mr. hall: mr. speaker, i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from tennessee. the gentleman from tennessee. mr. gordon: mr. chairman, i yield a minute and a half to my friend from kentucky, mr. larsen. the chair: the gentleman from connecticut is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. larsen: thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you, mr. chairman. i rise in strong support of h.r. 3246, the advanced vehicle technology act and want to especially applaud congressman peters and chairman gordon who i've had the honor to serve with on the science committee and the distinguished ranking member, mr. hall, for his continued and outstanding commitment to signs and -- science and technology and innovation. that's what moves the nation forward. it's where his political career has been invested in making sure that we continue to see america be the preeminent military, social, cultural and economic leader in the world and largely because of the embrace of techn

mr. hall, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on h.r. 3165, the bill now under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. tonko: thank you. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. tonko: i am pleased that today we are considering h.r. 3165, the wind energy research and development act of 2009. the united states has enough wind energy resources to meet all of our electricity needs several times over. but experience over the last several years has shown that many significant technical issues remain before wind can serve as a major provider of base load electricity. this bipartisan bill will establish a far more comprehensive research, development and demonstration program for wind energ

mr. hall: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise today in support of of h.r. 3246, advanced vehicle technology act of 2009. it has the stated objective to develop technologies that improve efficiency and emissions of vehicles, reduces reliance on petroleum, support vehicle manufacturing in the united states, among other things it develops cost-effective vehicle technologies for wide scale utilization, enhanced commercial and passenger vehicle performance, allows for greater consumer choice, shortens technology penetration times, endures balance and diversity in federal r&d investment, and strengthens public-private r&d partnership. probably many other things. i'd like to thank congressman peters for good job with working with us and working with the science committee on this bill and for incorporating our suggestions and suggestions of our chairman and his manager's amendment for ways to improve the bill during the full committee markup, including a provision in title 1 that requires the secretary to ensure that activities do

mr. hall: thank you, mr. speaker.over the last few weeks, i've heard stories from businesses, nonprofits, individuals and even health care providers in my district who have received health care premium increases up to 39%. these increases are unfair, unsustainable and crippling our economy. these drastic increases are likely to continue as long as private insurers are allowed to regulate themselves. that's why we must vote soon on a comprehensive plan to improve health care. a plan that will reduce costs for the middle class, end insurance company abuses and increase stable quality care and access for all americans. we need to get reform done but get it right. we must keep listening and engaging with our constituents to ensure that reform will benefit all americans. both health care premiums growing three times faster than wages we cannot aford to wait. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. boozman: to addre

mr. schiff talked about the glendale officer who was in uniform in day and night. these people are so talented. captain ted hall was working to save lives and property. and specialest arnie quinn jeoness is the other. and i -- quinones is the other. and i know he's a constituent of mr. mckeeon, and mr. berman, his area has been impacted. mr. sherman as well. mr. lewis, mr. baca. this has had an impact all over the southern california area. but the unique tragedy here in the case of mr. quinones is that his wife, lori, is expected a child in two weeks. and so as we look at the two lives that have been lost, mr. quinones passed away before his child was born. it expresses the frew jilt that these people engage in. mr. speaker, i'd like to share a little bit more of the conversation that i had with captain hall's sister. she referred to her family being firefighters for i guess now generations, and she talked about their respect and reverence for the environment. she said that her father would always say when they were out hiking, they would put the pinecone back exactly where it was because that is god's gift to

good morning to you, mr. hall. >> good morning, thanks for having me back.hen you worked for acorn you tried to help poor people with the intended mission of acorn. but, as you look at these videos. are you surprised? because you were there. you saw what went down. >> no. no. i'm not surprised. and let me change it again. yeah, i worked for acorn but i run an organization -- we are trying to reform acorn through its employees now and its former employees. there is not much good in acorn anymore as far as its mission and definitely not through its executive board. most of the folks who actually sign up are trying to do the right thing. they are passionate and dedicated they want to go out and help the communities. i was involved in one of the organizations in raleigh. they actually cleaned up drug dealers off the street. went around, citizens with signs and got rid of the drug dealers off of their corners, they do good stuff. unfortunately and the people that did the videos that's rampant and obvious they probably received about 13 seconds of training and sai

