if you go to the g.a.o. port released in march, there are so many instances of billions of dollars of waste. congress has the obligation to be the oversight. they could come to washington and do a walk-through of government agencies and do a little oversight, what it is. start almost cherry picking the problems off. congress could do that. it just won't. it won't look at the waste. commission studies and says, yeah, that's awful and ignore its. >> you are right. the g.a.o. report, $300 billion in duplicate federal programs, $100 billion in fraud, waste and abuse. we have to go line by line -- that's what people expect. in tonight's town hall meeting, one person said, if our budget, we go line by line. we decide what we can afford and what we can't. that's what we have to do in washington. >> thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. >> straight ahead, remember last summer's dodd/frank financial reform bill? president obama was proud to sign it and make it law to protect us. but has it been a bust? "on the record" inves

now on page 43 of the g.a.o. report, in the appendix, are general comments of the department of health and human services on the government accountability office's draft report which is this report. what they say is for too long, insurance companies in many states have increased health insurance premiums with little oversight, transparency, or public accountability. health insurance premiums have doubled on average over the last 10 years. much faster than wages and inflation, putting coverage out of reach. as recently as september of 2010, fewer than half oh the states and territories had the legal authority to reject a proposed increase if the increase was excessive, lacked justification or failed to meet other state standards. additionally, many states that had authority lacked the resources needed to exercise it meaningfully. this lack of authority and resources for states have contributed to unjustified premium increases. then it announces starting in september of this year, 2011, h.h.s. is requiring that all

in march, the g.a.o. came out with a report that identified hundreds of duplicative programs that happen here in washington where we could save billions of dollars. my colleague from oklahoma, senator dr. tom coburn, he has done the hard work of identifying hundreds and hundreds of duplicative programs where we could save billions and billions of dollars, yet this agreement does not reduce the size of government at all or end one of those programs. does it avoid a downgrading of our credit? unfortunately, i think this agreement will also lead us to a downgrade. and why does that matter? because it will hurt the economic strength of america and our economic growth. our borrowing costs. it will hurt our job creators when now more than ever we need to create jobs in this country and put people to work, yet our failure to get our fiscal house in order here in washington is hurting the hard-working people in new hampshire and america. the credit rating agencies and even the president's own fiscal commission ha

your chance to tell us what you think your face question is obamacare working your choices are yes the g.a.o. says that because the new law will force insurance companies to spend about eighty percent of premiums back on health care insurance costs will go down soon but i know it is not good enough to log into thom hartmann dot com to tell us what you think the poll as always will be open until tomorrow morning now coming up in just a bit at the head of the federal reserve points the finger at congress demanding that lawmakers boost the economy by creating jobs great idea what are washington if they think of that more in just a bit. let's not forget that we are in a park right brooke. i think. either one well. we haven't got the shows they're going to say get ready for freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. easy to understand it and then you glimpse something else and you're see some other part of it and realize that everything you. don't. charge is a big. from natural disasters turbulence in the economy as well as unrest both here in the states and abroad it has indeed

in march, the g.a.o. came out with a report that identified hundreds of duplicative programs that happen here in washington where we could save billions of dollars. my colleague from oklahoma, senator dr. tom coburn, he has done the hard work of identifying hundreds and hundreds of duplicative programs where we could save billions and billions of dollars, yet this agreement does not reduce the size of government at all or end one of those programs. does it avoid a downgrading of our credit? unfortunately, i think this agreement will also lead us to a downgrade. and why does that matter? because it will hurt the economic strength of america and our economic growth. our borrowing costs. it will hurt our job creators when now more than ever we need to create jobs in this country and put people to work, yet our failure to get our fiscal house in order here in washington is hurting the hard-working people in new hampshire and america. the credit rating agencies and even the president's own fiscal commission ha

dicken, i want to thank you for the work that g.a.o. does. tremendous help and i appreciate the reports that come out. in looking at the states' authority to review rates, did any of the states provide evidence that because the rate review process burdened or the review results that any of these have pulled out of the market in that state? is there any evidence to suggest that the tighter rate review policies for states will decrease the number of policies available to consumers or at least decrease the types of policies available for consumers? >> thank you, senator enzi. we did not specifically ask as part of our survey as to whether there were any changes in the market share or carriers in the markets. certainly your point is very fair. we have looked in the path at the market shares of carriers in the small group market and many states only have one carrier that may represent half of the market or more. many states, i think 23 states had five or fewer carriers that were representing 90 prgs of the market. -- 90% of the market. >> thank you