washington -- the state of washington, arlen specter from pennsylvania, mary can't well and mary landrieu from louisiana. they recognized how important this was. they recognized we were trying to solve major problems for people, especially in rural amplest i think it would be worthwhile to reflect back on the 2003 debate and remember the reasons this issue inspired such strong bipartisan consensus. you don't hear it at all from that side now. after the program has proven its efficacy and has proven that it works. we supported the medicare advantage program six years ago because we knew it was the right thing to do for beneficiaries and the same logic holds true today. we owe it to beneficiaries to provide a strong, adequately funded program that provides them with high-quality health care choices. during the finance committee's consideration of -- and by the way, every medicare beneficiary can go into medicare advantage if they desire under current

it's time -- it's time for the four democrats -- senator lieberman, senator lincoln, senator landrieu and senator nelson, it's time for them to compromise and come over with the other 56 democrats who strongly support the public option. i mean, it's -- we've got to get moving on this bill. we've got to stick together. in the end, i don't think any of these four want to be the one to bring this bill down on a procedural vote. they don't want to be on the wrong side of history ultimately. that says to me when it really comes time, they're not going to vote against this most important bill in their whole political careers on a procedural vote. >> well, let's be clear, then. would you join republicans to block an up or down vote on this bill if in fact it waters down the public option any further? >> i don't draw lines in the sand publicly. i'm going to continue to work to get this public option in. i predicted as early as july when senator whitehouse and i wrote this public option language in the h.e.l.p. bill in july, i predicted then it would stay in the bill, it would get to the presi

landrieu: mr. president, i come to the floor today in support of the patients protection affordability act. i want to give some of the reasons why i am supporting this important piece of legislation. i'd like to, before my colleague, though, leaves the floor, just respond to his last comment that one of the reasons the american people are having difficulty believing that government can do anything right is because he and his colleagues have spent the last several decades convincing them that the government is the problem and that government can't do anything right. and even in the face of strong evidence to suggest otherwise, they continue that worn, tired mantra. and people in my state and around the nation are getting tired of it because they know that government must stand up sometimes to protect them from abusive practices in the private marketplace, abusive practices of insurance companies, to try to level the playing field and set the rules. of course those on the other side don't really beli

. >> what's happening behind the scenes, landrieu, carper and schumer are working on something. >> they are trying to work out deals on a range of things. the public option on affordibility. senator carper of delaware is so far one of the lynch pins on trying to find a compromise on the public option. we've been hearing a lot about it and, of course, the democratic caucus agreed to let this bill get on the senate floor but several of those moderate or conservative documents like nelson or landrieu said they won't support the bill coming off the floor if the public option remains. so carper has taken it upon himself in cooperation with chuck schumer, who's sort of a bridge into the leadership for carper to find a compromised version of something called the public option or something that functions like the public option. we're really -- the function is one of policy that democrats believe that private insurance needs some competition here to hold prices down. but it's also a political one. the democratic base strongly favors the public option but there aren't 60 votes for it. so carper i

my colleague, senator landrieu of louisiana -- quote -- "there's no specific compromise. there were discussions. until the package that was sent is scored, we really don't even know what's in it." senator casey of pennsylvania -- quote -- "any big agreement is progress even if we do not know any of the details." senator feinstein of california referred to a meeting on the majority side recently -- quote -- "there was no explanation. it was just sort of 'go, team, go.'." and senator ben nelson of nebraska talking about a similar majority meeting -- quote -- "general concepts but nothing very specific at all." then at least yesterday, mr. president, this new mega bill, this 383-page amendment referencing another 286-page bill, attached to an underlying underlying2,074-page bill -- so that finally happened yesterday morning. but, mr. president, i'm afraid it's not progress enough, it's "time" enougtime enough considee set to vote on this new mega bill in just a few hours, starting at 1:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. and, mr. president, listening to american citizens all over the

it is worth noting that much has been made of the $300 million that senator landrieu got from louisiana and the specific medicaid expansion. however, there are other provisions in the bill that are tailored toward other democratic senators. they just have not gotten as much attention. the other point that is probably worth making is that majority leader harry reid made the point on monday -- and i think this is somewhat true -- that congress regularly in acts earmarks and appropriations bills. the idea that car routes of individual senators is something unusual is probably not correct because these sorts of things happen fairly often. senator reid went as far to say if a democratic senator does not have something for their state or did not get something they want, then they probably are not doing that good a job as a senator. >host: we should point out that the subject of one of the editorials from "the wall street journal." tyler is joining us from stillwater, oklahoma, on the independent line. caller: first i would like to thank you very much for taking my call, and i'd like to ask --

