baucusthe grassley- committee to cooperate. people get along and if they want to cooperate, you get things done and in 10 years, only about three bills got out of committee that were not bipartisan bills. there is plenty of bipartisanship if you folks will tell the public about it. >> you now have about 74,000 followers on twitter with the ipo this last week and you have become a prolific tweeter. how often do you do it and why? >> well - why do i do it, that's easy? i don't do it often enough. i do it because it's the latest way to communicate with your constituents. what is being a senator all about? it is dialogue between those of us elected, we are half of the process, and the constituents of the other half. anything you can do to promote dialogue will strengthen our democracy. that's why i do it. >> senator chuck grassley, republican of iowa, thank you for being with us on "newsmakers." [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> we continue the conver

third, senator grassley has a bill to remedy it. why don't you work with us on a bipartisan basis to address the underlying problem. >> john, i really think that does not pass the laugh test. just coincidentally these are obama's nominees. >> let me further push the laugh test for a second. i can't resist. as you know, i like having you here, and i think you're always very candid and come at angles i don't think of normally. senator cornyn said today something that i think sort of fits. you're talking about a fight over three d.c. court of appeals judges. maybe sooner or later you might want to get to a nuclear option. senator cornyn said he thought faced with two weeks of going home that in fact this was kind of a good things to have a new argument. what happens it that made it necessary literally the day they're going home for the thanksgiving break to bring it up today? >> i think this has been talked about, majority leader reid has been talking about this for quite a while, and he wanted to get it done today. let me pick up on a

but today gop senator chuck grassley said they'll extend it to that court when they're in power. listen to this. >> the silver lining is that there will come a day when roles are reversed. when that happens, our side will likely nominate and confirm lower court and supreme court

as the ranking member of the judiciary committee, senator grassley, pointed out yesterday. the majority leader changes the rules for some judicial nominees, he is effectively changing them for all judicial nominees, including the supreme court, as senator grassley pointed out just yesterday. so look, i realize this sort of wishful thinking might appeal to the uninitiated newcomers in the democratic conference who served exactly zero days in the minority, but the rest of you guys in the conference should know better. those of you who have been in the minority before should know better. let's remember how we got here. let's remember that it was senate democrats who pioneered, who literally pioneered the practice of filibustering circuit court nominees and who have been its biggest proponents in the very recent past. after president bush was elected, they even held a retreat in which they discussed the need to change the ground rules by which lifetime appointments are considered. the senior senator from new york put on a seminar, invited laurence tribe, cass sunstein. in the p

senator grassley will join us after important business right down the hall. he'll be along as soon as he's cleared that. welcome, everybody. today's hearing is oversight of the bureau prisons and cost effective strategies for reducing recidivism. we'll exercise our legislative responsibility to conduct oversight of the bureau of prisons but more importantly, we'll explore with director charles and second panel of witnesses what can be done to improve or federal correction system to better protect the public while reducing costs. this is an area that astricted broad and bipartisan interest within the committee and i think there is real reason for on optimism in legislating effectively in the area. continued growth in federal spending on prisons and detention poses a significant threat to all other federal law enforcement and activities. in the last year, the cost obtaining inmates ate up more than 30% of the justice's department budget. since 2000 costs sortedded -- associated with federal prisons doubled. if nothing is done these costs will continue to consum

grassley: mr. president, webster's dictionary defines the word "success" as the correct or desired result of an intent." i want to discuss the definition of the word "success" as we debate the affordable care act. on the day the bill was signed into law president obama said the following -- quote -- "today we're affirming that essential truth, a truth every generation is called to discover for itself, that we're not a nation that scales back its aspirations." end of quote. such grand words for where we are today on that piece of legislation. today the success of the law that now bears his name obamacare is defined in much more meager terms. today success is that when the folks at health and human services got up this morning, obamacare had not shut down. and when the folks at h.h.s. go to sleep at night, their day will have been a success if obamacare did not have to shut down. think of all that. think of all that we've been through to this point after four years. the fight over the bill and the ex

grassley: plap? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. grass dpras wmr. grassley: we da chance to debate the change in rules, and we should have had, so i'm going to speak now on some things that i think should have been said before we voted, not that it would have changed the outcome but because we ought know what we're doing before we vote rather than afterwards. so i'll spend a few minutes discussing what the majority leader called -- just did on the so-called nuclear option. unfortunately, this wasn't a new threat. over the last several years, every time the minority leader has chosen to exercise his rights under the senate rules, the majority has threatened to change the rules. in fact, this is the third time in just the last year or so that the majority leader has said that he didn't get -- if he didn't get his way on nominations, he'd change the rules. ironically, that's about as many judicial nominees as our side has stopped through a filibuster. three or so. prior to the recent attempt by the president to simultaneously add three judges to the d.

