maybe along the lines suggested by senator begich. unless there is an objection the chair is going to rule that the paul amendment as amended by , the second-degree amendment has been approved, and i would like us to move on to take on other amendments. this is not the finish line. this is not the finish line, ok? we have the floor. we have conference. and we have the courts. so, this is an issue that will get a lot of air time before we are done. all right. thank you. with that, we will come back -- go ahead, senator tester. >> real quickly mr. chairman, , being in this position, and the previous position for 15 years now, and i don't know i've ever had anyone come up to me and say, it's really important that i need to carry my gun into a post office. and montana is a very gun-rich state. on the other side of the coin, there have been debates about guns in parking lots of other places before. let's not kid ourselves. this is about politics. this is about 100% politics. because if i vote against this amendment that rand paul has the c

begich: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: i'd like to move that we vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: i ask unanimous consent the is that the proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: mr. president, i ask -- the presiding officer: the chair lays before the senate the letter of resignation of senator max baucus of montana dated thursday, february 6, 2014. without objection, the letter is deemed read and spread upon the journal. the senator from alaska. mr. begich: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the letter relating to the resignation of the senator from montana, max baucus, be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: i ask unanimous consent that the finance committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1954, the senate proceed to the immediate consid

>> begich four. senator levin, senator pryor, senator landrieu -- >> senator landrieu is aye by proxy. >> senator tester, senator begich, senator baldwin, senator heitkamp, senator coburn, senator mccain, senator johnson, senator portman -- >> pass. >> senator paul, senator enzi - >> aye by proxy. >> senator ayotte, senator carper. >> mr. chairman, on the vote of those present, the yeas are 11 and the nays are zero, on the vote by proxy, the yeas are four, the nays are zero and on this vote the nays are 15 and the yeas are zero and the motion is agreed to. >> thank you very much. really, thank you all. other amendments? ok. i understand we have nine members right here. we can go to final passage. we have a handful of amendments that i think we are agreement on. heitkamp number one, mccain number six, paul number one and tester number one. i'm not aware of any objections to any of these amendments being considered on block. i would ask for a voice vote of all four in block. all in favor say aye. the a

and clerk can you confirm the number. >> begich four. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] >> pass. >> senator paul. >> aye. >> senator enzi. >> aye by proxy. >> senator ayotte. >> aye. >> senator carper. >> aye. >> mr. chairman on the boats present the yeas are seven and the names are zero. on this vote the yeas are 15 and the nays are zero and the motion is agreed to. >> thank you very much. thank you senator begich and thank you all. are there other amendments? i understand we have ninth amendments for final passage. we have a handful of amendments that i think dr. coburn we are in agreement on. heitkamp number one mccain number six paul number one and custard number one. i'm not aware of any objection to these amendments being considered en bloc. with that in mind i would ask for a voice vote. all in favor say aye. opposed, nay. the ayes habit. with that in mind i think we are ready. >> mr. chairman i have been amendment. >> i understand the chairman and ranking member of posted and i would like to continue to work on that with you. a

you're going to say, you know, you're going to say senator kay hagan, senator mark pryor, senator begich, they supported president obama and he's the leader of their party, and they're all in this together. >> liberal super pacs and environmentalists like tom stier who spent $11 million to elect virginia's new governor last year, are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to court environmentalists in both parties. >> big oil and big coal and utility companies are going to attempt to beat up members of congress who want to address climate change. at the same time, poll after poll shows the vast majority of people in states red and blue

some vulnerable dems like alaska's mark begich now working to distance themselves from the president.ad of a meeting he had yesterday with him begich said, quote, i want him up in alaska so i can show him where his policies haven't worked. i'll drag him through that to show what he needs to be doing. i don't need him campaigning for me. ouch. a fox news contributor, bernard, former pollster for president clinton and democratic strategist. all right. now, bernard, don't tell me that all the democrats are getting along right now and everything is fun and games. if there was any fly on the wall in the meeting they were hearing more than that statement that went public. >> give mark begich credit. that's exactly what he should do. all politics are local. the most important thing for president obama is democrats hold the senate and, in fact, they will. there's a six-year curse. typically the president's party loses disastrously in midterms in the second administration. what i think will happen this year is what we saw in 2012, a stases election, the house will remain in republicans' hands

