>> the point of senator feingold's amendment is threefold. emergencies . >> ok. >> are you in a feisty mood today? >> let me go back. as i understand it, emergencies are not precluded. is that not the case? >> i agree with that 100%. >> number two, he does have a requirement to pay for ongoing war costs, which we are currently not doing, but he does not do it over one year. he spread it over multiple years. no. 3, he does it as a cap adjustment so it does not go into the baseline. . >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. just to talk more broadly about what i think this is about, and i want to commend senator feingold for the amendment, i know we have honest differences about the way we have chosen to go after al qaeda. we all agree that we have a threat and a global threat as it relates to terrorism. we can debate whether or not iraq was a choice or necessity. we agree on afghanistan. i did not support going into iraq because i did not believe that it was where we ought to be fighting in terms of terrorism. but we all agreed that once the com

why don't we go to senator feingold?tor sessions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we are not in the ninth year of the war in afghanistan and our eighth year of the war in iraq. to date, we have spent about one trillion dollars on these boardwars. every single penny of those costs has been added to our budget deficits. we have paid for absolutely none of it. we fully expect to be spending hundreds of billions dollars more on these two wars, unless we change the way we budget for these costs. all that new spending will be added to our deficits, too. the resolution includes an additional $59 billion for the current fiscal year and $159 billion for fiscal year 2011. it includes $50 billion as a place holder in fiscal year 2012 and $50 billion for 2013, but nothing beyond that. so altogether this budget resolution anticipates more than 23 -- just for the years covered by this resolution based on getting down to 60,000 troops in both afghanistan and iraq by 2015. cbo projects $273 billion more than the $300 billion in the budget r

feingold: mr. president -- mr. president, i come to the floor to recognize the 40th anniversary of earth day and to remember the man who founded earth day, the late-wisconsin governor and senator gaylord nelson. before he was the founder of earth day and one of the nation's greatest conservationist, avenues son of which is wissments avenues young boy growing up in the town of clear lake, wisconsin amid the great natural beauty of our state. when asked how he developed his lifelong interest and dedication to the environment, nelson would say, "by osmosis" while growing up in clear lake, which is which. he reflected the very best of our state from the beginning, building on wisconsin's long tradition of environmental conservation. our state passed landmark forest and water power conservation act acts during the progressive era and lays claim not only to gaylord nelson but to other giants of the conservation movement like aldo leopold. all were inspired, as nelson was, by the beautiful wisconsin wilderness, the natura

>> the point of senator feingold's amendment is threefold. number one, it does not preclude emergencies. three elements. you are in a feisty mood today. [laughter] but let me go back. as i understand it, number one, emergencies are not precluded. is that not the case? >> i agree with that 100%. >> number two, he does have a requirement to pay for ongoing war costs, which we are currently not doing. but he does not do it over one year. he spread it over multiple years. no. 3, he does it as a cash adjustment so that it does not go into the baseline. that has been a concern center greg had, that i had, he did not want to put war funding into the base budget, otherwise we would be forever on an inflated base. >> so my point is made that if we had not done it in an emergency, our budget baseline would be much higher for defense than it is now. >> that is correct. but senator feingold is not doing it in that way in this amendment. he has crafted in a way to prevent that problem. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. just to talk more broadly about

campaign finance law that senator mccain had championed and the law which bears his name the mccain-feingold federal bipartisan campaign reform act. the president deliberately mischaracterized the decision was not held accountable for doing so as a matter of fact was applauded by members of his party there present in the house chamber listening to the "state of the union" and what happened after that was particularly distressing because you had sitting directly in front of the president much as you all are here in the house chamber as the president was delivering his "state of the union address" you had seated there i forget whether it was all or most of the supreme court justices the justices of the united states supreme court and the president mischaracterized this citizens united case as opening the floodgates to campaign, corporations buying elections and giving money to candidates the case of course had nothing to do with donations by corporations. it had simply to do with whether or not corporations should continue to enjoy as they have pursuant to laws in this country and cases in thi

