vermont -- vermont, senator bernie sanders held out for larger medicaid payments for his state. neighboring massachusetts would get one too. i guess there's a number of maybe states that should have stickers on them so that the american people can see where these special deals were cut o

it gives special sweet heart deals to a few states specifically nebraska and vermont.those who end up paige more so that nebraska and vermont can get a special deal. >> the history being made here. make no mistake about it. the history is the ignoring of the will of the american people. the history being made is that the bill being sold helping the problem in our nation makes the problem worse this spending will actually go up under this bill i assure you, they would not be trying to pass this the weekend before christmas and the middle of the night. the next vote will be in the middle of the night. it will be at 1:00 a.m. monday morning. if this is a good bill with bipartisan suppose port. to sit down and write this bill in a way that would pass the senate with 80 votes, we wouldn't be doing what we were doing. americans need to knowp, what' going on. americans need to learn as much as they can and we can as the process moves forward.ñr do you plan toÑi use any otho=# tactic to make sure this bill does not pass before christmas. >> the important thing is for american

was vermont. by the time the revolutionary war, the indians had been driven out of vermont, but it had not been thickly settled by europeans coming up from other colonies, so it was the wild frontier, a great place to the speculate in land because everybody knew it was eventually going to be settled. but also a risky place to do that because, you know, new york claimed most of vermont as part of new york easter story, and new hampshire -- new york easter story and new hampshire claimed the rest. people like ethan allen at the same time they were fighting the british were also fighting new york and new hampshire to claim that land. and some of these vermont representatives came to abigail adams and said, wouldn't you like to buy, buy in early to some of this land in vermont on behalf of your husband? and she did. now, there was a limit to how many acres you could buy, but she bought one of these acres, one of these -- 530 acres, i think it was, she bought one on behalf of her husband and each of he

crowing lives in vermont -- currently lives in vermont. would like to thank president selling well as a member of the board who work tirelessly -- i like to thank president sally wells. i think it would be fair to give ourselves thanks, too. go ahead. >> chairman leahy, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the success of a violence against women act. the vermont network is a statewide coalition. there are networks throughout the state. vawa-funded programs are a critical part. i am here today to discuss this success of our programs and the need to strengthen vawa with the reauthorization in 2011. the crime of domestic violence is pervasive. one in four women will experience violence in their lifetime. the most heinous of these cases is murder. even in one of the safest states, there were seven domestic violence and an additional three violence- related suicides in just one week in 2007. the cycle is perpetuated as children witnessed violence. 15.5 million kids are exposed to domestic violence every year. in addition to the cost, these

president -- >> the senator from vermont. >> i withdraw my amendment and mr. president -- >> regular order -- >> the senator has the right, the amendment is withdrawn. >> mr. president -- >> under the previous order -- under the previous order the senator from vermont is recognized for 30 minutes. >> mr. president, let me begin not by talking about my amendment but republican action on the floor. everybody in this country understands our nation faces a significant number of major crises whether it is the disintegration of the health care system, the fact 17% of people are unemployed or underemployed, one out of four children are on food stamps. we have the war, global warming, $12 trillion national debt and the best the republicans can do is try to bring the united states government to a halt by forcing the reading of a 700 page amendment. that is an outrage. people can have honest disagreements but in this moment of crisis it is long to bring the united states government to a halt. mr. president, i am very disturbed that i am unable to bring the amendment i w

durbin: i agree with the senator from vermont. and i would say we have some of the best health care in america, but also the most expensive health care in america. spend more per person than any other nation on earth and a lot of it has to do with money not being well spent and people who do not have access to a medical home, we -- which we established in this bill, do not have access to a community health care clinic, in desperation will take a baby with a high fever into an emergency room. they will wait for hours to finally see a doctor and once there, they'll have the most expensive care they could ever face when they could have gone for a doctor's appointment and have been taken care of at a traction of the cost. that isn't good for the hospital, because many of them are getting charity care that they don't get compensated for and they pass that cost along to other patients and it certainly isn't good for the family's that's involved. mr. sanders: at this point let me thank my friend from illinois for allowing me to engage th

