recognized for 4 and 1/4 minutes. >> i commend, again, chairman permanent for the spirit and the thoughtfulness with which he brought this resolution to the floor. today, in the wake of a week of extraordinary public demonstrations, violence, and tumult across the nation of iran, the american people, through this congress, will condemn that violence. and the suppression of a free and independent press in iran. as the american people have done throughout our history, we will proclaim liberty. we will support all iranian citizens to embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil

liberties, and the rule of law. . . >> some observers say that americans should remain silent in the wake of this violence and the suppression of free speech and the intimidation and oppression of the free and independent press in iran. let me say from my heart, at the american cause is freedom. in that cause, we must never be silent.

the iranian regime would do well to note the words of president ronald reagan from his first inaugural address, january 20, 1981, where he said, a " no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world's is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." today this congress, and a true spirit of bipartisanship, will come together on behalf of the moral courage of the men and women of iran who have tasted freedom and have been willing to risk their liberty and their lives to advance it. it is my hope and it is my prayer that this word of

encouragement from the american people to the iranian people will be too good effect for that nation and for freedom in the world. i urge support of this resolution, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> if i could ask the gentleman if he has any time left, you do have one speaker just came in. >> the gentleman reserves one minute. the gentleman from california. >> mr. speaker, i am pleased to yield two minutes to an excellent member of the house foreign affairs committee, the gentleman from minnesota. >> mr. speaker, i want to commend the drafters of the resolution. i think it is carefully drafted and it was clear that the universal values of freedom that are expressed in the resolution

are done with a great amount of prudence, and i think that is right. it is also important to understand that when the congress of the united states speaks, a lot of people listen, so it is important to not allow the congress to be used as a tool in what is essentially an internal fight in iran. so i would urge caution and urge the united states congress to stand up and speak about the universal values that we care about, democracy, freedom, due process of law, a lack of violence in terms of solving political disputes, and not allow ourselves to be used as a weapon against the people who we are in fact trying to help, which is the people of iran. thank you. i yield back. >> the gentleman from florida. >> i yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from california, the ranking member of the oversight and government reform committee. >> mr. speaker, it is clear

today that someone have us be silent as to the aspiration of the people risking life and limb on the streets of teheran today. we cannot and should not be that way. it is an internal matter, but is an internal matter in a country that has been ruled by theocrats for so very long, who have denied real free elections and even when the will of the people was obvious, wanted to overturn the will of the people for president who could be a reformer and of opportunity, particularly to women in this country. i urge support for this resolution because it sends the message that we are with the people who want freedom. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman from california. >> should i be yielding one minute of my time to the gentleman from south carolina at

this point? >> thank you. i would like to give 30 seconds of our time. >> the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you for yielding that time. i saw this morning that the supreme leader of iran said that st. challenge is not acceptable. this is challenging democracy after the elections. we beg to differ, and the people of iran are begging to differ. when you can count on paper ballots, millions of them, within a couple of hours, something is funny. and when you declare the result of the election is fine, but say

there will be some investigations, what is the value of the investigation if you have already certified election? what we are begging to differ with the supreme leader of iran is that it is not challenging democracy after elections. it is saying that the elections are rigged, and read elections do not produce outcomes that people can believe in. furthermore, what is happening here is we are seeing the real disastrous consequence of having a theocracy, where somebody at the time gets to say, i don't know where he derives his authority, but he gets to say what is what about elections. we are very thankful to live in a country road that is not the case, -- a country where that is not the case, where we have elected members to choose supreme court members who were then confirmed by the senate and

who served with good behavior. that is a system that produces confidence among the people, and a free people get to govern themselves. that is our hope, our aspiration for the iranian people. we, the people of the united states, should stand boldly with the people in tehran and elsewhere in iran who are saying we yearn to breathe free. we want to govern ourselves. this is their moment. we stand in support of them. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman from california. >> madam speaker, i have no further requests for time and will reserve its agility wishes to close. >> the gentle lady from florida is without time. >> then i would just yield

