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American Morning

Political Jab -- Intel Reform; Ukraine Upheaval Also Sparks Romance

Aired December 07, 2004 - 08:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody.
Just about half past the hour of this AMERICAN MORNING.

Health officials around the world sizing up the risk to humans from the bird flu, and they don't like what they're seeing. So far, that flu has been limited to Southeast Asia. In just a few minutes, we're going to take a look, though, at the risks of it spreading elsewhere.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, this is an interesting one. The aphrodisiac affect of political activism. No wonder all these people are willing to volunteer for campaigns. It's happening specifically in Ukraine. Apparently it happens all over the world, but these young people protesting the recent elections -- they've been doing a little more than protesting -- sharing much in common. We'll have a report on that.

S. O'BRIEN: Sharing a warm tent. On a cold day.

M. O'BRIEN: And on it goes. All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Moving on. The struggle to get intelligence reform out of conference and onto the floor has all the earmarks of a classic Beltway battle, but there have been some surprising twists as well.

Here to battle it out in our "Political Jab" this morning, Republican strategist Joe Watkins. He's in Philadelphia this morning. Hey, Joe, good morning.

JOE WATKINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Laura Nichols of the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Hi, Laura, good morning to you.

LAURA NICHOLS, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Hi. Oh, good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Joe, let's begin with you this morning. 9/11 legislation looks like its actually going to pass. Congressman Sensenbrenner, though, says he does not like it. Doesn't he have a point?

WATKINS: Well, Sensenbrenner, of course, is worried about the immigration issues in the bill. He's -- he wants to make sure that -- that we're protected from the standpoint of immigration, that our borders are protected, and certainly with regards to drivers licenses, that there's some kind of uniform language in there.

But I think this is going to be a great victory for this president. I mean, let's face it, we're going to be a lot safer now with the new Intelligence Director and with all the controls in place with this bill to safeguard Americans. We don't want to have another 9/11.

S. O'BRIEN: Shouldn't there be more, though. More done on immigration reform? I mean, doesn't the Congressman -- Sensenbrenner -- have a good point there?

WATKINS: Well, he has a very, very good point and...

S. O'BRIEN: Hey Joe, you answered your question -- let's go to Laura for this one.

WATKINS: I'm sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: No, I'm teasing you. But go ahead, Laura.

NICHOLS: You know, I think Congressman Sensenbrenner has been assured that immigration reform can be taken up later and that in the Congress there's an ample place and time in the schedule to do that, and this wasn't the place to do it.

You know, I think what's interesting about this is that this is a president that we know by now really gets what he wants on Capitol Hill. And what happened here was either the president ran the poorest attempt yet in his term to try to get a piece of the legislation that the American people clearly wanted passed...

WATKINS: I don't think so.

NICHOLS: ... and there was a new dynamic in the Congress now I think that truly is willing to challenge him in favor of a right-wing agenda.

WATKINS: Well, this has nothing to do with any right-wing agenda. What this has to do with is making sure that Americans are safe and this president has done a great job -- they've drafted language that certainly passes with Congressman Duncan Hunter. He was the House Chairman that had a problem with the language earlier because he wanted to make sure that the chain of command didn't jeopardize our fighting men and women in the field.

And that's been done. So I think this is going to be a great victory for this president and more importantly for the American people.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's move to our next question. In Ohio -- moving to our next question -- in Ohio votes have been certified. The DNC now, though, is investigating if there was any fraud there.

Laura, why now? It's over and was conceded.

NICHOLS: Well, I think this is neither a case of sour grapes nor conspiracy theories about the results of the election. This is not, in fact, an attempt to overturn the results. What the Democratic National Committee is really interested in is trying to ensure the commitment that every vote counts.

And if you care about that, as the Democratic Party does, then they think that it warrants taking a look at why the lines were so long, why did some counties have adequate machinery for voting and others didn't. Those are legitimate issues that really need to be looked at, and that's the intent of the investigation that they are launching.

S. O'BRIEN: Joe, do you think they're legitimate issues?

WATKINS: Well, Soledad, the question is should the taxpayers have to pay for this? I mean, after all...

S. O'BRIEN: That everybody gets a vote? That's not a...

WATKINS: No, no, no -- listen to this...

