mr. paul ryan demagoguing it. he is offering nothing new.he republicans have been trying to kill social security. the plan for social security was nothing but a poison pill. they were trying to make the fund go bust. it's real simple. they've been trying to kill government since 1980 since ronald reagan. but they are ridiculous. they're going to push us over the edge into the next great depression. host: you can continue the conversation we're having about president obama's deficit plant at facebook.com/cspan. president obama has an editorial piece in "usa today." he talks about reining in the deficit with a balanced approach. host: he outlines a couple of things. he says, "personal, we need to build on the cuts from -- first of all, we need to build on cuts .rom last week's budget president obama says reduced spending in the tax code. anthony on the line for independents. hi. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. when i listen to president obama's plan and then i heard the republicans, they said something negative about needin

mr. paul ryan or some other conservative -- to give a speech and they could answer questions from the group on one. he takes one, the other one takes one. he wants openness and fairness. it doesn't get more fair than that's host:. thank you. -- it doesn't get more fair than that. host: thank you. we're focusing on the debt and deficit this week on "washington journal." a link to the website -- a live tour website which will lead to at our website, c-span.org. tomorrow we will focus on defense and security. every morning this morning act now on the clock 15 -- 9:15 on "washington journal." we will take you live to the national press club for a discussion on u.s. energy policy. t-boned pickens will talk with ted turner about energy. -- t. boone pickens. a discussion on u.s. objectives in afghanistan. one panel looking at counter insurgency. the next panel on negotiate for peace with the taliban. all that on c-span 2 at noon. >> todd, donald rumsfeld on this new book, telling his role in the bush administration. you'll hear about his decision making during 9/11 and its strategy on the wars in

mr. defazio: that's paul ryan's world, give all the money to the insurance companies. good work, paul. the speaker pro tempore: the the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. chu, for five minutes. ms. chu: yesterday, paul ryan introduced the 2012 road to ruin budget. we have been back to work in the house for 14 weeks, and for 14 straight weeks, the republican majority has done nothing to create jobs. they haven't even put a single jobs bill on the house floor. in fact, their proposed spending bill for 2011 actually costs america 700,000 jobs. now congressman ryan and the republican leadership want to extend their job-killing policies and permanently eliminate the middle class. the republicans' road to ruin is nothing short of an attack on working families, seniors, students, and children. it attacks america's seniors by ending the medicare guarantee and putting your fate in the hands of private insurance companies. it attacks america's workers by not doing anything to create jobs and by gutting job training. it attacks america's students by cut

mr. obama laid out how he would reduce the budget deficit. republican paul ryan, who has proposed his own plan, said the president was exceedingly partisan. >> it was not so much a critique of what the house republicans proposed, as it was a description of what they proposed. >> reporter: and the top e-mailed viewer concern, gas prices. the president says he is not ready to release oil reserves. >> what we don't want to do is catch ourselves in a situation, particularly when things are uncertain in the middle east, where we're using it now and it turns out we need more later. >> reporter: when president obama returns here to washington a little bit later today, one of the things that will be on his plate is approving the new budget that congress approved yesterday. it has $38 billion in cuts. you will remember, this was the budget that prevented a government shutdown one week ago. peggy and mike? >> all right, emily, live for us from washington this morning. thank you. >>> another topic covered in george's interview with the president, that persistent rumor that

mr. president, just resuming my remarks, paul ryan, the author of that blueprint, called it the path to prosperityt, it may be a path to austerity, but it is hardly a path to prosperity. nonetheless, with the negotiations finished just days ago on last year's budget, congressman ryan has succeeded in jump-starting the debate about next year's. the president himself will join this conversation about how to do long-term deficit reduction in a major address tomorrow at g.w.u., george washington university. this is a debate we must have, and the president's entrance to it comes not a moment too soon. it will make for a powerful contrast with the republicans' plan. the contrast we will hear from our president tomorrow will likely not be in the commitment to deficit reduction. paul ryan's goal in his budget is to trim the deficit by by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. he does not succeed in meeting this target, according to c.b.o. in fact, budget experts say his proposal only achieves achieves $155 billion in net deficit reduction, but the number itself is not the issue. without a doubt, we must b

