under the legislation i have been part of, with two republicans and senator begich, a typical coupleg $90,000 would pay close to $5,000 less in taxes, according to estimates by the congressional budget office. mr. president, the reason that's the case is our bipartisan tax reform triples the standard deduction for that middle-class couple. triples the standard deduction. mr. president, let me emphasize that it is permanent. i want to say that again, permanent. it's not something that's going to be jerked away in a year. it's something that would be locked into the tax code on a permanent basis. and economists and others have repeatedly said that when you make those kinds of changes, and typical families know that on a permanent basis, they will have more money in their pockets. they will go out and make the major purchases that they have put off, in west virginia and oregon over the last few years. you talk to them. you talk to them at coffee shops and know the president of the senate spends a lot of time getting out and talking with folks. when i go into coffee shops and i ask peopl

i apologize for that, senator begich. [laughter] and i apologize to the governor parnell for giving you -- mabey senators would be a pretty good deal. >> that's a downgrade i can tell you right now. [laughter] >> i will be sure to tell senator murkowski that when she comes in. with that, thank you all for being here. and with that, governor parnell, let me introduce you and allows you to meet your opening statement. thank you jury much for taking the time this early in the morning and alaska. so governor parnell, you're recognized. >> thank you, chairman hastings and honorable members for the opportunity to the alaska delegation i welcome this opportunity as well. for the record my name is sean parnell. i'm governor of the state of alaska. and you for allowing me the few moments to make the case for american energy production and why anwr is a good investment for our nation. one that we can no longer afford to ignore. i would first like to recognize german hastings. thank you for your efforts to remove unnecessary road bl

i apologize for that, senator begich. i apologize to governor parnell -- maybe two senators would be a pretty good deal. >> that the downgrade i can tell you right now. >> i'll be sure to tell senator murkowski that when she comes in. so with that, thank you all for being here. with that, governor parnell, let me introduce you and allow you to make your opening statement. thank you for taking the time this early in the morning and alaska. so governor parnell, you are recognized. >> thank you on the chairman hastings and honorable committee members. i appreciate the opportunity. i welcome this opportunity as well. for the record, my name is sean parnell, governor of the state of alaska. thank you for allowing me a few moments to make the case for american energy production and why anwr is a good investment for a nation, when we could no longer afford to ignore. i would first like to recognize chairman hastings. thank you for efforts to remove unnecessary roadblocks to economic growth. thank you for the tiny investment comi

senator mark begich, you are one of 36 senators who called for a bipartisan approach that puts you in a special category. looking at what the speaker has said and what the president said, where do you see room to negotiate? >> i hope it's just a little bit of what you have described as washington gridlock. i call it washington show and tell so hopefully we'll get beyond that and honestly as we sat yesterday, 36 of us, bipartisan effort, one of the issues i was excited to talk about, the whole issue of the tax reform debate, if you washed and listened to each one of those democrats and republicans yesterday we got busy talking about how we can move forward on real tax reform that's necessary to propel this country forward. there's a proposal about senator wy zn den, coates and myself put forward for a simplification of taxes, lower the corporate rate and get rid of the loopholes and make it easier for businesses to take advantage of the incentives out there. i'm like you and everyone in america, kind of fed up with the gridlock and the positioning that goes on to get a headline or a pi

and mark begich, him saying, hey, just picking out one industry is not acceptable. things. all politics is local there. but this goes to this point where democrats, they don't rally around publicly, the lawmakers do. republican lawmakers bite their tongue. and even if they don't like policies coming out of their white houses. >> absolutely. and democrats have never marched behind this president. this is the same problem the president had on health care where his instincts were more progressive but he had this firewall of conservative democrats, and joe lieberman saying we're not doing the public option. even when you look at the stimulus, you always had pushback from within the democratic party on more progressive things the president wanted to do. closing gitmo. that was democrats who sided with republicans, trying ksm, in the u.s. that was democrats again who undermined the president sort of progressive instinks and that's what he's been dealing with from the beginning. >> why is it republicans bite their tongue more and don't run to "the new york times" when they