senator feingold? >> thankou, mr. chairman.he committee as well aware of my support for federal court trials. i will simply add a what senator feinstein said so well, continued strength on your courageous actions in this regard. i have a statement that discusses that issue and i would ask that it be placed of record so i had time to discuss other topics the. >> without objection. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me take a moment to compliment you. under your and her leadership the antitrust division of the department has made it clear after many years of neglect and enforcement of antitrust laws is a priority for the department and i'm especially grateful for the department focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usda and was very pleased to the debugger will be holding a gary workshop in wisconsin in june. it means a great deal to our producers and others in the state of wisconsin. i turned to a couple of other things. senator kohl asked you about the c.o.p.s. program that as you know i strongly support that progra

there had been speculation would decide to challenge democrat russ feingold. thompson said he will not enter the race, saying the party needs new faces which means according to many political watchers that feingold looks to be in good shape ahead of election day. we are on it, more as we get it. did send in your taxes yet? you always get nervous when it's tax day. but one thing is true for everybody. your taxes are technically due. one thing that is not the same for all of us is how much each us is paying or getting back. on this tax day we'll break down who is paying what to the government so you know where you fall. jim angle did the math for us. let's start -- who pays taxes and who doesn't? >> reporter: well, 140 millions slog through those final hours they will find almost half of them, about 67 million will owe no tax at all because wealthier are paying more and more of the total u.s. taxes than ever before. as a result of the bush tax kits the top 20% pay 86% of all income taxes up from 80% before. wealthier taxpayers are picking up more and more of the

the supreme court struck down part of the mccain feingold law. that was certainly an activist decision. so there are liberal activists and there are conservative activists. i think that term should be retired, frankly, because it's not terribly helpful, but i don't have high hopes for it being retired. >> one more quick one, jeffrey. there is a pretty important case pending here. we'll get a decision on it soon. mcdonald versus chicago, a case examining the chicago handgun ban. why don't you set up what's at issue there, and i know you've got some thoughts on the difficulty the court is going to have in squaring a decision here with the decision that came down on the d.c. case. >> correct. in the heller case two years ago, that was the case that said the district of colombia which is considered part of the federal government may not ban handguns under the second amendment which speaks of the right to keep and bear arms. the question in the case that you menchtioned is may the stat of illinois ban handguns because the bill of rights speaks directl

and russ feingold, the senator from wisconsin, his big issue. you can not many americans have the power to give themselves a raise whenever they want no matter how they are performing. congress set up a system that gives ourselves raises automatically it is just mind-boggling to many people out there, a is a no-brainer politically for the senators to get rid of their pay raise. no-brainer politically, no pay prize or the senators next year. dana, thanks for coming up. >>> i compare what is on my radar with james carville and mary matlin, starting with a new political move by former vice president dick cheney. to stay in tune with life after 50, i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for bone and breast health. just what i need! one a day women's. an everyday moment can turn romantic at a moment's notice. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for dail

not be, you know, that may run than and you may -- you hear that howard dean's of the world, russ feingold, some of the people far, far far left of the democratic party start to jump out of harness there. you have to harness on afghanistan. there will be all kinds of things that are going to get baked into the cake for 2012 that we don't know about you. but the thing about it is, just don't assume that because there's a bad midterm election this time, don't deserve anything at all. but the biggest thing is how does president obama perform after this midterm election. i have a theory that presidents, presidents perform better, they become better presidents after they have had, and i'm going to use another technical political science term here, after they've had a midterm election face plant. flat down, face down, mud. and i would argue that president clinton was a better president in his last six years in office that he was his to. and i would argue, i think that george w. bush was a better president in his last two years after that 2006. remember, he didn't have a first term midterm electi

i suppose i've run out of time but let me thank you and let me try to reiterate what senator feingolded. i don't believe our system of justice should be driven by fear and anger and that appears to be a driving force among some political camps in this country. if we are going to be strong as a nation we won't be quivering in fear and acting irrationally in anger. we are going to stand by the rule of law in the principles that guided us for a long time in a thank you for your leadership. >> thank you senator durbin. senator graham. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. attorney general for coming. this has been a good discussion about some difficult issues but one thing i would like to reiterate is president obama said the nation was at war with al qaeda. do you agree with that? >> yes. >> i would urge you to remain strong in that process because some people we don't-- don't believe we are at war. some people believe we should be using the law enforcement model exclusively and i think that is a formula for disaster and there are some people who say you can never use article iii cour