mr. obama laid out how he would reduce the deficit. paul ryans own plan said the president was exceedingly partisan. >> it was not so much a critique of what the house republicans proposed as it was a description of what they proposed. >> the top e-mail viewer concern gas prices. president says he is not ready to release oil reserves. >> what we don't want to do is get ourselves in a situation where we're using it now and we need more later. >> reporter: president obama some rugged off donald trump's questioning of his birth certificate. he says he is not worried about conspiracy theories. >>> a six-year-old boy crushed by a tree is the latest death reported in a powerful storm moving into the deep south this morning. a total of eight people have died, six in arkansas, two in oklahoma. it began with when a massive tornado ripped through a town in oklahoma. two people died and dozens were injured. roofs were torn off buildings, trees were uprooted and tossed around. in arkansas, six people now have been killed by falling trees. >> that is time to

mr. president, just resuming my remarks, paul ryan, the author of that blueprint, called it the path to prosperity. mr. president, it may be a path to austerity, but it is hardly a path to prosperity. nonetheless, with the negotiations finished just days ago on last year's bget, congressman ryan has succeeded in jump-starting the debate about next year's. the president himself will join th conversation about how to do long-term deficit reduction in a major address tomorrow at g.w.u., george washington university. this is a debate we must have, and the president's entrance to it comes not a moment too soon. it will make for a powerful contrast with the republicans' plan. the contrast we will hear from our president tomorrow will likely not be in the commitment to deficit reduction. paul ryan's goal in his budget is to trim the deficit by by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. he does not succeed in meeting this target, according to c.b.o. in fact, budget experts say his proposal only achieves achieves $155 billion in net deficit reduction, but the number itself is not the issue. without a doubt,

mr. president, just resuming my remarks, paul ryan, the author of that blueprint, called it the path to prosperityesident, it may be a path to austerity, but it is hardly a path to prosperity. nonetheless, with the negotiations finished just days ago on last year's budget, congressman ryan has succeeded in jump-starting the debate about next year's. the president himself will join this conversation about how to do long-term deficit reduction in a major address tomorrow at g.w.u., george washington university. this is a debate we must have, and the president's entrance to it comes not a moment too soon. it will make for a powerful contrast with the republicans' plan. e contrast we will hear from our president tomorrow will kely not be in the commitment to deficit reduction. paul ryan's goal in his budget is to trim the deficit by by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. he does not succeed in meeting this target, according to c.b.o. in fact, budget experts say his proposal only achves achieves $155 billion in net deficit reduction, but the number itself is not the issue. without a doubt, we must b

mr. mondale, as i recall. barack obama is talking about reducing the deficit and raising taxes, this time in response to paul ryan's deficit reduction plan. >> they want to give people like me a a tax cut that is paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. that is not right, and it is not going to happen as long as i'm president. >> it is almost as if he wanted to pay his political adversaries, supposedly us, in a cartoonish kind of like, in a caricature, as if we want to hurt people's grand barons, we are against families who have children with autism or disabilities, and we don't want kids to go to college. how'd you have a serious debate about this? >> that is a very good question. how do you have a serious debate about this, mark? >> this is a debate has started. we have the scene character string of acquisitions, but the president did something he had not done for a long time. he had been missing in action in this debate, and he showed up any to the political high ground. he endorsed the tax cuts that were most popular, those on the highest income, and he defended medicare, which nob

mr. mcconnell: madam president, today the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan -- the presiding officer: a quorum call is in process. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, today the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan, is releasing a serious detailed plan for getting our nation's fiscal house in order. congressman ryan's plan would put us on a path to reducing the national debt. it would strengthen the social safety net so that we can keep the promises we've made to america's seniors. it will propose a way for washington to start living within its means. and it will repeal last year's health care law which raised health care costs, lead to fewer jobs and which americans have rejected. congressman ryan is presenting a plan, in other words, to address our most pressing problems head on at a moment when the president and other democratic leaders simply refuse to do so themselves. he's doing what his constituents have sent him here to do.

