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Bush Lays Out Details for Auto Bailout; Wintry Weather Hits States; Obama Set to Announce More Cabinet Members

Aired December 19, 2008 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: A plan to help the auto industry. President Bush giving us details less than an hour ago. A short-term loan keeping Chrysler and GM, however, on a very short leash.

Also some tough sledding ahead. Wintry weather battering parts of the U.S. making travel a bit tricky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Hello there everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes. Today is Friday, December 19th. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right. They got what they wanted, rescued for now. Last hour, right here on CNN you heard the president talking about the government plan to help the ailing automakers. It calls for loans with, of course, some concessions. CNN's Dana Bash broke the story for us this morning.

Dana, as I as reading through this plan and then hearing the president, wow, where have I heard this before?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You've heard it before. You've heard it many times before because we reported all week last week on virtually what they decided at the White House. It was going through Congress and it got stopped because there were enough of the president's fellow Republicans there to stop it. But here is the gist of what the White House and what the president is announcing this morning.

And it is that two of the Big Three, GM and Chrysler, are going to get $3.4 billion in short-term loans and possibly, possibly another $4 billion in February. That would have to come from another part of the money where this is coming from, that is the so-called T.A.R.P., the money passed by Congress already that was intended for Wall Street, intended for financial institutions. This is money that the White House had been reluctant, actually out right opposed to using.

But it was very clear this morning that the White House said, look, we can't let Detroit fail, so we have to use the money that is available to us. Now, there are going to be -- there is a requirement, and that requirement is what they call viability by March 31st of next year, March 31st of 2009. Now, viability is a very, very difficult term, T.J., to define. But the way the White House is trying to define it is that the two companies getting the loan will have to show a positive net present value, meaning that they can't be in the kind of debt that they are now.

But again, it is a very murky, murky term. And it will be determined by whomever the president -- the next president, President Obama, puts in charge of figuring out whether or not these companies are in a good financial state. If they aren't, then the loans can be revoked. There are some other conditions. For example, these companies are going to have to open their books to the government, and there is going to have to be a limit on executive pay, and they're going to eliminate those now infamous corporate jets. Those are just some of the conditions placed on these companies in order to get the money, the short-term loan from U.S. taxpayers.

Now, there had been a lot of pressure by Republicans on the White House to say, forget it. It's not the government's role to do this, and it should be -- these companies should be allowed to just declare bankruptcy. Let the market take hold. While the president addressed that this morning saying that he in other times would have agreed with that. But he basically said that the economy would struggle and suffer so much from these auto companies collapsing, that he decided to go this route.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's too great a risk that bankruptcy now would lead to a disorderly liquidation of American auto companies. My economic advisers believe that such a collapse would deal an unacceptably painful blow to hard- working Americans far beyond the auto industry. It would worsen a weak job market and exacerbate the financial crisis. It could send our suffering economy into a deeper and longer recession, and it would leave the next president to confront the demise of a major American industry in his first days of office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, this money is going out the door even as we speak to these two companies, two of the Big Three. And it is going to be Chrysler and GM. And those companies, as you can imagine, T.J., have already released statements profusely thanking the Bush White House for throwing this very important lifeline to them.

HOLMES: Yes. Thank you, sir. We'll see if they have to come back and say, may we have another in a few months.

Dana Bash for us, thank you so much.

And I should mention Chrysler in fact yesterday put out a statement not too long after the president's statement saying thank you specifically to the administration. Ford also put out a statement. Now Ford is not getting any of this cash that the president was talking about today. They think they can stay viable on their own throughout the year. But also putting out a statement saying that they welcome the announcement and think it's a good move that the administration is making.

So how is Wall Street reacting to what we saw earlier from the president? Well there you see it, not a big jump, but up 87 points right now. The opening bell we saw it about a half hour ago. And again up, as you see there, about 80-plus points.

Also this weekend, you can get a guide on how to recover from this financial crisis. Our Ali Velshi is going to lead you down the path toward taking control of your finances and learning to grow your money. Don't miss this. It's called "Gimme My Money Back." I was rooting for the other one but they went for this version but "Gimme my Money Back" is what they went with, it's Saturday and Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern time.

All right. Haven't heard any rescue plan reaction from the Obama camp just yet. But the president-elect has another news conference scheduled for this afternoon. He has more cabinet announcements on tap. CNN's Brianna Keilar joins us now live from Chicago.

