mr. president. mr. leahy: mr. ent, the senior senator from new hampshire i know is about to speak regarding the violence against women act. i just want to take a moment to thank her for all the work she has done in her state and in the senate to help advance this legislation. senator shaheen and i are from rural states, we border each other, the connecticut river runs down, sets the border between our two states. and we have so much in common. we face some of the same difficulties, weather, rural nature, and, of course, in the rural state you have the question of access to transportation. senator shaheen was the one who brought out based on her experience in new hampshire that women were having trouble getting to crises centers and courts, and, of course, a similar challenge in a rural state like mine. but senator shaheen worked with the department of justice to address this problem. as a result, the office on violence against women is now allowing rural communities to obtain vawa grant funding for transportation n

mr. president, mr. kayatta is an attorney of exceptional intelligence, extensive experience and demonstrated integrity. i cannot tell you how highly regarded he is in maine's legal circles. in fact, if you ask virtually any attorney or judge or prosecutor or anyone, law professor, anyone involved in the legal profession in maine, they will tell you that the president could not have made a better choice than bill kayatta. he graduated magna cum laude from both am hers college -- amherst college and hazard university where he served as a member of the law school's law review. after graduating from law school, mr. kayatta clerked for the chief judge of the u.s. court of appeals for the first circuit, frank coffin. it is a wonderful symmetry that he now is -- assuming the confirmation goes well this afternoon, will be joining the court for which he clerked many years ago. in 1980, he joined the prestigious law firm of pierce atwood in portland, maine, where over the subsequent 32 years, bill has specialized

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: parliamentary inquiry. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. mr. leahy: under the previous order, we are now on amendment number 10. the presiding officer: the amendment has not been made pending. the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i call up amendment 10. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from ohio, mr. portman -- mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, this is a commonsense amendment. we just voted on the vawa amendment for trafficking that senator leahy offered. this is an amendment that deals actually with the underlying legislation. it's really a clarifying amendment. i'm pleased to be joined by senators blumenthal, ayotte, cochran, brown, rubio, alexander and gillibrand. it has to do with offering services to victims of sex trafficking u

mr. president. mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: thank you mr. president. mr. president, shortly i hope we will be voting on the confirmation of jack lew to be the next secretary of the treasury and i urge my colleagues to support that nomination. he's the right person at the right time to be secretary of the treasury. he has devoted his entire life to public service. i thank him for that, and i thank him for his willingness to continue to serve his nation. he has a great record of accomplishment. i've known jack lew for 26 years. i have served with him on common issues and i just want to bring to the attention of my colleagues some of the things that he has done. he first served in the house of representatives as a staff person. he served as a staff person for the speaker of the house tip o'neill. in that capacity, one of the responsibilities that he had was to be the liaison to the commission that was working on social security reform when presiden

mr. president. mr. resident of the republic, you rightly stressed the need for a europe which shows solidarity, and with your government you're trying to stop the division which because of austerity policies is undermining relations between our people. the constant increase of the number of poor people. and we're trying to stop the ending of the provision of monies to the poorest people in europe while banks are being bailed out. don't you think it's time to call on the people of europe to keep up levels of food aid? secondly, monetary austerity is being applied, wage austerity is happening throughout france and europe. it's always said it's in favor of competitiveness, but it's something that is undermining democratic rights and work in general. but when you talked about the euro's value, don't you think that's actually a handicap to competitiveness? it's destroying jobs, it's destroying companies. isn't it high time to try to change the role of the european central bank and to change the european stabi

mr. president. mr. president, i spoke earlier today about the importance of passing the violence against women act, about how this has been a longtime bipartisan bill back to 1994 when the late senator paul wellstone was involved in this bill as well as vice president biden, when people came together and said we have to do something about domestic violence. this is no longer a hidden crime behind closed doors. you know what we've seen since then? we've seen a 50% reduction. a 50% reduction in domestic violence in this country. that is a victory. and we do not want to go backwards. and, unfortunately, the bill that has been submitted by senator grassley, the substitute amendment, i believe would take us backwards. and let me explain why. first of all, we all know that the vawa reauthorization bill, months of negotiation between the two lead authors, senator leahy, the chairman of the judiciary committee; and senator crapo. it has bipartisan consensus and was drafted after months of input from numerous sta