. >> i'm going to take my time now and go to senator begich next. we had a couple of references to the economist mark azande who testified before this committee at the last hearing, and i just want to say first of all its important to know his background and the adviser to the mccain campaign in the last election i think he made clear at the last hearing his forecast was off as were many economists because we've had a series of events which he described in some detail last week which i think in fairness we ought to remind people loved and the disturbances in the middle east that have a dramatic effect on all but oil prices. oil prices went up and that meant gasoline prices went up and the fuel went up that operate like putting a tax on the american economy and the global economy so that had an effect on slowing things down. second we had a tsunami in the resulting nuclear disaster in japan. that had an effect on the global demand. that had an affect on manufacturing. then we had the european debt crisis. we read about that every day. greece, ireland

senator begich made a reference to this and the roads that are built. i was very disappointed at how little infrastructure was in the bill. roads and bridges specifically were 3%, and i do agree that while we can dispute where to get a real growth from a stimulus road-building program you can't dispute where you have a road and bridge that you can use and that's beneficial whereas most of the money that we spend in this program or one time expenditures that did not to reappoint me ask i also what note that cbo scored that stimulus package over ten years as having a net to the economy discordant as being positive before it passed and being positive in the short run. i'm afraid what policy we've had and i think now we're beginning to draw on the negative. in the response to the question from me last week dr. zandi responded i do not think 2.4 trillion is enough, talking about the cuts that the committee of 12 is charged with cheating. he goes on to say i think we need -- if you do the arithmetic rating there's a general consensus that we need 4 trillion i

. >> thank you, senator begich. previously as somebody mentioned the 3 billion-dollar figures of savings annually for eliminating the saturday delivery is that your number also? >> that is our number, yes. >> next, senator pryor. >> let me start with the federal employee health benefit program i am curious about the numbers that you think you can save a else tell the committee once again about how much you think can save. >> we've been frustrated to resolve this retiree health benefit payment going forward and truthfully like i said in my opening statement any other company would have been bankrupt so what we've come is gone back and taken a different look and what we did is we sat down and thought rather than arguing about whether or not we can get the money back from them we will present a different approach and that approach was how he eliminates the need for the prepayment by changing the cost and the health benefit program savitt lagat with any other company would do and this is the way that it breaks down. num

. >> senator begich? >> chairman, thank you very much. i actually want to follow the ranking member's line and then i have a couple other questions on housing over all. but, you know, what are the permanent results? let me describe -- if this was a man is a pro-government, the stimulus, the 300 billion or so, shy of that was in for the capital prevoyance debt financing like any other local government like i did as the mayor we would build a road, the money would be spent. that's correct, you're absolutely right, but here this the results. there's the road, economic development occurs. i will give you an example of the stimulus money, and i am glad we are getting more of this debate because i agree with a ranking member the money is gone but here's a result can tell you from alaska. i can't tell you from alabama or other states but i can tell you from alaska we build a hospital to be completed in alaska to employ 170 additional people, provide quality health care making a more livable community in the area of alaska which would have growth

óóó senator akaka is not here,óóó senator moran is not here so weó will go to senator begichóx before mr. chairman. let me if ióóóó can follow-i can and regards to mr berry to follow-up on that i understand the 6.9 billion, you don't question that. you want to give it to the post office sooner rather than later. we all agree on that. the 50 billion give or take, do you agree on that number? i am to stand you've got the process convoluted between the sides so do you agree on the number? >> it would take -- we would need to get the actuaries on all of the parties in a room together. >> but you said you had asked where eagles do the work. >> i appreciate your message that we are following the law because that is what has driven our interpretation is applying the standard of the law. the law has us do this on an annual basis and not look forward in terms of the issues that you heard mr. levy discuss on a fair and equitable. >> the work that your editorials did, did they indicate any overage payment, any payment above 1 million, million, 40 billion, 50 billion, any number? >> w

