but if you are ready for change if you believe that change is possible then we can go ahead and tell the lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in washington are over because they have not funded my campaign they will not run my white house and they will not drown out the voices of the american people when i'm president of the united states of america if you are ready for change we can stop talking about the outrage of forty seven million people without health insurance start doing something about it you know this personal for me my mother died of cancer when she was fifty three years old and that was hard enough but watching her read insurance forms in the last months of her life because she just got a new job the insurance company was saying maybe there's a preexisting condition maybe we don't have to reimburse you for your medical care it was an outrage i know what it's like to see a loved one suffer not just because they are sick but because of a broken health care system and it is wrong and that is why i have said that is why i have stated that i will put forward a plan that provides every american health care that is at least as good as the health care of the member of congress that we won't a food anybody for preexisting conditions that we will subsidize anybody who can afford it if you've got health insurance will lower your premiums by twenty five hundred dollars per family per year we will emphasize prevention so we've got a health care system and not a disease care system and we will not wait twenty years from now to do this or ten years from now to do this we'll do this by the end of my first term as president of the united states if you're ready for change we can restore economic fairness in america you know i believe in business i believe in the free market i believe in entrepreneurship thing there are a lot of corporations out there that are doing good work hiring people making good products but when we've got a c e o making more in ten minutes than ordinary workers are making an entire year and the c e o gets a tax break and the worker gets nothing and  company goes bankrupt the worker seizes pension dumps and the c e o s getting a golden parachute and a million dollar bonus then something is wrong and something has to change in our economy here in america so we're going to take those tax breaks away from companies that ship jobs overseas we're going to give him the companies that invest right here in the united states of america and treat their workers right we're going to roll back the bush tax cuts for the wealthy and give him the hard working americans making seventy five thousand dollars a year or less give you a tax break a middle class tax break a working class tax  to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share so we can make social security there not just today not just tomorrow but for ever make it stable so people can count john  to trade agreements trade agreements that work for not just wall street but main street so that they have labor standards and environmental standards that are in force and safety standards so our children aren't and chew on toys with lead paint on them or patients having to take medicines made overseas that make them sick instead of make them healthy and i will raise the minimum wage every ten years i want to raise it to keep pace with inflation because if you work in this country you should not be poor that's a goal that i will set when i'm president of the united states of america i want to put americans back to work rebuilding our infrastructure in this country or we are spending twelve billion dollars a month in iraq if we can spend that much money in iraq we can find the money to spend right here in taking right and if you're ready for change we can make sure every child has the best education we have dollar for every child yes we can we we can provide a good education every child the problem is not that we don't know how to do it the problem is that we don't really pay attention every child we say we do by those children in the inner city we look at them we say well they don't look like us that's not our problem those children in the barrios in south texas we say well you know what they've got to their parents have an accent they're immigrants we don't really worry about them those children in appalachian where there's not a lot of property taxes those schools are underfunded we say you know what that's their problem tough luck well let me tell you something every child is our child every child is our responsibility we need to lift up every child and make sure that every child is opportunity in america and so i'm going to invest in early childhood education to close the achievement gap and make sure every child prepare for school and i won't just talk about how great teachers are we will reward them for their greatness by giving and i want the highest standards for students young people are going to compete against kids in china and india which means we're going to work harder we're going to study harder and i want to high standards and i want our teachers instilling our students but i don't want those standards measured just by a single standardized test because i don't want teachers teaching and so so i want to provide a fourth thousand dollars tuition credit every student every year by young people you're going to give back something in return if you're ready for change we can have an energy policy that works for america because our current our current one doesn't work it makes no sense i mean think about it we are sending a billion dollars to foreign nations because of our direction or we are seeing the highest gas prices we've ever seen a hundred dollars a barrel oil and in the bargain we're melting the polar ice caps changing the climate of the planet it makes no sense and so we're going to have a policy that does make sense by capping the emission of greenhouse gases the cause global warming will generate billions of dollars will charge polluters for the carbon they send them a that will generate billions of dollars we can invest in solar and wind and bio diesel clean energy and so we will create jobs in energy we'll put people back to work right here in ohio making windmills and wind turbines and solar panels we will hire young people in inner cities to make our buildings energy in a fish and we will go into rural communities and  their feet by helping them develop alternative fuels cellulosic ethanol fuels that we can grow right here in america and you know we're also going to we're going to make our cars more efficient i know that donna makers don't like to hear this that when i made a speech to the automakers i said we've got to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars they said well you know let's put it this way th but that's ok because i don't want toyota and honda to be the only auto makers the make fuel efficient cars i want to build the cars the future right here in america i don't wan so i told those automakers what they needed to do we'll invest with them but they've got to change their ways and i understand they may not like what i had to say but part of the job of the next president is to not just tell you what  you think people want to hear you've got to tell people what they need to hear you need to tell people the truth that is why i'm running for president of the united states of america now if you're ready for change we can also have a foreign policy that makes sense because our current foreign policy makes no sense as commander in chief my job will be to keep you safe and i will do whatever is required takhan please that task i will not hesitate to strike against those who would do us harm but let me say this that means keeping arse military as strong as possible and that means training our troops properly and equipping them properly and putting them on proper rotations so they have the proper rest and we're not doing that right now and it also means we are treating our troops properly when they come home no more homeless veterans no more begging for disability payments no more w that only has a cost us billions soon to be trillions of dollars not only has cost us thousands of precious lives but but it also distracted us from going after al qaeda in afghanistan those who killed three thousand americans it is also fanned the flames of anti american sentiment around the world it was an unwise policy that's why i oppose that in two thousand and two and that's why that's how i will bring this war to an end in two thousand and nine it is time to bring our troops home than to bring them home but they know i don't want to just end the war i want to end the mines that got us into war i want to bring it into the politics of fear that uses nine eleven as a way to scare up votes rather than a way to bring the country together around our common challenges and i want to re power of american diplomacy you know early in this campaign i said i would meet not just with our friends but with our enemies not just with leaders we liked but leaders within and you know people in washington said oh you can't do that hillary clinton john mccain they say you can't do that i said yes we can because because i remember what john f kennedy once said he said we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate that's what strong presidents and strong countries do they talk to their adversaries and they tell them where america stands that's what i will do when i'm president the united states of america when we do that when we do that we're going to be able to go before the world community and say america's back we are ready to lead and yes we will lead hunting down terrorists yes we will lead against nations but we will also lead in helping countries deal with the devastation of h i v aids we will also lead on creating a new treaty for nuclear we will also lead by hot having the highest standards of civil rights and civil liberties and role of wall and due process we will close guantanamo we will restore habeas corpus we will say no to yes we can we can do these things if you are ready for change but i've got to say in the waning waning days of this campaign a lot of people are saying oh no no don't believe first of all they say i haven't been in washington long enough that you may like obama's ideas but he needs to be season and studio little bit more we need to boil all the hope out of him maybe he'll be ready later i notice people aren't accepting this argument then are saying the last thing we need is that the same old folks doing the same old things over and over and over again it's not working now we need something new then there are people who say well you know what