mr. gates believes the plan would require identifying the missions the country is willing to have to forego. how republicans led by paul ryan forwarded a competing plan that includes $178 billion in defense spending cuts. mr. gates identified priored to mr. obama's speech. but the obama plan also exposes new fault lines, both between democrats and republicans and within the g.o.p. as lawmakers in the administration try to find common ground to slash the national deficit. while mr. ryan's proposal incorporates mr. gates' suggested cuts, republicans such as senator rand paul of kentucky have said that reductions must go further. back to telephone calls. martinsville, virginia. ralph is a republican there. good morning, ralph. caller: good morning, susan. how are you? host: great. thanks. caller talkingt about we were the most powerful people in the world. we was at the time world war ii was over. if we was most feared now, we wouldn't have been attacked on like we was. and as far as the defense cuts, we believe we need to maintain it to take care of ourselves. if not, we will be hit again. look what china's done done. they've

mr. durbin: madam president, paul ryan is a congressman from janesville, with is business, and i know it because it's -- wisconsin, and i know it because it's right across the worried about from illinois. i have relatives and friends who live in the area and i like paul. i served with him on the bowles-simpson deficit commission. we spent a lot of time together. he's a very bright person and has been give in' big assignment as chairman of the house appropriation. he and i have different views of the world of poll -- politics and as you can imagine, we have different views and i respect him for his intelligence. but he's laid out for a plan now for house republicans, a budget plan, which is very specific in the goals that he set for america. now, there are some things that paul and i agree o. we agree -- paul and i agree o. we agree on the fact that we are facing a deficit crisis in this country. we cannot continue to borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend. it's unsustainability. and we borrow the money from countries like china. china is a nation that is hard-charging and competing wi

mr. plouffe, thank you very much. >> thank you, david. >> we turn to the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan of wisconsin. welcome to "meet the press." >> thanks for having me. good to be here. >> i want to start where i started with mr. plouffe. how much responsibility do republicans take for this spectacle of a near shutdown of the government, and shouldn't you all be embarrassed? >> well, we're here because the democrats didn't pass a budget last year. for the first time since 1974, the house didn't even bother trying to pass a budget last year, so that's why we're here. now, i feel like we had a pretty good outcome. we represented one-third of the negotiators, but we got two-thirds of the spending cuts we were asking for. this is really still a drop in the bucket. we want to move from talking about saving billions to saving trillions of dollars. >> and that's what's in the substance of your budget. >> budget, right. >> what about the debt ceiling fight? front page of the papers this morning, that's the next big fight ahead. you heard senator hitchson says that's going to be armageddon. what has to happ

mr. gates believes identifying missions the country is willing to have the military forego over the next decade. the president ups the anti in a situation that doubled since 2001. house republicans led by paul ryanput forward a competing plan with $178 billion in cuts. mr. gates identified that prior to obama's speech. there's new fault lines between democrats and republicans within the gop fighting commonground to stifle the national deficit. while mr. ryan's proposal incorporates mr. gate's suggestive cuts, senator rand paul of kentucky said defense reductions must go further. back to calls. ralph, a republican, good morning. >> caller: good morning, susan. talking about the last caller talking about that we was the most powerful people in the world. we was at the time of world war ii was over. if we were most feared now, we wouldn't have been attacked on 9/11 like we was. as far as the defense cuts, i mean, we believe we need to maintain it to take care of ourselves. if not, we will be hit again. look what china's done done. they done stole our stealth fighting ability, and now they are building nine new nuclear warships. what happened to our economy? we need to grow our military or keep it l