mr. president, chu. hello mr. mayor, i want to congrats you on your library programs and we want to say that we should have important poetry in this san francisco. and my question is: haiku i mentioned on one of the syllables so, please forgive me. the arts that deprivation we we is now mopes for the arts in san francisco and thank you for that question. as we all know san francisco has a thooifg arts section that is vital to our city but it's also a benefit to our tourism industry. it generates approximately 7.2 moifldz and supports jobs in san francisco. we have seen first hand how investing in the arts help attract and build new businesses and arts. from the store gallow to other theaters and central market corridor is once again the inspired districts that's especially supposed to be. 2013 is turning ought to be a great benefit here. we'll have new arts shops on the water. we have a beautiful new jazz center. besides bmw being a jazz center it's the only facility dedicated to jazz in the nation and once again

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. leahy: mr. president, on behalf of senator menendez of new jersey, i ask unanimous consent that margaret taller be allowed floor privileges during the executive session to consider executive calendar number 7, the nomination of robert bacharach of oklahoma to be united states circuit judge for the tenth circuit. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the george judiciary, robert e. bacharach of oklahoma to be united states circuit judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be 30 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form. the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, today after an unprecedented filibuste

mr. president. i support the supplemental and i'm speaking because actually, i don't wag the cut that was made by the budget committee i think it's a mistake. i am glad we're helping victims of domestic violence and i don't disagree in any way before but the fact is our district attorney's office is understaffed in many ways in which this is a crushing caseload. and while that is very important for your us to support the victims of domestic violence it's also important to send the message that people who commit domestic violence will be held accountable. i think it's important to send that message loud and clear. i know that every time the district attorney's office comes forward and says they want more staph. and the district attorney's office handles 1 hundred percent of the case load and so i don't agree with what the budget committee did. but i will be supporting amendments and i'll be supporting this amendment >> i just said to add i think the final part which supervisor kim mentioned is the su

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: i ask unanimous consent that the proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coons: what's become painfully clear to me this week is that folks here in the united states congress, folks here in the senate, aren't listening to each other anymore, and as we lurch towards our latest fiscal crisis, the looming sequester that takes effect tomorrow, i rise today to speak directly to the folks i work for, my constituents, my fellow delawareans. i'd like to continue a conversation that i've been having with my neighbors at the train station, in the acme, outside church, on the sidelines of my kids' sporting events consistently since coming here to serve you as delaware's junior senator. and i'm focused a bit by a facebook message i got from sandy, a neighbor, this morning. it is fairly pointed. she speaks or writes, "in 2011 when we smoke, yo spoke, you ase the effort is was so draconian it would never happen. i feel detrade b

mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. coats: mr. esident, normally i would be here talking about the sequester, the nation's fiscal health, but we're about to vote on a critical nomination for a very critical position in this government, and i'd like to spend just a few minutes defining why i came to the decision of -- that i have to oppose the confirmation of senator hagel to be secretary of convince. -- secretary of defense. chuck hagel is someone that i respect for his honorable service to this country, both in uniform and out of uniform. i respect him as a human being and as a person, as i said, as a colleague. but -- and i also recognize, mr. president, that elections have consequences, and in most situations, the president has the right to choose his own advisors. but this is no ordinary cabinet position. this is secretary of defense, perhaps the top or at least one of the most critical positions necessary -- function of this government to protect the american people and to deal with national security issues. based on a number