NICHOLS: The taxpayers aren't paying for this. The taxpayers aren't paying for this; the Democratic National Committee is actually paying for this.

(CROSSTALK)

WATKINS: The Green Party candidate...

S. O'BRIEN: OK, if you both talk I can't hear what anybody is saying -- and so we just heard Laura say the taxpayers aren't paying for it, that the Democratic National Committee is going to pay for it. So go on, Joe, and answer that.

WATKINS: Well, nonetheless, the benefit would be for the Democratic National Committee. The really -- I mean to look forward -- look forward, to look to the future as to how they can work with this president to get the bills passed that need to be passed to make America a better place in which to live. And why...

S. O'BRIEN: So that sounds like you're saying if there wasn't...

WATKINS: This has all the earmarks of crying over spilled milk. I mean...

S. O'BRIEN: But if there was fraud, if there was, and an investigation shows that, it's not crying over spilled milk, is it? Why is it ever a problem to investigate potential fraud?

WATKINS: Well, it shouldn't cost the taxpayers, but obviously we want to investigate fraud if there was fraud but there was, there's no, there's no inkling that there was any fraud. I think Ken Blackwell did a great job of overseeing this election and I think it was done fairly and with a few glitches but done very, very well.

S. O'BRIEN: All right next two -- next question. Overhauling Social Security, Joe, they're saying maybe $1 trillion, $2 trillion. You're the guy that doesn't want to spend the taxpayer's money on this. Where is that money going to come from?

WATKINS: Well, of course there are going to be some -- there's going to be some short-term paying but it ought to be long-term gain because it's going to eventually help us all. Especially the younger people out there who are working right now.

6.2 percent of the average wage earners money, taxable income, that is, goes to Social Security. What the commission is proposing is that 2 percent of that be allowed to go into a personal savings accounts. And a lot of people think they can do a better job of managing money than the government can. And I'm inclined to agree with them. I think this is going to be a good thing.

It's not going to jeopardize the retirees currently and I think in the long-term it's going to make for a stronger system.

S. O'BRIEN: Laura, you get the final word on this this morning.

NICHOLS: Well, there's a fiscal and a benefits consequence to what the president is proposing. The White House admitted just yesterday that in order to finance the privatizing now of Social Security, we're going to have to borrow between $1 and $2 trillion to pay for this.

That is adding an enormous amount of debt to future generations. Secondly, there's a benefit consequence to this. His top economic adviser on Friday admitted that there would have to be huge cuts in the guaranteed benefits to future retirees.

And so I think once this debate really takes shape and once we learn the details of this proposal, it's really going to be a non- starter, particularly among members of his own party.

S. O'BRIEN: I know we'll be talking about it again. Laura Nichols, Joe Watkins, nice to see you guys as always. Thanks.

WATKINS: Thanks so much, Soledad.

NICHOLS: Thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The political upheaval we've been telling you about in Ukraine bringing tens of thousands of people together and they're getting to know one another.

As Ryan Chilcote reports, throngs of young people are sharing political opinions and finding a little romance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With ten thousand young activists in just 500 tents on the cold streets of Kiev, there is plenty of room for things to heat up.

Take Maxim (ph) from western Ukraine and his bride Taliah (ph) from the east. Their support for the political opposition brought them to the capital. Mutual attraction and camp light took care of the rest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): We met three days ago and decided to get married today. It was an unusual meeting. I came to Maxim to get a mattress and liked him so much.

CHILCOTE: Tent City's rampant romance is becoming a medical concern. With no violence and no casualties to attend to, the doctors are giving out condoms.

Free love? There always was and is free love, particularly where there are lots of youths says Dr. Mikhail Grechook (ph). At first, no one was asking for pregnancy tests, then two to three a day. Now we have 10 to 15 a day.

That news made it to the revolutionaries' leaders who kicked off the weekend celebrations forecasting lots of babies in nine months.

Camp organizers hope the young will carry on the names of their leaders, Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the gogadi (ph), all men or boys called Yulia and after this all girls will be called Yulia and all boys Viktor.

CHILCOTE: What about honeymoons in the middle of the political turmoil? Some couples get their own tent for their wedding night.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: Let's leave it at that.