people born and raised in vermont and so one. what about this?>> well, we have looked at the issue of temporary interior check points. and i particularly look at the ones in vermont because i know of your interest and will provide you with greater detail on actual numbers. but my view, senator, is that they are and should be part of a border strategy so that we do have some means off the geographical border to see what is coming across. i do provide useful information and we do make apprehensions. >> i understand that but it is so far removed from the border that the vast number of people going down there -- if you really wanted to get involved you just won't take the interstate. your predecessor proudly gave me a list of the number of marijuana arrest and peoples whose visas have been over a period of several months of stopping people. and i pointed out if you really want to find people with visas can't or marijuana every day we have hundreds of thousands of people that drive in from maryland or virginia into the district of columbia. just put a

people born and raised in vermont and so one. what about this?> well, we have looked at the issue of temporary interior check points. and i particularly look at the ones in vermont because i know of your interest and will provide you with greater detail on actual numbers. but my view, senator, is that they are and should be part of a border strategy so that we do have some means off the geographical border to see what is coming across. i do provide useful information and we do make apprehensions. >> i understand that but it is so far removed from the border that the vast number of people going down there -- if you really wanted to get involved you just won't take the interstate. your predecessor proudly gave me a list of the number of marijuana arrest and peoples whose visas have been over a period of several months of stopping people. and i pointed out if you really want to find people with visas can't or marijuana every day we have hundreds of thousands of people that drive in from maryland or virginia into the district of columbia. just put a

vermont dairy farmers, law-abiding people, they want to respect the law. they want to hire local workers but struggled to find american workers. and unlike other agricultural businesses, they are not eligible to hire temporary foreign workers under the h2a visa program. we do hire temporary vermont workers for apple picking and things like that. unfortunately for dairy farmers you need year round. you can't tell the cowles we will be back to bill cubin six months. it just doesn't work that way. as a the result is to make dairy farmers the forced to choose between their livelihood and at hearing faithfully to immigration laws. and i have urged the department of labour to modify the program as current rule making process continue to fight for enactment of the jobs legislation and i would urge you, madam secretary, to support these. another example from, again, vt. the demonstrates how we can use immigration laws to promote job creation for investment in the united states we have found a hearing in july. we saw how the investor program known as eb5, regional

patrick leahy of vermont chairs the judiciary committee. this is an hour and 45 minutes. ...

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i withdraw my i withdraw my amendment. >> regular order. >> mr. president. >> the senator has that right the amendment is with john. >> mr. president, the pursuant to the previous order under the previous order the senator from vermont is recognized to for 30 minutes. >> thank you. mr. president let me begin and not by talking about my amendment but by talking about republican action right here at the floor of the senate. everybody in this country understands that our nation faces a significant number of major crises whether it is the disintegration of our health care system, the fact that 17 percent of our people are unemployed or underemployed one out for our children are living in food stamps, we've got to wars, global warming we have a $12 trillion national debt to and the best the republicans can do is try to bring the united states government to a halt to. by forcing a reading of a 700 page amendment. that is an outrage people can have honest disagreement but in this mo

in vermont, that one has been the source of ongoing concerns. there's some considerable distance from the border. there's half a dozen of parallel roads, two-lane roads that go along there and they just get out there, see if they can parallel and come back. with gps it's pretty easy to do. i've always been concerned about these kind of checkpoints from years ago when i was asked if i could prove that i'm a u.s. citizen. you know, a license plate on the car, my id that says i'm a united states senator but did not seem to satisfy the person that i was a u.s. citizen. i suspected they had a deficient class when they were growing up. i haven't had that happen since. and it's been years since that. but i do get horror stories of people, taking kids to school late for a doctor's appointment and suddenly they have to prove they're citizens when they were born and raised in vermont. >> we have looked at the issue of temporary interior checkpoints and i particularly look at the ones in vermont because i know you're interested and we'll provide you with g

interestingly enough, two states standing out our nebraska and vermont. what is the upshot of this for taxpayers everywhere? in kentucky and ohio and new york and michigan, they end up paying more so that nebraska and vermont can get a special deal. our conclusion would be this, based on what we know so far about the bill being read and analyzed, not only by my office, but by everyone in the senate and you. our friends like to talk about making history, about the historic steps they are still taking. the history being made here, make no mistake about it, the history made here is the ignoring of the will of the american people. the history being made is that a bill sold as helping a major problem in our nation actually made the problem worse. because independent nonpartisan scorekeepers tell us that premiums, taxes, and overall health care spending will go up under this bill. america, if this was a good bill with bipartisan support, i assure you that they would not be trying to pass this the weekend before christmas in the middle of the night. and the reas