the republicans they're very tough they're going to be coming after and you know what i say is look i revere john mccain for service to our country he is a genuine american her and by the way by the way i want republicans on my team that won independence i'm reaching out to republicans are a lot of disillusioned republicans or some here today say i know it because because the sometimes they whisper to me when i'm shaken and that it's a proc i'm a republican but i support you and i say that's great come on board you want to be on the change train that's what we're building here in america plenty of room for everybody there's plenty of room for everybody i don't care what your filiation is if you're about improving america then we can work together i'm tired of this petty partisanship i'm tired of this arguing and bickering all the time so then there's the this last argument we've been hearing from senator clinton a lot lately that is basically an attack on hope now listen it's true i talk about hope a lot and  let me explain why because the odds of me standing here are very slim you know i was born to a teenage mother my father left us when i was two so i was raised by single  mom my grandparents and they didn't care of fame or fortune or you know what they could give me was love an education and some hope that's what they could give me and so and so i do talk about hope we have hope on my signs and and we there's one right there and you know i gave a speech at the boston convention about hope and i wrote a book called the audacity of hope and and so now i notice that senator clinton others are suggesting that oh he's so naive he's  talking about hope he just thinks that you just wish these problems away he needs a reality check he's peddling false hopes he's a hope  monger that last one i made up but but she says the that the the implication is is that some out if you talk about hope then you must just have your head up in the clouds you must look at the world through rose colored glasses going through some very hard things in their lives right now i bet there are a lot of folks here who have lost their job or or don't have health insurance or are trying to struggle to pay for college education and have gone through a series of hardships or trying to figure out how they're going to be able to retire you are naive you're not romantic you're not here because you think somehow change is easy in this country you're not here because you're infatuated with me because i i make a nice speech that's not why you're here you know how hard change if you're not hope is not blind optimism hope is not being ignorant of the challenges  the barriers that stand between us in achieving our dreams hope is just the opposite i know and you know how hard it will be to provide health care for every american if it was easy it would have already happened i know and you know how hard it will be to change our energy policy exxon mobil made eleven billion dollars last year last quarter the most of any company on record they don't want to give up those profits i know and you know how hard it will be for us to fix our schools or to alleviate poverty or to rescue young men who are going to prison instead of going to college or to make sure that our budget is balanced so we're not running up the credit card on future generations you know these things are hard i know these things are hard i know because i have fought on the streets as an organizer i have fought in the courts of the civil rights attorney i have fought in the legislature and i've won some fights but i've lost some too because you know good intentions aren't always enough because they've got to be fortified with political power and political will i've seen how easy it is for politicians to turn americans against one another and use people as scapegoats to blame immigrants or muslims or gay people for the problems that we face i've seen that but you know what i also know this that nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened except somebody somewhere was willing to help that's how that's how this country was  founded a band of patriots the clearing independence against the mighty british empire nobody gave them a chance but then south slaves and abolitionists fought a wicked system how how a new president was able to chart a course to ensure this nation would not remain have slave and half breed that's how that's how that's how the greatest generation my grandfather fought and pens army and you're my grandmother same back with a baby working on a bomber assembly line that's how the greatest generation defeated hitler defeated fascism lifted itself up out of a great depression that is how pioneers traveled west that's how immigrants came from distant shores to find opportunity in this country that is how women won the right to vote that is how workers struggled against violence and intimidation and won the right to organize that's how young people in the early sixty's the late sixty's traveled south they marched and they set in and some died for freedoms cause that's  chance we have now that's the that's the chance that this election offers a not not to solve our problems easily that's a think that somehow just because that opportunity to transform people's lives you know there's a moment in the life of every generation when that spirit has to come through when we decide we owe the next generation the same chances somebody gave us when we decide that we have to keep the dream alive for those who still hunger for justice and still thirst for opportunity when we decide we will not settle for what the cynics tell us we have to accept because we can imagine a different world we don't have to accept the world of the day we can imagine a better world if we're willing to work for nomination we will win the general election and you and i together we will change this country and we will change the world thank you everybody jobless  this morning the senate armed services committee will examine the status of the army's two thousand and nine a budget request army secretary pete geren and chief of staff general george casey will discuss future troop levels in iraq and afghanistan this in an armed services committee is chaired by senator carl levin of michigan watch this hearing live at nine thirty a m on c span three and later today the house judiciary subcommittee on disparities between crack and powder cocaine sentencing there are four bills pending in the house to address these differences chairman bobby scott will look at those four bills at the overall issue of drug sentencing watch that live at two p m on c span three and we will go live now to the u s senate for more work on an american indian health care bill votes on several amendments are expected this morning with possible final passage before the end of the day they will recess at twelve thirty eastern for party launches and when they return could debate and vote on iraq war issues two measures sponsored by wisconsin senator russ feingold would ban the use of funds for iraq deployments would require the president to submit to congress a strategy in dealing with al qaeda and the war on terrorism live now to the floor of the u s senate here on c span to settle come to order the chaplain dr barry black to lead the senate  us pray oh god of perfect goodness give us today of vision of you that we might be renewed by your forgiving l and challenge by your right should inspire the members of this body with your present give them such confidence in your pro leading that they will find rest from their burden let peace reign in their hearts and conversation as you order the steps and direct their pads sabran god you know better than we what is best for us and to reform the consumer product safety commission to provide greater protection for children's products and so forth than for other purposes as twenty six sixty four a bill to extend the provisions of the protect america act of two thousand and seven at twenty six sixty five a bill to extend the provisions of the protect america act of two thousand and seven in till july first two thousand and nine i would object mr president to further proceedings with respect to these bills i object on block without objection mcconnell as to time on this i was thinking as the best president i was speaking i was thinking of myself as the prayer was being offered by our wonderful chaplain admiral black one thing he didn't pray about like could use a little help one of the scheduling i mean it is it is really not funny even though it is kind of funny one senator has to leave at certain time one has to be back in a certain time another doesn't want to do anything through hard to think everybody happy and that's one of my jobs the same time make everybody happy and sometimes it's just impossible so i would use maybe a chaplain maybe he should start praying for most already know the outcome last may sixty seven of us voted against a proposal to cut off funds for our troops in the field four months later seventy senators three more voted against  it the second time two weeks after that sixty eight senators voted against it for the third time and a day semper seventy one of us more than three fourths of the senate voted no once again to cutting  funds for troops in the field so the outcome of the final vote on the feingold bill is obvious the u s senate is on record not once but four times that it will not cut off funds while our troops are in the field all the more so we oppose it when that all the more so will we oppose it when the fight in iraq by all accounts is showing clearcut tactical progress and now at last some important political progress is also apparent over in iraq but this bill does give us an opportunity to opportunity to step back and highlight the remarkable progress that has been made in iraq since the first time our friends proposed cutting off funds last may it gives us a chance to highlight why we were wise to reject it even when the outcome in iraq was unclear much less now when progress is clearly being made  two months ahead of another visit by general petraeus and ambassador crocker we should acknowledge the heroic sacrifices of our men and women in uniform and the important turnaround they've achieved in iraq on behalf of the american people the brave iraqis who have why we're doing this we're doing it because a majority of the american people recognize that this war in iraq is costing us huge amounts of money some are saying now as much as fifteen billion dollars a month let's say that it's not that much let's say it's only the lower figure of ten to twelve billion dollars a month i met with the speaker yesterday with all the democratic