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American Morning
Stopping a Recession; Presidential Candidates Talk Economy; Breakfast Contributing to Health Crisis in the South?; Interview with Mike Huckabee
Aired January 18, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The interesting thing about that is it's not the actual price of wine, it's the price they told you it costs.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Friday, the 18th of January. I'm John Roberts live in Columbia, South Carolina, this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Perception is reality. You know, the brain is a funny thing. And I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.
John, the day you get the best weather is the day that you're inside.
ROBERTS: You know, the weather still is not even great though since it's been raining a lot here and there was a storm that came out through the Carolinas yesterday. It is a sight warmer than it's been in Nevada and Iowa and Michigan for sure.
We're here at the Lizard's Thicket restaurant this morning where people are starting to arrive for a little down-home country cooking. Everyone talking about that big Republican primary coming up tomorrow and what effect that's going to have on the campaign.
Will it propel John McCain to another victory? Will Huckabee be able to take it away from him? And what happens to Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson? We'll be talking with Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson coming up a little bit later on in the program, as we talk politics this morning, the most politics in the morning right here on CNN.
Right now, though, let's go back up to New York and, Kiran, with important news on the economy.
CHETRY: Well, raising to stop a recession is what's going on right now. And the White House and Congress are putting together a package of tax breaks and incentives to try to help make sure the economy doesn't sink. The president is speaking about it today, and we're already getting an idea of just how much money Washington could be trying to put back into your pockets.
According to "The Associated Press," as well as Bloomberg and others, it would include tax rebates in advance of $800 for individuals and up to $1,600 for families. CNN's Brianna Keilar is following developments from the White House.
And Brianna, do you have a taste of what we expect to hear from the president today?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, President Bush is expected to speak at 11:50 a.m. this morning from the Roosevelt room, and according to the White House, he's going to be laying out principles. This is the word they're using, principles, indicating sort of broader statements about what he thinks will be a good economic stimulus package.
And today is really all about the economy for President Bush. This afternoon, he'll be visiting a lawn equipment manufacturing plant in nearby Frederick, Maryland. He'll be making another statement about the economy there. The White House really trying to communicate that they understand Americans are feeling the pinch that they're on top of this issue, and they're trying to find a quick solution, Kiran.
CHETRY: Some of the Democrats, though, apparently not thrilled that he's laying out this plan today?
KEILAR: And a very important Democrat, the Senate majority leader Harry Reid was one of the congressional leaders on that bipartisan conference call with President Bush yesterday. He issued a statement shortly afterwards saying while he appreciates that President Bush is acknowledging there's a problem and working towards dealing with it.
He said he's disappointed that the president went against a request from congressional leaders, and Harry Reid says both Democrats and Republicans put forward this request that the group kind of come out with a unified plan instead of President Bush detailing his own plan.
Now, one source did tell CNN this isn't a deal breaker that President Bush is having this address today, but it sort of dampens the bipartisan spirit we've been seeing around this issue. Although two sources did also tell CNN that White House officials called congressional participants in that conference call yesterday and basically told them that the president is going to be speaking more in generalities and not too much in specifics, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Brianna Keilar at the White House for us. Thank so much.
We hope to get some specifics today when we talk with White House Counselor, Ed Gillespie. He's going to be joining us in about 15 minutes to talk a little bit more about the plan here on AMERICAN MORNING -- John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, of course, all of this comes after another awful day for money. A 300-point plunge on Wall Street yesterday. Stocks have now wiped out all of their gains from 2007. Stephanie Elam is in for Ali Velshi this morning with more on that. Not great if you got money in the market or if you're a person who works in the market.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's pretty much just a bad thing overall, John. If you take a look at what happened yesterday, by far, the biggest drop that we've seen so far on the Dow, losing almost 307 points. It is the worst three-day session that we've seen in a row since 2002 on the Dow.
For this year so far, the Dow is off 8 percent. That's the biggest drop we've seen in two months. Dow is now a 10-month low, Nasdaq at a 10-month low. The Dow is also off 14.5 percent from its high which we hit back in November. Also, the S&P really getting slapped as well. It lost three percent of its value yesterday and is now at a 15-month low.
Obviously, we had that Merrill news that came out yesterday with them reporting the worst quarterly result ever. That, on top of the fact that we've got some weak economic data that came out from the Philly Fed and Ben Bernanke speaking, testifying before Congress yesterday. He was really clear about what he said needed to happen now. He's saying the economy is not in a recession yet, but it is on its way, and they need a quick stimulus package but it has to be temporary.
Now if you're wondering how much could this really help the economy? Take a look at what happened back in 2001 when a similar stimulus package came out. As you can see, 20 to 40 percent of checks were spent within days. We're getting individuals, $300, families, $600. Consumers saved a third of their money, and two-thirds of the rebate into the economy within two quarters.
So the idea behind the stimulus package is get the American consumer back out there spending. Get the money out to the lower- income people, make sure that they start spending right away and hopefully get the economy back on its feet.
CHETRY: All right. It's interesting because we asked that question today in our "Quick Vote." What would you do if you got money back from the government? And here's how it's shaking out so far. What would you do if you got a little extra money from the government? So 14 percent of you say spend it. Thirty-two percent say save it, and 54 percent say they would use that money to pay off debt.