the clerk: the senator from vermont, mr.sanders, for himself and others, proposes an amendment number 2837 to amendment number 2786. beginning on page 1, strike line 6, and all that follows to the end, and insert the following -- mr. sanders: i ask the amendment be considered as read. a senator: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the clerk:: b, table of contents. the table of contents of this act is as follows -- title 1, american health security. section 1000, short title. sub title a. establishment of a state-based american health security program, universal entitlement enrollment. section 1001, establishment of a state-based american health security program. section 1002, universal entitlement. section 1003, enrollment. section 1004, portability of benefits. section 1005, effective date of benefits. section 1006, relationship of existing federal health programs. sub title b, comprehensive benefits, including preventative benefits and benefits for long-term care. section 1101, comprehensive benefits. sect

ten minutes to the senator from vermont.e presiding officer: the senator from vermont is recognized for ten minutes. mr. sanders: mr. president, there are two major goals that we have to achieve in health care reform, and that is we have got to expand access to everyone in america, and we've got to control costs. we focus a lot on expanding insurance but expanding insurance is not expanding access. there are people today in america who have insurance but they don't have access, and the fact is that we have 60 million people who do not have access to a physician on a regular basis, and many of those people, according to recent studies, 45,000 may die, may die because they don't get to a doctor in a timely manner, and by the time they walk in to the doctor's office, their situation is terminal, terminable. so we need to substantially improve access to health care, and when we improve access, we save money because people do not go to the emergency room, they do not end up in the hospital sicker than they otherwise would have be

interestingly enough, two states standing out our nebraska and vermont.ying more so that nebraska and vermont can get a special deal. our conclusion would be this, based on what we know so far about the bill being read and analyzed, not only by my office, but by everyone in the senate and you. our friends like to talk about making history, about the historic steps they are still taking. the history being made here, make no mistake about it, the history made here is the ignoring of the will of the american people. the history being made is that a bill sold as helping a major problem in our nation actually made the problem worse. because independent nonpartisan scorekeepers tell us that premiums, taxes, and overall health care spending will go up under this bill. america, if this was a good bill with bipartisan support, i assure you that they would not be trying to pass this the weekend before christmas in the middle of the night. and the reason i say the middle of the night is that the next vote will literally be at 1:00 a.m. monday morning. and the presum

vermont, only 3,966, but 3,000 people -- 4,000 people in vermont. virginia, 151,942.washington, 225,918. west virginia, 88,027. wisconsin, 243,443, and wyoming, 3,942. these are people who benefit from medicare advantage that would not like to get off of it. well, this choice in coverage has made a difference in the lives of more than almost 11 million people. 11 million individuals nationwide, families that benefit from this. the extra benefits that i had mentioned earlier are being portrayed as gym memberships as opposed to lower premiums, copayments and deductibles. let me read you some letters from my constituents. these are real lives being affected by the cuts contemplated in this bill. i'm going to have to get my reading glasses on. and you should see some of the beautiful handwriting. some of it is very shaky but beautiful, to me, anyway. from cedar city, utah. "senator hatch: i'm writing to you to request your help in preserving our medicare advantage plans from being cut. my medicare advantage plan provides me with benefits and servings that traditional medi

patrick leahy of vermont chairs the judiciary committee. this is an hour and 45 minutes. ... >> now we're going to examine some disturbing reports that despite the important progress we've made to insure justice for rape victims, in too many jurisdictions large numbers of kits continue to sit untested. when dna evidence taken from rape victims that could be used to convict criminals, our communities become more dangerous. that's unacceptable, and we have to fix that problem. since we passed this important law in 2004, the act has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars going to states for the testing of dna samples to reduce backlogs. and i've worked with senators of both parties to insure full funding for the debbie smith act each year, and i compliment those senators in both parties who have joined with me to get that funding. of course, i welcome debbie smith and her husband to the committee once again. she lived in fear for years after being attacked before her kit was tested, and her perpetrator was caught. debbie and her husband r

and we're proud in vermont that we've done the right thing.ers should not be penalized because they've done that. but the bottom line here for me on this bill, as senator carden said so well, is that if you expand medicaid and if you expand health insurance in general, that is enormously important. but at the end of the day it doesn't mean much if people can't find a doctor or they can't find a dentist. and what we have managed to accomplish is a substantially increase community health centers, 10,000 communities in america as a result of this legislation will now have access to community health centers. 10,000 more communities, 20,000 more primary health care physicians and dentists. and we think that that is going to help revolutionize primary health care in america and is an important step forward in health care reform. thanks very much. >> independent senator bernie nelson along -- bernie sanders. along with maryland senator ben carden on health care. president obama is expected to address the media on the health care bill today. that will