governors twenty eight of them and they are desperate for money to do things their states need dealing with health care infrastructure fighting crime they are desperate where is the money that they need it's going to interact in the summer about four hundred billion four hundred million dollars a day so we're going to continue to debate this because the american people know what has taken place and i'll discuss this more fully with right before the vote on the  and the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate resume consideration of s twelve hundred research circle report telling him before twenty one s twelve hundred a bill to amend the indian health care improvement act to revise and extend that this present center from north dakota this was i believe by previously damaged consent that the senate will now consider the vitter amendment senators correct mr president there's two ventured to be evenly divided this the center feliciana as president i strongly urge all of my colleagues to support this mainstream amendments of it or amendment amendment and simply says that in indian health care no taxpayer funds will be used to support abortions with the normal exceptions of the hyde amendment up to now mr president this has been the practice and the law but only because the indian health care law points to whatever the current appropriations language is on the subject in labor health and education and so it is a very strenuous policy that is subject to change and a vote and a change in policy every year this amendment mr president will solidify that policy it will put the hyde amendment in permanent federal authorization law with regard to the indian health care act just as was done decades ago in the defense authorization bill it's a solid mainstream amendment not urge support from both sides of the a this president's got us president this is not a debate about whether federal dollars should be used for abortion services current law already prohibits that i oppose federal funding for abortions i've supported the hyde provision but the vitter amendment  is completely unnecessary first of all we have a provision in the underlying bill that relates to the hyde provision that applies to all other appropriations bills but i do want to say this this is not a mainstream amendment that everybody is clear about in fact there's a provision in this amendment  on page two section b i don't know what it means i don't think senator vitter knows what it means there's been no hearings no discussion so onwards through the fog on amendments like this the fact is that we ought to have a hearing on this but there's been no allowed thirty seconds following sent in without objection i simply do that mr president to ask the distinguished senator the provision he's talking about maybe we can have a discussion about it rather than hear him vaguely allude to it without even pointing out the language and claiming that nobody knows what it means mr president the appropriate place for that kind of discussion would have been a congressional hearing that's where you discuss what provisions mean and how they are written the provisions as to provide or pay any administrative costs of any health benefits coverage that includes coverage of an abortion i don't understand what that means with respect to facilities or other issues there are a series of issues that relate to that and that is not incidentally just codified in hyde as a senator alleged this provision doesn't exist with the hyde amendment this is something the senator conceived of and added my point is it ought to been the subject of a congressional here we don't disagree on the issue of federal funding for abortion we agree on that but the senator has mischaracterize his amendment misreads reclaiming the remainder my thirty seconds that was lying which i pointed out to the distinguished senator three weeks ago when i introduced my amendment and we discussed so i think it's a little disingenuous to bring it up  president and mr president that he indicated when he pointed out to me that this is why i was different than the heil that i was he doesn't represent what he alleged to the senate all things expired the question is on the amendment to find gold this is feinstein marring mr nelson of florida to nelson of nebraska mr obama mr pryor smith smith now which man now mr sanders no asked to be laid on the table without objection especially i believe there will now be two minutes of debate even the divided relation to amendment three eight nine seven the smith amendment chamber to come to order please get the chamber to come to order please take your conversations outside the chamber could i get the chamber to come to order please take your conversations outside the chamber center from oregon prison eight years ago congress asked the indian health services and the tribes to revise the failed system for allocating facilities funding the compromise they reached may amount nothing without this amendment that's why i feel so strongly about it it's not just about one region or group of regions this amendment is about holding true to holding true the government to government relationship the us halls with all tribes not with just a few so i ask my fellow colleagues to support this amendment to ensure that all native americans receive the health care they need and deserve mr president what everyone in the chamber should know it is a very unlikely that native americans in your state are receiving construction funding for indian health services facilities all this does is  indian health services come up with a formula that is fair because otherwise your state the tribes you represent will receive nothing percent of north dakota mr president i share the frustration of the senator from oregon but i must oppose the amendment we have a backlog of three billion dollars in facilities if secretary chooses to establish what is an area distribution funds monies would be taken from the priority list many of these tribes have been on the list waited a long long time for funding for the facilities if the secretary begins to take money from that priority list and do this area wide distribution i think it would be a serious problem but i want to work with senators morgan we desperately need new facilities and improve facilities we need more money addressed to that and is raising the right question i happen to believe it's the wrong answer so i regretfully will vote against mr martinez mr martinez i scary mr kerry i mr white house mr white house i conversations outside the chamber director and a really talented group of staff members will work very hard on this legislation i intend to submit all of their names for the record and i say a hearty thank you to them it has been eight years now that we should have have advanced this legislation to improve indian health care at after eight long long years we finally have it done and at least through the united states senate after this final passage vote and i just want to say thanks to all of my colleagues for their patience and also the see an opportunity for four indian bills of any nature to receive floor time so to be able to debate the thirty important issues with colleagues i want to thank them all thank you specially chairman leadership on this he's mentioned so many that have have participated throughout the years the distaff but we also need to recognize the leadership of former chairman senator ben nighthorse campbell of course senator dorgan senator in a way so many that have done so much i also want to acknowledge the national tribal steering committee for their efforts great tribal leaders coming together to to advance this very important legislation i have a long list of thank yous that i would like to have included in the record but truly it has been a great effort and the appreciate the the leadership on both sides in advancing th the one thing that both of these senators did not mention you know the wonderful work that they have done the chairman and ranking member the union fares committee were able to reach out to members on both sides of the aisle this is truly a bipartisan piece of legislation cantwell mr carden mr carper mr conrad mr martinez mr mccain mrs mccaskill mr m mr alexander mr alexander  mr cochrane  has every member voted does any member wish to change as every member voted does any member wish to change his or her vote with eighty three voting in the affirmative and ten voting in the negative as twelve hundred as a member has agreed to senator from north dakota sorters mr president let me let me just take just a couple of additional minutes say how pleased and proud i am that we have passed by a very wide margin the first improvement any in health care since one thousand nine hundred two these after all of the first americans they were here first we have signed treaties with them we took their land we put them on reservations we signed treaties made promises we have a trust responsibility we said we promise the fact is we haven't kept those promises for a long long time especially with respect to indian health care and finally at long long last this congress and thanks to senator reid and all the folks that allowed this to be on the floor of the senate for the time that it was we finally have made some progress the first time since one thousand nine hundred two that we have improved a piece of legislation or rather we authorized the indian health care improvement act this is a big big deal this will save lives we have more steps to take the s house has a pretty a bill that it has to deal with it will and will be in conference and finally we will be able to have a bill before the president the united states for signature in this year i have spoken at length i know people are tired of hearing me the presiding officer is from montana he and i held a hearing on the crow indian reservation in montana we heard an earful about indian health i felt listening sessions around the country in different states with indian tribes i can't tell you the number of stories that i have heard that that allow me or have made going away from these meetings or shaking my head wondering what on earth can we do to fix this how much will it take for us to this i recall a grandmother standing up in the in the crow reservation montana with a beautiful picture of her five year old daughter who had died and essentially in a rather lengthy story she asks how do you justify this a young girl spending the last three months of her life in unmedicated pain because the health care system doesn't work for that young girl and the stories go on and on and on and i'm can just convince that we must do better and i'm determined and