If you'd like to weigh in, please cast your vote. CNN.com/am. We'll continue to tally your votes throughout the morning. So, as you said, the last time this happened, 66 percent of people saved it. At least according to our unscientific "Quick Vote", there is only about 14 percent who say they would do it this time around.
ELAM: Would do it -- but you know what? The other thing is if you do pay off your debt, then you're more likely to be able to spend your money as it comes in moving forward from your job and so forth.
CHETRY: I got you. Stephanie, thanks so much. Right now, we're going to check in with Alina Cho. She's going to look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning, including some breaking news.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's right, just coming into our news room in the past 30 minutes or so. Kiran, good morning.
We do begin with that breaking news. Bobby Fischer, the former chess champion who renounced his U.S. citizenship has died. The spokesman says Fischer died in Iceland, the country he moved to in 2005. No word yet on the cause. Fischer, of course, became the world champion back in 1972 when he beat a player from the Soviet Union. And in so doing, he became a Cold War icon. But Fischer ultimately became more famous for his idiosyncrasies, making numerous anti- American comments. Bobby Fischer was 64 years old.
New developments this morning in the investigation of that deadly tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. Court documents obtained by "The San Francisco Chronicle" reveal one of the two surviving victims, Paul Dhaliwal, admitted he was drunk and taunted the tiger before it escaped. Police say he was yelling and waving while standing on a railing near the edge of the tiger moat. 17-year-old Carlos Sousa, Jr. was killed in the Christmas Day attack. Dhaliwal and his brother, Kulbir, were seriously injured.
The CIA says Al-Qaeda is behind the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. CIA director Michael Hayden tells the "Washington Post" Bhutto was killed by fighters linked with a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan. The CIA says they're behind a new wave of violence now threatening the stability of President Musharraf's government.
The military's number two man in Iraq says he has some good news for U.S. troops and their families. Army Lieutenant General Ray Odierno says a slow and steady withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq is a very real possibility. He says Iraqi forces will be able to take over security faster than he originally thought, but that some air and ground forces will likely have to stay in Iraq for another five to 10 years. So some mixed news there.
And identical twins with identical perfect scores on a key college entrance exam. Take a look at these guys, Brian and Ross DeVol of Bellevue, Nebraska, each scored a perfect 36 on the ACT. Don't they just look smart?
Now, they're waiting to see which one of them would be valedictorian.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSS DEVOL, TWIN WITH PERFECT ACT SCORE: I'm not sure I would try this hard if I were competing with somebody for the valedictorian position because I might get a few B's here and there, but so far it's still all A's.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: So the brothers are super, hyper competitive. The twins have met the governor and now their classmates, of course, are all hounding them for help on the ACT. By the way, this doesn't happen every day. In fact, it doesn't happen very often at all. Only one in about 4,000 students gets a perfect score on the ACT.
CHETRY: Well, can't they give it to both of them? Can't they both be co-valedictorians? CHO: Well, they could. They could. Overachievers, is what I'd say.
CHETRY: Good for them. I bet you. Colleges text messaging them ...
CHO: All over the country. They probably will have their pick anywhere.
CHETRY: Paid off for the parents. You know, you're the financial one, you're always thinking scholarship.
(CROSSTALK)
ELAM: It can be done.
CHO: With what college costs these days. I mean ...
ELAM: They had the scholarships in the bag.
CHETRY: All right, Alina, thanks so much.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Scholarship -- that's the best word a parent can hear. It's coming up to nine minutes after the hour. The Nevada caucuses are tomorrow, and nine precincts will be in casinos. A federal judge ruled that workers can caucus there. The state Teachers Union backing Hillary Clinton had filed a lawsuit protesting the sites after the Culinary Union endorsed Barack Obama.
On the most politics in the morning right here on CNN, a busy couple of weeks ahead. Tomorrow, it's the Nevada caucuses and Republicans vote in the South Carolina primary. Democrats vote in South Carolina the following Saturday, there on the 26th. Then both parties vote in the Florida primary on Tuesday, January 29th, all leading up to Super Duper Tuesday. We call it that because unlike regular Super Tuesday, 24 states including a lot of big ones like New York and California are going to be voting on February 5th.
Right now, your money is on the candidates' minds. They're talking up their ideas to fix the economy, and CNN's Dana Bash joins me now. A lot of different ideas about what to do and maybe not to do anything at all.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of different ideas. It's interesting. The issue base here in South Carolina is quite diverse. You got the Veteran community that focuses on military issues. We've got big evangelical communities that focuses on social issues, immigration. But taking all that aside, more and more the issue that is now dominating here just like everywhere else is the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice-over): Just before the South Carolina primary he needs to win, it's clear what John McCain learned from the Michigan primary he lost -- focus on the economy.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, we're seeing the news. We're seeing the concerns of people we have out there.
BASH: Unveiling a new economic stimulus plan.
MCCAIN: I will cut your taxes. I will encourage the growth. I will eliminate the wasteful and unnecessary spending.