mr. speaker, this hall is the most prominent classroom in this great country. and all of us are teachers. we're bound by duty and the offices we hold to conduct ourselves as such. classroom teachers and schoolchildren across the country and around the world looking in on our proceedings should see proper decorum and hear civil discourse. our teachers are expected to teach our children to learn proper behavior. all of us are expected to give appropriate support and deference to the institutions that help us develop and maintain a civil and orderly society. our three separate branches of government have defined roles to play in this process. and those of us who hold positions within these branches are expected and are duty bound to treat each other with proper dignity and respect. whether we like it or not, teachers and students see us as role models. but none of us is perfect. we all make mistakes. and sometimes fall short of expectations. but when we to proper contrition is expected. when one of us while seated in a formal session severely violation of the rule

mr. cantor's town halls gotten even the slightest bit ugly? perhaps because he only held three, and they were all held on the telephone. his first public forum taking questions on health care was this week bipartisan diverse, and rather than the right wing groups that has speaker pelosi so concerned. one woman there asked what to do about a sick relative who lost their job and now has no insurance she needs to remove the growing tumors in her stomach. mr. cantor had plenty of time to think about his answer while democrat bobby scott responded. mr. cantor then explained republican health care. first, sell everything you own, your house, your car, whatever to pay your medical bills, until you are poor enough to qualify for medicaid, a government-run health care program. and if that doesn't work -- >> i guess i would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility and the existing programs that are out there. because if we look at the uninsured right now, there is probably 23, 24% of the uninsured that is already eligible for an existing

very damaging piece of town hall videotape for mr. cantor. a scenario presented to him by a constituent. a woman doesn't have any coverage. the republicans don't have a plan for that. i want you to respond to that. what do the republicans have for someone, that lady who has cancer, lost her job? he told her to go to a charity. >> right now she had an immediate problem. she wasn't trying to wait for what congress may do that might not have impact. having town hall meetings lots of times, people come with individual problems and you try to treat them as an individual. you go to groups that are doing things right now. and i saw your response there. republicans don't want people to die, ed. they want people to be taken care of and -- >> if they don't, and i'm not saying broad based all republicans want to see people die. what i'm saying is that's her option. to financial ruin or death. and the republicans, there's five bills on the table in the congress, you know this. all of them have a public option that would address her situation, preexisting

mr. ayers was home, that being in this concert hall meant a great deal to him. >> safer: he's a familiar face backstage, here with another of his idols, the conductor esa- pekka salonen. >> ayers: i hope you stay forever. >> esa-pekka salonen: thank you. i hope you stay forever, too. >> safer: the orchestra's musicians also took up mr. ayers's cause. rehearsing with him, pianist joanne pearce-martin takes him through the music he's loved since his student days. >> adam crane: when he comes into this building, he transforms into a different person. >> safer: as publicist for the orchestra, adam crane became friends with mr. ayers. do you get any sense of what his talent might have been had he not had the illness? >> crane: you either have it or you don't. he has it. he feels it. he was very rusty, but clearly he knows what he's doing. >> safer: to get rid of the rust, orchestra members give mr. ayers lessons. violinist robert gupta, a virtuoso, gives a master class. >> ayers: mr. gupta has an incredible genius in the violin. >> safer: will mr. ayers ever be able to play at mr. gupta's lev

mr. speaker, this hall is the most prominent classroom in this great country, and all of us are teachers.bound by duty and the offices we hold to conduct ourselves as such. classroom teachers and schoolchildren across the country and around the world looking in on our proceedings should see proper decorum and hear civil discourse. our teachers are expected to teach our children to learn proper behavior. all of us are expected to give appropriate support and deference to the institutions that help us develop and maintain a civil and orderly society. our three separate branches of government have defined roles to play in this process, and those of us who hold positions within these branches are expected and are duty bound to treat each other with proper dignity and respe respect. whether we like it or not, teachers and students see us as role models, but none of us is perfect. we all make mistakes, and sometimes fall short of expectations, but when we do, proper contrition is expected. when one of us while seated in a formal session severely violates the rules of this body by shamelessly hu

mrs. hunter, do you want a halls refresh? sure.nie's roommate to share his halls refresh. mmm, it's so mouthwatering. mmm, refreshing. wonder if she likes it. so juicy. yeah, she likes it. mom! (announcer) new halls refresh, with moisture action. surprisingly mouth-watering. ♪ bicycle, what are we waiting for? the flowers are blooming. the air is sweet. and zyrtec® starts... relieving my allergies... 2 hours faster than claritin®. my worst symptoms feel better, indoors and outdoors. with zyrtec®, the fastest... 24-hour allergy medicine, i promise not to wait as long to go for our ride. zyrtec® works fast, so i can love the air™. [ applause ] ♪ >> wendy: okay. welcome back to the show. thank you, audience. it's time for "ask wendy." how are you?ç have a seat, you guys. except for you. how are you? >> fine, wendy. >> wendy: nice to have you here. >> my name is beverly from long island. >> wendy: hi, bev. >> my question is after many years of coping with very thin hair i was finally convinced to try wigs. >> wendy: and they're fabulou

