Jon Tester

I cannot thank him enough for that.

I guess the question I had is if we--and I agree there is need for contracting services, but I do not want to take away from the VA's effectiveness by pulling down their numbers.

Do you think there should be something done?

If you have got a situation where the nearest mental health professional is several hours away... we have got a problem.

Real quick--just kind of dovetailing off of Senator Burr's question--in areas that you are going to contract with local communities, how do you envision accuracy of medical records when the health care is being provided by those local…

I must say that with the little detail we do have, it is positive.

Are there plans or how do you see us increasing mental health crisis beds to be available within a reasonable driving time?

I absolutely appreciate your work. Thank you very much for being here.

What about the highly rural areas? Are we doing anything different from rural areas as far as getting people into them?

I believe there is a greater opportunity for the VA to collaborate and support primary care settings in local communities.

The relationship as it stands is not working properly.

Do you think there are negative impacts that could happen on the VA with contracting services to hospitals?

The President's budget and its discretionary authority increases health care funding by $5 billion over last year's budget.

I do not think we have a mental health professional east of Billings, Montana.

I strongly support comprehensive credit card reform, including S. 414 introduced by Chairman Dodd.

It is not fair, it is not right, and it is not the way the program should work.

I think the Chairman has said before, and I agree with him, I would like to see the process work.

I can guarantee you they don't look very doggone deep.

I have got to tell you, that is flat not right.

But the truth is, from my perspective, it shouldn't take 31 years for a tribe to get recognition.

My concern is about credit card companies that put out an offer that is just too good to be true.

I do want to talk about the first thing that you talked about as you referred to Senator Udall's statement on economic development and how critically important it is that we get the unemployment rate down and we get the business community…

we have made some difficult decisions over the past few months. After years of failed policies that have dragged our economy into the ditch, we still have many more difficult decisions ahead. The next big decision will be for Republicans…

Where there are challenges, there is opportunity.

If these really are significantly risky loans out there, why is there no requirement for any sort of earnings history whatsoever?