how he has not made a deal like mary landrieu or ben nelson, and gotten $300,000 or the medicaid payff? that would be an interesting question for chuck schumer to answer. host: "usa today" writes a little about that. the story this morning that dubbing them the louisiana purchase and the cornhuskers set backickback -- louisiana, next up, ronald on the independent line. caller: my opinion, getting back to miss mary lender of think that she did great for the state of louisiana and that is why she was elected -- to get things done. -- that is married landrieu. as far as both sides, the republican and democratic parties are fighting among us, doing worse than any terrorist could ever do. they are dividing the nation. eager to the coffee shop and hear people discussing and getting angry with each other. we need to get together. we're no longer the united states. host: this headline, durbin said afterwards that he hopes cooler heads will prevail. he said he does notñr see a purpose in further delay. next up, cleveland, ohio. good morning. caller: well, i was not paying so much attention on

runs about 25 minutes. >> host: from the rotunda, mary landrieu, democrat from louisiana. we've been watching this last round of votes, it appears this bill is on track for a final vote sometime this week and you have signaled your support for this legislation. look forward for us, in conference negotiations. what needs to stay in a final bill that comes out of house and senate negotiations in order for to you support a final bill? >> guest: there are a couple of very important principles that must remain in this bill. first, this bill has to address cost containment. in other words, the bill must be paid for within the context of this reform, and reduce the deficit not only within the next 10 years but over time. some of us entered this debate not just to expand coverage which is an important goal but to make sure the federal government can afford health care in the future and individuals and families and businesses and state governments could also afford it. right now, we're on a trajectory towards bankruptcy. we already have 750,000 families that filed for bankruptcy ev

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor and webb -- wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming health care reform in america is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertakings considered by this body in decades. we believe the public's participation in this process is critical to our overall success." i'm quoting from the eight democratic senators. and they go on to say they want to make sure that the bill is on the web site for at least 72 hours before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of it we hadn't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement, according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. and then one would think we would be amending it and debating it and considering it and thinking about it and trying to

president, that is wise advice from senator lincoln and senator bayh and senator landrieu and senator lieberman and senator mccaskill, senator nelson, senator pryor, senator webb. what they're saying is before we vote on a health care bill that affects nearly every one of the 300 million americans, that when fully implemented will spend $2 tril yop, that the chief actuary of the government says, so far as we know it, will increase the costs of health care rather than reduce it, will take a trillion dollars out of medicare in the form that we've seen so far when the bill is fully implemented and not use it to strengthen medicare, which is becoming insolvent in the years 2015-2017, according to the trustees of medicare but instead would spend that money on some other program, would what david brooks in "the new york times" column yesterday call a huge -- create a huge tax, $1.42 trillion in the second decade of its operation to help pay for this, which the director of the congressional budget office has said would inevitably be passed along to consumers and cause premium costs to go up,

new orleans just when i had finished writing about the mayor's race we had back then, right after landrieu was retiring and i had been promoted from police hurricanes to city hall by this point. and with 12 people running for mayor of new orleans, it was wonderfully colorful race. in fact if you good down the street you will see ruth chris' stake house founded bay woman in new orleans. her husband was one of the 12 candidates for mayor and wore aa gorilla suit at every appearance, because his only plank was to get a gorilla for the zoo. and i went to every part of the city and said how will it go? and i went to every -- here's the order they're going to finish and here's the percentages. well, it turned out, partly out of luck and partly out of smarts off all these captains to be just right so they're touting this just as this guy is trying recruit people to good to time magazine. i went home, told my mother i was being asked to good to time magazine or the cia. she had strong points. i went to time magazine. right before i left i wrote my final column, right before the runoff of the mayor

orleans just when i had finished writing about the mayor's race we had back then, right after boot landrieu was retiring and i've been promoted from police headquarters to city hall by this point. and there were 12 people running for mayor in new orleans. as the wonderfully colorful race. you'll see ruth's steak house founded by ruth for tile in new orleans. his husband was one of the 12 candidate and more a gorilla suit at every appearance because his only link in this platform is having a gorilla for the ogden park zoo. [applause] so i went to every precinct chairman and every war leader and every bar and every part of the city and i said tell me how your briefing is going to go. give me a your percentages and will figure it out. a letter. after everyone of them and i said just sort of taking a flyer in my column before the race happened. here's how it's going to turn out. here's the order they're going to finish deniers the percentages they're going to get. well, it turned out partly out of luck and partly out of smart while these precinct captain to be just right. so they are counting t

