U.S. State Attorneys General

I think that is really important, and I commend you for the steps you are taking to recognize that this is a different population of veterans than perhaps.

Is it your intention and goal that 100 percent of VA facilities will have these kinds of comprehensive care for our women veterans?

Yes, we do. Under the direction of Dr. Patricia Hayes, who runs our women's program, we have an extensive outreach program.

We can never afford to forget that. For these reasons, I simply urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 1120 and to not listen to the nonsense that we're hearing from the other side. We believe in the worker. We believe in workers' rights…

I will continue to advocate for long-term, lasting, permanent reform of Medicaid.

I am very concerned about how we pay for the estimated $630 billion that it will cost for Medicaid expansion.

I believe in healthcare reform, and I believe we need healthcare reform, and what I am particularly concerned about is reform of Medicare that my mother relies on and Medicaid.

I want to focus on that a bit because the impression could be left that Social Security is not part of our debt problem.

The person who makes $450,000 in income will see a very small hit from the change to a chained CPI when it comes to what they pay in taxes, whereas the person earning $53,000, the middle of America, will see a much greater increase in…

The biggest impact by the tax increase caused by the chained CPI hits families who are earning somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 because they would be pushed up into the higher brackets faster.

It is very disturbing that the folks who are going to get hit hardest, the $230 billion that you save in the budget from moving toward a chained CPI is by impacting seniors, veterans, and middle-class Americans.

My understanding is that by going to the chained CPI, you would end up cutting benefits earned by seniors who paid into the Social Security system, you would cut benefits earned by veterans for their retirement, you would cut benefits…

I am glad you clarified, once again, that some of these provisions in your package are part of a previous negotiation with Republicans, Speaker Boehner in particular, to try to resolve our fiscal issues in a balanced way.

Thank you very much, Senator Lee. This discussion is interesting for me, too, because I fully expect both of you to do a great job should you be confirmed.

We need to continue to work to confirm judges so that our judiciary is able to resolve cases in an expeditious manner.

I think it is now settled law that I would apply, were I lucky enough to be confirmed, that the Authorization for Use of Military Force does encompass detention.

I think the Supreme Court answered that in the affirmative in the Hamdi decision.

Too often we see taxpayer dollars invested in efforts to tackle our critical issues, but we rarely see a return on this investment.

The federal government has taken an active role in improving STEM education, but recent reports have shown that taxpayers' multi-billion dollar investments are failing to produce results.

This hearing provides a valuable opportunity to discuss the state of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education in America.

I thank the Senator and good morning, Mr. President. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Good morning. The Senator from Hawaii.

The President has said there will be consequences, and that we will seek strongly that the people who use chemical weapons be held accountable.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for letting us ask a second series of questions.

I think this is something we can handle bipartisanly.