BASH: Specifically, McCain says, he would lower the corporate tax rate, allow a tax write off for equipment and technology investments, establish a new tax credit for research and development. McCain has stopped warning voters that lost jobs are not coming back. That didn't work in Michigan. Now, it's optimism.
MCCAIN: This is still the most powerful and greatest nation on earth. We are the greatest innovator, the greatest exporter, the greatest importer, the strongest economy.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will be releasing soon my economic stimulus plan to give the economy a short-term boost.
BASH: In a hurried appearance before he left South Carolina for Nevada, Mitt Romney promised he'll soon announce an economic plan of his own.
ROMNEY: I do believe it makes sense for Congress to take immediate action. The consequence of the economy falling into a recession is one which can be calculated at large numbers for the government, but in very important heartfelt changes for the families of America.
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to say to you, I was probably one candidate, particularly in my party, who started seeing that we have some economic challenges.
BASH: As for Mike Huckabee, no talk of stimulus, just, I told you so.
HUCKABEE: Now, a few months later, all of them are saying, boy, we've got some economic challenges. Well, they didn't know that a little bit ago if they had gotten out of Washington and out of the ivory towers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Now, with regard to the president's stimulus plan, John, it's going to be interesting to see how all of these Republican candidates react because almost to a person, they have said that they are very cautious about spending a lot of government money. Of course, that is just an absolutely wrong thing to say here in South Carolina where they're trying to preach fiscal responsibility. ROBERTS: And Fred Thompson has probably gone furthest away from that saying, hey, maybe if we have a plan, then maybe we just leave the economy alone for now. He's coming up in our next hour. We'll ask him about that. Dana Bash for us this morning. Dana, thanks -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We have Rob Marciano at the weather update desk. He's tracking extreme weather for us right now.
Hey, Rob. It hasn't been pleasant anywhere, not where you guys are, not where we are this morning?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It hasn't been what?
CHETRY: Pleasant. We've been getting a lot of ...
MARCIANO: Well, come on, now. Don't be Debbie Downer now, OK. Winter can be pleasant too.
We have some extreme weather heading across the northeast, mostly across northern New England. Let's check out the maps and show you what we're talking about. A wintry mix mostly in the suburbs, actually really north of the suburbs. This is where you going to see it.
We have some winter weather advisories for some freezing rain mixing with snow at times. Heavy snow warnings in effect for parts of Maine. Check out these snow totals yesterday. Williamsburg, West Virginia, eight inches. Blacksburg, Virginia, six inches. Columbia, Maryland, five inches -- four inches in change at Baltimore. So, yes, you guys got in the act there in the D.C. area with just an inch or two in D.C.
Now, we've got some cold air that's moving across the central plains. Temperatures there at or below freezing. Computer locked up, but I'll just tell you about it. We could see some numbers, well, like this, across the south as we go through time.
Birmingham, Alabama, under a winter storm watch with snow -- with moisture moving into an area that's going to see some bitterly cold temperatures dropping down to the south. So we'll highlight that the more, Kiran, about another half an hour. See, your pessimism has locked up my computer. The temperatures that are chilly. You know, use this dress form. You've got cute winter outfits.
CHETRY: This is what I have to say. I want you to file an I- Report showing me sleet and freezing rain being pleasant and I'll totally -- I'll back off for saying the weather wasn't so great.
(CROSSTALK)
MARCIANO: All right. You know, I've got one from yesterday. Somebody north of Atlanta doing a snow angel.
CHETRY: I want to see you out there. I want to see you out there in sleet and freezing rain. MARCIANO: Oh, come on, like I haven't done that. All right, we're work on it.
CHETRY: All right. See you, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you.
CHETRY: See you around.
Well, Mike Huckabee rode a wave of support from evangelicals to a win in Iowa and now is hoping for a repeat performance in South Carolina. We're going to be talking to him live about the message he hopes will put him over the top in that state. That's just ahead.
Also, nothing better than a big southern breakfast. But is it contributing to a serious health crisis in the south? Can a southern cooking diet be healthy too? Sanjay Gupta is going to be taking a look for us ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Anyway, we're not just going to blame the south. Everybody has a bad breakfast they love to eat. What's your favorite? E-mail us, AM@CNN.com. We'll be sharing some of those throughout the morning. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, we've been asking to share your favorite bad-for- you-breakfast. John and Sanjay are in Columbia, South Carolina, the Lizard Thicket cafe, where they have all kinds of good stuff on the menu, country ham, biscuits and gravy, fried bologna. And Sanjay, it looks great, and I'm sure it taste great. But, you know, we ask these types of questions like is it really healthy to eat this way all the time? And I'm sure we know the answer even though we really don't want to.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know, it's true. The Southerners suffer from the highest rates of strokes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. You know, we're in what's called the stroke belt here of the nation. Beyond the food, though, are there any contributing factors?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the interesting thing about the food is that when you really start to break it down, you really get an idea of just how many calories you're eating in any given day. I mean, I want to give just a couple of examples here because this is actually what we have.
In front of us, John, is a typical sort of southern platter. We have biscuits with gravy. That's 550 calories over here.
ROBERTS: Thirty-one grams of fat, too.
