Barack Obama

The VA had made management efficiency claims which make up over $1 billion in this year's budget, but the GAO, at least, says haven't been and can't be proven.

I believe firmly that the Constitution calls for the Senate to advise and consent.

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. I am, therefore, going to oppose the increase in the debt limit.

I was asked by the Senator from Massachusetts to read that, just to get it into the queue. At this stage I am not speaking on it, and I am not asking for any additional action on it. I just wanted to get it in. If it is a problem, I am…

I request 7 or 8 minutes, but as my esteemed colleague from West Virginia knows, I am happy to defer to him if we do not have enough time before the vote.

We know that there's going to be some sort of pandemic in our lifetimes. We don't know whether this will be the big one. And I hope that people realize that if we have a sense of urgency about this, and this particular bird flu doesn't end…

Number two, we've got to have a stockpile of antiviral drugs that cut down the fatalities so that even if you contract the disease, you don't die from it.

There are a couple of things we've got to do. Number one, we have got to have good surveillance mechanisms set up not just in this country but internationally. And I already allocated about $35 million to start cooperating with other…

We know that every several decades you get these kinds of pandemics that sweep through the populations. We don't know that this particular bird flu will show up next year and we won't be ready. But we know that some time in the next decade…

We are not ready for it. If you look at the last pandemic we had on U.S. soil, that was the Spanish flu that took place in 1918, 1919, you had literally millions of deaths. And unfortunately this is one of these situations where if you had…

I am happy to defer to Senator Stevens if he has something he would like to say.

I was not aware my senior colleague from Illinois was going to speak so I don't want to unnecessarily hold up the entire Chamber.

What we're doing is we're putting a CFO, a comptroller in the White House that is overseeing how this money gets spent.

Well what I can say is is that local, state, federal officials working together did not seem to have a good plan to get those folks out.

I am interested in fixing the system. And I think that's what all Americans, African-Americans, as well as whites, as well as Hispanics, want to see happen is making sure we're prepared for the next time out.

I introduced legislation this week to say that every state, local official working with the federal government has to have a plan to get out folks who are disabled, folks who are poor, folks who don't have access to automobiles and…

Well, look, we just voted for $60 billion worth of funding to go down to the Gulf Coast. And I think that one of the good things about this past couple of weeks, in the midst of this tragedy, is seeing how generous the American people are…

How could local, state and federal authorities let this debacle happen? Who should ultimately get the blame?

Decide each case on the facts and the merits alone. That is what our Founders intended. Judicial decisions ultimately have to be based on evidence and on facts. They have to be based on precedent and on law.

Now the test for a qualified judicial nominee is not simply whether they are intelligent.

I also know that USAID has already formulated a rapid response plan to use this $25 million, if it is ultimately appropriated.

Just for the record, the $100 million figure is important for our purposes here today. Before the Appropriations Committee put together the supplemental, we discussed the importance of immediately addressing the avian flu before the…

Yes, I do. DOD currently charges soldiers $8.30 per day for meals at the nondiscounted rate. So if all the eligible soldiers ate all of their meals at military facilities through the end of this fiscal year, the amendment would cost about…

That is an accurate statement by the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts. He characterizes it correctly. I add that all the statistics I have seen indicate one of the fastest growing segments engaged in bankruptcy is senior citizens…

But my job, as a Senator, is to make sure that we're basing these decisions on facts and that I probe and not simply take it on faith that good decisions are being made.