Certainly expect some questions to go at him about this bailout. But what has he been saying about it as we've been watching these proceedings over the past couple of weeks and months?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no doubt, T.J., he'll be fielding some questions about this news breaking today. but he's expected, obviously, to talk about his support for it. Because let me take you back to just days after the election when he made that historic visit to the White House and he spoke with President Bush. Well officials who were briefed on their conversation in the Oval Office said that really the main push of what Obama said to Bush was urging him to give some assistance to the auto industry.

So we've been hearing a lot from President-elect Obama in support of assistance, temporary assistance of late to the auto industry in the form of these bridge loans. You know he's -- he has been also commending the White House lately for those efforts which did ultimately fail to come to some sort of compromise with Congress. As we've heard from the White House, president-elect Obama has said the car industry can't collapse or it's going to send a big ripple effect through the economy. So we are expecting there to be some support from President-elect Obama for this news. And who knows? It could be a welcome -- some welcome questions to sort of get away from the spotlight of this Blagojevich scandal.

HOLMES: Yes. He might welcome these questions. We'll certainly going to get them today. Maybe his answers might, in fact, over shadow what he's really there to do which is to talk about his announcements, his new members of his cabinet.

What do we expect today?

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. We're expecting him to make at least two announcements, one that we talked about yesterday, Congressman Ray LaHood who will be another Republican addition to his cabinet, secretary of transportation. LaHood is a congressman from Illinois. A seven-term congressman. As well he's expected to announce Congresswoman Hilda Solis as his pick for secretary of labor. This is a pro-labor pick. When news broke that this is who he had settled on for this position, an outpouring of support from big unions. She's actually someone who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. So that's kind of interesting.

But she's a fourth term Democrat from California. She was the first Latina on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The first Latina elected to the California state Senate back in the mid 1990s. And her record really on par with Obama's when it comes to creating green jobs and taking people who had been laid off and moving them more towards green jobs. As well, T.J., she has some sort of personal experience that obviously is going to give her some perspective and a position on how she deals with labor. She is the daughter of two union members, two immigrant laborers, in fact.

HOLMES: All right. Brianna Keilar, keeping an eye on things for us there in Chicago. Thank you so much.

We will also be keeping an eye on things today in Illinois because we expect to hear from that man, the embattled governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, expected to speak today. He hasn't said much since this whole scandal broke over, almost a week and a half ago now we're coming up on, which he has been accused of and was arrested for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

We haven't heard much from him at all. We have heard him say that he will speak at the appropriate time. Well he obviously thinks that 3:00 Eastern time today is that appropriate time, expecting a statement from him today. Don't expect him to take any questions. But Rod Blagojevich, governor of Illinois, expecting him to make a statement today about this whole scandal. When it happens, we will bring it to you live right here on CNN.

All right. A lot of weather going on. Big, big story today because there is a blast -- check that out -- of wintry weather that's hitting much of the U.S. the winter storm warnings, winter storm advisories in effect from the Midwest to the northeast. Chicago getting hit hard. That could mean flight delays at the city's two major airports, of course O'Hare and Midway. But of course, once they start backing up, it's going to back up things at airports around the country. Meanwhile, in northern Indiana, ice and freezing rain making for dangerous driving. Of course, at least five people have been killed in weather-related accidents across the state.

And today, happy, happy, joy, joy, kicks off the busy holiday travel season for a lot of people. AAA predicting nearly 64 million of us will travel at least 50 miles during the Christmas-New Year period. But a decline however of just two percent from last year's projections and it's the first slowdown in holiday travel since 2002. This year the weather could be a factor in those travel plans among other things.

We have live team CNN coverage right now of the pre-winter blast. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is warm and snugly in the CNN severe weather center.

Susan Roesgen, however, is the one here who is braving the elements. She's live at Chicago's O'Hare airport, keeping up with flight delays and cancellations. I will start with you and let you get this report done so you can get back into some warm weather.

So tell us, how bad is it getting? Is it starting to back up?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it's snowing again now. You can see that the roads aren't too bad, T.J., here getting to the airport. The Kennedy Expressway, that is the main highway. Pretty smooth traffic today because Chicago knows how to do snow. They've got 274 snowplows, 450,000 tons of salt. There's some trivia for you, T.J., at the next cocktail party.

But let's go inside and take a look at the travel delays and cancellations. Now here at the airport, they're seeing minimal delays at O'Hare, minimal delays at Midway. That's the airport I usually use because it's a little less crowded. But I got to tell you my dad lives up near Milwaukee. And I just got an e-mail from him, T.J., and he said that the snow is horizontal and he can't get out of the driveway and the snowplow won't start. So I think it's worse to the north of us. But you know, you can look at the people here today, it's pretty normal crowd for O'Hare at about you know 9:00 local time, not too bad.