S. O'BRIEN: Strange days. They went on and got hitched.

M. O'BRIEN: My true love. Yes, I have found him.

S. O'BRIEN: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, the reason that they are gathered there, of course, the controversial election -- that might actually be resolved, ruining all the fun for them, of course, but that re-vote is scheduled for December 26. I'm sure they'll be happy to celebrate the fair elections there, right? All right.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, looking for the perfect holiday gift? Well how about reminding your loved ones about their imperfections? Andy's got that in "Minding Your Business."

I do the best I can. S. O'BRIEN: All right, and on a serious note this morning, we're talking about that bird flu pandemic. Millions could be killed if it did happen. Is the United States ready?

A look at that is ahead as well on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A flu pandemic. It's a scary thought, but could it happen? This morning Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson will announce a plan to help relieve the nation's severe flu shot shortage.

Sanjay is on assignment today, maybe getting a flu shot, I don't know. Dr. Gupta off -- that means Elizabeth Cohen is in at the CNN Center with more on the threat of a global flu outbreak. We are scaring you some more. I'm sorry, folks -- this morning on this one. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Actually before we talk about the pandemic, let's talk about what's going to happen this morning. Tommy Thompson is expected to announce that the U.S. government is going to purchase up to five million doses of flu vaccine from Canada and from Germany. That's to help alleviate the shortage of flu vaccines this year.

Now last week -- last month, rather -- the World Health Organization warned about this worldwide flu pandemic. They say it's not a matter of if but when. They say its time and here's what Tommy Thompson had to say about this last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: I'm putting it in the budget this year for $125 million for more work on pandemic flu. I really consider this is a really huge bomb out there that could adversely impact on the health care of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now here's the concern. Pandemics tend to happen every 20 to 30 years. Let's look at the calendar here. In 1918 there was the Spanish flu. 500,000 Americans killed, 50 million killed worldwide. 1957, 70,000 Americans killed. 1968, 34,000 Americans killed.

Of particular concern now in our generation is the Avian flu. There are dozens of different strains; there have been 40 human cases. Only one suspected case of human transmission.

Now Miles, that's important to remember because you can have a flu pandemic unless you have wide-scale human-to-human transmission, not just the bird-to-human transmission that we've pretty much seen so far with the Avian flu. M. O'BRIEN: All right so bottom line, Elizabeth, how prepared are we?

COHEN: Well, many flu experts say that the U.S. really isn't so well prepared for a flu pandemic. Look what happened this year.

All of a sudden half of the nation's flu shots had to be put away because there were manufacturing problems and they couldn't be used. And then even when there are years where there's plenty of flu shots, Americans by and large tend not to get them, even the high-risk folks who are supposed to.

A significant number of them just say no to the flu shot, so people say they used to be for public health education so that more people will take advantage of flu shots.

M. O'BRIEN: Why don't you help people understand exactly what we're talking about, too. We use that term pandemic, I don't think we defined it very well. How likely is that and what is it really mean?

COHEN: Well, the World Health Organization, they say that it's inevitable. They say it's going to happen, it's not a matter of if but when. A pandemic happens, a pandemic is just a huge number of people who get the flu and a pandemic would happen when a genetically strange variation of the flu virus appears. One that is so genetically different from what's happened in the past that people's bodies don't have a lot of protection. That your immune system hasn't seen it before, it doesn't know what to do. And so a lot of people become sick and a lot of people die.

Now, some people say, well, a pandemic may be on the way but it's not going to be along the scale of those other pandemics that we saw before, the Spanish flu or the Hong Kong flu. Simply because health care has gotten better over the years.

For example, now we have antivirals. And what antivirals do is if you take them very soon after you get sick, they can help make the flu less severe and certainly they have saved lives.

Let's go over these antivirals a little bit. They're by prescription only. They have to be taken within the first two days of feeling symptoms, so you have to go right to the doctor. And they're especially important for high-risk people. If a young healthy person gets the flu chances are they're going to be sick but they're going to be fine. A high-risk person would have a higher likelihood of actually dying from the flu -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

As she mentioned, that news conference from Health and Human Services Secretary Thompson expected at 10:30 Eastern. And CNN will bring it to you live, of course -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, who is the queen of Hollywood when it comes to pulling down the big bucks? It's a tie. The "Cafferty File" up next on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back everybody.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Money news. Movement toward a major health deal and that's possibly going to help the stock market today, and a unique holiday gift idea with health in mind. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business" -- good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack. Your health in mind, specifically.