it was my priority when i became chairman of this eighty two to finish this job but i know ben nighthorse campbell worked hard on it senator mccain when he was chairman of the committee worked hard on it finally  murkowski have made it the priority for this committee to say we've got to fix this this is not some option the promise of health care means that if we don't keep this promise people are dying i've named some of those people some of them children we have to do better and this vote today a very significant vote in the united states senate overwhelming vote ninety percent of my state senate saying we agree let's fix this that is that is something that i think is going to be unbelievably welcome news to american indians all across this country today it's been a long time coming sixteen years but finally finally we made progress and this progress i believe will save lives mr president let me say again  thanks to senator murkowski who has been an enormous partner in trying to get this done and i will just mention it as i close our staff director alice and betty to charleston cindy darcy heidi for said john hart's tracey  murphy and so many others but those people who i have named worked a lot and they're you know they work behind the scenes long hours late at night on weekends to help make this possible and i just want to say a heartfelt thanks to them for their wonderful work on the floor  thanks and gratitude chairman dorgan for for all that he has done this is this is a good day for indian country for alaska natives that are just waking up back home right now they're going to wake up to news that they've been waiting to hear for a good decade that finally we have advanced indian health care improvement act we have taken that step and we recognize that this is not the end all and they a in terms of providing for the health care needs of american indians and alaska natives we know that we need to be more to do more with challenge to do that we've talked about the funding issue and how we must make that next step to make sure that it's not just what we put in authorization but we back that up with the dollars for the programs we've got a long way to do to go but i think we've made a very significant step here today i'm proud of the work of my colleagues here today and those that came before us on this very very important issue mr president i want to take just a few minutes this morning to talk about tomorrow because tomorrow the united states supreme court will hear the appeal of the ongoing litigation between exxon deal was direct into prince william sound in alaska the oil from the spill migrated several hundred miles from bligh reef and polluted roughly thirteen hundred miles of alaska shoreline there were eleven thousand square miles of ocean there were ultimately a say did by this bill which is believed to be the worst oil spill worldwide with respect to environmental damage regrettably regrettably the spill area is still affected some nineteen years later in two thousand and one the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration studied the shoreline of prince william sound for any remaining effects of the spill scientists reviewed ninety one are still polluted with over twenty five thousand gallons of oil fisheries of course the fisheries in prince william sound were affected the herring fishery in this area experienced a dramatic decrease in the years immediately after the one nine hundred eighty nine spill as of two thousand and seven the herring fishery had not improved to the pre nine hundred eighty nine levels another example is what happened with the value of the fisheries permits in this part of the state in one thousand nine hundred eighty a fishing permit in prince william sound was worth four hundred thousand dollars as of two thousand and four the value of each such permits was less than seventy thousand dollars a drop of more than eighty two percent there was a class action jury trial held in federal court in anchorage alaska in one nine hundred ninety four the plaintiffs at that time included over thirty thousand commercial fisherman among those whose livelihoods were gravely affected by the disaster the jury awarded five billion dollars in punitive damages to the plaintiffs this punitive damage award has been on repeated appeal by exxon mobil since that time  within a few months the night circuit denied this petition and exxon mobil appealed to the supreme court unfortunately in this intervening time period with years in years of litigation bringing delay and resolution we've had several thousand plaintiffs pass away since this litigation began due to limitations in admiralty law with respect to the recovery of compensatory damages many exxon valdez plaintiffs were not able to recover the financial losses that they sustained in the aftermath of the spill so the punitive damages that are under consideration by the supreme court will provide them that level of compensation once the supreme court decided to hear this case i joined with senator stevens and representative young in submitting an alaska congressional delegation am a case brief to the u s supreme court in that brief we argue that the award of punitive damages in this of reckless and wanton conduct by exxon not only is permissible under the clean water act but it's supported by federal matter maritime law only punitive damages will provide those who were harmed and who continue to be harmed with the justice and the fair compensation that they deserve this litigation needs to end nineteen years is far far too long for these plaintiffs to wait to be compensated for their lost income i'm hopeful that the supreme court will rule in favor of the plaintiffs in this case and i along with so many alaskans look for a final resolution to this great tragedy that occurred to us as a state one thousand years ago but center from wyoming of the previous sort of center from wyoming is recognized for ten minutes thank you mr president i do want to congratulate the senator from north dakota senator dorgan and the senator from alaska  on the piece of legislation that we just passed it is extremely critical to a number of people in the united states the native americans and it's an extremely difficult piece of legislation to do because it is such a diverse group of people there are native americans who are living in cities there are native americans who are living on reservations and there's even a difference in reservations because there are some that have a lot of land and a few people and some have a lot of people and very little land and to come up with a one size fits all is not possible this bill takes care of all of those people wherever they are under the circumstances that their anger and as meet the promise that was given  culminates fifteen years of work that should have been done fifteen years ago but because of the the diversity is extremely difficult to do and the chairman of the ranking member working together were able to pull that together and i want to congratulate both of them for their efforts and their capability of working with everybody in this body with probably about one hundred amendments that were thought about not all were offered but  solutions the ways to solve a lot of those problems are included in the bill and i think it's a very good bill they deserve a lot of credit for the way that they worked on it and the effort that they put into it and the result that they got so i'm looking forward to it getting resolved on both ends of the building and the press consigning gradually both of them and i do rise data talk about finding other solutions star health care crisis that's a part of it we've extended the children's health insurance plan until march of two thousand and nine so that part has been partly solved that my wife diane and i travel to different parts of wyoming most weekends and the number one issue on people's minds is their health care they all ask me what i'm going to do to make sure they have the health care they need i'm able to tell them a lot of things that i'm working on but i'm not able to tell them very much about things actually getting accomplished and this troubles me because our constituents deserve our help it's time for real action and i hope that we are able to do something on health care this the committee on health education labor and pensions i spend a lot of time working on health care issues i've spoken to this body many times about a bill that i'm working on that i've been working in conjunction with anybody in this chamber that's interested in health care trying to pull together the ideas so that we can do some things in health care any one of which would help us to get closer to a solution for all americans and the bill that i've put together is one called ten steps to transform health care in america and that will fix many of the common complaints i hear from my constituents by ten steps well i've discovered over the course of the years that i've been in this chamber that if you try to put together one massive comprehensive bill that solves everything you'll have one piece that five people don't like another piece that eight people don't like another one that eleven people don't like another one that three people don't like pretty quick you're to fifty one votes and you can't get the bill then when you try to do something comprehensive it often looks revolutionary and we don't do things revolutionarily we do them evolutionarily so i put together ten pieces any one of which gets us closer to having every american insured all ten of them would get every american insured so i hope people will take a look at it today i'm going to just focus on one step that's first step that's equalizing the tax treatment of health insurance for all americans not just the ones that get health insurance at work i encourage everyone watching to look at my website and the dot senate go to learn more about all the steps of the bill and again i emphasize that this is these are bipartisan ideas that people have given me and because the chairman of the committee has been so involved in the education portion and we're making progress in the education portion having sent several pieces to the president already and we're going to finish up the higher education bill and we're going to finish up no child left behind but i've been given the flexibility to look into this health care area and the chairman and i sat down and worked on principles of health care and then i talk to get ideas from both sides of the aisle and encourage incorporate them as much as i can in the ten steps and before i go into the details of step one i want to say just a few things about the entire