mrs. hunter, do you want a halls refresh? sure. nice of ronnie's roommate to share his halls refresh. mmm, it's so mouthwatering. mmm, refreshing. wonder if she likes it. so juicy. yeah, she likes it. mom! (announcer) new halls refresh, with moisture action. surprisingly mouth-watering. >>> sony is a proud partner of espn and the new l.a. live studio. >>> what were your career goals when you were 11, did you peen know what your career goal was? lorena ochoa wanted to be the best golfer in the world and it is argued at 27 she is the best mexican golfer of all time. with hispanic heritage month, shelley smith sat down with the only mexican gosmer of either gender to be ranked number one in the world. >>> being number one, do you feel pressure to sell the sport, to be the dominant figure? >> i don't feel that pressure. i think in a way, i think american players probably feel that pressure a little more than me. most of the tournaments are in the states. we have the history that many -- american or u.s., they need -- in that way, to re

mr. speaker, this hall is the most prominent classroom in this great country. and all of us are teachers. we're bound by duty and the offices we hold to conduct ourselves as such. classroom teachers and schoolchildren across the country and around the world looking in on our proceedings should see proper decorum and hear civil discourse. our teachers are expected to teach our children to learn proper behavior. all of us are expected to give appropriate support and deference to the institutions that help us develop and maintain a civil and orderly society. our three separate branches of government have defined roles to play in this process. and those of us who hold positions within these branches are expected and are duty bound to treat each other with proper dignity and respect. whether we like it or not, teachers and students see us as role models. but none of us is perfect. we all make mistakes. and sometimes fall short of expectations. but when we to proper contrition is expected. when one of us while seated in a formal session severely violation of the rule

halls. middle class americans worried about the cost of reform, mr. obama had a message, his plan to overhaul health care and other economic policies will benefit them but the mixed economic outlook feeds americans' anxieties. retail sales figures beat expectations today but the unemployment rate is at the heist level in 26 years and -- highest level in 26 years and expected to rise. >> it will feel weak for some time as many people find their job security and employment status is not what they wish it was. >> reporter: federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said economic catastrophe was averted because of the government's quick actions. he said more regulations of the financial system is needed to prevent a future meltdown. viviana hurtado, abc news, washington. >>> what a changeable day across the region. sunshine this morning, clouds rolled in. even scattered showers. on maryland's most powerful doppler radar, there's light shower activity making its way through the region. not a big deal but it's kind of a precursor of what is going to be coming ov

and every town hall meeting i had, and, mr. speaker, i had town hall meetings. there was no prerequirements. you didn't have to come to my office and pick up, you know, show thaw live in the 17th congressional district in florida. you didn't have to, you know, go toing the magnotometr. 500 seats, have a civil discussion. if you disagree with any position taken, respect the next person and allow that individual to speak. that's american, that's bipartisan, and that's what we'll continue to do, mr. speaker, because when we pass this insurance reform as it relates to health care, that's not going to be the end. this plan right now the way it stands will not be fully implemented until 2013. that's a long time. some of it will be implemented as it relates to patient rights and insurance rights faster than other components of the bill. but i want to tell the members, and i want to share with the members that as we go and we talk to our constituents we should not just fall off the low hanging fruit saying, well, someone's perfectly healthy and says, i don't feel we nee

halls. may i remind you, mr. cantor, we have been listening when you told someone to go begging for care?ack with an even more out of touch answer. that's next on "the ed show." access to favorite courses chef's meal with pommes frites perhaps a night at the theater with extra special seats additional hotel night, our treat your world in perfect harmony: priceless look for world on your mastercard to get rewards and offers that matter to you. crunch. wheat thins. that's what's gonna happen here. because you're tasty... with toasty whole grains. (crunch) wheat thins. toasted. whole grain. crunch. have at it. having to go in the middle of traffic and just starting and stopping. having to go in the middle of a ballgame and then not being able to go once i got there. and going at night. i thought i had a going problem. my doctor said i had a growing problem. it wasn't my bladder. my prostate was growing. i had an enlarging prostate that was causing my urinary symptoms. my doctor prescribed avodart. (announcer) over time, avodart actually shrinks the prostate and improves urinary symptoms so i