GUPTA: Yes, 31 grams of fat. That's more than you need in a day.
ROBERTS: This is what we're talking about here.
GUPTA: That's right.
ROBERTS: Biscuits and gravy. Look at that.
GUPTA: Biscuits and gravy there. You guess that just the two eggs with cheese and butter, that's another 370 calories over here. Hash browns, another 360 calories. All of this, basically, added up with the orange juice, 2,100 calories, John, 109 grams of fat. Here in lies part of the problem, and that's why I think I should more or less sort of point this out.
That's more than you need for the entire day and that's just one meal, a typical southern platter. Does it -- is there more chance of getting heart disease? There's a more chance of developing obesity? You bet. I mean, I think mom said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but this isn't what she had in mind necessarily.
ROBERTS: I'll tell you, though, Kiran, it sure does look good.
CHETRY: It looks absolutely wonderful. A couple of our e- mailers are sharing theirs as well. One said that in Seattle, their favorite cafe, Beth's, does a 12-egg omelet. I'm sure you're not supposed to be eating 12 eggs in one sitting, Sanjay, and also scrapples -- scrambled eggs and fried potatoes from another e-mailer.
ROBERTS: I mean, they all taste good. But Sanjay, how long can you eat like this before you do some serious damage?
GUPTA: So we talk about the stroke belt. You talk about the obesity belt, the cardiac belt. The five states sort of in the south really are known for this. As you said, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina have the highest degree of strokes. West Virginia and Kentucky, the highest rate of heart disease.
So you're starting to see the ramifications of how long can you eat like this? I mean, again, this is your entire daily allotment. You start to see all the chronic effects of obesity which is linked to just about everything, you know, talking about heart disease, stroke, but also arthritic joints, cancers, even some of those. My guess, not very long. But, you know, again, a lot of people with no disrespect to the patrons of this restaurant are eating like this obviously on a daily basis.
ROBERTS: No. We don't want to eat like perhaps on a daily basis. Once in a while might be all right. So everything in moderation, Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. Got something to look forward to. So what is your favorite bad-for-you breakfast? We want to know. Drop us an e- mail. We've been getting some good ones, AM@CNN.com. We'll read some responses later in the show.
And so ahead, Mike Huckabee riding a wave of support from the evangelicals. That was what led to his win in Iowa. Now, he's hoping for a repeat in the crucial state of South Carolina. We're talking to him live. Coming up next about the message he hopes will put him over the top. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is facing some tough competition here in South Carolina as he tries to rally support from evangelicals. Fred Thompson is putting up a fight for those votes which could ultimately make up about a third of all votes cast in the primary. Mike Huckabee joins us now from Sun City, South Carolina.
Governor, it's good to see you. Of course, the big news of the day is President Bush is going to be outlining his economic stimulus package. If you were president, what would you be doing right now for a short-term economic stimulus?
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, the first I'd do is make those tax cuts permanent. I'd make sure that we didn't raise any taxes and, in fact, try to cut rates on both corporate income tax and individual income tax.
Right now, the last thing we need is to take more money from people because consumer confidence is low. People have less money because of high fuel prices because of housing issues and health care issues. If you take more money from them, you only further weaken the economy.
ROBERTS: Would you be open to the idea of rebates?
HUCKABEE: I think that, you know, it certainly would be something I'd put on the table. I'd sit down with members of Congress, talk to the Democrats in Congress to see what are they willing to do. We want to be careful not to go into what I call a major government bailout, because then it becomes an issue of going further into debt.
I think the second thing that the president needs to do is to really look at some serious spending cuts. It's not enough just to cut taxes. You've got to cut the spending that goes along with it. We're already $9 trillion in to debt. The federal government is not really a good example for American consumers who really have a debt issue right now because the federal government is the worst offender of all when it comes to spending money it doesn't have.
ROBERTS: Governor, there are a couple of interesting moments that you had on the campaign trail yesterday. One of which I want to play for you now. You were talking about the idea of abortion and gay marriage, and perhaps he's trying to advance against both in the Constitution. Let's take a listen to how you phrase that particular issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUCKABEE: But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than trying to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Governor, that statement raised eyebrows even amongst some evangelicals that I was talking to who thought, maybe that's getting a little too close to the line between church and state for a lot of voters across America, and might prove to be a problem for you in a general election. What do you say?
HUCKABEE: Well, I don't think so. There's two issues that I've been very outspoken on. Both are issues that are standard things that conservatives believe. One has been in the Republican Party platform since 1980, and that's a human life amendment. I'm one of the few Republican candidates who actually support our party platform on that.
The second one is an affirmation of traditional marriage. That's the only areas in which I personally believe we ought to amend the Constitution right now. But I do believe we should because I think we got to settle this issue and not have 50 states running around trying to decide what's right and what's wrong, in relationship to the sanctity of human life and dignity and worth of people, as well as to define what marriage and family mean.
ROBERTS: But Governor, it was really the way that you phrased it to say it's easier to bring the Constitution in line with the word of God. Do you believe that the Constitution is a secular document?