mr. nelson: madam president, the house of representatives paul ryan tea party budget privatizes medicare. let me repeat that. medicare, the program of medical care for senior citizens that our seniors have come to depend on, the house of representatives paul ryan tea party budget privatizes medicare. now, this is not an empty threat. it's not this senator's or many other senators' political interpretation. the house republican budget committee chairman's budget would end medicare as we know it. it ends medicare. it hands seniors health care over to insurance companies. it would break a sacred contract between workers who paid into the system thinking it would be for them when they retired, but under this new scheme, senior citizens won't have a medicare program any more. they would have to pick an insurance plan and a voucher would be given directly to the insurance company. under the proposal -- i'm not making this up -- a voucher paid for by the federal government would be given not to the senior citizen to go shopping. it would be given to the insurance company that they chose. medicar

mr. boulton will be approved. there was some conversation of bob the paul ryan project, and i heard senator hutchinson referred tot a couple of times -- that it could not be discontinued. my question is, is there something in that project description that legally blinds nds them to keep that going. host: on the issue of nasa funding, representative hartzler, what is your view? guest: i am not as first as some others. i would defer to them when it comes down to a vote. i have not studied that part of the budget. i will be visiting with them on their opinion on whether it is good for nasa. host: we will go to leonard next in cleveland, ohio, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a couple of questions. the constitution that everybody read one of the freshmen came into office this year, when protecting our borders, for the safety of the american public and the people that our founders wanted, i saw a conversation the other day were the saudi arabian -- they produce are oil, which we rely on, which we should not -- our country should have other alternatives, and we should have com

a strong supporter of the republican budget offered by paul ryan and i'm a strong supporter of the rubble study committee alternative offered by mr. garrett. the legislation before us today would actually put us on a pathway to achieve a balanced federal budget by the year 2020. there are hard choices in this budget, but it's time the american people broke this addiction. it's time that the people in both political parties came together and played it straight with the american people and said there are tough choices ahead. we can do them in a way that's humane and represents fiscal discipline and reform, but we have to act and we have to act now. i urge my colleagues to support this important alternative. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. mr. garrett: i thank the speaker. at this time i would like to yield one minute to the gentleman from new mexico -- no, from indiana, sorry. the chair: the gentleman from indiana is recognized for one minute. mr. rokita: thank you, mr. chair. i do like new mexico as well. i rise in strong support of this budget amendment. as a member

mr. boulton will be approved. there was some conversation of bob the paul ryan project, and i heard senator hutchinson referred to it a couple of times -- that it could not be discontinued. my question is, is there something in that project description that legally blinds nds them to keep that going. host: on the issue of nasa funding, representative hartzler, what is your view? guest: i am not as first as some others. i would defer to them when it comes down to a vote. i have not studied that part of the budget. i will be visiting with them on their opinion on whether it is good for nasa. host: we will go to leonard next in cleveland, ohio, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a couple of questions. the constitution that everybody read one of the freshmen came into office this year, when protecting our borders, for the safety of the american public and the people that our founders wanted, i saw a conversation the other day were the saudi arabian -- they produce are oil, which we rely on, which we should not -- our country should have other alternatives, and we should have c

the paul ryan budget particularly attacks senior women. we're going to fight in. we squired up, and, mr. president, this is not about gender. this is about an american agenda and we will fight and make our fight to the victory. i yield the floor. >> mr. president, i want to thank all my democratic women colleagues for coming today and speaking so passionally. you'll hear from all of us because we are outrageous that the price tag for a vote on continuing resolution is two attack votes on women's health, and i yield to the senator from california for five minutes. >> i want to thank, mr. president, senators mikalsky and stabbennow, and lan drew. they have been unbelievable and since the beginning of this budget bat battle our republican friends in the house insisted that this debate is about spending. well, i got to tell you, we went all the way to them about 70%-plus on spending cuts. we understand we have to cut, but we're not going to cut foolishly. we're not going to cut into the heart and soul of our country, and that includes women health programs. women's health programs, mr. pres

