Repeatedly tried to blame Insurance Companies too. Heres what the Washington Post fact checker had to say about that. The administrations effort to pin the blame on the Insurance Companies is a classic case of misdirection. Thats the Washington Post. Classic case of misdirection. They got three pinocchios for that whopper. Unfortunately that doesnt seem to have deterred our friends on the other side from indulging in the blame game. Within just the past week weve seen the white house lash out at the words of a cancer survivor and try to point a finger of blame at texans. And a few days ago get this one one of the president s closest political allies attacked the very kind of folks who are now losing their Health Coverage under obamacare. Free riders he called them. Free riders. You know the folks hes talking about. These arent people who have done anything wrong. Theyre not freeloaders or free riders or anything else. Theyre our neighbors, our constituents, and theyre not looking for handouts from the government. In fact, these are folks who went out and spent their own hardearned money not taxpayer money to purchase the kind of health and protection that best suits their families. And for this the president s allies attacked him . Many just want the government to leave them alone. Many just want to be able to keep the plans they like instead of only the plans the president likes. They want to keep the plans that they like, not the ones the president in effect picks for them. Heres what a Small Business owner in North Carolina said after his premiums shot up 400 . I just wish i could have my insurance back. Thats what he said. I just wish i could have my insurance back. I just read about a constituent this morning who lost his insurance and is finding that policies on the exchange will be more than double his premium and increase his annual deductible. Thats partly because as a 31yearold single male he will now be required to buy a policy with features he doesnt need such as pediatric dental care and maternity care. It doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me, he said. Another constituent from Caldwell County had this to say after learning of changes to her plan. My husband and i work hard, pay a lot of taxes and ask for little from the government. Is it asking too much for the government to stay out of our Health Insurance . No, its not asking too much. Its simply taking the president at his word for the promise he made over and over and over again. The promise that so Many Democrats here in washington made to their constituents but that we now know is simply not true. I understand that the white house is in a tight spot here. They did a poor job preparing the country for this law. They wasted time making promises that simply couldnt pan out. And they chose to ignore the warnings from my party and experts across the country that these kind of things would indeed happen. Well, this is the result, and people are getting hurt. Premiums are rising. Taxes are going up for millions in the middle class. Folks are losing access to hospitals and doctors that they like. And at this point more americans have lost Health Coverage than have gained it. As i mentioned yesterday, more than 50 times 50 times as many kentuckians have lost private Health Coverage as have signed up for health plans on the state exchange. Thats 280,000 folks were talking about here in my state. 280,000 kentuckians who lost their insurance. In louisiana, were talking about 280,000 in kentucky. And in louisiana were talking about 80,000 folks. Up in minnesota, 140,000 people. Close to half a million in georgia who lost their insurance. So its way past time for our democratic friends to end the blame game. Instead they need to start acknowledging the consequences of their law and actually do something about the mess that they created. If theyre ready to do so, republicans are willing to help. Lets Work Together to undo the harm of obamacare and start over with real bipartisan costsaving reforms, reforms that will actually allow americans to keep the health plans that they like. Thats the kind of reform americans really want. And if democrats are ready to Work Together with us, we can give them just that. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Reid following my remarks the senate will resume consideration of s. 815, which is the employment nondiscrimination act. At 11 45 there will be two roll call votes, first on the toomey amendment and then a cloture vote on the bill. If cloture is invoked there will be a third roll call vote on passage of the employment nondiscrimination act. Mr. President , i am happy to join my friend in happy birthday wishes for billy graham. I havent had the good fortune to meet this man, but ive read his book. I read a by ography of him. Hes such a personality, i thought that was something i should do, and i did it. And i remember a lot of things about the book. The one thing i do remember is this. Hes so scrupulous in making sure that theres never any question about his integrity, his moral integrity. I know weve had a lot of problems with people who are out preaching and dont turn out to be so good. But billy graham, among other things, would never meet a female in his Office Without the door being wide open so people could see everything that was going on in that room. Thats just an indication of the kind of person he is. So i join with my friend in congratulating billy graham in his 95th year. Mr. President , the remarks of my friend, the republican leader, kind of remind me of a joke thats not very funny but its a joke that makes the point here, i think. Prison setting. These people run out of material for jokes. They are together all the time. The same joke day after day. So