Senate Proceeding on May 14th, 2008 :: 0:23:44 to 0:39:19
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0:23:44 to 0:23:56( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll of the senate. quorum call: mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous

0:23:44 to 0:39:19( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Richard Durbin

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Richard Durbin: consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator is recognized. mr. durbin: it's been ten days since the cyclone hit the country of burma, the cyclone which

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Richard Durbin: brought sustained winds of 120 miles an hour caused widespread destruction across this asian nation. as you can see from the before and after photographs, satellite photographs that are on this chart, the devastation

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Richard Durbin: was particularly severe in the countries low-lying delta area. a 12-foot wall of water swept away entire sreul is hrapblgs, leaving -- villages, leaving thousands dead and homeless, a as survivors

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Richard Durbin: tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sales. fights broke out around the shops that were able to provide any food to the hungry people. the united nations estimated between 1.2 million

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Richard Durbin: and 1.9 million people have been severely affected and cyclone-related deaths could reach over 100,000. already more than 200,000 people are reported missing. immediately after the cyclone, countries around

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Richard Durbin: the world, including the united states, offered emergency supply and assistance. we offered help in transporting badly needed food and water and medicine. in fact, u.s. navy ships that by coincidence

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Richard Durbin: were in the region for training exercises have remained in the vicinity to offer help. yet, almost two weeks after the cyclone, this natural disaster has been made worse by the reluctance of the burmese military

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Richard Durbin: government to accept aid on the scale that's necessary. instead, they have ignored the plight of their own people as the entire world watches. not only have they refused most outside assistance, they

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Richard Durbin: broadcast shameless propaganda of showing the military handing out aid to the people. the government has done little or nothing to help. in fact, there are reports that the government military has

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Richard Durbin: confiscated some of the limited aid that's been allowed to enter into the country. not only is the military ignored the suffering of its own people, but it tried to push through a sham referendum

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Richard Durbin: at the same time. can you imagine a national election in the midst of this devastation? a critical time and resources were used to intimidate people to the polls, time and resources that should have

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Richard Durbin: been spent for helpless and suffering victims. the u.n. secretary ban ki-moon said this is not about politics. it is about saving people's lives. there is absolutely no more time to lose. he continued,

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Richard Durbin: "unless more aid gets to the coury quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious disease that can dwarf today's crisis." in a country that already has one of the worst health care systems in the world,

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Richard Durbin: it is even harder for people who need medical attention to find it. the environment a rich breeding ground for infection and contagious disease. we are hearing disturbing reports of badly injured people

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Richard Durbin: trying to dress their own wounds. the government has forced humanitarian organizations like doctors without bar tkers to leave the -- borders to leave the hardest hit areas. bodies are decomposing, contamination

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Richard Durbin: spreading. the immediate risk of water-borne disease is acute. the risk of other disease from malaria and dengai fever are growing as mosquitoes rapidly reproduce in the flooded areas. existing malnutrition

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Richard Durbin: among children which affects up to half the population in burma is even worse because of the flooding and cyclones. mr. president, perhaps the world shouldn't be so surprised with this military's

0:27:31 to 0:27:45( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: outrageous reaction to this disaster. this is, after all, a government with a long, well-documented history of brutality to its own people. in eastern burma, the military destroyed 3,000 villages over the

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Richard Durbin: past ten years. it's widely used forced labor and recruited up to 70,000 child soldiers, far more than any other country in the world. today burma has an estimated 1.5 million internal and external refugees.

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Richard Durbin: it's a country with a well-documented history of political repression and torture. two years after 1988, when the burmese people protested the conditions that followed a mock election, aung su chi, a leader

0:28:36 to 0:29:04( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: in human rights around the world was placed under house arrest and suffered mightily since. she tried to lead her national league to a free election result, and for that she was subjugated and imprisoned

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Richard Durbin: in her own home for up to 18 years. suu kyi has been awarded the congressional gold medal, recognition by this congress of her singular efforts in burma to bring a new day and a new government. last september

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Richard Durbin: thousands of monks peacefully protested for change in burma. many of them were hunted down, imprisoned and killed. this military junta has ignored global calls for dialogue and an end to the violence.