that's the charge from republican chuck grassley. a few moments ago jay carney told me that's nonsense. take a listen. >> he says you're doing that so that it starts after the midterm elections. >> the fact is we're doing this because it makes sense for insurers to have a clearer sense of pool of consumers they gain in the market this year before setting rates for next year. >> now, if it makes sense to do that for the 2015 enrollment i also asked jay why not extend the 2014 enrollment even further. as you know, you talked about this extension within december for this year. but that enrollment for 2014 extends through the end of march. the early part of next year. they've got this six-month time period that started a few weeks back, of course. jay said, look, they've -- overall, you've got six months there. no reason to extend that. but as you know, it's not just republicans on the hill but about a dozen senate democrats have said that maybe it should be extended beyond march 31st of 2014 because fans are logging on. >>> lawmakers wa

amendment, grassley came up with an idea, it was going to be a move in which members of congress and their staffs would have to go into exchanges, and he thought, aha, they'll vote against it. and members of congress said, okay, fine we'll go on the exchanges. and now congress has the status that was totally different than any employer in the country. and there were real consequences. there are consequences to legislating based on what you think will score you a debate point. >> and in this case, what fred upton has done with this bill, is not to order that insurance companies reinstate all of these plans, but to give them the option of doing it. it makes it even worse, because the plans that the insurers will bring back is the ones insuring the healthiest people and leave the others who will going to go on the exchanges which is going to raise the costs of the exchanges, just like the grassley amendment, you'll have a number of democrats who are hearing from constituents and this is something that the president should not have said what he said repeatedly, it's blowing up in his fac

when the got to the point where the argument from grassley and mcconnell and other republicans wasn't that the nominees were unqualified, there's a specific problem with this specific nominee. the argument was the court itself is too big and therefore we're not going to confirm anyone to the senate. when it got to that point, republicans fount themselves trapped between the war their base wants. the war their base wants against any and every nominee obama sends up. and the fact they as senators who represent full states, not these republican-friendly districts in a lot of cases, but states where they have to answer to a more difficult general election electorate, having to defend the filibusters, or risking talking about it. this rules change takes them off the hook, and as you see, it's going to let them spend the next year playing victim. >> thank you, steve. thank you, joan walsh. coming up, the smoking gun. we now have because of the good reporting by the "new york times" today, a republican playbook. it's an actual document on how to kill affordable care. it's a multi-part effort

the more and more absurd this got, when it got to the point the argument from mcconnell and grassley and all the republicans wasn't that the individual nominees were unqualified. there's a specific problem with this specific nominee. the argument was, the court itself is too big and therefore, we're not going to confirm anybody. when it got to that point, republicans found themselves trapped. republican senators between the war that their base wants, the war that their base wants against any and every nominee who obama sends up and the fact that they have senators who represent full states, not the republican friendly districts in a lot of cases but states where they got to answer a more difficult electorate, having to defend these filibusters or risk the primary challenge that would come for breaking with the filibuster and allowing any of the nominees to come through. this rule change today takes them off the hook for that and it's going to let them spend the next year playing victim. >> i know. thank you steve kornacki and joan walsh. coming up, the smoking gun. because of the rep

threats from senator grassley. republicans threaten democrats.crats cower in fear. >> there is a gamble to run. what are odd of being a republican president and when? >> a good point. >> then what is the composition of the senate going to be? on changing the filibuster rule for nominations. >> you have how to look further down the road. at some point, right, this would benefit the republicans if there was of a rule change. have to say to your point. i hear. >> democrats don't do this to republican nominees. you don't need a rule change to tame the democts on republican nominees. >> if you win an election. you should have a chance to enact your agenda. the republican agenda is very bad for america. bad for americans. if they see it in action they will kick them out and go in another direction. that's why i think we have to change the rule. we have gotten to the point where the senate doesn't work, government doesn't work at all. agencies like the d.c. district court, critical court for the country are unable to function because of senators. >> joh