. >>> vice president joe biden was in montgomery county today to host a town hall meeting all about health care reform. mr. biden spoke to residents at leisure world, a retirement community at silver spring. he had plenty of company on the stage. barbara mikulski was there with kathleen sebelius. he assured this health care reform would not hurt medicare. >> we are committed to protecting medicare, securing that trust fund and making sure another generation of americans follows our baby boom generation is able to have medicare. >> mr. biden warned without health care reform, the medicaid trust fund could run out of money in eight years. >> police arrested two men in the murder of a 22-year-old fairfax county woman. erika yancey was killed in november 2008. police found her stabbed to death in her car on sunrise valley drive. today they announce an arrest in that case. eun yang joins us with more. >> reporter: the arrests come a year after the murder. michael thompso and marcus williams were arrested yesterday. the victim's family had no doubt police would close this case and want the suspects brought to j

mrs. obama reportedly asked her husband, do you really want bill and hillary just down the hall from you inhe white house? could you live with that? christopher anderson writes "mrs. obama's opposition was possibly the deciding factor in the debate. " she also abdicated to the campaign slogan yes, we can, after her husband considered it childish and corny. mrs. obama persisted saying, it will work, trust me. a speech writer for george w. bush is telling tales and now taking fire from both parties. matt lat latimer writes after one of canada's blistering speeches about the bush administration, the former president said, quote, this is a dangerous world. this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle t this guy has no clue, i promise you." and lat latimer writes that they bonded with former president bill clinton and former president bill clinton called bush alt the white house and talked about obama about the primaries against hillary, and quotes president bush as saying as the number two men on the democratic ticket, if bull blank was currency, joe biden would be a billionaire and on jimmy car

mr. bloom's portrait has hung in the hall of czars.we reported that the president had installed him as his second car czar. despite the fact that he had no experience in the auto industry. but now he is going to move from his post at the treasury department and work directly for the white house's economic team. now, bloom, who is not subjected to senate confirmation hearing before joining the auto task force will now avoid that oversight process now for a second time. now, we're going to continue to highlight the revolving door of radicals and lobbyists, joining you this administration in the days ahead. so please stay with us. and as you may have noticed. we have been doing a lot of talking about the white house's czars lately. but why do we call them czars? now, mostly because the white house itself does. let's take a look. >> i always forget the full name of this thing. i call it the drug czar. >> i think i have been asked in this room any number of times if the czars in our white house to deal with energy or health care had too muc

mr. carter hosted a town hall at emory university in atlanta last night. eeded questions from students on a wide range of topics, including the health care debate and why some people still condemn mr. obama as the president. >> it's a racist attitude, and my hope is and my expectation is that in the future both democratic leaders and republican leaders will take the initiative in condemning that kind of unprecedented attack on the president of the united states. >> mr. carter also said that president obama is courageous enough to withstand any kind of condemnation that might come to him. >> health officials are hoping that state of the art technology will help them battle a potential swine flu outbreak. tools like google's flu trends are helping to track entries from flu around the world. it has been very consistent with the cdc's reporting of cases here in the u.s. doctors at one hospital in boston have even created an iphone application. it works in two ways. >> the system sends back to the phone alerts about h1n1 in your vicinity or neighborhood or where

mr. mayor, next, pulling out. there you go. that's tiffany hall. >>> good morning to you there, tiffany. who is coming now don elliott, you voted for him. he is our delegate. that was a long ride, keep coming. and state senator david brinkley. senator david brinkley. jennifer alcorn who runs the marriotts. then david miller. he is the department of agriculture education foundation. how are you. and here he is, chris and the pizza. what is going on. >> my gosh. let's have breakfast. >> now, david. what do you say we take a look at the wine cellars. an old way of making wine. we are in the middle of the 230 acres and bad wants to put in grapes. what do the neighbors think. >> they thought we were nuts. >> nobody grows grapes here. those in the industry in the state. does this look familiar, you have finished a bottle or two from here and half the wine comes from here. >> we're doing 600,000-dollar as year. we have been in a froth curve since 1989. can you do this. >> we have people say i want to grow a vineyard i want to sit on my porch and look at the vines grow. that's not going to happe

during a town hall meeting, a man upset over healthcare reform said "mr.ongressman, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining," to which stark responded "i wouldn't i dignify you by peeing on your leg t wouldn't be worth wasting the urine." when a second angry attendee accused stark of lying about healthcare reform, stark added "whether you think i'm a liar or not, i still want to get your input and i'll make up how i'm going to lie about it after i get it." well, if you need proof that all politics is indeed local, consider the case of senate majority leader harry reid. while he has been dealing with national issuing thing have gone south at home in nevada. correspond correspondent shan p bream reports it could lead to a big change next year. >> he is the senate's biggest democrat but he is gearing up for the fight of his political life. recent polls show him tied with or trailing two republican challengers, danny sar kanian, son of las vegas basketball coach, jerry tar tainian, and sue loudoun -- sue lowden. he says he can't begin to compare himself w