OK. Here is the board. Anything in yellow, of course, is canceled or delayed. And you know, this is almost typical for O'Hare, what I've seen before. Let's see. This means that if you're going to Rochester, Minnesota, for instance, canceled. That makes sense because they're getting a lot of snow. Let's see here, where else? Canceled Milwaukee, of course. The Milwaukee airport is shut down, I understand. So you know we've got a few places canceled. Some delays. Right now here at O'Hare it's not too bad.

HOLMES: Not too bad. And forgive me, maybe for my ignorance. But your dad owns a snowplow? That's the norm?

ROESGEN: A snow blower.

HOLMES: Snow blower.

ROESGEN: I think he wants a snowplow.

HOLMES: OK.

ROESGEN: Snow blower.

HOLMES: OK.

ROESGEN: That's what he needs right now.

HOLMES: I didn't know. Maybe that was the norm in Milwaukee. Susan Roesgen, you try to get warm in there. We're going to head over to Reynolds Wolf standing by in the weather center. I didn't know, a snowplow.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, snow blower, I mean if you live in the Midwest or the Great Lakes it's kind of like a -- think of it like a gardening tool. It looks like one, instead of like say a lawn mower, it actually pushes snow. You've got to have it. You need one anyway just for the sake of having one. Hey one of the big issues we have is how this is going to affect millions of people travel-wise.

We already have delays as Susan mentioned Chicago, no question about that. In New York, both our major airports, La Guardia and JFK you have at least an hour in some locations. JFK nearly 2 1/2 hours. Philadelphia you got some stoppages there. Detroit nearly an hour. Milwaukee, look at this, closed until further notice as Susan was mentioning moments ago. Her dad, again, snowplow, snow blower, you take your pick. They're having some issues up there in parts of Milwaukee have had up nearly a foot of snowfall.

It's not over just yet. They're still getting the wrap-around moisture off Lake Michigan. So they still may see a bit more. Now, the storm is going to pull its way to the west back over towards parts of Pennsylvania, into New York, even Boston. By the time it hits tomorrow morning, Boston could see up to a foot of snow. Back to you, T.J.

HOLMES: Further snow. All right. Reynolds Wolf, we appreciate you keeping an eye on things for us.

WOLF: Snow blower.

HOLMES: Snowplow.

OK. All right. We will turn now. A story we told you about a short time ago, happening here in Atlanta. We'll take you to this live picture right now. Trying to make it out through that tree you're seeing there. But you see kind of a jumbled mess in there. What we're looking at here possibly is that bridge we were talking about. One person dead, 15 others that we know have been injured after a bridge, a pedestrian bridge collapsed at the Botanical Gardens here in Atlanta.

Again, a live picture we are being able to show you right now. This nationally-acclaimed garden, big attraction it's in the middle of Atlanta's Piedmont Park. A lot of tour groups, a lot of private groups, private events, even weddings have happened here. It's really just a gorgeous place. Atlanta fire officials say construction was underway on a new bridge when the collapse happened. The AP reporting that the fatality was a construction worker.

Again, this just happening within the past hour and 15 minutes or so. You're seeing this live picture again. And what this is, it's in the middle of Piedmont Park is a large and popular park here in the Atlanta area in the downtown, maybe midtown area. And the Botanical Gardens are in there. Again a very popular, beautiful spot. A lot of vacation time spent there by people, a lot of time people spent there by again tour groups and school field trips and things like that.

But it appears that at least there's been a horrible accident there today. We don't know how many people were actually on that bridge. We just know the numbers right now of 15 injured and one person that has been killed. Mike Phelan, one of our CNN producers, is on the line with me right now. And Mike, where are you? Are you in that vicinity now?

MARK PHELAN, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, T.J., good morning.

I'm right at the intersection where we can see the structure. I'm probably 200 yards away. The fire captain for the Atlanta Fire Department just held a press conference. He said that the bridge collapsed, the entire walkway or bridge that was under construction is now on the ground.

Tragically there was one fatality of a construction worker. 15 other construction workers were injured and taken to nearby hospitals. The scene out here is fire trucks are here, rescue workers, ambulances are still here. The fire captain could not confirm that anyone is trapped. But they're still in there working. This will take days to clean up.