the most illuminating is what senator begich told us which is, sure, i want him to come campaign with in alaska so i can tell everybody how bad his policies are, which is really remarkable. >> let's play that bite. >> if president obama wanted to go to alaska to campaign with you, would you want him? >> i'll drag him around. i'll show him whatever he wants to see but i want to convince him that some of his policies are not in the right direction. >> that's not really what president obama really had in mind. >> the next day mark begich put out a campaign release with quotes from that statement about how much he trashed the president. he said, i get it guys. i was told it was more tongue in cheek. i understand. i get politics. >> bob, he obviously won't go to louisiana, arkansas, alaska. but what about the purple states? and what about the blue states? he went to wisconsin, which is where we did the interfere with him last week, and the democratic governor was on the other side of the state campaigning. >> i think that's right. i think the president is going to have a mixed approach to

begich: mr. president, first, i want to thank senator pryor. senator pryor and a group of us have introduced a piece of legislation that rights a wrong, that makes sure that our military continue to receive their cola in full course and full amount. as you know, we had that budget issue we worked through, and in that process, the cola for our active retired military would be reduced by 1%, but we all knew that we would take the time, because we had the time after the budget passed, to fix this problem. we have already done it for our disabled retired veterans. now it's to fulfill the final promise, the full promise of their cola in total. i spoke last night about this issue and then the vote occurred on cloture, 94-0. 94-0. if that isn't an indication of how much support there is to make sure the cola comes back in full force, i don't know what is, but i do know starting right after that vote, i'm starting to hear from people already, coming up with, well, i voted for cloture but i have a caveat, i have some qualifications i want to add on that

. >> mark begich, senator from alaska, makes this comment. if he wants to come up, i'm not really interested in campaigning. i want to convince him and show him some of his policies are not the right direction. that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. if he does come by, i'm not going to be around. >> there's a six-year itch that happens in american politics that happened to president bush, happened to president obama. the incumbent president suffered a degree of losses. >> let me ask you this, if you were advicing, not your candidate, because new jersey is a different, you know, circumstance. but if you were advising one of these candidates. landri landrieu, begich, pryor, would you say, yeah, have the president frin the photo-op, or stay probably stay away from him? >> i tell you something -- >> i appreciate the honesty. >> this comes down to dollars and cents. the president is an enormous fund-raiser. he can be an important ally in the race to retain control of the senate and win back the house. so i think you can't discount that alo

mark pryor, mark begich, mary landrieu, kay hagan. i read a quote from mark begich who said he doesn't want the president to campaign for him, he needs to show him where his policies are not working. so this strategy session is a hot one. >> it's certainly a hot one and it comes at a time when there is a lot of nervousness among senate democrats. conservative groups are already spending millions of dollars against a lot of these senate democrats saying where is the calva calvary. so there is some nervousness among democrats. >> mary landrieu joined republicans at a news conference urging president obama to approve the keystone pipeline. >> right. and here is the question for a lot of these senate democrats is they will have to decide how closely they want to separate tlems from the president's agenda. this is going to be a tough year for democrats by historical measurements. midterms are dominated by white upper middle class voters. many ever those same voters who the president has had a hard time with over the last four or five years

president and secretary kerry if they want to go the route of building the pipeline which would help begichmuch against the legacy, the climate change legacy of not only barack obama but john kerry spent his whole life devoted to working on these environmental issues and all of his allies are against this. >> it's legacy versus pure politics, the reality of keystone for mary landrieu or mark begich, jobs. that's sort of the bottom line. it equals jobs. while many have environmental concerns these folks would say look, jobs, the economy, helping grow the economy. so legacy versus another kind of legacy which is the house an senate control and what president obama did for the ballot races it's not an easy decision. >> to be continued. by the way, that report also says that only 50 permanent jobs. 50 permanent jobs. so this is going to be debated. we have to leave it there to be continued. thank you very much. that does it for us. tomorrow wendy sherman, a key point person on iran. follow the show online and on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> great to see you. d

begich could be in trouble.idestepped an appearance with him, mark pryor in arkansas avoided president obama, and i think you're going to see this bleed out into the more ambiguous races where the democrats aren't that threatened, and they're going to steer clear of obama. now, he told democrats privately that he understands this and that he still is willing to do everything he can and make it a top priority for the 2014 election to keep the democrats in the majority in the senate. the best way for him to do this for democrats is through fundraising, not through personal appearances with them in their home states. jon: yeah. give me the money, just don't show up here. >> and he can raise the money, and that's going to help them. jon: susan, who keeps an eye on congress for the washington examiner, thank you. >> thanks. jenna: another big story for us today, the 2014 winter olympics officially underway with the opening ceremonies taking place in the host city of sochi, russia. security efforts kicking into high g