they decided what they would do is they would list the best jokes, 1 to 50. And rather than tell the joke over and over again they will just yell a number and people would laugh. Well, thats what we have here, mr. President. My republican colleagues, why dont they just lets number their one through 50 crit symms of obamacare criticisms of obamacare and then rather than coming and giving these speeches, just give us a number, and we would all because weve heard these things so many times we would poodl immediay laugh because theyre jokes, too. Its too bad that the republican leader and many of his colleagues want to keep fighting an old fight. Four years ago we passed the Health Reform bill, four years ago. The president signed it the Supreme Court upheld it. It is the law of the land. Of course, we want to make it better, and certainly with whats going on with the rollout of the web site, we need to do that. I wish our republican colleagues would stop trying to scare people out of participating in this program. If they would stop moving last years fights and do the business of the American People, weewed all be better off. We can look back at when we have made big changes in legislation, mr. President. And we have made some big changes here in this body. Those matters dealing with health care, for example. I wasnt here with medicare, but i remember how important it was because at the time that passed, i was the chairman of the board of trustees, an elected position, in nevada of the most extensive the biggest hospital district in nevada, lots of beds, lots of patients. So i remember the impact of medicare. But we also know that it didnt become popular overnight. There was a lot of criticism of it. Most recently not nearly, not nearly as big as obamacare or medicare, but i was here when we passed under the leadership of president bush number 2 the medicare drug benefit. Now, a number of us didnt like that. We thought it didnt go far enough and should have been done differently. But it passed this body and became the law of the land. It was difficult to get that up and running. But, mr. President , we did not come to the for that and say, get rid of this bill. We believed, as imperfect as it was, it was the beginning of Building Support for doing something about health care in america. So i wish that my republican colleagues would do something constructive regarding health care. Weve not heard one positive remark about what they would do to change what we have already done. So i think we would all be better off if that in fact were the case. Mr. President , this legislation is working and itll work even better when we get this web site deal worked out. There are people in nevada, there are people in new jersey, there are people in indiana, there are people all over America Today who are benefiting as a result of what happened four years ago here in the senate and the house of representatives and the president signed it. Mr. President , i am sure the presiding officer and other people that are listening to this speech, every one of them can identify someone who has has or had a preexisting disability. Under the old law, if you were a woman, it was a preexisting disability. You could be charged differently because you were a woman. A child born with diabetes, an adult with diabetes, someone who had been in an automobile accident, someone who was, like my friend tony coelho, who served in the house i served with him, one of the leaders in the house when i was there he wahad a preexisting disability. If you are under age 18 it doesnt matter if you have a preexisting difficulty. And at 1st of the year, you can be an adult and have a preexisting disability and get insurance. In many states we extended the preexisting disability exemption. The bush drug benefit. It was flawed, mr. President. What did we do in obamacare . We didnt try to get rid of it. We improved t the socalled doughnut hole . That doughnut hole is being filled, and millions of Senior Citizens in america during the last four years have received millions and millions of dollars of benefits because their drugs are cheaper. Ive talked on this floor before, and ill say it again, searchlight, nevada, my home, there was a young man there that was in college. He was on his parents insurance. And you could stay on there until you were 23 years old. He turned 23. Within a matter of weeks, he started getting really sick. He had testicular cancer. His parents had no money. I had one of my friends is a neurologist. He did the surgery for free, but he had two other surgeries that werent for free. His parents had no money. One was a retired janitor, one worked in the post office in searchlight. They worked hard. Many people didnt have the benefit of his parents, who s. A. T. Sacrifice add great deal for their boy who sacrificed a great deal for their boy. Today that doesnt work. No longer is that a problem, because you can stay on your parents insurance for three more years. Obamacare is a wonderful piece of legislation for america. Lets make it better. Stop carping about this. Get over it. Its the law. Its the legacy of barack obama and always will be. Lets get over this and stop the mischievous, misfortunate speeches out here every day about how bad it is. Talk about the good things in this bill, and help us to make it better. Now, mr. President , this afternoon this senate will vote to advance the employment nondiscrimination abilit act, legislation that would protect all americans from Workplace Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation. Vote on final passage will occur shortly after the caucus, and that actually will start before the caucus votes i mean, before the caucus adjourns. So well start voting at 1 45 this afternoon. I do