mr. ryan's budget will not produce in 10 years. host: a call on the independent li line. caller: i'm calming because i'm really getting tired of hearing about courage attached to paul ryan and other people who are taking on entitlements. it doesn't take currently to entitlements. it takes courage to address the issue of revenue that we are not getting from billionaires and millionaires. takes courage to take on corporations and stop giving incentives to ship jobs overseas. it takes courage to take on the corporatio corporations. this has to stop. we need more talk about the revenue and as much at least as we talk about the spending. spending cuts. i don't understand this. why democrats -- i used to be a democrat. i left when they extended the bush tax cut for two more years. i thought that is it, no line was drawn in the sand for public options. i'm out. so i moved to the independent field. but i'm so tired of courage being attached it people like paul ryan. that is sad. guest: we have to be careful here. i understand where you are going and agree with a lot of what you said. but paul ryan is presenting an agenda to me that is very important for us to discuss. he may not ha

paul ryan. looking at $6 trillion in entitlement reforms over a 10- year period. do you think that is achievable? guest: not the way he has proposed it. let me say something about mr. ryan. he is doing a serious job. he is right to be concerned about the sustainability of spending. the proposal he makes on medicare is not so much reform of medicare. reform of health care is essential in this country because the cost of health care. whether it is the government sponsored program of medicare or private insurance or self pay, you cannot have a system where the costs are increasing five times the rate of inflation, profits, the rate of wages. we need to reform the way we deliver health care across the economy, not just medicare. now ryan plan, as i understand, does not make adjustments in how we deliver care. it says the government will not pay for medicare in medicaid, the way it has done in the past. it will pass on much more of the cost to seniors, in the form of direct payments by the government to insurance companies. with a much higher costs being borne by the senior. so if you have the same system with no cost controls, but all you are doing is lowering the amo

mr. president, if you think this 2011 budget is a moral and economic disgrace, wait until you hear what this 2000 budget, the so-called paul ryanhich as i understand it will be voted on in the house likely passing later this week. that budget will slash trillions of dollars from medicare converting medicare into a voucher program meaning that seniors will have to pay substantially more for their health care than they currently do, and, mr. president, the question that has not been answered about is if you are or will be when this ryan budget goes into an effect, a senior citizen living on $14,000-$15,000 a year of which millions of seniors live, how will you come up with thousands and thousands of dollars to pay for your cancer treatment or the other problems that senior citizens have. how will you do it? there's no money available for you to do it. what ryan's budget does is demand low income seniors pay for money with money they don't have. what happens? i'm not sure i've heard that answer. if you are a low income senior citizen and you are asked to come up with thousands of dollars out of your pocket and you don't have that

paul ryan did a marvelous job in outlining how we can reform this government. >> but do you think -- >> the president -- i've been begging the president for months. mr. president, let's lock arms. >> what did he tell you? >> let's do this together. >> what does he tell you? >> well, i'd like to work with you. but we'll see. we'll see. when are we going to face up to the big challenges that our country faces? we are not going to kick the can down the road. >> let's say the president comes to the table. takes on your challenge on medicare. maybe on social security. can you imagine a situation where your conference would vote for revenue increases? >> i think my team is ready to deal with these big questions. >> including that? >> it's time to sit down -- i'll put everything on the table. i'm not interested in raising taxes on the american people. but if it takes leaving it on the table to have the conversation, i'll have the conversation. >> you worked a lot more with the president in the last three months than you have in the previous several years. what have you learned about him? >> we always had a very good relationship. we get along. get along fin

paul ryan budget particularly attacks senior women. we're going to fight this. we're suited up. we've squared our shoulders. we put our lipstick on. and, mr. president, this is not about gender. this is about an american agenda and we will fight and we will make our fight a victory. mr. president, i yeeltd floor. -- i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington is recognized. mrs. murray: mr. president, i want to thank all of my democratic women colleagues and speak so passionately as senator mikulski has just done. you will hear from all of us we are outrageous that the price tag for a vote on the continuing resolution is to attack votes on women's health. i yield to the senator from california for five minutes. mrs. boxer: i want to thank, mr. president, senators mikulski and murray, senator cantwell and shaheen and stabenow and landrieu. i'm going to really name every single democratic woman. they - have been unbelievable. our republican friends in the house have insisted this debate is about spending. well, i've got to tell you, we went all the way to them about 70% plus on spending

