mr. sanders: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to a fellow in my office. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: -- consent that the privileges of the floor be granted to a fellow in my office, gail henson. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, i think the american people are aware that our country is in the midst of a major health care crisis. that's not a secret to anybody. 46 million americans have no health insurance. and importantly, even more are underinsured with high deductibles and copayments. further, some 60 million americans, including many with health insurance, do not have access to a medical home of their own. in fact, according to the institute of medicine, some 18,000 americans die each year from preventible diseases because they lack health insurance and do not get to a doctor when they

mr. sanders: mr.? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sanders: mr. president, i think virtually everybody in our country understands that the united states of america is the -- is in the midst of a major, major health care crisis. we have 46 million americans without any health insurance. we have even more who are under insured and we have, in addition to all of that we have some 60 million americans, 20% of our population, who do not have access to a doctor on a regular basis. the result of that particular fact is that we lose over 18,000 americans every year who die needlessly, who should not die because they don't go to the doctor when they should get the treatment that they need. that is six times every single year what we lost on 9/11. of people who died who should not die because they don't have access to a doctor. mr. president, in the midst of this horrendo

mr. sanders: mr. president, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, i think most americans understand that our current health care system is disintegrating. today 46 million americans have absolutely no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and high copayments. at a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home, do not have access to a doctor of their own, close to 20,000 americans die every single year from preventable illnesses because they do not get to a doctor when they should. this is six times the number of people who died on the tragedy of 9/11, but these deaths occur every single year. mr. president, i can vividly recall talking to physicians from vermont -- and i'm sure the same is the case in delaware and every other state in this country -- who told me that patients walked into their office very, very sick, and they said, why didn't you come in here before? you are very, very ill. and they said, well, i didn't have any insurance. i did

mr. sanders: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: madam president, i rise today to introduce the energy market manipulation prevent act. madam president, as you know, we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. millions of our fellow americans are losing their homes, they are losing their jobs, they're losing their live savings and their ability to seep thei sends to college and the hope that their own children will have a brighter future and a better life than they have had and this is just the very unusual moment in the history of our country. in the midst of all of this concern and decline in the standard of living of millions of americans, the last thing, the last thing that our country needs right now is to see our people be ripped off at the gas pump this summer because speculators on wall street, some of the very same people who caused this recession, and who have received the largest taxpayer bailout in american history, are allowed to jack up oil prices through price manipulation and

mr. sanders: i thank my friend from north dakota on his efforts on the important issue of tourism but for consistently standing up for consumers sick and tired of paying artificially high prices at the gas pumps. i want to take this moment, if i might, just to explain what my amendment is about. mr. dorgan: madam president, rather than yield for a question let me yield the floor and ask him to explain the amendment and then get the floor back. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sanders: this amendment enjoys widespread supports from a very diverse coalition of organizations throughout this country who shared the common concern that the price of gas and oil is soaring and they don't understand request. but what they do know, it is hurting consumers especially in rural areas like north dakota, vermont, throughout this country, and it is hurting business groups throughout this country. these groups, among others, include the poem markets association of america, it includes public citizens, the gasoline and automotive service dealers of america, the united egg producers

mrs. sanders number three. [inaudible conversations] commerce wrightwood. >> thank you it mr. chairman. what this amendment does is it includes license complementary and alternative medicine providers an integrated health practitioners under the definition of health professionals to be one of the professions the health care workforce commissioned study is to feature health-care needs so we want to expand the definition of health care providers. adel d.c. have to tell anybody on this committee that we are looking and millions of americans who go to chiropractors and natural pass them on to puncher and massage therapist and other complementary medical therapy and dashed their press as well as a chorus and mba. and i think that there are playing increasingly embroiled in delivery of health care. and i think they should be studied in terms of what the needs of those professions are with our whole health care picture within the next several years. >> is this basically a standing? >> we include complementary and alternative medicine providers to be studied as one of the professions under the

sanders. >> thank you mr. chairman and like everybody else on this committee we all wish senator kennedy at the very best, we miss him and we appreciate the ricky is done for so many years and no evidence senator dodd, we hope that he is back. >> i hope he is back. >> i know you would, and we all want him back. i think we all agree on mr. chairman, i think most of the americans understand that our current health care system is disintegrating and that is the word adduce but today we have about 46 million americans who have no health insurance and very importantly we don't talk about this and we have even more who are underinsured and the importance this is not good enough to say everybody has insurance, you have to ask what is the quality of insurance, how meaningful is it? is a $10,000 or $5,000 deduction? for the war in the midst of this disintegrating system we have some 60 million americans who do not have access to a doctor on a regular basis because we have a disaster in primary health care. why is than e

