not a lot of regulatory teeth and what hhs has an terms of, can't say no to a rate increase.oes not give the states new authority to say, no, but it does require this spotlight. in my experience, that sort of thing often times works effectively. california did not have authority over the rate increase, but when the public spotlight was shown, it turned out the rate increase was withdrawn. that is a critical part of the process. the basic standards are the same in every state. rate increases cannot be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. not too many cases are -- of inadequate. not many cases of excessive across the board. what you often have is unfair discrimination, which is the rates that are set by chopping up the pole into little segments and charging people a lot more than other people, and that raises questions, aren't they rose fair or unfair forms of discrimination. that is where most of the rate activity is, where it was with me and some case. and states have mixed authority. we have good authority in oregon to address those issues in individual and sma

>> general mcchrystal hhs the call to the president. the president has not called general mcchrystal. the president as the general mcchrystal, and they will get an opportunity to talk about the article face to face some time tomorrow. >> you want to wait? >> he is cominn back here to have that face to face . >> will they be alone? >> i anticipate that. >> he says that the disagreement is not over policies. he says it is over the personality and it would have a negative impact. does the president make a distinction? believes and i think most believe that personality differences asiie, we are here to implement a new strategy and put together over the course of three months in the situation room. it is our job to implement it. the president does not believe that personalities whenever the disagreement are forward should distract from the strategy to get afghanistan right. the president talkeddfear out the campaign and time we created this strategy that the war effort in afghanistan is under resource. now there are four times the number of

no moreilsurance companie termi that children who facinmecal ships don't deserve affordable hh care. more willrivate dustry cide which children serve care and which ones do not. i heldultiple n hllsn health care por to the passage of the bill. and i was moved by the many oriei heard. e in particular me from a father barely able to affd healare for his son suffered with ckle cell anemia. the inuranompany found sickle cello be a pre-isng conditand as such the only insurae hecould find was tronomical in price and he could not afford it. i am proud that this cuntry redied this situa fors child who only wanted to give his son a stt healthy tu. on september 23, insuran mpanies will be banned fm cappinthe amount omoney they one of my constuents, who ie. wiall mary, especily excited about this particul prision. mary has been payfor heal care insurance as well cattrophic alth care insurance for many yrs. he ds this in she h the lifetimeimit. she saw her owotherwho has brain cancer an noealth surance inundated witical bills well in exces0,00 -- $60,000. she lived in fear that at mig happen to

he was the senator from pennsylvania and secretary of hhs a few years back. we are heavily loaded with pennsylvania's. tom ridge is here tonight. we are delighted to have the governor here. [applause] the former secretary of the department of homeland security. i want to introduce two people who are very important to us because they helped us with the appropriations of the wilson center at the united states congress. they may be the most important people here so far as i am concerned. [laughter] janey james and chris tobeck are here. [applause] they do marvelous work on the step of the appropriations committee. i am delighted that jim leach is here who is chairman of the national endowment of the humanities and a former colleague of mine on our board. [applause] i will be introducing sam donaldson in a moment, but i want to say that his wife jan is here and we are delighted to have you here as well. [applause] we have the president of s iemens usa. we have several ambassadors with us tonight ambassador su from the republic of korea, will you stand please? [ap

. -- mental health is the area that needs the most attention when you think of a combat stress that hhs been placed on these young men and women year after year. we need to recognize this needs to o through the rest of their lives. we need to learn from countries like america, where much more is done to follow up on mental health issues. the honorable member is looking at this area, working between the minister of ddfence and the department of health. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. further to that question. and as the right honorable generate -- can i ask the ight honnrable gentleman if he would meet with a panel of inquiry appointed by a group for pure form, discussing this very issue ? cuddy's bear some time to meet with us in the future? -- coulddhe spare some time to meet with us in the future? >> either i or the defense secretary ould be happy to meet with him and his colleagues. he makes a very good poont. the problem of mental health issues -- it has not had enough attention. we seek for soldiers all through the nets. they end up homeless on the street or in thh criminal ju

gueest: this guy came from nowhere, and ll of a sudden hhs a ton of momentum. he is doing surprisinnly well to the run-up. thurmond has all the momentum, -- he mightely win be the best shot the republicans haae o have an african-american in the congress in eight years. both eric cantor and another% have backed him. hh is the tea party favorite. sarah palin has backed him. seat for henry brown who is rrtiring. whoever emerges from this will be the favorite. host: also, the gubernatorial runoff in south carolina. haley is expecced to do well because she had such a high advantage with 49% in the initial primary battle. who is she guest: facing she is a member of congress, whom there have been a number of allegations concerning haley of adulteress affairs. it has not hurt haley, though. mitt romney back to her. unless there is a major upset, she will win. she wouud be favored to win in -- in south carolina, the favorite, unless ssmething emerges that is very conroversial. but she has withstood the punches. host: what are the other office reading the races right now