proposal if the ten steps bill were to become law the end result would be an insurance card for everyone now lots of people have insurance cards members of congress have them people who work for big companies have them the kids in wyoming that participate in the state children's health insurance program have them lots of people have them and most of those people that have insurance cards are happy with the care they're getting they don't want to change and the bill doesn't change that if you have an insurance card now you can keep that card and keep getting the exact same care you're getting now the problem mr president is the forty seven million or so americans that don't have an insurance card my bill gives all those people cards if they can't afford the cards because their low income this bill helps them out by giving the money they need to purchase the insurance card the bottom line is that everyone has a card and everyone will be able to get the care they need so how does the bill get everyone an insurance card and will we bust the budget in the process of getting everyone an insurance card the bill won't bust the budget it won't be free but it won't bust the budget so how is this possible well in order to understand how the bill works it's important to review a few facts about the history of health insurance in this country right now about sixty percent of the folks under age sixty five are getting their health insurance through their job the question is why why are sixty percent of americans getting their health insurance through their job well the short answer to that question is because of the way employer sponsored health insurance is treated for tax purposes our current health insurance system is biased toward employer based coverage due to a historical accident during world war two we had wage controls wage controls increased competition among employers for recruiting the best employees that such a contribution would not count as taxable income and added incentive this tax policy made it very favorable for individuals to get their health benefits through their employers and consequently as penalize individuals that get their coverage through the individual market we must eliminate the unfair tax treatment of health insurance which will expand choices and coverage and give all americans more control over their own health care the joint committee on taxation estimated that removing this tax bias and a few related health care tax policies would save the federal government three and sixpence trillion dollars over the next ten years that's a lot of money even around here that's a lot of money that can and should be used to expand choices and access and give individuals more control over their health care ten steps ensures every american can benefit from the savings whether they get their health care from the employer from the individual insurance market or they decide they want to get off of medicaid and switch to private insurance so how does a bill do this the plan gives all americans that have at least a certain amount of health insurance a standard deduction the national above the line standard deduction for health insurance will equal fifteen thousand dollars for a family and seventy five hundred dollars for an individual the bill also gives low income folks a tax credit equal to five thousand dollars for a family or twenty five hundred dollars for an individual the subsidy amount phases as income gets higher so folks won't be eligible for the subsidy at all but everyone is eligible for the standard deduction because the bill takes this hybrid approach to coupling the standard deduction proposal with the tax credit proposal no particular population is adversely affected the tax code i would no longer penalize folks that don't get their insurance through their job let me be clear my goal is not to erode employer based health insurance given that ten steps does not alter the way that employers treat health insurance rather i want to provide more options for individuals who don't currently have insurance through their employer correcting a flawed tax code would make it easier for working americans to buy health insurance jobs don't need health insurance people need health insurance american families who are insured through their employers should have the same access to care everyone should be treated equally i hope we can move forward quickly on making these changes so that every american can get health insurance it's time for real action we need to do something it isn't necessary to wait for the end of a presidential election to solve basic problems for the american people these ten steps will take care of a lot of things we can do any senate and they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders i ask unanimous consent to these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record without objection so for the present president the senate will vote later today in relation to two bills that i recently introduced with majority leader reid addressing the war in iraq and the disastrous toll it continues to take on our top national security priority  global fight against al qaeda many of my colleagues have expressed concern that the exhausting rate of deployments in iraq and the resources we are committing to that country undermining our ability to protect ourselves at home and also to respond to dangers abroad including the deteriorating situation in afghanistan and the global threat posed by al qaeda so while we all hope that the recent decline in violence in iraq will hold lasting stability remains elusive and there is a serious danger that our troops will remain mired in iraq while our ability to combat al qaeda elsewhere and also to protect ourselves at home continues to deteriorate senator reid naive in two bills to address these problems  one of these bills s two six three three a similar to legislation we have offered before i am pleased that this bill is also sponsored by senators boxer byrd carden clinton durbin harken l obama sanders schumer whitehouse and wyden the president requires the president to safely redeploy safely redeploy u s combat troops from iraq with very narrow exceptions effective one hundred twenty days from the enactment of this bill us troops could only remain in iraq for the following purposes conducting targeted military operations against al qaeda and its affiliates providing security for u s personnel and infrastructure providing limited training of iraqi security forces providing equipment and training to our own troops and continuing to redeploy from iraq but unlike previous legislation i have offered this bill actually does not have an end date for redeployment some of my colleagues who oppose the war have expressed concern about congress setting such a date and in drafting this legislation we have tried to address their concerns so by not including we are trying to provide additional flexibility in how the troops are redeployed we are also making that at no point mr president  administration from keeping the troops there indefinitely well the answer is that after one hundred twenty days troops can only remain in iraq for the narrowly defined purpose in the bill and because these exceptions are so narrow the bill actually removes any incentive for the president to delay or slow redeployment some of the other side are arguing that this new bill is tougher than previous versions because the funding restriction kicks in sooner than one hundred twenty days these are the same people who oppose any limitations on the war so it's hard to take their arguments terribly seriously i suspect they haven't actually read the new bill or they realize that the bill is actually quite a bit more flexible for the reasons i just mentioned the administration is considering various plans all of which would leave well over one hundred thousand troops in iraq one hundred thousand troops in iraq through the end of the year that would continue to as obama schumer and white house would require the administration to come up with a strategy to wage a comprehensive global campaign against alqaeda without undermining our military readiness the legislation s twenty six thirty four does this by require a comprehensive report from the secretaries of defense state and homeland security working in coordination with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the director of national intelligence report  examine the threat posed by al qaeda and affiliates around the world and recommend ways to ensure that our national security assets are deployed to address this threat and to be clear i am not just talking here mr president about military assets we also have intelligence diplomatic and other assets that we need to defeat al qaeda we can't just rely on boots on the ground we need to use all the other facets of u s power including aggressive public and private diplomacy to counter al qaeda some of the information call for in this bill will probably need to be contained in a classified annex but there is no reason the administration cannot also provide a public report identifying in broad terms the threat we face and how to respond to it american public should be kept informed as informed as possible about how we are protecting them from the number one threat we face mr president i know some of my colleagues don't want to be talking about iraq again i know some of them complain that we spent too much time debating iraq last year and i know some of them have concerns about whether or not the right time to bring up  mr president we cannot allow the focus on iraq to fade because violence has declined in parts of iraq it is true that violence levels are down to where they were in two thousand and five but as you well know iraq is still national level and it may infective undermine the prospects for such reconciliation in the long term the president's policies of actually empowered former insurgents and militia infiltrated security forces with questionable loyalties by supporting elsewhere we may have reduced violence in the near term but only by making it more difficult to achieve national reconciliation in the long run the director of national intelligence or d n i testified this month that many sunni who participate in local security initiatives remain hostile to the shiite leaders in baghdad and that some of those leaders see the sunni we're supporting as quote thinly disguised insurgents unquote were plotting against them mr president we cannot and should not ask our brave men and women in uniform to resolve these sectarian disputes military operations are not a substitute for a viable political settlement in the american people are simply not willing