mr. president, -- mr. leahy: mr. president, would the distinguished chairman of the armed services committee yield for a question? mr. levin: i'd be happy to. mr. leahy: mr. president, i've listened to the presentation. basically what you're saying is all the rules that were in place for nominees at the department of defense under republican presidents, you're following the same rules with senator hagel, but there are some who want to go beyond and go to different rules than what we had for, say, dick cheney when he was secretary or donald rumsfeld, or gates or any of the others? you're saying they want now to do something different for this nominee of president obama than what they found totally acceptable for the nominees of president bush? mr. levin: the senator is correct. a number of our colleagues have made that demand, and it's simply not something that we're going to set a precedent on. it's not the way to proceed in this body. mr. leahy: mr. president, i stand with the senator from michigan. in the judiciary

mr. president. mr. president, i rise today as a physician who practiced medicine in wyoming for more than 25 years, and i rise to continue the debate that we've been having in this body about the president's health care law. although there's been significant debate and discussion, what i've continued to try to do is discuss some of the many ways in which this law falls short of its goals and falls way short of what the american public has asked for when it came to the need for health care reform. the obama administration continues to put significant effort in to trying to sell its health care law and tries to convince people that it is the answer to all of their problems. but in the words of john adams, "facts are stubborn things." despite all the spin of this administration, the american people continue to learn the facts. the facts about just how bad this law is and how much it's going to cost them personally, in terms of finances, and personally, in terms of their own health care. that's why the presi

mr. president. mr. president, last week, the senate passed legislation that had already been approved in the house that extended the debt ceiling until late this summer. it was the right thing to do. it was the right thing to extend the debt ceiling of our nation because it allows us to pay the bills that we have already incurred. there isn't one dime of new spending that's authorized under the legislation we approved. my only regret is that we didn't extend it for a longer period of time, giving greater certainty to the financial markets. for you see that if we were to ever violate the debt ceiling, the consequences would be that the taxpayers of this country would have to pay more for the obligations of our nation and interest costs. it would permanently damage the reputation of this nation as far as our ability to pay our bills. it would be counterproductive to everything we're trying to do to help the taxpayers of america. so it was the right thing for us to do to extend the debt ceiling, but we stil

mr. president. and i yield the floor. mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, this week is a milestone for working families across america. 20 years ago this week, president bill clinton signed into law the family and medical leave act. you know, there are many laws that we pass here in washington that most americans never have reason to know or care about. the fmla, by contrast, has changed this country in profoundly important ways. it has touched the lives of millions of working families. it's almost hard to imagine today but 20 years ago, before this landmark law, workers had to risk their jobs and their livelihoods when family needs arose. there was no national policy for maternity leave or paternity leave. new mothers were sometimes compelled to return to work just days after giving birth. or to quit jobs they would otherwise have liked to keep. there was no law allowing someone to take leave from work to care for an aging, potentially dying parent or to care for a child with a seriou

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: mr. president, we have heard a lot of discussion recently about the author bob woodward and his comments about spending and the sequester. basically, his -- i quote from what he said. it's important for us to understand this. this is not an easy matter. we have got a lot of confusion i think is what's been happening in the senate, so from my perspective as ranking member on the budget committee, i'd like for all of us to understand the issue at stake. he says this -- quote -- "so when the president asked that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts, some other spending cuts somewhere in the government so that they don't fall so hard on defense, for example, when he includes not just spending cuts -- quote -- but also new revenue, he's moving the goal post." he goes on to say -- "that was not the deal he made." so if we will all remember what happen

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nominations, calendar numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and all nominations placed on the secretary's desk in the air force, army, marine corps and navy, that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, that the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediat

mr. president. >> and could you read our consent agenda items 1 through 12? >> mr. president, before doing so, i wanted to present a point of information. this morning our controller mr. rosenfield identified item number 3, the supplemental appropriations specifically the district attorney positions on item number 3 to have originally been rejected by the board and the mayor in the annual budget for the current year. section 3.15 of the administrative code states that when any supplemental appropriation ordinance subsequent to the adoption of the budget for the current year contains an item which has been rejected by the board of the mayor and is then reintroduced for consideration, it must be subject to a two-thirds vote or an eight-vote threshold. typically the controller indicates that such within the title of these supplementals and we are able then to place it on the unfinished business pursuant to our rules as it is not appropriate for the consent agenda. it is before you today on second read. it was unanimous on its first reading. that concludes my point of in