We'll get to that in a moment, though. Let's talk a little bit about what happened on Wall Street yesterday. A mixed session; the Dow was down 45 points. Tech stocks did OK. This morning we are looking at a potentially giant merger between Johnson & Johnson and Guidant, which makes cardiovascular devices like defibrillators.

I hate saying that word; I almost can't say it. I don't' know why. Pacemakers. It's just one of those words. You can see here -- and Guidant has been a remarkably successful company. The stock is up a lot. That's about 126 percent over the past two years and it's been a good business as you can -- obviously the demographics are right, aging population, heart surgeries are a huge part of the medical profession.

It used to be that Christmas was all about gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now it's gold, frankincense and Botox. Increasingly, Americans are getting gift cards to spas and cosmetic surgery and the like. And we found a couple that are very interesting.

We have one here. Actually, I got this for Jack. We have one from a little outfit called the Advanced Aesthetics Institute down in Florida. It's a gift card. Up to $50,000, Jack, of cosmetic surgery and I got you a little card here. You can look at it.

Here's some of the things that Jack can have done. Body contouring, breast enhancement, breast lift, breast reduction, eye lift rejuvenation, tummy tuck, nose contouring, face lift, brow lift, body lift, cheek and chin implants. Isn't that amazing? $50,000 card.

CAFFERTY: Ellie (ph), get a shot of this. Let me show you the way the card was signed. Can you read that? To Jack from weird little dude.

SERWER: That's his name for me. He has been known to call me that.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

CAFFERTY: You know, the problem with giving one of these is you're liable to get your lights punched out.

M. O'BRIEN: You hand somebody a gift card and say hey I think you should go get some plastic surgery. SERWER: Right.

CAFFERTY: You don't need any help. You look good.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: I may get some breast implants.

SERWER: Do that. The good the bad and the Cafferty if you ask me. That's what I think.

CAFFERTY: On to the "File."

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, weird little dude.

The "Hollywood Reporter" releasing it's yearly ranking of top earning actresses. In first place it's a tie between Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, $20 million a picture. Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore get $15 million. Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie in line next.

The only change from last year actually was a flip between Renee Zellweger and Jennifer Lopez. J-Lo was bumped into 10th place -- she gets a paltry $12 million a picture. Imagine how much J-Lo could earn if she actually made a movie worth watching.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Banned from Target stores across the country and faced with a shortage of holiday volunteers the Salvation Army recruiting a new type of bell ringer this year. The familiar red kettles are being presided over by cardboard bell ringers in a number of stores across the South.

Equipped with motion sensors, each cutout has a battery-operated motorized arm that takes money out of your pocket when you're not looking.

(LAUGHTER)

No -- it rings a silent cardboard bell. Everyone who passes by will hear a loud jingling sound from a speaker and the words "Merry Christmas, God bless you."

Nine -- here's a problem -- nine out of ten people who dial the suicide prevention hotline in Beijing are getting a busy signal. More than 110,000 people are calling up the suicide hotline since last year, but a lack of funds has caused a phone backlog. China has 1.3 billion people according to the "China Daily News" and four people in China kill themselves every minute.

SERWER: That's a nice holiday story.

CAFFERTY: Thank you. S. O'BRIEN: Wow.

CAFFERTY: Merry Christmas from the "Cafferty File."

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: They need a call center.

CAFFERTY: This could be a sinister -- this could be a sinister government plot aimed at birth control. Population control.

SERWER: That's another nice thought.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Suicide hotline hang-up and then don't answer the phone when they call.

M. O'BRIEN: All right Ebenezer Cafferty, thank you.

SERWER: That's it; let's stop this.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, I'm ready to go to commercial break. Anybody else?

SERWER: I'm going to start that music up.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. In just a moment, a look at today's top stories, including the 9/11 reform compromise. Lawmakers say they made a key change to appease one critic, but was it really a change at all? A look at that's ahead as we take a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 7, 2004 - 08:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody.
Just about half past the hour of this AMERICAN MORNING.