to leave our troops on the front lines indefinitely in hopes that someday such a settlement will arrive recent gains in iraq therefore mr president are tactical successes at best devoid of an overarching strategy to integrate local powerbrokers into a broader national framework our presence has only added to the complexities in iraq as we meddle in local dynamics and contribute contribute to internal divisions and sectarian tensions keeping a significant military presence in iraq will not bring lasting stability to that country the iraqi people in the iraqi parliament continue to oppose an open ended u s military presence in their country which is something they actually have in common with the american people keeping our troops in iraq will not solve iraq's problems and it won't help us address the growing threat posed by al qaeda around the world mr president makes no sense at the beginning of those january meetings i didn't bring it up because i wanted to see whether it was still a major concern particularly with these audiences in other words i wanted them to bring it up by themselves and guess what in every meeting they brought up with me and they didn't just bring it up they got up and they asked when are we going to bring the troops home and what are we doing about it instead of getting out of iraq will likely be sending one third of the members of the national guard back many of whom serve within the last two or three years they will be torn from their family their jobs their communities to be put in harm's way all in order to create a space for a political reconciliation in iraq that is always over the horizon they will not be there to protect the people of wisconsin in the event of an emergency mr president will forcing our troops in afghanistan to face what recent report described as a stalemate in fighting the taliban like americans all across the country the people of wisconsin don't think this makes sense security it has allowed security conditions in afghanistan to deteriorate tremendously to the point where former nato commander general jones recently concluded that we are in a quote strategic stalemate unquote i need hardly remind my colleagues that this is the country from which to launch the nine eleven attacks and work continues to operate to provide thirty two hundred u s troops to afghanistan afghanistan without further undermining military readiness and homeland security mr president across the afghan border in pakistan things are also looking bad the director of national intelligence testified recently th qaeda central leadership based in the border area of pakistan is the most dangerous most dangerous component also said that since the middle of two thousand  there has been an influx of new western recruits into this part of the world an indication that al qaeda is quote improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the united states identification training  positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland this testimony closely echoed his warnings from almost a year ago when he noted that future attacks against our nation were likely to come from that part of the world and mr president it is worth mentioning that this is the exact warning we received from the july two thousand and seven and i eat which is says that al qaeda has regenerated and reconstituted itself in the pakistan afghanistan border region and the administration has made matters worse by associating itself with an undemocratic authoritarian regime in pakistan one that the pakistani people finally given the chance to make their voices  heard rejected in return for questionable anti terrorism assistance we have given president musharraf and his regime billions of dollars not to mention the cost to our credibility and to our ability to build strong sustainable partnerships in pakistan to present our seemingly endless presence in iraq is distracting us from the core threats to our national security instead of dancing around these vital concerns we need to address them head on and that is why we need a strategy for defeating al qaeda and its affiliates around the globe we need a strategy which identifies the greatest threats to our national security and makes recommendations for addressing them with both military and nonmilitary initiatives mr president i know i know that there is no silver bullet to defeat al qaeda but it has been made very clear to congress and to the american public that if we are to protect ourselves at home there must be a dramatic shift in how we order our national priorities we cannot continue with a current agenda we must refocus not just so that we have the capacity to respond to other contingencies abroad but also also because our heavy footprint in iraq makes us more vulnerable vulnerable right here at home we need to rebuild our domestic response capability which has been severely compromised by repeated deployments of our national guard as long as we keep over one hundred thousand troops in iraq will have to continue to deploy guard units in a manner that compromises their ability to prepare for domestic incidents deployments direct iraq and left those responsible for protecting us at home with on average only fifty six percent of the essential dual use equipment needed to respond to a domestic incident indeed the national guard bureau estimates that it is facing a forty seven billion dollars equipment shortfall including a twenty million dollars shortfall in equipment needed to respond to a chemical biological radiological incident at home notwithstanding the fact that it is the stated of intention of alqaeda to actually pursue such weapons the commission on the national guard and reserves concluded that quote because our nation is not adequately resourced its forces designated for response to weapons of mass destruction it does not have sufficient trained ready forces available  commission characterize this as quote an appalling gap on for the senate may continue the mistrust on repeats of the commission on the national guard and reserves concluded that quote because our nation has not adequately resourced its forces designated for response to weapons of death mass destruction it does not have sufficient ready forces available and full this is very critical the commission character rises mr president as quote an appalling gap unquote an appalling gaffe i wholeheartedly agree this is unacceptable more than six years after nine eleven and it's clear evidence that our national security priorities need to be re examined and realigned rather than giving the national guard the forty seven billion dollars it needs the president has asked for another one hundred billion dollars for operations in iraq in two thousand and eight alone in addition to the eighty six billion we've already appropriated if we don't significantly a drawdown from our troops in iraq this year will end up spending another one hundred seventy billion in iraq next year the army chief of staff has stated that our current rate of deployment is unsustainable and a recent survey of military officers found that eighty eight percent eighty eight percent believe the demands of the iraq war have quote stretched the u s military dangerously thin unquote and their other cost of the war in iraq mr president and their considerable war is simultaneously deepening instability throughout the middle east undermining the international support and cooperation we need to defeat al qaeda and providing al qaeda and its allies with a rallying cry and a recruiting tool so that is why i am offering the majority leader reid legislation to redeploy our troops and refocus our national priorities it is our job to listen to the american people to save american lives and to protect our nation's security by redeploying our troops from iraq because obviously the president will not present this war is exhausting our country straining our military and distracting us from our top national security priorities even with the recent decline in violence in iraq the american people know the war is misguided and they continue to call for it's and they know we need to do a better job of protecting ourselves at home and fighting al qaeda abroad and so i urge my colleagues to vote yes on both of these feingold read bills we can finally get there called action thank you mr president california mr president i am proud to rise in support of senator feingold's two bills the first bill requires that the president begin the safe redeployment of u s troops from iraq within a hundred twenty days there is no end date for redeployment it just starts the redeployment and includes exceptions for missions against al qaida force protection and training the second bill requires that the administration provide to congress a full report outlining a comprehensive global strategy to defeat al qaida and its affiliates as someone who voted to go get bin laden after nine eleven i am dismayed that this president has turned away from that mission and put so much into an ill fated war in iraq i think senator feingold is proposing a policy for us that is consistent with common sense and consistent with our national security because the war in iraq has not made us safer it has made us vulnerable the war in iraq has not reduce the influence of al qaeda actually it is made al qaeda hero unfortunately and it has been seen as one of the best recruiting tools of al qaeda i want to get al quagmire in iraq and we're told that quagmire will go on indefinitely i believe it is undermining our national security it is undermining our economic security when i tell you what it is costing  us it is a stunning number it is diverted critical resources again from the hunt for osama bin laden he's been at large more than six years and despite the administration's rhetoric our own intelligence agency again are telling us that the war in iraq is proving to be a critical recruitment and fundraising tool for the terrorists that we want to be we see a toll on our military we hear phrases such as the death spiral the washington riposte reported that army and marine officials refer to the ready to his death spiral that senior officers warn puts our nation at risk because we lack the strategic reserve of ground forces to be able to respond to crises throughout the world fifth single minded focus on iraq and the ever changing missions there is not making a stronger it's making us weaker we now see that suicide attempts among us troops have reached a record high of six holding to since two thousand and two and while promising junior officers are leaving the military at record rates we hear that the services are lowering their standards to meet recruitment goals they're