our full potential, and in the coming months we will introduce legislation that encourages reform of our welfare programs. we will fight to change our tax code so that small businesses can hire more people and not simply pay higher taxes. finally, we will work with anyone, anywhere, at any time to reduce the regulatory burdens that stand in the way and closes the door of opportunity. last week, we submitted an amendment that restores the 40-hour workweek that was destroyed in obamacare. the effort to restore the 40-hour workweek has been led by my colleague, the senator from maine, susan collins, who understands the devastation

caused by obamacare. where more than 20 million americans face the loss of up to 25% of their income when they move from 40 hours a week to less than 30 hours a week. i applaud my colleague and others for standing strong and standing tall to make sure that we have a serious debate about the income equality that is caused by obamacare. the effort to restore the 40-hour workweek should be something that we all champion, realizing its massive impact on our economy. madam president, i have lived a family's journey from cotton to congress. i know the sense of empowerment and optimism it provides. once the standard is set in a family like my grandfather said it in our family, once the standard set in a community or a

state, the generations to come will set even higher expectations for themselves. because success is created almost anywhere in america today. it happens in studio apartments, at kitchen tables, it happens in garages and classrooms throughout america. but it doesn't often happen in government conference rooms in washington. i believe and i have experienced with a good education, strong work skills, and the help of our heavenly father, all things are truly possible. thank you. a senator: madam president i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: a senator:

madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: madam president, is

the senate currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. coons: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: madam president, today, this week, we've come together to consider an omnibus appropriations bill. that's a big mouthful, an omnibus appropriations bill, but i hope to lay out in plain language for our folks back at home and for those in this chamber why that matters, why i'm excited about it and why i support it. this is the first time since i joined this body three years ago that we have considered one, and it's a real step forward. the agreement we came to on the budget and the agreement i hope we will pass on this appropriations bill means no more shutdowns, no more crises, no more auto pilot, at least not for this fiscal year. this bill helps us return to regular order, to the proposition that once election day is over, it's our job as the representatives of the people elected to come together, find

common ground, solve bigger problems together and move the nation forward. now, this appropriations bill is the result of a lot of hard work by members and staff, and i must begin first and foremost by thanking the senate appropriations committee chair, senator mikulski and vice-chair senator shelby, as well as the house chair, congressman rogers and ranking member congresswoman lowey who showed great leadership, working together on a very tight deadline to craft such a vast and comprehensive bill. there were follows on the leadership of the chair, senator murray, and the leader of the house budget committee, congressman ryan, after they came together to pave the way for the appropriations committee to reach this deal this week. i applaud their leadership and thank them for the example they have set. as a member of both the budget and appropriations committees, it's been a privilege to work with them to craft these bills and ensure we meet our nation's needs.

the bill before us is, of course, a compromise, and it is the essence of a compromise that it's not perfect by any means, that there are many who can find fault within it or disappointments aplenty amongst the choices made. it doesn't include, for example, just to pick one thing of great importance to my state, it doesn't include enough funding to make real headway on amtrak's critical infrastructure improvements that i think are essential. just to dealing with the $6 billion backlog of investments needed in aging tunnels and bridges and tracks. so while this bill does provide adequate funding for amtrak today, which i'm very glad, it puts off those critically needed investments in repairing these essential elements of its infrastructure, which we will inevitably need to make. that's just one example. and in a bill this big, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of the tough tradeoffs that had to be made between house and senate, between the appropriators of the majority and the minority.