Health officials around the world sizing up the risk to humans from the bird flu, and they don't like what they're seeing. So far, that flu has been limited to Southeast Asia. In just a few minutes, we're going to take a look, though, at the risks of it spreading elsewhere.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, this is an interesting one. The aphrodisiac affect of political activism. No wonder all these people are willing to volunteer for campaigns. It's happening specifically in Ukraine. Apparently it happens all over the world, but these young people protesting the recent elections -- they've been doing a little more than protesting -- sharing much in common. We'll have a report on that.

S. O'BRIEN: Sharing a warm tent. On a cold day.

M. O'BRIEN: And on it goes. All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Moving on. The struggle to get intelligence reform out of conference and onto the floor has all the earmarks of a classic Beltway battle, but there have been some surprising twists as well.

Here to battle it out in our "Political Jab" this morning, Republican strategist Joe Watkins. He's in Philadelphia this morning. Hey, Joe, good morning.

JOE WATKINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Laura Nichols of the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Hi, Laura, good morning to you.

LAURA NICHOLS, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Hi. Oh, good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Joe, let's begin with you this morning. 9/11 legislation looks like its actually going to pass. Congressman Sensenbrenner, though, says he does not like it. Doesn't he have a point?

WATKINS: Well, Sensenbrenner, of course, is worried about the immigration issues in the bill. He's -- he wants to make sure that -- that we're protected from the standpoint of immigration, that our borders are protected, and certainly with regards to drivers licenses, that there's some kind of uniform language in there.

But I think this is going to be a great victory for this president. I mean, let's face it, we're going to be a lot safer now with the new Intelligence Director and with all the controls in place with this bill to safeguard Americans. We don't want to have another 9/11.

S. O'BRIEN: Shouldn't there be more, though. More done on immigration reform? I mean, doesn't the Congressman -- Sensenbrenner -- have a good point there?

WATKINS: Well, he has a very, very good point and...

S. O'BRIEN: Hey Joe, you answered your question -- let's go to Laura for this one.

WATKINS: I'm sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: No, I'm teasing you. But go ahead, Laura.

NICHOLS: You know, I think Congressman Sensenbrenner has been assured that immigration reform can be taken up later and that in the Congress there's an ample place and time in the schedule to do that, and this wasn't the place to do it.

You know, I think what's interesting about this is that this is a president that we know by now really gets what he wants on Capitol Hill. And what happened here was either the president ran the poorest attempt yet in his term to try to get a piece of the legislation that the American people clearly wanted passed...

WATKINS: I don't think so.

NICHOLS: ... and there was a new dynamic in the Congress now I think that truly is willing to challenge him in favor of a right-wing agenda.

WATKINS: Well, this has nothing to do with any right-wing agenda. What this has to do with is making sure that Americans are safe and this president has done a great job -- they've drafted language that certainly passes with Congressman Duncan Hunter. He was the House Chairman that had a problem with the language earlier because he wanted to make sure that the chain of command didn't jeopardize our fighting men and women in the field.

And that's been done. So I think this is going to be a great victory for this president and more importantly for the American people.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's move to our next question. In Ohio -- moving to our next question -- in Ohio votes have been certified. The DNC now, though, is investigating if there was any fraud there.

Laura, why now? It's over and was conceded.

NICHOLS: Well, I think this is neither a case of sour grapes nor conspiracy theories about the results of the election. This is not, in fact, an attempt to overturn the results. What the Democratic National Committee is really interested in is trying to ensure the commitment that every vote counts.

And if you care about that, as the Democratic Party does, then they think that it warrants taking a look at why the lines were so long, why did some counties have adequate machinery for voting and others didn't. Those are legitimate issues that really need to be looked at, and that's the intent of the investigation that they are launching.

S. O'BRIEN: Joe, do you think they're legitimate issues?

WATKINS: Well, Soledad, the question is should the taxpayers have to pay for this? I mean, after all...

S. O'BRIEN: That everybody gets a vote? That's not a...

WATKINS: No, no, no -- listen to this...