i'd like to yield to the senator from vermont. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont is recognized. mr. sanders: i'm going to speak on something other than health care. all right. that's fine. i thank my friend from montana for yielding. and, mr. president, what i want to touch upon is my strong belief that ben bernanke should not be reappointed for a second term as chairman of the federal reserve. and in that regard i place a hold on his nomination. mr. president, everybody in this country understands that we're in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. we are looking at 17% of our people being either unemployed or underemployed. we are looking at average length of unemployment being longer than it has been since world war ii. we are looking at a situation where over the last eight or nine years, median household income has declined by over $2,000. we are looking at a situation where, according to "u.s.a. today", accept 18, 2009 -- quote --"the incomes of the young and middle-aged, especially

i hope the state of vermont will be an example for other jurisdictions. i will also note that eric was y clear in saying that vermont's success would not be possible without the federal funding through the debbie smith program. having said all that, it's clear we would not be here today, though it is still not a problem. despite the good strides made, and the significant federal funding for backlog reduction we have seen alarmingly reports. a study last year found 12,500 untested rape kits in the los angeles area alone. while los angeles has since made progress in addressing the problem, other cities are reporting backlogs almost as severe. the justice department released a report last month finding that 18% of open unsolved rape cases evidence had not even been submitted to a crime lab. the justice department goes to one key component of this problem. no matter how much money we send to crime labs for testing, samples can help solve cases sit on the shelf in police evidence rooms and never make it to the lab and & it does no good. police officers have to

vermont and massachusetts have special deals. and then there's a $100 million earmark for an unknown hospital. oh, i can't wait to find out what that's about. and those are just some of the sweetheart deals we know are in these bills, and i'm sure there are more that we will find out about. this process has just gone too fast and gone too far off track. it reminds me of what rahm emanuel, the president's chief of staff said, when they jammed through the stimulus bill earlier this year. they said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. well, it's one thing if we were acting in response to a crisis in a responsible manner, but what this is going to do is to make it even worse, as the senator from wyoming pointed o out. well, i think people listening, the 56% and growing number of americans who are concerned about this deal, they're wondering, are -- are the politicians in washington more interested in jamming this through or getting it right? senator snowe, olympia snowe from maine, on the finance committee, the one republican to v

and hurray for bernie sanders, the independent from vermont.ll, guess what he got? $10 billion, and that was for federally-funded health care centers, they care for you, if you do not have health insurance it pays for what you can w3afford and based on your income, and it gives scholarships to fund health ç care workers who need health care clinics. he is my idol, he did not put in a gun law, he did not restrict women's rights, he's working for the american people and i thank him. host: chad, the independent line in seattle. caller: good morning. host: is health care being rushed? caller: yeah, you look at obama's speech, you can tell right away, his lips are moving but you can tell he's lying. when someone walks away, they say, what about the option. host: the public option. caller: yeah, and he walks away. yeah, he was lying the whole time. if he really cared about çpubl health care, there wouldn't be an expansion in afghanistan, $500 billion. that would have taken care of everything. and this trillion, bernanke, he keeps expanding to $2 bi

talk to physicians in vermont. there is a doctor that i know in northern vermont. she writes her prescriptions. one-third of her patients cannot afford to fill the prescriptions. so what's the sense of an examination, a diagnosis, writing the script when your patient can't fill that scrip? the high cost of prescription drugs in this country is one of the major health care crises that we face. it is an issue that we have got to deal with. and we have simply got to ask ourselves why it is that the same exact medicine in this country costs substantially more than it does in canada, australia or all over europe? you know, mr. president, there has been a lot of concern in this country about the lack of bipartisanship. well, i have to say that on this issue there is bipartisanship. that was true when i was in the house, and that is true here in the senate. and let me just read to you the cosponsors of this legislation, democrats, republicans, independents. and i'll read them in alphabetical order. the bill was introduced by senator dorgan. cosponsors: senator begich, sen

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont is recognized. mr. sanders: let me ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. wednesday, december 9. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the senate resume consideration of h.r. 3590, the health care reform legislation. that following any remarks of the chair and ranking member of the finance committee or their designees for up to ten minutes each the next two hours be for debate only, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each, republicans controlling the first 30 minutes and