we have -- we recently passed a senator feingold amendment to the f.a.a. bill that rescinds any d.o.t. earmarks that remain 90% or more unobligated after nine years of being appropriated. with the possibility of holding funds to one for year the agency heads believes will be funded within the following 12 months. the only difference between what we passed and this amendment is that this section applies to all agencies, not just the department of transportation. the secretary of the department of transportation endorsed the feingold amendment. well, if it works for the department of transportation, why wouldn't we do that everywhere on earmarks? it's $500 million savings immediately, and we can't quantify through the c.b.o. what it will be in the future, but it will probably be at least that every year. another section is the president's request to eliminate a duplicative bus grant program. this would repeal the inner city bus security grant program. president obama recommended this this $12 million program be eliminated because the grant awards aren't base

i would say that senator feingold has come up with irresponsible way to do that.he does not expect the expenditure to be covered in one year, but to do it over time in what i think is responsible and fiscally prudent. i thank the senator for his amendment. i plan to support it. is there the debate on the amendment? senator sessions. >> we are in the war not of our choosing, but because we were attacked. we have had a long and vigorous national debate about it. most of us, overwhelmingly, have supported this activity. we are any huge deficits and there is no likelihood that we will construct a plan that will get us to balance the budget in the short term. but we can certainly take steps to go in that direction. i think are appropriate responses to maintain a focus on reducing our deficit, reducing the cost of war and to the emergency supplemental we have used. i think that would be the best approach. i really think that this would be

last year, the senate voted 59-39 on an amendment that i offered with senators webb, bunning and feingold to the budget resolution calling on the fed to release this information and yet as of this day, the fed has refused to do that. in august of last year, federal u.s. district judge loretta presca, nominated by president george w. bush, ordered the federal reserve to release this information. the fed appealed that decision and last march, the u.s. appeals court in manhattan upheld that decision, yet the fed his still not disclosed this information. and over 300 members of congress have cosponsored legislation calling on an independent audit of the fed. in other words, madam president, we now have 59 senators, over 300 members of congress, a u.s. district court judge, and a u.s. appeals court that have said to the chairman of the fed, mr. bernanke, in no uncertain terms that the american people have a right to know the names of the largest banks in this country that have received over $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed loans from the federal reserve. so if my republican friends are sincere,

. >> senator feingold. >> thank you. my committee is aware of the federal support trials and let me simply ago with senator feinstein said so well on the continued strength on your courageous actions in this regard. i had a statement that discusses the issue and i would ask that it be placed in the record so i have time to discuss other topics. let me also take a moment to compliment you and the assistant general for christine varney. under your and her leadership the antitrust division of the department has made it clear after many years of neglect and enforcement of antitrust law as a priority for the department and i am especially grateful for the department is focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usda and i was pleased to hear the department will be holding a workshop in wisconsin. it means a great deal to the producers and others in the state of wisconsin senator kohl asked to about the cops program. as you know, strongly support that pergamon and other federal law enforcement assistance grant progra

this amendment is being cosponsored by senators feingold, leahy, wyden, dorgan and boxer, democrats.it is being cosponsored by senators demint, mccain, grassley, vitter, brownback, graham, risch, and wicker, republicans. but quite significantly on the base bill that i introduced from which this amendment comes, this legislation is being supported by 32 cosponsors, and that is 22 republicans and 10 democrats. they run the gamut from some of the most conservative members of the senate to some of the most progressive, and the senators who are supporting the base bill are senators barrasso, bennett of utah, boxer, brownback, burr, cardin, chambliss, coburn, demint, dorgan, feingold, graham, grassley, harkin, hatch, hutchison, inhofe, isakson, landrieu, leahy, lincoln, mccain, thune, wicker, and wyden. that is a very broad cross-section of the united states senate. from some of the most conservative to some of the most progressive members on the base bill who say it is absurd that the fed can lend out trillions of dollars without the american people knowing who has received that money. an