but as we consider our vote on this bill and how it does or doesn't meet our own priorities, our state's priorities, we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. we need to remember that at least in this case, the alternative to this bill isn't our own individual or perfect vision of government. whatever view we might hold, the alternative is crisis after crisis, government that doesn't move forward with the country but treads water as the world passes us by, in an increasingly competitive global environment. what this bill does in a very real way is bring back some stability for our government and our economy and allow us to make important investments in our country's growth. for instance, it takes a number of valuable steps for my home state of delaware. it funds meat and poultry inspectors critical to delaware's chicken industry and its 13,000 jobs. it funds the next stage of an army corps of engineers project to deepen the delaware river from 40 to 45 feet so that we're

ready and can be competitive when the expansion of the panama canal nears completion. it dedicates funding through the victims of child abuse act, and i am an original cosponsor of a bill reauthorizing the victims of child abuse act. for the three children's advocacy centers throughout my state, these centers are critical to delivering justice for the victims of child abuse without harming their healing process, and the bill maintains funding for a bulletproof vest partnership, an initiative that has supplied delaware police officers with over a thousand bulletproof vests in the past two years. two of those vests, i should add, saved the lives of two officers during a shooting at the new castle courthouse just last spring. these are just a few of the things for which i am grateful in this broad omnibus bill. nationally, it also allows us to meet our key priorities of training our work force for this century, making our communities safer, building a circle of protection around the most

vulnerable in our society, so in combination making us safer, stronger and more just. the investments it makes in america's work force by funding education programs can last a lifetime. head start helps kids ensure they don't fall behind before they have had a chance. this bill increases that funding by a billion dollars to serve 90,000 more kids this year. there is a competitive grant program to help states and communities find innovative ways to provide high-quality preschool options for low and middle-class families that i'm particularly excited about. in delaware, we saw the power of this program and we competed for and won federal funding on a competitive basis for high-quality early education just last year. the department of education's first in the world initiative will help colleges to measure and thus improve outcomes and bring down costs for students and families, and this bill increased our investment in job training programs like job corps and the veterans employment and training service which helped

everyone from low-income americans who have failed to get on their feet in the job market to veterans who stood up for us around the world and have earned our support upon their return. next, this bill includes crucial funding that makes our communities safer. we're upping our investment in the cops program first championed on this floor by my predecessor, senator joe biden. it will put 1,500 more officers on our streets and in our neighborhoods, keeping us safe. the violence against women act, which we came together in a bipartisan way to pass last year, is fully funded, and we're taking important steps to stop the scourge of gun violence that affects each and every community. a new comprehensive school safety program i'm excited about. new investments to improve background checks, and new training to help local law enforcement react and protect the public from active shooters. of course the second part of making our community safer is ensuring that justice is delivered in our courts when

crime does happen. unfortunately, the sequester's cuts to our federal courts cut the judiciary to the bone, imposing furloughs, hurting our nation's justice system by leading to layoffs of hundreds of experienced, seasoned senior court staff. thankfully, the bill before us reverses these and many other cuts and minimize the delays of justice that are unacceptable to our nation. this bill allows us to sustain what i like to call a circle of protection around the most vulnerable in our society that reflects our shared commitment to each other, our most basic values. investments in the w.i.c. program for women, infants and children will make thiewr 87,000 children have food they need at a vital stage of development. liheap ensures that low-income families don't freezuring the coldest months of the year and this bill's funding increase will ensure 400,000 more

households have this critical assistance. last when we passed this bill when which i pray we will by week's end we'll reverse the sequester's devastating cuts to housing programs and as a result prevent more than 100,000 american he american families from becoming homeless. mr. president, each of these investments in our work force, in our public safety, in protection for our most vulnerable, together they make up the foundation of a safer, a more just and inclusive society. but when we also combine it with investments in research and innovation and infrastructure, we lay the groundwork for growth and shared prosperity today and tomorrow. after the last three years which in my experience have been loafl he mostly defined by partisan gridlock, stopgap budgets, crisis governance, this bipartisan basis appropriations bill allows us to create some stability for our nation and our economy. and i think it reminds us that we are a nation that is at our best when we are determined to

