i remember when paul wellstone first got me involved in this effort in in 1996. i remember paul saying we have a long, hard road to hoe because we're going to run into very in fact, it reminded me -- i was thinking the other day of my first campaign in 1990 congress. and on election night, i got a little bouquet of flowers with a card that says may you rest in peace. that's the same reaction i had. may you rest in pe puzzlement ie florist the next morning and expressed the fact that i was a little bit confused over this message. and she said well, let me check my records. so the her records and came back a few minutes later and said ramstad, if you think you're puzzled, how do you think the guy at the g t that said congratulations posit. you have a long, hard road to hoe. well, i want to thank you for the parity implement coalition for hoeing that long, hard road with us. for being there night and day. some of you that i said since the very beginning in 1996. it's about time we treat the diseases of the brain the same as diseases of the body. noo more discriminati

and we have some very powerful special interests, as paul wellstone said early on, he was quick to recognize our fighting parity, and that's unfortunate. we're trying to do a better job with education. i think it's important to point out that right before we passed the bill, we had eight major insurance companies, major health plans nationally supporting the bill. came up and testified. the first one to come on board was way back in the '90s, kaiser permanente. and i don't want to get into which insurance company is helping and which is not, but we need them to understand that this is not only the right thing to do, to enact parity, but it's the cost-effective thing to do. for every dollar we spend in treatment from people who are suffering from mental disorders or addiction disorders, we save $12. we save $12 in health care costs and not having to build new jails and new prisons service costs. as my good friend dr. ron smith always points out, who is chief psychiatry for the navy, is not having to buy ritalin for the children, for families that are dysfunctional and so forth. so we need to

conversation in our state about domestic abuse would be complete without mentioning former senator paul wellstone and his wife sheila, who we miss dearly. the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into taking a subject that many people considered at the time a family matter and saying, you know, what? domestic violence isn't just something we can sweep under a rug. it's a crime, it hurts families, it hurts children, and we're going to do something about it. and while i led the prosecutor's office in hennepin county, minnesota for eight years, we put a lot of focus on the victims' needs and atlantic the children's needs in domestic violence cases. because it doesn't take a bruise or broken bone for a child to be a victim of domestic violence. kids who witness domestic violence are victims, too. we had a poster up on the wall in our office, madam president, a poster of a woman with a band-aid on her nose holding a baby, it said beat your wife, your kid goes to jail. you know why? the statistics show kids who grow up in violent homes are 76 times more l

conversation in our state about domestic abuse would be complete without mentioning former senator paul wellstone and his wife sheila, who we miss dearly. the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into taking a subject that many people considered at the time a family matter and saying, you know, what? domestic violence isn't just something we can sweep under a rug. it's a crime, it hurts families, it hurts children, and we're going to do something about it. and while i led the prosecutor's office in hennepin county, minnesota for eight years, we put a lot of focus on the victims' needs and atlantic the children's needs in domestic violence cases. because it doesn't take a bruise or broken bone for a child to be a victim of domestic violence. kids who witness domestic violence are victims, too. we had a poster up on the wall in our office, madam president, a poster of a woman with a band-aid on her nose holding a baby, it said beat your wife, your kid goes to jail. you know why? the statistics show kids who grow up in violent homes are 76 times more l

conversation in our state about domestic abuse would be complete without mentioning former senator paul wellstoneand his wife sheila, who we miss dearly. the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into taking a subject that many people considered at the time a family matter and saying, you know, what? domestic violence isn't just something we can sweep under a rug. it's a crime, it hurts families, it hurts children, and we're going to do something about it. and while i led the prosecutor's office in hennepin county, minnesota for eight years, we put a lot of focus on the victims' needs and atlantic the children's needs in domestic violence cases. because it doesn't take a bruise or broken bone for a child to be a victim of domestic violence. kids who witness domestic violence are victims, too. we had a poster up on the wall in our office, madam president, a poster of a woman with a band-aid on her nose holding a baby, it said beat your wife, your kid goes to jail. you know why? the statistics show kids who grow up in violent homes are 76 times more li