whitehouse: i believe it is. we operate in a modern world in which we are bombarded by media, and the average person, the average, ordinary member of the people does not have much access to that media, cannot get his or her voice much heard in that bombardment. but if you have enormous amounts of money, either because you're a corporation with a vast treasury or because you're a billionaire, you can take a big chunk of that media and you can use it to broadcast your view. and that will drown out other voices that don't have that power. so it really does attack the basic premise of we the people. mr. merkley: so citizens united goes right against the very heart of our constitution. how is it possible that the supreme court found in this 5-4 decision that this has no corrupting impact on our -- on our electoral process? mr. whitehouse: i think three things went wrong. first of all, this is a supreme court that unlike most if not all other supreme courts has no political experience, none has ever run for office so t

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: we are presently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i'm here to close the senate for the day, but before i do that i wanted to speak for a moment about the ongoing and deliberately overlooked problem of carbon pollution and what it is doing to our planet. and in the context of these remarks, i want to first ask unanimous consent to put into the record an article entitled "game over for the climate," written by jim hanson and published in yesterday's "new york times." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: what this article says, it begins with two simple sentences: "global warming isn't a prediction. it is happening." he talks about the dangers of the canada tar sands and what that means for us if we go ahead with t

senator whitehouse, i'm sorry, senator klobuchar is next. i'm going to yield to senator whitehouse when he returns. >> thank you very much. i'm the one standing with the gavel. >> you now have the gavel. >> thank you, director, for being here. i appreciate how often you come and how we're kept abreast of everything you're doing. many of my colleagues have asked about officer safety issues with the national memorial services this week. i was just with the families and police officers over the last two days, two officers that died in the line of duty in minnesota. one reported to the skeeb of a domestic violence case. 17-year-old victim sacrificed his life for hers and he leaves three young children. and one of the things that came up at a previous hearing we had here on the bullet proof vest, which is important, is that 72 of our nation's law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty during 2011, and that's the highest number since '07. it's up 20% from 2010. by region, 29 were killed in the south, 21 in the mist, 10 in mi the west

let's start at the whitehouse.s there yesterday afternoon when the president gave the medal of freedom to some -- an incredible incredible group of americans. and i want to point out, there are nominations that come in for the medal of freedom every year from millions of americans. and they put together a list and then it goes to the president of the united states, and the president of the united states decides. this is the hiett civilian award given by the united states government. the president decides the people who get that award. these are the people obama picked as his personal role models and our personal role models. they included the first woman who has ever secretary of state, madeline albright, the first person to circle the earth in orbit, john glen. they included the founder of the girl scouts john paul stevens, the third longest serving supreme court justice ever in history. john dor the man who went to the university of mississippi and stood in the doorway of the university of mississippi and accompa

whitehouse: thank you very much. i would like to address a slightly different topic, which is the continuing conference on the highway bill. we passed a very good highway bill in the senate. we passed it on time for the march 31 deadline when the highway trust fund was going to expire. we passed it in bipartisan fashion, with 75 senators supporting it. we passed it after it came unanimously out of the environment and public works committee, with the support of both the chairman, senator boxer, and the ranking member, senator inhofe. we passed it after a very transparent and open floor process in which around 40 amendments were agreed to, either by vote or agreement. and it has the support of everybody from the u.s. chamber of commerce to the labor, from the pavers to the environmentalistists, so it is a good piece of legislation. it was done right. it's problem is that it's running up against a time deadline. as my director of transportation tells me, if we delay this too long, he has to start dropping projects off o

i am always sitting in the back of the press room at the whitehouse, you know.ical event? i mean goes to a college campus. isn't this just political? well duh. right? >> well, again, yes, no. >> you want to talk to students about student loans? i think going to a college campus is -- >> it sort of makes sense. >> sort of makes sense. >> you want to talk to the nation about afghanistan, going to afghanistan and doing it makes sense. >> if you look at the tone of the president's remarks last night, he talked about the half million men and women who served in afghanistan. all of whom made some sackrifice to their families. he talked about the people that lost their lives, the goals we accomplished. that wasn't a political speech. this is not necessarily a politic completely political time. this is a moment when we are talking about how are weind we winding down or mission in afghan arlington. he was handed two wars. he ended one and one is on the way to being done. >> we are in an election year. all will be seen through the scrum of politics. all of his predecessor