i also want to talk about our good friend chuck grassley.n seeing a lot of each other recently because we are on the budget committee together. we make the same argument and because we keep making the arguments we do not have -- we are not where we need to be right now. chuck and i think it is not the government's money, it is your money, the taxpayers who sent it in the first place. [applause] i want to thank chuck for all he has done. this is a man who has so much respect among congressional republicans. chuck grassley, thank you for your service. we are indebted to your gratitude. some people say that presidential campaigns are wrong -- rough on families. that they are rough, they are ringers. that is not the experience that jenna and my three kids have. we had a delightful experience. some of the good memories we had were traveling with tim reynolds through iowa. we went down to clinton, iowa, where jenna's mom is from. they had in the kitchen in pencil where jenna and her three sisters as she grew up -- the homeowners kept that there. i

our guest, gop senator chuck grassley, is firing back at the president's claim that congress is not doing its constitutionally mandated job. >>> and the money lead. if you look at the top names in technology, you might conclude that silicon valley is estrogen deficient but a new report says it's not all hoodies these days. >>> good afternoon. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin with the national lead. police are officially treating it as an attempted murder/suicide. the call came in this morning bringing police to the virginia home of creigh deeds, state senator and former democratic nominee for governor. inside, they found deeds stabbed several times in the head and torso but still alive. also inside, his 24-year-old son, austin gus deeds, suffering from a gunshot wound. gus deeds would not leave the scene alive. the richmond times-dispatch is reporting that gus deeds was sent for a mental health evaluation under an emergency custody order sometime in the past, but the paper cites a source saying he was released yesterday because no bed was available. his father, a man who o

hatch and grassley asked insurers for their enrollment data for just the dc exchange. not every exchange around the country, just d.c. i have one of the letters from blue cross blue shield that says as of october 24th, blue cross blue shield care first here in washington has only received two enrollees for almost the entire month of october. other insurers said only the three and two other insurers that provided these letters to grassley and hatch said they were not able to provide any enrollment data. all of this comes as the white house is facing the subpoena from the house republicans saying we want this enrollment data by the end of today. at this point, as you know, the white house is sounding pretty cool to that idea. >> this was one of the interesting things we heard from president obama last night. clearly the white house is trying to find this fix for the people who like their plan, were not able to keep it, then they go onto the exchanges, they try to find a plan and it turns out that to get something comparable or that, would for them, they have to pay a who

protecting them while reporters were trying to protecting the they called it body checking the senator grassley from iowa mentioned this at a senate hearing whether fbi agent should be so quick to protect somebody who's presumed innocent of course, but these tactics were pretty wild. the trial started in like october of '07. headlines like this everyday in the new york tabloids. agent of death. like they basically had convicted him, but the star witness, one of the star witnesses was the woman i told you, and his alleged that by these reporters now on the left you going to see one of the most famous can probably the greatest contemporary port on organized crime. he played himself in the sopranos. so tom robbins in the middle worked with him at the daily news. they interviewed linda in 1997 for a book they were doing and they claim that they claim they just happened to look in the case just before puppet of course they don't for a year and a half she was going to be a star witness, but whatever. on the right is mike. i'm have to tell you, okay, so please half of my book is accurate, all right? [

chuck grassley can say the same thing. we were in all the debates and they said, it is a new government-granted right. here's the problem. if government is the guarantor of our rights, the government decides how we get that right. who, from where do we get that right? that is what we are seeing with this health care law. we are seeing choices go down, prices go up, and we have not even begun to see what will happen to the hospitals and the providers. i think next time people will be more skeptical. we are seeing big government in practice. and so while they have made it easier to expose these ideas, we have to do even more to make sure they understand who we are and what we believe in. you know, unlike the left, we need to have an mandate that is an honest mandate. we need a mandate and honest competition so that we can have victories, so that we can resuscitate the american idea. we look at this, we are confident in our ideas. we know what fiscal responsibility actually looks like. all you have to do is look at terry bran

republican senator chuck grassley of iowa is financ commiee member and he joins me now. senator, tnks for being with us tonight. tell me, was there a collective grown in the room when sebelius said, no, no delays? we will not delay implementation of omacare? >> of course there was. let me tell you why this is a real political problem for the white house because, just evidenced by 14 democrats up for re-election this cycle,oing down to the white house to meet with i suppose the president and all the other people involved in trying to correct this situation. so i think that, particularly democrats answering that question, you're going to have a one-year delay forwo reasons. one, because it is needed of the because the website is not working. number two, just as a matter of fairness. you have an employer mandate so big corporations are geting a year delay. why not the individual? gerri: well, makes great sense. as we know humana projected they will get a one year delay. today when the president met withemocratic senators, apparently those democratic senators saying please,

grassley: plap? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. grass dpras wmr. grassley: we da chance to debate the change in rules, and we should have had, so i'm going to speak now on some things that i think should have been said before we voted, not that it would have changed the outcome but because we ought know what we're doing before we vote rather than afterwards. so i'll spend a few minutes discussing what the majority leader called -- just did on the so-called nuclear option. unfortunately, this wasn't a new threat. over the last several years, every time the minority leader has chosen to exercise his rights under the senate rules, the majority has threatened to change the rules. in fact, this is the third time in just the last year or so that the majority leader has said that he didn't get -- if he didn't get his way on nominations, he'd change the rules. ironically, that's about as many judicial nominees as our side has stopped through a filibuster. three or so. prior to the recent attempt by the president to simultaneously add three judges to the d.