it is worth noting that much has been made of the $300 million that senator landrieu got for louisiana and specific, medicaid expansion and nebraska. however, there are other provisions in the bill that are tailored toward of the democratic senators but just not gotten as much attention. the other point probably worth making it is majority leader harry reid made the point on monday -- and i think it is somewhat true, congress regularly and that's earmarks and appropriations bills. the idea that carved out for individual senators is somewhat unusual is probably not correct. these sorts of things happen fairly often. the leader went as far to say if there is a democratic senator who doesn't have something for their state or did not get something they want, then he sort of insinuated they are not doing a good job as a senator. host: i should point out, that is the subject of an editorial and "the wall street journal." tyler is joining us from independent line from stillwater, oklahoma. your question for kate hunter. caller: first, i would like to thank you for taking my call. i would like

landrieu, and that the veteran norman could mandate that.est: -- that the federal government could mandate that. guest: it is like a big ponzi scheme. they are forcing everyone to pay in at this point. the increase we have seen in the last decades, what is the result of that? you will end up with increased deficits. that will inevitably result in higher taxes. this is just part of the bigger health care debate. rivera americans are struggling and saying, how can i make ends meet when the government is going to come after more of my money? the direct answer is, i think it's a cultural and -- a cultural change in the united states when the government can force people to go into a program of their design and make them pay for it. i think it is a serious problem and goes beyond the classic principles of taxation. host: south carolina, our mckeown line. -- republican line. caller: from what you can tell, is there federally funded abortion? guest: i know they have gone back and forth about it and there has been plenty of argument about it. i do no

health care bill along with other things that have been with senator nelson of florida and mary landrieure going to exempt 17 states on the cadillac program and one of them happens to be michigan. the winner the american people going to wake up -- when are the american people going to wake up? they do not seem to comprehend the government spending your money. somebody has got to pay for it. there has got to be taxes and fees and that we pass along to the medical -- to the regular consumer. and the gentleman you -- he needs to tell these to 70 million people but we are not in a recession. and the tort bill, i believe that was passed under george of the bush. -- the torque bill, i believe that was passed under george w. bush. the deficit, it is like $148,000 per person now. host: thanks for the input this morning. it is christmas morning. here are some photos of the gathering at the church of the nativity in bethlehem. also, soldiers in afghanistan. the pope benedict yesterday's celebrating christmas eve services at the vatican. he was knocked down by a woman in the crowd. you have probabl

murray, charles schumer, frank lautenberg, hillary rodham clinton, ron wyden, mark dayton, mary landrieu, maria cantwell, and christopher dodd. 14 democrats signed this letter along with a number of bipartisan republicans who believed that we really needed to do medicare advantage. and now to take advantage, our colleagues on the other side want to do away with medicare advantage except in four states that are for the most part democrat states, while leaving all the other 46 states high and dry. now let me just say this letter is in response -- was a letter given to the medicare modernization conference committee. this conference committee gave them everything they wanted in medicare advantage. this legislative grant of power gave the senators the medicare advantage program which now 11 million senior citizens enjoy today. now those on the left want to do away with this important program that benefits seniors and minorities in an amazing set of ways. well, i'm against that. i hope our colleagues on the other side will realize what they're doing. it just isn't right. vision care and denta

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor- wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming health care reform in america is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertakings considered by this body in decades. we believe the public's participation in this process is critical to our overall success." i'm quoting from the eight democratic senators. and they go on to say they want to make sure that the bill is on the web site for at least 72 hours before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of it we hadn't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement, according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. and then one would think we would be amending it and debating it and considering it and thinking about it and trying to find out wh

the folks we counted going into that room included senator nelson who i mentioned, senator mary landrieufrom louisiana, senator pryor from arkansas, senator schumer from new york, one of the democratic leadership, senator russ feingold -- let's see who else -- in number of democratic members from both sides of the political spectrum, more liberal members and more moderate or even as a conservative, it's called moderate members are all in this room together right now hashing out some of these difficult issues. the most difficult, of course, our abortion and the public auction. >> what else can we expect as a the senate continues this weekend? >> i think he will see not very much public progress. they're going to vote on amendments tomorrow, we don't know whether they will vote on anything sunday. the real progress if there is any made it's happening behind closed doors and what's going on on the floor isn't really the important stuff. what's going on in senator reid's office is an important stuff and unfortunately there are any c-span cameras in their. >> do we have a sense of when this m

