America's veterans deserve the very best health care because they've earned it.

American families families back home in Minnesota know only too well that out-of-pocket expenses for health care have been rising at an astonishing rate.

The majority of Americans receive health insurance coverage through their employers but with rising health care costs many small businesses can no longer afford to provide coverage for their employees.

I understand that in these difficult economic times the potential for any additional expense is not welcomed by American businesses. But in the long run the health insurance reform law promises to cut health-care costs for U.S. businesses not expand them.

As founder and co-chair of the upper Mississippi River Congressional task force I have long sought to preserve the river's health and historical multiple uses including as a natural waterway and a home to wildlife for the benefit of future generations of Americans.

We've had Town Hall meetings we've witnessed election after election in which the American people have taken a position on the President's health care bill. And the bottom line is the people don't like this bill. They don't want it.

I am hopeful for the American people that we can actually improve the outlook for bringing down costs in health care.

Challenges of historic import threaten America's future. Action on the deficit economy energy health care and much more is imperative yet our legislative institutions fail to act. Congress must be reformed.

Third issue and again I think it is important to note anyone can make a mistake and any administration can make a mistake once in a while but this is just a long train of abuses an unbroken chain of following special interests rather than the health of the American people.

There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor hungry uneducated and without health coverage.