hutchison: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the start treaty. we have been debating the start treaty off and on throughout the last few days, and there will be an amendment voted on for the resolution after the 3:00 vote on don't ask, don't tell. i want to talk about the amendment and the treaty itself. the start treaty is seeking, of course, to limit the strategic, the long-range nuclear weapons that are currently in the united states and russian inventory, for a total of 1,550 warheads for each country. while these limits require some reductions in the number of delivery vehicles and deployed warheads, both countries possess, a change in the counting of warheads will allow both countries to cut hundreds of them on paper with no actual reductions. for example, under start i, each deployed delivery vehicle was counted as carrying a specified number of warheads regardless of how many warheads were actually equipped on the missile or bomber. new start abandons these rules, instead only counti

here's senator kay bailey hutchison. we thought she wouldn't be in the senate anymore because she was running for governor. she did win the primary down in texas. here she is on the floor today when they're about to debate this monstrosity, the 1,900 pages i have right here. they're talking about the tax cuts, $900 billion to add to the deficit. senator hutchison -- >> once this bill is passed, we must get about the business of cutting overall spending in this government. and that is not just the discretionary part, which is a minor part of our budget. it is also the entitlements. >> i just do want to note for the record, senator hutchison voted yes on george w. bush's medicare part "d" prescription drug benefit, which if you ask any deficit hawk in town, which is one of the reasons that we have a big deficit. but everybody seems to have gotten the message of the election for their speeches. the question, then, is, why are they killing trees? >> it's like one last drink. okay? it's sort of, i'm going to stop, i'm going t

senatore fcc's vote, kay bailey hutchison made this statement on the floor of the senate. >> the senator is a ranking member of the subcommittee in commerce and in the ranking member of the commerce committee. today, we're going to submit a congressional review act to overturn this troubling regulatory overreach by the fcc. i think that it is time for congress to say that we have not delegate this authority to the fcc. the communications act -- of the sec tried to do this in another part of the act. they were struck down by the court. now, they have gone to a different interpretation in a different section of the act to try to gain the capability to obstruct the freedom of access to the internet. it is a huge and serious issue that i hope congress will take the reins and say to the fcc that if we need regulation in this area, congress will do it. >> dean garfield? >> my reaction is that it is appropriate for congress to exercise oversight in this area. in the administrative agency is subject to the oversight as well as direction from congress. it is important to keep in mind that the mon

police say hutchison broke into corn's home, beat him and stole his car. hutchison could face the death penalty if convicted. >>> a woman's purse made famous when its owner tried to smack down the gunman was just sold op ebay. there it goes right there the she was trying to dislodge the gun from the man's hand. the gunman was upset because his wife had been fired from her teaching job. he eventually shot and killed himself. nobody was hurt in the incident. the purse sold for $14,100 on ebay of the money is being donated to charity. >>> in hayward someone purchased a megamillion tickets. that ticket was five out of the six winning tickets. it's worth democrat 200,000. now, since -- it's worth almost 200,000. since no one purchased a ticket with all of the six numbers, the megajackpot a -- climbs to $ 168 million. it's the 12th time that the jackpot has roll 0ed over since a ticket was won in ohio last month. >>> last night, van der veer reached 800 wins. her big win came at the expense of one of her form -- one of her former stars. >>> well, taxpayers are g

bailey hutchison made remarks about the new regulations. this is 15 minutes. >> later today, access informatn on the internet. concerned. the internet has transformed our society, our economy and the very way we communicate with others. it served as a remarkable platform for innovation at the end of t 20th century and now at the beginning of the 21st century. and all of this has been made possible because people have been free to create and innovate to push the limits of invention free from government involvement. now that could soon change. today thebama administration, which has already natio lzens, d with what could be the first step in controlling how americans use the internet by establishing federal regulations on its use. this would harm investment, stifle innovation and lead to job losses. that's why i along witheveral of my colleagues have urged the f.c.c. chairman to abandon this flawed abapproach. the internet is an invaluable resource and should be left alone. many americans will wonder as many already do if this is a trojan hor

senator hutchison. >> mr. flourish, mcdonald's as we said is one of the businesses that has received laborers from hhs and according to your testimony in response to company surveys only 3% of your current employees said they would be willing to pay more than $35 a week for health insurance. the chairman said that you have a cap on your minimeds of $2,000 in benefits.. do you believe that mcdonald's has -- if that is true i would like to ask is that true and if so, do you think mcdonald's has found the best plan possible for this $35 per week health coverage for your employees? >> we did survey our employees to find out whether they would be willing to pay. we factored that in in the marketplace and work with outside experts and said who are the organizations we should take a look at to construct a this insurance program. we came up with a group of companies. we had a strong internal team that looked at these proposals. we have a more customized plan with the insurance carrier that we have and what exists else