be open to each others' ideas, to hear each others' concerns and criticisms and find ways to work together. although there are plenty of areas where i disagree with my republican colleagues, as i've gotten to know them over the past three years we have found many more areas of common good and common work. so let me briefly mention a few of them as i celebrate what i think is the most important aspect of this big bill which is that it's truly bipartisan. senator marco rubio and i were both elected in 2010 and came to this chamber roughly the same time and we found ways to work together to invest in stem education and to open pathways to college for young americans. senator hatch and i wrote a bill together called i squared and we're joined by senator klobuchar and senator rubio and this brings high killed workers to our shores and invests in stem education for american citizens. senator kirk and i have worked together to create a national

manufacturing strategy that focuses resources on creating manufacturing jobs in america. and just this monday senator roberts of kansas and i announced our partnership on a new bill to make the research and development tax credit and its funding available to start-ups and to young, innovate companies. there are so many shoes where we can work together to invest in our work force, to protect the public, to sustain this storied circle of protection around the most vulnerable, to invest in long-term economic growth and to lift up every community and every american. i am incredibly thankful for the leadership of senators mikulski and shelby and the way that they displayed that leadership through action, through this process by putting aside their differences and finding common ground. i'd like to also close with a note of personal thanks to the fount countless committee staff on both sides who worked tirelessly throughout the holidays to make this bill a reality. with this omnibus appropriations

bill it is my sincere hope that we're putting an end to a cycle of manufactured crises and sending to our american people and to our marnghts and to our communities the message that we can and will work together to confront the many challenges that we main here and in the future. thank you and with that, madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i came to the floor to spend some time on the unemployment insurance but i have to comment after hearing my colleague mention his esteemed favor of the bill that's going to be in front of it, i would just have to say that my perspective is really totally different. you have a 1,500-page bill that nobody's read other than my staff and we've read it completely and outlined it

completely. have you a bill that's dishonest because you still changes in mandatory funding and programs and you created $17.09 out -- $17.9 billion that allows us to spend $17.9 billion and you transfer that sleight of hand to our children. but it doesn't seem to bother anybody on the appropriations that we actually lie to the american public about how much we're going to spend. the bill actually spends about $63 billion, more than we did last year, about 6.5%, 7%. it's loaded with parochial benefits, which is the pleasure of the appropriators, i understand, but it really doesn't pass muster in terms of no earmarks. so -- but there's one point that i agree with. this has been an agreement

between republicans and democrats to bring the bill to the floor. and it will pass because it is an agreement, because people did work together, whether i like it or not, they worked together and came to a conclusion. the only problem is, there's going to be no amendments, no way to be honest with the american people on this $17.9 billion that's supposedly paid for that isn't. it's truly an untruth. it's dishonest. it has no integrity with it whatsoever. it undermines every senator up here that's going to vote for this bill because you say one thing and you're going to do exactly the opposite. you know, i was just given a poll, as of today, the number-one problem that americans see in our country is us. the u.s. government. 21% of the people in this

country identify us as the problem. is it any wonder when we tell them we're going to do x and then we don't do x, i.e., we had a budget agreement and then we changed the budget agreement because we couldn't live within our means, and we wouldn't raise the revenue to be able to do that, and then we come to a new budget agreement that's much higher, don't honor the previous budget agreement, and then we put an appropriation bill on the floor that's going to fund all the federal government until september 30 and nobody's totally read it, they pick out the things they like in it and then talk about it. is it any wonder why 21% of the people think that the congress, politicians, poor little bit, corruption, and abuse of power in washington is the number-one

problem with our country? you know what? they're right. this is an abuse of power to vote for a bill that you know spends $18 billion, $17.9 billion more than what you're telling the american people it's going to spend. and you do it through sleight of hand and you pass muster with the powers that be but it's not honest with the american public. so we're going to do it again. we're not going to have a government shutdown. everybody's going to go home on break and spend a week away from here and say look at us, we're not at loggerheads anymore. the only reason we're at loggerheads is because we've abandoned the processes of the senate through the majority leader that does not allow the senate to force consensus. and for the life of me, i don't understand why my colleagues on the other side of the aisle accept it. you get no amendments, either.