speak you have described and senator whitehouse described the jobs bill. you also noted that many of your democratic colleagues and surrogates have been running around saying that republicans are doing their best to -- the economy to make it worse for the president in the elections. >> let me tell you what i know. i know that this bill should be done -- should have been done a long time ago. i know that the congress is delayed in people are suffering and i know, because of the delays, there is a threat to downgrade the entire transportation sector by moody's. i know these things. this has not been a pretty picture. this hasn't been a happy time. this has been a difficult time, and 50 -- senator whitehouse you well remember, we pass this bill last year if you remember. we got it to the floor. the fact of the matter is, it's been painfully difficult every step of the way. my view was that people will judge for themselves. i welcome the change of heart on the behalf of republicans and i fe

senate hour whitehouse and alexander have introduced a bill, the acronym, the real act. i've joined them in co-sponsoring that legislation. it creates a secondary market by having the government ensure the lessee's value. the ceo scored this at no cost, which is always great in this town today. can you speak to that model? other areas in which you might have identified where we can help those who want to make the right investments but find the cost of the capital prohibitive or difficult to embrace initially? >> yes. i think the sort of thing you described really addresses the other side of trying to encourage clean energy implementation. one side is to encourage the research and development and so on. the other side is the poolside, help the consumer afford it. that can be done by subsidizing and i don't like the word subsidizing but i'll use it. costs of certain forms of energy, helping people defray the cost of new buildings that are very energy efficient and then they could pay that back with the savings that they gain from being more energy efficient. and i think in

conrad: senator whitehouse, i think we already allocated eight minutes to senator whitehouse, is that correct? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. conrad: it was part of an unanimous consent agreement so that we could manages the time o-- so that we could manage the time on the floor better. i would say to the senator, we have 60 minutes left on our side. they have, i this i, 100 minutes left on their side. so -- and we have seven senators left. so -- mr. whitehouse: it just about works from the math. mr. conrad: it works. i thank the senator. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you very much, mr. president. let me thank senator conrad for his leadership on this important issue. i would note for the record that with the conclusion of senator toomey's remarks, following senator reed's, i think for the first time in the history of the senate, we had back-to-back presentations by two separate senator graduates from lasalle academy in rhode island. but i did note in his remarks his references to the mag i mage of this chacialtion to t

center alexander and senator whitehouse have released a bill. i have joined them in cosponsoring that legislation. it creates a secondary market by having the government ensure the value. the cbo score this at no cost. can you speak to that model and are there other areas you might have identified were can help those who want to make the right investments but find the cost prohibitive or difficult to embrace initially? >> yes, i think the sort of thing you describe really addresses the other side of trying to encourage clean energy implementation. one side is to encourage the research and development and so on. the other side is to help the consumer afford it. they can certainly be done by subsidizing -- and i don't like the word subsidizing, but utilizing certain forms of energy, helping people defray the cost of new buildings that are very energy-efficient, and then they could pay that back with the savings that they gain from being more energy- efficient. i think in the grand scheme of things today, we have a remarkable opportunity of bringin

whitehouse: thank you, madam president. let me thank my colleague from minnesota for his courtesy in allowing this time for me when i would otherwise be presiding. i wanted to respond to the remarks that proceeded senator franken's remarks, remarks by senator inhofe of oklahoma suggesting that the military's investment in green technologies was an unwelcome imposition on them against their wishes by outside political forces and on the basis of outside political considerations. i actually just held a hearing in the environment and public works committee on the subject of our defense department's investment and interest in alternative technologies. we had witnesses from all of the services, and the testimony was pretty clear and diametrically opposed to the point of view just expressed by the senator from oklahoma. i can certainly appreciate the enthusiasm of my friend from oklahoma for fossil fuels, since fossil fuels are a big home state industry in oklahoma. but the testimony at the hearing was that the military was pursui