. -- feingold bill from goldman sachs. president obama wanted to keep getting money from wall street for the campaign this year and for next year, so the bill as dictated by the administration is addicted to bail out companies in indirect ways. host: the issue of banks can of yesterday when congressman john dingall appeared on "the colbert report." >> what you think the people are so angry at congress and dress up in hats to express it? it is incredible to me that there is such anger and it is such costumed anger. [laughter] >> the simple fact of the matter is that people are afraid, frustrated. a lot of times they really do not know who they are mad at. they're mad at everybody, and not particularly upset about wall street. they are raising cain with the congress because we had to bail out the banks, or we would have had another 1929 on our hands. host: that was the congressman on "the jon stewart show." here is marshall on the democratic line from arkansas. are you there? caller: yes. host: go ahead, should republicans s

. >> senator feingold today and speak to specific timetable for the drawdown of the detailed plan. would that be useful at this point in afghanistan? >> the president already has announced -- >> this is outlining the specific points. >> the president announced at west point last september not only his increase in forces in afghanistan but also by next summer beginning to evaluate our departure of troops and that is the best way to approach. similarly the president is demonstrating when he came in and said we are going to draw down in iraq is happening. we should have 50,000 troops by september. but i think that it's the president's policy is clearly not an open-ended commitment. it is the appropriate commitment and detailed month by month etc is probably to micromanagement. >> i would like to say remember one of the real concerns both in afghanistan and pakistan is we've lived there twice. after the russians were you read we left again in 2003. we didn't to believe that we set the trips down. they don't understand one of the hard things to expand is are we really leaving in june. i

next is senator feingold. let me him -- thank him for his responsibility -- his commitment to fiscal responsibility. thank and for his strong support for trying to bring the deficit down. >> thank you. i congratulate you and your staff for once again crafting a budget resolution. it is a very tough task in the effort made by you and your staff deserves all of our thanks. your resolution is a second as a response to requests by the administration that was handed the worst fiscal mess in our nation's history. we have seen some improvement in the last year but nobody should be unfurling mission accomplished signs just yet. unemployment is still a significant problem. businesses may be pre -- beginning to recover but there are still 15 million people who are officially unemployed and millions more working part time who want to work full time or are so discouraged that they have given up on looking. but we have to take steps to help businesses put people back to work. putting our economy on sound footing also means

host: in "the new york times" the ex-governor will not face feingold.uction of tapes. on to your calls. st. paul, dan, independent line. st. paul, minnesota. caller: how is it going? i wondering what all of these democrats and republicans, who really represents them because it does not seen anyone really represents the middle class in this country at all? it seems like basically the republicans are for the super rich and the democrats they are for everyone without jobs and stuff. i read in the paper that j.p. morgan's third quarter brought in like $4 billion as a profit. it just kind of wondering where everybody stands on that. host: texas, wayne, republican. caller: thank you for c-span. job creation. one of the things -- i am a retired manufacturing engineer and i have been in the business for 42 years. the big question i have is on salaried people, most salaried people are forced to work anywhere from 50, 60, some even 70 hours. if there was some cap put on to the amount a salary person could work there would be a lot more jobs working -- for people

next is senator feingold. let me thank him for his serious commitment to fiscal responsibility. thank and for his strong support for trying to bring the deficit down. and bring it down sharply as a share of our economy. >> thank you. i congratulate you and your staff for once again crafting a budget resolution. it is a very tough task in the effort made by you and your staff deserves all of our thanks. your resolution is a second as a response to requests by the administration that was handed the worst fiscal mess in our nation's history. we have seen some improvement in the last year but nobody should be unfurling mission accomplished signs just yet. unemployment is still a significant problem. businesses may be beginning to recover but there are still 15 million people who are officially unemployed and millions more working part time who want to work full time or are so discouraged that they have given up on looking. but we have to take steps to help businesses put people back to work. and i support those efforts. putting our economy on sound footing also means addressing the