HOLMES: And Mike, I want to make sure if I heard you right there, that these were all construction workers, the fatality as well as the 15 injured?

PHELAN: Yes. Earlier this morning people weren't sure -- the media couldn't get confirmed information. But the captain just confirmed to us that all the 15 injured were all construction workers and the one fatality was also a construction worker.

HOLMES: Do we have any idea of the severity of the 15 that are injured?

PHELAN: I don't at the moment, although there was one report that there were a lot of injuries to limbs, ankles, legs, and they've been taken to the hospital. We're not seeing anyone else being taken out. But there's a large contingent of rescue workers still here on the scene. Choppers are hopefully giving you hopefully good pictures of this scene here. We're in mid down Atlanta at the Botanical Gardens, a giant construction site of this pedestrian bridge. They were pouring concrete about 9:00 a.m. this morning, there was a tragic accident with a fatality and they're still in there trying to find out what happened.

HOLMES: All right. Our Mike Phelan, one of our CNN producers down there in midtown on the scene. Mike, we appreciate you.

But again, to our viewers, if you're just joining us, one person dead. We understand a construction worker, after a bridge collapsed. The pedestrian bridge collapsed at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in midtown, in Piedmont Park. Another 15 construction workers, we understand, according to our Mike Phelan, they were all construction workers but 15 construction workers injured in this thing as well. CNN will continue to follow this developing story and bring you the details as they come into us.

Meanwhile the Bush administration giving doctors the OK to refuse care on moral grounds. Dr. Sanjay Gupta standing right there. We're going to get him in the chair right there. He's going to tell us about it next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well a move by the Bush administration will give doctors the right to refuse care that they find morally objectionable. They include abortions, in vitro fertilization procedures as well as birth control. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta here with us live now.

Why is this necessary? Was there a lobby out there? Were people pushing for this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's interesting. There were laws already in the books. These laws are stronger and they involved all health care workers. So doctors, nurses, anybody who works in a hospital can decide they can refuse care, they can refuse access, consults, referrals, without any discrimination against them.

They can do this based on their conscience. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you guys doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

GUPTA: 20 years ago when Dr. Sandy Christiansen went to medical school, she never thought she would face discrimination. Yet because of antiabortion views, she said she was repeatedly denied the opportunity to perform medical procedures that another intern was allowed to do. When she pressed her superiors, she didn't like the response.

DR. SANDY CHRISTIANSEN, OB-GYN: She's doing that because she is working hard at the abortions and you haven't and so she gets that perk.

GUPTA: Even after she got her license, Christiansen said she felt unaccepted by some of her peers because of her views. Now a medical consultant for a pregnancy resource center in Frederick, Maryland, she has never performed an abortion and refuses to refer patients to abortion clinics.

CHRISTIANSEN: Just in the same way that my conscience would not allow me to perform an abortion, I wouldn't ask another colleague to do that.

GUPTA: But many health care organizations including the American Medical Association believe health care providers like Christiansen have an obligation to their patients, to advise of them the options despite their own beliefs. Now a new regulation introduced by the Department of Health and Human Services would support Christiansen's right to refuse referrals and withhold information that goes against her own beliefs.

Critics argue there area already laws on the books protecting health care professionals when it comes to refusing care for personal reasons. The new proposal goes further by making it so that all health care workers from doctors to janitors who work in the hospitals may refuse to provide services, information or advise to patient if they are morally against it. Critics say that could mean anything from fertility treatments to abortion to stem cell research.

ADAM SONFIELD, GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE: This regulation explicitly allows that doctor or that nurse or any other health care provider to withhold information that would be relevant to a patient trying to make a medical decision.

GUPTA: Organizations like the American Nurses Association already have a code of ethics for their members. They believe nurses and other health care professionals are there for the patient and it's the patient's prerogative to make decisions on care based on their own beliefs, not the health care providers.

MARY JEAN SCHUMANN, AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION: We don't go to school to learn how to make god-like decisions. That's not what it's about for us. It's about trying to get to where the patient is and helping the patient make their own decisions. You know, nobody appointed us the ultimate person to pass judgment.

GUPTA: But Christiansen said she is not playing god, just exercising her code of ethics along with the Hippocratic oath.

CHRISTIANSEN: Why would you want to eliminate people, you know, who have these certain held beliefs in conscience from a particular field of practice. Frankly, all the more reason to hold them there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: As you might imagine, this is controversial. Some of the critics are already starting to speak up. Senator Kerry said look it could interfere with family planning, it could interfere with end of life issues. And he's calling on the incoming administration to reverse that. You know that takes time. This is all a process here as you might imagine.