myself such time as i may consume to once again thank the minority of working with us, my making -- ranking member as well as mr. penn's particularly to say that my fondest hope is on these critical kind of issues we can establish a bipartisan basis for working together, and then simply to say that this resolution -- their many american interests in u.s.- iranian relations. this resolution is not about american interests. it is about american values, which i believe universal values, the values of rule block, of -- rule of law, participatory democracy, individual liberty, and about justice, and it is on the back

of those universal values, not american interest, that i urge this body to support this resolution, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> in about five minutes, at 6:15 eastern, we expect live coverage from the american constitution society convention here in washington. staff from the white house and federal agencies will talk about how legal change can be achieved in today's policy environment. in the meantime, some of what happened on capitol hill today in the health-care debate. house democrats unveiled legislation they said would cover virtually all the nearly 50 million uninsured americans. the associated plethoric press rights that they dug in for partisan trench warfare. senator john mccain spoke on the senate floor today saying the whole enterprise is basically a gridlock. >> i would like to say a few words about healthcare, and

obviously we are innate -- accog to the committee, basically a gridlock. the correctional budget office stated monday -- congressional budget office stated that once the proposal is fully implemented, the number of people who had coverage through employer would decline by about 15 million. a health-care consulting firm estimates this summer to be much higher. they estimate that up to 70% of all americans who have private insurance, 120 million americans would lose their health insurance and be forced on to the government payrolls. that stands in stark contrast to the president's repeated assertions that if you like your health care, you can keep it.

further analysis by a health care economics firm found to get all americans covered under the democrats' bill it would cost a staggering four trillion dollars and resulted in 79 million americans who currently have private insurance having to obtain coverage from the government plan. what i have just described is known as the "crowd out local phenomenon. it is a substitution effect that occurs when a massive government insurance plan crowds out private insurance, as the expansion of publicly subsidized programs encourage or force people from private arrangements to public ones. this is a real issue and one we must pay attention to. on monday, the president said, "i know there are millions of americans who are content with their health care coverage, and that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep his promise. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep a doctor.

if you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan. no one will take away, no matter what." if the bill we are considering is enacted, i don't believe this is a promise the president will be able to keep. the chicago "tribune bluecoat stated, "of the president promises that anyone who wants to keep private coverage will be able to do so, but we do know things about government run health plans. the federal government is in competition. it is the health care equivalent of nick a. sets low prices, to be sure, lower than many insurers are able to match. it just means those doctors and hospitals recoup their losses by shifting costs on to those with private insurance, which could easily crowd out private plans. a lot of americans think the health care system is not really all that broken. they get good care.

aipac predicts that pay for it via insurance, but a government run health plan, experience says that the cure would be worse than the illness. a lot of americans are pleased with their health care options. 7% of americans raided their coverage good or excellent, according to rasmussen report poll data dated may 14, 2009. the 07% might be the precise group of americans who will lose their health insurance and be forced into government-run programs if the legislation is enacted. now it is a fact that premiums continue rising, eating into family budgets and preventing the uninsured from getting covered. this is a problem we need to be addressing. we need to bring down the cost of health care and thus, the cost of health insurance coverage. this will lead to more coverage of the uninsured, and ensure

that those who like their health care coverage can keep their coverage and their doctor as the president promises. yet the majority bill contains not a single reform that will save money. instead, as i just pointed out, it will cost up to four dollars trillion and displace up to 79 million americans from their current coverage. this is not reform. this is why we should start over. i continue to believe that the democrats in the white house should scrap this in complete bill and start over. democrats and republicans must come together and draft a bill that allows the president to uphold his promise that americans will be able to keep their current doctor or health care plan. mr. president, we spent a lot of time in the health committee going over and in complete proposal, supposedly by tonight, the three major issues including the so-called government auction will be revealed to us by the

democratic budget by the majority side. i hope that it is soon. i hope we will be able to view it so that we could have for if -- for the first time, a meaningful discussion and negotiation in the health committee. so far, the three major components are still blanks basis. i have been in this body for a long time. i have never seen a process such as we are born through right now. it is basically, fundamentally a sure raid. so the democrats can come to the floor and say we consulted with the republicans, we had hours and hours of debate and discussion and mark up, when we were not presented with the key elements of the legislation we were supposed to be considering. if the key elements are there, we get to examine and over the weekend, then perhaps we can sit down together and negotiate some kind of reasonable approach to this bill. it is not an accident that the