related to small business tax cuts, along with our chair, the small business committee, senator landrieu, and another strong advocate, senator lincoln, we have been working on provisions that will make sure that there are small business tax cuts that start immediately next year after the bill passes. $40 billion in tax cuts in total to help small businesses afford health insurance for themselves and for their workers. in our amendment we also provide even tougher are insurance re -- tougher insurance reform in the underlying bill we have a whole health care bill of rights. i remember coming here in the year 2000, and the patients bill of rights was the major thing that we were trying to get done. we were in the minority, the democratic minority, but we were working hard to do that. it was my first opportunity to work with senator kennedy. and we believe strongly that we needed to take insurance company bureaucrats out from the middle between doctors and patients. mr. president, that's in this bill. those kinds of reforms are in this bill. and one of only many things that are in this bill

health care bill along with other things that have been with senator nelson of florida and mary landrieu, they're going to exempt 17 states on the cadillac program and one of them happens to be michigan. the winner the american people going to wake up -- when are the american people going to wake up? they do not seem to comprehend the government spending your money. somebody has got to pay for it. there has got to be taxes and fees and that we pass along to the medical -- to the regular consumer. and the gentleman you -- he needs to tell these to 70 million people but we are not in a recession. and the tort bill, i believe that was passed under george of the bush. -- the torque bill, i believe that was passed under george w. bush. the deficit, it is like $148,000 per person now. host: thanks for the input this morning. it is christmas morning. here are some photos of the gathering at the church of the nativity in bethlehem. also, soldiers in afghanistan. the pope benedict yesterday's celebrating christmas eve services at the vatican. he was knocked down by a woman in the crowd. you have

and we saw that with mary landrieu, she was able to win several hundreds dollars for louisiana, and thatk-back and probably hear something about maple syrup. host: let's go to mike . caller: hi, i would like to implore the people in nebraska to get rid of ben nelson, he sold himself like the cheapest whore, and he really needs to get out of there. he took his eye off the ball, he took the whole nation's eye off the ball. we need a viable health care system in this country, and he just deflected the entire discussion by holding out for the stupak amendment. and then sold himself for an increase of $45 million a year. host: who is someone like senator nelson responsible to? guest: the people of nebraska elected him and his job is to get stuff for the people of nebraska. this is an important thing to recognize, the lawmakers are representing their constituents but they represent in many cases the american people at large. this balance of representing what they feel for the nation and for their constituents. the way this works in politics, you see people doing good national policy and if the

, would the senator agree with me, i've got a letter from october 23, 2009, from senator conrad, landrieu, lincoln, warner, lieberman, bayh, and nelson to the majority leader saying please take the class action out of the bill. would the senator agree that the class -- please take the class act out of the bill. would the senator agree that the class act is still in the bill and that anybody who votes to send this off to the froze become law -- president to become law has become a coconspirator to the giant ponzi scheme? mr. chambliss: i don't think there's any question about, that the senator is exactly right. and it's what we call in washington, fuzzy math. utilization in one pocket to pay for something on the other side. and at the end of the day, it just doesn't add up, and the senator from north dakota was exactly right, it is a huge ponzi scheme. and i'd ask unanimous consent that the letter dated october 23, 2009, just referenced by the senator from south carolina be introduced into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: i wonder if the junior senator from

that's why he's asked senator tom carper and senator charles schumer and senator landrieu to come up plan b to see if they could come up with some type of public option, maybe it's a trigger. many on the left don't like the trigger idea, to pass health care reform just through the senate. and then they have to get it through conference. they have an enormous way to go here. while they have made some progress, it's difficult right now to see how they get to 60 without some significant tweaks to the senate bill. to 60 on the senate bill. host: james, democratic line. atlanta. caller: [unintelligible] host: are you there? caller: i think that everyone in america should be able to get health care. we should have health care for everyone in america. host: caroline, arkansas, what do you want from health care bill? caller: they should take the words mandatory out of it. completely unconstitutional. they should not force people to purchase something that they cannot afford, or force someone else to pay for it. that is ridiculous. host: chris, good morning. caller: on this health care bill i

host: he was referring to mary landrieu, a point well taken. -- but a point well taken.people have been complaining about congress for a long -- a lot of people have been complaining about congress for a long time. the health care bill -- passing it is more important than what it actually does any more. we know that votes are bought. it is unfortunate that once the representatives get elected and come to washington, they seem to stop representing us and start paying attention to special interests instead of our interests, and we are the ones that sent them there. i agree with you. it is very unfortunate. one of these days, if we get angry enough as of voters, we will change that, but we've not done that yet. host: deborah is joining us from new jersey. welcome to "washington journal." caller: mr. dunkelberg, we listen to economists so often tell us that getting us out of american crisis is american ingenuity. it seems that over the last 30 years, all the ingenuity has been focused on not creating product, but financial instruments to create profits for a very select few

mary landrieu of louisiana. folks like that. liberal side, sherrod brown of ohio. jay rockefeller of west virginia, tom harkin of iowa. some folks are proxies of the leadership like charles schumer ew york, who is the number three senate democrat and mark pryor of arkansas. i probably missed a few. >> this idea that is percolating, if this idea of dropping the public option for going the medicare route, would this affect support of that underlying bill? could it possibly attract republican support as well? >> i think this is more a case of democratic coalition management at this point, getting centrists to a very suspicious of big government involvement in the health insurance market and liberals getting them more or less on the same page. i doubt it would bring anymore republican support. i guess votes of two moderates from maine, olympia snowe and susan collins are still in play. >> what about senator reid? he apparently given the group a deadline of today to reach an agreement. >> he wants this today, because he has to rush it over to the congressional budget of