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Richard Durbin: earlier this weekend, timothy keating who leads the u.s. pacific command landed with an american relief flight in rangoon and met directly with the burmese filth officials to offer help burr miss

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Richard Durbin: military officials to offer help. today we face a mounting humanitarian crisis in burma. some, including the french foreign minister, have said the united states should invoke the right to protect a provision

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Richard Durbin: that allows the world community to help those left unprotected by their governments.| others argue that china, which also has suffered a horrible natural as does disaster this week, should use its friendship

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Richard Durbin: with burma to help. at a minimum, burma should view china's response to its earthquake in which it state ed its willingness to accept emergency aid as an important way to help the world community. the

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Richard Durbin: world must do more to address this humanitarian crisis crisis. mr. president, i now ask that the statement i'm about too test their veer ry and the results -- their theory and results have been a

0:33:26 to 0:33:44( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: disaster. they've put their theory to work and it's thrown americans out of work. the middle class in america is shrinking and suffering. today more americans are falling out of the middle class than are

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Richard Durbin: working their way into it. a new poll by the respected kaiser family foundation provides a sobering look at the economic situation, the reality of economics in america today. the kaiser foundation asked

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Richard Durbin: people about seven economic trends or changes, what they considered serious problems. 44% of americans said that problems paying for gasoline is a serious problem for their family's financial well-being.

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Richard Durbin: 29% said that problems getting a good-paying job or a raise are serious. 28% of americans said that problems paying for health care and health insurance were serious and hurting their economic well-being.

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Richard Durbin: those are the top three economic strains on family budgets. the price of gasoline, jobs, good-paying jobs, and paying for health care. they als rate ed some serious oblems when they were asked

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Richard Durbin: about the strains and problems their families face, problems paying for mortgage or rent, one out of five; problems paying for food and credit card debt, one out of five; losing money in the stock

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Richard Durbin: market, about one out of six. we have a heard a lot said about the strain that record gas price prices are placing on families and our economy, and yet in the midst of all of this, with the knowledge

0:35:20 to 0:35:37( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: of what it's doing to our economy, to families, to businesses, to farmers, big oil companies continue to rake in record profits at the expense of the american economy. i'd like to take a few minutes

0:35:37 to 0:35:53( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: to talk about another economic problem that's hurting america's families and businesses: out-of- out-of-control health care costs costs. a recent article in "newsweek" contained an eye-opening article

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Richard Durbin: article, "the minimum wage of the best in in the world." i ask that the full article be printed in the "congressional record" ." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: this column

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Richard Durbin: points out that the united states spent about $7,000 per person on medical care last year. $6,697 per capita. that's the highest in the world. 20% more per person than the next highest spending

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Richard Durbin: nation -- luxembourg -- and it is more than than the other countries in the world. the harvard school of public health and the harris inter interactive fund found that 55% thought the united states

0:36:31 to 0:36:49( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: had the best quality care in the world. the fact that we spend so much on -- per person may lead people to that conclusion that we have the best care. after all, we spend the most money. yet the

0:36:49 to 0:37:04( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: facts tell us otherwise. the highest cost doesn't mean the highest quality. we rank below other nations in many critical health outcomes. there's no doubt in my mind, if i were seriously ill in any part

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Richard Durbin: of the world, i would try to find my way to the united states. there's no question that we have the very best doctors, the very best medical professionals, hospitals, and medical technology. but when you take

0:37:23 to 0:37:41( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: a step back and look at the outcomes for the american people, it tells a different story. the five-year survival rate for cervical cancer in the united states, cervical cancer, is worse than italy,

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Richard Durbin: ireland, germany, and many others. the survival rate for breast cancer in the united states is worse than the survival rate in switzerland, norway, britain and other nations. our asthma mortality rate is

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Richard Durbin: twice the rate of germany and sweden. true, we have the best hospitals hospitals, but not the best out outcomes in many instances. only 66% of u.s. patients receive treatments that scientific study ies

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Richard Durbin: show to work, such as beto blockers for heart disease, according to the "new england journal of medicine." adults in the united states are are more likely to forego needed health care than in us a strail

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Richard Durbin: gentleman, canada, germany, netherlands, new zealand, and the united kingdom. nearly one out of five american adults surveyed said this they have serious problems paying medical bills. that's more than

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Richard Durbin: double the rate in the next-highest country. nearly a third o those surveyed had spent more than $1,000 out of pocket in the last year on medical costs not covered by insurance. only one out of five

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Richard Durbin: australians and one out of set canadians spent that much money -- spent that -- and one out of eight canadians spent that much money. years ago the world health organization made the first major effort

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to rank the health as many as of 191 nations. the top two nations in the world world: france and italy. the united states did not even make the top 10, not even the top 20. we ranked 37th in the