senator debbie stabenow. we appreciate you getting up with us this morning to explain that fun exchange. thanks so much. >> thanks, bill. >> sharyn? >>> all right. switching gears now. thanks to a new round of funding that injected $100 million into the social networking site, twitter. investors are valuing the company at $1 billion. but for a company that still hasn't figured out a way to turn a profit, what does that whopping number mean? here's abc's john hendren. >> reporter: twitter has reformed social networking. 140 characters at a time, in nearly every realm of american life. in politics, where congressman joe wilson tweeted to defend his outburst. in hollywood. >> the most popular twitter in the world. >> reporter: where ashton kutcher's picture of wife demi moore in a bikini, attracted more viewers than some his tv shows. >> 3 million people, i think. >> reporter: and on wall street, with a company of just 60 employees and not a profit in sight, is valued at more than $1 billion. is it another examp

and we're joined now by senator debbie stabenow, from michigan. thank you for being with us, senator. >> good morning, bill. >> we're calling this a yo momma moment. a tongue firmly in cheek. but did you mean that as a slap to your republican colleague? >> no. i think i just reacted as any woman listening to that comment would have reacted. right now, 60% of the policies that are offered to individual families and individual market right now, don't offer maternity care. women can't find insurance or be able to get the kind of basic care that they need. and in fact, a lot of policies in the individual market, call pregnancy a pre-existing condition. so, women can't even get care. so, i think it's just an example of why we need reform. my colleagues on the republican side think things are going pretty well right now. in that the insurance companies should make the decisions. we think that there should be basic, consumer protections. and one of those is that the women of the country should be able to get maternity care. >> what about senator kyl's br

i hope we're going to get there. >> all right. >> senator stabenow, thank you very much.e finance committee. >>> and we will be talking more about this, coming up. >> no doubt about it. enough senators haven't been involved in this process from the beginning. >> i know. they need to engage. some of them really -- >> they want to engage, but they've been shut out. six people have been running it here. so, maybe we get some more good ideas now. >>> up next, called the michael moore of youtube for his brash reporting style. >> oh, is this the -- >> we'll be right back. >> mac, is he the guy from acorn? you must be looking for motorcycle insurance. you're good. thanks. so is our bike insurance. all the coverage you need at a great price. hold on, cowboy. cool. i'm not done -- for less than a dollar a month, you also get 24/7 roadside assistance. ght on. yeah, vroom-vroom! sounds like you ran a 500. more like a 900 v-twin. excuse me. well, you're excused. the right insurance for your ride. w, that's progressive. call or click today. it's what doctors recommend most for headach

joining me now, debbie stabenow. thanks for being with us tonight.ree, four maybe five years for a public option? i mean, president obama has talked about the urgency of now, the sense of urgency to get this thing done. can your folks in michigan wait that long to get something done on health care? >> well, ed, no. we absolutely can't. we have to get something done. i would broaden the discussion and say we have to stop the insurance company practices, lower costs, give people more choices, create a real safety net for low-income people. there's a lot of things we need to do. a public health choice is a very important part of that. you're looking at somebody who would vote right now for medicare for all americans. i start from a very different position. it is broader than just an option that is a public option even though i support it strongly. >> okay. what about reconciliation? what if it comes down in the c. they're owl there. you know where the republicans are. yaw don't want to do it. are you ready to tell harry reid, we're ready to go with oust

you pointed out senator stabenow said as a woman, i find it offensively.i meant there by the heat. >> oh, yes. >> a female member of congress saying this is offensive you will get the attention of women rights groups. how did the vote shake out? >> as you would expect, republicans wanted to see this kind of amendment. two different versions of it and those were defeated. democrats he were standing in support of it. ken conrad a democrat of north dakota sided with republicans on this. it was really a case of orrin hatch saying he doesn't want to discriminate and did not mean to offend but he believes the language needs to be improved to protect the concerns of those who do oppose abortion and the women democrats and it goes beyond the women but notably they spoke out saying they felt this was unprecedented and they raised a lot of concerns about it, so it's another interesting chapter in the debate about abortion services. >> kelly, thank you very much. >>> at stake the way forward in afghanistan. this afternoon president obama and his senior advisers will

