barrasso: thank you very much, mr. president. i appreciate very much the comments from my friend and colleague from north dakota, a state in which he served as governor, a business leader in the community and knows -- knows the state very well and knows the importance of energy, not just to his state's economy but to the economy of the country and to the importance for people who want work, who want jobs, and i think just bringing together the issues of the keystone x.l. pipeline as well as the exploitation of -- exploration of liquefied natural gas are things that will bring america back to work. since 2010, the obama administration approved only seven applications to export liquefied natural gas. the administration is sitting on 24 pending applications. now, 13 of those applications have been pending for more than a year. some of these appear occasions have been -- applications have been pending for more than two years. to put this in context, the united states has approved less than half of the l.n.g. export capacity that cana

senator john barrasso, and he is not the only u.s. senator who thinks that maybe the obamacare numbers are all fake. maybe it just can't be true that this many million people have signed up for health insurance under obamacare. >> your colleague, senator barrasso, says the white house is actually fixing the books. >> totally they are. >> you agree with that? you have any facts to back that up? >> no, lindsey graham does not have any facts to back that up, but this is proving to be one of the more entertaining instincts that high-ranking republicans have developed in the obama era. you think they might have learned a lesson about publicly denying the numbers during the great obama re-election great conservative punditry fail of 2012, right? i mean, you'd think they would be embarrassed about ignoring the numbers, right? they were embarrassed by that episode. weren't they? >> i believe the minimum result will be 53-47, romney over 300 electoral votes, and the republicans will pick up the senate. i base that on just years and years of ex

. >> are you going with this barrasso, the senator from wyoming? he is out there saying that obama's 7.1 million thing today is a -- well, let's take a look at it. the new attack, by the way. it's from conservatives, that the white house is toying with the numbers. senator john barrasso as i said of wyoming accused the white house of cooking the books. that's his phrase. he was asked about that comment yesterday. let's watch and see what he says. >> you've said cooking the books. the administration. do you stand by that? >> i do. we still don't know how many people who have gone to the website to sign up actually paid. so they actually have insurance, not just signed up on the website. >> and lindsey graham, who gets pretty far right lately, he also went on the attack against the president. let's watch lindsey. >> people don't trust this administration to be honest about obamacare. >> well, that's swirling. and let me ask you about that. you say they don't trust this administration. >> they'll lie to you. >> your colleague senator barrasso says the

. >>> with me now, senator ben cardin, democrat from maryland and senator barrasso, both members of the foreign relations committee. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having us. >> lots of foreign policy floating out there. i want to start with israel and the palestinians. i don't know who anywhere is surprised that talks broke down. it's sort of the message of our time it's been pretty intensive for nine months, using secretary of state john kerr ris's time, is it time to pivot to other places of more importance which certain lip includes the pacific where the u.s. economic future is. >> we've got to do both. we have strength to be able to be very active in moving forward with the peace process in the middle east and to also deal with the problems around the world. >> senator barrasso, there are problems in the middle east and it's very important. but we're now less dependent on foreign oil, speaking strategic cli, less dependent on foreign oil, but more than that, the problem really is in seer yoo and in our relationship with iran, not primarily israel and the palestinian disput

barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, this week president obama has been holding what to me appear to be made-for-tv events to talk about the economy. he's talked about the policies that he wants congress to enact, policies that he says will finally get america's economy going again. well, president obama has been in the white house now for more than five years, so i think it's fair to ask, what has this administration, the obama administration, been doing for the economy for the past five years? we know that the recession actually ended almost five years ago. since then, our economy has not bounced back the way it should have or the way it typically does after a deep recession. the obama administration has spent a lot of money on failed ideas like the so-called stimulus package. since the recession ended, washington has racked up more than $6 trillion worth of additional debt -- additional debt -- and it's not gotten us nearly the kind of growth that we should have added as a result of this spending. now the p

barrasso: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent to be allowed to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor today as i have repeatedly since the health care law has been passed with concerns i have and to share some information with the senate because my concern is that in order to help some people that didn't have insurance, i'm just afraid that we have hurt many people that did have insurance, did have care that they liked, and the president continued to focus on coverage, and i have more concerns as a doctor about people actually getting care, getting health care, the care they need from a doctor that they choose at lower costs. and so i come to the floor today to -- to talk about a new story out this morning, actually in the huffington post, called "how obamacare leaves some patients

barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: mr. president i ask unanimous consent to be able to speak for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. mr. president, first i'd like to commend my friend and colleague from tennessee for his leadership on foreign affairs his efforts on these areas and i fully support all of his efforts to bring forth a united position on behalf of our country. i come today to the floor mr. president, because the american people have just received more horrible news about our economy. the commerce department reported this morning that our economy grew at the smallest rate in three years. the expected -- the exact number is 0.1%, much, much worse than expected. to be specific, investment in business equipment declined, residential home construction declined u.s. exports fell sharply, and companies increased inventories at a much slower rate. i'd like to read what some of the economists have said about this. dan north a chief economist said "we've be

you have a lot of questions like senator barrasso mentioned whether people are paying? >> have we turned everything upside down it would have been cheaper to insure 2 million or .5 million or whatever which is a whole other issue. panel, let me ask you this over the weekend. "saturday night live" jumped into obamacare and, well, you decide what you think. >> deadline on monday. >> sir, if you trust marah, she will get you at least 10 million new signups on healthcare.gov in the next 48 hours. >> great. so what do we need to do? >> i don't know, mike. in this seems to be sending off the wrong -- i don't think we should do this. >> 3, 2, 1. [ laughter ] , okay. got it now let's bring in kim kardashian, harry stiles, a cat dressed like says elsa from frozen. >> we want to see dancing. hit it. >> okay. i don't know. >> i think it's sending off the wrong message. i don't think we should -- >> and, okay, got it. >> there is one more photo, sir, that we think will be huge if you are up for it. >> yeah. we want you to kiss justin bieber on the lips. >> >> excuse me? >> all righ

. >> i'd like to bring in senator john barrasso of wyoming a member of the foreign relations committeeu, senator, for joining us. >> thank you, chris, for having me. >> and you have been critical of the president's military policy, foreign policy, and so what does it wind down to the foreign wars that the american people clearly do not have a stomach for? what do you say about that? >> well, right now, our friends don't fear us, and our friends don't trust us, and i have just gotten back to the region in ukraine and been there with a bipartisan effort with other senators, and i will tell you that the sanctions that the president is putting forward, it is no effect, because the ruble went up, and the stock market went up, and this is a slap on the wrist, and we need to get vladimir putin's attention, and all he respects is strength. when the united states shows weakness, it just emboldens and invites additional action by vladimir putin and what happens in one location, chris, plays out across the globe whether it is in north korea, where they are doing the additional test org in iran, o

for more, i spoke with republican senator john barrasso, who has recently returned from a visit to the region. if i could start with the news that has come in from the international monetary fund of the $17 billion loan package for ukraine. do you welcome that? >> i do. i think it will be helpful, and the message from putin continues to be a significant propaganda in russian broadcast all around the region. you hear it in latvia, lithuania, moldova. all concerns to the people there because it is a lot of lies from putin, which are trying to undermine what is happening in .kraine >> how tense was the situation in ukraine? >> i was there the day the russian helicopters landed just north of crimea and tipped over the gas plant, which tells you to important energy is russia as part of driving their economy. half of all the revenue that comes into russia comes from exporting gas and oil, and i'm working to use american oil and gas specifically as a geopolitical tool to undermine russia's ability to continue to fund and finance their operations. >> the last time you and i spoke, you had just

husband spokesman jay carney got wind of senator barrasso's claim.ded. >> if we were cooking the books, don't you think we could have cooked them this october or november? stuart: at least he responded. listen to how kathleen sebelius responded to a question on the unpopularity of the law. >> oklahoma mans don't like obamacare, and they've been pretty vocal about it. thousand, that's going to be -- now, that's going to still continue to be a tough sell, but we'll see how that plays out over the coming months. all right. secretary or sebelius, thank you so much for being with us this morning. i think we've probably lost sound here or or something. >> oh, i can hear you, but be i -- thanks for having me. >> you're welcome. stuart: awkward. still no answers. tens of millions of people are up insured. >>> all right, we told you we'd look for a reason why the on line travel companies were rallying. here it is! more clicks on their ads. they saw an increase this clicks while e-retailers like amazon and ebay saw a e decrease. those online travel stocks are