i mean jay carney yesterday at the whitehouse briefing made this point.he people who are suggesting this, that last year the congressional approval ratings went down to 12%. he said maybe they are trying to prove they can get it down to zero. you know. >> i think that, you know, there are different incentives for different members of congress. and i think the lesson that some tea party tea party came from is that they were too pliant. you know they were too accommodating. >> that's hard to fathom, but i think that that is how some of them feel. looking back i think boehner probably wishes that he would have given in to a government shutdown early on when there was that first stalemate. you know, shut the government down, the parks close for a few days. you know the market might tank for a day or two and then you come to a deal and things go back to where they were. >> right. he should have talked to newt gingrich about that. that worked so well for newt gingrich when he was speaker, too. right? >> i think that's why he didn't do it because it doesn't make

the president with meetings at the whitehouse today. congress is coming back in session.n france and a new prime minister in greece both of them the french and the greece citizens rejecting austerity measurements saying governments ought to spend more, not spending less. maybe that message will trickle down here to the united states. who knows? we have lots to talk about today. we will take your calls, too at 866-55 press. and here in the studio with us team press peter okay burn. >> hi, there. >> dan henning? >> bill, good morning. >> proudly wearing his ohio state university hat? >> thank you for that. >> and the road trip and cyprian boulding. i can't see. >> he's got it on. absolutely. >> all right. guys, good to see you. we talked a week or so ago about maybe doing away with the pinney? right? canned has shown the wayne. the sglufrnings leads on things like this. canada last week did get rid of the penney. here is a reporter from the canadian press, steven lambert telling us something we talked about is what happened like 99 -- 2.99$299 or $3.03. how do you pay for t

wanted the secretary -- other cabinet members chimed in and showed agreement than people at the whitehousepresident can't muzzle and speak with one voice from a war room. the war room of a campaign of an incumbent is a satellite. the mothership is the white house. it's the opposite in the challenger's campaign. >> challengers got certainly a bigger hurdle in terms of being able to have a media foot printing that's free. i am wondering from your perspective. >> that's right. >> last question. what does a simple slogan of hope versus forward say about the message of reelection? >>? >> hope and change as w. said when senator obama became the president elect, he said it's a good slogan. i ran on change too. he said -- and he could have said, it's just a slogan because it's something that shows we are going to do things and we have hope and we have change but once you are president, you are more of the same, whether you like it or not. and he has to emphasize that little by little brick by brick, step by step. he is getting something done. you talked about that earlier when you talk about the j

. >> well, rob portman, a friend of mine who worked in the bush whitehouse, and -- yeah. this is a problem. >> why? >> the leading conservative in america, sean hannity, thinks his name is bob, not rob. it's rob portman, not bob. i know you did that for my benefit so i could laugh. well, when he left, and he started running, everybody sort of gave him like he won't be able to do it. he raised more money and won by a significant margin in ohio. so it's not necessarily a bad choice. but, look, what's today? >> well, wait a minute. is it dull, meaning this is a media age -- >> well, it's not like choosing stuart to run although that wouldn't work. he wasn't born here. let me try another one. i read somewhere it would be like the bland leading the land. >> ouch. we have our headline tonight. >> this is a media age, you need somebody dynamic. >> they don't have to be dynamic. they can be effective and then you can be dynamic. >> don't argue with him when he's right, okay? don't argue with him when he's right and he's right, he's right, he's right. >> you can always talk britis

interesting firing of the supreme court a few days ago by senator john mccain and senator shelby whitehouset the many ways in which super pacs and the president's campaigns overlap, how consultants go from one to the other, and so i think this whole idea of -- that these are independent groups is being challenged again and again, and, you know, every time we look at the new super pac reports, we find now examples that raise questions along these lines. >> indeed. please keep doing so, mike. nbc news national investment correspondent michael ikikoff. we'll be right back. i'm freaking out man. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing for his little girl. hey don't worry. e-trade's got a totally new investing dashboard. everything is on one page, your investments, quotes, research... it's like the buffet last night. whatever helps you understand man. i'm watching you. oh yeah? well i'm watching you, watching him. [ male announcer ] try the new 360 investing dashboard at e-trade. put m