HUCKABEE: Well, it is a secular document, John. I probably said it a little more awkwardly than I have in the past. It's consistent with what I've said. And what I've essentially try to make clear is that the Constitution, the genius and the brilliance of it was, that it was intended to be amended.
That's why African-Americans are considered people because we amended the Constitution as we needed to, to make sure that we ended slavery. We amended the Constitution so women could vote. There were a lot of amendments, including the first one, which gives me the right to worship or you the right to speak out and have free speech. The second amendment, which gives us the right to bear arms. Those are all changes to the original Constitution.
The point was that the Constitution was a document. It's a living, breathing document written in order that it could be changed. The scriptures, however, were not written so that we would change them to adapt them to ever changing cultural norms.
ROBERTS: Right. But I think that the point here, though, is that should the scriptures be separate from the Constitution? Is the Constitution a purely secular document?
HUCKABEE: Well, they are separate. But, I think, you're missing my point, John. I'm just simply saying that marriage is always meant whether in the Constitution or in our basic law that certainly in our Judeo-Christian understanding of family, marriage has always meant one thing. Life is something that we always treasure. It goes back to the declaration of independence that we hold these truths to be self- evident that all of us are created equal.
Now, if we really believe that, as our founding fathers stated, then we would understand that no one person is more equal than another. Therefore, there is no such thing as a life unworthy to be lived because somebody has deemed it less than equal to another life. That's the point in which I think it is quite consistent with the declaration of independence and subsequently the Constitution.
ROBERTS: All right. Governor Huckabee joining us this morning. Governor, thanks very much. Good luck in the primary tomorrow.
HUCKABEE: Thanks a lot, John, good to be back with you.
CHETRY: President Bush is about to unveil a plan that would turn the economy around. Some critics who are already ripping in to it. Up next, we're going to talk to the president's counselor, Ed Gillespie, for more details on what type of economic stimulus plan we can be looking at. Would you benefit? Would you get money in your pocket? We're going to talk about it, coming up. That story and today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. A live picture this morning coming to us courtesy of WIS in Columbia, South Carolina where we're looking at 39 degrees right now. Not the best weather the world, but shaping up to be in the 50s today. So, slightly better than it has been. The south has been dealing with a wintry mix over the past few days. Welcome back. It is Friday, January 18.
I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. Good morning, John.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you, Kiran. I'm John Roberts. And we are at the Lizard's Thicket Restaurant here in Columbia, South Carolina.
New this morning, details of the plan to give the economy a nudge. The President is expected to outline parts of an emergency economic package today. The Associated Press says it could include tax rebates in advance of $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples.
A mistake nearly puts two planes on a collision course. Now, there's a fight over who is to blame. The FAA says the air traffic controller gave a passenger jet the wrong airport frequency. Two planes ended up dangerously close near Newark Airport, outside of New York City. Less than half a mile apart and separated by just 600 feet of altitude. That is far less than the 1,000-feet requirement but both planes landed safely. The Air Traffic Controllers Union is defending the employee and instead blaming landing procedures at the airport.
Heathrow Airport still facing some delays at this hour after yesterday's crash landing of a British Airways jet. And American investigators are on their way to London to help figure out what went wrong. One investigator told CNN, the pilot of the plane, the engines lost power. At least 17 people were hurt. The crash tore off part of the landing gear. Boeing said it's the first ever crash of a 777 aircraft.
One Hollywood labor strike may be over -- the Directors' Union reached a tentative deal with Hollywood studios. The agreement could put pressure on the Writers' Guild to settle its strike. Included in this deal are provisions to share revenues generated from program shown on the Internet and has been a major sticking point for negotiations with writers -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, President Bush outlined his plan to restore the economy today. It could include hundreds of dollars in your pocket. So, how will it work? Will it make a difference in time? And how will we pay for it. White House counsel Ed Gillespie joins me now from the White House lawn. Thanks for being with us, Ed. Good to see you.
ED GILLESPIE, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Good to see you, Kiran. Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: So, it's been reported today that people with acknowledge of this stimulus plan say that it could include checks of up to $800 for individuals and up to $1,600 for household as part of the centerpiece to spur some of the spending and hopefully turn things around. Can you give us more details about what this economic stimulus plan might entail?
GILLESPIE: Well, Kiran, the President today is going to lay out some principles that he sees as effective in terms of helping to give our economy a shot in the arm. The economy is fundamentally sound. There's adjustment going on in the housing market right now, which is a natural occurrence in the market economy. Prices go up. Prices go down. But we want to make sure that while that adjustment is going on, the rest of the economy remains sound.
And so, to allow for consumers, taxpayers to have more money to spend in the market, to allow for businesses and small businesses to have more money, to invest and create jobs. We think it's important right now and timely. And what the President is going to highlight is the fact that any package we agree on with Congress and a bipartisan plan should be timely, should have an immediate impact in the economy, should have a direct effect, should be simple, should be broad based and should be big enough to have a positive impact on a very big economy.
So, those kinds of details you won't hear from the president today. We're going to work with members of Congress to -- through Secretary Hank Paulson, the secretary of the treasury, to reach some agreement on some of the details of such a package in the course of the coming weeks.