by senator john barrasso to discuss health and energy cares. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪ its the washington journal for april 8. the busy day on the hill. secretary kerry before the senate foreign relations committee at 10:00 eastern on also, several senate democratic women scheduled to take the senate floor today to discuss gender pay equality. scheduledok for that at 2:15 this afternoon. the house says those insurance could -- on the house side. what do think about those benefits being passed. writeups about it today in the papers. " has a bitgton post of a breakdown on not only what the bill entails but what happens from here. measure will restore federal funding that pays for unemployment insurance after state-sponsored insurance and after 26 weeks. it easily passes senate on monday evening. now it is to the house. in the "the wall street journal" this morning -- again, the vote taking place on the senate side. it goes to the house for consideration. the overall topic, though, is unemployment benefits. these exp

barrasso: thank you. i noted that the senator from connecticut came to the floor in an attempt to debun de debunk ao me from one of my constituents. it is seems that the senator is make the same argument that the majority leader, senator reid, has made time and time again, that these letters are made up. that's what seems to be the case here. is that what the senator from connecticut is saying? you know, these are letters -- these are e-mails, news articles that are coming from our constituents, coming from our home states. this was all supposed to be about affordable care. care and affordability were the key stonekeystones of this entie of lels. i hear the senator talking about people being denied care. it is happening now because of the health care law. because of the health care law, mr. president, people are being denied care. let me reference where my colleague from connecticut comes from, the state of connecticut, "the hartford current," has a report came out march 17 this year, just a couple of wee

coburnd.o.t.senate.gov or my web site, barrasso d.senate d.senate.gov. we have gone through three previous reports that has doctors we put out doctors watching the health care law as it has been developing. each of the reports, one called bad medicine, one called grim diagnosis, and one called warning, side effects, were released between 2010 and 2012. we grade ourselves now on how the predictions that we made over the last four years have turned out. first prediction we made, report number one, bad medicine, we warned millions of americans could lose their health insurance plans. madam president, headlines all across the country show that over five million americans did, in fact, get letters that they lost their health insurance plan. health insurance they liked, worked for them, something that they chose, and they lost them because the president said it wasn't good enough. he said he knew more about what they needed for themselves and their family than they did. so we predicted that four years ago, millions would lose their health insurance plans, and

senator barrasso? >> thank you, very much. you said you are concerned the epa has quote greatly underestimated the amount of power that would be retired due to its rules and you have been calling for a review and proposed that others participate in this analysis and explains as far as you know this analysis has never commenced. can you spread analysis on why you think the analysis hasn't taken place? >> thank you, senator. i have wondered that many times myicism because i think what is the downside. they are not our rules that are driving this. they are epa rules. we have been in an awkward situation. there are informal communications that have done on. i know that epa calls the rto's or they call them every month. i know we just need more transparetran transparency and rules on this. it isn't just the april '15 rule, but it is an accumulation of the rules and the reliability con consequences have to talk about. >> that is my question. is the head in the sand or are they actively opposed to conducting the results? >> i don't k

at 8:30 eastern, we are joined by senator john barrasso to discuss health and energy cares.you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪ its the washington journal for april 8. the busy day on the hill. secretary kerry before the senate foreign relations committee at 10:00 eastern on also, several senate democratic women scheduled to take the senate floor today to discuss gender pay equality. scheduledok for that at 2:15 this afternoon.

. >> barrasso suggests they're cooking the books, jay carney says if they wanted to do that they would have done it in november when the numbers were really bad. they suggest that anybody who wants to enroll but can't by midnight, can get an extension, they blamed a computer glitch that left the website down hours after the scheduled maintenance time. and a last minute rush of people trying to enroll took the site down this afternoon. carney accused the republicans of essentially sweating the small stuff and missing the importance of the achievement. >> all this is about is providing benefits to the american people. it is really not about the mid-term cycle or you know, what a critic in the senate, or the house says, it is about what we say it is. it is about delivering the affordable care act promise. >> still, critics say if they can't get the small stuff right, that doesn't bode well for the larger stuff. >> and the website went down twice today, they said that would not happen. we just heard jay carney talk about this is a promise, you know, delivering a promise. well, is it really

