congressmen dana milbank -- "meanwhile, senators byron dorgan and kent conrad, both north dakota democrats would enjoy a provision bringing higher medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors in 'frontier counties' of states," let's see here, north dakota. and should there be one for hawaii? mr. milbank goes on to say, "hawaii, with two democratic senators, would get richer payments to hospitals that treat many uninsured." and should there be a sticker there for michigan -- quote -- "home" -- and i'm quoting from the milbank article -- "home of two other democrats would earn higher medicare payments for some reduced fees for bluecross blueshield." vermont -- vermont, senator bernie sanders held out for larger medicaid payments for his state. neighboring massachusetts would get one too. i guess there's a number of maybe states that should have stickers on them so that the american people can see where these special deals were cut o

we'll be talking to senator byron dorgan later this morning. chuck on the into the li indepe. caller: we needed was outside of the democratic and republican parties. big business does not want us to have health care. host: hunts wigood morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i would like to lead the american people know some information that liberal democrats will not state. you said something about if this health care is not passed that millions of people will die because of. they do not bother to tell you that if they pass this bill, millions of babies will be

byron dorgan of north dakota shares the transportation subcommittee on safety. this is about an hour and 45 minutes. >> we are going to call the hearing to order. this hearing in the senate congress subcommittee on aviation. my colleagues will be joining me shortly but i want to begin on time. the discussion today is on the subject of pilot fatigue. now let me describe my concern about this issue and the concern of a number of my colleagues. the issue of pilot fatigue is not new. it's been on the national transportation safety most wanted list for 19 years, since the list was created. tyler fatigue has consistently been an issue with the ntsb and the faa. the current flight rules i believe have been in existence with respect to a duly time and

senator from north dakota, senator byron dorgan and other colleagues in an effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs. but i do want to just make one comment today and -- because we know that overall our plan -- i want to make one comment on compare before i do that. -- on medical care before we do -- medicare. we know it is about saving lives and that's what we're doing in our healthcare reform. i do want to mention and stress again that this is about saving medicare and our commitment. i do have to say that we have been hearing colleagues and the distinguished republican leader has said over and over again that, in fact, cutting medicare is not what americans want. and then last night said here on the floor that expanding medicare was a plan for financial ruin. and so they don't want to cut,

coming up, we will talk to the author of an amendment, senator byron dorgan.ered this headline in "the washington post" this morning. a first, an update from c-span radio. >> president obama visits a home depot this morning to talk about making homes more energy efficient. then he returns to the white house to lunch with business leaders. . when it went off near the home of a politician. blasts 3w4r5eu78d on militants have killed more than 500 people since october. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> as senators debate the bill, there's still a number of bills to work out. including abortion, health care as the congressional office puts a price tag on the revised proposal. with late nights and possibly another weekend session live on our network c-span 2 the only norke cover the house gavel-to-gavel. and you can hear it with the new iphone a. ap. "washington journal" continues. host: senator byron dorgan from north dakota it says debates have stalled partly in an amendment that you offered to allow cheaper drugs to be imported from canad

the passage of byron dorgan and then it could blow up some of the financing and health care bill because the deal the pharmaceutical industry made what max baucus and president obama to fund the reform and bring down costs. the democrats were kind of fighting among themselves. looks like it was put to rest. another and a long line of republican attempts to have the build yanked back -- yanked back to the floor and sent back to committee, defeated, mike ribeau amendment that would assure individuals making $200,000 a year or less or families making $250,000 a year or less could not be taxed or have taxes raised as part of health care reform to help fund health care reform. the idaho republican's amendment was defeated, as expected. there was a max baucus alternative, a sort of sense of the senate that does not really affect things either way. i think what we are looking for for harry reid is can he get to the endgame, begin the closure process by the end of the week. it will take the democrats about six days or so from the beginning of cloture to the final formal vote on the bill and if t

i think possibly byron dorgan of north dakota and maybe can't conrad of north dakota but i'm not sure about them. >> hobaugh republicans that my vote against it? the most of them. the only to that i think what our lumpiest nolan susan collins. they said they liked the language in the bill as it is. >> what are the possible implications and then i will ask the same questions about a failing. >> it is likely that democrats will have senator nelson vote on the bill. if i can just go ahead and answer your other question, if it does not pessin to nelson said he will not support the bill unless some sort of more restrictive abortion language is added to it. >> with more health care debate possible this weekend are you getting any sense of the mood of senators as they continue working on this bill? >> we have been staking out these meetings they have been having on the public option almost every night and when the more liberal senators come out of these meetings that it always seemed to be in a good mood and they say things are moving well. senator chuck schumer of new york was the third ran

won by north dakota democrat byron dorgan to let u.s.citizens buy and import prescription drugs from other countries. idaho republican michael krehbiel also offered a motion to send a bill to committee to deal with middle-class tax liability issues. senators are likely to cause the health care debate today or tomorrow to consider a federal spending package for the rest of this budget year. several federal departments and agencies have been operating on temporary spending authorities since august. live coverage now of the senate health care debate here on c-span2. will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. gracious and merciful god, you promised never to leave us alone, and we're grateful for your comforting presence. thank you for your whispers of love and peace. help us to see your face in others and to show them your love. today, give our senators the wisdom to know your will and to choose your way and purpose. when the choice is between honor and self-interest, help them to do right. may they exercise themselves to hav