mr. president. supervisor avalos? avalos present. supervisor breed? breed present. supervisor campos? campos present. president chiu? present. supervisor chu? chu present. supervisor cohen? cohen present. supervisor farrell? farrell present. supervisor kim? kim absent. supervisor mar? mar absent. supervisor wiener? wiener present. supervisor yee? yee present. mr. president, there is a quorum. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> colleagues, we have copies of the january 15th, 2013 board meeting minutes. could i have a motion to approve those anixctionv motion by supervisor campos, seconded by supervisor farrell. without objection, those minutes are approved. madam clerk, any communications? >> i have no communications, mr. president. >> and could you read our consent agend

mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, senator alexander's my friend. i mean it. sometimes that word is thrown around on the floor of the senate, not very sincerely, but i mean it and he knows it, and i respect him very much, but i would say to the senator, there is just no other way to describe what we are going through than a filibuster. a filibuster is, of course, an effort by at least one member of the senate to continue the debate and stop the vote on a matter, whether it's an amendment or a nomination. a cloture motion, in other words, to close off the debate, is an effort to produce 60 votes to overcome that senator and to move to a vote, a final vote on an amendment or a nomination. so by every senate standard, by every definition, what we're facing with senator chuck hagel as a nominee for the secretary of defense is a filibuster. it is. and that's why the majority leader filed a motion for cloture. it is interesting to note that 59 senators, a substantial majority of the senate, were prepared to vote fo

mr. president. is it the same one i have? >> no, that's sally's. to get them mixed up. >> let me just first of all say to president obama that i am humbled and honored beyond imagination to have been a part of the president obama dream team for the united states of america. his presidency is historic. his team in the white house is historic and the team at the department of interior are historic. and for that i will ever be eternally grateful to you, my wonderful friend, mr. president. >> thank you. [applause] >> so with your leadership and support and this wonderful team that we have here, we have in fact changed the way that the department of interior does business. we have seized the opportunity together with our other closing on the cabinet and under the president's leadership and your stellar staff here at the white house to put the nation on a path towards energy independence. today, the largest solar projects in the history of the world are coming up out of the deserts of the public lands of the united states and our foreign oil imports are

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: madam president, the lew nomination is not received enthusiastic -- has not received enthusiastic response in many quarters, that's for sure. maybe the hard left where he has been an advocate of some very hard left views and inflexibility when it comes to dealing with some of our entitlement programs and welfare programs that have been surging out of control, but this is what some others have said about the nomination. larry cudlow, the commentator on cnbc, was an economist for the federal reserve system of the united states and a former chief economist at bear stearns and an employee at the office of management and budget. he was a chief economist there. this is what he said on the radio not too long ago. i guess this was written by jeff poor, reporter for "the daily caller." i just quoted mr. cudlow. he explained why president obama's nomination of jack lew as

mr. president, i yield the floor. mrs. boxer: mr. president?rs. boxer: following my remarks, i ask unanimous consent that the senator from arkansas, senator pryor, be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: before chairman murkowski levels the floor, i wanted to thank her for her very hard work with several colleagues in putting together a plan that is a real commonsense plan that avoid this sequester. these automatic, senseless spending cuts. and it wasn't easy to do, but i thinker they fissioned out a way -- they figured out a way to pay for it, as she described, called the buffett rule, which basically says to a mult imillionaire, we think it only fair that you pay the same effective tax rate as your secretary. if you were to ask anyone in the street, any party -- republican, democratic -- do you think that's the right way to go? i'm convinced 90% of the people who say, of course. -- would say of course. i want to thank you. and i know that senator ink owe way is looking down and smiling because his successor, senat