NICHOLS: The taxpayers aren't paying for this. The taxpayers aren't paying for this; the Democratic National Committee is actually paying for this.

(CROSSTALK)

WATKINS: The Green Party candidate...

S. O'BRIEN: OK, if you both talk I can't hear what anybody is saying -- and so we just heard Laura say the taxpayers aren't paying for it, that the Democratic National Committee is going to pay for it. So go on, Joe, and answer that.

WATKINS: Well, nonetheless, the benefit would be for the Democratic National Committee. The really -- I mean to look forward -- look forward, to look to the future as to how they can work with this president to get the bills passed that need to be passed to make America a better place in which to live. And why...

S. O'BRIEN: So that sounds like you're saying if there wasn't...

WATKINS: This has all the earmarks of crying over spilled milk. I mean...

S. O'BRIEN: But if there was fraud, if there was, and an investigation shows that, it's not crying over spilled milk, is it? Why is it ever a problem to investigate potential fraud?

WATKINS: Well, it shouldn't cost the taxpayers, but obviously we want to investigate fraud if there was fraud but there was, there's no, there's no inkling that there was any fraud. I think Ken Blackwell did a great job of overseeing this election and I think it was done fairly and with a few glitches but done very, very well.

S. O'BRIEN: All right next two -- next question. Overhauling Social Security, Joe, they're saying maybe $1 trillion, $2 trillion. You're the guy that doesn't want to spend the taxpayer's money on this. Where is that money going to come from?

WATKINS: Well, of course there are going to be some -- there's going to be some short-term paying but it ought to be long-term gain because it's going to eventually help us all. Especially the younger people out there who are working right now.

6.2 percent of the average wage earners money, taxable income, that is, goes to Social Security. What the commission is proposing is that 2 percent of that be allowed to go into a personal savings accounts. And a lot of people think they can do a better job of managing money than the government can. And I'm inclined to agree with them. I think this is going to be a good thing.

It's not going to jeopardize the retirees currently and I think in the long-term it's going to make for a stronger system.

S. O'BRIEN: Laura, you get the final word on this this morning.

NICHOLS: Well, there's a fiscal and a benefits consequence to what the president is proposing. The White House admitted just yesterday that in order to finance the privatizing now of Social Security, we're going to have to borrow between $1 and $2 trillion to pay for this.

That is adding an enormous amount of debt to future generations. Secondly, there's a benefit consequence to this. His top economic adviser on Friday admitted that there would have to be huge cuts in the guaranteed benefits to future retirees.

And so I think once this debate really takes shape and once we learn the details of this proposal, it's really going to be a non- starter, particularly among members of his own party.

S. O'BRIEN: I know we'll be talking about it again. Laura Nichols, Joe Watkins, nice to see you guys as always. Thanks.

WATKINS: Thanks so much, Soledad.

NICHOLS: Thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The political upheaval we've been telling you about in Ukraine bringing tens of thousands of people together and they're getting to know one another.

As Ryan Chilcote reports, throngs of young people are sharing political opinions and finding a little romance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With ten thousand young activists in just 500 tents on the cold streets of Kiev, there is plenty of room for things to heat up.

Take Maxim (ph) from western Ukraine and his bride Taliah (ph) from the east. Their support for the political opposition brought them to the capital. Mutual attraction and camp light took care of the rest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): We met three days ago and decided to get married today. It was an unusual meeting. I came to Maxim to get a mattress and liked him so much.

CHILCOTE: Tent City's rampant romance is becoming a medical concern. With no violence and no casualties to attend to, the doctors are giving out condoms.

Free love? There always was and is free love, particularly where there are lots of youths says Dr. Mikhail Grechook (ph). At first, no one was asking for pregnancy tests, then two to three a day. Now we have 10 to 15 a day.

That news made it to the revolutionaries' leaders who kicked off the weekend celebrations forecasting lots of babies in nine months.

Camp organizers hope the young will carry on the names of their leaders, Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the gogadi (ph), all men or boys called Yulia and after this all girls will be called Yulia and all boys Viktor.

CHILCOTE: What about honeymoons in the middle of the political turmoil? Some couples get their own tent for their wedding night.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: Let's leave it at that.

