mr. coburn: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from are the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i would note there is nothing we can do new because the house has adjourned. so even if we were to pass this, nothing would happen with it. i've been assured that from the leader's office, the majority leader's office. i agree with the senator from california that probably any action on the mediation board is probably inappropriate for this bill. i wouldn't disagree with that. but my -- my reservation -- and i plan on objecting and i think the good senator from california knows that, is both in the house and the senate by significant votes we passed limitations on essential air services. and so -- by majorities that said we could no longer afford to spend thousands of dollars on individual seats on subsidies for people who live 110 miles from an airport or 140 miles from an airport, but what we could do is -- to major airports, that those under -- those above 90 we could still do that and so i understan

it should be a scandal for coburn, frankly. but mr. obama himself, since his great single race speech during the campaign, mr. obama has chosen to deal with this recurring issue by mostly letting other people deal with. the white house does not tend to take it on head-on, and i do not expect them to in this case either. we will see what other democrats do about senator coburn's comment. but what may get more of a comment from the white house, believe it or not, i think may be the chickens for checkups part. yeah, it harks back to sue louden. we all remember that. but what tom coburn is essentially saying, and why that is more important, when he says that he is nostalgic for an america without medicare, that is something that republicans are working on. 98% of the republicans in the house voted to end medicare this year. tom coburn was one of the 85% of republicans in the senate who voted to end medicare. presidential candidate rick perrys both social security and medicare are ponzi schemes. aside from ron paul, all of the presidential

we had tom coburn on, mr.ll him around the morning joe set saying that absolutely nothing good came out of this deal. how are you feeling and will this pass the senate today? >> it will, joe. i notice that coburn was more upbeat and sunny than he normally is this morning. but it will pass the senate and i have -- i have a lot of heartburn over elements in this too. but i think it comes back to the question you posed earlier, if not this, what? and i think it is important not to oversell this because this is a start, this is certainly not a solution to the challenges that we face, but as you know, from having been here, so much of what happens in washington is directional. and when you are here and i was here and harold ford was here, years ago, the last time i remember when we were actually trying to turn the ship around and actually roll back the size of government. so this stuff is all -- it is directional. and it is a baby step, but i think that's the way you have to look at it. >> that's the great way to l

mr. jackson that i was going to have problems with senator coburn of oklahoma, a republican of oklahoma. frank and i immediately ran over to the cloakroom on the senate side and i talked to senator coburn by telephone and i'll describe that conversation in just a second. but i think it's important to talk about who the hostages are and who is holding them. the house of representatives passed an extension of the federal aviation administration on july 20 of this year. it has been sitting without action by the united states senate since that moment in time. now, what there is, and let me say this, there is no labor provision in it, there is no antilabor provision in it, there's no poison pill in it, it's six pages long and i invite you, unlike some others who want to talk about it but apparently haven't read the six pages, now what it does have is the coburn essential air services language, an amendment. now, essential air services, again, not to be too mundane, but there was a recognition by the federal government a number of years ago that in order to provide air service to people who li

mr. obama -- i am a democrat and i back him 100%, but when you are dealing with republicans like boehner, mcconnell, coburn -- talk about entitlements. i will tell you what entitlements are. coburn, kyl, they are not going to seek reelection in 2012. they are going to retire. when they are active -- when they retire, they will collect $139,000 in a pension when they were collecting $175,000 when they were still working. to me, that is an entitlement. when you get down to social security and medicare and medicaid, like all of my generation, i'm a baby boomer and proud of it. this is the sum of the total. host: a tweet in response to some of the compensation stories we had. an update on the pg&e situation. here is the front page of the "los angeles times." "the national transportation safety board also said pg&e exploited the lack of monitoring by regulators who mistakenly placed a blind trust in the utility." that is the front page. we have done segments on "washington journal" on that. if you want to watch those, go to our web site, c-span.org. go to our video library. it is in the upper right-hand corner.

coburn language is. if you study the charts, there are only two airports that are in districts that are currently occupied by democratic members of the house, and that's mr. higgins and mr. crits and of course, mr. crits is the successor to the late john murtha and that's the johnstown pennsylvania airport. to be perfectly fair, the micah proposal, not only has word for word in the six-page bill, the coburn language, it added another requirement and it said, you know, we're going to deal with those airports that are miles but we're also going to look at airports wherein the american taxpayer is paying more than 1,000 dollars per person to subsidize the mileage. these three airports are a greater distance from a hub airport but the micah language in the extension doesn't say we're not going to subsidize these trips anymore, it says, we're not going to subsidize them above $1,000. not to pick on anybody in particular, but the first one happens to be in nevada, eli, nevada. it's currently vacant. it was dean heller's seat who is now in the united states senate. and if you wanted ago to the nearest hub you would have to drive 234 miles to the salt lake city

mr. withrow. that was something i was very much involved in. i championed space at work and for women to express milk, and here in the senate dr. coburn on the senate side because it was basically no cost and it turned out to be an experiment? oregon that they had much less absenteism and a much higher speed of women returning after childbearing because of that stress over whether they are doing the right thing by their child, so you mentioned the cost associated to lactation. >> having had four kids, i certainly know the costs we had to pay in order to buy or rent breast pumps and also birth control. those are the costs that concerned me, because we seemed to be adding more and more to the ticket of benefits, and adds as we add benefits, typically in business you add benefits, the more you add, the more it costs . so it concerns me that we seem to keep adding more and more to the party. be >> my understanding -- i could be wrong but those features are not a mandate in the law. those are not required. many companies are putting them in because they have a very strong appeal to the customer. but that's a market decision not a mandate d

mr. obama held a town hall meeting in illinois as he wrapped up a trip to the midwest. after that, the deficit reduction committee. then a meeting with senator tom coburn. >> a former homicide investigator takes on the tough question "why do we kill?" that is when the books we're featuring this month including a book launch party for armstrong williams and his new book " reawakening virtus." the complete schedule at booktv.org. you can watch almost all of our nine dozen programs online. >> rick perry campaigned in new hampshire today, saying president obama is that enough to create jobs. this is a regular stop for presidential candidates. this is 40 minutes. >> to all of you, and very cheery good morning. what a fabulous day. i do not think it is this way in texas. the heat may be a little bit higher in texas. you are blessed to have this beautiful weather. it is good to be with you. this is an intriguing idea to say the least. thank you for coming today. you really honor us. there is a united states marine who has been serving in afghanistan. one of the reasons we are here today to have the three freedoms that we do our young men like years -- like yo