HOLMES: So you know that everybody out there listening to this is thinking, well what am I supposed to do and I walk in and my doctor says he won't give me care or a nurse says it, what can a patient do?

GUPTA: You know, it's really complicated. If you live in a city like Atlanta or New York, there's a lot of hospitals. A lot of options. But you know it's a good point. If you live in a rural area, you don't have as many options. So it becomes difficult. And also it's a bit of a slippery slope. I mean when you say I'm not going to provide care based on my own conscience, you know, my own conscience, you can imagine that opens up a whole wide range of possibilities in terms of what is going to be treated and what is not.

HOLMES: Last thing here, we got to let you go but still, you said it would take a while for a new administration when they come in to change the rule. Do we have any indication yet, has there been any word, anything on the record yet from Obama about this? GUPTA: Well, you know, the thing we heard from Senator Kerry, we haven't heard specifically, at least officially but again it takes a while. So it wouldn't be you know, in January. It would take several months if not a year for something like this to be overturned.

HOLMES: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Interesting.

GUPTA: All right. Got a lot of people's medical attention. Everybody needs medical care.

GUPTA: Happy holidays, T.J. Take care of yourself. Doctor's orders.

HOLMES: Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Dr. Gupta.

Well stay here, a lot of you traveling right now and you got a mess on your hands because we've got a big wintry mess moving through the midsection of the country, going to be causing some flight delays and travel problems for just about all of us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Just in time for you holiday travel. That stuff. It is a mess right now in sections of the country, just as millions of people are trying to kickoff their holiday travels. We had a blast of wintry weather that's affecting a big chunk of the country.

Storm warnings -- winter storm warnings, winter storm advisories in effect from the Midwest to the northeast. Chicago, of course, right now getting pounded, as they often do by some of this nasty weather. There are already flight delays there, as well as in other cities.

Reynolds Wolf tracking the pre winter -- it's not even winter yet officially.

WOLF: Yes, I know. Got to wait to the 21st for it to officially begin. But, you know, let's get the calendar, wrap it up, throw that out the window because it's winter, OK? Let's just go ahead -- it certainly feels that way for at least half of the country.

I mean, if you were to take a line and go from California, and draw that line straight across the country back over to, say, the Mid- Atlantic states, everything from the top half is dealing with basically winter-like conditions.

Certainly going to be a big mess for a lot of people. We've been talking about Chicago. In Chicago, the situation's actually getting a little better because we're beginning to see a lot of that snow begin to lift off farther to the north, back over toward Edison. Now, in say, Milwaukee, they've had a lot of snow. In fact, some places right in the suburbs, we've have had up to a foot of snow.

This storm now moving into portions of Michigan, from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids. Traverse City over to Saginaw. Burke and even into Waterford and downtown Detroit. You're going to see that scattered snow shower activity just pulling its way off towards the east. Then you have a little bit of that lake effect activity for Rochester. The Finger Lakes area, could see up to a foot of snow in some places.

In fact, we've been talking about this watches and mornings. Really, we're going to keep a sharp eye on what's going to happen in namely places like the Keystone state of Pennsylvania, back over to the Empire state of New York, we're in Syracuse, back over to Synedoche (ph), anywhere from 6-12 inches snowfall possible.

When you get into the higher elevations, yes, you could see even more snowfall. I'd say in the Berkshires, certainly a possibility of Massachusetts, right along the turnpike. If you're headed west from Boston, you could see in excess of a foot of snowfall. Boston may really get hammered by tomorrow morning and then into the afternoon hours. Could see well over a foot of snow in some locations.

New York City though, I'm thinking about 4-8 inches of snowfall for midtown Manhattan. The business district, pretty much the same story along Avenue of Americas. But, if you head north, say over to Yonkers, maybe even back over towards Brooklyn, you might see a little bit more -- I'd say greater numbers in terms of your snowfall totals.

Maybe some places around 10 inches or so. Regardless, it's going to be a tremendous mess. It's been affecting many people. We've been talking about the travel. Take a look at what we have. This one airport, in Milwaukee, currently closed until further notice. But Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, New York -- both airports in New York -- LaGuardia and JFK, you've got widespread delays there. And Philadelphia, also getting into the game. In fact, it's over a two hour wait there, for the time being.

T.J., big mess, big weather. It's a Friday.