. >> i hear the same questions in vermont. many of us go back and forth regularly to canada as though we are going to another state, and it does affect commerce considerably on both sides of the border, and others-- my wife does, family members and can the and i know it is just a personal thing but i know hundreds and hundreds of people in our state of vermont where it becomes an issue with family, said the education, the canadians doing the same would be very helpful. last, apparently the tsa, the transportation security administration, you and i discussed this before you came in, poston airports grading manual on line last spring and detailed procedures for screening passengers, how certain materials can be masked and so on. they described x-ray machines and explosives, listed the countries from which passport holders would be subject to greater scrutiny. apparently tsa learned of this last sunday after a blog varon put it on the internet. then they initiated an internal review. who should be held accountable? >> first of al

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you very much. mr. president, i was proud last night to have voted for the health care bill. and the reason is, as senator tester just indicated, this bill accomplishes a whole lot. and before i go on to talk about what i really want to focus on this afternoon, i do want to say that there are a number of provisions in the senate bill that i don't support and that i hope we can improve in the conference committee by adopting house language. one is the issue of public options for which, mr. president, you have been so strongly involved with. at the end of the day, it seems to me the american people have been very clear is that if they are not happy with their private insurance, they want the option of a medicare-type public option. and i think we should give them that. and, furthermore, as we look at the soaring cost of health care in this country, we understand that one important mechanism to control escalating health care costs is a public option which provides real competition to provide insurance comp

i hope our little state of vermont will be an example for other jurisdictions. i also know that he was clear in saying that vermont's success would not be possible without the federal funding for the debee smith program. having said all that, it's clear we would not be here today if it were still not a problem. despite the good strides made, significant funding, we have seen alarming reports continue. the study last year found 12,500 untested rape kits in los angeles alone. while los angeles has made progress, other cities are now reporting backlogs. the justice department released a report and found that 18% of unsolved rape cases, evidence had not been submitted to a crime lab. the justice department is one key component of this problem. a sample that could help make cases instead of sit on the shelf in police evidence rooms that never make it to the lab, then the money does no good. police officers have to understand the importance of testing this vital evidence and must learn when testing is appropriate and necessary. and too many jurisdictions, rape kits ar

in all production of backlogs in vermont to solve cases. also know that he was clear in saying the bratt success would not be possible without funding -- by saying the vermont success would not be possible without funding. we would not be here today if there was not a problem. we see alarming reports have continued of backlogs. one study found 12,500 untested rate kicks in the los angeles area alone. -- untested rape camps -- çuntested rape kits. 18% of unsolved rape cases have not even been submitted to a crime lab. ç police officers have to understand the importance of testing this evidence. they must learn when testing is necessary. to many jurisdictions -- rape kits can help law enforcement get criminals across the street -- get criminals off the street. the backlog problems in some jurisdictions show we are the victims of our own success. the availability of >> funding -- availability of funding has sent more cases to the labs. law-enforcement face difficult questions of priority when there are limited resources. we begin to learn of

closed doors that are going to provide benefits for individual senators in their states, whether it's vermont, new hampshire, nebraska, florida, or wherever that's going to require those of us who didn't have opportunity to participate in discussions and negotiations on this bill to represent our citizens who are going to have to pay more for services that everybody all across america gets. there's nothing right about that. there's nothing fair about that. and i dare say, i -- i have some relatives who live in nebraska. they've got to be embarrassed and ashamed about this because they're going to be getting a huge benefit simply because the democrats needed 60 votes to pass the health care bill. and with that, madam speaker, i see -- mr. graham: one last thought, if i may. mr. chambliss: sure, just close us out. mr. graham: i know that there are good, hard-working people all over the country, particularly in nebraska's and a lot's been said about nebraska, and i just hope the people of nebraska will speak up and be heard. this is not over. they may get 60 votes in the next couple of days but

after 2016, every state in a red has to tax their own citizens and pay their states' share except vermont, massachusetts and nebraska, and i still challenge any colleague in this united states senate to come before and say that that is fair. i do not believe they will say that's fair. >> my question to the center of montana is this, with the sadr of montana be willing to have the same provision that senator nelson, according to these reports in search of a grandfather calls that will allow the floridians to preserve their pricing medicare advantage program, would he accept unanimous consent agreement right now that same provision applied to every state in america? i ask unanimous consent the same provision that was put in for the state of florida by senator nelson that would apply to every state in america. >> reserving the right to object i think it would be highly inappropriate for me to object so i will object to that but i also might want to point out that on average on will sam pays 90%, 90% of the medicaid payments for this expansion population after the year 2016. >> the objection