S. O'BRIEN: Strange days. They went on and got hitched.

M. O'BRIEN: My true love. Yes, I have found him.

S. O'BRIEN: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, the reason that they are gathered there, of course, the controversial election -- that might actually be resolved, ruining all the fun for them, of course, but that re-vote is scheduled for December 26. I'm sure they'll be happy to celebrate the fair elections there, right? All right.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, looking for the perfect holiday gift? Well how about reminding your loved ones about their imperfections? Andy's got that in "Minding Your Business."

I do the best I can. S. O'BRIEN: All right, and on a serious note this morning, we're talking about that bird flu pandemic. Millions could be killed if it did happen. Is the United States ready?

A look at that is ahead as well on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A flu pandemic. It's a scary thought, but could it happen? This morning Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson will announce a plan to help relieve the nation's severe flu shot shortage.

Sanjay is on assignment today, maybe getting a flu shot, I don't know. Dr. Gupta off -- that means Elizabeth Cohen is in at the CNN Center with more on the threat of a global flu outbreak. We are scaring you some more. I'm sorry, folks -- this morning on this one. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Actually before we talk about the pandemic, let's talk about what's going to happen this morning. Tommy Thompson is expected to announce that the U.S. government is going to purchase up to five million doses of flu vaccine from Canada and from Germany. That's to help alleviate the shortage of flu vaccines this year.

Now last week -- last month, rather -- the World Health Organization warned about this worldwide flu pandemic. They say it's not a matter of if but when. They say its time and here's what Tommy Thompson had to say about this last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: I'm putting it in the budget this year for $125 million for more work on pandemic flu. I really consider this is a really huge bomb out there that could adversely impact on the health care of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now here's the concern. Pandemics tend to happen every 20 to 30 years. Let's look at the calendar here. In 1918 there was the Spanish flu. 500,000 Americans killed, 50 million killed worldwide. 1957, 70,000 Americans killed. 1968, 34,000 Americans killed.

Of particular concern now in our generation is the Avian flu. There are dozens of different strains; there have been 40 human cases. Only one suspected case of human transmission.

Now Miles, that's important to remember because you can have a flu pandemic unless you have wide-scale human-to-human transmission, not just the bird-to-human transmission that we've pretty much seen so far with the Avian flu. M. O'BRIEN: All right so bottom line, Elizabeth, how prepared are we?

COHEN: Well, many flu experts say that the U.S. really isn't so well prepared for a flu pandemic. Look what happened this year.

All of a sudden half of the nation's flu shots had to be put away because there were manufacturing problems and they couldn't be used. And then even when there are years where there's plenty of flu shots, Americans by and large tend not to get them, even the high-risk folks who are supposed to.

A significant number of them just say no to the flu shot, so people say they used to be for public health education so that more people will take advantage of flu shots.

M. O'BRIEN: Why don't you help people understand exactly what we're talking about, too. We use that term pandemic, I don't think we defined it very well. How likely is that and what is it really mean?

COHEN: Well, the World Health Organization, they say that it's inevitable. They say it's going to happen, it's not a matter of if but when. A pandemic happens, a pandemic is just a huge number of people who get the flu and a pandemic would happen when a genetically strange variation of the flu virus appears. One that is so genetically different from what's happened in the past that people's bodies don't have a lot of protection. That your immune system hasn't seen it before, it doesn't know what to do. And so a lot of people become sick and a lot of people die.

Now, some people say, well, a pandemic may be on the way but it's not going to be along the scale of those other pandemics that we saw before, the Spanish flu or the Hong Kong flu. Simply because health care has gotten better over the years.

For example, now we have antivirals. And what antivirals do is if you take them very soon after you get sick, they can help make the flu less severe and certainly they have saved lives.

Let's go over these antivirals a little bit. They're by prescription only. They have to be taken within the first two days of feeling symptoms, so you have to go right to the doctor. And they're especially important for high-risk people. If a young healthy person gets the flu chances are they're going to be sick but they're going to be fine. A high-risk person would have a higher likelihood of actually dying from the flu -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

As she mentioned, that news conference from Health and Human Services Secretary Thompson expected at 10:30 Eastern. And CNN will bring it to you live, of course -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, who is the queen of Hollywood when it comes to pulling down the big bucks? It's a tie. The "Cafferty File" up next on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back everybody.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Money news. Movement toward a major health deal and that's possibly going to help the stock market today, and a unique holiday gift idea with health in mind. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business" -- good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack. Your health in mind, specifically.