hope and expect a bipartisan vote, a good one, to extend safeguards against workplace harassment and discrimination to every american. The time has come for congress to pass a federal law that ensures all citizens, regardless of where they live, can go to work not afraid of who they are. More than 80 of the American People feel that is already the law. They feel that is already the law. Well, it isnt already the law, that ibut that is what they fee. Lets do what the American People think already exists. I appreciate very much chairman harkin, a devoted person for people who need help. If you want to watch cspan and you see its closedcaptioned. Why is that . Because tom harkin led a fight here in the senate for many years h he has a brother thas hearingimpaired. And because of this, he focused on this and now we have closedcaptioning. We have all kinds of things dealing with the disabled because of tom harkin. The disabilities act, so important for our country, is now the law. So i appreciate chairman harki harkins work on this legislation. It is a shame for iowa and the country that hes decided not to run for reelection. What a good man. But working also on this legislation is jeff merkley from oregon. He ihe has devoted huge amounts of time this legislation. I admire and respect him so much. These two fine senators, is i respect and appreciate their leadership. I hope Speaker Boehner will reconsider his decision not to bring this up for a vote in the house of representatives. Mr. President , this legislation would pass by a nice margin in the house, if the speaker would allow a vote on it. I cant understand whats going on in the house of representatives. Legislation that the American People want is held up over there. The farm bill the farm bill, saving this country 23 billion. They wont bring it up. The American People want this. There are reforms in that legislation that senator stabenow and others have worked so hard on doing at putting in place for decades. Its in this bill. The house is holding this up. Immigration reform, mr. President america wants Immigration Reform. Theyre going to get it. Its just too bad that its being fought every step of the way by my friend, this speaker. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is something thats needed in this body. Its needed in the house. Weve already done it here. It should be the law of the land. And theyre so focused on debt reduction, Immigration Reform saves 1 trillion of debt. Marketplace fairness to allow little strip mall operators, Small Businesses, to have the same benefits that others have. Mr. President , its unfair to the cement, mortar places that they rent to not be competitive with the places on the internet that pay no sales tax. The house is holding that up. Now theyre holding this up. Thats just part of the legislation that people around the nation support that the house is holding up. So i hope hell reconsider his position. I will also file cloture on the nomination of heidi heres what the d. C. Circuit chief judge patricia wall said of the caseload. The d. C. Court hears the more timeconsuming, complex cases with impact on ordinary americans lives. Phs unfortunate that republicans are filibustering another. Georgetown law professor nina pill lard is the next victim of what the republicans are doing here. She graduated magna cum laude from yale law school. And a. Tended harvard law school. For five years she litigated Racial Discrimination cases as an foreigner for the naacp. She served as Deputy Assistant attorney general and solicitor attorney general. Support for her confirmation is bipartisan. Two top officials from the bush era have supported her nomination. Professor pillarrd is also codirector of the university of georgetown. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the job. Shes argued nine cases before the Supreme Court and written briefs for 25 others. Her arguments helped the Virginia Military institute for women and beat back a constitutional challenge for the family medical leave act. She is qualified and dedicated, so it is truly a shame that republicans would filibuster this nomination for unrelated political reasons. The d. C. Circuit is currently operating with only eight of its 11 seats. While Senate Republicans are blocking president obamas nominees to this court, theyre happy to confirm judges to the d. C. Circuit under both bushes. Republicans have already blocked two exceedingly qualified nominees to the d. C. Circuit. So i hope my republicans will not block another qualified nominee when we vote on cloture on this matter next week. This nominee zevs a fair libido reporting this evening that obama offered an apology today to those americans who have been told they are losing their Health Insurance plans contrary to his promise that no one would be forced off a planned they wanted to keep. He said in an interview, i am sorry they are finding themselves in the situation based on assurances they got for me. Go the Health Care Law is bound to come up in comments by Texas Governor rick perry. Hosted by the polk county Republican Party, it is the governors first major appearance in the state since the last president ial race. Here is a preview. Obama was fundraising in dallas yesterday for texas obama was fundraising in dallas yesterday. You are writing the president comes to the state, texas being one of the chief sources of resistance to the Health Care Law, what did the president accomplish yesterday . The primary goal seemed to be fundraising, and he raised some large sum that we do not know the exact amount of money for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, which will go to states other than texas because so far Texas Democrats are not competitive. John cornyn is up for