our states will now pay to support these special deals for nebraska, massachusetts, and vermont. according to the congressional budget office, the medicaid expansion in the reid bill alone creates a $26 billion unfunded mandate on our cash-strapped states. coincidentally, only one state avoids this unfunded mandate, and that's nebraska. now, let me focus my attention on over half a trillion dollars worth of new taxes, fees, and penalties on individuals, families, and businesses imposed by the reid bill. the new fees begin in 2010, while the major coverage provisions do not start until 2014. almost $57 billion in new taxes are collected before any american sees the major benefits of this bill which are largely delayed until 2014. it's no wonder why this budget gimmickry creates an illusion of the bill reducing our national deficit. based on data from the joint committee on taxation, the nonpartisan congressional scorekeeper, this bill would break president obama's campaign promise by increasing taxes on 42 million individuals and families making less than than $250,000 a year. thi

a judge in vermont ordered her to transfer custody to the girl on friday to her expartner janet jenkins. that's where the women had a civil union in 2000. miller gave birth to isabella in twoo 2002 after undergoing artificial insemination. the couple broke up a year later. >>> time for another "living $mart" report. jessica doyle is back with a look at something we all care about, our paychecks. >> who doesn't want to make more money, right? >> i want to. >> we have good news for folks. our paychecks maybe fattener the new year. mercer finds 54% of companies are planning to lift the salary freeze next year, if they had one in the first place and 35% of employers that reduced or cut 401-k matching contributions are expected to restore them. still, most companies are looking at a s.a.t. salary increase of no more than 3%. that is pretty much the same as this year. >>> across the country, many arrow company trucking drivers are picking up their messages through qualcomm units. they left 900 truckers strand on hauls on the road. they have filed lawsuits and hope it will be classified as a c

i went to school in vermont. i did have a fabulous teacher but a lot of my teachers were not great and history -- i didn't think much of his story particularly american history when i was in school. i was always a big time reader and in europe they had kings and queens and lights and armor and there were things going on so their history at least was palatable but american history people were regular clothes, they didn't go -- it was just dull. i got to smith and someone told me i should be talking to the taking mcdonald's course and i had to be urged, and i was astonished by the title of course. i didn't understand it because it was called american intellectual history and i was puzzled. when the world as intellectual that history when the only history i knew was the succession of dates and that's just the wording so i got into this course and it was about ideas. amazing. and that turned me around. i wouldn't have written my books i had to give mr. donald's course. >> host: but there is a special story about the

. >> mike: you look back, tim, historically there's been one or two every year, vermont -- duquesne and then the consecutive losses to harvard here this this building. the coaching staff was wondering how they were going to come out of that loss. certainly their attention and radar should have been on fall, but rhode island has really -- we talked about it as a key at the beginning of the tempo, dictate tempo. >> tim: rhode island get a lot out of this if they are able to come away with a road victory, on many fronts. this gives them a lot of momentum before they get into conference play, too. >> mike: jim baron said beforehand, they weren't picked -- very high in the preseason, but they've come together very quickly. >> tim: trapani. 13 for joe trapani. >> mike: they've had a lot of success in slipping the screens and diving the guy to the lane. whether it's trapani or southern. >> tim: a nice defensive play by reggie jackson. he runs it down on the other end. he caused that turnover. sanders on the wing. raji and martell, they're going to tag the 7-footer with the foul, his second. ti

time now as promised to bring in former vermont governor howard dean, also former chairman of the democratic national committee and now a political analyst for our sister network cnbc and consultant to mckenna, long and aldridge and democracy for american and i should probably mention you are a doctor but the rest of the intro used up too much time. good evening, governor. >> thank you. thanks for having me on. >> of course. first senator brown's position on the public option, your thoughts. >> he's exactly right. sherrod has been one of the real champions of getting real health insurance. look, what tom carper is doing is silly, a trigger and all this business and opt-out or opt-in and all that. this is silly. harry reid has got a decent bill on the floor. it's decent, not great but it's decent. it needs to pass. if they can't pass it without real insurance reform -- and there isn't any in the bill right now to speak of -- then they just should go home and use reconciliation, which is what they should have done in the first place. to let four senators hold up the works in addition to the re