tell austin that i chatted with him at the whitehouse correspondent is' dinner and him asked him whatoing to be. he nailed it. he knows his economics. he is the only one i know who gets it right. >> he is very astute. and awe steer. >> we will be watching. more view point coming up next >>(narrator) gavin newsom, lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is coming to current tv. >>every night on cable news what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. ideas are the best politics. ideas can bring us together. >>(narrator) the gavin newsom show. premiers friday may 18th. only on current tv. >> last night, i talked about a conflict of interest for jameie dimon. there is no way the head of j.p. morgan chase should sit on the board of directors of the federal reserve board. >> that's what supposed to regulate what dimon's

senator whitehouse, i'm sorry senator klobuchar is next.ing to yield the gavel to senator whitehouse. as soon as he returns. >> thank you, very much. i am the one standing with the gavel. >> you now have the gavel. >> thank you, director, for being here. i appreciate how often you come and how we are kept abreast of everything you are doing. many of my colleagues have asked about officer safety issues with the national memorial services this week. i was just with the families and police officers over the last two days two officers that died in the line of duty in minnesota, one in fact, reported to a scene of a domestic violence case 17-year-old victim. he sacrificed his life for hers. and he leaves three young children. one of the things that came up at a previous hearing we had here, on the bulletproof vest, which is incredibly important, 72 of our law enforcement officers were killed during 2011. that is the highest number since 2007. it is up 20% from 2010. twenty-one and supplement 21 in the midwest, and tenant in the northeast and two

poor guy won't be back at the whitehouse until 10 minutes of 1:00 tomorrow morning, a full day for thehour eric byrnes from strategies and stephanie shriock from emily's list. >> this is the bill press show. >> hello. hello. hello. welcome to full-court press on current tv. i am bill press. liberal and proud of it. you bet. good to see you today. hope you had a great weekend and are ready to tackle the big stories of the hour, of the day on this last hour together marco rubio says president obama -- get this -- is one-of the most divisive figures in modern american history. more divisive than george w. bush who took this country to war in iraq against a country that did not attack us first in more divisive than rush limbaugh on the hateful stuff he says about blacks, women. marco rubio is trying to practice being mitt romney's attack dog. we will talk about that and a lot more but we start out by getting all of the latest todd's current tv news update here in los angeles, jacki schechner. hi, jacki, good morning. >> hi, bill. good morning. good morning, everyone. a new poll out today s

will be going to a dinner at a private residence and back here to washington def arriving at the whitehouseuled now at about a quarter until 10 this evening. big campaign day. molly ball from the atlantic as a friend of bill next hour. >> this is the bill press show. ♪ yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? ♪ >> monday, may 14th, welcome to the full-court press. i am bill press, liberal and proud of it and proud to bring you the big stories of the day whether in our national's capitol or around the globe. we will tell you what's going on and take your calls at 86655 press. how about this? should seen it? time magazine out this week with a cover storying showing a woman breast feeding her son. this woman says there is nothing wrong with this. it's just normal. really? breast feeding a 3-year-old? hey, we

we had a briefing at the whitehouse about the g 8 submit and afghanistan which you and i have talkedk you: so the house of representatives this week 222 to 205 voted to extend the violence against women act, but most democrats voted against it. why? >> sure. most democrats voted against it because it really was a very bogus bill a bill that i called the poison pill trying to play catch you, got you in the bill. of course we all, you know, believed that we have to pass the violence against women act. i carried the california violence against women act. i know about domestic violence from personal experiences. so it was a very important bill to pass. but what they did was three things. first, they took out undocumented immigrants as part of the population that would be covered. they allowed for native american women to be abused by people who come in to the native land and then took out lgbt populations they tried to make it appear that democrats were for violence against women and the republicans were against it. >> yeah. >> so in other words, they basically took those three categorie

. >> president obama is hosting another medal of freedom ceremony at the whitehouse.r secretary of state madeline albright shimon peres and writer, toni morrison. >> that's going to be a great ceremony. i have applied to attend. >> for the medal of freedom. >> cool who gave it to brian lamb. >> a big day for solar energy enthusiasts in switzerland. i will never be on c-span again. >> peter said that, brian. yes. yes. >> yes. a big day for solar energy enthusiasts in switzerland yesterday. the first intercontinental flight powered completely by the sun began its journey from switzerland to morocco. the plane, solar impulse, four electric engines and landed in madrid without a single drop of fuel. it will continue to morocco today weather permitting if it can't fly through clouds. needs sun to operate. flies over 60 miles an hour, has a 207 foot wing span wider than many boeing 747s but the plane holds one person. >> that's the pilot and the group behind the project hopes for a longer flight possibly across the at atlantaic. >> slow down. it goes 60 miles an hour? >> ye