We'll get to that in a moment, though. Let's talk a little bit about what happened on Wall Street yesterday. A mixed session; the Dow was down 45 points. Tech stocks did OK. This morning we are looking at a potentially giant merger between Johnson & Johnson and Guidant, which makes cardiovascular devices like defibrillators.

I hate saying that word; I almost can't say it. I don't' know why. Pacemakers. It's just one of those words. You can see here -- and Guidant has been a remarkably successful company. The stock is up a lot. That's about 126 percent over the past two years and it's been a good business as you can -- obviously the demographics are right, aging population, heart surgeries are a huge part of the medical profession.

It used to be that Christmas was all about gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now it's gold, frankincense and Botox. Increasingly, Americans are getting gift cards to spas and cosmetic surgery and the like. And we found a couple that are very interesting.

We have one here. Actually, I got this for Jack. We have one from a little outfit called the Advanced Aesthetics Institute down in Florida. It's a gift card. Up to $50,000, Jack, of cosmetic surgery and I got you a little card here. You can look at it.

Here's some of the things that Jack can have done. Body contouring, breast enhancement, breast lift, breast reduction, eye lift rejuvenation, tummy tuck, nose contouring, face lift, brow lift, body lift, cheek and chin implants. Isn't that amazing? $50,000 card.

CAFFERTY: Ellie (ph), get a shot of this. Let me show you the way the card was signed. Can you read that? To Jack from weird little dude.

SERWER: That's his name for me. He has been known to call me that.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

CAFFERTY: You know, the problem with giving one of these is you're liable to get your lights punched out.

M. O'BRIEN: You hand somebody a gift card and say hey I think you should go get some plastic surgery. SERWER: Right.

CAFFERTY: You don't need any help. You look good.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: I may get some breast implants.

SERWER: Do that. The good the bad and the Cafferty if you ask me. That's what I think.

CAFFERTY: On to the "File."

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, weird little dude.

The "Hollywood Reporter" releasing it's yearly ranking of top earning actresses. In first place it's a tie between Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, $20 million a picture. Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore get $15 million. Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie in line next.

The only change from last year actually was a flip between Renee Zellweger and Jennifer Lopez. J-Lo was bumped into 10th place -- she gets a paltry $12 million a picture. Imagine how much J-Lo could earn if she actually made a movie worth watching.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Banned from Target stores across the country and faced with a shortage of holiday volunteers the Salvation Army recruiting a new type of bell ringer this year. The familiar red kettles are being presided over by cardboard bell ringers in a number of stores across the South.

Equipped with motion sensors, each cutout has a battery-operated motorized arm that takes money out of your pocket when you're not looking.

(LAUGHTER)

No -- it rings a silent cardboard bell. Everyone who passes by will hear a loud jingling sound from a speaker and the words "Merry Christmas, God bless you."

Nine -- here's a problem -- nine out of ten people who dial the suicide prevention hotline in Beijing are getting a busy signal. More than 110,000 people are calling up the suicide hotline since last year, but a lack of funds has caused a phone backlog. China has 1.3 billion people according to the "China Daily News" and four people in China kill themselves every minute.

SERWER: That's a nice holiday story.

CAFFERTY: Thank you. S. O'BRIEN: Wow.

CAFFERTY: Merry Christmas from the "Cafferty File."

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: They need a call center.

CAFFERTY: This could be a sinister -- this could be a sinister government plot aimed at birth control. Population control.

SERWER: That's another nice thought.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Suicide hotline hang-up and then don't answer the phone when they call.

M. O'BRIEN: All right Ebenezer Cafferty, thank you.

SERWER: That's it; let's stop this.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, I'm ready to go to commercial break. Anybody else?

SERWER: I'm going to start that music up.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. In just a moment, a look at today's top stories, including the 9/11 reform compromise. Lawmakers say they made a key change to appease one critic, but was it really a change at all? A look at that's ahead as we take a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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