>> in fact both senators snow and landrieu put in bills to increase maximums to $5 million. we feel that this actually can bring a lot more small businesses into our network and allow us to fund them particularly in the times of tight credit, but we will not let those big loans crowd out the small loans. we are going to make sure we also keep taking care of our small customers as well. >> so congress was giving you love but someone else wants to ask what do you say to small-business groups that argue the best way to help small business is for government to get out of the way? >> one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we watch out for small business and that small business did not suffer unintended consequences of other regulation. this is something we take very seriously and we have a great office of advocacy that operates independently and focus is quite a bit on this issue. we have an entire group you may not know about called the omnibus and they are to help small businesses navigate through regulatory issues so if you were a small business and you were out ther

. >> the provision that was put in for nebraska and what happened with mary landrieu, is that more of an individual member because of the need for their 60th or 59th and 60 the vote? or is that more the work of the lobbyists as the whole manager's amendment? >> there is probably some correspondence, but my sense is that it is probably more the view of the individual lawmaker. hughley long in louisiana, probably more famous than his son, russell. he was more famous when he was governor and senator for saying every man is a keen -- every man is taking. when you need 60 votes, every single senator could be the king or queen, if you will. the leader has to bear that in mind. there is no margin of error of whatsoever. you have to have 60 and you have to hold at 60. it is an additive process. if you are close, and you do not have quite 60, what you'd do? you go into negotiations and use whatever outside allies you can to persuade this individual lawmaker. . . [applause] >> come back a little bit before 15 to 11. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright nat

. >> good morning, chairman -- chairwoman landrieu. i submitted my written testimony. that is ok with you. >> that's fine. them as a paramedic one of the things i was taught early on -- >> as a paramedic, one of the çthings i was taughtç earlyçn emy is children are not small emy adults. it may seem like seemduh, but not only the pharmacological needs are different but it goes to the all aspects that an adult you just don't size down to a child and at the same outcome. you have to focus on children -- there blain development, mental capabilities, and physiology is vastly different. your treatment approach has to be geared toward a child. not merely taking what you would normally do for an adult and make it smaller. i think that is one of the challenges we have looking at planning. historically when we look at communities and might planning documents, my observation is we tend to write plans for us, the adults, the people who have high school education, the speak englishç, they have aç car, ty drive, they have resources and they can pretty much take care of much of

and the editorial said, and this is politics, mary landrieu's payoff was the new louisiana purchase. then when nelson got uncle sam to become nebraska's future medicaid tab. they go on to say maybe we should just put the senate votes on ebay. the same nelson won a permanent exemption from the state share of medicaid expansion for nebraska. ogle sam will take hit for 100% of the medicaid expansion for nebraska forever. the world's greatest deliberative body has now become the most corrupt. that is what this says and goes on to say it's not a of legislating is about. it's about bribery. mr. president, it is horrible as a nation to have these things written about this institution when we should be above any of these sorts of claims and i look at the map that my colleague of mississippi has with just nebraska as the special deal. we should be looking at ways to improve health care for all americans. improve the quality, make it more affordable, make it more available, give them the access they need. i've brought for amendments the other day after senator reva brought his massive amendmen

diane feinstein, christopher dodd, ron by deny, frank lautenberg, patty murray, arlen specter, mary landrieu, and maria cantwell. now, mr. president, here's a letter dated 30 september, 2003. and it says, "dear medicare conferee:" it says united states senate, and it's signed by a number of senators, including my colleague, senator kerry. "we're asking" addition -- "we're writing to ask you as a member of the medicare conference committee to ensure that the final medicare bill includes a meaningful increase in medicare choice funding in fiscal years 2004-2005." so i guess that my friend and colleague, senator kerry, was against cuts in funding before he was for it. he was against them before he was for them. so anyway, it goes on to say, "you strongly support additional medicare choice funding for two very important reasons. one, to protect the health care choices and benefits of the nearly 5 million medicare beneficiaries who are currently enrolled in private-sector health plans. and, two, to strengthen the foundation for future health plan choices. we believe that the medicare choice fundi