leahy, bingaman, coons, levin, wyden, nelson of nebraska, shaheen, blumenthal, boxer, feinstein, whitehouse, merkley, rockefeller and johnson of south dakota. mr. reid: i now move to legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection the senate moves to legislative session. mr. reid: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 647, jerome powell of maryland, to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination federal reserve system, jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. mr. reid: i send a cloture motion to the desk with respect to that nomination. mr. reid: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. signed b

we now see some creative ways in which presidential mobile energy systems are at least senator whitehoused alexander have introduced the bill the acronym, the real access to leasing and cosponsoring the legislation and what it does is create a secondary market by having the government ensure the value and they scored this at no cost which is always great in this town today. can you speak to that model are there other areas you might have identified where we could help those that want to make the right investments and find the cost of the capitol prohibitive or difficult to embrace the initially? >> yes i think the sort of thing you describe really addresses the other side of trying to encourage clean energy implementation one side is to encourage the research of a plant and the other side is to help the consumer afforded by subsidizing i don't like the word subsidizing but i will use it certain forms of energy buildings every energy efficient we need to be more energy-efficient and i think the grand scheme of things today we have a remarkable opportunity to bring together the idea of the

. >> i am always sitting in the back of the press room at the whitehouse, you know, i always get annoyedhen the people say isn't this a political event. isn't this just political? duh, right? >> again, yes, no. >> if you want to talk to students about student loans i think going to a college campuses is sort of making senses. >> talk to the nation about afghanistan, going to afghan state and doing it makes sense. >> if you look at the tone, he talked about the half million men and women who send and made served. he talks about people who lost their lives. that wasn't a political speech. this is a moment the president was handed two words, he ended one. the other one is on it way to being done. >> everything he is doing isling. the problem is the white house keeps denying it's happening. that has the reporters screaming it. like admit what you are doing. this trip, i thought, was number 1, the imports thing to do, a historic thing to do. at the same time, it served a purpose of squashing all of of this republican whining. the president showed we have gone full circle. right? >> right. >>

mention the term white house because it's senator white house who introduced the bill is senator whitehouseand i wrote him a all right after -- a letter after and said i'm fine with it. >> some of the criticism that's come out is that it's really a band-aid on a really bad tax system. >> it is a small improvement in a very bad tax system. it doesn't cure all. in high original article i said we've got major problems on the expenditure side. all it does is says when you wh you've got 131 of the 400 largest incomes in the country that are averaging 170 million, you have a third think paying at race -- >> you said you'd do it at 10 million. that's so different from what we're talking about here. >> no, no, what i said, joe, is i would do the 30% at 10 million and i'd do 35. >> all right, utility go up. >>. if i as much time trying to figure out -- take your pick, social security, medicare, some way of using that mind to figure out a trillion dollar problem instead of something that would raise $40 billion over ten years, would i put my name on that thing. could rise to the level of something ca

center alexander and senator whitehouse have released a bill.tion. it creates a secondary market by having the government ensure the value. the cbo score this at no cost. can you speak to that model and are there other areas you might have identified were can help those who want to make the right investments but find the cost prohibitive or difficult to embrace initially? >> yes, i think the sort of thing you describe really addresses the other side of trying to encourage clean energy implementation. one side is to encourage the research and development and so on. the other side is to help the .onsumer afforde it they can certainly be done by subsidizing -- and i don't like the word subsidizing, but utilizing certain forms of energy, helping people defray the cost of new buildings that are very energy-efficient, and then they could pay that back with the savings that they gain from being more energy- efficient. i think in the grand scheme of things today, we have a remarkable opportunity of bringing together the idea of a horizontal drilling and