CHETRY: You know, you said it, and many others including the Fed chairman have said in order for it to work, it needs to be timely. Things could start to improve without it and it could throw things off balance. How are you going to get this through, and passed, and get consensus between the White House and Congress on exactly how it should work. GILLESPIE: Well, fortunately, we start with a consensus that a growth package and a measure to bolster the economy are necessary right now. So, the first step we've already had an agreement on, the President had a very productive call yesterday with the bipartisan congressional leadership. The Democrats, Republicans in the Senate and the House.
And I believe that there is the basis for some policy that will be timely, that will be effective, that will be big enough to have an impact and simple enough that it can translate very easily to our economy and broad based. So, we look forward to working with members of Congress and finding some common ground and getting this -- this policy in place very rapidly.
CHETRY: You know, "The Wall Street Journal" has an (INAUDIBLE) Ed out today arguing against it saying it just simply isn't realistic to think that tax cuts can be passed quickly, especially in a presidential primary quarter and that the rebates may actually be saved by many people and not spent. Do you believe this is going to work?
GILLESPIE: We do believe it's going to work. Again, we're not going to put out specific policies in terms of rebates or. But we do believe that the form of the growth measure should be in the form of tax relief for taxpayers and that will have an effect on the consumption side.
The concern is that the effect that the decline in the housing prices that it can have an adverse effect on consumption in our economy. And that's what we want to counter. We want to make sure that consumers have confidence to go out, to continue spending, to continue to keep our economy growing and to continue creating jobs.
We have had record job creation -- 53 solid months, straight months of job creation. That's the longest stretch of uninterrupted job growth in the history of our country. We want to keep that going. At the same time, we've seen the pace of the job creation slowed down. Core inflation remains low. But we've seen that prices for food and energy have been going up.
So the signs in the economy have been increasingly mixed. The President has been keeping a very close eye on him and believes at this point in time that we do need to take action and take some temporary and timely measures that can help counter any adverse effect from some concerns in the housing sector.
CHETRY: From December to January, we did see the job list rate rise. It's now at 5 percent. There are some questions, though, about how anyone would pay for this. It's been talked about on the campaign trail as well. Let's hear it with Senator John McCain had to say. He's critical of any plan right now. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: You're going to hear from the Democrats, let's pump $70 billion, let's pump $80 billion, let's do this, let's do that. My friends, remember who's going to pay that. It doesn't come off of a printing press, OK? It comes out of your pockets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Where are we going to get the money to pay for this?
GILLESPIE: What Senator McCain was talking were, you know, kind of old style spending proposals that take a long time to translate through the federal bureaucracy and get into the economy about old- style spending proposals that take a long time to translate through the federal bureaucracy and get into the economy.
That's not the approach that President Bush is calling for. He is calling for allowing Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money, that translates immediately to consumer spending. And we can do this and still get -- stay on a path to a balanced budget as the President has called for by 2012, Kiran.
So, the fact is there are times when allowing people to have more money to spend is the right policy and in this case, we also want to make permanent -- the tax cuts and the tax relief that the President has pushed in place. We're going to push for that. But we're going to do that separately because that is an important thing to remove, any uncertainty about the tax relief that the Americans enjoy, taking uncertainty out of the equation.
But in the immediate period of time over the course of the next few weeks, we need to move a package that immediately gets money into the pockets of American consumers and into small businesses that continue creating jobs.
CHETRY: All right. Ed Gillespie, we'll get more from the President at 11:50 a.m. this morning as he talks about the plan as you said. Thanks for being with us this morning.
GILLESPIE: You bet. Thank you, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Back here in South Carolina, of course, the all- important South Carolina Republican primary coming up tomorrow. The Democrats go to the polls a week later on the 26th. We're here at the Lizard's Thicket with some undecided voters. We got Wanda Young over here who plans to vote Republican. And over here on the middle, Ray Borders Gray, undecided Democrat and Bill Doyle, also an undecided Democrat.
Let me ask you first, Ray, what's your top issue here. What do you want the candidates to address?
RAY BORDERS GRAY, UNDECIDED DEMOCRAT: I would like the candidates to address the issue of cost of higher education. I have a son going off to college in a couple of years. And after that, I have a daughter going right behind him. So, it becomes increasingly important for me to be able to understand how I'm going to afford to send them to college.
ROBERTS: Are the candidates talking enough about education? It has not been one of those issues that's been on top of the mind? GRAY: No, it hasn't been. I don't think the economy has been talked about enough either because the economy, obviously, is important too. Because that concerns me with how I would be able to use my money if everything is going up as a result of this recession, it's going be long lasting. So the effects are going to be ...
ROBERTS: We'll see if there's any difference on the Republican side of the fence. What's the number one issue for you?
WANDA YOUNG, UNDECIDED REPUBLICAN: My number one issue is getting our troops out of Iraq. I don't personally have any family members over there, but I think we need to restore the faith in the U.S., in the middle east.
ROBERTS: You're not wholly undecided. You're sort of split between Huckabee and Romney. And you say for different reasons you would vote for either one of them. What are those reasons?
YOUNG: With Mike Huckabee, it would be diplomacy in the Middle East. And also for Mitt Romney, I'm more on the religious side with him because we need to restore faith in our nation too. We need to go back to the morals ...
