ironically working at the beginning of this hearing having to get a speech done in honor of paul wellstoned his wife are getting a big award from a mental health association and i had crossed off about the part of their tragic plane accident. as i sat here then listening i flipped over to what we were doing here thinking about that their plane went down. it was a private plane because of icy conditions as well as pilot issues that were not dissimilar to this with training and things like that. so it hit home to me. my colleagues have done a great job of asking some good questions in the areas of fatigue and icing and other things so i thought i would follow-up with some of these ideas i'm trying to get at with the clear problem with the issues and training issues with these pilots. and one of the things that i thought about a lot was that the regional carriers and senator dorgan are both in states where we have a lot of regional flights and they fly short flights to airports. and this means regional pilots unlike their counterparts at the large carriers are more likely to fly many short fl

i was working at the beginning of this hearing to get a speech done in honor of paul wellstone, he and his wife are getting a big award from a medical help association and across of the part about their approach tragic accident because it was too negative for this award ceremony as sat here listening i flipped over what we were doing thinking their plane went down, it was a private plane but because of icing conditions and pilot issues that were not similar to those with training and things like that. so that hit home to me. my colleagues have done great job asking great questions on the area of fatigue so i thought i would follow up with some of these ideas i am trying to get with a clear problem of the issues and training issues with these pilots and one of the things i thought about a lot with the regional carriers and senator dorgan and i are both in states where we have regional airlines and flight the when they typically fly short flights to hub airports and this means regional pilots on like their counterparts at the large carriers are more likely to fly short flights; is that r

when his sat scores in language and math are added together, the legendary progressive senator paul wellstone scored 800 as a total. now, it is true that in his day, the match was only 1600 and now i believe it is 2400, still that is a 50 and america's global computer dominance rose as i told you from men without college degrees. ted turner, founder of the worldwide news service cnn, dropped out of -- dropped out freshman year and william faulkener, one of our nobel prize authors got a d in english in his freshman year in college. and, dropped out, then and there, never to return, warren avis who pioneered auto renlsz at airports considered college but decided against it as a waste of time and money. and ed hamiltonings the nation's largest independent mail-order book dealer told me the time and money he saved by not going to college gave him a real head start over his competition, and was the foundation of his eventual success. sean fanning, whose in invention of napster at age 18 almost ruined the multi-billion dollar music industry and was hired by the industry at age 24, in 2007 to come u

second, champions with mental health parity you have paul wellstone and patrick kennedy, pete domenici and others who were willing to take ownership and see it got pushed through and obviously you see that now with the president and congress having a strong commitment. finally you see the stakeholders or the special interest and i don't use that term pejoratively it is patient at this stage advocacy groups employers that pick up the bulk of the cost and others saying we want to get this done. we want to get it solved and we will sit in a room until that happens. i am also very optimistic you will see something accomplished but there are some very big issues that need to be resolved in dealing with the underlying cost is one of them, figuring out how you pay for all of this and the other is the government plan. the our plans, the president says the few are happy with the health care you have now, you get to keep it we will not blowup the current system that we have. in fact, most people who have insurance have it through their employer and most to have insurance coverage are happy. it i

a momentous piece of legislation, and of course we know it was championed by first senator paul wellstone and carried through to fruition by senator ted kennedy and pete domenici. it will provide parity for about 130 million people across the country, including 82 million people enrolled in self-funded plans. so it couldn't have come at a better time with our nation poised to enact meaningful health care reform under an -- a fantastic new administration with one that faces many new issues and challenges. i know we're all aware of that, but they have a commitment to reforming the health care system. so we have tremendous opportunities now that broaden our coalition to help create a guiding light and a changing agenda. there are some within the health care debate that may not want to reform mental health care. because mental health care can last a lifetime, they believe the cost of treating these conditions is one that we as a nation cannot afford, so they are raising the cost issue. you and i know differently. we know the cost is in ignoring these conditions. it is going to be far more exp

is a momentous piece of legislation and, of course, it was a champion by first senator paul wellstone and carry through to fruition and by senator pete to medici and senator ted kennedy and it will provide a protection for about 113 million people across the country. ..

for the senator has his personal story and for me it was eerily reminiscent of the crash of paul wellstone is plain. as he knows the senator from minnesota law that was a private plan, the issues were eyes, the issues were pilot training and the issues were fatigue. so when i hear all of this from our hearing last week of under paid pilots, pilots that are tired, and pilots that are turning and of money it reminds me very much of that. in addition to that here you have a factor of pilots living far from their base is leading to long commutes and a lot of time spent waiting in the airports. i know there have been some questions about 58, but i have a question about the reimbursement for hotel rooms in the evenings. i know that some of the larger airlines pay for hotel, so that the pilots in its sleep before ships. and regional carriers, are they doing the same thing? can i senator klobuchar, when pilots are on duty the minute they check-in, all of their hotel costs on duty are paid for 100 percent by the company. they are also receiving a per diem travel at the same airline and regional. th