it says, and i quote again from dana milbank senators byron, dorgan and conrad both democrats would enjoy a provision bringing higher medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors in, quote, frontier counties of states as let's see north dakota. and should there be one for hawaii, mr. milbank goes on to say why he with two democratic senators will get richer payments to hospitals and treat many uninsured, and should there be a sticker from michigan, quote, hobaugh, and by quoting from the article, home of two other democrats would durham a half year medicare payment for some reduced fees for blue cross blue shield of vermont. vermont, senator bernie sanders held off for a larger medicaid payments for states neighboring massachusetts would get one, too. i guess there's a number of mabey states that should have stickers so that the american people can see where these special deals were cut out and the american people, the majority of the population of this country can see where they were not and they are going to pay more while those states payless because not just their location but because t

top democrats, and the proposal is a proposal put forward by senator from north dakota, senator byron dorgan. a preliminary estimate shows that the dorgan amendment would save the government $10 million and consumers, presumeably, many billions more. but the pharmaceutical company has promised an agreement in the promise of new customers. dorgan is taking that into account. caller: my concern is -- i moved to florida three years ago. i had a doctor in illinois that accepted medicare. i moved to florida, i had a doctor, a very good doctor, who dropped me because he no longer accepted medicare because number one they didn't pay for the test that is are required to keep me healthy, number two the payments were too far out, and with this reduction that they are proposing in medicare, i don't know what's going to happen. i'm concerned with this $450 million, or whatever it is, billion k. dededuction from medicare, what's going to happen to my insurance? host: hold are you? caller: 74. host: do you have any existing medical complaints? caller: i am bipolar from the u.s. marine corps in 1957. i hav

tell you that as many of you know, a number of months ago, six are seven of us from the senate, byron dorgan, jim webb, and some others, went to the white house, and what we said reflects the feelings of many people in our country who very much respect as president. i think he is doing a lot of good things in many areas, but have felt from day one that he is not been as strong as he might have been in terms of wall street. i did make thatçó concern known way back. if there is a question are two on health care, i'll try and answer that. i would simply say that senator medicare -- coburn is so impressed by the medicare fraud, that americans will have the year for the next many hours -- i appreciate his desireçó to let the americans kw about the 14 hour reading, but he may have done it -- overdone it a little bit. this is a stalling tactic on the part of the republicans. if you try to get away from the beltway for a moment, this country has a health care crisis. it has an economic crisis. it has a financial crisis. we are in two wars, and what the republicans are doing and saying, we want to re

i think possibly byron dorgan, maybe kent con regard, but -- conrad, but i'm not sure about them. >> about republicans? >> most of them. the only two i think won't will olympia snowe and susan collins. they like the language as it is. >> what are the possible implications of this amendment passes, and then i'll ask the same question about it failing. >> sure. if it passes, it's likelier that democrats will have senator nelson's vote on the bill. if i can just go ahead and answer your other question, if it does not pass, senator nelson will not support the bill unless more restrictive abortion language is added to it. >> are you getting any sense of the mood of senator as they continue working on this bill? >> yeah. we've been staking out these meetings they have been having almost every night, and when the more liberal senators come out of those meetings, they always seem to be in a good mood. senator chuck schumer of new york says he thinks things are moving along well, but then we talk to moderates, and they're not so sure. they don't think they're that close to a deal on any of th

there is a quick i like, you know, byron dorgan, the senator from north dakota, he said the senate isd with 100 human break pats. that is -- brake pads. that is why the job of majority leader is one of the toughest jobs in washington d.c. trent lott, who was the majority and minority leader once said while he was majority leader that the job of being majority leader is tougher than in the president of the united states because the president has all his advisers, the whole executive establishment to call on for advice, counsel, help, whatever. the speaker of the house has the rules committee she or he determines, as the case might be, whether or not certain amendments are going to be allowed or not, how much debate will go on or not, etc. what have i got? good looks? the power to persuade? the right of first recognition and to set the scheduler agenda, basically, is what it amounts to. limited power, ltd. prada is in that institution. -- a limited product is in that institution. -- limited prerogatives in that institution. the reach and scope and size of government is massive. that has

one the pending amendments is by byron dorgan much north dakota, which would make it easier for consumers to buy prescription drugs from other countries. we talked about it this morning on the "washington journal." >> host: it says in the papers this morning that bede baits in the senate have stalled partly over an amendment that you offered that would allow cheaper drugs to be imported from canada, europe, other places, what is the status of your amendment? will it be voted on? >> well, it has slowed down for seven days. it appears we may get a vote on it today. this is not just cheaper, it's less expensive, identical, fda sold in every other country for the a fraction of the price. it's unbelievable. we've been working on this ten years. and the pharmaceutical industries wins all the time when we have these votes. if there is a global economy, how about giving the american people the freedom to access that identical drug, same pill in the same bottle made by the same company. the difference, the american people get to pay two or three times the cost that most other people in the world p