so we have one person out of a hundred decides what amendments will be acceptable and what aren't. jefferson has got to be spinning in his grave because he wrote the original rules for the senate. they had nothing to do with one person deciding. as a matter of fact, until 1917, one person stopped everything in the senate if they didn't have consensus. and so the whole goal was to trade what you would like to do to give somebody else the ability to do that. when we have a czar running the senate, we no longer have that ability. and the whole purpose for having a bicameral legislature with a minority rights provision protecting, was so that we would generate consensus that could be sold to the american public so -- this isn't about me being able to offer an amendment. this is about the four million people in oklahoma not having the say in the u.s. senate.

i mean, there are some really bright people in oklahoma that have some really good ideas but those ideas can't be heard in this body anymore. they're not my ideas. it's not my vote, it's their vote. and yet 54 of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle acquiesced their right for their states to offer their states' ideas as we debate issues in this body. you give that away and say one person gets to decide. it's never been that way in the senate. never before. so now we're going to have a bill and -- the prime example of that is the unemployment bill. if this was really a priority for the majority why are we doing it now instead of before it expired? all the weeks of time in quorum calls in the senate when we could have been doing this, it wasn't a priority. it's a political priority.

i actually think we ought to extend the unemployment insurance but i think we ought to do it in a smarter way and i certainly think we ought to pay for it. when i can sit and show $9 trillion of waste and spending reductions that the average american, 80% of the average americans would agree with and we can't find $20 billion-some out of all this mess of a federal government to be able to help people who are not employed? my colleague from delaware mentioned job training. the house actually is -- the only thing that has happened based on the g.a.o. reports of this government on duplication, the house took it to heart and took the job training programs and they converted -- we have actually 47 of them. 47 job training programs, spending almost $30 billion a year, and they passed the skills act, which consolidated those into six programs that

actually have metrics. when you study our job training programs, regardless of whether we fund them or not, here's what you find: all but three of them duplicate one another. all but three. and none of them have a metric on whether or not they're actually training people to do a job. giving them a life skill. so the house passes that bill. we won't even take it up. you save money, you actually improve what the federal government is trying to do in terms -- if we were to expand unemployment insurance or continue the emergency in the sixth year, might not we want to do something about the quality of the jobs programs that are available for the people that are on unemployment? might we also not want to give people back their dignity by having them do something in their community for the earning of that? there's been no tax dollars paid by any worker for this program. they didn't contribute anything to it through their past

unemployment fees, fica fees. would we not be better what norway has done, and show that people will start hunting for a job earlier if you plus up the benefits early and taper the benefits later? so that they start looking for a job long before they run out of benefits. and what the studies actually show, especially the three states that have now been disqualified from this is that their employment numbers went up, their unemployment went down and the number of people needing assistance actually went down as well. so it's one thing to say we want to help people. it's totally different when it's all in a political context about the next election. which brings me to my final point. i believe children need to have a good start toward school.

but as the senator from delaware just mentioned we're going to add a billion dollars to head start and that's going to give us 90,000 new kids in head start. if anybody does the math on that, $11,000 per year for a head start program? think about that. give the money to the states and let them run it themselves outside the federal government. they'll do it for $4,000 or $5,000. but because it's a federal program it costs twice what it should. or if you did it to the states you could do 180,000 versus what we're doing. so we're going to have a debate, hopefully we'll get back to the unemployment insurance, but if we want to have that debate, it's got to be paid for, we owe that to the very people we say we want to help. and number two, you got to have the input of everybody. not just one person in the senate.

i'll finish up by saying this: whru sewhen you see this poll t% of the country thinks the biggest problem in the country is us, the government, the corruption, the abuse of power, the poor leadership -- that's the specific things that were mentioned in this poll -- what we ought to do is look inside, say, why is that? and that is because we concentrate on the political and not on the people. we use them as pawns to advantage our own political careers, our own elections, and the good long--term, best interests of the country get sacrificed. what this poll shows is the american people are pretty darn smart. they're pretty darn smart, because they see the