but after months of rebelous town hall meetings and dropping in polls, mr. obama faces an uphill fight to sell his high cost government insurance option plan. tonight, we hold our own joint session right here on cnbc. we have a distinguished group of seven u.s. senators from both sides of the aisle that break it down for you. we're going to take a practical look at all the issues. who should be inshurd, how much will it cost? who's in charge of the system? how do we pay for it? and what is the economic and stock market impact for the health care and the rest of the free market capitalist system. fasten your seat belts, everyone. "the kudlow report" begins right now. >>> welcome to this special edition of "the kudlow report." we have my friend melissa francis with quick results from the opec meeting regarding oil prices. hello, melissa. what do you have? >> hi, larry. the meeting just let out seconds ago. i think you can see the people leaving the meeting behind me. this is one of the ministers surrounded by reporters. we are hearing that they are rolling ove

. >> in the town hall clip we showed earlier tonight, mr.tor, one of the leaders of the republicans over in the house was con fronted with a real-life scenario, woman has cancer, lost her job, doesn't have insurance, doesn't qualify for medicare, medicaid, there's no program out there. he told her to go get a program and check out charity. now, do you go along with hat that? do the republicans have to do a better job of that? >> absolutely. there are 14 million people out there who don't have insurance right now who are already eligible for medicaid. one f the things republicans support is an expansion of medicaid eligibility. there are half the republicans in the senate are supporting that. so this is -- this is clearly the point. i mean, there's no question at all president obama could go ahead and get his 51 votes in the senate and get his votes in the house. the problem here is the economic recovery. we are not in recovery yet. there is still a recession out there. any hint of a recovery would be strangle in its cradle if we move forward

mr. richards, we will ask everybody to produce the same information. you may not call them town hall meetings, but we will try to find out what it is to try to organize the troops on the issue of cost reduction. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman. and now -- >> mr. kennedy? >> in response to the questions that i asked if all of them could get back to me on actual tangible recommendations as i pointed out to what we can do to standardize incentives for them to have widespread standard of adoption of i.t. to incentivize these standards. >> mr. kennedy, this is not solely an investigative committee, and we also look for recommendations as to how the existing system can be improved. so, along as we this system, i would imagine that you, ladies and gentlemen, have some good ideas, so thank you, mr. kennedy. mrs. farrell, let's talk about aetna. neat is the third largest for profit insurer according to "fortune" magazine, but the current management returned your company to profitability by shedding members. you made bigger profits with fewer premium payers, isn't that true?

mr. speaker, that's why the people at the town hall meetings were so wee-weed up, they're tired of being insulted by these people who have all the power, the people at the white house and both chambers of congress. mr. akin: i'm still coming back to, you're a business and you're writing a letter to your -- the people that you're providing a product to and the government tells you you can't send it to them. is this 1984, george orwell or something? i find the whole pattern here to be upsetting. i do. my gentleman friend from iowa are you running away from us? i was just about to recognize you. did you want to jump in on this? i think -- mr. king: if the gentleman would yield, i appreciate him doing system of there are a number of things that jump out in my mind. that is, yes, this subject matter gets me all animated. i don't know how to pick that up with mid western vernacular, but i wanted to point out the president's vernacular. we have to be careful and listen closely to this president, he's a master of casting ambiguities that couch things in terms where he's not confined by the defini

mr. speaker, this hall is the most prominent classroom in this great country. and all of us are teachers. we're bound by duty and the offices we hold to conduct ourselves as such. classroom teachers and schoolchildren across the country and around the world looking in on our proceedings should see proper decorum and hear civil discourse. our teachers are expected to teach our children to learn proper behavior. all of us are expected to give appropriate support and deference to the institutions that help us develop and maintain a civil and orderly society. our three separate branches of government have defined roles to play in this process. and those of us who hold positions within these branches are expected and are duty bound to treat each other with proper dignity and respect. whether we like it or not, teachers and students see us as role models. but none of us is perfect. we all make mistakes. and sometimes fall short of expectations. but when we to proper contrition is expected. when one of us while seated in a formal session severely violation of the rule

mr. obama has been compared to hitler at town hall meetings, some people showed one loaded guns.racist with "a deep seeded hatred for white people" the president had his birth in hawaii and nationality questioned and called everything from a socialist to fascist who wants to empower the government to kill senior citizens. this week, mr. obama was criticized toer a speech to school kids about staying in school and working hard. every president faces scathing criticism from the fanatical fringe but this, at least, feels different. and even officials in the secret service acknowledge to threats to president obama's life have been coming in four times as often as they were for president george w. bush. reverend jesse jackson is the president and founder of the rainbow public coalition and former presidential candidate. reverend jackson what role do you think that bigotry is playing toward this venom toward president obama? >> there is a struggle between seeing the hope of going forward and the fear of going backwards and the word -- the atmosphere -- they are coated words. hitler, un