. >> senator begich did not listen. how can i trust him again? i had to vote for the bill again, i would vote for it tomorrow. >> we'll get back to john in a moment. that's the breaking news that we're following. they've gone over 218 votes in the house of representatives. they are at 220 right now. so they've agreed in the house, 221, to raise the nation's debt ceiling. the legislation will go to the senate where it's expected to pass. the president will sign it into law and there will not be any problem with the nation's credit worthiness, no degrading of the credit worthiness right now. so obviously a very important development for u.s. economic policy. the treasury secretary jack lew said they need to do this by the end of february. they now have done it in the house of representatives. >> the nays are 201. the bill has passed without objection. the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. >> there you have it. it's passed the house of representatives. they got more than the 218 votes. got to go to the senate. already some members of the se

reid: madam president, i ask the committee-reported substitute amendment be reported, the begich amendment be agreed to and the bill as amended be read -- the motion to reconsider considered made and laid on the table, and there be no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate pleats he completes its business today it adjourn until february 12, following the prayer and pledge, the journal be approved and the journal of proceedings be approved to date, -- oh, minor technicality here. i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. following the prayer and pledge, the journal be approved and the morning business deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders reserved for use later in the day, following any leader remarks the senate be i

>> i don't see democrats like mark begich in alaska or kay hagen starting now because of these positive stories to start running on obamacare. it won't happen and the gop is going to stay fixated on this issue in 2014. immigration is not happening. tax reform is not happening, given up on entitlement reform this year so what else. >> and obamacare isn't exactly separate from the economy and the president's approval rating, is you know, at its lowest point of the presidency so if the economy continues to stagnate and the president continues to be in the 40s, once we hit september, october, november, to your point, none of the red state democrats are going to be -- >> almost like obamacare is a theological issue at this point. they either think that it's good or bad or hurt their family even if it has nothing to do with their family, and so for the change of that perception is a big ask. >> and they are not really good explaining what the law does, explaining the benefits and the upsides and downsides. they were really detailed and technical and once again the obama administration had a d

in hisrt senator begich objection. i think we should take a vote on these two issues as senator johnson has said, get it behind us and we could be done by now if we just move on it. again, iairman, recognize that some people might think we will be here all day on all kinds of amendments. my view is, this is part of the committee process. sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. we have a little tug-of-war. move to waive the rules for the purpose of two amendments, the rand paul amendment and the begich amendment on the issue of the parking lot which will be drawn for a quickly here. >> the senior democrat on this committee is not me. him time to time, i look to for advice. i wanted to ask him for his thoughts. i'm going to ask him to share those with us. >> first of all, we just can't break the rules. we can't override the rules that way. going to have an endless overriding of the rules. that means there are no rules. that may sound familiar to some of you. it is what i believe. senator coburn is correct. on the other h

mark begich in particular said it would probably be better if the president did not come to alaska.mselvesstancing from the president, but improving their own political chances i doing so. are there other areas they can be in lockstep and show unity with the president so they can move forward in this midterm election year? >> how much damage has been done by democrats to that cbo report that will show some americans will choose to work less thanks to the health care law? >> there is no question has been damaging politically. exactly theite first headline that has appeared, but the damage has been done. thatis a 30-second ad points out at the end of the day are 2.5 -- that there million equivalent jobs out there within 10 years time because people will choose not because thee jobs health care situation has improved for them, but they can make that choice. it is difficult for the white house to argue against these numbers. republicans have seized on it already. it will be damaging, even though comptory is far more located. >> and phil, speaking of damaging, the white house is still in

i appreciate very much senators pryor, shaheen, hagan and begich for their leadership on this issue. although the provision reversed by this measure doesn't take effect until the end of next year, there is no reason to delay it, we should move forward with it. i hope republicans will join democrats to pass this bill without their usual partisan games. unfortunately, the type of obstruction and delay tactics i just referred to was on full display here last week. on thursday, the senate fell one vote short of restoring unemployment insurance for 1.7 million americans who lost their jobs through absolutely no fault of their own. every single democratic senator voted for this bill. a few reasonable republicans, four to be exact, voted with us to restore benefits that boost our economy and provide a lifeline for out-of-work americans, but we're still one republican vote shy of being able to do this for these people. mr. president, it's so unfair, if someone loses their job today, they can apply for unemployment benefits and get them restored immediately, get them immediately, i should say