mr. president. i'll be very brief. i appreciate all the comments, including some of the issues that were raised by some of my colleagues. for me, on something like this, i do give deference to the district supervisor and i know that a number of members of the community have come out in support of this. you know, i think ultimately the district supervisor has, you know, a better sense of the benefits that would come to the community for something like this. so, you know, out of that deference i will be supporting this item today. >> supervisor kim. >> thank you. and i appreciate all the comments that were made. i know that this has been a long-standing discussion at budget committee in terms of how we actually lease our parking garages here in the city and county of san francisco. and we're always looking for as many savings as possible to go towards transit needs within the sfmta. so, i really appreciate that there has been such a robust discussion at the budget committee and i plan on supporting th

mr. president, mr. vice president, mrs.distinguished guests, which includes everybody, thank you so much for this wonderful honor. to be at this stage again -- i was here 16 years ago -- the fact that they reminded me back -- invited me back was that i did not offend many people. i want to start by reading four text which will put into context what i will say. proverbs 11:9. with this month, we destroyed the neighbor. myoverbs 11:12, a man tha understanding holds his tongue. a generous man will prosper. he too refreshes others with himself -- will themselves be refreshed. it is my people who are called by my name them -- called by my name who will seek my face and turned from their wicked ways. then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their lamb. i have an opportunity to speak in a lot of avenues. this is my fourth speech this week. i have an opportunity to talk to a lot of people. i have been asking people, what concerns you? what are you most concerned about in terms of spirituality and the direct

mr. president. and you cannot allow that to happen. if the pipeline goes through, mr. t, the first thing it runs over will not be farmland. the first thing it runs over will not be small towns. if you let this pipeline go through, mr. president, the first thing it runs over is the credibility of the president of the united states of america. that's the first thing it runs over. that's the first thing it runs over. [cheers and applause] >> i want to say unequivocally to this next generation, top stop being chumps. i'm going to say it again. to the next generation, stop being chumps. you elected this president. you re-elected this president. you gave him the chance to make history. he needs to give you the chance to have a future. stop being chumps. stop being chumps. and fight for your future. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> and in case you're wondering why everybody in the front row is smiling, it has nothing to do with my speech, give it up for rosario dawson, in the house! >> i just want to say thank you so much, all of you being here. the only reason wh

mr president's. going by your statements you have a lot of views that are uncommon on the situation in the middle east and in africa i mean in mali and syria but mr french president talking to explain the fact that. france speaks against militants in mali to support the legitimate government in that the same time in syria it supports. against the militants at the same time in syria it supports militants against diligent and government while russia in both countries supports the legitimate governments in both countries. and can you please also comment to do he's got. bring these positions closer because talking about having a common opinions on the disintegration of the country is one thing but fighting on different sides is a totally different matter. yes . you have said that we are working in the right direction but we're sure to kind of combine the sections this is a little bit difficult nevertheless we can say that there's been a lot of progress and said we have a common goal to fight terrorism and

mr. president, we're fast forwarding to supervisor farrell, supervisor kim. okay >> thank you madam clerk today, i'm calling for a special hearing for storm presentness. we're looking forward to working with the public utilities commission on our cities preparedness as you remember there was a storm that occurred and the out flow brew off a manhole cover and sent sewage water onto the beach and it went through 3 feet of sand and it resulted in bacteria leveled levels into the ocean. it resulted from heavy rain combined with other waters in the neighboring streets. as the reality of climate change it make sense to - that our city a taking care of of this. this winter symptom we will be prepared to meet the changes of the coming years. as i member of the air pollution board we've been looking at data on earthquake preparedness and also there maybe storms hitting other parts of the country with the same issues. i'm looking forward to working with the pb c on this. and a little bit later today, we'll be honoring our district school and i want to thank the reality