. >> senator grassley. >> thank you, mr. samuels for being here, and thank you, mr. chairman. we have 25% of the federal prisons are foreign citizens. anyone concerned about reducing prison costs should make lowering that number a priority. what can your agency do, the bureau do more effectively to use the international prisoner program to make more of the foreign citizens serve their sentences than their home countries rather than at u.s. taxpayer experience? >> all right. thank you, senator, for this question. 25% of the population comprises nine u.s. citizens. that number equates to 55,000 criminal aliens in our population. we have a treaty transfer program that we are actively using, and there is room to ensure that we are increasing the numbers as far as the participant for the program. we are reaching out throughout the bureau to ensure the staff are explaning this program in its entirety to the inmates who would benefit from being removed from within the bureau prison and given an opportunity to serve their time through the agreements that we have with the international

republican charles grassley immediately cried foul. if premiums go through the roof the first year of obama care, no one will know about it until after the election. this is clearly a cynical political move by the obama administration to use extra regulatory by any means necessary to keep this program afloat and hide key information from voters. white house spokesman jay carney scoffed aught that charge. >> we're doing it because it makes sense for insurers to have as clear a pool of -- before setting rates for next year. >> there's still this year's problems with the website to deal with. the administration revealed another smaller delay. for those who want coverage to begin on january 1st, the sign-up deadline has been pushed from december 15th to december 23rd of this year. meanwhile, new questions about whether the president can keep another key promise he made to sell the law. >> if you like your plan, and you like your doctor, you won't have to do a thing. you keep your plan, you keep your doctor. >> doctors' fees were -- in acce

senator grassley has been on the committee for a lot longer. he's always got amendments on the farm bill. senator johanns is a former secretary of agriculture, excellent senator, excellent representative for nebraska and a real voice for agriculture. he had several amendments. personally, i had about two or three amendments. i would have liked to have been considered. the reason i'm mentioning them is we all agreed to hold off on committee if we could raise them on the floor because we wanted to expedite it because the big issue is time. we don't have time for a farm bill. usually farm bills take a week or two weeks. that's not the case anymore. we did it in two and a half days last year. this year we were expecting to have votes. none of us, none of us got amendments. after ten, maybe seven -- i think it was ten votes, bingo, it was cut off. and the majority leader controlled the effort. this is like the house. this is like the rules committee. i remember when i was in the house. i remember we had a roberts-stenholm amendment. mr. sessions: in

want to talk about our good friend, chuck grassley.ck and i have been seeing a lot of each other lately. we keep making the same argument and because we make these arguments, we are not where we need to be right now. i think the money that comes from the government is not but ourrnment's money, money, the tax players who made it in the first place. made the taxpayers who first place. i'd like to thank chuck for all he has done. chuck grassley, thank you for all of your service. we are indebted to your gratitude. some people say president campaigns are rough on campaigns. a are really tough. that's not the experience that jenna and our three kids had. some of the great memories we northern,raveling up southern and eastern and western iowa. going over where my grandfather went. where'd jenna's mom is from. house sheto the learned to walk on and they had the little height notations where she and her three sisters grew up. the homeowners cap that there. is that not good iowa cultural values or what? we are excited about this coming march w

i mean, really -- chuck grassley and mitch mcconnell, they went too far. by saying that simply appointing judges to the d.c. circuit was, quote, court packing. they forced the hand of the democrats. they cannot be reasoned with or compromised with. this is a obstruction and finally democrats went along with harry reid and said we'll do it. >> as i said, diana washington's song "what a difference a day makes." this is going to be a difference we all remember. those blocking appointments they've been out there challenging the legitimacy. and this is the senate's top republican. here's mitch mcconnell speaking to the senate earlier today. >> here's the problem. it doesn't distract people from obama care. it reminds them of obama care. it reminds them of all the broken promises. it reminds them of the power grab. it reminds them of the way democrats set up one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else. >> you know what, steve, i think he's making a kind of heroic effort to change the subject. it reminds me of the damn filibuster itself. now pe