thank you very much. >> thanks, senator begich.viously somebody mentioned a $3 billion figure, savings annually for eliminating saturday delivery. is that your number also? >> that's our number, mr. chairman, yes. >> okay. next, senator pryor. >> mr. donahoe, let me start with you, if i may on the federal employee health benefit plan. i am curious about the numbers you think you could save if you left the fbhpb and went to something else. you probably covered this in your opening statement and tell the committee how much you think you could save. >> here's what we did, senator. we have been frustrated with the inability to resolve this retiree health benefit payment going forward. as i said in my opening statement any other company would be bankrupt. what we've done gone back and taken a different look. what we did was, we sat down, rather than arguing about whether or not we can get the money back from the opm, we'll present a different approach and that approach was, how do you eliminate the need for prepayment by changing the co

. >> i'm going to take my time now and go to senator begich next. we had a couple of references to the economist mark azande who testified before this committee at the last hearing, and i just want to say first of all its important to know his background and the adviser to the mccain campaign in the last election i think he made clear at the last hearing his forecast was off as were many economists because we've had a series of events which he described in some detail last week which i think in fairness we ought to remind people loved and the disturbances in the middle east that have a dramatic effect on all but oil prices. oil prices went up and that meant gasoline prices went up and the fuel went up that operate like putting a tax on the american economy and the global economy so that had an effect on slowing things down. second we had a tsunami in the resulting nuclear disaster in japan. that had an effect on the global demand. that had an affect on manufacturing. then we had the european debt crisis. we read about that every day. greece, ireland

óóó senator akaka is not here,óóó senator moran is not here so weó will go to senator begichóe mr. chairman. let me if ióóóó can follow-i can and regards to mr berry to follow-up on that i understand the 6.9 billion, you don't question that. you want to give it to the post office sooner rather than later. we all agree on that. the 50 billion give or take, do you agree on that number? i am to stand you've got the process convoluted between the sides so do you agree on the number? >> it would take -- we would need to get the actuaries on all of the parties in a room together. >> but you said you had asked where eagles do the work. >> i appreciate your message that we are following the law because that is what has driven our interpretation is applying the standard of the law. the law has us do this on an annual basis and not look forward in terms of the issues that you heard mr. levy discuss on a fair and equitable. >> the work that your editorials did, did they indicate any overage payment, any payment above 1 million, million, 40 billion, 50 billion, any number? >> we would

. >> i'm going to take my time now and go to senator begich next. we had a couple of references to the economist mark azande who testified before this committee at the last hearing, and i just want to say first of all its important to know his background and the adviser to the mccain campaign in the last election i think he made clear at the last hearing his forecast was off as were many economists because we've had a series of events which he described in some detail last week which i think in fairness we ought to remind people loved and the disturbances in the middle east that have a dramatic effect on all but oil prices. oil prices went up and that meant gasoline prices went up and the fuel went up that operate like putting a tax on the american economy and the global economy so that had an effect on slowing things down. second we had a tsunami in the resulting nuclear disaster in japan. that had an effect on the global demand. that had an affect on manufacturing. then we had the european debt crisis. we read about that every day. greece, ireland

óóó senator akaka is not here,óóó senator moran is not here so weó will go to senator begichóairman. let me if ióóóó can follow-i can and regards to mr berry to follow-up on that i understand the 6.9 billion, you don't question that. you want to give it to the post office sooner rather than later. we all agree on that. the 50 billion give or take, do you agree on that number? i am to stand you've got the process convoluted between the sides so do you agree on the number? >> it would take -- we would need to get the actuaries on all of the parties in a room together. >> but you said you had asked where eagles do the work. >> i appreciate your message that we are following the law because that is what has driven our interpretation is applying the standard of the law. the law has us do this on an annual basis and not look forward in terms of the issues that you heard mr. levy discuss on a fair and equitable. >> the work that your editorials did, did they indicate any overage payment, any payment above 1 million, million, 40 billion, 50 billion, any number? >> we would agree t