this bill is sponsored by senators pryor, hagan, and begich, and i applaud their leadership on this issue. cutting military pensions was a bad idea. an even worse idea is to set up a contest between providing pensions to veterans and providing antipoverty assistance to children. that is the choice republicans want us to make. i wish i could honestly say this so-called choice is hard to believe, but i can't. it is like choosing between cutting off an arm or a leg from the body politic. vets or poor children -- aren't they both in need of fair treatment? again, there is bipartisan support to restore the cola cuts for veterans, but i'm told that my republican colleagues won't allow us to have an up-or-down vote on the military retirement pay restoration act unless we also vote on the ayotte amendment number 2732. what does this amendment do? the ayotte amendment would deny antipoverty assistance to the children of undocumented immigrants who are working and paying billions of dollars in taxes. it would cut this child poverty program by more than $18 billion over ten years to pay for the rest

alaska and incumbent, mark begich, leading his republican challenger by just four points.hich is truly remarkable at this stag arkansas, democratic incumbent prior pror, running behind his republican challenger by five points. democratic incumbent mark udall leads one challenger by three points. louisiana, democratic incumbent mary landrieu trails her republican rival by four points. and jeanne shaheen in a tie with her republican challenger, and that is not where she wants to be obviously. in north carolina, democratic incumbent kay hagen trailing her republican challenger by seven poin. as you can tell, this is a ry serious moment for the democrats. in montana, the open seat, republican there isheady 14 points. how worried are the deocrats? mr. obama's counselor david axelrod so worried that democrats are spending their money on hillary clinton's presidential hopes that he is tweeting. here is what he had to say. with the senate seriously at risk as you see here and koch brothers spending pre ding usually, shouldn't dep funders be focused on '14 and not '16 races? that's

senator mark begich in alaska and mark wner in virginia. they have ds behind their names. what is going on, paul? >> it is election year and two people supported law. had rocky rollout. still controversial. gerri: can't keep your doctor. can't keep your plan. can't keep virtually anything you liked about health care before. >> how can you bend the law without breaking it? the president extended employee maate tce. they say looks at changes in the law to b more flexible. gerri: what is the impact on bottom line ifhey actually do this. >> if you're an irsurer this is driving you crazy. you price a plan, figure out the risk pool will be and put it out there. if they rejigger it this way, on other hand more attractive bet people i the pool but on the% other hand people pull their hair out because they don't know what the plan will sell. gerri: everybody is confused. the white house ss we're thinking about it? really? do you think they will do this. >> i'm supporte. anything that gives us more flexibility, gives us more affordablensurance coverage is a good thing. gerri: meanti

you're going to say, you know, you're going to say senator kay hagan, senator mark pryor, senator begichey supported president obama and he's the leader of their party, and they're all in this together. >> liberal super pacs and environmentalists like tom stier who spent $11 million to elect virginia's new governor last year, are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to court environmentalists in both parties. >> big oil and big coal and utility companies are going to attempt to beat up members of congress who want to address climate change. at the same time, poll after poll shows the vast majority of people in states red and blue want action, to reduce the carbon pollution responsible for climate change. >> but a lot of folks don't want higher energy costs. last year's hurricane season was the calmest in 30 years and the arctic ice cap grew by 920,000 square miles which noaa points out is but one year in a decades long tradition in the other direction. >> thank you. more on this with the panel. still ahead, george will, charles krauthammer, and mara eliasson on what is shaping up as a

have you got landrieu and prior and begich. they all voted for it the fact is you voted for it republicans are going to keep slamming you for it. >> senator sheehan was very public, karen, in saying let's fix it at least she has gotten out ahead of it in spite of it. she reiss released a letter publicly when she sent it to senator- >> -- nunn is siding with her republican senator in georgia saying, you you know, let's delay this individual mandate democrats port in the storm here this law needs to change. >> fascinating board game where everyone has to move into positions and change positions. change things in order to make himself or herself a viable can indicate. >> you hope that anyone in public service and we cover them and we know most of them generally want to fix problems. i do think it is very well understood and appreciated by the obama administration that president obama cannot come out to many of these states and districts and that president clinton can. that's really elementary at this point. someone like senator pr

no to keystone, if that makes them happy, it makes mary landrieu in louisiana very sad, and mark begich >> as a senator, john kerry voted against keystone. this argument he made the other day is not a new argument for him. one of the interesting questions when you mentioned the gallup poll and this isn't an issue that seems to resonate broadly, anyway, is why democrats would do it. is it just a distraction, just to get on the base? there's another argument, and that is moderate women, independent women voter recollection suburban moms that everybody talked about in 2012, are more likely to be persuaded by arguments about the environment. it may be they're seeing this is a way to rally some of our base and also to get the moderate republican or independent women. >> killing coal is not going to help democrats in kentucky. this is a losing proposition for the country and democrats. >> next up, the five-year anniversary of the president's stimulus. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> i don't want to pretend that today marks the end of nor does the constitute all of what we are going to have to do to turn our econom