hh states reviews and the justices take notes.how to write the opinion in a way that will get four other votes besides run. >> i was the most junior member of the score for 11 years. if no one else was in the room, i had a special group -- job of opening thh door if somebody knocked. usually someone had forgotten the paper. i had been doing that for 10 years. i think i have gotten pretty good at it. oh, i'm not sure. but we get along very well. the nine of us get on very well. >> is in formal in the sense there's a certain amount of conversation. but most of his wook. >> the justices are actually very thoughtful bout what they're doing. and each one was very thoughtful about giving their reasons for their vote. >> i still not heard the first unkind word in that room. now you think what we have decided. life-and-death, abortion, execution, war and peace, financial ruin government, relationship with the citizen -- you name it, we have decided it. >> those discussions lead a tentatively.+ that vote is not cast in concrete. concrete y

you can talk about john jay, and how we got to the court, appointed by george washington, and then hh gets to be elected to the governor of new york, and the decides that is best. and then you have a beautiful portraits of the chief justice in a grand portrait, very similar to the one of george washington in the capitol building, and there is your chance to talk about that. that carries over into the west conference room with the more modern justices. there are the two instrumental justices in this building, william howard taft on one wall and charles evans hughes above the fireplace, looking at each other through time. >> i like to go sometimes on a quiet night to the connerence rooms, because the portraits on the walls are all of my predecessors as chief justice. to some extent, you look up at them onnthe walls with a degree of a lot and an appreciation of what they did. they are eager looking down on me with either bemusement or amazement. each of them has the story to tell, not even personally but the institution of the court. you look up at marshall and appreciate the court funct

stone has the art -- still hhs seniority in his favor. frankfurter asserted that stone's republican credentials were asset. into worlds entry war ii, frankfurter a biased fdr that a bipartisan pick would serve him well in the turbulent days ahead. fdr promised a future supreme court appointed to be disappointed jackson. stone's nomination met with unanimous acclaim. for his nomination recommendation, but as a cheap and associate justice, stone earned another award. it is a bipartisan price. in the documented illustrations of his suggestions to the president, stone, recommended a democrat, cardoza, to a republican, hoover. truman knew all four supreme court appointees well. still supported burton believing his senatorial experience would serve the court well. stricken by a fatal hemorrhage while presiding over the court on the bench in 1946, chief justice stone was replaced by a german appointee. -- stone was replaced by a truman appointee. justice frankfurter continued his influence as his tenure move towards its conclusion in the 1960's.

hh will be there beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. live coverage on c-span 3. we will talk today about the announcement by the white house and bp yesterday that bp will set aside a $20 billion fund for gulf oil spill victims. we would like to know what you think about that. well, good thursday morning. there is lots of good detail in our newspapers about the discussions between bp officials and the white house. mechanics of the $20 billion set aside that they agreed to make. we will share that with you as we listen to your comments. let me tell you a little bit about the reporting from "the washington post." they write -- we will hear from you in just a couple of minutes about what you think about this. but let me tell you the little bit more about the mechanics of this, or how it happened yesterday from "the new york times." they set the stage in a lead story. they write -- let's begin telephone calls to get your reaction to this decision by bp. alabama. danny on the democrats' line. caller: i wonder how many of the people who were calling in yesterday-in -- y

we are just worried, we not know what is going to h h h h hh >> on wednesday, c-span crew traveled with charlie melancon to discuss the response to the oil spill. the coast guard admiral and epa and administrator are among those with whom he met. this is about 25 minutes. >> right now, we are having problems. it was coming off of the mouth of the mississippi and through these passes that are coming through the inner waters right here. we were having trouble pulling assets from the eastern side of the mississippi to the western side. it was too late of a response in order to get all this done at that time. now, thankfully, they have deployed people in this area. the response is substantially better. it is done substantially better. the manpower and assets deployed, that has gone significantly better over the last two or three weeks. >> what were the effects of it being slow in the first couple of weeks? >> the response was way too slow. we saw some oil coming into our parish one day, and it was the next day that anyone responded to look at it. they didn't have the assets or people to act