healthcare debate with senator john grasso and merry land from reaching j -- john barasso and mary landrieu ahead to 2010 politics, including eric's cantor and david gregory buzz aldrin and fellow astronauts on the legacy of apollo 11. a discussion on the role of muslims in america and the world. later, of former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against the taliban and afghanistan and remembering the lives of william f. buckley, jr. and senator ted kennedy. >> and now, a discussion on relations between the u.s. and the muslim world heard representatives of the state and defensive departments joined muslim and journalists and activists in the discussion. it was toasted by the muslim -- >> welcome, everybody coming to the last session for the convention. we will have the banquet after this. thanks to all of you for hanging in for this. it has been a long day and you have intended a lot of interesting and informative panels. we hope to leave you with a bang. we are running a few minutes late, and as people are trickling in, we're going to go ahead and get started at the point i will b

landrieu: thank you. while one of the major criticisms of this bill has been the cost, the bill does show fiscal responsibility, cutting budget deficits by $127 billion in the first decade and $65 $650 billion in the second decade. you know, anything we do is going to cost some money upfront to fix the system. but the way this bill is being designed is that for every dollar that's spent, there's a dollar raised to pay for that change. that is, you know, a refreshing change of method, considering the last eight years, where bill after bill was put on this floor, whether for domestic or international priorities, not paid for at all. so, you know, we can be criticized for trying to push something, a major reform forward, but at least we're finding ways within the system to pay for these important changes that will hopefully drive down costs for everyonement as mike reminded me, the gentleman who spoke at our press conference, he said, "it's even more important not to let one problem prevent you from solving

host: he was referring to mary landrieu, a point well taken. -- but a point well taken.eople have been complaining about congress for a long -- a lot of people have been complaining about congress for a long time. the health care bill -- passing it is more important than what it actually does any more. we know that votes are bought. it is unfortunate that once the representatives get elected and come to washington, they seem to stop representing us and start paying attention to special interests instead of our interests, and we are the ones that sent them there. i agree with you. it is very unfortunate. one of these days, if we get angry enough as of voters, we will change that, but we've not done that yet. host: deborah is joining us from new jersey. welcome to "washington journal." caller: mr. dunkelberg, we listen to economists so often tell us that getting us out of american crisis is american ingenuity. it seems that over the last 30 years, all the ingenuity has been focused on not creating product, but financial instruments to create profits for a very select few b

also, the latest on the health care debate with senators mary landrieu and john barrasso.discussion on the future of conservatism with james gilmore, president of the free congress foundation. later, the hope now alliance on hold for closure. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> all next week, a rare glimpse into america's highest court threw on the record conversations with 10 supreme court justices about the court, their work, and a history of the supreme court building. five days of interviews with supreme court justices started next monday at eight a putt -- 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> now a look at the future of afghanistan with bruce riedel, senior fellow of the saben center for middle east policy at the brookings institution. he is the author of the book "the search for al qaeda." this is an hour. >> we need to turn our attention to bruce riedel. we need to close the back doors. thank you. i will not take very long to do my introduction. i am president of the jamestown foundation. i am glad you are here today. we are delighted that we

the you know very well what certain senators have said, lieberman, landrieu, lincoln, ben nelson -- ifyou take them out there were several of them are not going to vote for a bill with a public option yet many democrats in both houses are adamant about the public option. how problematic is it and what passed to you see? >> i think i'm going to let senator reid -- my job is hard enough, i'm going to let senator reid to his. he is, as you know, managing -- managing the movement in the senate and he is confident that he is going to get where he needs to be and i am going to let him manage that process. >> [inaudible] -- can you give me any sense of what -- >> no. [laughter] >> good try though, chuck. john? >> john reichard. a key piece of the legislation as medicare cuts to hospitals, and rick pollack of the american hospital association said earlier this week the coverage levels are not high enough yet to merit of the cuts of the magnitude that have been proposed. he's talking about 97% standard of coverage. my question is whether, you know, is that feasible from your point of view finan

you know very well what certain senators have said, lieberman, landrieu, lincoln. ben nelson. if you take them at their word several of them are not going to vote with a bill with a public option and yet many democrats in both houses are adamant about a house option. what path do you see? >> you know i think i'm going to let senator reid -- my job is hard enough. i'm going to let senator reid do his. he is, as you know, managing the -- managing the movement in the senate and he is confident that he's going to get to where he needs to be and i'm going to let him manage that process. >> i appreciate that. but at the same time, you've been -- you and others have made trips up there including this week. can you give me any sense of sort of what your -- >> no. [laughter] >> good try, though, chuck. john? >> john with "congressional quarterly" health beat. a pretty key piece of the financing for the healthcare legislation is medicare cuts to hospitals. and rick pollack of the american hospital association said earlier this week that the coverage levels are not high enough yet to mer