the other three landrieu and begich, it looks to me like two of three of those are going to lose. and then you have four of the states waiting in the wings that are blue states. >> i've been following these people. terry could win this thing. >> and then in minnesota you have a woman named omart and she's got a shot and you've got a woman in oregon named webby running against merkley. in new hampshire you have robert smith, bob smith the old senator, or scott brown the massachusetts senator. >> smith can't win. brown could win. smith can't win. there is so much complaining going on about the shrinking networks of doctors and hospitals and a lot of heat -- you probably saw this in the newspapers, is any of that stuff going to get changed? the great example with senator tom coburn whose own oncologist was not included. is that going to change? >> it's not going to change and here is why. in a quasi market-based system where you have a choice among different plans, the premiums are going to be lower for those who have a lower network of doctors. the problem with obamacare is not that

. >> senator begich said he doesn't want president obama to come campaign for him.'m wondering if that's a sentiment that the white house has been hearing from other democrats and what kind of campaign travel we can expect? >> i don't have a preview of the president scheduled for the year but i can tell you the president will as he already has been actively involved in assisting democrats up for reelection or running for office in the senate and the house, as you would expect. the fact is that's because these candidates and these gentlemen share -- on a vast number of issues when it comes to taking steps to expand opportunity and reward hard work, invest in an economy so that it grows not just now but in the future. so he will be doing everything he can to assist democrats as he already has. [inaudible] >> well, i'm not sure about that. i think there's a question about -- i would just say that the president is assisting democrats in ways that asking too and, obviously, ways you can as president spent along those lines, he had a meeting monday, why should we see this

. >> if you're a red state democrat, if you're mary landrieu, mark begich, mark pryor, this is the argumentt the white house to be making because you can already see the ads being made by their republican challengers. the president is going to be meeting with senate democrats tomorrow at their retreat, and i think this is going to be a big focus because this argument did not help those red state -- the red state democrats politically. >> the ultimate elysic argument. it really is. the kind of argument that resonates in marin county. now that i sold my company, the ito has been more successful, i'm going to take me time. that's not an argument that people who work can relate to. the backdrop to all of this is immigration. we're looking at 2.3 million fewer jobs just because of obamacare, not because of the other factors in the economy, and the white house wants to double the number of legal low-skilled immigrants to the country. what is that going to do to wages for people who live here already? it's really an unsustainable -- you can't put the two together. >> the other backdrop is unemploy

some of them want it, like the guy, begich, in alaska.deal. >> he needs the jobs. >> i'm not sure that obama won't do it. he doesn't have to run again. he could tick off the left. it is of the left. he could get away it. >> the other study was huge. >> where are the republicans. as we said off the air, they have gone silent just when this is moving in their direction. >> greg on twitter said would have already done it if he were going to, about the keystone pipeline. pat, your thoughts. >> i think if he were concerned about jobs and the middle class and energy independence, he would. but the truth of the matter is what matters most for barack obama and his internal calculation and his political minions is the money that comes from the very educated super rich environmental left. they are raising holy hell about this. they will, if he does this. it is the kind of breaking of a coalition the president doesn't want, and the truth of the matter is, the democratic party, not that the republicans have any concern, gave up caring about ordinary

i think if you're mary landrieu in louisiana, or mark begich in ago, all democrats in republican-leaninglly revved up republican base ready to send president obama a message on obama care is not a good thing. >> maggie, let's talk about whether the reality, whether the facts can ever catch up on something like this. or is this just another hit on obama care? >> i think chris is right. i think the facts are very unlikely to catch up. they might. it's going to take some very clever messaging by the democrats. talking about the point he just made, the way people feel about things tends to sort of lead how they view the political argument. and that is why after a year of six months of seemingly bad news about obama care, it has been one bad week after another. this just seems like another bad confirming headline. so there are a lot of fine print points within that cbo report, but i'm not sure that it's ever going to matter effectively for democrats who are in very tight contests in these states. >> let's also talk about some of the other political stories that are going on. what about bill d