vermont -- vermont, senator bernie sanders held out for larger medicaid payments for his state. neighboring massachusetts would get one too. i guess there's a number of maybe states that should have stickers on them so that the american people can see where these special deals were cut o out. and the american people, the majority of the population of this country can see where they were not, and they're going to pay more while those states pay less because not just their location but because they happen to be behind closed doors and cut special deals. mr. baucus: mr. president, i wonder if i could enter this colloquy just very briefly? mr. mccain: sure. sure. we'd welcome it. mr. baucus: i thank the senator. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. baucus: i thank my colleague. i appreciate that. i just wanted to point out that, do the senators know, for example, that under the underlying legislation that the federal government would pay all the costs of newly eligible enrollees through the year 2016? that

i hope the state of vermont will be an example for other jurisdictions. i will also note that eric was y clear in saying that vermont's success would not be possible without the federal funding through the debbie smith program. having said all that, it's clear we would not be here today, though it is still not a problem. despite the good strides made, and the significant federal funding for backlog reduction we have seen alarmingly reports. a study last year found 12,500 untested rape kits in the los angeles area alone. while los angeles has since made progress in addressing the problem, other cities are reporting backlogs almost as severe. the justice department released a report last month finding that 18% of open unsolved rape cases evidence had not even been submitted to a crime lab. the justice department goes to one key component of this problem. no matter how much money we send to crime labs for testing, samples can help solve cases sit on the shelf in police evidence rooms and never make it to the lab and & it does no good. police officers have to

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i understand the senator from california needs some time. i will yield her five minutes beginning now. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, mr. chairman and madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: i rise to speak in support of jacqueline nguyen to be a federal district court of california and i'd like to urge her confirmation. judge nguyen is a successful judge with a proven track record. she will be the first vietnamese american on the federal bench. her nomination comes about this way: i have had for a long time a bipartisan judicial selection committee in california to advise me in recommending judicial nominees to the president. the committee gave judge nguyen its unanimous recommendation and then i recommended her to the president for his nomination to the federal district court. i believe she's going to be an excellent federal district court judge in the central district. judge nguyen was born in south vietnam.

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you very much. mr. president, as an independent, let me try to give an independent assessment of where we are, which ain't easy because this is a 2,000-page bill, and different people have expressed different thoughts about it. i know that my republican friends are down here on the floor every day telling us that the world, as we know it, will rapidly come to an end if this legislation is passed, and yet i want to say to them, where were they for eight years? where were they? during the tenure of president bush, some 7 million americans lost their health insurance, health premiums soared, tens of thousands of people died every single year because they couldn't get to a doctor. where were they? very easy to be critical. but it might have been a good idea if five, six, or eight years ago they were down here before the crisis erupted to the level it is right now. now, this bill, in my view, is far from perfect, and i am going to talk about some of the problems that i have with it, but i also want to very b

not at l excited, about having to underwte the special deals that we aprently made for nebraska, vermont, and we now len maybe massachusetts. so i'm goingo remind the tax payers of our ate that th're subsidizing these other threstates because thr senators apparently extracted a ice for passin this bill. >> reporr: even with the deal, nels and independent democrat josh lieberman warned that the senate legislation must not be altered substantially when it's merged wi the more libel house bill. the american medical association joined tay in supporting the sene version after refung to back the house bill. meanwhile, rd said talk about a conference w premature. >> we have to pass thibill in the senate first. that is our direction. that is our guidinlight. we'll rry about next steps a later time. >> repter: the next step in the path to passing a bill cometomorrow morning when the senate will ta another procedural vote. >> ifill: we have our n dete on the mer is of the senate bill and what it migh take to get a fil bill to the president's desk. sherd brown is a democrat from ohio and is a memr

and today, vermont indepdent senator rnie sanders-- who has t a hold on bernanke's nomination--ontinuedis push to have the chairman repced. >> one okey functions of the fed is to oversesoundness. and alaround him was wild spulation, gambling type taking place. where was ben beanke when this was happening? >> repter: the nation's top banker has takenxtraordinary actions-- usg the fed's power in novel ws to pump trillions of dollars into thfinancial system. last year,mid debate over the wall street bailout,e answered critics who said the gernment should let the csis take its urse. >> why don't we allofree market system to correct ielf? >> my respon is that the pain would be very signifant, it would be very difficult fomain street, if this credit syste broke down, it would be ry costly to average people. here's better solution. the tter solution is to recognize thathings went wrong, we've got a proem that we c solve if we address it with enough force. >>eporter: bernanke defended his use of tt force again at his sena confirmation hearing two weeks ago. >> ten together, the federal reserve'

