susan collins is supporting the plan to tax the rich.impose additional taxes on the employers at a time when our economy is very fragile and we want to encourage them to hire. on the other hand, i do believe that billionaires who are not running businesses could help us with our deficit. joining me tonight, bill press, host of "the bill press joe." joe madison. gentlemen, thanks for your time tonight. bill, let me start with you. will more republicans see the light and recognize that millionaires should pay their fair share like senator collins has said? >> you know, i would hope so. i was thinking back in my seminary days and i'm sure you remember back in your sem nar days, afflicting the comfortable and republicans have it backwards. they are all about further comforting the already comfortable. i think the number one issue, and nobody wants to talk about it, we have a nation of poverty. 46 million americans. 20% of all school kids living in poverty today. that's a disgrace for this country and all the policies of the republican party

myself to what i thought could get 60 votes in the senate because otherwise i could just call susan collinsnd olympia snowe and ask them what we should do because they would be the votes. but where i came out is that, you know, the one thing i've seen that really works is a -- is very expensive because it is a holistic approach. you have got to work and education. education is complicated. i use the sample in the book of a program that my former colleague, a pulitzer prize-winning columnist of the post to retired and started a nonprofit called baby steps in his hometown in mississippi, a tiny little town of mostly black if thery poor. how to read to their children that there was nobody in the household capable of doing that in a way that really helped thec chhiildren, so he needed a centf for those kids to come to, he needed to do some of arrow assessment work before taking into the program for the kids to n come then he found he needed to deal with nutritional and healtb issues because there were a lot of, you know, chronic disease and diabetes and obesity about, you know, kids who were ea

and trade was actually originally a republican idea that's right and then and then you've got susan collins a republican senator from maine that was a co-sponsor of the only bipartisan climate bill in the senate last year which was a cap and dividend which essentially functions like a carbon tax so i'm not saying that the united states is anywhere close i think that that we have a significant domestic debate going on in in the united states talking about the science of climate change where as the rest of the world already recognizes that the science is compelling and clear that we need to take action cullen in health care in the united states what we're seeing is that states are taking the lead arguably massachusetts now a government saying they want single payer things like that is this the kind of thing that could be done on a state by state basis in the united states or is it does it really have to be national or not at all that's a good question especially since you have states like california that sort of are a signal from the comment that well and they've already sort of done it with

operations and military intelligence curricula and as far as congress goes senators joe lieberman and susan collins have been questioning the qualifications of the trainers for a while however representative sue myrick of north carolina she's spoken out against these internal reviews because she thinks they could quote weaken the programs by censoring certain language that is used to object if we identified asymmetrical threats that are present in today's world thankfully it is only one of the only members of congress who opposes this review because rooting out islamophobia in u.s. law enforcement whether it's local or national is of the utmost importance for a counterterrorism efforts despite the fact the white house wanted to keep their involvement quiet overseeing the training process as definitely a step in the right direction and frankly i think we should have been much there. last night los angeles joined other cities across the country that of protesters from their occupy encampments and just like other cities that claim to be encampments were in danger and public safety l.a. mayor antonio j

demint did not get scott brown, susan collins, and olympia snowe, which isn't the end of the world becausehran or either of the tennessee republicans, alexander and corker, both of whom have signed the grover norquist pledge, that is a very bad day for grover norquist and jim demint who, with only 33 republican senators on their letter to the supercommittee, have now publicly demonstrated that grover norquist and jim demint do not now have the votes in the senate to filibuster a supercommittee bill that contains tax increases. the demint letter is a profoundly stupid sign of weakness for which we should all be grateful. and so tonight's profiles in republican courage, are the 11 republican senators who did not sign the demint/norquist letter. seven of whom have previously signed the grover norquist pledge. the profiles in republican courage also include all 40 of the house republicans who signed the anti-norquist letter to the supercommittee saying tax increases should be on the table. 40 republican house members. and 11 republican senators is more than enough for democrats in congress to

senator susan collins pushed for the study and told "outfront," quote, such reports undermine publichnology to ensure it does not adversely affect the health of passengers and tsa employees. number three, the price of oil is above $100 a barrel since july. we spoke with john kilda who says if the price sticks we can see gas prices at the pump above $4.00 by christmas. number four, we're paying less. consumer price index dropped for the first time since june following .1%. doesn't sound like a lot. you add it up, biggest drop came in gasoline which obviously is reversing. the cost of food had its smallest increase in nearly a year. analysts told "outfront" they expect it to go up in the next few months. >>> it has been 103 days since america lost its top credit rating? what are we doing back in europe is not helping. fitch warned that america's banks' exposure to the problems in europe, the reason why the stock market fell sharp. today the u.s. bank shows the most exposure to europe is morgan stanley survey after survey says is still too big to fail. >>> the man wanted for shooting at

i want to praise subcommittee chair patty murray and ranking member susan collins for their hard work filed last night both provides appropriate funding for disaster relief but also to move heavy truck traffic out of historic downtowns both in vermont and maine. mr. president, as you and the others know, ever since hurricane irene, i've spoken over and over again on the floor of the senate but also in meeting after meeting of the appropriations committee and probably in hundreds of hours in discussion with both republican and democratic senators, especially on the appropriations committee, about the needs to vermont. irene was devastating to our small state of vermont. both my wife and i were born in vermont and never in our lifetime have we seen anything like what we saw. record rains, flash flooding, simply washed away homes and farms, businesses, roads and bridges all over the state, including some that have been there for 100 years. of all the body blows we suffered from irene, which raked our state from border to border, repairing the damage to our roads, our bridges and our rail