was working at the beginning of this hearing having to get this be done in honor of honor of paul wellston. he and his wife are getting a big an award from of mental health association. i crossed out the part about the tragic plane accident. not that dissimilar to this. so it hit home to me. my colleagues have done a great job of masking some good questions and the area of fatigue and icing. i thought i would just follow up with some of these ideas of trying to get at with the clear problem with the issues and training issues and pilots. one of the things i thought about a lot was the regional carriers -- senator dorgan and i are both in states for we have a lot of airlines and fights going. they typically fly short flights airports. this means that regional pilots alike their counterparts are more likely to fly in a short flights. is that right? >> yes, it is. >> so instead of doing one lot like they are doing a bunch of short flights. and i would think that that could mean that they are more prone to fatigue or stress. it's more difficult. >> that's correct. one of the things that we are

you obviously had all wellstone and senator kennedy, patrick kennedy, and others, you know, who were willing to take ownership of the issue and see that it got pushed through. obviously you are saying that now with the president and congress having a very strong commitment. and finally, you're saying as chris said the stakeholders or the special interest, whatever you want to call it, and i don't use that term, its patient advocacy groups, its providers, its employers who quite frankly picked up the ball to the health care costs in this country. gets other saying we want to get this done. we want to get this problem solved, and we are going to sit in a room until it happens. so i'm also very optimistic that you are going to see something accomplished. but there are some very big issues that need to be resolved. dealing with the underlying cost of health care is one of them. figuring out how you're going to pay for all this is one. and the other three big issue obviously is of the government plan, and our concerns about a government plan are the president says and everyone says if you

or he and the center for community change will receive a are paul wellstone progressive leadership award. [applause] please welcome him. [applause] >> it morning. the morning. i want to think this incredible panel. in is a great honor to be with you here today so what is the progress of a challenge ahead of us? as i see it, it has two dimensions, is going to sound like i'm about to contradict myself when i talk about the two dimensions but bear with me. the first time mention is that we have to win out and have to win rights, and a second endive mentioned is we're going to have to deal with the ideas, the infrastructure it will take to put in place progress of governance for decades to come here and winning out and winning right, what's bad about? john maynard keynes, an economist i am fond of who is coming back into some popularity who is famous for having said that in the long run we're all dead. [laughter] and buy this in this moment i think he would have meant that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance progressive policy change in our country. if there is no time for fo

it was eerily reminiscent of the crash of paul wellstone's plane. he is the senator from minnesota, while that was a private plane, the issue was ice. the issues were pilot training and the issues were fatigue. so when i hear all of this from our hearing last week of underpaid pilots, pilots that are tired, and pilots that aren't earning enough money it reminds me very much of that. in addition to that here you have a factor up i was far away from their bases leading to long commutes and a lot of time spent waiting in airport. i know there have been some questions about fatigue, but i had a question about the reimbursement for hotel rooms in the evenings. i know that some of the larger airlines pay for hotel costs so that the pilots can get sleep before shifts. average under our regional carriers doing the same thing? >> senator klobuchar, when pilots are on duty the minute they check in, their hotel costs on duty are paid for 100% by the company your they also receive a per diem, travel per diem for the same mainline in regional. there is no distin

while i have long been a supporter of single-payer -- my record is clear on this going back to paul wellstone in the early 90's -- that that was the simplest straightforward i probably recognize there's not the votes for that. that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it and let the american people know what it would mean to have a part single-payer type of system in this country. i think people ought to factor that into their thinking process it is true, a recent poll said 72% of the american people responded positively to a public plan like medicare. they even used the words "like medicare" to describe it. 72% said yes they would be for a public plan. i hope and trust we will come out of here with a strong public plan out of this committee, and i sure we will. and hopefully we can keep that as we go through melting the two bills on the floor and on to the president's signature. while i recognize it may not be there, you know, i've said before i want a chance perhaps on the senate floor to vote for single-payer. not that it's going to go anywhere, i understand that. i just, you know, when we

tuesday night's awards dinner where deepak and the center for community change will receive our paul wellstone progressive leadership award. [applause] please welcome deepak bhargava. [applause] >> this morning. >> good morning. >> i want to thank roger in this incredible panel hearing is a great honor to be with you today. the so what is the progress of a challenge ahead of us? as i see it, it has two dimensions, is going to sound like i'm about to contradict myself when i talk a lot to dimensions but where with name. the first dimension is that we have to win now and have to win right and the second to mention is that we're going to have to build of the ideas come in the infrastructure it will take to put in place progressive baroness for decades to come. so winning now when a right -- what is that about? john maynard keynes, an economist i am fanon who is coming in. >> -- coming back into popularity is famous for having sat in the long run we're all dead. [laughter] and i this in this moment i think he would have meant that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance a progressive p