[applause] he was the senator from pennsylvania and also secretary of hhs a few years back.we are heavily loaded with pennsylvanians. tom ridge is here tonight. we are delighted to have a governor here. [applause] the former secretary of the department of homeland security. i want to introduce two people who are very important to us because they help us with the appropriations of the wilson center at the united states congress. they may be the most important people here so far as i am concerned. [laughter] jenny james and chris topeck are here. would you stand? [applause] they do a marvelous work on the staff of the appropriations committee. i am delighted that jim leach is here who is chairman of the national endowment of humanities and he is a formal college of mine on the board. -- former the government on the board. sam donaldson's white is here. we are delighted to have you, jan. we have the president of siemen's usa. [applause] we have several ambassadors with us tonight. the ambassador from the republic of korea, would he stand please? over here. [applause] the ambass

one other thing, hh wants to close down all these oilwells out in the gulf. that will affect 40,000 jobs. by closing these wells down, the added pressure they're putting on the valves, pipes -- all this equipment when they shut down, it has the potential to create more of a hazard. host: on the front page this morning, "the usa wins 1-1." the relationship with our great britain is the subject. obama had a conversation with the new prime minister, david cameron. president obama's says that we like the u.k., but do not like bp. the president is asking the congress to vote on monday before july 4. he says the deficit will take care of itself, but we need the multiplier effect spawned by sitting upon the -- that is a message from twitter concerning the president's request for money from congress. caller: i am from connecticut, so-called, one of the richest states in the country. there have been so many teachers in schools closed -- i don't understand why these people don't understand what the president is doing. as teachers are laid off the students are crowded w

we will begin with senator carl levin offmichigan as hh gaveled the armed services committee into session thii morning we will show you that until the house comes back into session. we expect that at 11:30. >> good morning, everybody. today the committee receive testimony on the progress in afghanistan from undersecretary of defense policy, michele flournoy, and general david petraeus, commander of u.s. central command. general petraeus, please extend to all the men and women serving under your command the thanks of this committee for their tremendous service and dedication to the cause of this country. they deserve our support, and know our committee gives them the full support, and to the families as well. >> i will do that, mr. chairman. thank you. >> last month, a milestone was reached where more troops are serving and afghanistan and iraq. the news from afghanistan in recent weeks has been largely negative. . the role of local power brokers including members of the karzai family and, the heart. the growth of militias and the counter productive activities of some u.s.-eyed private sec

the epa and hhs and the cdc say that they can't see any metal whole of the facts. but the examination certainly found out what the sulfur-type gases do is it curves every medal in the house so you go into one of these houses and all the air conditioning coils are corroded. they have to be replaced. every piece of metal in the house is corroded. and as a result, the values have just plummeted and here is the poor homeowner. the bank won't work with them on their mortgage, the insurance company says we don't know you. they go to the home builder and the home builder has gone bankrupt and here is the poor homeowner living in a house that is not livable, and they can't sell it because the value has plummeted. now there is a courageous federal judge in new orleans that has issued two or thr rulings and the question is not whether or not these companies are reliable, the question is what is the damage and what he has basically said is the only way you could limit the situation is to strip it down to the studs in the walls, everett felt all of thewiring and the pipes and

[applause] he, of course, was senator from pennsylvania, also secretary of hhs a few years back.e are fairly heavily loaded with pennsylvania ends. tom ridge is here. -- with pennsylvanians. tom ridge is here. [applause] i want to introduce two people who are important to us, because they help us with the appropriations at the wilson center, and they may be the most important people here, as far as i am concerned. would you stand? [applause] they do marvelous work on the appropriations committee. i am delighted that jim is here. he is now chairman of the national endowment of humanities. [applause] i am going to be introducing sam donaldson in a moment, but i want to say that his wife is here. we are delighted to have you, as well. [applause] we have the president of siemens usa. we are delighted to have him with us. [applause] we have several ambassadors with us. one from the republic of korea. over here. the ambassador from the swedish embassy. the ambassador from japan is here. [applause] and the ambassador from mexico is here. we are delighted to have him. [applause] i think

hh-60 blackhawk helicopter, skillfully piloted by a native of virginia, located the downed aircraft in extremely difficult circumstances. the snow and ice of the line at the time was treacherous and the valor of him should be commended by all. i'd like to thank specialist dunfy, flight medics. sergeant hopkins and dunfy were lowered to the site to provide medical care throughout the night as rescue workers labored their way to the survivors. thanks are also deserved to the pilot of the 130th airlift wing of the west virginia national guard who assisted by orbiting the crash site in a c-130 hercules aircraft in order to facilitate vital communication. volunteer, civilian service men and women alike all gave their hand to rescue the survivors. the snowshoe mountain ski resort provided invaluable machinery and staff to help. local people donated snowmobiles. the fire and rescue unit were instrumental in using special equipment and snowmobiles to clear a path to the location of the crash. the valley had fire -- the valleyhead fire department, the ambulance, white sulfur springs e.m.s. and

