bingaman i'm glad to hear you work through christmas.rough new year's and get it to the president's desk and veto think thing. i can't say on t$e air what is. it stinks. host: why is that, jerry? president got my vote for is not coming to pass. everything. everything on the healthcare bill is not coming to pass. next thing, he should freeze all of the insurance company's premiums at the rate when he took the office. you can't increase your rate on these poor people anymore. next thing, he should by presidential decree let us buy our drugs where we want to. all the drug manufacturers get over 70 percent of their ingredients from out of this country. nobody inspects it and they love you american people, just people senator i love being tribal nd i've been a slave in bal this country for 600 years. thank you. host: i don't know what the last comment has to do with healthcare bullet as dres how disappointed he is with what the president promise and the healthcare bill. guest: well reality is if people need to compare what we're considering n

bingaman i'm glad to hear you work through christmas. veto think thing. i can't say on t$e air what is. it stinks. host: why is that, jerry? president got my vote for is not coming to pass. everything. everything on the healthcare bill is not coming to pass. next thing, he should freeze all of the insurance company's premiums at the rate when he took the office. you can't increase your rate on these poor people anymore. next thing, he should by presidential decree let us buy our drugs where we want to. all the drug manufacturers get over 70 percent of their ingredients from out of this country. nobody inspects it and they love you american people, just people senator i love being tribal nd i've been a slave in bal this country for 600 years. thank you. host: i don't know what the last comment has to do with healthcare bullet as dres how disappointed he is with what the president promise and the healthcare bill. guest: well reality is if people need to compare what we're considering now as what we're going to have if we don't enact legisl

bingaman: let me first thank senator baucus for his leadership on this issue. i mentioned to him many times and strongly believe that without his leadership, we would not be where we are today in our effort to reform health care in this country. so i congratulate him on the superb effort he's made. i want to spend a few minutes talking about health care reform both as it affects the country, but also as it affects my home state of new mexico. first i'd like to discuss the context for this health reform bill, and that is the very serious problem that we face as a country with growing costs of health care if the congress fails to act. now we have a chart that i'll put up, since everyone's got chart. this is a chart that shows what's happening to all health care costs and has been happening since 1960. and you can see that as a percent of the gross domestic product, back in 1960 we were spending right at 5% of our gross domestic product on all health care in this country. today we are spending much more like 16% of the gross domestic product on health care. and th

those members included, senator akaka, senator baucus, bingaman, boxer, byrd, conrad, dodd, dorgan, feingold, feinstein, harkin, inouye, kerry, kohl, senator lautenberg, leahy, 11, mikulski, murray, reid, and senator specter. i would hope these members would continue to support senator kennedy's amendment from 1995 today. clearly the issue of medical liability reform is even more pressing than it was back in 1995. we, as americans, spend more money on lawsuits than any other country in the world. and more than twice as much as all but one other country. and, according to a recent nonpartisan study, the direct cost of health care lawsuits is around $30 billion a year. that's a direct cost to our health care system is around $30 billion a year. now, these costs are multiplied by indirect costs, especially doctors ordering costly tests out of fear of being stewed. estimated money spent on unneeded tests range frdz dz 100 billion annually to $250 billion a year annually. let me repeat the numbers. in unnecessary tests, the estimates are as high a as $100 billion to $250 billion in unnecessary te

bingaman i'm glad to hear you work through christmas.ear's and get it to the president's desk and veto think thing. i can't say on t$e air what is. it stinks. host: why is that, jerry? president got my vote for is not coming to pass. everything. everything on the healthcare bill is not coming to pass. next thing, he should freeze all of the insurance company's premiums at the rate when he took the office. you can't increase your rate on these poor people anymore. next thing, he should by presidential decree let us buy our drugs where we want to. all the drug manufacturers get over 70 percent of their ingredients from out of this country. nobody inspects it and they love you american people, just people senator i love being tribal nd i've been a slave in bal this country for 600 years. thank you. host: i don't know what the last comment has to do with healthcare bullet as dres how disappointed he is with what the president promise and the healthcare bill. guest: well reality is if people need to compare what we're considering now as what