i suppose i've run out of time but let me thank you and let me try to reiterate what senator feingolded. i don't believe our system of justice should be driven by fear and anger and that appears to be a driving force among some political camps in this country. if we are going to be strong as a nation we won't be quivering in fear and acting irrationally in anger. we are going to stand by the rule of law in the principles that guided us for a long time in a thank you for your leadership. >> thank you senator durbin. senator graham. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. attorney general for coming. this has been a good discussion about some difficult issues but one thing i would like to reiterate is president obama said the nation was at war with al qaeda. do you agree with that? >> yes. >> i would urge you to remain strong in that process because some people we don't-- don't believe we are at war. some people believe we should be using the law enforcement model exclusively and i think that is a formula for disaster and there are some people who say you can never use article iii cour

we had some key congressional leaders, senator russ feingold from wisconsin and at that time senatorarack obama as well as representative marty meehan were leading the charge to try to strengthen the revolving door. we had a good, good provision written in the original drafts of it that would have extended the cooling off period to two years and included lobbying activities, strategizing, the whole works as part of the ban within that two-year period. however, in the very end, even though we had the democratic leadership like nancy pelosi and harry reid behind it and all the freshmen members of congress supporting it, we had that middle lay irof congress, committee chairmen, who were just probably looking for that lubetive retirement slot coming up short thri who refused to accept any further restrictions on the revolving door. >> ohio, on our line for republicans. you're on the washington journal. caller: good morning. first-time caller. first, i want to make a statement as far as today there's -- our justice system is completely broke. nobody goes to prison, nobody pays a pice for

i'd like to thank representative mcgovern, jones and senator feingold for their leadership and for their hard work and collaboration on this very vital legislation. also i'd like to commend congresswoman woolsey for her stand and her work for global peace and security. tonight i understand it's her 350th time coming to this floor, sounding the alarm against these wars and i'd just like to congratulate her for her steadfastness. she actually introduced the very first resolution calling for the redeployment of our young men and women out of iraq. it's been nearly a decade now since i voted against the authorization of the use of force and this was on september 14, 2001. this was an authorization, mind you, that i knew then was a blank check to wage war any time, anywhere and for any length. that was a resolution that really authorized wars without end. h.r. 5015 provides the president and the congress the opportunity now to change the trajectory of united states foreign policy from one of open-ended military conflict towards a strategy which counters terrorism and extremism around the glob

not be, you know, that may run than and you may -- you hear that howard dean's of the world, russ feingold, some of the people far, far far left of the democratic party start to jump out of harness there. you have to harness on afghanistan. there will be all kinds of things that are going to get baked into the cake for 2012 that we don't know about you. but the thing about it is, just don't assume that because there's a bad midterm election this time, don't deserve anything at all. but the biggest thing is how does president obama perform after this midterm election. i have a theory that presidents, presidents perform better, they become better presidents after they have had, and i'm going to use another technical political science term here, after they've had a midterm election face plant. flat down, face down, mud. and i would argue that president clinton was a better president in his last six years in office that he was his to. and i would argue, i think that george w. bush was a better president in his last two years after that 2006. remember, he didn't have a first term midterm electi

eight people that voted against the graham-leach-bliley -- senator boxer, senator dorgan, senator feingoldi have seen times when a few people in the senate -- i don't think either party has a monopoly on it -- get together and just say the senate is off in the wrong direction. i think that day, those eight people said that. but senator dorgan deserves a special recognition, a special award because senator dorgan predicted in 1999 when he said, and i quote -- "we will in ten years time, look back and say we should not have done that, repeal glass-stegall, because we forgot the lessons of the past." he went on to say, and i quote -- "this bill will also, in my judgment, raise the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bailouts. it will fuel the consolidation and mergers in the banking and financial services industry at the expense of customers, farm businesses, family farmers, and others." i mean, that is amazing. that is absolutely amazing. he absolutely totally, completely nailed it. he predicted that it would lead to future massive temporary bailouts. i think we should listen carefully to