we do expect their gaveling in as we speak and we do expect to see them at some point in the next many hours to move forward with this democrat s climate and tax and health care bill. we ll see them gavel in and then there will be a vote on a nomination, to get all of the senators here. behind the scenes, because democrats are using this very specific budget process that required all 50 of the democratic senators support but has to go through the senate parliamentarian to make sure it meets the rules and could pass muster to be included in this bill. so the parliamentarian is continuing to rule on this as we speak. she s making her way through yowl of these provisions. just earlier today, we learned that the bulk of what they wanted with medicare being able to negotiate drug prices for the first time is remaining in the bill. the parliamentarian did strike a smaller provision on caps for medicine and the private sector that democrats wanted to put a cap on medication, that t
in this segment. so before we go to break, we ll be getting into one of those. first i want to give you the latest with the middle east. the israeli cabinet is meeting on the very big question of whether or how to extend a pause in the fighting in the ongoing conflict with hamas, and they re racing against a deadline, because that pause s according to the deal that was struck, basically over, terminated if no new deal is reached tonight. officials from the u.s., israel, qatar, egypt, they ve all been in talks today. there s a lot of forces that want to make this step possible, especially considering with any deal you say, will it work? will both sides participate? innocent people have been freed according to many of the people in the region, so when you look at the scenes of some of these people being reunited, you can see why many people want this to continue. the last two hours hamas released 14 hours, including an american. that is if you re counting many of them younger
so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn t let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. next week could be one of the most important weeks in the presidential race. next week in fact the european union is expected to announce major changes to its financial system, all in an effort to stave off the region s economic cris crisis. at the summit in mexico the president announced he supports the formation of a european banking union that would help the unstable financial systems. there s one major problem, germany. angela merkel is not on board with an integrated banking system and against a big stimulus for struggling kunt countries. what the eu decides could have an effect on the election. let me read for everybody exactly what merkel said at the press conference, that a stimulus program could not be repeated and that president obama agreed with her and then she said this, the american president sai
would never be able to take time off what i big project has to get done on deadline. funding the government, that s a big project with a very important deadline. and consider this. according to expedia.com, the average american worker gets 18 vacation days a year. 18. and they only use 14 of them. did i mention that since january congress has only been in session for 125 days? plus they divided 112th congress promises to be the least productive in recent memory. since january only 14 house measures have been signed into law by president obama. and look at this, had when democrats controlled the house last year from january to june, 466 bills and resolutions were passed. by comparison over the same time frame this year only 207 bills or resolutions got approval. they spent more time bickering than getting anything actually done. yet house lawmakers sure do get paid a lot. rank and file representatives earn $174,000 a year. the speaker of the house takes home $223,500. now, com