mr. franken: thank you. madam president, i rise today to express my strong support for the veterans job corps act. i'm proud to be a cosponsor of the bill. i'd like to thank senator nelson for introducing the bill, and i'd like to thank senator murray, chairman of the senate veterans' affairs committee, for bringing this bill to the senate and for all that she's done for our nation's veterans. veterans have done so much for our country, serving courageously in the military, and they have been tested so profoundly and so many times over the -- in so many times over the last decade. these men and women have done everything for us. we owe them. that means they deserve the best health care and other benefits that they've earned from the department of veterans affairs. and that means a home. last weekend i was back in minnesota at a habitat for humanity build doing critical home repairs for a minnesota guard veteran, sergeant brian neil and his family. brian is a 23-year veteran of the national guard, part of the

mr. franken: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. two enormous challenges will await us when we return from recess. our economy is still not yet fully recovered from a devastating recession, and the prospects for our middle class and for those aspiring to be in the middle class or to get back into the middle class remain uncertain. meanwhile, our budget remains sorely out of balance and our long-term debt crisis is putting our nation's fiscal future at risk. these two challenges are, of course, linked. we can't hope to solve our long-term debt problem unless we get our economy growing again, and we can't hope to rebuild our prosperity unless we resolve our budget problems. so we will have big decisions to make when we come back, but in the meantime, the american people will be wrestling with the same issues. what should we do to grow our economy and reduce our debt? what are the right investments to make? how should we pay for them? what sacrifices must be made in the name of fiscal responsibility,

mr. franken: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota is recognized. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. i would like to associate myself with the remarks of the senator from vermont. i am one of the cosponsors of the reauthorization of the older americans act. and i just, before i talk about a bill that i've just introduced, i just want to say, to underscore the fact that the older americans act was introduced in 1965, and it keeps -- it allows seniors to stay in their homes. and it saves money. and it costs $6 a day to do meals on wheels per senior. and this allows seniors to stay in their home and not go to a nursing home. we know what a nursing home costs every day. so this is an example of just common sense. seniors want to stay in their homes if they can. and this is -- i've been through the presiding officer in my state in minnesota doing round tables on the older americans act. it is a great program that we need to reauthorize in order to do a, really a commonsense thing, which is allow seniors to stay where they want to stay -- in their home -

mr. smith who has interesting views on this. my view of it is to pose that question and the very interesting what what-if, to pose that question is like asking how franken roosevelt would have you the democratic party in the jimmy carter era. in other words, he's the same idea but is being carried forward under dirt different circumstances. in fact a very interesting speech that we studied at the university of pennsylvania is a speech that jimmy carter gave, famous beach. douglas brinkley is here and he is among the authors who has written the best book on present carter, the unfinished presidency. he gave a speech and the national speech and line that up to the franklin roosevelt first and not girl in 1933, the same values, the same arguments, the same everything with one exception. and that is the role of the american people. in 1933 the american people overwhelmingly ratifying the new deal in the 1970 and the american people have more or less abandoned the new deal and so what you see is a change in circumstances. i think that the gop right now and the vicissitudes have a lot to do with circumstance that i would say in this is going back to the 50s a