. >>> vice president joe biden hosted a town hall meeting today on health care reform in montgomery county. mr. biden spoke to residents at leisure world, the massive retirement community in silver springs. he had plenty of company on stage. maryland senators barbara mckuls ki took part as well as kathleen sebelius. >> we are absolutely committed to securing medicare and making sure our baby boom generation is able to have medicare. >> mr. biden warned without health care reform, the medicaid trust fund could run out of money by the year 2017. >>> police in tyler, texas, say today a teacher was stabbed to death at school this morning. the attack happened in a classroom in a high school about 95 miles southeast of dallas. a student has been arrested in the case. >>> a shootout at the border. four people were injured after gun fire erupted at the nation's busiest border crossing. police say it began with human smuggling. at the border between san diego and tijuana. officers say a total of 74 people were crammed inside three vans. they say one of the vans tried to barrel past inspectors, and that

criticizing the president for not talking enough, laying low on vacation while the town halls got tons of coverages in the media. mr everywhere. it started with a prime time address in front of the nation to a joint session of congress. add to that two town hall health care rallies, and an appearance on "60 minutes", a speech at the largest union organization. there's more. tomorrow the president goes on five of the sunday talk shows and monday he joins david letterman. he's dave's only guest that night. asked if the president was being overexposed? >> i think gone are the days where one outlet is where everyone gets their news or one medium is where everyone gets their news. i think this is just an attempt by the president to speak to as many different people as he can on an issue as important as something like health care reform or on afghanistan. >> reporter: where does mr. obama stand in the eyes of the public. 55% of the americans approve of how he's doing as president. now that 55% figure is higher than the approval rating for the president's health care plans. it seems mr. obama's personally more popular tha

let's break that down a little bit further and dana, let's start with you in the hall, will be liberal democrats who say mr. president don't you dare give up on the public option and moderate democrats who say, mr. president, i want it too, but we don't have the votes. do they respect the president to referee that one in the speech? >> referee to a certain extent. i think that they're hoping that he will, if you listen to president's top advisers this morning they insist that there will be no question about where he stands by the time he's done with the speech. as candy said this, is what democrats have been virtually begging for, begging for. we talked about this just last week for some time because there's only so much that they can do because there is such a gulf, a real gulf within the democratic party on capitol hill and he's got to do this and, you know, the white house says he's going to. he's already reaching out, john, to some of those progressives. he had a conference call on friday, seeming to be laying the groundwork to move away from what they want want so there are a lot of tactics to give pe

hall. the president poll numbers on healthcare began dropping. now mr. obama taking the initiative. yesterday he was in full campaign mode at a rally in minnesota. tonight on "60 minutes" he will say that he is taking full ownership of healthcare legislation. here is a clip from that. >> they'll get past -- the bill that gets passed, that fails, that doesn't work, i intend to be president for a while and once the bill passes i own it. if people look and say you know what? this hasn't reduced my costs. miff premiums are still going up 25%, insurance companies are still jerking me around. i the one who will be held responsible. i have every incentive to get this right. >> and the president as you noted will have more events this week pushing healthcare and speeches and rallies in maryland and pennsylvania. >> eric: what are the senators saying? they were on the sunday talk shows this morning. what is the news this morning? >> momentum is the senator. 12 senators, a dozen on the public talk show. main issue is the public option and cost. on "fox news sunday," lindsay graham insisted th

hall vorson. >> thank you, mr. chairman.nd thank you for being here and all the other panelists before you. thank you for doing such a good job with regards to a situation that came up in my district. i'm sure you're familiar with the private cemetary burrow in illinois. >> yes. wrr where several of the veterans there, especially their head stones and their entire burial was desiccated. and abraham lincoln national cemetary which is in my district, we worked it out where we could offer them free reburial. so that was something that was very, very wonderful that we were able to do for the veterans. we were able to say, rest in peace, truly means rest in peace. however, i'm really concerned about something that just came up with the fact that of this outsourcing of jobs. can you explain to me what's happening with outsourcing of our jobs? are they truly being taken away from veterans and going to other companies? and not our veterans? >> well, let me explain what we've done. as we open new national cemetaries, we keep certain