and alaska's mark begich has taken things to another level. >> when i ran and won was the same year he won the first election for presidency, he lost alaska by 22 points. i still won. if he is interested in coming up, i'm not interested in campaigning. >> last week, the president rallying democrats with bill clinton, by the way, promised to stay away from campaign events where he won't be useful. instead, the president has promised to do a half dozen fund-raisers for the dscc. here's the thing, though. running away from your party, has it ever really worked as a national strategy in a midterm year? it didn't work for republicans in 2006. it didn't work for democrats in 1994. it didn't work for democrats again in 2010. the distance may help an individual member or two survive. usually it's a well-established political figure or a newcomer who can avoid all of the parties' baggage, but it won't work for the average rank-and-file democrats, which explains why for instance former bill clinton is counselling democrats to steer the boat into the wind when it comes to the health care issue. b

alaska's treadwell challenging begich says the cost of obamacare, and would he vote for obamacare again? in other not so great news for the white house, 1 million fewer folks will sign up for insurance coverage because of the website problems. 8 million instead of nine will enroll in medicaid and other public programs. democrats also were able to cherry pick findings that are a good political story for them. the risk corridors that the republicans want to repeal in which the government collects money from insurers that end up with healthier customers and reimburses ones who have a sicker population, well, according to the cbo, that reduces the deficit by $8 billion. so if you repeal it, the deficit goes up. an average health insurance premiums this year through the exchanges are 15% lower than expected. but in all of the political back-and-forth, the biggest story here may have been missed and the biggest challenge for lawmakers was ignored. the population is getting older and more expensive to take care of, and it means the u.s. will be a slower-growing country. just ask japan. in the

says in a press release "new report, begichcare" that's funny, "is a job killer" referring to mark begichshould it be a society in which everyone is working as much as humanly possible? i say no. so, actually, does my next guest, a conservative. tim carney, senior columnist at the "washington examiner." if there's some part of the population that's going to work less because of obamacare, you say more or less it depends. >> to be clear, i don't like obamacare. i'd repeal obamacare if i could. >> 41 times to repeal it if you had your druthers. >> yes, exactly. what should we think about this effect of obamacare? obamacare, the subsidies there make it more likely that people will leave the workforce or work less. now, there are some bad things about this and there are good things about it. i do emphasize the good things is that i know lots of people who are in a situation where the man has a job that pays him decently. the woman has a job that barely pays her. she's a front desk secretary at a big corporation, but she gets the health care so she keeps working even though she would rather st

in fact, some democrats like mary landrieu and mark begich running for re-election in oil rich staten't be happy if he doesn't approve it. these are big issues the president has. >> i know the left can be upset with the president. but there's a real opening to say to republicans, hey, you said this is a priority? i studied it and i think it's a priority, too. we'll go ahead and do it. >> you know. >> it could be a big moment for him. >> it could be. i was surprised, you do get a sense the president didn't like the statement that he got because now they're, the white house is emphasizing other agencies have to weigh in. >> for months they've been saying it's all about the state department. >> it does feel as if politically, they're in a advice. look, the politics of this with arkansas where the pipeline might be going through, mark pryor, democratic senator. at some point, you do figure the politics is going to sort of impact where the president comes down here. but on the big picture legacy, the other thing that the president was elected on was changing politics as we know it in this

nevada, reed of rhode island, gillibrand, whitehouse, schatz, boxer, casey, carper, warren, murray, begich, brown, merkley, king, schumer, nelson, coons. mr. reid: i have a motion to commit s. 1845 with instructions. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to commit the bill to the committee on finance with instructions to report back being amendment number 2716. mr. reid: on this, mr. president, i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. mr. reid: i have an amendment to the instructions at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment number 2717 to the instructions of the motion to commit. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays, mr. president. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid propo

have been trying to avoid the president but their voting records, mary landrieu and alaska's mark begichvoting record with the president -- 97%. kay hagen of north carolina, 96% voting record with the president. are they going to be able i guess run away from those records if that's what they want to do. >> listen, when obama goes to a state and they can try to run away and not be in the state and be in washington, d.c. you can't run away from your voting record. it is what it is. republican candidates can utilize that with the fund-raising and commercials to get out message that you supported a failure in policies and that is why the country is where it is today. so they can run, jon, but they can't hide because the facts are there black and white. jon: james carville ended his article by suggesting that democratic candidates go negative early and often. so we can prepare for a whole lot of that perhaps in the upcoming election season. angela mcglowan, thanks. >> thanks, jon. jenna: we'll switch topics here, jon. jon: all right. jenna: a landmark for "g.i. joe." a landmark for the good