i am going to will to senator whitehouse. as soon as he returns.enator klobuchar. >> thank you very much. i'm the one standing at the capitol. >> thank you, director for being here. i appreciate al lawson you, now were kept abreast of everything you are doing. many of my colleagues have asked about officer safety issues with the national memorial services this week. i was just with the families and police officers over the last few days. two officers died in the line of duty in minnesota. one effect reported to a scene of a domestic violence case. a 17-year-old victim basically sacrificed his life for hers any of these three young children. one of the things that came out that the previous year and had years on the bulletproof vest, which is incredibly important is that 72 of our nation's law-enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty during 2011th and that is the highest number since a seven. it is that 20% since 2010. by region, 29 were killed in the south, 29 the midwest, 10 in the west and 10 in northeast. two in puerto rico. are you

now see some creative ways in which residential mobile energy systems are least kim and senator whitehouse and alexander have introduced bill the a gram is the renewable access leasing live joined that in the co-sponsor of that legislation which creates a secondary market by having the government ensure the value and cbo scored this at no cost which is always great in this town today. can you speak to model are there other areas you might have identified where we can help those who want to make the right investments could find the cost of the capitol prohibiting were difficult to increase initially? >> the only thing you sort of describe is the other side of ying to encourage clean energy implementation. one side is to encourage the research and development and so on and the other is to help the consumer afford it and that can certainly be done by civilizing, i don't like the word subsidizing but i will use at, the cost to certain forms of energy, helping people to free the cost of new buildings that are very energy efficient, and then they can pay that back with the savings that they've g

whitehouse chief of staff, can you prove this by assert date? we need this. unbelievable. let me put up one last thing because i know a matter of time and want to get to the ranking member. we have the full chairman here. chairman of the full committee. we had mr. daschle may put up with the secretary said to us two months ago when questions that i asked. mr. secretary, how about john bryson, former chairman, now secretary of commerce, did that in any way influence your decision to give a loan guarantee to break source? secretary said no. did the white house ever call you were taught to about any of these prospective companies? to someone from the white house chief of staff, someone from the white house call you in the secretary said no. >> mr. chairman, i think we have to have the secretary back in here because this is certainly his response and doesn't square with e-mails we got in it 30,000 documents on friday from break source. >> with the gentleman yield? >> i will commend to you that we will invite the secretary back to clarify the record alone when it letters to the

whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i want to take a few moments this afternoon to do something that has become a bit of a ritual with me, and that is to try to take some time each week to speak about the damage that we are doing to our atmosphere, to our oceans and to our climate with the relentless carbon pollution that we are discharging. as each week goes by, the information continues to pile up about the harms that we're causing. a recent story says that rising temperatures could eliminate two-thirds of california's snow pack by the end of this century. the snow pack that helps provide water for california's cities and farms could shrink by two-thirds because of the climate change according to new research submitted to the state's energy commission. higher temperatures appear likely to wipe out a third of the golden state's snow pack by 2050 and two-thirds by the end of the century. the scripps institution of oceanography found. "science daily" reports that black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone emitted predo

whitehouse: mr. president, i would like unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator is recognized. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, earlier this week, the conference committee on the surface transportation reauthorization, more commonly known as the highway bill, met for its initial meeting. in the opening remarks that were made on tuesday, it was encouraging that there seemed to be a general agreement on how important that transportation bill is to our nation. as i will describe later, it's 2.9 million jobs that are associated with this bill. i should be specific and say 2.9 million job years, since those jobs do not extend for eternity. but it's the most important piece of jobs legislation we could consider. i appreciated hearing from the senator from utah about the jobs concern of his energy proposal. these are real jobs, they are immediate jobs, they are jobs that everybody understands, building our roads, highways and bridges. these l

senator whitehouse was joined by senator mccain in a brief before the supreme court to take the caseto try to rein in citizens united. they have an opportunity with a case that's -- that could be accepted by the supreme court where they could narrow the application or reverse the application of citizens united. i must tell you, i think the outpouring nationally from that case is clear that the american people don't believe the framers of our constitution envisioned that we would have unrestricted corporate moneys in our elections. i think it is time -- i hope the supreme court will take it. >> i think it is incredibly conconventional election because the template is put into place where all you need now is four or five incredibly wealthy backers. newt gingrich will go down in history as the first victim in a presidential campaign of the super pac culture. i think it sets a standard for the future. >> bill: but what's interesting too there is newt had his own super pac right. so -- but it lived by the sword and died by the sword. sheldon adelson wasn't able to keep up with the romney