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 discriminat

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

minnesota has a long legacy in this with former senator or late senator wellstone on this idea of mental health parity. something you should be treated for mental health issues just as if you lost a leg. we're trying to get this right. and mr. mashol brought up, i think mr. stuzman talked about this a little bit. one thing that we have to be concerned about is evidence- based policy. >> when i was in minnesota teen challenge -- oh, that was after. i apologize. i have, very loosely, i've met with psychiatrist dr. baum who has seen me since i got out in 2007. i met with him and just kind of talked about things. and then i've done physical thorn for my back and neck. as far as mental health goes, i've pretty much done no follow up. >> i wanted to assure you and make sure that you know as minnesota's only member of the delegation that's on this v.a. committee, i spend a lot of time at those.

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 likely to commit acts of domestic violence themselves. it's a sobering number, and over all, the statistics for these kinds of crimes are stagg

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 likely to commit acts of domestic violence themselves. it's a sobering number, and over all, the statistics for these kinds of crimes are stagg

the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into takinga 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 likely to commit acts of domestic violence themselves. it's a sobering number, and over all, the statistics for these kinds of crimes are stagge