senator tom harkin of iowa has been fighting for health care reform from the start. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." and thanks for watching tonight. make no mistake about did, today this country is better off and our health care system is better off because president obama and the democrats passed this reform bill just six months ago. today children with pre-existing conditions are protected by law. and today young adults can stay covered on their parents' plans, and today, it's illegal for an insurance company to drop you after you get sick, claiming that you've maxed out your coverage. these changes will touch every american family in time, everyone is safer because of what the democrats and president obama did six months ago. but this is how the party of no accomplished what they really want to do and how they mark that occasion. >> what the american people have told us what they want is that we defund, repeal, and replace, what do we replace it with? well, we've got reforms that we believe will lower costs. the house republicans have listened. we have heard and we shall do our

it is the reason i made such a big issue out of what senator tom harkin said during the health care debatedo you remember what he said i think on christmas eve or something. something like that. >> what this bill does is we finally take that step as our leader said earlier, we take that step from health care as a privilege to health care as an inalienable right of every single american citizen. >> okay. stop, stop, stop. >> okay, look, congress doesn't pass rights, they cannot pass rights. they cannot create a right. they pass laws, but this is an idea, a notion that permeates our government now, the rights our founders enumerated, life, liberty, the pursuant of happiness have become the right to health care, right to a job, right to a certain wage they deem decent and the only way to provide those rights is to take your rights to the things you've earned, the problem is, these new rights were the rights outlined by karl marx and ingles, not our founding fathers. if that is the path we're going to take as americans now, then let's have that discussion, let's stop pretending that we're work

. >> reporter: forget fired up, tom harkin wants iowa democrats ready to go and do the knitty grittyand that's what we're doing in iowa. >> this is madonna and i'm calling with the iowa democratic party. >> we work every day, all night. this office is always full and there's 19 other offices like it across the state. >> reporter: and they opened in june. much of the urgency for iowa democrat is over the top of the ticket races, incumbent democrat colbert has trailed in public head to head polls since january behind four term governor branstead and conlin faces a double digit deficit in the poll in her bid to unseat charles grassley. >> republicans are winning the independent voters that voted for obama in 2008 and even disaffected democrats. >> reporter: wii taking advantage of tailgating and football fans. they've cut in half the democratic registration in iowa. >> right now republicans are coming out in big numbers, i don't think we should expect that debate. >> grab one of these and cook a steak. >> reporter: at the steak fry, two were grilling beef and serving up big portions of

your other senator tom harkin is never going to vote for any of the things that i just talked about. it is up to you, the people across america, the release say that they believe this, got to do it. you have got to do it on election day. particularly at its november, but big concern is that everyone is going to say, we dodge the bullet. no, we've not. obamacare is the law. this country will be forever changed because the government will be able to say to you, yes, i left to give you health care but you have to give us more money. the will of the pipeline to your wallet because they will control your life. they will be of a ration care to those who they believe is best. that is held every european country became a european social welfare state, and why the the there was a singularly focused on it? they know that that is the key. once they have that, they had you and america as this beacon of hope and freedom and opportunity in the wall, they change the dynamic and the world will be no more. >> obama likes to still blame bush for everything that has happened. maybe you could clarify th

whereas the hill reported on june 24, 2010, that senator tom harkin, a democrat from iowa, suggested that, quote, democrats might attempt to move card check legislation this year perhaps during a lame duck session, a lot of things can happen in a lame duck session, too, he said. whereas "the new york times" published an article on june 28, 2010, titled lame duck session emerges as possibility for climate bill conference that declares, quote, many expect the final energy or climate bill to be worked out during the lame duck session between the november election and the start of the new congress in january. whereas the hill reported on july 1, 2010, the democratic leaders are likely to punt the task of renewing you bush era tax cuts after the november election. voters will be left without a clear idea of the future tax rates when they go to the polls, unquote. whereas the "wall street journal" reported on july 13, 20 10 that, quote, there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious lame duck session to muscle through bills in december that they don't wa

guest: interestingly, tom harkin, chairman of the committee that passed last october, says "i hope we have this done by christmas time." he is talking christmas 2009. it did not happen. host: is dianne feinstein the reason is being held up? guest: i think it is more complicated than that. there was a legitimate delay connected to the fact we had, in national edition overhaul -- we had health-care overhaul, at national regulation overall, taking all the energy in congress. dianne feinstein -- the amendment, the proposal complicates things, but i don't see it as a real deal breaker. host: she has written an op-ed saying she is not holding it up. guest: we are so close to the election, and to the parties want to come together and have a moment of comity won the narrative for the election is that there has to be -- when the narrative for the election is that there has to be strife between the parties? the political climate for passing the bill, in spite of the fact that it has brought the board, is not favorable. -- in spite of the fact that it has broad support, is not favorable. caller:

surprised to know we have been having bipartisan meetings these last two years with lamarr alexander, tom harkin the secretary of education and all through august to put together a bipartisan response to the rewrite of the education law. this has been ongoing and everybody has been kept in the game here. tremendous transportati tremendous progress has been made over the life of this legislation and ready to go next year. most people think that is impossible, it's possible and takes a lot of knowledge. >> a lot of people come in angry, but you have to stay there and after a while, you figure out we're all in the same boat, a small boat. >> a very small boat, especially if everybody is arguing in the boat. >> gets real small. >> is nancy going to be speaker? >>. no question. >> you pretty confident? >> yeah. >> good. >> thank you so much. >> my gosh, that is a great book. >> representative george miller, thank you as well. let us know the next time you're in new york. great to have you here. >> if there is anything you need me to do, let me know. >> pass a bill in the house this week. >> i reach o

tom harkin chairs the appropriations subcommittee on health and human services. this panel is 50 minutes. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> good morning. the senate appropriations subcommittee on labor, health, human services, and education will come to order. this is the 21st hearing this subcommittee has held on human embryonic stem cells, starting back in december of 1998. one month after dr. jamie thompson of the university of wisconsin announced he had isolated them for the first time. i want to note for the record that it was senator specter who led the subcommittee at that time, lead the hearings beginning then, and on through the remainder of the 1990's and into the 2000's. when the gavel changed hands, i picked up from him and we have kept this effort going. at that time, it was a bipartisan basis. i just want to acknowledge the great leadership role that senator specter has played in this whole effort. ed in this whole effort on embryonic stem cell research. it is a shame