on the health committee, particularly senator harkin, senator mikulski, senator murray, senator bingaman, particularly those who worked on the organizations, this is a very ported moment. we're grateful to the ama. this'll make a a huge difference in our country. >> well, dr. wilson, thank you very much for being here and for your huge endorsement of this bill. some of you may know i was a naval back in the 60's and we always had need for flight surgeons that took good care of us. and i found out that dr. wilson is a former navy flight surgeon. in fact, we serve in the same area of operations in the 1960's. we didn't know each other, but were the same area. as soon as we found that i knew we were in good hands. well, no one knows america's health care system better than doctors. they know the predicament of tens of millions of americans without health insurance is injuries and diseases go without proper treatment. they know the predicament of patients who have coverage, but their health insurance company refuses to pay for procedures or they canceled the policy after they get sick. they

bingaman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: madam president, over the past few weeks, we have heard a lot of heated debate about this health care proposal. much of it has concentrated on a few key issues, whether this should be a public option, whether there should not be. of course, much of that debate was on the democratic side among members, strongly held views on both sides of the issue. a question of whether we should try to allow people 55 and older to buy into medicare. that was also debated and strongly held views on that issue. it's clear now we have a bill before us that will do neither one of those things, but which i think will accomplish very major health care reform for the country, and i wanted to just concentrate for a few minutes on some of the other policies that are contained in this legislation that have received much less attention but which clearly are very constructive proposals that will dramatically improve the health care delivery system in the country. i can remember when we started these di

bingaman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: let me speak in support of what senator baucus, the senator from montana, attempted to do just now, and that was to get a short-term extension of current law with regard to the estate tax so that we would have a $3.5 million skpeplgs from the estate -- exemption from the estate tax into next year for a period while we actually settled on what type of permanent change in the estate tax law is appropriate. as the senator from montana pointed out, the circumstance we find ourselves in right now, given the current state of the lawmakers is just untenable and irresponsible. what the current status is is that if a person dies in the next 16 days, if their estate exceeds $3.5 million, they will be subject to an estate tax. and a couple whose estate, the second member of the estate dies and their estate would be, exceed $7 million, they would be subject to an estate tax. after the next 16 days, beginning on january 1 of the next year, we have no estate tax under -- under the law as

host: senator bingaman will be with us a few more minutes, next caller.er: sue see, you're one of the greatest. host: thank you for your call. caller: bingaman, i'm glad to hear you're going to work through christmas, i want you to work through new year's, i want you to get it to the president's desk, i want him to veto this. because it's -- i can't say what it is on air, but it stinks. everything the president got my vote for is not coming to pass. everything on the health care bureau is not coming to pass. next thing, he should freeze all of the insurance companies' premiums at the rate when he took office. can't increase your rate on these people anymore. next thing, he should, by presidential decree, let us buy our drugs where we want to. listen, all the drug manufacturers get over 70% of their ingredients from out of this country. look into it. just like a lot of your people, i love being called a native, i've been a slave in this country for 600 years. host: i don't know what the last comment hasÑwd to do with but let's talkxd about how disappointed

"washington journal" tomorrow morning, we will discuss health care and climate change with jeff bingamanw mexico. jared bernstein, the economic adviser to vice president biden, will focus on the green jobs. we will talk about defense spending with jack kingston of georgia. and a political vote for it looks at the health care debate in other issues. washington journal is live on c- span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. a couple plight of this to tell you about tomorrow. the senate, and security and governmental affairs committee looks at our economic future, including spending, debt, and deficit. witnesses include 4 -- former federal reserve chairman alan greenspan. that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, senators and stamina extent -- afghanistan contracts. dollar now available, the c-span book "abraham lincoln." of perfect gift for the effort -- a history buff in your life. it is a unique perspective on lincoln from 16 scholars and writers 3 from his early years to his life in the white house and his relevance today. "abraham lincoln" in hard cover at your favorite