and then we'll go to senator alexander then senator sanders and senator enzi. go ahead, tom. >> mr. chairman, i just offer harkin number two. that's what it is called in the books, prevention and public investment fund. we talked around that with the foregoing enzi amendment. but this is the specifics of the trust fund itself. it establishes an expanded and sustained national investment and prevention and public health programs. again, it dedicated stable funding stream of $10 billion a year from 2010 to 2019. now if you'll notice in there, because of the lack of workforce and so we don't put the money in there right away, we ramp it up so the fiscal year 2010 it will be $2 billion, then for each year we go up by two to four to six to eight to ten and then continue with $10 billion for the -- from then on. so we ramp it up over a period of one, two, three, four, five -- five years up that $10 billion level. and, again, i don't know that i need to say a heck of a lot more about. this we already talked a lot about it. the reason that we have this amendment, it's also in the underlying

sanders. very good, senator. lamar alexander, you're up. >> thanks, mr. chairman.i have an amendment to title three, section 311. the purpose of it is to make sure that the right choices program which is in that title doesn't require the states to spend any money on it, and this is a relatively small item, probably, but i would like to make a larger point in making my proposal, if i could say just a word about it. >> certainly. >> we have talked a lot here about cost and usually the cost is described in terms of cost to the federal government, and the cbo, congressional budget office, score has said that the kennedy bill even without three of its major points would add $1 trillion over ten years. senator gregg has said that once the program is implemented fully by the fifth year, it would be more like $2.3 trillion. but i would like to talk about a different sort of cost that i'm particularly sensitive to because of my experience as governor, struggling with the medicaid program and watching every other governor struggle with the medicaid program. in 1980, shortly

mr. chairman. >> is there debate on the amendment? if not, we will call the roll, mike. the clerk will call the roll. mikulsk sni. >> no. >> senator bingerman? >> no, by proxy. >> senator reid? >> no, by proxy. >> senator sanders. >> no, by proximaty. >> senator brown. >> no. >> senator casey. >> senator higgins? >> no, by [roll call] [roll call] >> the amendment is defeated. >> mr. chairman that includes the coley section. their three outstanding, one we want to get clarification on coburn 12, with the sentiment of the committee to take coburn 12. senator enzi and ire are working out in the number six, and i believe we are very close to coming to an accommodation with the senator and senator isakson and i have a chunk of homework to do together coming to see how we can promote the advanced directives among seniors. >> i thank my colleagues for that and again i would urge is to try and reach some agreement on these. i spoke to tom brief the moment ago and got answers for senator coburn on that. >> could i inquire of the chair that this is a complex topic. if we close here, are we going to be precluded come if we see something new and the steady this that we can come back? >> absolutely. >> i thank the chair. >

mr. gingrey of virginia, thank you. >> we continue our discussion on health care system, vermonts center bernie sanders launched, join us on "washington journal" for 30 minutes. >> host: i want to introduce bernie sanders, thank you for being with us. your single payer plan, how what were? >> guest: it begins to do the major problems that exist in our current health care system and i think understands that the current system is disintegrating with 46 million without any health insurance, more who are underinsured and at the end of the day off we end up spending despite those results far more money per capita almost twice as much as any other country and our health care outcomes in infant mortality and longevity, disease prevention is not as good as many other countries. the reason to my mind why russia has into the fact that our system is geared toward making money for the private health insurance companies so i do want to shock any of the viewers with but the function of a private health insurance company is not to provide quality health care to all people in a cost-effective way. is to make as much money as they po

sanders have his amendment. so, i can't possibly understand what excuse they have for not moving forward on this legislation, mr. president. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time be reserved and there will be a period of morning business for one hour with time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: mr. president, i -- there is a news report from the associated press entitled "iranian police use force to break up protests. tehran, iran, riot police attack hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas and fired live bullets in the air to disperse a rally in central tehran monday, carrying out a threat by the country's most powerful security force to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election. witnesses said helicopters hovered over head as about 200 protesters gathered at a square, but hundreds of antiriot police quickly put an end to the demonstration and prevented any gatherin