now it is in front of the vermont supreme court.nd the decision could have nationwide implications. that's all ahead at the top of the hour on "ac 360." please join us. >>> a big part of the treatment of ocd is exposure therapy. and exposure therapy is literally exposing somebody to the feared situation that they've been avoiding for most of their lives. >> we actually got corn on the cob. we have chips and salsa and we also got two apples. >> frightened actually to eat. >> what are you thinking about? >> i'm thinking my teeth are going to hurt. >> and then what will happen? >> break a filling, break a tooth to the point of no repair. >> larry: we're talking to howie mandel about phobias. joining us now is an obsessive-compulsive disorder therapist, department of psychiatry, cedar sinai, one of the therapists on the a&e show "obsessed." she says she would clean her teeth 30 to 40 minutes a night and was deadly afraid of eating apples and other hard foods. helen rhodes said she would recheck her doors, lock seat belts for hours, not

here is bill falls in vermont and this is an prieta. what was your favorite book of the year? >> caller: my favorite i hope was published in 2009 was -- siskel if it's not, don't worry about it. just -- >> caller: i listened at the center of the world and it was written by i don't remember his first name but it is a book about the selling by the dutch on the islands of manhattan and of course celebrated this year his wife came to new york but it is absolutely fabulous book. at 1.1 of the people i mentioned was [inaudible] he was the lawyer of the last and it is still used by the international american what ever you call that, and he was at one time in conflict with the dutch government so they band him to a small island where the military of the world get together about 12 kilometers from my house and he continued to study. at one point, he also received big trunks of book from the libraries of the shore and probably by sailboat in those days. >> host: the libraries and holland? >> caller: yes. yes. and he would study. and when he was done with those books they would go back t

that in order to get 60 votes to majority leader had to cut a special deal with the senator from vermont, one senator from vermont threatened to vote against the bill but then low and behold the managers package included $600 billion benefiting only that one state. the senator threatened to vote no decided to vote yes after that special deal was concluded. "the new york times" list several other sweetheart deal to produce this monstrosity piece of legislation. the intended beneficiaries though in many institute were identified and a vague and sort of cryptic way. individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognizes health emergency in a declaration issued by the federal government. in june the 17th. while there's only one state that would qualify for that, notwithstanding the sort of vague description designed to hide the ball and -underscore what was happening to another sweetheart deal as part of this bill. another item in the package would increase medicare payments to doctors and hospitals in many states were at least 50% of the counties are quote, frontier counties, to fin

i wont get into the topic but it was on vermont yankee. an area of administrative law we very close to justice scalia's heart and he gave a speech that only the blackmon professor could love. but she was a professor at the time and she disagreed with everything he said she told me. but she was really taken by his style and she finds him just -- he is so amusing but as she told the senators who asked in her confirmation hearing what is with you and justice scalia and she said he can always make me laugh. so anyway -- >> host: always make me laugh. >> guest: she sees him in the late 70's and remembers hearing him give a speech, disagreeing on the substance of the speech but yet been taken by him. then they both end up being appointees to the federal court of appeals here in washington for the d.c. circuit. and they are both former law professors. and they start exchanging writings between each other and asking each other for advice on everything from the legal reasoning even though they are coming at cases from different ideologies from ever

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont is recognized. mr. sanders: thank you, mr. president. you know, when the republicans controlled the white house, the senate, and the house, they had the opportunity to do something about the health care disaster in america. from 2000 to 2008 some seven million americans lost their health insurance. where were the republicans? during that same period health care costs soared in america. small business people found themselves unable to provide health care to their workers. where were our republican friends? i'm delighted that down -- that they're down here on the floor now every single day criticizing an effort to try to improve the situation much but it might have been a little bit better eight years ago bringing forth their ideas, but they weren't. now, having said that, let me suggest, mr. president, that the midst of this health care crisis, where 46 million americans have no health insurance, in which health care costs are soaring, and, as the president indicates, will double in eight years if we do nothing, at a time when