ROBERTS: You're on the religious side with Romney?
YOUNG: Yes.
ROBERTS: That's interesting because most evangelicals are on the religious side with Mike Huckabee.
YOUNG: Yes.
ROBERTS: Let's go over to Bill, here. You're undecided as well but you say you're a little torn between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
BILL DOYLE, UNDECIDED DEMOCRAT: Exactly.
ROBERTS: So, tell me about your thoughts?
DOYLE: Well, I'm not just hearing enough quite yet. I mean, I'm hearing some of the things that I like to hear. Things that I'm concerned about, which is bringing some of the jobs back to this country. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm finding it very difficult to find some of the entry level-type positions in the U.S. anymore. You kind of get on the phone and you kind of talk to some -- some help desk and primarily all of those positions are pretty much overseas.
ROBERTS: And when it comes down to a choice between Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, where are your thoughts? Are you looking at issues? Are they that different on the issues? Are you looking at personality, who would be the better leader? Who has the most experience?
DOYLE: Probably, who would be the better leader at this point. I think that we need fresh blood. Hillary has probably a little bit more experience. But Barack has a lot, he's got a lot of pizzazz and a lot of magnetic personality that really surrounds the people and really gets the people involved and charged. I think that this country really needs that right now.
ROBERTS: Right, you folks have a whole week to make up your minds. Wanda, you better get with it because you have to vote tomorrow. Wanda Young, Ray Borders Gray, Bill Doyle, thanks for joining us this morning. Thank you very much.
GRAY: Thank you.
YOUNG: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Now let's turn it back to New York. Here's Kiran.
CHETRY: It's a story that hit home for a lot of our viewers. We got a record number of e-mails after Glenn Beck of "Headline News" and his hospital story. We're going to be getting some advice, and our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be weighing in straight ahead.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, does expensive wine taste better?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like that one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This glass tastes like it's got the most complexity and explosion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Scientists say there's a link between the price of wine and the taste. So we sent Greg Hunter to conduct our own test. What did our survey say? Find out ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We have a follow-up now to a story that really touched a nerve. You've been e-mailing your hospital horror stories after we talked with "Headline News" host Glenn Beck yesterday about his. He had complications during outpatient surgery. He went to the E.R. with excruciating pain and he said he was treated by many there without compassion. Beck told us that the whole experience opened his eyes to the health care crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, CNN HOST: It was just a really horrible situation. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You go in to the hospital, you go for the emergency room and it's like you're invisible. They don't even, it took me almost two hours before anyone actually looked me in the eye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A study out this week shows Beck's case is not an isolated one. More people are waiting longer in the E.R. to be seen. And we asked for your e-mails. And boy, did you send them in.
Terrence from north of Virginia told us about his 86-year-old mother taken to the E.R. with chest pains. After a 13-hour wait, she was finally sent to an exam room. They had been giving her three additional medicines, uncalled for because they put another patient's records into my mother's chart.
Let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta who's with John in Columbia. And Sanjay, you know, the threat that seemed to run through a lot of this was, a, these medical mistakes, and, b, the fact that they felt no one really cared what they were going through. What's going on?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's amazing. I mean, medicine amazingly is one of the last sort of fields to really adopt consumerism. This idea of actually treating the consumer who is the patient here. And you can see the anecdotal stories like that. I mean, obviously, there are a lot of health care professionals who wrote in and said they're taking great pride in trying to correct the system.
But Terrence's mom specifically, one thing that gets talked about a lot is electronic medical records, trying to digitize some of this so you don't have these sorts of accidents. We hear about patient errors, medical errors leading to lost lives. That's some sort of problem and that's something a lot of people are concerned about and trying to fix.
ROBERTS: Well, Sanjay, you got to make sure that when you're entering the data, you have to enter it correctly because there are mistakes on that side as well.
Here's another e-mail that we got from Kathy in Florida, she went to the hospital for a knock on the head. Got irritable while waiting. Kathy said, "before I knew it, the E.R. physician said he was admitting me to the psychiatric ward. It took two days for me to clear up enough to prove that I was not crazy." What should do if they ran into that sort of nightmare?
GUPTA: That's a very difficult situation. One is that obviously having somebody with you, whether it's a family member or some sort of advocate in some way can help in a specific situation like this. So, making sure that someone is actually on your behalf telling people exactly what's going on.
So she -- she sounds like she had a bump on the head and maybe had a little bit of confusion afterwards which is not uncommon. Somehow those symptoms were misinterpreted for psychiatric symptoms, which is exactly, obviously the wrong diagnosis in this case. But a patient advocate may have helped.
Again, you know, anecdotal stories like this are concerning. But you know, it's important to sort of look at it more globally as well. Health care professionals trying to do something about the system. I found an interesting (INAUDIBLE) a study about wait time specifically.
This was something I was surprised by -- have gone up significantly in emergency rooms. And you'll appreciate this. They've actually gone up 150 percent for people who are complaining of chest pains because chest pain, obviously, concerns of a heart attack.
ROBERTS: And people can't afford to wait.