i want to start by picking up where senator grassley left off. you would agree the only authoritatively go statements generally speaking if you look to as a judge would be those that are actually produced by one of the three branches of government and yet that is not at all what you were saying in this blog closed. you were saying lost in this approach, lost in the approach taken by chief justice roberts whose opinion you were critiquing that particular day is any sense of the broader legal culture that produces authoritatively go statements that you were comparing and contrasting those and i understand you were saying you were raising a question and you made some arguments for both sides but i read through the post and you made more arguments on one side than the other. regardless you did indicate you had your suspicions regarding this kind of practice and i have my suspicions that this practice is intentional. do you have -- do you approach this with suspicion? >> i have supplied the published opinion that i signed at the office of legal counse

. >> on the clarence thomas and scalia thing, chuck grassley saying, you know, you better be careful what you wish to, more clarence thomases and scalias. they made it through confirmation. they are not like fabrication of chuck grassley's mind. >> although they seem to be at some point fabrications of conservative means. >> kasie, i wonder what the dynamic on the hill is. part of the functionality were gentlemen's agreements everybody would color inside the line. this is called a nuclear option because it's seen as a drastic measure. i wonder if it erodes any goodwill or bipartisanship that may be any shreds of that that still linger in the halls of capitol hill. >> this move by senate majority leader harry reid is not going to do anything to bring the temperature down here. this is just sort of turning it up and cranking a little further. the reality is that the number of senators who remember being on the other side of the coin either remember what it's like to be in the minority or remember what it's like to be in the majority and need to get your judges nominations through is dw

allow a republican majority which will come one day anyway to get its nominees through, but chuck grassley has said that when republicans come into you power, they're going to include supreme court nominees. and that will be a devastating blow to the liberals on the court and to the liberals in the country. so i don't think testimonies will remember this day with any joy in the near future. >> how much do you think this had to do with obama care? some republican lawmakers think it had a lot to do with it. >> it surely is a way to have something to talk about, some victory to bring home in probably the worst month for the democrats in a decade. excluding the 2010 election. but i do think it was an issue that was roiling. they do want to have the power to put judges in because they are losing on all the other elements. so it was their desire to leave a legacy, but it is a very short run outlook. it will be the legacy of a few appointments, but the legacy of the republicans will return the favor in spades in the future. >> and the status of president obama and his administration at this point

that's a republican view from senator chuck grassley. i put the same question to jay carney. >> says you're doing that so it starts after the mid-term election. >> the fact is we're doing this because it makes sense for insurers to have as clear a sense of a pool of consumers they gate in the market before setting rates for next year. >> after that briefing the administration announced yet another delay, this one smaller, but of if you want to get health care started on january 1st january 1st under the new exchanges -- originally you had to have all the paperwork done by december 15th. now because of the web site problems they're push can back that dade to 'december 23rd. >> ed henry at the white house, thank you very, very much. the white house clearly would know that any delay right now is going to raise hackles and concern from a once friendly media to one that is no so friendly anymore. five million americans have seen their policies canceled. are we looking at 80 million more next? across america people are taking charge of their t

senator grassley and i have produced a bill which would -- have introduced a bill which would do that, and we've been fighting for enactment of this bill for years. president obama was an original cosponsor when he was in the senate. law enforcement is the biggest supporter. society of former special agents of the fbe, -- fbi, southern. representing 26,000 federal law enforcement officers explained their support for the bill this way. quote: suspected terrorists, drug trafficking organizations and other criminal enterprises continue to exploit the anonymity afforded to them through the current corporate filing process, hiding behind a registered agent these criminals are able to incorporate without disclosing who the beneficial owners are for their companies, and this enables them to establish corporate flow-through entities otherwise known as shell companies to facilitate money launder something narco terrorist financing. so our bill, the levin-grassley bill, is endorsed by huge numbers of law enforcement, public interest groups, good government groups, and i'll put the list in the r

he can do anything he wants because he's chuck grassley and he's is our hero. where are you? [applause] there he is. is always up on the chair or running with soldiers. he's our hero. thank you for all of your service. we have a terrific team running this state at the executive level. very, very good team that we could be proud of. thateputation was so good the governor was governor, not governor, then we asked him to be governor again. he doing a great job but he's having fun. the energy is terrific. the lieutenant governor is someone we can be very proud of. she's articulate. she's going places. she's taking the state places. lieutenant governor kam reynolds. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for that great introduction. we certainly appreciate everything that you've done for the republican party over the years. it's great to be here at the fall dinner. and orn rogers publicans, congratulations on putting together another excellent event. perry, welcome back to iowa. senator cruz was here last month and it's good to have another texan in the hawkeye state. over the pa