HOLMES: And big man. Big weather man. Taking care of it for us today.

Reynolds, we appreciate you.

WOLF: Yes, sir.

HOLMES: There's a way to say they're thinking of them. Thinking about the troops. Talking about the ones serve offing overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. One group has a mission to turn old scrap into new hope. Karen Gulino is founder of Deploy Peace.

Now, explain to us how you're turning old scrap into new hope. And this is not just any old scrap?

KAREN GULINO, FOUNDER, DEPLOY PEACE: Well, good morning, T.J. And what we do at Deploy Peace is we take the retired military aircraft and we make military-style dog tags. And we use B-52 bombers, C-130's. And we give these aircraft one last mission. And that is to help the wounded soldiers and reunite them with their families. HOLMES: Now, why the idea of using scrap from these old planes? And where do you get them? Where do you find them? How did you even know they were available to get scrap from?

GULINO: There's a salvage yard here in Tucson that -- when the Military releases their aircraft, it's bought up and the public is able to go in and purchase it.

HOLMES: Now, why dog tags? Why go this route? I guess there are plenty of ideas. Maybe you had some ideas in your head, other ways to try to help out.

But, why dog tags? Why do that?

GULINO: Well, we feel as though that since our mission is to help the soldiers, the wounded soldiers and reunite them with their families, by giving a portion of our proceeds to the Fisher House Foundation. We decided that the Military dog tag-style would support the troops, show our support for them and as well as honor the memory of those who have lost their lives in this conflict.

HOLMES: Now, how much of this -- and you certainly have a personal stake in this. Your son -- I believe he is back now, however. But, he was deployed to Iraq for 15 months. What was that like for you as a mother to go through that 15 months? And certainly affected you in the way that you wanted to get involved in this way now.

GULINO: You know, there aren't words to explain. It's a constant worry. It's sleepless nights. It was a very long 15 months. But he came back safely. But others did not.

And my business partner, Barbara Donaldson and I decided that everybody that we've talked to wanted to be a part of this and be a part of helping. So, we wanted to create something that everybody could be a part of and show their support, as well.

HOLMES: All right. And last thing here. Got to tell us if people are interested now.

Where can they go, how can they find out more and get involved?

GULINO: Oh, they can go to www.deploypeace.com.

HOLMES: All right. Simple as that. Again, deploypeace.com.

Karen Gulino. Ma'am, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for what you are doing. It's certainly an interesting way to go about it. And that money is going -- a lot going towards the Fisher House, which we know is certainly helping those men and women who have been injured, helping their families as well.

Ma'am thank you so much for your time and the work you're doing.

GULINO: And thank you.

HOLMES: All right.

We'll turn back now to the aid for the automakers. President Bush announcing billions in emergency loans. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Chrysler and GM can put things on cruise control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, here they come to save the day. The Bush administration offering $17.4 billion in emergency loans for automakers who are in some deep, deep trouble right now. For now, that's going to mean a lot of money and a lot of help for the embattled General Motors and Chrysler. Now, President Bush said he felt, looking at the economy, that he had no other choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: For the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers. Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay. And I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business. But these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And so, this plan makes $13.4 billion available to GM and Chrysler this month. Possibly another $4 billion coming in February. The money will come from that $700 billion bailout fund that was set aside for the financial industry. It allows the government to review accounts, also allows the government to limit executive pay.

Now, Ford, of course -- they're Big Three in Detroit, but only big two getting money right now. Ford not getting any of that money that the president is talking about. But they still have a vested interest in the help of the auto industry. Ford says they appreciate the prudent step by the administration.

They released a statement just a short time ago saying that, "The U.S. auto industry is highly interdependent, and the (sic) failure of one of our competitors would have a ripple effect that could jeopardize millions of jobs and further damage the already weakened U.S. economy."

Lauren Fix is an auto industry expert.

Lauren Fix, you weren't crazy about this kind of fix. You're joining me now from Buffalo, New York. After hearing the plan, which actually wasn't a whole lot new because this is kind of what Congress was debating already, so what do you think now that you officially hear it?

LAUREN FIX, AUTO EXPERT: Well my first thing is I'm thrilled there doesn't appear to be a car czar, which is one of the things I was absolutely against. But it looks as though this might be a good band-aid in the meantime.

But to me, the bigger picture looks like it's going to help keep people in jobs, it's going to help keep these manufacturers open, hopefully it will cause us as consumers to buy U.S. cars. Because there are cars on the lot and great deals out there.