thing that you have to be aware of is that in previous years parliaments had decided to begin paying hutchisonnd the other civil officers from the money that the tea tax and. again, the tax they are paying is lining the pockets of these officials his relatives are the ones who are profiting from monopoly prices on t. it really looks like they are reaching into american pockets. it is to their mind this whole story of taxes on americans being used to support the tyrants who is there to enslave them. so in other words it is not just the tax but the fact that the tax money was going into the pockets of the hated enemy of the profits were being burned by the relatives of this enemy. it really looks like a bad situation to them. in other words in general when we think about the tea party, what was the cost? welcoming taxes. but relief for causes i would say. the first is taxation without representation. the second was going to be the use of this tax revenue from american taxes to support civil officials, judges, the governor, and so on. the third is the east india company monopoly which they find s

good afternoon, senator rockefeller and senator hutchison, and members of the committee.once fully implemented, the affordable care act will reduce the number of uninsured americans it. equally important, the assistance that the legislation will provide. it is estimated that 25 million americans under the age of 65 are under insured. over half of them report problems gaining access to care. 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 had in medical costs, and over 70% of them were injured. -- were insured. under insurance is a serious problem for american consumers and for american health care providers. of between one and 2 million americans have limited benefit lower mini med policies. these people are usually not aware of how inadequate their coverage is. once the affordable care act, which i would like to mention, was held unconstitutional in federal court yesterday, once it is fully implemented, on their insurance will be largely eliminated. all health plans will be required to cover federally- defined essential benefits. in you will dollar limits on the essential health cove

it was a value system that grew out of enlightenment, people like john locke, hutchison, ada, smith. in the 20th century, if youf look at it, was a test of thatvs valu we system against the other value systems which have come up over the years.tari mostly totalitarianism.cy it was a test of democracy totat against fascism, a test of democracy against totalitarianot socialism and we won. we won the test. was it was also the second bigs, itw charge of the 20th century. it wasas a test of how you would create prosperity for people, a test of markets versus communism, of markets against totalitarian socialism.ocialism by the end of the 20th century, there was no longer an issue. the american philosophy of governance had come to dominatee the world. democracy, individual libertythe and markets.that diron. the whole world was moving innto that direction. are now we're 10 years into the next century and we are challengede e again, challenged again. this time the challenge is different, substantive, significant. l maybe not at theev same level oo the soviet union represented a challenge beca

hutchison: thank you mr. president. mr. president, the house today did pass legislation that would extend the tax cuts for those middle-class taxpayers that make under $200,000 a year. that's a good thing. i support that. but, mr. president why on earth would we extend the tax cuts for a certain segment of the population and not extend the tax cuts for everyone? why would we do that? who are the job creators in our country? what is the problem our country has right now? jobs. we have an unemployment rate that is hovering around 10% so what should we be doing in congress to try to alleviate that situation? we should be doing everything in our power to create jobs in the private sector. the private sector is where jobs will be a career, where it will be something that will support a family that can grow. so of course we're going to support tax cuts for everyone, for everyone in this country because we are in an economic recession, and the idea of increasing taxes on the people who would create jobs is something that could onl

unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered, that a rockefeller-hutchison managers amendment, which is at the dervetion be agreed to, the committee substitute amendment, as amend, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hagan: mr. president, i understand that there are two bills at the desk and i ask for their first reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the clerk the read the titles for the fiemplets cleric a bill to provide collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed by states or their political subdivisions. s. 3992, a bill to authorize athe cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien students who are long-term united states residents and who entered the united states as children and for other purposes. mrs. hagan: now ask for a second reading en bloc

president, i would ask unanimous consent that the rockefeller-hutchison substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time, that a budget paygo statement be read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i would also -- would the clerk -- the presiding officer: the statement will be read. the clerk: this is a statement of budgetary effects of paygo legislation for h.r. 5116, as amended. total budgetary effects of h.r. 5116 for the five-year statutory paygo scorecard zero dollars. total budgetary effects of h.r. 5116 -- mr. bingaman: i would ask that the reading of it be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i would ask that the bill be passed, the motions to rebe laid upon the -- consider be laid upon the table, any statements to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i join my -- my colleague from tennessee in thanking the senator from arizona for his courtesy and ask that this activity not interrupt his

legislation i'm working with kay bailey hutchison from texas on has been blocked the same way. supermajority has meant when you've got 42 that want to engage in a work stoppage, it means it's awfully hard to get anything done, even extend unemployment benefits which we've always done bipartisanly in this country in terms of economic distress. >> my question is when the democrats had a 60-vote majority in the senate, why didn't they do something about the filibuster rule? >> maybe we could have. we were working on other things. we were working on recovery act and s-chip and equal pay for women, working on health care and wall street reform. perhaps we should have looked at the rules then in a way that could have made some intelligent changes about it. the right wing media would have squawked about it's a power grab by the democrats to do that. i always thought majority ruled in this country. we need to look seriously at it. >> senator brown, willie geist here. you voted monday against the tax package. you were vocal in our opposition to it. now you said you will voted for it and