recruiting convicted felons now convicted felons people convicted of sex crimes people convicted of making a false terror threat assault with a deadly weapon we are taking in felons into the military this is wrong for our nation now once upon a time we were told that this iraq war was about weapons of mass destruction that saddam hussein had in hiding and it was about also saddam's ties to al qaida well our military did its job and they found out no there weren't weapons of mass destruction and our intelligence people did their job and they said no there were no times with al qaeda as a mare fact it wasn't one military cell in iraq excuse me i'll take that back an al qaeda cell there wasn't one l in iraq at the time of nine eleven then we were told the war was about getting rid of saddam and liberating iraq from that brutal tyrant our military did that then we were told the war was about holding elections and promoting democracy and you remember president bush in his flight suit with big words mission accomplished well they were many missions accomplished there were no weapons of mass destruction there were no ties to al qaida we got saddam hussein we got his relatives three elections were held our military did every single thing that was asked of them to the point where the president said mission accomplished but no the troops are there they are suffering and believe me believe me there's no end in sight because i personally asked our secretary of state congolese or rice how long she thought we'd be in iraq she said she couldn't answer it i asked her how much do you think we're going to have to spend in iraq she couldn't answer it what kind of administration comes forward with a war and has no way out no way out so what russ feingold is saying all right we won't set an end date but we will change the mission to get our troops out of harm's way let them continue to train iraqis let them go after al qaeda let them protect our forces there and our personnel there but get them out of the business of kicking down doors in iraq we have lost so many of these brave men and women and and so many are coming home and will never be the same so we have this war based on shifting missions president said mission accomplished dick cheney said we're in the last throes but it goes on and on under shifting rationale for going on five long years will it be another five years they won't tell us will it be another ten years they will tell what some of this administration supporters say will be fifty years some say it'll be a hundred years how many prays men and women will die in addition to those who have already died how many will be wounded there are no answers will we spend a trillion will be the bantu trillion we'll we've spent three trillion no answer well the toll is too high already thousands dead tens of thousands injured ten billion dollars a month for iraq now the nation's governors met with the president yesterday on a bipartisan basis they asked see increased spending on america's crumbling roads and highways and bridges they said it would help our struggling economy and we can't grow economically if we don't have an infrastructure on the chair of the public works committee of the senate and i do not agree on the war in iraq but we certainly agree that we need to have an infrastructure in this country the president said no there's no money there's only money for iraq and open checkbook ten billion dollars a month we can't fix our falling bridges the ten billion a month is equivalent to two point five billion a week three hundred fifty seven million dollars a day do you know for less than the cost of three months in iraq we could enroll every eligible child in america in the head start program for one long year for the cost of one month in iraq we could provide after school care for our kids for four years with a cost of two weeks in iraq we could provide the health insurance for a year to six million uninsured kids well last year we asked the president to help us with children sell he said no he vetoed that critical investment he just said no to the governors on rebuilding the rolls on the highways open checkbook for iraq close checkbook for america do you remember when the president spent budget director mitch daniels told us the war in iraq would cost no more than sixty billion dollars he was wrong  iraqi revenue would pay for the or for the war no and we remember that there were a couple in the administration who said the war might cost as much as two hundred billion of they were ridiculed while the president's most recent supplemental request for iraq was two hundred billion in itself bigger than the stimulus package we just passed the president has spent more than half a trillion dollars on his failed policy and there is literally a no end in sight now if i could just ask if we can have them i need to be a because i'm hearing what happened i have to smile i think we need to remember this is all borrowed money the cost of interest on iraq related debt is twenty three billion dollars a year for fiscal zero eight alone the president's policy is being paid for on a credit card and we are sticking my grandchildren and yours with the tab the cost of a barrel of oil has tripled since the war began much to the benefit of countries like russia sudan iran according to the joint economic committee if you factor in the cost of the oil the president's policy in iraq has already cost the average family of four sixteen thousand five hundred dollars and no and in sight it needs to stop where hemorrhaging money and the waste in this war is beyond disgraceful we spent thirty two million dollars for a base in iraq that was never built we paid a contractor seventy two million dollars to build a barracks a police academy in baghdad and instead got a building with giant cracks snaking through newly built walls in human waste dripping from this feeling that's from a report the administration loaded nine billion in cash on to pallets and shipped it into iraq where it promptly disappeared i ask you imagine what would happen if nine billion dollars disappeared from one of our cities the people responsible would be in prison but in iraq the president shrugs it off when the president vetoed the water resources development act he said it lacked fiscal discipline he said it wasn't fiscally responsible and i would ask rhetorically not fiscally responsible to maintain our water ways and keep our commerce moving in this the greatest nation in the world this coming from a president who inherited a budget surplus and turned it into a huge debt the largest budget deficits in history as well and money for iraq every day every hour every minute no end in sight billions missing billions on bases that were never built it is breathtaking the president and their supporters and his supporters they shrug it off this fate don't even address it it's unbelievable the sky's the limit but when it comes to investing in america or extending the stimulus for seniors and disabled vets we're told sorry we need to show fiscal discipline well thank goodness we were able to get that through above the president's objections our own military leaders tell us time and time again there is no military solution the whole idea of the surge and god bless our soldiers they have given us a breathing space and yet the iraqi government is just making changes around the edges we have trained four hundred forty thousand iraqis militarily imagine four hundred forty thousand iraqis why can't they defend themselves countries defend themselves we have given so much in blood in tears in sweat in dollars in commitment in chief for us now after the elections last year i thought the president would come to the table when we took over the democrats did we said we want to end the war we thought he'd come to the we were wrong he did not come to the table he is continuing this war no end in sight no plan to get out when i asked that question to i was done she said i can't answer the question of how long i'll be there i can't answer the question of what it will cost as if i didn't have a right to ask the question well that's why i am sent here i represent along with senator feinstein thirty seven million people we have taken a hit on soldiers killed we have taken a hit on soldiers burned we have taken a hit on soldiers permanently disabled so you better know i'm going to ask these questions well today senator feingold is saying let's get started let's start telling the iraqis by our actions not just our words that they have to step up to the plate we have to make a choice as a nation is it time for america is a time for our families for our soldiers for our children for our grandchildren or is it time to continue this open ended commitment to a war without an end of war that has no plan of ever ending a war that is tying our hands in this recession i say it is time for a change in america it is time to vote for the feingold amendments and start bringing  i thank my friend from oklahoma i rise to support to speak against the measure introduced by senator feingold was the president's plan only a year since general david petraeus arrived in baghdad took command of american forces in iraq but in these brief twelve months he and the american and coalition troops under his command have brought about a tectonic shift in iraq that has altered the course of the war there and with the future of at least two great nations iraq and the united states of america and the lives of hundreds of millions of people in those two nations and so many other threatened by violent jihad as terrorists in the middle east and beyond is the president on the surge first began a year ago many doubted that the violence then raging in iraq could be brought under control even as american troops began implementing this bold new counterinsurgency strategy some opponents of the war inside and outside of congress declared that war in iraq was already lost that the surge it already been tried and failed and that it mattered more frankly that we get out of iraq then that we succeed in iraq they could not have been more wrong thanks to discern to the surge the bravery and skill of american and iraqi troops and the will of the iraqi people to be free from terrorism conditions on the ground in iraq have been totally transformed from those of a year ago a year ago al qaeda in iraq was entrenched in control of exercising murderous control in anbar province  baghdad now those evil forces of islamised extremism are facing their single greatest and most humiliating defeat since two thousand and one this is not just my opinion it is a matter of fact in baghdad effect sectarian killings are down ninety five percent