caller: virginia this is greg on the democrat line for senator bingaman.ck. one quick thing i wanted to tell you about. personal experience. we have a 6-year-old son diagnosed with baby asthma. it's a temporary condition and it went away and because of that we've not been able to get any insurance coverage for risk respiratory since the con"ition went away. also, we pay about $700 a month. we're both self-employed my wife and i and we make about $60,000 so you can see how large of a chunk it takes from the budget and we still cannot get anything respiratory covered from this several insurance companies we've tried. my main question is, i know there's stuff in here about not allows insurance companies to cancel or giving pre-existing conditions and not allowing them to cancel policies when they get sick and insurance company decides your too much of a risk. i haven't heard on how you control them from basically defacto eliminating those people by raising premiums and rates so high you just can't afford it. i'm wondering when the congress and senate will und

senator baucus, budget committee chairman, senator conrad, and energy committee chairman, senator bingaman. all are senior members of the democratic caucus. on the republican side, the three members included senator snowe, ranking member of the small business committee; senator enzi, ranking member of the health, education, labor, and pension committee; and this senator. senator snowe and enzi are senior members of the republican conference. chairman baucus convened this working group with the singular goal of a bipartisan health care reform bill. we met for several weeks up in the machine monday room of chairman baucus' office. i'd agree with the way participating members have described these discussions. they were well-informed, thoughtful, provocative, challenging, and frustrating all at the same time. but i would say that the months that we negotiated, there was never once anyone walked away from the table, there was never once that there were any harsh words. while we were engaged in those discussions, there was constant pressure from folks outside the room for us to reach a quick dea

he and barbara mikulski and jeff bingaman were central to help shape what's come to the floor. senator baucus accepted hundreds of amendments on the republican side. so the bill is not perfect, but tell me what bill is. all of us would like to change it here and there, but none of us can credibly claim that we did not get a chance to have input to this bill. make no mistake, this legislation, that with cooperation and bipartisanship can make history and improve the lives of americans for decades to come is important to this country and to our economy. it can help change who we are as a country. 94% of americans would have health care. just think of that. if we do nothing, things are only going to get worse. more expense, more bankruptcies, more people without coverage. i can't help but think how often we have some private conversations around here at the prayer breakfast, at the national prayer breakfast, the senate prayer breakfast and private conversations about what the duties are and obligations of good adherence to most of the organized religions of the world, and certainl

on the help committee, particularly senator harkin and senator mikulski, senator murray, senator bingaman, particularly those who worked on the work force issues this is a very and put a moment, and we are grateful to the ama, particularly you, dr. wilson, for your supporting this effort. this is we to make a huge difference in our effort. >> dr. wilson, thank you very much for being here and for your great endorsement of this bill. some of you may know i was a naval aviator back in the 60's, and we always had naval flight surgeons that took good care of us. and i found out dr. wilson is a former navy flight surgeon. in fact, we served in the same area of operations in the 60's. we didn't know each other but preserved in the same area. as soon as i found that out, i knew we were in good hands. [laughter] no one knows america's health care system better than doctors treated the know the predicament of tens of millions of americans without insurance whose injuries and diseases go without proper treatment. the end of the predicament of patient who have coverage but their health insurance com

colleagues on the health committee, particularly senator carcanet -- senator harkin and senator bingamanvery important moment. we're grateful for your support of this effort. it will make a huge difference in our country. >> dr. wilson, thank you very much for being here and for your great endorsement of this bill. some of you may know i was enabled the a aviator back in the 1960's. -- i was a naval aviator back in the 1960's. we always had good surgeons to care for us and i found out dr. wilson was a surgeon. we serve in the same area, although we did not know each other. and as i learned that, we were in good hands. no one knows their rafa system better than doctors. there are millions petco without proper treatment. they know the predicament -- there are millions that go without proper treatment. in a predicament -- they know the predicament. in of the lives and money that could be saved if we invested more generously in wellness and disease prevention. i thank you dr. wilson for pointing that out. i welcome the support of the american medical association. america's doctors have size

journal" tomorrow morning, we'll discuss health care and climate change with democratic senator jeff bingaman jared bernstein will focus on so-called green jobs. we'll talk about defense spending with jack kingston of georgia and john bresnahan looks at the senate debate on health care and other issues. a couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow. the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee looks at our economic future, including spending, debt and deficits. witnesses include former federal reserve chairman aidan greenspan at 10:00 a.m. alan greenspan at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> still in time for the holidays, american icons on d.v.d. c-span's three original documentaries on the iconic homes of the three branches of the american government. the special three-disk collection is only $24.95. visit c-span.org/store. >> the united nations climate change conference in denmark today heard from heads of state and from delegates representing developing countries. president obama will address the conference on friday when participants hope to reach a climate change agreement.