that the administration dithered and dithered, and twiddled its thumbs so that max baucus and chuck grassleyome out with a plan. time and time again in the health care area. >> he level it mostly to capitol hill democrats. >> the democrats have made overtures to republicans that other members of his party have just rebelled at. >> well, on this particular issue, ron johnson has a bill. do you think he'll call ron johnson and work with him? >> i would throw your question back at you. that's a good thing in media training. >> it's called "crossfire." >> where has the republicans' willingness to tweak, save, improve obama care. unless there's a willingness to do that, it's hard to imagine a common ground to meet on other than hi, i'm here, i surrender independents who would the president be negotiating with? let's take a look. >> do you like green eggs and ham? i do not like them, sam i am. i do not like green eggs and ham. >> 46 votes to defund, derail or repeal obama care. hundreds of am cuss briefs. who wants to work with the preside. >> so the president mass worked with republicans? >> he h

this is according to republican senators chuck grassley of iowa and orrin hatch of utah but out of the four insurance the lawmakers asked for, only two companies had the enrollment numbers. you can get the full stories and keep up with the healthcare headlines by going on our website www.wusa9.com. >>> in tonight's news where you live let's begin in fairfax county where virginia's race for attorney general could soon be decided. turns out as many as 3,000 absentee ballots might not have been tabulated election night. the problem? apparently it boils down to just one machine. fairfax county election officials plan to work through the weekend to sort this out. at last check republican mark mark obenshain was leading democrat mark herring about 700 votes. >>> stanley fries was last seen thursday afternoon at 1:00 at hershey's restaurant in gaithersburg. he drives a brown 2003 ford crown vick with maryland tags and suffers from -- crown vic with maryland tags and suffers from dementia. call police if you've seen him. >>> the panda cam captured this footage of mama panda mei xiang cuddling

come from our chairman and others on our side working with folks like the ranking member senator grassley and senator cornyn and many others. this bill is an effort to continue that tradition. senator hellor? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to senator flake, i'm real pleased to be here today. i'd like to thank you also for inviting me to testify. i want to thank you for holding this hearing. and mr. chairman, i want to thank you for your leadership that you bring to the table on transparency to both collection programs run by the nsa. this is a strong bill rooted in the belief that nevadaens, minnesotans and all americans should be provided access to reports that explain the personal communication records that the government has collected and how many american. s have had their information caught up in that collection. by now most people are aware of the collection practices by the federal government that are authorized by sections of the patriot act and sections of the fisa amendments act. i'm confident the full judiciary committee will have a robust debate on the collection practices an

so senator grassley has asked and i've supported and our bill would call for hearings, and then we would transfer these judges to places that have greater needs. and that's why the judges were not moved forward. the caseloads continued to decline, the need is less than ever and we don't have the money to fill a slot that we don't need. so i just tell you, it is heartbreaking to see that we have crossed this rubicon and changed these rules when the president as a matter of actual ability to perform the job has only had two judges be -- failed to be confirmed out of over 250. so this is just breathtaking to me and a lot of -- just a growing concern on our side of the aisle that senator reid, the majority leader, is just very unwilling to accept the process. he's unwilling to accept the fact that he can't win every battle. and so he just changed the rules so he could win. i feel that this is a dark day for the senate. i don't know how we can get our way out of it, but it's the biggest rules change -- certainly since i've been in the senate, maybe in the history of the senate where it's chan

i agree exactly with what senator grassley said, the $600 billion tax hike that came with the fiscal cliff legislation at the end of last year was our tax hike. we have gotten the tax hike, and we will not support another one. let's explore representative cole's idea of an expedited tax reform process to get us the pro-growth tax policies that will give us the additional revenue we need. lastly, let's explore enacting the mandatory savings contained in president obama's own budget. president obama has outlined budget savings in the entitlement programs that were courageous, difficult, but they do not cut benefits. these proposals do not cut social security. they do not cut medicaid. no one is suggesting, as has been alluded to, suggested by some members of this conference committee that there is a proposal to slash benefits or cut benefits. all we're talking about and all the president is talking about in the mandatory proposed savings in his own budget is slowing the growth rate of these very important programs to save our nation from a fiscal and debt crisis and to save the very va