Claire McCaskill

So in some ways, this chart is good news because it means people are more likely to go to the doctor right now because of flu-like symptoms than they were this time last year.

It just was really weird that a company on Wall Street would get the same number as a hospital.

So the rumors out there that we are supposedly giving the vaccination to anybody at Guantanamo that is being detained is just not true?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would like to formally on the record thank the Ranking Member for my pork hat.

no one can contract H1N1 from eating pork

I am assuming the decision to give any vaccinations to major companies in New York was made by the city of New York?

So if we get 80 million people vaccinated in the at-risk groups, you are going to consider this a great success?

It is not being made at HHS. It is not being made at CDC. It is not being made at the Department of Homeland Security.

I want to compliment Dr. Coburn for thinking like an auditor.

the most vulnerable population we have in this country is being taken advantage of, and if we are not going to be their champion, if the Federal Government is not going to bat for them, nobody is.

that seems like, at minimum, a reasonable requirement, that they would be penalized by requiring an outside actuarial analysis of their bids once it is discovered that they have that overcharged.

we know from work done by the IG's Office that 25 percent of these bids have errors in them.

I hope the next answer is we are thinking about the people the program is supposed to benefit instead of the companies that are getting fabulously wealthy off the backs of these seniors.

If they get it wrong to the detriment of the seniors, they need to pay and they need to pay the seniors.

There is a huge underground economy here.

The companies are taking the risk, not the seniors. The companies are doing business with the government.

I am not, frankly, understanding the responses I got.

I mean, can't we force them to make refunds to these seniors? Isn't that a reasonable thing to do, before they are allowed to participate again?

It really would be like shooting fish in a barrel if there was any priority at all given to this.

I think that is why the phrase says, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I am going to try to keep track of this list so we can be publicly accountable for it.

Let us talk a little bit about the Department of Justice.

I heard Secretary Gates say the magic words of DCAA auditors and I heard him say acquisition personnel.

We have got to deal with the subpoena authority.

Timing is everything.