withering criticism. the public here at tom harkin yesterday on the floor debating the bill. -- have a look here at tom harkin >> the last couple weeks of we heard from the other side is attack, attack, attack. no, no, no -- ñryou know, they keep talking. i just heard the senator from arizona saying this is not a bipartisan bill. i have heard so much talk on the other side about how this should be bipartisan. let's look at that for a second. as i see it the republicans have no bill of their own. our bill has 60 democrats, a super majority. my friends on the other side are all over the place. they cannot even agree among themselves what they want to do. they have no comprehensive bill. not like we have come up with. i keep hearing that we democrats are not bipartisan, but who do we deal with? just the senator from arizona? just the senator from tennessee? how about the senator from oklahoma or from south carolina? so, i am sorry -- i feel sorry that the republicans are all split up. host: ted, from endeavor new york, on the republican line. caller: i like to know about senator chuck schumer from new york. how

hiring, because local contractors and construction work withers do the insulation, it save consumers money, perhaps hundreds of dollars off their quite bills each year. and it reduces our energy consumption in the process. in other words, most of this stuff is going to pay for itself. you put in the insulation, you weatherize your home now. you will take up that money in a year or two years or three years. and then everything after that is just gravy. but the challenge for a lot of people is getting that money upfront. they know this is a smart thing to do. but times are tight right now. it's hard to afford making that capital investment. that's where the government can come in to provide the incentives to help people make that investment so they can recover the money over the long term. these incentives will build on the work that my administration is doing to eliminate the barriers to retrofitting millions of homes across the country. environmental quality appreciately released a report called recovery through retrofit and explains how to overcome the hurdles. providing straightforward reliable information, reducing the cost to do it, an

wither on the vine." that's just a few years ago in all of this debate. and so nes there's again some v, very strong provisions in this bill that reduce co-pays for seniors, ensures that seniors see their own doctors, prevents medicare from going bankrupt for an additional five years. we're being told today by c.b.o. and others that medicare becomes iinsolvent in eight years if we vote for the mccain amendment. we provide new preventive and wellness benefits for seniors, lower prescription drug homes, not end up in nursing hoaxes this is a long bill, a big bill. but instead of complaining about its size, i'd encourage my colleagues to read it and understand what's being done for medicare. this is a complicated area but nonetheless critically important. i see my colleague from california, senator boxer, who is here and others who want to address the issue on the mikulski amendment. and i'll yield the floor so they can be heard. i yield -- mrs. boxer: senator, if i might respond -- the presiding officer: the senator california is recognized. mrs. boxer: the plan is that women completion will be coming to the floor and as the

bill. when they talk about going after medicare, boy, talk about crocodile tears. was it not newt gingrich, the former speaker of the house, leader of the republican revolution, that said he wanted medicare to -- quote -- "wither on the vine?" was it not senator bob dole, the standard-bearer for president in the 1990's, who said, he had fought against medicare and was proud he voted against it? now all of a sudden it seems like the republicans are the guardians of medicare. people know the truth, mr. president. the american people know the truth. they know it's the democrats who fought for medicare. lyndon johnson and the democrats -- lyndon john s.o.s. was president -- lyndon johnson was the president and the democrats in the house and senate ... if it weren't for them, medicare would never have been passed. every step of the way it was opposed by other friends on the other side of the aisle. now to hear them talk about how much we're going after medicare ... boy, talk about crocodile tears. well, the other thing i wanted to say, mr. president, is that i wanted to correct something that the senator from oklahoma said. he talked about the recommendations that recently came out -- and i'm going to have nor say