mr. chairman. this is just a sense of the house regarding the importance of child support enforcement. you know, sometimes your paul ryannd you have a beautiful wife and two beautiful kids. you have a happily ever after, but sometimes it does not work out that way. parents are divorced. you know, children really rely upon child support as a reliable source of financial and medical support. i think that also the program increases the family self-sufficiency introduces child poverty and encourages both the mother and father to be involved and committed to their kid. 17 million children, a fourth of the nation's children participate in the child support program. child-support payments received by families represent 39 percent of the income of those headed by single mothers and reduces the poverty rate by nearly 25%. child-support enforcement is one of our most effective anti-poverty programs. collections have doubled over the last decade ensuring that more kids receive the support they are owed and if your kids need other government assistance. for every dollar we spend on child support enforcement we save nearly a dollar

mr. obama is going local, bypassing the washington press corps in favor of local television interviews mostly in battleground states. he did four more this week for a total of 17 since december. house budget chairman paul ryan is also hitting the road selling the republican plan he authored claiming cuts in medicare and medicaid will strengthen the system in the long run. >> the kinds of reforms we're talking about are to give more power to the patient. >> reporter: in less than four hours the president will head to the town hall meeting but during that same period of time he'll hold six fund-raisers to raise millions for the democratic party and his presidential campaign at the blistering pace that analysts say he'll have to keep up for quite some time if he hopes to raise the $1 billion they say he might need for this campaign. jeff? >> chief white house correspondent chip reid, thank you. >>> it is 7:10 now, over to erica. >> jeff, thanks. >>> jeff mortenson's problems are growing. just days after 60 minutes found inaccuracies in his best selling memoir, the montana attorney general is looking into his charity. elaine quijano joins us in the studio with the latest. >> good morning to you. the question is

paul ryan's recent offering. look at the facts. his proposal will reduce our nation's deficit but leaves us asking the question at what cost. first and foremost, mr. ryan intends to place the burden of ending our nation's debt on the citizens least capable of caring for themselves, the most reliant on the help of others, our seniors. the budget committee's proposal will end the medicare our senior citizens have come to know and rely on, replacing it with what can only be described as a coupon, a voucher that according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office would leave our eldest americans shouldering 68% of their health care costs in the next 20 years. who else pays the cost of balancing our budget within the ryan proposal? the burden falls next to working american families. the ryan proposal will lower tax rates for individuals with the highest income as well as corporations. relying on raising taxes for the average americans to pay for it. if it sounds familiar it's because the same standby, trickled down failure that we placed our faith in in the past decade. despite what majority leader cantor says, during an economic downturn, decrea

paul ryan has made a recommendation of how to deal with the long-term debt. we had 64 as senators who say we are ready to go to work. mrpresident, with you on a long-term debt, we have a group of senators headed by senator chambliss, senator warren, working to draft such a thing. the only important player not on the field is the most important player, and that is the president of the united states. we urgently need his leadership in order to deal with the long- term debt. >> we will take a couple of questions that there are any. i was going to say, this is a first. [inaudible] >> i don't think this is designed to put anybody in a box. it is reducing spending in this year's budget as much as possible, and they avoid shutting down the government, which nobody wants to do. and then move on to much more important things as several senators have pointed out. but up 14 trillion dollars in debt, we have over -- we have $14 trillion in debt, promises we have made that we cannot keep, a debt crisis looming -- it is time to get to work. we're proud of what house republicans have done, not only on the short-term issues, but in he

