I think we're really whistling past the graveyard here.

I'll just try to wrap up what I was trying to achieve with my questioning, first starting out with the question about the private sector, where you've actually come in the private sector and worked toward these solutions.

My concern with what we've just passed here, what the Supreme Court just basically ratified, is we have a whole new entitlement now.

So would you say the cost savings you expect really come more from that coordination of care versus just a capitated type of payment system?

We have a huge problem with Medicare. As it is, the health care law starting in 2016 adds about a $2 trillion problem to that figure.

In an earlier response to a question, you were talking about the financial incentives just weren't aligned properly between the two systems.

I'm afraid the system is going to be horribly broken because if we roll the budgetary window forward to when the health care law actually gets fully kicked in, about 2016 with full spending, the total cost of the health care law will be…

Roughly, I think he found, for a couple retiring today, basically a two average earner couple, that they would have paid in roughly about $116,000 into Medicare, with an expected benefit--and all these things are time-value-adjusted--of…

If you were to guess, which model do you think would be superior?

Let me just close with an interesting article that I read in Newsweek where basically Secretary Robert Gates was talking about when he came in, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there were 17 layers between his command decision and the…

Thanks a lot. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

If we sit back as a Congress and do nothing, doesn't that just feed right into that complacency?

I believe we have to rely on Congress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, first of all, for your leadership, as well as Senator Collins, on this issue, and for holding this hearing.

While many of us recognize the need to accommodate our tourism industry, we are in opposition of the Federal Government purchasing more land in our county.

we are asking for a level playing field that, you know, we have the same access to the programming that our competitors do

This is a pretty straightforward motion. It recommits the bill in the Senate back to the committee to have that committee report back to the full Senate two separate bills. It recognizes the reality that what we have in front of us is not…

I have a motion at the desk. The legislative clerk read as follows: Mr. Johnson the Senator from Wisconsin, moves to recommit the bill S. 3240 to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate with instructions to…

I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll.

my concern is that additional information starts coming out, other stories come out month after month after month, and we need to get this behind us.

Forty percent is a very high percentage that would not report.

how do we really get to the bottom of this?

The level of hunger in the United States is shameful given our country's wealth and resources.

I ask unanimous consent to speak for no more than 10 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Merkley). Without objection, it is so ordered.

before I start talking a bit about the budget of my friend Senator Lee, I want to respond to the comments of the Senator from Iowa in terms of interest rates. Instead of talking about student rates, let me talk a little about America's…