GUPTA: They can't afford to wait. They need health care immediately. So, this is obviously a problem. Those numbers going up. E.R.'s are more strapped than ever before. People with less insurance are using those emergency rooms. You have fewer nurses. You have fewer primary care doctors. Now, you're seeing the ramifications and the consequences of all that.
ROBERTS: Kiran knows, you're striking, wasn't it? Reading all of those e-mails and the number of people who had these problems.
CHETRY: It really was. And you know, we asked actually as our quick vote yesterday. It was a whopping, Sanjay, I think, 76 percent that said either them or someone in their family had an E.R. nightmare experience. And so, I guess the question is, in these times when you feel so desperate and you're scared, it really, I mean, sometimes you feel like your life is on the line.
What advice do you have for people who are going in for emergency medicine. They think it's an emergency. How do they make sure they get the attention they feel they need?
GUPTA: Well, you know, the interesting thing, Kiran, is that there are things that you can do. Some of this may seem a little common sense, some of it may be a little bit difficult, quite frankly. But one example, for example, call your doctor on the way to the emergency room. I mean pregnant women do this all the time. But if you can call for something else, if you have the time to do that, that's something that might actually help.
Also, tell the truth and I say this -- not in some sort of glib way. But don't sort of fabricate your symptoms. Because that can backfire on you ultimately. Call the hospital administrator or some sort of patient advocate as John and I were just talking about.
There are hospital phones all over the place, pick up the phone, call zero, and somebody might be able to help you. And don't be quiet. It's one of the e-mail's sort of point. Tell people exactly what your symptoms are. Emergency rooms can place that's full of cacophony. They can be outrageously crazy, difficult to navigate places. Make sure people know what's specifically going on with you.
ROBERTS: Good tips. Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to catch Sanjay this weekend on his own show, "HOUSE CALL" here Saturday and Sunday morning, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Still to come, how your brain my trick your taste buds when it comes to wine. Greg Hunter is in a New York wine shop to show us. Hi, Greg.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran.
You won't believe how much this bottle of wine costs. But if you think something is expensive and it's not, does it really make it taste better in your brain? Hey, the AMERICAN MORNING taste test when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, does wine taste better if you think it's expensive? There is a new test that shows your brain can be tricked. Our Greg Hunter is looking out for you. He joins us from a wine shop here in New York this morning.
Hey, Greg.
HUNTER: Hey, Kiran, the Tribeca Wine Merchants. And you know, we wanted to see if researchers got it right. So, we did our own taste test and spent some time with some of New York City's wine connoisseurs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER (voice over): Forget fruitiness or fancy bouquet. It's the price of a bottle that could most affect what we think about wine.
ANTONIO RANGEL, CALIFORNIA INST. OF TECHNOLOGY: If you believe the experience is going to be better, then the brain will encode that experience as being better in this particular area.
HUNTER: By studying brain scans, the California Institute of Technology found that the brain registered greater pleasure when it believed it was sampling more expensive wine. We tested this theory at Manhattan's Tribeca Wine Merchants. We took two bottles each of an $11 and a $105 wine, covered the labels, and made up bogus prices for two of the bottles. One taster said even though she liked the cheapest wine, the bottle marked $105 won out.
CAROLYN PRESSLY, WINE AFICIONADO: This last glass taste like it's got the most complexity and explosion.
HUNTER: This tastes better than all these?
PRESSLY: Yes, I think so.
HUNTER: Another tester may have also been under the influence of the $105 price tag.
JIM FARMER, WINE AFICIONADO: Oh, I like that one.
HUNTER: Best?
FARMER: Yes.
HUNTER: With the secret revealed, our first subject admitted that price did have an impact.
PRESSLY: The last taste of wine, the $105 made me think it tastes a little bit better, a little more special than the second one.
HUNTER: So your perception was real.
PRESSLY: Absolutely.
FARMER: No two bottles of wine are alike, right? The fourth one had the most flavor to me.
HUNTER: Our final taster, defied the findings of the study -- picking the most expensive $105 wine while thinking it costs just $14.
BRUCE GORDON, WINE AFICIONADO: You are not allowed the price to suggest to you that that's the better wine. As it turns out, because you tricked me, the $14 bottle and the $105 were the same.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: So, thinking something is more expensive than it really is can make a difference on your taste buds, but then again, a wine connoisseur says you get what you pay for. For example, this year 2000 Bordeaux costs more than $4,000. And they say it definitely does taste better than this Bordeaux that is $12.50. But I don't think I'm never ever going get the taste test on this one. This is more in my price range that $12.50 bottle. Can you believe this? $4,000?
CHETRY: Do they sell much of that?
HUNTER: They do. People collect wine and they -- trade wine and they use it as something that they collect and -- for example, this wine came out it was $1,200. in 2000, now it's $4,200. So it actually grows in price. It's an investment. And some people are collecting wines across the country. Very few, but some people are doing it.
CHETRY: Pretty cool. Hey, Greg. Thanks for giving us that little slice there. Very interesting.
And you're watching the most news in the morning. Coming up, more on the government's plan to put more money in your pocket. Will it keep the country out of a recession? We get a live report straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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