pleased that he has embraced and the administration has embraced a provision i happen ford, senator bingaman and high in the recovery act for a 30% manufacturing tax credit for new equipment, new buildings. retooling buildings and factories and so on. that's an important part of that. i'm hoping that will be in our jobs bill, and pushing very hard to have that manufacturing peace in the jobs bill and we're also very focused on small business and the fact that even though we have given the funds for -- to the investment banks and wall street, we have not seen community banks and small business is getting the capital that they need right now when the major engine of the economy is small business. and so that's very important and i would just go back and say the other piece as important, with small business is health care costs and focus in terms of coverage and our health care bill is to help small businesses, people who are single of japan yours, as well as those who can't find insurance but are working to be able to find a group pool so that is why the tax cut is in the healthcare bill for s

i worked on the transmission piece with senator bingaman and others. we can build an interstate highway of -- so you can put it on a wire and move it to where it needs. this isn't rocket science. this is rather simple. we have passed a bill, a bipartisan bill out of a committee to do this. electfication and the diversification of our vehicle fleet is there. enhances energy efficiency and -- in a wide range of areas. expands clean energy technology and the training of an energy workforce for tomorrow. every one of us get up this morning, and perhaps the first thing we do is flick a switch, turn a switch and all of a sudden there's light. and many decide to plug in a coffeemaker or turn on the stove. turn on the radio. turn on the television set. get in the car. put in a key. hear the engine. all of it is energy. and that's before you get to work. and no one even thinks about it. about the role that energy plays in our life. and that's why it's important for us to understand, we've got a very serious energy security issue in this country, number one. and

lincoln, senator mccaskill, senator sanders, senator snowe, senator stabenow, senator thune, senator bingaman, senator brown, senator collins, senator durbin, senator grassley, stphorb johnson -- senator johnson, senator kerry, senator kohl, senator levin, senator johnson, senator shaheen, senator specter, senator tester. widespread bipartisan support for legislation which says let's end the absurdity of the american people having to pay substantially more for the same exact medicine that is sold in other countries around the world. let me just take a look at some of these charts. to begin with, we all understand that when you deal with the drug companies in the pharmaceutical industry, you are dealing with some of the most powerful lobbyists and forces right here in washington, d.c. these people spend huge amounts of money on campaign contributions, huge amounts of money in lobbying. just recently in order to make sure that they got in under the wire, in case there was some real reform passed here in washington, they substantially raised their prices for particular drugs just in the year 200

senator bingaman did coverage. and senator mikulski did quality improvements. so that was in november. after that, i can't speak for the others that did the other sections. all i can say is on our side and when i did reified hearings. we have five hearings on prevention and wellness of public health and what ought to go into a bill. in those hearings, i think amidst an september and went through february. and then we worked until june. we didn't start our markup until june. so it almost six months of hearings and putting things together in the bill before we started markup. i rather doubt that could be said to be rushing anything. but madam president, i want to focus on the vote that's coming up on the amendment offered by the senator from maryland, senator mikulski. which will strengthen provisions in the bill concerning preventative health benefits for women. as an initial matter, i'm proud of the significant investment this bill makes overall and wellness and prevention. it's not been talked about very much. if you read the public press out there, the popula

senator bingaman did coverage, and senator mikulski did quality improvements. so that was in november. after that, i can't speak for the other -- others that did the other sections -- you will i ca- --all i can say is on our side and what i did. we had five hearings on public health and prevention and wellness and what ought to go into a bill. those commenced in november and went through i think about february. and then we worked until june. we didn't start our markup until june. so we had almost six months of hearings and putting things together in the bill before we started markup. i rather doubt that that can be said to be rushing anything. but, madam president, i just want to focus on the vote that's coming up on the amendment offered by the senator from maryland, senator mikulski, which will strengthen provisions in the bill concerning preventive health benefits for women. as an initial matter, i'm proud of the significant investments this bill makes overall in wellness and prevention. it's not been talked about very much. if you read the public press out