mr. dryer, aye no. >> the amendment is not adopted. >> the house of representatives has approved the 2012 budget plan introduced by budget committee chairman paul ryan series -- following a series of votes of amendments to replace it with alternate plans. those alternatives were defeated. the floor debate on the rhine budget resolution. during this debate, some spectators caught the destruction in the gallery and were arrested by capitol police. in all, nine people were arrested in the gallery, three more outside. this is 50 minutes. i want to first start by thanking the chairman of the budget committee, mr. ryan, and the entire budget staff and members on the house side. >> mr. chairman, the house is not in order. the chair: the gentleman is correct. conversations please cease, clear the aisles, bring your conversations to the cloakroom. the gentleman from california. mr. mccarthy: i'd also like to thank the democrat members on the budget committee as well. what we are taking up today is the point of where this country goes. because this debate has taken on for quite sometime there is not one person that's not watched the news and watch the clock o

paul ryan has made a recommendation of how to deal with the long-term debt. we have 64 senators, 32 from each party, who say we're ready to go to work. mr. president, with you, on the long-term debt. we have a group of senators headed by senator chambliss and senator warrer in who are working to draft such a thing -- senator warnar who are working to draft such a thing. the most important player, president of the united states, we need his leadership in dealing with the long-term debt. >> we'll take a couple of questions if there are any. i was going to say this is a first. >> $12 billion for short-term bill, take defense off the table and strengthen the bargaining power of speaker boehner and the president and the democrats, is that -- >> well, i don't think it's designed to put anybody in a box. it's designed to reduce spending in this year's budget. as much as possible. and then a void obviously shutting down the government. which nobody wants to do. and then move on to much more important things, as several of our senators have pointed out. we've got $14 trillion in debt. we've got over $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities. promises

in the name of ideology, paul ryan's budget proposes getting rid of medicare as it exists today and replacing it with a private system that would cut benefits. mr. president, we've seen this movie before. five years ago, president bush tried to sell the country on a plan to privatize social security. the public rejected it. well, if you didn't like what president bush tried to do so social security, just wait until you see what paul ryan and the house republicans want to do to medicare. madam president, their budge plan proposes putting the medicare system into the hands of private insurance companies. that is a recipe for disaster. it would mean an end to medicare as we know it. beginning in 2022, americans turning 65 would no longer be enrolled in medicare but instead would receive a voucher to go shopping for their own health insurae on the open market. insurance companies, however, would not be required to honor that coucher, which would average about $8,000. many private insurance plans for seniors far exceed that price already today. but under the ryan plan, seniors who cannot find an affordable plan at the value of their voucher would si

paul ryan budget particularly attacks senior women. we're going to fight this. we're suited up. we've squared our shoulders. we put our lipstick on. and, mr president, this is not about gender. this is about an american agenda and we will fight and we will make our fight a victory. mr. president, i yeeltd floor. -- i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington is recognized. mrs. murray: mr. president, i want to thank all of my democratic women colleagues and speak so passionately as senator mikulski has just done. you will hear from all of us we are outrageous that the price tag for a vote on the continuing resolution is to attack votes on women's health. i yield to the senator from california for five minutes. mrs. boxer: i want to thank, mr. president, senators mikulski and murray, senator cantwell and shaheen and stabenow and landrieu. i'm going to really name every single democratic woman. they - have been unbelievable. our republican friends in the house have insisted this debate is about spending. well, i've got to tell you, we went all the way to them about 70% plus on spending c

we've already had paul ryan from the house show us that it can be done, and there are people who criticize that and that's fine. there are multiple ways of solving this problem. but, mr. president, the problem we have is politicians here in washington do everything they can to avoid making a tough decision. right? i mean, back home, what we need to to do is get the pain out of the way. let's make the tough decisions so this we can have blue scry in front of -- blue sky in front of us. here, everybody wants to wait until the next election and hopefully move beyond their own election to deal with the tough issues that we have to deal with. that's the way this body s it is amazing that here we are in april dealing with last year's business. again, both sides -- both sides are involved in that. i'm not pointing fingers. but if we had a plan that we adopted, a statutory bill where we agree that we were going to go from where we are to where we need to be -- our 40-year average, not extreme -- over a ten-year period it would force us to sit down and in a bipartisan way look at the big picture. everybody knows cutting discretionary spending is small ball. let me say that --