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Last week, the Congress took an important action to protect seniors from increases in their 2010 Medicare Part B premiums. I joined with a bipartisan majority in the House to vote in favor of H.R. 3631, the Medicare Premium Fairness Act. With Social Security benefits expected to remain at the same level next year, an…
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Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner this week joined 26 of their Senate colleagues in sending a letter to the White House emphasizing that the Medicare program be redesigned to incentivize quality and value, rather than quantity, of provider services. Virginia and a number of other states have been identified as “high efficiency areas” for…
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Too much heat and too little light are being generated right now inside the Washington, D.C., Beltway on the issue of global warming. Some electric utilities and allies in the coal and nuclear industries claim that only coal or nuclear reactors can meet future energy needs and combat global climate change. They say there is…
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Thank you, John, for that kind introduction. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity to be with you today. This is, I think, a particularly important time for you to be gathering – and a particularly opportune moment for me to talk with you about some of the reforms that the Administration has proposed…
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I’m proud to report that last week the U.S. House passed an amendment I offered to address early childhood education in rural areas as part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The legislation creates an Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would award competitive grants to states that implement improvements to the state’s early…
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We’ve been hearing from more and more from the left and the center in the Democratic Party in terms of criticisms of the way the Obama administration has handled the health-care reform issue. Add U.S. Sen. Jim Webb to the list of Obama critics. “The most difficult thing for me as a senator has been…
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We drove down Buena Vista’s Bradford Drive after our Labor Day breakfast with the Democrats. The Republicans, too, had just finished their breakfast at the American Legion hall. The parade on Magnolia Avenue was about to start. Just then a good Republican friend of mine spotted a big blue Dem sticker someone at breakfast had…
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Today, the U.S. House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Perriello to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that seeks to address geographic disparities in early childhood education. Perriello supported the overall bill, which will expand access to affordable college education, increase early education opportunities, and build on a first-class community college system—while…
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Remarks by President Obama on strengthening missile defense in Europe THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As Commander-in-Chief, I’m committed to doing everything in my power to advance our national security. And that includes strengthening our defenses against any and all threats to our people, our troops, and our friends and allies around the world. One of…
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Joint press availability with President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Prime Minister Harper and I have just had an excellent conversation, reiterating the extraordinary friendship and bond between the American and the Canadian people. We discussed both our bilateral relationship on issues of energy, our borders, issues of trade,…
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