those included senators akaka, baucus, bingaman, boxer, byrd, conrad, dodd, dorgan, feingold, feinstein, harkin, inouye, kerry, kohl, lautenberg, leahy, levin, mikulski, murray, reid, and specter. all 21 of these senators voted for caps on attorneys' fees. that would at least do something. that would help get the ball rolling on medical liability reform, but the same thing that they've done with medicare, saying that they are going to keep medicare savings in medicare, that they haven't done, not real. nor gregg has a real amendment to fix that. i have a real amendment to fix the medical liability reform that hopefully will be voted on later as well, but at least let's go for a little bit of a compromise right now. mrs. hutchison: will the senator from nevada yield? mr. ensign: i will be happy to yield. mrs. hutchison: i have real statistics. we hear the other side saying we're going to lower the cost. that's what health care reform is about, lowering the cost of health care reform so -- health care so more people will have access to affordable options, and yet the main one that is clea

i want to thank barbara mikulski and patty murray and jeff bingaman, along with tom harkin, who followedy's lead in ed fisa to allow us to develop the bill that we did. and the rest of the members of that committee. and those that worked with max to produce this bill. and our staffs as well. i also won at thank mike kinsley's staff who did not vote for the bill but contributed to it. his support may be remembered in a moment like this as well. the last time the senate of the united states met on christmas eve was 1963, only weeks after president kennedy's assassination, and they met to debate the vietnam war. this is the second occasion when it has let -- has met for as long a period of time as we have, 24 dead. we now rank second in the longevity for the senate to consider something as this bill before us. there are moments where we who do serve in this body are reminded just what an honor is to stand in this arena. tomorrow the senate will once again meet on christmas eve to pass historic legislation that will finally make decent health care a right for every american citizen. the road

debating already includes three other proposals in my control spending bill championed by senator bingaman and others that would slash federal spending by billions of dollars. and so with a th with the passae dorgan amendment we could make it four. we do a lot of things in congress that i'm afraid leaves our constituents scrasmg their heads. now is our chance to show them that we're listening to them, that we understand their concern and that we want to bring down federal spending while ensuring prescription drugs they need are far more affordable. again, that real does sound like a no-brainer to me, mr. president. i thank you and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator montana is recognized. mr. baucus: i ask unanimous consent to extend the period for debate only to 4:00 p.m. with the time equally divided with senators permitted to speak up ten minutes each with no amendments in order at this time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming is recognized. mr. enzi: i yield

senator bingaman and i spent more than six months developing a comprehensive energy bill in committee and have now held six hearings on our climate policy options. next, my resolution is not meant to run contrary to the supreme court's decision in massachusetts vs. e.p.a. remember, i previously sought a one-year delay of this process that would have allowed mobile source emissions to be regulated. that amendment was blocked by the majority from even being considered, and at this point, i'm left with little choice but to raise the question of whether the clean air act is capable of effectively regulating greenhouse gas emissions. and finally, i'm not interested in trying to embarrass the president either here at home or on the international stage. i have stated publicly that i wish the president well in making progress on international issues, and i think it's safe to acknowledge that i didn't choose to release the endangerment finding on the opening day of the copenhagen climate conference. that was the e.p.a.'s decision. mr. president, i understand that i may have come to the end of

senator bingaman did coverage, and senator mikulski did quality improvements. so that was in november. after that, i can't speak for the other -- others that did the other sections -- you will i ca- --all i can say is on our side and what i did. we had five hearings on public health and prevention and wellness and what ought to go into a bill. those commenced in november and went through i think about february. and then we worked until june. we didn't start our markup until june. so we had almost six months of hearings and putting things together in the bill before we started markup. i rather doubt that that can be said to be rushing anything. but, madam president, i just want to focus on the vote that's coming up on the amendment offered by the senator from maryland, senator mikulski, which will strengthen provisions in the bill concerning preventive health benefits for women. as an initial matter, i'm proud of the significant investments this bill makes overall in wellness and prevention. it's not been talked about very much. if you read the public press out