manager's amendment, specifically the provision that was put in for nebraska and what happened with mary landrieu, is that more of an individual number because of the need for their 59th and 60th vote, or is that more the work of the lobbyist as the whole manager's amendment? >> there is probably some correspondence, but my sense is it would be more the view of the individual lawmaker. hue wee long from louisiana, probably more famous than his sun russell. hue wee long was famous dhuey was famous for saying every man is a king or a queen. when you need 60 votes, everyone can be a king or queen if you will. the leader has to bear that in mind. there is no margin for error whatsoever. you have to hold that 60. it is an additive process. if you are close and you don't have quite 60, you go into private negotiations and use whatever alleys you can to persuade this individual lawmaker. what do you want? what adjustments can i make in the legislation that will help you vote for this legislation? you want more aid for louisiana? well, bigolly, we are going to work that out. nebraska, you want more aid t

>> in fact, both senators snowe and senator landrieu have put in bills to increase the maxim to $5 million we feel that this actually can bring a lot more small businesses into our network and allow us to fund the particularly in these times of tight credit. but we will not let those big loan to crowd out the small boats. we are going to make sure that we also keep taking care of all of our small customers as well. >> all right. so congress was giving you love, but somebody else wants to ask, what do you say to small business group that argued the best way to help small business is for government to get out of the way? >> one of our responsibilities is to make sure that -- we watch out for small businesses. and that small business do not suffer unintended consequences of other regulations. this is something we take very seriously, and we have a great office of advocacy that operates independently and focuses quite a bit on this issue. we have an entire group, that you may not know about, called the omnibus when. and their sole job is to help small businesses navigate through regulatory iss

senator mary landrieu called the agreement is very good idea. senator blanche lincoln said more information is needed and senator ben nelson said i just want to know what the costs are. so do the rest of us. so do the rest of us. so here we have a proposal after a nearly a year that is being here, quote assessed by the congressional budget office and here we are with no knowledge but that bill is about of some their essentials that have been leaked. what does this have to with change? what does this have to do it by partisanship what does this have to do with frankly anything? and we have an editorial in "the washington post" this morning that has called it, quote, medicare sausage. and i ask unanimous consent that this editorial from "washington post" be made part of the record. says, quote -- >> without objection. >> the body in a proposal could have costly, unintended consequences. could have costly unintended consequences we don't know what it is but we never before in this entire year i would ask my colleagues have we seen a proposal and wo

you know very well what certain senators have said, lieberman, landrieu, lincoln. ben nelson. if you take them at their word several of them are not going to vote with a bill with a public option and yet many democrats in both houses are adamant about a house option. what path do you see? >> you know i think i'm going to let senator reid -- my job is hard enough. i'm going to let senator reid do his. he is, as you know, managing the -- managing the movement in the senate and he is confident that he's going to get to where he needs to be and i'm going to let him manage that process. >> i appreciate that. but at the same time, you've been -- you and others have made trips up there including this week. can you give me any sense of sort of what your -- >> no. [laughter] >> good try, though, chuck. john? >> john with "congressional quarterly" health beat. a pretty key piece of the financing for the healthcare legislation is medicare cuts to hospitals. and rick pollack of the american hospital association said earlier this week that the coverage levels are not high enough yet to mer

senator mary landrieu called the agreement a very good idea. senator burr lance lincoln said more information is needed and senator ben nelson said i just want to know what the costs are. so do the rest of us, so did the rest of us. so here we have a proposal after nearly a year that is being assessed by the congressional budget office and here we are with no knowledge of what that bill is about with the exception of some bare essentials that had been leaked. what is this got to do with change? what is this got to do it by partisanship? what is his guts to do with anything? rankly we have the editorial in "the washington post" this morning that calls that "medicare's kasich." and isd man is consent that this editorial from "the washington post" be made part of the record. >> without objection. >> the emerging proposal could have costly and detention, costly unintended consequences but we don't know what it is. what we no, never before in this entire gear i would ask my colleagues have we seen a proposal that would increase eligibility, the chan

mary landrieu, blanche lincoln, these democrats had issues early on. max baucus tried to design a bill that didn't have a public insurance option because he foresaw it would have trouble getting 60 votes and i am not sure he really liked the idea of the public option to begin with -- kent conrad. i could go on and on. joe lieberman is just a nationally known figure that was outspoken and honest about it, so he is taking a lot of flak. but he is far from the only member of this conference that had a lot of issues with the bill currently on the floor. host: new accounts -- newcastle accountspennsylvania, donna. caller: i have been watching this thing throughout and i think at this point we do have to get something done. there are a lot of good things in this. i feel really bad that so much stuff has been taken out. but we have to start somewhere. the senators, they say that they care about the americans and people don't have health insurance, but it doesn't appear they truly do. especially on the republican side they say they care about medicare. well, t