mr. speaker, a few days ago, there was a town hall meeting not too far from here in reston, virginia, over 3,000 people were inside and about that many outside. this town hall event was held at south lakes high school and one of the security officers there, did not like one of the signs that the protestors were carrying and holding up. the sign apparently was not to the officer's political liking. so the security officer demanded that out of the thousands of signs at the event, the one he didn't like was going to come down and he ordered the person to take it down because it was obviously critical of the administration. note, mr. speaker, there was nothing illegal about the sign. this officer told the man with the sign to put his sign away horror he would be arrested, yes, arrested for freedom of speech and the right to protest. the protestors said this used to be america. officer weeks said? response, well, it isn't anymore, ok? well, mr. speaker, it's not ok, not by a long shot. this is still america, the land of the free, the land where we can disagree with government whether government

i did a teletown hall in which i had 19,000 people on the line. with all due respect, mr. speaker, i saw no mobs. i saw nothing that was unamerican. i saw no evil mongers out there . i saw average everyday americans coming to my town hall meetings in ones, twos and threes not being busted by anybody. they were educated about the issue of health care. they understood what was on the floor. these people are concerned about what we might do here. they're also concerned about taxes, spending, debt and the size of the federal government. no, they were not american mobs. these are real americans. expressing what they're allowed to do under the constitution in the best way they can, directly speaking with their members of congress. we better listen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado rise? mr. coffman: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. coffman: the democrats have gone on a spree with americans' money. then came a $400 billion omnibus spending bil

mr. richards, we will ask everybody to produce the same information. you may not call them town hall meetings, but we will try to find out what it is to try to organize the troops on the issue of cost reduction. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman. and now -- >> mr. kennedy? >> in response to the questions that i asked if all of them could get back to me on actual tangible recommendations as i pointed out to what we can do to standardize incentives for them to have widespread standard of adoption of i.t. to incentivize these standards. >> mr. kennedy, this is not solely an investigative committee, and we also look for recommendations as to how the existing system can be improved. so, along as we this system, i would imagine that you, ladies and gentlemen, have some good ideas, so thank you, mr. kennedy. mrs. farrell, let's talk about aetna. neat is the third largest for profit insurer according to "fortune" magazine, but the current management returned your company to profitability by shedding members. you made bigger profits with fewer premium payers, isn't that true?

mr. mackey announced he won't be holding town hall meetings. let me predict this will be a campai campaign. about those town hall meetings, it is interesting. i mean, by the way, i apologize, i am wearing a suit because i had to do a television debate before driving up here, i'll be shedding this and dressing more appropriately very shortly, i can assure you. one of the things i've always encountered in debating town hall system howagetated liberals get when people actually show up to protest what they're doing and to argue with them. now i admit some rhetoric has been excessive on both sides and i deplore that. but it it is the height frankly of either irony or hippock rase for liberals to cam plain about people coming to the town hall meeting. the president was a community organizer as his first job. that is what they do, organize people to come to meetings and raise heck. i'm astonished that they somehow have decided to organize that it is unpatriotic, "unamerican," as pelosi says. by the way, if you don't believe in the common sense of of t

mr. obama says that it will allow doctors to practice medicine without the fear of malpractice. and moments from them the u town hall, republicans cheered from the president's proposal. >> there are also those who claim that they would insure illegal immigrants. this too is false. the reforms are proposing and would not apply to those that were here illegally. >> reporter: the republican response delivered by louisiana congressman. a retired heart surgeon. who said that the president's proposals will create more bureaucracies and add billions to the federal deficit. it's clear, that they want the health care reform. but they want the elected leaders to get it right. >> with this speech, the president thought to reassure the americans at the coverage that they have now that will ease. they are also trying to regain the support that he lost in august and lock in the support he's going to need to pass health care reform. reporting live at the capitol, abc news. >>> and speaking of health care, just one day after the university of maryland says they suspect nearly 200 cases of the h1n1 virus on campus and a harvard stud

mr. carter: i thank the gentleman and i agree with everything you said. i want to say something that is concerning me and has come to my attention through the rumors that spread through the halls of congress that some are saying that this issue that i have raised with mr. rangel has something to do with his race. and i want to make it very clear. i spent 20 years on the bench. i believe in that lady justice who stands there with that blindfold. and i can tell you in no uncertain terms that i will leave it up to the people back in my district. you can check with them. i never gave a sentence to a criminal defendant based upon his race nor did i see the color of his skin. i based it upon his behavior. and the behavior that needed punishing, i certainly punished. it had nothing to do with the race of anybody. for people to start accusing someone of being a racist because they raise an issue of right and wrong, there's something wrong in this house of representatives. and i would hope and i bring this up now, because i would hope that this doesn't happen. if it does, i stand ready, willing and able to point out that this has nothing to do with race. and by the way, mr. rangel isn'