. >> john barrasso doesn't see eye to eye with the enrollment claims, something the obama team disputs. >> i think they're cooking the books on this. people want to know the answers. >> if we're cooking the books, don't you think we would have done it in october and november? >> people who aren't enthusiastic about the law working, haven't done outreach to their constituents, haven't given accurate information, are now suggesting the enormous interest in enrolling in health care is not existing. it does exist. we did pass the 6 million mark this week of individuals who had enrolled. >> how fun. i love it. 6 million. magically, they hit the number, eric. >> so it's -- i spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about this. on the right, you had people saying the books are about to be cooked, you're being lied to. on the left, they're saying what a success. at the end of the day -- banned phrase, sorry. gr that's okay. >> you have to follow the money. you have to follow the money trail. we don't know how many people have signed up. we have to take people's word for it. we don't know

senator barrasso, given that, how much does this 6 million number actually mean?> i don't think it means anything, chris. the -- i think they're cooking the books on this. people want to know the answers to that. >> and fox news resorted to making graphics that tried to portray 6 million enrollees as actually only about a third of the enrollment goal of 7 million. check that out. anyway, joining me now is my msnbc colleague, karen finney, host of "disrupt." thanks for joining us, karen. i guess my first question after stumbling my way through that is if obamacare is going to have coverage for teleprompter reading coverage. i think i'm on my own for that. a milestone, a month, two months ago, nobody thought we were going to hit. clearly the headlines are good for obamacare. the headlines are good for the administration. i can't help but think, though, since five years ago when this was working its way through congress, enactment, a couple of election, i keep hearing we finally reached that milestone where people are going to start saying, yes, i like this law, i'm

barrasso: it seems that the president's decision is absurd to delay the keystone x.l. pipeline, and that's not just me, that's "the washington post," thursday morning, april 24. "keystone's absurd delay. president obama should approve the pipeline project now." they say, "if foot-dragging were a competitive sport, president obama and his administration would be world champions for their performance in delaying the approval of the keystone x.l. pipeline." they go on to say, "the administration's latest decision is not responsible, it's embarrassing. the united states continues to insult its canadian allies by holding up what should have been a routine permitting decision amid a funhouse mirror environmental debate that got way out of hand." they conclude, saying, "the president should end his national psychodrama now, bow to reason." think about that -- "boy to -- o reason, approve the pipeline and go do something more productive for the climate." that's not just "the washington post." we see all the "wall street journal" wednesday, "keystone uncensored" and they talk a

also, john barrasso of wyoming and ben cardin of maryland.t 4 p.m., "face the nation," with another appearance by benjamin netanyahu, claire mccaskill, and bob corker, the ranking member on the senate foreign relations committee. sunday network talk shows are on c-span radio and brought to you as a public service by the networks and c-span. rebroadcasts of those shows begins at noon eastern with "meet the press," "fox news sunday," "state of the union," "and finally, "face the nation." you can listen to them all on c-span radio, across the country , you can download our free app for your smartphone, or go online to "c-span.org." host: back zero calls and comments on those sunday morning programs. we have been airing them since c-span radio first went on the air. this story has generated a lot of discussion over the last seven days "meet the pressure." a photograph their of david gregory. another point from the story the good news from all three shows is that they are amongst the most durable on tv." host: this story, at one point from the art

i am pleased to join with the senior senator from wyoming, senator barrasso, and also our ranking member on the energy committee, senator lisa murkowski from alaska, as well as other cosponsors on the legislation, senator john cornyn of texas, obviously a big energy-producing state, senator gyms inhofe of oklahoma, and senator david vitter of louisiana. what the energy security act does, quite simply, is first it approves the keystone x.l. pipeline project. now, this is a more than $5 billion pipeline that has been in the permitting process now for more than five years. we're now in the sixth year of the permitting process, trying to get a permit from the administration. we have thousands of pipelines all across this country, millions of miles of pipeline, and here's a project that for six years the administration has held in limbo. the latest, greatest technology, moves canadian oil, our closest ally, moves oil from canada, as well as oil from my state, north dakota and montana, to refineries across the united states. now, we import 50% of our oil. do americans want to get that from the