in the last year suicide bombings down nearly seventy percent i e d atta cut nearly in half in the face of those extraordinary improvements in iraq and many more i will speak of in a moment in these social and political life of that and economic life of that great country however anti war forces here in america have reacted not was sighs of relief and gratitude but instead by doing everything in their power to downplay or diminish our hard won gains in iraq rather than admit the possibility that they had been wrong about the surge and about the capability of reestablishing security interact they instead reached for another rationale for retreat what they argued was the lack of political progress in iraq and therefore that the surge had failed but this argument is also now been defeated by facts on the ground in iraq in the first place the iraqi people have taken over their local and provincial governments in a grassroots up democratic revolution at the national level a response is occurring took too long but it is now significant benchmark legislation has surged forward in the iraqi parliament the budget law passed a db asphyxiation law passed the provincial powers and an election law passed the amnesty law passed thanks to the surge the sunni arabs who once constituted the core of the insurgency have now risen up because we stood by them to join with us and go ahead on their own to fight nyota the same al qaeda that attacked us on nine eleven zero one on the run thanks to the surge the shiites who had turned in desperation to militias and death squads squads for protection from al qaeda and iranian extremists are now raney and back to extremists are now rejecting those militias death squads in extremis they want to better more peaceful life for themselves and families and the american led surge has put that within their reach just last week multiple sider announced that he's extending his unilateral cease fire he did not do this as a favor to the united states of america or the maliki government in baghdad he did it because in iraq today thanks to the surge and all that's been part of it the rules of the game of changed violence and extremism are no longer the clear path to power in iraq in fact they are becoming the past two political zero blip in in iraq the people of iraq want peace and stability and hope what then has been the reaction of anti war groups here at home to these enormous achievements in iraq are they now ready to admit that they were wrong about the surge even if they were opposed to the war in iraq in the first place are they now ready to acknowledge that we are there we are succeeding and it would be wrong and hurtful to the united states for congress to force a retreat now that would in churchill's term snatch defeat from the jaws of victory to judge by the resolution now before us the answer to that question is no on the contrary even as the facts on the ground of change so much for the better the resolution before us offers this same familiar prescription for treat and surrender ordered by congress not by our military leaders in the field are here at home and it orders that no matter what the consequences for the freedom of the iraqi people the future of the islamic world and the future national security of the united states of america some claim that the war in iraq is a distraction from the real war on terror al qaeda disagrees and so do i a cut his leadership has repeatedly made clear that they consider a wreck to be the central front of their campaign against us than most of the rest of the civilized world and according to our intelligence agencies al qaeda in iraq remains al qaida is the most visible and capable affiliate worldwide and the only one known to have expressed a desire to what tact the american homeland us here at home i know that there are some who who hear these arguments watch what's happening and say oh no the sponsors of this legislation certainly understand exactly how much political and military progress we are making against al qaida and iranian backed extremists in iraq and how much is writing on the line there for america and most of the rest of the civilized world faced by this threat of violent jihad as terrorism but but this argument goes that sponsors of this kind of resolution feel complete compelled to offer it to show anti war groups in the united states that they have not forgotten them as president i refuse to believe that i refuse to believe i don't believe that my colleagues would so trifle with the honor of the american soldiers who have served in our serving in iraq too many of whom have given their lives in that serve this or they would play such a political game with our national security i respect my colleagues too much to take this legislation as anything other than what it limitations on what they can do that we are now arguing with our european allies to just stop in afghanistan in afghanistan some of our nato allies are there but they can only do certain things they can't enter into wisconsin says our troops after the hundred twenty days can provide training to members of the iraqi security forces providing since training does not involve members of the u s armed forces taking part in combat operations or being embedded with iraqi forces that's a covey at a limitation exactly what we're arguing with our european allies to stop doing in afghanistan the fact is the legislation this measure now before this chamber flies in the foot face of the recommendations of our proud and tested commanders on the ground in iraq if enacted it would unravel all the hard won gains that our troops have made in the past year it would hand victory to the suicide bombers and fanatics who are now on on the run it would betray millions of iraqis who are standing with us today because they desire a better freer life for themselves and their children and it would endangered the lives and hopes of hundreds of millions more who live in the middle east and throughout the islamic world who yearn burn for a life of peace and justice not a life of extremism deaths and primitiv sm that al qaeda offers them mr president i want to close if i may with a word directly to my colleagues on this side of the aisle democratic members of the senate i've thought a lot about this war and i cannot help but wonder in a moment like this what some of the political heroes of my youth who are democrats would think if they were here and could see and listen to this debate and read this this resolution i think the president kennedy who declared we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend oppose any fall in order to assure the survival and success of liberty quote in my opinion that's exactly what we're doing in iraq today i ask my colleagues to these words have meaning have significance are these just words i think the president harry truman who proclaimed at the outset of the cold war and i quote it must be the policy of the united states to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures and of quote are these two just words isn't that exactly what's happening in iraq today the people of iraq liberated from the terrible dictatorship of saddam hussein hoping to secure a better future for themselves now with our assistance and encouragement are resisting attempted sub geisha and by our minorities read here al qaeda or by outside pressures read here iran are these just words i i don't believe they are there was a time when these were not just words but they were the convictions that lay at the heart of the democratic party's foreign and national security policy the legislation now before this chamber of implemented would not in my opinion only betray our friends in the middle east it would not only betray america's own vital national interests against our deadliest enemies  also be trade the best ideals of the democratic party that i joined decades ago they were strong and liberal ideals and i use that word intentionally presidents roosevelt truman and kennedy great democratic senators like hubert humphrey and scoop jackson believe that the party stood for being liberal at home and liberal abroad and what d that mean liberal in the classic sense of the term freedom which is what america's all about the self evident truth that we're all in doubt by our creator with the rights to life and liberty so i want to appeal particularly today so my democratic colleagues here in the senate to reject this resolution and that sense to return to what i believe are the strong as proud as most purpose of moments of the history of the democratic party in recent the kids on matters of foreign and national policy national security post mr president a year ago in some the bush administration a knowledge that's mistakes in iraq can change course there it's now time for opponents of the war in the surge to do the same it's time for them to admit that the surge has worked and that america's security and freedom are on the line in iraq today that we are winning there and it would be a disastrous mistake to impose the policies ordered by this resolution this amendment which would deprive our brave american men and women in uniform and the brave soldiers of other countries including iraq of the victory that they are winning now for the people of iraq the people of america and the cause of freedom which is america's cause i implore my colleagues voted against this resolution i thank the chair and i yield the floor mr president the center mr president let me first of all commend our colleague just spoke to senator lieberman is very knowledgeable and it's been such an honor for me in the years i've been in the senate to be serving on both the armed services committee with him as well as environment public were smitty i i'm very much opposed to senator feingold's bills but i wonder in this short session the short time we have left we have such things to debate the budget housing energy consumer products safety education farm programs and i have to ask why are we wasting time able time on these bills and why at this time do we need another report  national security strategy was written in two thousand and six and another will be required one hundred fifty days after the new administration comes in the national military strategy review has been completed in the chairman of the joint ch conducting his own additional review the quadrennial defense review will be out later this year and the national defense strategy is also mandated by by law and that we currently have this strategy in place to win the global war on terror the study priests described in s two six three four ties the hands of our military by telling them to outline a strategy that does not let them utilize