And whether it is equal pay health care Social Security or family leave this Congress has refused to address issues critical to hard-working American women.

The American economy has always been driven by the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens and blocking access to affordable health care will only suffocate growth within the small business sector of our economy.

By giving every American access to quality affordable health care they will create a more competitive a stronger and more secure America!

Health care costs blunt the competitive edge of American entrepreneurs from the auto industry to internet start-ups.

President Obama stands ready to work with everyone because that's what the American people expect and deserve - not for the short term political advantages but the long term health of our country. We don't spend time trying to figure out what's in the minds of Republicans we try to keep our focus on the American people.

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.

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's definitely evidence that capitalism at its most ruthless rewards psychopathic behavior. When you look at the worst corners of the American health insurance industry or the sub-prime banking market it really feels like the more psychopathically someone behaves the more it's rewarded.

I think that the millions and millions of young Americans young Americans who have health care today who wouldn't have had it if the president hadn't acted are better off.

The fact is if we do our job right if we keep worrying not about polls but about the jobs of the American people about their health care about their ability to educate their kids stay in their homes and own their homes send their kids to college the basic pillars of a middle-class life if we keep worrying about the future and building a stronger future for this country these things will take care of themselves.

The real truth is that the Obama administration is professional at bullying as we have witnessed with ACORN at work during the presidential campaign. It seems to me they are sending down their bullies to create fist fights among average American citizens who don't want a government-run health care plan forced upon them.

Americans want and deserve a broad array of health insurance choices so they can identify those that best fit their own individual or family needs. These choices expand when we allow free enterprise to foster innovation not smother it with taxes and one-size fits all ideology.

Prior to passage of Obamacare Americans spoke out against the individual mandate they didn't want to change the health care they had they didn't want a 3 000-page bill that empowered 15 Washington bureaucrats to decide the future of the doctor-patient relationship.

The Supreme Court has never ruled that Congress can use the Commerce Clause to require individuals to engage in an activity they have chosen to avoid. Yet that is precisely what Obamacare does: It forces Americans without health insurance to purchase coverage. Such a requirement is unprecedented and unconstitutional.

There is much that public policy can do to support American entrepreneurs. Health insurance reform will make it easier for entrepreneurs to take a chance on a new business without putting their family's health at risk. Tort reform will make it easier to take prudent risks on new products in a number of sectors.

Most of the State of the Union will not be about Iraq. Most of the State of the Union will be about improving America's economy and providing greater access to health care for millions of American people including senior citizens.

But you say does it represent change? The change is that we are fighting an insurance industry that has killed health reform for generations. They're spending tens of millions of dollars right now to defeat this bill and we're on the doorstep of winning a great victory for the American people.

Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

Citizens must pressure the American Hospital Association the American Public Health Association the Centers for Disease Control and other relevant governmental agencies to make greening our hospitals and medical centers a top priority so that they themselves don't create even more illness.