And also, I think the other part of it is that it's a band-aid. Because you know this is going to get passed off to the Obama administration.

HOLMES: But does this sound, like you said, it helps them in the short-term, but are we just prolonging the inevitable? It sounds like -- what -- three months to get viable.

Is that possible? Are we just going to be right back here, you and I, on the air, talking about the companies going bankrupt?

FIX: I think we'll be back talking about this. I don't think this is going away.

HOLMES: Wow.

FIX: What interests me is that Chrysler, which is owned by Cerebus, does have money. And I know there's some pretty high big players in there that used to be involved with government such as Dan Quayle and a couple others. They have money, and they can help Chrysler if they choose to. But as a private industry, we don't Chrysler to go out of business.

But I just think that the way this is happening is kind of strange. GM needs the money. They'll be fine. Ford is doing great. They just put $14 billion into some new technology --

HOLMES: Great -- you said they're doing great?

FIX: Well, better than GM and Chrysler. Of the three, if you had to compare them, I would say great in comparison. Their products are good.

But what I have noticed is that people are buying domestic cars now. I'm hearing a lot of people e-mail me and call me and they're saying, you know what? I'm going to buy myself a Ford truck or Chrysler whatever. And that's interesting that people are feeling that they have to give -- like we used to -- buy American. I'm dating myself by saying that. But it looks like that's one of things that's going to help the industry.

But turning around at a positive net value in three months is highly unlikely and probably impossible.

HOLMES: All right. Lauren, me and you, three months. I'll see you right back here.

FIX: All right. I'll be here looking for you.

HOLMES: All right. Thank you so much. Industry expert, we've been using here over the past couple weeks and months. Thank you. Good to see you as always.

And as we've been talking about this auto bailout, getting a few statements in, getting some reaction from others about it. And -- some good, some bad. We heard from the auto industry, some of the automakers who are certainly giving a thumbs up to it.

But we're now hearing from some Republicans on Capitol Hill. Republican John Boehner who is, of course, the leader of the Republicans in the House. He put out a statement here, and he does not really mince words. It starts off by saying, "The action today is disappointing news for auto workers and taxpayers who deserve better from Congress." He goes on to say, "... this plan" -- the one that the House Republicans put forth -- "relied on private funds rather than taxpayer funds, and that was the responsible way to go."

So, John Boehner and Republicans, again, many of them who had opposed this plan and were going against the White House on the bailout, that the one Congress could not agree to and could not pass, coming out and saying they do not agree with the president's actions.

Much more reaction we certainly can expect over the next few minutes, hours and certainly days about the bailout.

Of course, the fate of the American auto industry has been a huge concern for investors. Susan Lisovicz with reaction.

Are they reacting? Are they reacting positively? We at least know now, we've been waiting so long -- what's going to happen. Now we know they will get the help.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we saw a huge turn-around in share prices once we got word. That was before the opening bell.

And right now GM shares are up 16 percent, T.J., but they are still trading under $4.50. This is a huge come down for a stock that once traded at $90 a share.

Ford shares, meanwhile, are up 6 percent, even though Ford is not going to participate. The fact is they're all interconnected. And a failure of GM or Chrysler or both certainly would put tremendous pressure on the company, on Ford, as well.

We are expecting GM and Chrysler to sign these papers today for this emergency bridge loan. And we're also seeing, I should say, T.J., because of the interconnected nature of the auto industry, we're seeing a huge rally in suppliers, dealers, companies like that.

For instance, Leer parts, (INAUDIBLE), American Axel, these are companies where we're seeing share prices up 2 to 20 percent.

And right now, let's just take a look at what the Dow is doing. The Dow Industrials right now up 177 points. GM is the best performing Dow 30 stock. The Nasdaq, meanwhile is up 40 points. So no question that Wall Street received to this news favorably, T.J.

HOLMES: Favorably, we will take it. Positive numbers. Susan Lisovicz for us on the stock exchange.

Thank you so much.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome, T.J.

HOLMES: This weekend you can get a guide on how to recover from this current financial crisis. Our Ali Velshi will take control -- or help you take control of your finances and teach you how to grow your money. Don't miss "Gimme My Money Back," that is Saturday, Sunday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only right here on CNN.

Former President Clinton -- he is releasing his lists. We're checking it twice. Will his donors present any problems for Hillary Clinton's next job?

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HOLMES: Foreign donations about to be on the record. Former President Bill Clinton releasing the promised list.