mr. president. is it the same one i have? >> no, that's sally's. just didn't want to get them mixed up. >> let me just first of all say to president obama that i am humbled and honored beyond imagination to have been a part of the president obama dream team for the united states of america. his presidency is historic. his team in the white house is historic and the team at the department of interior are historic. and for that i will ever be eternally grateful to you, my wonderful friend, mr. president. >> thank you. [applause] >> so with your leadership and support and this wonderful team that we have here, we have in fact changed the way that the department of interior does business. we have seized the opportunity together with our other closing on the cabinet and under the president's leadership and your stellar staff here at the white house to put the nation on a path towards energy independence. today, the largest solar projects in the history of the world are coming up out of the deserts of the public lands of the united states and our foreign

mr. president members of the commission. our chancing with bawsca i have a few items to report first of all, on the heals of your bonding success we are about to have bonding success we have received a double a minus rating on our bonds -- thank you next week i'll fly too new york and talk to loan buyers and ring the bell and we anticipate the save's very much the along the same line as yours thank you for your support and your staff support on that item. wet a meeting last thursday night the new chair of our board is ireneconel and the new vice chair is rando from city of bris obtain and they do city work with the city of bris obtain as well and we have a board policy committee it's our one standing committee and there will be new members appointment to that i suspect and some carry over with respect to our board meeting we had two items of interest one related to item 11 on calaveras dam and the other one is on the agreement and i'll withhold my comment until we get to that. >> we are ready to move to the public items? or

mr. president and members of the commission. i want to make a couple of points first of all, your staff has been helpful and cooperative in terms of our review and looking at what the project entails and where the program stands and some of our questions, i think you put much more simply mr. president when you said do you have enough money can you find it all and the answer to that question is what we would like brought back in the tabular form so we can all see had a and be assures and your second question is is it going to go to 117 toward one 17 or what? and that is right is there going to be enough for contingency and is this project and the contingency is nowcy on this project and those are the question that you saw see in the recommendation and is then some recommendations also with respect to schedule and i think one of the most important one there is meeting the level of service goals if this is the one project of all the wsip project that go along and all of the other activities including the activity not managed by lab

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: mr. at the president of the united states -- and i quote -- "shall from time to time give the congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." and every president dating all the way back to george washington through our current president has provided this to the congress on a yearly basis. and so the state of the union address, which will be presented tomorrow by the president, is the continuation of a great tradition in our american government. but the state of the union is more than just about state -- the current state of our union. it's about the future. it's about presenting to the american people a vision of what our country should look like and how we can get there. so before the president makes his case and sets out his priorities for the nation, let's recognize where we are today. what is the state of our great nation today? today america is nearly $16.5 tril glon debttril twron in -- n de

mr. president. and you cannot allow that to happen. if the pipeline goes through, mr. esident, the first thing it runs over will not be farmland. the first thing it runs over will not be small towns. if you let this pipeline go through, mr. president, the first thing a runs over is the credibility of the president of the united states of america. that is the first thing it runs over. >> president obama's former green jobs czar van jones. canadian indigenous leader chief jacqueline thomas of the saik'uz first nation trial from british columbia to attend sunday's rally. >> i am a mother of four and a grandmother of one, and i was raised by my own grandmother. she was a traditional medicine woman of my people. i learned early on the value of our environment. she was known as dr. sophie t homas and her words are still with me today. and what she told us was when we take care of the land, the land would take care of us. [applause] if we destroy this land, we will destroy ourselves. i am speaking on behalf of the alliance from northern british columbia. it translates to peopl

mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: for months now, i've been coming to the floor to urge my colleagues on the other side to help us replace the president's sequester proposal. yet here we are just two days to go until the cuts hit, and the democrats that control washington still haven't put forward a serious bipartisan plan -- not the president and not his allies in congress. they prefer to keep it alive as a political issue instead. now less than 48 hours before the clock runs out, all we're offered is a gimmicky tax hike that's designed to fail. now, look ... you i hope they're not expecting a round of applause for this particular act of political bravery. is it any wonder the american people are so fed up with washington? look, the american people didn't send us here to play games. they sent us here to solve problems. that means getting spending under control and putting the economy back on track. the american people are clearly tired of the gimmicks. i can't tell you how many letters and e-mails and phone