there's a lot of those people like susan collins and olympia snow out there who don't have a leader todayent eisenhower wouldn't have recognized this party, in some ways, president reagan wouldn't have. he would've raised taxes to invest in the infrastructure. >> he cut a deal with southern union. you can't cut a deal -- >> came under fire from the neo cons. >> i want to get to gingrich in a moment and the situation with freddie mac. but this new poll came in, i think it's interesting to pepper into the conversation. look at this, chris christie, remember him, look at his approval rating, chris matthews. >> is there such a thing as unbuyers remorse? this guy captures it. and it's a mood of anger, but also, he looks like a leader, somebody to put some confidence in. he's sort of a center right guy, i think politically. he's not a right-winger. he's from jersey. and he wins in jersey. by the way, that's 56% in jersey. that's impressive for a republican. >> think of last week's elections in ohio. in jersey in maine, you saw a rejection of the a right-wing conservative tea party agenda. the d

it's somewhat similar to a bill introduced on the senate side by susan collins of maine. and it puts a moratorium on all major regulations coming out of this administration until january of 2013. and my colleague on the senate side, hers is for a year. i didn't think a year was sufficient because at the end of that year the administration could just implement regulations that are waiting. so i say, let's take it through january, to inauguration day of 2013. because this administration is not -- has not gotten the message on overregulation. this bill would stop major regulations being implemented, new ones, until 2013. now i'd like to yield to my friend from colorado. >> thank you. i appreciate my colleague from arkansas, great friend, yielding to me, just to add a comment. mr. reed: when nye colleague there wisconsin spoke -- when my colleague from wisconsin spoke and as my colleague just mentioned, when we talk about the forgotten 15, now 16, we got to be clear to the american public that those bills that came out of this house had bipartisan support. there are colleague

this is sexual asawvment i introduced in legislation on this issue in the spring with senator susan collins and i remain deeply concerned about the subject. many of our colleagues are aware that sexual assault is a persistent problem within our armed forces. reports of trauma haveries nonrecent years. in march the department of defense put out its annual report on sexual assault in the military. according to the estimates, there were more than 3,000 reports of sexual assault in the military last year. that included reports by both male and female victims, supposing attacks perpetrated both by and against members of our military. and those are just the reported attacks. since the department of defense estimated that only 15% of victims actually come higher, we can assume the number is much higher, upwards of 19,000. the department of veterans affairs has reported similarly disturbing figures, more than 250% of female service members say they were sexually assaulted or harassed during their service. let me that i can this clear. we know the vast majority of men and women serving in our milita

senators joe lieberman, susan collins, tom carper and scott brown held a 40-minute news conference on their plan. >> we're confident will pull the united states postal service back from the brink of bankruptcy and secure its financial health into the future. we're introducing this legislation today and plan to mark it up before the full homeland security and governmental affairs committee next wednesday. five years ago senator collins and carper led congress in the adoption of postal reform legislation. they have been the real leaders in this area who have devoted a lot of work to trying to rescue the postal service. this year senator brown and i have joined them in proposing this legislation which really is an effort to rescue the u.s. postal service which needs a fundamental restructuring of the way it meets its obligations to its customers including individual and business mailers and to its employees. if our rescue legislation is adopted, we're confident that the u.s. postal service, a great, iconic american institution founded in the 18th century along with the country it seven,

." >> next, we will hear from senators joe lieberman, susan collins, and scott brown.s keeping -- >> -- and secure its financial health into the future. we are introducing this legislation today and planned to market it out before the government will affairs committee meeting next wednesday. five years ago, senator collins and harper left congress in the adoption of postal reform legislation. they have been the real leaders in this area who have devoted a lot of work trying to rescue the postal service. this year, senator brown and i have joined them in proposing this legislation which really is an effort to rescue the u.s. postal service, which needs a fundamental restructuring of the way it meets its obligations to its customers, including individual and business mailers and to its employees. if our legislation is adopted, we are confident that the u.s. postal service, and iconic institution founded in the 18th century along with the country itself, will survive and flourish through the 21st century and beyond. to many people still rely on the postal service for us t

collins, and now you. that being said, i was impressed by the compromise, give-and- take. senator carper came in really hard on one issue, and susan gave a little bit and vice versa. yet that was important thought was appropriate. i am looking forward to the amendment. >> i would like to offer a substitute for consideration at this time and use it as the base text as we debate the bill today. this is offered on behalf of the fpiour of us. i believe it has been distributed to the members and staff. by way of announcement, the deputy postmaster general is good enough to be here. we asked him to be here specifically so that at some point there may be fact questions that come up that he will be able to answer that perhaps even our extraordinarily smart and hard-working staff might not here yet i want everyone to know if you have questions as this goes on. as i indicated earlier, we will go side to side, beginning on the basis of seniority. if you have more than one amendment, you can pick which one you want to bring up first. we will begin with senator levin. there you go. every now and then i think you are rookie -- >> [inaudible] >>