i think that part of the problem hhs been that at different times when the united states could have taken advantage of invasion moderate conservatives ttey were focused on the reform movement. they thought those people had power. now, we have reached a point, unfortunately, where there really cannot be engagement. i think there have been key moments of missed opportunities because the wronpeople were engaged. >> the question has been asked of the other panel and i would like your thoughts on it -- should the united states government intervene in a run at all? if the united states does so, the think it would hurt the movement inside iran or not? >> i touched on this briefly. this is a very loaded question. i think it depends on the kind of help, but i think there are morr subtle ways of recognizing civil society and recognizing the green movement. right now, at least as far as i know, the administration has been fairly silent. one of the -- i think that the legitimacy problem in iran is very serious. by recognizing the opposition as a political force in iran in poliiics -- in iranian polit

so in o sense, it didn't take them any te at all to cut hh the red tape.the other hand, in this particular example, since thers been criticisms from within industry and without at b.p. did and how they drilled, how they constrted that well, perhaps in this case there shod have oversight. rous st: michigan, democratic line. bob, good morning. caller: good morning. representative cassidy, is the fact truth to -- guest: i've lost you, bob. host: wre going to have to ove cler: said that they thought the federal governmentught to b.p. y for this. guest: bob, i jus caut the statement.f your did somebody say in the house at the federal government that? help b.p. pay for anybody say that. saying the 's government should take over b.p.? guest: well, people want the federal government to federalize the response, if y will. o aspects to the spect is and one a what's happening at the sea level, where the well is actually leaking. admiral thad allen has said, rightly so, theederal vernment doenot have the resources, nor the expertise, experience, etc., to te over that

general kagan has set herself a hh bar for providing material to this committee already. during a previous confirmation hearing, for example, she explained clearly and plainly her views about national security and terrorism, her views about the second amendment as well as her views about these very confirmation hearings, which in the past, she herself has criticized for being vapid exercises. in her questionnaire for this committee, she explained in unprecedented detail her work in the solicitor general's office, at harvard law school and in the clinton administration. she has already provided unprecedented supporting documen documents. she gave us from her time as solicitor general over 150 briefs from her time in office. from harvard, all of her previous academic work and all the letters, ele mails and press releases that went out during her tenure as dean. from her work in the clinton administration, over 170,000 pages of documents, including 80,000 pages of e-mails, which is more than twice the material ceived in connection with the nominations of chief justice robert

with controversy, i hh wish mooe of us in public life were as 3 as secretary gates has been. i'm also glad that the -- that chairman ike skelton is directing the house armed services committee tooscrutinize the defense budget for cost savings. the savings in front of us deserve a careful look and thorough debate, but i fear if we can't decide what we can afffrd to do without today, we'll be forced to make much more draconian cuts in the years to come. of course we must conduct such a review with the intent of maintaining, and i emphasize, a strong and sufficient armed force to deter and defeat any enemy that puts our nation and our people at risk. we can and must do both. raising revenue is part of the deficit solution. when president clinton dii so in 1993, he faced predictions of disaster wwich jim has read to you and i have reiterated, but he elped to unleash historic prosperity and budget surpluses for our country and he did it without raising spending. so i'' ggad that president obama has made clear that everything, revenues included, should be on the commission's table.

on the other part -- on the other hand, we have the department of hhs saying it sure what to look out for premium increases. if we have effective competition, while we're looking out for cost increases, premium increases? i thought competition was supposed to take care of that? >> i can start on that, if you want. the assistant attorney general spoke yesterday about exemptions. one of the issues that she explored was the way which it can work with regulators. i thing that is what you're saying. you're saying a melding. i do not think this is unusual in any way. i think it is working hand-in hand, knowing there is regulation going on, and knowing that we will work with them on that. >> i do not think he two are mutually exclusive. i heard it when i was a regular, that competition is the best regulator. i think even when there are circumstances of full competition, i do not happen to think that is true. i think it can be effective in certain areas, but i do not think it is an answer in all cases to issues that consumers might be at risk at. the other thing i would say is i think the ide

the transportation committee hhs a big piece of this in terms of liability and the rest.- we will just take a look and see what we can do. this spill act -- will see how it moves. i know no decision has been made about that. we will probably take them as they already are. the spill at is urgent now. we would insist the these people be madeewhole amount. one offthe people who testified -- people testified before the hearing on monday. this is what happened. his family iis in the fiihing business. they have documented that last may, $7,000 is what they made. bp met with them. they filed the claim. they had all the documentation. they still only received a check for $5,000. 162-year-old man testified that he had four sons with him in the business -- five families are the opening of connaught month. they got only $5,000. it is not just right. rwandese people to be made whole -- we want these people to be made whole. dividends should be something that you pay because to make a profit. i did not know it was something you paid off before you took care of your expenses. one more