hutchison: thank you, madam president.madam president, i rise today to say that i think the president of the united states and our senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, have done a great job. as i hear the talking heads and the pundits and different people talking about this compromise, this way forward, i am sure of it because no one is completely happy with it. people who think that we should have a death tax are not happy with this bill. people who think, as i do, that the unemployment goes too far and isn't paid for and should have been, are on the other side. but, we are now faced with a choice. are we going to allow the taxes for every single individual in our country who pays tax to go up on january 1. we could talk all day about how we should have addressed this much earlier. yes, that's true. but we are where we are. it is now mid-december, and it is long past time. when we should have told the american people he, every family, every business in this country what the tax policy is going to be for two years. mad

start ii, including the votes of republican senators bennett, bond, cochran, grassley, gregg, hatch, hutchison, lugar, mccain, mcconnell and snowe. and in 2002, the senate voted 95-0 -- that's right, 95-0 in support of the moscow treaty. 26 of the 27 republicans there at the time are still here today, and they voted in support of that treaty. at the peak of the cold war the stockpile of nuclear weapons held by all nuclear weapons states was 70,000 warheads. 1.6 million times the power of the bomb at hiroshima. we reduced the number of these weapons by more than two-thirds. yet today the combined global nuclear weapons capability still equal 150,000 of the nuclear bombs used in world war ii. today we have an opportunity to further reduce this threat in a responsible bipartisan way. i don't know when this session will end tonight, but i will say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, you have ample opportunity to debate. you have ample opportunity to offer amendments. time is not a good excuse. we have been in session now this day and yesterday. we started about 3:30. only one amendmen

hutchison: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today to say that i think the president of the united states and our senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, have done a great job. as i hear the talking heads and the pundits and different people talking about this compromise, this way forward, i am sure of it because no one is completely happy with it. people who think that we should have a death tax are not happy with this bill. people who think, as i do, that the unemployment goes too far and isn't paid for and should have been, are on the other side. but, we are now faced with a choice. are we going to allow the taxes for every single individual in our country who pays tax to go up on january 1. we could talk all day about how we should have addressed this much earlier. yes, that's true. but we are where we are. it is now mid-december, and it is long past time. when we should have told the american people he, every family, every business in this country what the tax policy is going to be for two years. ma

so did senator hutchison. this is our day in this beautiful hearing room. i would like to make a statement. i think you for having us here. what this is exposing, since i have the privilege of sitting with you in the finance committee as we have crafted this legislation of trying to have reform of health care in america and health insurance -- i think what we are seeing today is another reason why -- why should there be a country as advanced as ours, that of the 300 million people, 45 million people do not have health insurance but still get health insurance when they are sick. everybody else pays for them because when they get sick, they get health care. they just go to the most expensive place, which is the emergency room, at the most expensive time since they did not have preventive health care. when the samples turned into pneumonia, you have to treat the -- sniffles turn into pneumonia, you have to treat the emergency. if you are a mom and a dad, and you have a modest income, maybe you can get your children in short by virtue of the fact that senator r

president, i would ask unanimous consent that the rockefeller-hutchison substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time, that a budget paygo statement be read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i would also -- would the clerk -- the presiding officer: the statement will be read. the clerk: this is a statement of budgetary effects of paygo legislation for h.r. 5116, as amended. total budgetary effects of h.r. 5116 for the five-year statutory paygo scorecard zero dollars. total budgetary effects of h.r. 5116 -- mr. bingaman: i would ask that the reading of it be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i would ask that the bill be passed, the motions to rebe laid upon the -- consider be laid upon the table, any statements to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: i join my -- my colleague from tennessee in thanking the senator from arizona for his courtesy and ask that this activity not interrupt his

kyl and includes remarks from california democrat barbara boxer and texas republican kay bailey hutchison. this is an hour. for a few minutes about the tax package or tax t legislation that the senate is debating and, we'll be voting on here before long. there's been b dismay on both b sides of the aisle regarding the merits of the package.ri i emphasize a point that has been made by others. no one thinks this is as. perfect bill. most conservatives are upset about theat unfunded extension of unemployment benefits. b the fact that the tax rate extensions are not permanent. on the left there are those who dislike the death tax reform and would haveha prefered the top marginal income tax rates be increased and there aregr other concerns as well. i agree with some of the criticisms my conservative friends have made.ou this not the bill i wouldth have written.ro there are some things in the package that i disagree withly on the other hand this is not the bill president obama would have written.tt he made it clear he doesn't like everything in itth either. the package represents a p true bipar