finance committee, the other committee that is supposed to be tracking health reform bill along with the help committee has decided not to present their proposal until after the for the july recess, because they simply do not have a way to pay for it. dick cbo analysis and other outside analysis has really revealed something very important, that the plans as propounded by the administration and by the democrats is unsustainably expensive, and one that would indeed they do not have a way of paying for. it will be very interesting to see how they tailor their plan to the expenses and how they address the issue of how to pay for it. clearly, raising taxes is an option that are considering. i do not think raising anybody's taxes in the present-day economy

is something that would be beneficial to all americans. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. >> our live coverage, expected to been -- our live coverage is expected to begin shortly. greg craig will talk about getting things done in washington. while we wait, more about health care. major provisions of the draft health care bill offered by house democrats today would impose new responsibilities on individuals and employers to get coverage in the insurance company practices that the -- that deny coverage to the sick. here is senate majority leader hit -- harry reid talking about health care today. >> as the debate escalates over health care, it is easy to become sidetracked by misrepresentation or attempted to point fingers. when we do those things we lose sight of what is at the heart of this effort. this debate in this reform. i want to take just a moment to

remind all of us with this is all about, the health care debate. it is not -- it is about hardworking americans, because they are to often casualty's of or broken health care system and deserve better than to be casualties of misleading politics. for those without health care, this is a critical crisis that affects children, families, small-business is, big businesses, every single day. it is about the parent who cannot take a job to the doctor because insurance is prohibitively expensive. it is about the family that lives one accident or illness away from financial ruin. it is about small businesses to have to lay off employees work had to cancel health insurance for employees because it could not afford it. it is about the families who put off medical care because the cost too much. we as democrats here in the senate are committed to lowering

the high price of health care, ensuring every american has access to that quality, affordable care, and finally, letting people choose their own doctors, hospitals, and health plans. we are committed to protecting existing coverage when is good and improving and when it is not. we are committed to preventing disease, reducing health disparities encouraging early detection and effective treatments to save lives. the matter what republicans claim, the government has no intention of using for you any of these things, or meddling in any of your medical relationships. if you like the coverage you have, you can choose to keep it. health care is not a luxury and should not be. we cannot afford another year in which almost 50 million of us have to choose between basic necessities and line the pockets of the big insurance companies just to stay healthy. i hear every day from nevadans

in emailed, phone calls, and other communication, and here that people are turned down for health coverage by insurance for writers to care more about profits than people. i hear about people who lost their health coverage when they lost their jobs and have no means of getting it back. i hear about people in nevada who play by the rules and rightly demand our healthcare system is governed by common sense. that is what this debate is all about, nothing more and nothing less. >> going live now to the annual convention of the american constitution society. the topic, how legal change can be achieved into today's policy environment. the participants are getting ready their. some of the people taking part are white house counsel greg craig, white house secretary lisa brown, and john podesta, chief executive officer for the center for american progress.

we'll have more live coverage with the radio and television correspondents dinner beginning at 8:25 here on c-span. president obama will deliver remarks. on your screen is john podesta, the ceo of the center for american progress. live coverage on c-span.

>> this event is expected to begin shortly. president obama will be at the radio and tv correspondents association dinner tonight delivering remarks. that begins and caught 25 eastern time. but the associated press writes that president obama is describing the overall health care plan put forward by house democrats today as a major step toward the goal of fixing what is broken and building on what works. house republicans are sharpening their criticism. they say it would cost tens of millions of people to lose the current health care coverage. the participants are getting ready to start. it should begin momentarily.

[crowd murmurs]

>> a little bit of background on the american constitution society that is hosting this event. it is called the american constitution society for law and policy. the group calls itself a progressive legal organization. it was founded in 2001. the numbers include lawyers, law students, and policy advocates.

>> good evening everyone. if i could quiet the crowd please. i am john podesta, the center -- president of the center for american progress. it is a great honor to be hearing this panel. on behalf of the american constitution society, i would like to welcome all of you to tonight's plenary panel, which is entitled the levers of change, how progress is made in today's policy environment. i would also like to extend special thanks to all of our panelists who have been generous enough to donate their arrival time to participate in this discussion. we have several members of the administration up h a