mr. president, this is what we got to have, or you're not going to have a deal with house democrats. correct? >> oh, absolutely. as a matter of fact, i said in my town hall meeting where there was tremendous support for public option, and still some people angry that we didn't have single payer, i said mr. president, it's time to fight. it's time to stand up for what you believe in and we know that you want public option. we know this is what you would prefer. we know this is what you campaigned on. stand up and we'll be behind you. we got your back. remember that's what i said. i continue to say that. mr. president, we are prepared to fight with you to get public option, to get a credible universal health care reform bill. we're not going to go along the usual way. this is not backbone politics. this is not politics as usual. this is real change. and that's what we're all about. >> thank you, congresswoman maxine walters. i appreciate your support tonight. >> thank you. >> you bet. >>> a lot of americans, let me define public option for you. all it is is a government-run program that would give the private sector some competition, but pre-existing condi

halls during their summer break. now the president seems ready to lead the battle himself. he was at campaign mode in a rally in minnesota saturday and he plans more events later this week. mr. obama tells "60 mites" in an interview sunday he is taking full ownership of health care legislation. if it doesn't work, he says, he could be the one held responsible. but on the sunday talk shows, top white house aides continue to take a middle ground on the central question of a government-run insurance option. >> i'm not willing to accept that it's not going to be in the final package, but what he also said and what we've all said is that this is not the whole of health insurance reform. we should not let the whole debate evolve into this one question. >> reporter: 12 senators appeared on sunday shows to talk about health care. democrats for the most part echoing the white house line, expressing support for a public option, but indicating it's not a deal breaker. republicans standing firmly against the government option. >> the house bill is dead because politics apparently matter and the public option is unacceptable. so that's a good start if we can kill the house bill. >> repo

mr. akin: you were courageous to do that. there's a lot of people who try to have had town hall meetings and their constituents were not very happy about what's going on down here in the last six months. mr. -- mr. akin: you had a sense of you wanted to hear people's opinion, you wanted to hear both sides of the subject. >> there was a little bit of give and take, a little bit of high passions on both sides. it was a little unruly at times. but overall it was very positive. i hear that a few of our colleagues, unfortunately, were awol. they evaded having some of these meetings. they only did telephone meetings, which is good in and of itself, but doesn't go far enough compared to a personal meeting. some of our colleagues around the country, representative akin, maybe went as far as they could have. mr. akin: i enjoyed the same thing we did a town hall on health care, it was interesting. >> what i'm seeing is the passion of those concerned about what we're doing is not just that health care is an intensely personal issue or for their mother or grandmother or their loved ones, their child, it's an intensely personal issue. it goes

hall with my colleague steve liesman. the guest, of course, was treasury secretary tim geithner. mr. geithner has so many things to say about the things we really care about right now, tac taxes, the economy, the market. we wanted to assemble the best of the best to chew it over. mark zande, jim bianco, and phillip schwegel. good to have all three of you with us. the ground rules are we're going to tackle three issues. a quick piece about what mr. geithner has to say. i ern courancourage any disagre issues you may have. let's start off with what he had to say about the economy. he briefed the president yesterday. here is what he told him. >> and today you met with the president. gave him a briefing of exactly where we are. what did you tell him? >> i said that for the first time most economists think we're actually growing, the world is now growing, too. but because as a country we borrowed too much, built up too much leverage, really had too long a period of living beyond our means it's going to be a slow recovery. it's going to take a while to fix this. americans are already changi

mr. president, tonight president obama addresses the nation just down the hall during a joint session of congress. a president has not addressed a joinsession of congress other in the state of the union -- other than the state of the union address, which comes at the beginning of every year, since president bush did it right after september 11. we know how important this is. president obama is stepping up and going to be more specific and more forceful and help to set aside and answer all the distorons that the senator from oregon, the presiding officer, a i and others heard at our meetings inur state in august when we were home talking to people about this health care legislation. i wento the most conservative part of my state, cincinnati, and did my first large town hall meeting, 1,500 people showed up. 1,000 of people generally were supportive of this health care bill with a strong public option. about 500 were opposed. but -- and several people stood up and some argued that they just didn't like it. th called it socialism. they talked about death panel they talked about illal immigra