-- the stabenow of men. and then there was a gypsy question that senator grassley is so ardently working on. the other day -- we will push cbo to get the precise numbers. >> i share your admiration and respect for the professionals at cbo and the work they're doing. they're being put under tremendous pressure to try to score amendments in this legislation. i think they're doing the best they can. but they are only human, and i do not understand the rush when the spending is not going to cooccur for four years. if they did it correctly in the first instance, it would not take much to confirm the accuracy. in fact there was a $600 billion mistake. i appreciate you will try to comment -- to try to accommodate senators' dameron -- senator stabenow. in the meantime, my amendment was ruled out of order because it is not have a cbo score and frankly, due to the chairman's ruling, i do not see it i get an opportunity to get a score. i think it is a double standard when it comes to deciding on the amendment. >> that

every single time -- >> this is senator kyl and senator stabenow going back and forth in the senate financeommittee. >> i don't need maternity care, so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something i don't need and will make the policy more expensive. >> if i could inject once, i think your mom probably did. but -- >> well, let's -- jon kyl, the other day came up with an amendment. he was protecting these folks for putting out faulty material to the people that are getting medicare and said it's okay to lie to them because it's freedom of speech. >> if you have people putting mandates on different plans, the fact of the matter the costs go up. if jon kyl wants to buy a plan that does not have maternity care, he should do so. the thing is going out of control in cost. having more government mandates and a bigger government is not going to control the cost. never happened before in history. >> he may not need maternity leave but needs his head examined if he thinks he's going to get re-elected in the state that has 53% women voters. he probably doesn't think mammograms should be re

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate the opportunity to be here wh colleagues, and i so appreciate the senator from north dakota's words and the senator from new york and all of our other colleagues that have been here talking about our friend and colleague, the great senator from massachusetts. i think for me, being in my second term, still a relative newcomer here, one of the greatest honors of my life has been the opportunity to work with and become friends with senator ted kennedy. i often hae been asked, you know, what was the most surprising or exciting thing about being in the senate, and i always referred to ted kennedy. and not only knowing him and the larger than life way he's been described, which is also true, but fore the images are of sitting in a small room going over amendnts on the patients bill of rights when i was in my first term and having the reat ted kennedy, not his staff, but ted kennedy sitting in a room with advocates talking about how we needed to mobilize and get people involved

stab -- senate or stabenow from michigan. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and i appreciate your patience. i very much appreciate the tremendous amount of time and effort that has gone into this. we started in the right way in order to get bipartisanship. i find it amazing that people would talk about rushing this process, given the fact that we invent -- spent over a year and countless hearings and meetings, and the fact that i think if you have gone to extraordinary lengths to reach out to make this a bipartisan effort. i regret that he is not yet there but there is important work that has been done on both sides of the aisle. i know that we will keep working at it. i think it is important to to say thank you to the staff of the finance committee who have worked so hard and getting us information and having sleepless nights on an ongoing basis. and i want to particularly thank my on staff as well, oliver, alex, and catherine, who cared deeply about providing affordable health care and changing a broken system. and i want to thank them for their h

debbie stabenow from richmond. earlier in the show i asked you what's the more important thing the president can do tomorrow night? 5 2% said get tough on the republicans. 48% said get specific about the plan. that's "the ed show." we're back tomorrow night with a special show tomorrow night at 11:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" with chris matthews is next right here on msnbc. >>> a make-or-break week for president obama. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm mike barnicle in tonight for chris matthews. leading off tonight, obama's big moment. president obama is facing, perhaps, the most important and consequential week yet of his presidency. it all begins with health care in his speech to a joint session of congress tomorrow night. then there's afghanistan. the september 11th anniversary. stubbornly high unemployment and growing unease about the deficit. add to that the fence that the president is being shaped by events more than he is shaping them. whether he can turn that around may say a lot about how succes

stabenow? >> no. >> no by proxy. >> mr. hatch? >> aye by proxy. >> mr. crapo?>> aye by proxy. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the amendment is 9 ayes and 14 nays. >> about 15 minutes before the senate finance committee is expected back to have more work on amendments to the health care bill. that is time enough to see more of debate during the crapo amendment. it would prevent a competitive bidding to be implemented if it results in insurers not participating in the medicare advantage program. here is that debate. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. we sent around the modification about an hour ago. this is a continuation of a discussion on the same issue that senator hatch has raised. it would eliminate the cuts and section 3 to prohibit the implementation of the changes to the medicare advantage program. in other words, the cuts that we see proposed here, i am convinced and i think many are convinced will result in providers leaving the marketplace. if providers do leave the marketplace with less choice of options, we should not implement these pro

i was watching and i saw my senator, debbie stabenow, was kind of sticking up for everybody.i gave her a call and complimented her on it. i told them -- i did not tell them the whole story but i had gone on disability for two mental illnesses and in 2007 i got breast cancer. i went through this thing with my part d plan. i did not get part c because i thought it would bankrupt medicare. the kind of forced us to get d because they said it will be reduced by don't get it. first time i paid, i think, 5650, and the next year, 5750, and the last year i had it was 9650 out of a $911 check. what happened to me yesterday -- the staff was explaining or markup that if a person was medical -- eligible for medicare, that day -- they can get generics for $1 and the non- generic for $3. i got something in the mail yesterday that said that i no longer qualify -- why my circumstances have not changed. they will take me off the program. medicare was paying my benefits and i was getting these reduced drug prices. host: let me jump in. what would you like to see happen? caller: i would like to