eight democratic senators, senator lincoln and by and landrieu, lieberman, but casco, nelson, pryor andte senator reid on october 6 saint as you know, to senator reid, americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt reporting health care reform in americas is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertaking considered by this body in decades. we believe the public% submission of this process is critical to our overall success. i'm going for an eight democratic senators. they'd want to say they want to make sure the bill is on the website for at least 72 hours in before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of a. we haven't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. then one would think we would be a mending it and debating it and considering it. thinking about it and trying to find out what it actually does. according

were debating health care, my colleague from louisiana, the distinguished senior senator, senator landrieu, was on c-span's "washington journal." and in discussing the health care bill, my participation came up and she said -- quote -- "senator vitter has not lifted a finger to pass this bill." i just want to say that that is a very kind and positive and generous comment of the senator and i take it as a nice christmas overture and i accept it in that vain and i wish her all the best this christmas season as well. it's obviously very true and i take it as a very positive comment, and i would go further. i've fought hard against this bill. i've fought hard for alternative reforms, focused reforms, reforms focused like a laser beam on real solutions in health care, to real problems like preexisting conditions. and i would simply add that i don't think this invite is over by a long shot and i'll continue fighting and i'll continue offering those alternatives. with regard to the bill and this enormously important issue of spending and debt, as i was leaving the floor to go to meetings in my of

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming posting the legislation and the congressional budget office scores 72 hours before it's t to a vot >> scores. 72-hours before it's brought to a vote in the senate. by publishing our constituents will have the opportunity to evaluate the policies. it's our duty to listen and to provide them with a chance to respond to proposals that will impact their lives, yet we're presented with it amid of a snowstorm on saturday. that it be passed even though most of the provisions, as the senator from maine has said, don't even begin to take effect for four more years. what's the rush, mr. president? i think the rush is that our friends on the other side don't want to explain to 40 million seniors how you can cut a trillion dollars out of medicare. now, it's exactly $470 billion over the next ten years, but w

>> in fact, both senator snowe and senator landrieu has put in bills to increase the maximum to $5 millionwe feel that this can actually bring a lot more small businesses into our network and allow us to fund, particularly in these times of tight credit. we will not let this big loans crowd out the small loans. we will make sure that we also keep taking care of our small customers as well. >> so congress was giving you love, but somebody else wants to ask -- what do you say to small business groups that argue the best way to help small business is for government to get out of the way? >> one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we watch out for small business and that small business does not suffer unintended consequences of other regulation. this is something we take very seriously, and we have a great office of advocacy that operates independently and focuses quite a bit on this issue. we have an entire group that you may not know about called the omnibus none. their sole job is to help small business navigate through regulatory issues. so if you are a small business and you are

cornyn: i would say to my colleague from utah, senator lincoln, senator landrieu, senator mccaskill,enator pryor, senator bayh, senator lieberman, senator nelson, senator webb were all signatories on that letter. and i -- i know at different points of the debate, we've had some discussion --ic senator --k senator dorgan from north dakota that sponsored the amendment that would deal with drug prices had expressed some concerns. i know certainly the senator from arizona, senator mccain, has expressed some concerns about drug price issues and what kind of deals had been basically cut on the side that members of the senate are not necessarily privy to. and i would just ask my colleague, is he aware that the obama administration has now been sued for the visitor list at the white house which they have claimed privilege to, has been sued because they have withheld the -- the names of the stlaidindividuals that have como the white house, some of whom may have been involved in negotiating these side deals that we are not privy to. was the senator aware of that? mr. bennett: i say to the sena

i first want to compliment and thank my colleagues, particularly senator landrieu who is chairman of the small business committee, as well as senator snowe who i've worked with for years on the plight of the small businesses in our states and across the country, their needs to be able to really access the kind of competition and choice that allows them to make good decisions of spending -- and spending their health care dollars more wisely, being able to do what they all want to do in small business, and that is to cover their employees, to make sure that their employees and their employees' families are covered with reasonable, meaningful health insurance that actually covers what they need but is an affordable price. so i want to thank those women as well as senator stabenow who i know has also been working on those issues. but i really come to the floor today, mr. president, to highlight the challenges that arkansas small business owners face in providing that quality, affordable health care for themselves, their families, and their employees under the current system. and look at