president, i think you know that in the country of moldova, where i recently just returned -- senator barrasso on another trip just recently returned -- there and in georgia and in ukraine, would you know there are a number of things that we need to do to help them harden their country. this bill lays those things out. let me give you one example. in the russian speaking of -- in the russian-speaking area of eastern ukraine, the only information that the people who are russian-speaking in that part of the world are receiving is coming from russia. it's propaganda. it's talking about things that the united states is doing, which we aren't, and the great lives that they will have if russia is able to annex that part of the world. so at a minimum, we need to make sure that the information that these people are receiving is very different. but there's so many things that we as a nation can be doing to ensure that ukraine is not destablized, that moldova is not destieblesdestablized, that geot destablized. mr. president, this bill that we'll be introducing today is a serious piece of information. a

and we are still working again with senator dole, senator mccain, senator barrasso, senator ayotte and the democratic supporters to bring about ratification. lastly on the u.n. role in afghanistan, forgive me, congresswoman, there's a lot here, i would say a couple things. first, it is clear that the u.n. will likely maintain a political presence. they have a critical human rights monitoring role, and we're seeing right now the centrality of the u.n. in supporting the afghan-led election process. and those are all things that don't cease to be necessary, you know, in the wake of any u.s. drawdown or even eventually, you know, when, you know, all troops are -- all american troops are out of afghanistan. because president karzai has not signed the b.s.a., the president has not made his decisions what the u.s. troop presence will look like after this year and i think the u.n. is waiting to understand that better. we've seen just with the monstrous taliban attacks that occurred in the last few weeks in addition to all those that preceded those attacks just how precarious the security is, p

and we are still working again with senator dole, senator mccain, senator barrasso, senator ayotte andthe democratic supporters to bring about ratification. lastly on the u.n. role in afghanistan, forgive me, congresswoman, there's a lot here, i would say a couple things. first, it is clear that the u.n. will likely maintain a political presence. they have a critical human rights monitoring role, and we're seeing right now the centrality of the u.n. in supporting the afghan-led election process. and those are all things that don't cease to be necessary, you know, in the wake of any u.s. drawdown or even eventually, you know, when, you know, all troops are -- all american troops are out of afghanistan. because president karzai has not signed the b.s.a., the president has not made his decisions what the u.s. troop presence will look like after this year and i think the u.n. is waiting to understand that better. we've seen just with the monstrous taliban attacks that occurred in the last few weeks in addition to all those that preceded those attacks just how precarious the security is, pa

search request may from yahoo's home page barrasso not automatically encrypted.arya: the latest pitcher making the rounds on social media comes from an unsuspecting samsung pitchman president obama. boston red sox player david ortiz nap this photo of himself with the president at a white house event using a samsung phone. it was recent by tens of thousands on twitter. samsung retreated to follow as an ad. the white house as the president didn't know about the marketing stunt. samsung has to deal authorities. the company reportedly spend billions on advertising of all four times as much as is top rival apple. >>mark: microsoft unveiled a new virtual a system as part of an upcoming of state for windows iphones. if the assistant named cortana strike to be chatty like series--siri on apple's iphone to die pad while anticipating information you might want like google now on android devices. cortana will warn you of conflicts when you add items to your calendar. it will also offer to remind you about coming travel by scanning your e- mail. coming up on the kron4 mornin

washington journal the ohio congressman tim ryan discusses a debate on capitol hill followed by john barrasso on energy and health care issues. later brian bennett will talk about white house deportation policy under president obama. washington journal is live every morning with your calls, tweets, and facebook comments. >> next, a forum on the recent elections in afghanistan, hosted by the alliance in support of the afghan people. this is an hour. >> thank you for coming. we have a panel called the afghan elections in the future of afghan relations. the elections took place on saturday in afghanistan, and our panel will discuss what we know the consequences unlikelihood of those elections are likely to be. ofm the executive director the partnership for a secure america, and we are happy to cosponsor with the alliance and support of afghan people asap. the alliance itself is a group of individuals who are in a coalition dedicated to support the progress made by the afghan people over the last decade. the psa in partnership with secure america is an organization founded in 2005 and dedicated t

my friend from wyoming, senator barrasso, has a bill that would open up l.n.g. to targets in europe that he tried to tie to the ukraine bill. i agreed to that effort. he funds my bill as an amendment to that same legislation during the senate foreign relations committee markup. both of these approaches have bipartisan support. both of them would make a difference and both of them are worthy of consideration. so i invite all of us who want to see us get something done to abandon election-year political games and focus on what matters. we can leverage our natural resources to remote global security, create jobs and prevent power-hungry leaders like putin from using energy supplies as a weapon. let's get this done, madam president, and work together to find a real way forward. and let's have a vote. madam president, thank you, and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: madam president, i understand senator blunt would seek recognition. i would ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of his