sali thank senter sanders for again, bringing a little dose of reality as to what the parameters of our on health insurance. mr. chairman, our staff has continued to work on these, on the prevention title and a forked up the two amendments with senator enzi, amendment number 50 and 51 and i would ask unanimous consent be adopted as modified. >> witho

i thank senator sanders again for bringing in a little dose of kind of reality as to what the parameters are on health insurance. mr chairman, our staffs have continued to work on these, on the prevention and wellness title. they worked out the two amendments number 50 and number 51 and i would ask unanimous consent they be ado. ed as modified. >> without objection they be adopted. >>> thank you, mr. chairman. it's been an interesting discussion this morning. our side is going to expedite a little bit the morning process because senator coburn is also in the defense authorization mark-up senator mccain is in. as seen what happens with a number of his amendments, i want to make just a couple of comments on the bill and a couple of comments on some of the amendments that could have been offered and we can have senator mccain come in and present his amendment, i guess. i want to thank senator sanders for his comments. i do need to point out the criminal charges and settlements that he described involved medicare and medicaid, both which are government-run plans, and perhaps the problem is with government-run plans and

sanders' stock. madam president, would you let me know when i have one minute left, please. the presiding officer: the senator has 30 seconds remaining. mr. alexander: i wonder if i exphiet for an extra one minute? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you etch vy much. the main company was not consistent with the core business. we should give taxpayers its shares, get it back in the marketplace where it belongs. it is fast, sirnlings creates a market for the shares. this is not like the soviet union where people aren't used to handling shares. half of american families own shares of stock. it would create a fan base for the next chevy, like the fan base for general motors, where the people on

mr. kennedy created in november. we are going to take a short break. when we come back, congressman phil gingrey will join us to give us his perspective on the health-care debate. senator bernie sanders. "washington journal" continues in a moment. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations? >> taxpayers? >> i do not really know. >> i do not know where the money comes from. >> federally? >> helices been funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies created -- how is c- span funded? 30 years ago, americans cable companies greeted c-span. no government mandate, no government money. >> the congressional directory with information on house and senate members, the cabinet, supreme court justices, and the nation's governors. how to contact committees and caucuses. it is $16.95 on line c-span.org -- at c-span.org/products. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome congressman phil gingrey, the co-chair of the republicans doctors congress. good morning. guest: good morning, steve. host: where do you come down on the health care debate? guest: well, i come down on the fact that we need some reform. there are certain things that we could and should and do agree with in a b

mr. casey: thank you. this is cosponsored by senators dodd, rockefeller, brown, whitehouse and sanders. i'll highlight some of the features of it. first of all, it starts with a recognition that the medicaid program is a cornerstone of the nation's health insurance infrastructure. it notes in the resolution that medicaid covers a quarter of all children in the country -- one quarter -- and half of all poor children. it notes as well that medicaid has been shown to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care and provides coverage for two out of every five african-american american and children. it provides benefits for infants and young children. it has care coordination benefits to support at-risk children and its administrative spending -- medicaid's administrative spending is lower than that through heist insurance. here's the end -- through private insurance. here's the end of the resolution. i'm summarizing here. it is the intent of this resolution to say that the nation's health care system shall benefit all children -- all children -- and that no child shall be worse off a

from vermont, senator sanders, i said, if republicans want to offer nongermane amendments, i'll be happy to offer your amendment. his is -- his is really a fairly simple amendment, mr. president. we see what's happening in the world today as it relates to o oil. again we're seeing speculation. we knew it was there before. we're seeing it again. we have large inventories. no reason for the price to spike. but we have these people and these commodity traders who are rolling the dice as they're coming to las vegas. i think i'll roll the dice on oil because i think the price of oil is going to go up. so what sanders is doing is really nothing, not unique, he wanted to make sure that the entity responsible for making sure there's no shenanigans being conducted by these traders, that we pass some legislation saying you've got to do better than what you've done, in effect, and i'm paraphrasing and making a shorthand-pick tour of what this legislatio -- a shk tour of what that legislation was. fairly noncontroversial but the republicans said. no. -- but the republicans said no. who's trying protect -- who are they trying to protect, mr. president? so we were generous in ou