mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: we have made remarkable progress in this country in terms of our research into diseases. and since francis collins and his great work on the genome complex became successful, the way we research a disease has totally changed. i have my favorite aunt that died of pancreatic cancer. i've diagnosed it hundreds of times in my own practice, patients that were dear to me and that i love. the problem with pancreatic cancer is it is an adeno carcinoma. the reason we do so well on cancer is because we do colonoscopies and we treat the disease early. what is so well intended by the calcitrant bill will actually ay delay the treatment for pancreatic cancer and other recalcitrant diseases. let me just take a minute to explain that. we no longer look at diseases to cure them by looking at the base disease. there is translational and neurocommunique activneurocommud other communication that when we do research and we find that, what we find is we find cures for multiple diseases when we -- w

mr. coburn: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: reserving the right to object. this bill came out of the veterans' committee 14-0. they had hearings on it. we have done the work. it has been done. it came out unanimous of the veterans' committee. it's -- there's no question about what is right to do in terms of protect -- this isn't about allowing anybody with any mental disease to have a gun. this is about protecting the rights of those who don't have a mental disease to have their rights restored. the presiding officer: does the senator from oklahoma object? the -- there's been a unanimous consent request. if there's n no objection, so ordered. the senator from michigan. mr. levin: i now call up a list of -- i call up a list of 17 amendments which have been cleared by myself and senator mccain. and i'm going to list these amendments. the presiding officer: will the senate come to order. the senator from michigan needs to list out the amendments so would the senate please come to order. the senator from michigan. mr. levin:

mr. coburn will join to us vent his frustrations about the fiscal cliff and the one-sided discussion and attention on revenues alone which is driving me crazy. politics aside, the question is what happens to the economy and your money if we go over the cliff or just kick the can down the road? you're going to want to hear what our next guest's predictions are because he's a former undersecretary of the treasury and he's a serious guy. later on, didn't president obama promise to pull out our troops out of afghanistan? now he's changing his mind. we're going look at what that means. i think he's got it right this time, and don't forget, folks, free market capitalism, free market capitalism, which is not out of control spending, it is the best path to prosperity. i'm larry kudlow. "the kudlow report" coming right back. from investing for the first time... to investing with knowledge. the potential of td ameritrade unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. to a world of super-connected intelligence. the potential of freescale unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's pot

mr. coburn wants? that anybody can offer any amendment at any time on any subject, and you can just keep going like that? i mean, again, that is where the minority then trumps the majority. >> holman: both senate leaders have raised the option of talks to avert a rules change come january. but as the end of the current session approaches, no formal meetings have been scheduled. >> brown: you can find extended clips of kwame's interviews with senators harkin and coburn. that's on our web site. >> warner: countries around the globe will mark world aids day this weekend. the disease's toll is still enormous. more than 30 million have died since the epidemic broke out. and aids accounted for 1.7 million deaths last year. but there is growing optimism about curbing and perhaps ending the epidemic for the next generation, even as daunting hurdles remain. ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: the numbers are still staggerings, number 34 million are live well hiv, almost 5 million more than a decade ago. the u.

mr. coburn: thank you. i just want to spend a few minutes noting why i am against the expansion of the public safety officers benefits improvement act. and it's a great example for where we find ourselves in our country. if you read the constitution and look at the enumerated powers, we have a federal program to benefit what is really the responsibility of states. nobody's going to say that this isn't a beneficial program to those poor families that might need this. and the chairman of the judiciary committee has done a wonderful job in terms of offsetting this so that there's no additional cost. and for that, i congratulate him. but this is a great example of why we're -- have $88 trillion in unfunded liability, $16 trillion in debt, because we're doing a function that is truly the responsibility of the states. the psob program was originally designed, in its original design to be a model so that the states would set up and demonstrate to them how they could extract rally -- structurally set up their own p

mr. coburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: first of all, i want to state from the outset, i agree with the assessment of the senator from new york in terms of the treatment that should be offered. i have no problems with that. i think she's right. there's a lot of other things in tricare that aren't right. and what the senator from new york is doing is admirable, but there's a portion of it's that not. with the modification to her amendment, she has now raised the total cost of this amendment over the next ten years to $1.9 billion. and it is true that she has managed to insert with some excess funds that will be spent before the end of the year, that won't be there by the time the money for this is used, to pay for it. so she does meet that standard. but she doesn't meet the standard for the next ten years. and so we're in the midst of this large discussion about how we're going to get out of the fiscal mess. and i take her at her word she really does want to reform tricare and fix it. but you realize tricare hasn't ha

mr. coburn: mr. president, i'd like to take a moment to honor a member of my staff who's not retiring but through his ailment can no longer come and work on the hill. this gentleman's name is michael schwartz, he's been my chief of staff for almost 15 years. while i was in the house and here as well. a lot of people on the hill know michael. and what they know is that he's one of the kindest, gentlest people that anyone has ever met. he's been a light on how you do things to honor other people. mike has been the kind of person that has always focused on others, especially those in need. he's the kind of person that doesn't pass up the homeless that we all see around the capitol but stops and tries to supply their need, offers them money and food, but he also offers them friendship and his time. he offers them the love and dignity that comes from being reminded that we're all children of the creator. mike has also been an unapologetic defender of the family and for those who cannot defend themselves.