when i was up a barrasso was defining -- was looking for how to avoid harmful substances. that was the driving force. that's what the discussion was. they're talking about whole wheat, and dioxins, things the un that make your diet better. clearly on the organic, wonderful one where we had 13 percent of the u.s. population consuming inorganic item at least once. by 2006 that number doubled. over three years you don't have anything of that fast. since 2006 that number is not move one iota. still a quarter of the population. big number, important. can you afford to have organic? money comes up more and more often. i'm not sure i know what naturalist. i would say to you, the bloody else, 18 to 34 year group is going to define for the parents and the next generation will work going to talk about until a new generation comes out and does the same. no different than the baby boomers. >> anybody else? >> i'm i nutrition policy department, wondering if any of your research or experiences shed some light on whether mullen deals are more likely to make impulse purchases in the super

followed by senate republican policy committee chairman john barrasso on energy and health care issues. later, brian bennett will talk about white house deportation policy under president obama. "washington journal" every morning with your calls, tweets, and facebook comments at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> during this month, c-span is pleased to resent our winning entries in the student cam documentary competition. this is the annual competition that encourages middle and high school students to think critically about issues. this year, students were asked to create their video based on the question, what is the most important issue the u.s. congress should consider in 2014? eighth-grade student connor tyding-lynchgelo entered their video,. >> our national debt is a major weakness of the u.s. economy. it has never been as big a problem in the past. now that the u.s. is accumulating more debt, other countries may discontinue buying treasury bonds. you got two big you could have a situation where our lenders got nervous about our village to -- ability and that cascading series of proble

. >> he's talking about senator barrasso who is a doctor, saying he doesn't believe the numbers and jaye reporting on benghazi. whatever it is, right, it always seems to be revised later on in a way that's worse for the american people. so i mean, i think the administration has a credibility problem on many issues. this is just one of them. again, who knows what the numbers will ultimately be or whether we had this amazing surge of young, healthy people in the last five days. maybe we did. but we don't really know that yet. look, jay carney's got to say what he's saying. what else is he going to say at this point? i'm not really surprised by that at all. >> he may be having to respond to an issue in terms of jobs here. did you hear it? it's actually easier to get into harvard than get a job at places like wal-mart or google? look at this. like the admissions rate across the board ivy, you know this, 8.9%. but when you look at the acceptance rate for harvard, 5.9% specifically there. and wal-mart, 2.6% of applicants get placement. >> when they open their dc store, wegman's. at google, th

followed by senate public policy committee chairman, john barrasso, on energy and health care issues.and later, "los angeles times" correspondent brian bennett will talk about white house deportation policy under president obama. "washington journal" live every morning with your calls, tweets and facebook comments at 7:00 .m. eastern on c-span. >> during this month, c-span is pleased to present our winning entries in this year's student cam video documentary competition. student cam is c-span's annual competition that encourages middle and high school students to think critically about issues. this year students were asked to create their video based on the question -- what's the most important issue the u.s. congress should consider in 014? eighth grader connor martin and second ydings-lynch won prize. >> it has never been a big of problem in the past as countries have always been willing to buy u.s. debt. however, now that the u.s. is accumulating more and more debt, other countries may discontinue buying u.s. treasury bonds. >> the other reason it's important if it got too big at o

my amendment includes a provision pushed by senators barrasso and hoeven to approve more l.n.g. exports to our allies and to ukraine, something especially timely. now is the ideal time to create more domestic jobs while breaking our allies' dependence on russian energy supplies. my amendment also addresses the problems created by obamacare. it includes a provision pushed by senator collins that will restore the 40-hour workweek. it will finally repeal the job-destroying medical device tax which senators toomey and hatch have been tirelessly fighting which has cost us by some estimates 30,000 jobs already in our economy because of this new job-killing tax. my amendment ensures that veterans and the long-term employed are not -- unemployed are not punished lie the cost of the employer mandate. it includes a provision that senator blunt offered that raised this issue on behalf of veterans and in the house it passed by a vote of 406-1. certainly we can find a few democrats who are willing to provide obamacare relief to veterans in the -- and the long-term unemployed. my amendment al