CNN's Joe Johns takes a look at possible conflicts of interest for secretary of state nominee Hillary Clinton.

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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After resisting this for 10 years, his list of more than 200,000 donors who gave at least $492 million is now an open book, nearly 3,000 pages long and posted online. The biggest two donors far and away are a British charity group called the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, dedicated to improving the lives of children in poverty, and UNITAID, a world health partnership to fight HIV/AIDS. Both donated more than $25 million.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you ladies and gentlemen...

JOHNS: But the eye-openers, if you can call them that, are the foreign interests in the Middle East -- the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Dubai, each least $1 million.

(on camera): So the question is whether donations to Bill Clinton's foundation could somehow complicate Hillary Clinton's confirmation as secretary of state. And, if she's confirmed, her getting the job done.

SHEILA KRUMHOLZ, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: Saudi Arabia, specifically, and the Middle East and India are all going to be flash points that the next secretary of state is going to have to deal with early.

JOHNS (voice over): Other donors seemingly could complicate things for Hillary Clinton, or at least create questions at her confirmation hearing. Amar Singh lobbied Congress, including Senator Clinton, to allow India to get nuclear fuel and technology. The same guy gave at least a million dollars to the Clinton foundation.

And the controversial security firm, Blackwater, which recently had five employees indicted over a fire fight in Baghdad also gave a small donation. The next secretary of state will have to decide whether Blackwater keeps its contract to protect American diplomats.

If any donor starts looking like a conflict of interest for Hillary Clinton, a long-time friend and aide says, she can just take herself out of the loop.

LANNY DAVIS, FORMER CLINTON AIDE: The commitment is 100 percent that whatever the White House, whatever the president wants, the secretary of state will do because he is the president.

JOHNS: With such a long list of names, at least the minefields are out in the open.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: Well, there's something else buried in that bailout bill, a break for bicyclers, now able to get a piece of the pie.

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HOLMES: All right. Continue to get reaction from the auto bailout plan that has now been put in place by the president. Going to be helping out GM and Chrysler. Well now we get word that GM CEO Rick Wagoner has scheduled a press conference for 11:00 Eastern time today. This will be the first time, I believe, we're going to hear directly from one of these big -- the big automakers.

Chrysler, again, and GM being helped out. See if he will speak with the same kind of moxie he spoke with when he was on Capitol Hill, when he showed up there with his hat in hand. Maybe a different demeanor today, with a little more confidence today since he knows now that he is getting the money that he wants.

Well, it seems as though everyone wants a piece of the bailout bill. And as we learned today, GM, Chrysler getting theirs. And it turns out people who ride their bikes to work also entitled to bailout money. Alison Kosik has our Energy Fix from New York.

Help us understand this one. Bicyclers getting some of the bailout money.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, T.J.

I bet you didn't know this, but buried within the bailout legislation is a $20 a month benefit for anyone who bikes to work on a regular basis. Cyclists can use the money for things like tires, tune-ups and bicycle parking. But there are a couple of problems with this.

First, very few companies are ready to implement this benefit, even though it's available on January 1st. Employers aren't sure exactly how to structure the program. They're wondering, is it a straight reimbursement or a pre-tax deduction from your paycheck? Many are waiting for guidance from the IRS before making the benefit available to employees.

Second, there's a big potential downside for commuters themselves. If you use that bike benefit, you can't get any other transit benefits your company may offer, like money for your monthly bus or train pass. And that's often worth a lot more than $20 a month. So people who bike to the bus or train station probably won't sign up -- T.J.

HOLMES: Well how many people actually do ride their bikes to work? Do we know how many people might be using this, might be benefiting from it?

KOSIK: Well, T.J., we don't have any hard numbers. But we do know it became a lot more popular last summer, you remember, when gas prices were soaring.

Cities saw huge jumps in the number of people bringing bikes onto buses. Places like Denver, Houston and Fairfax County, Virginia, reported increases of 75 to 100 percent. But now that the price of gas has dropped to an average of $1.76 a gallon, it's hard to say whether the trend will keep up, especially with winter here.

But the League of American Bicyclists think it will. As they told us, once you start cycling, it really is hard to go back to being stuck on traffic.

And for more on energy fixes, check out cnnmoney.com.

T.J. back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Alison Kosik with the Energy Fix for us today. Thank you so much.

And as we've been reporting, a helping hand for a couple of automakers. Chrysler and GM getting the billions they wanted. But the clock is ticking. They only have a short time to get their financial houses in order.

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