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American Morning
John McCain Supporters Slam Obama Approach on Stimulus Campaign; Bank Bailout: Capping Bonuses; Bill Clinton on Obama's Economic Challenges; Investigation Shows Continental Flight on Autopilot Before Crash; Secretary of State Clinton Arrives in Tokyo; Nuclear Subs Collide
Aired February 16, 2009 - 07:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Two and a half minutes now after the hour and here are this morning's top stories.
Federal investigators now say in the final seconds before impact, the jetliner that crashed near Buffalo fell 800 feet while pitching and rolling violently. Data recorder showed the crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407 discussed significant ice building before the crash, but the NTSB say they don't think that the icing was severe. Fifty people died in Friday's crash.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham raising some eyebrows on the Sunday talk circuit when talking about the state of America's troubled banking industry. Graham said he would not reject the idea of nationalizing U.S. banks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), BUDGET COMMITTEE: I'm very much afraid that any program to salvage the bank is going to require the government to get --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what would you do now?
GRAHAM: I would not take off the idea of nationalizing the bank.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And speaking of nationalizing things, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez easily won a referendum to end presidential term limits. Chavez says it proves that Venezuelan people want him to intensify his socialist agenda for decades -- yes, decades to come. Opponents warn Mr. Chavez could become a dictator.
He's one of few people who can truly sympathize with President Obama, a man who run on the economy and faced his fair share of critics on Capitol Hill once he took office. I had a chance to talk to former President Bill Clinton about President Obama's showdown with Congress over the stimulus plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Do you think that the job that President Obama did on this and is he, in fact, does he in fact have the experience necessary to be a good president, reach across party lines and craft a bipartisan bill?
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, first of all, he has reached across and it takes two to tango. I find it amazing that the Republicans who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing him for spending money.
You know, I'm a fiscal conservative. I balanced the budget. I ran surpluses. If I were in this position today, I'd be doing what he's doing. Why? Because the problem with the economy is the housing decline led to the general decline in values. Assets are going down.
This stimulus is our bridge over troubled waters till the bank reforms kick in. He did the right thing. He did everything he could to get Republican support. He took some of their tax cutting ideas. But if you look at this bill, it is designed do three things. And it does all three.
It puts money in the hands of people who need money to survive. Unemployment benefits, food stamps benefits, tax cuts.
Second thing it does is to give money to state and local governments so they don't have to lay a million people off and raise taxes. Either one would be bad for the economy.
The third thing it does is create new jobs. And I think given the Congress he had and the environment and the speech with which they had to move, I think he did a fine job with this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: President Clinton talking with me yesterday, the point of whether or not President Obama had the experience to reach across partisan lines brought up yesterday on John King's "STATE OF THE UNION" in an interview with Senator John McCain in which Senator McCain suggested that President Obama was off to a terrible start with the way that he crafted this bill.
We're going to have more of my conversation with President Clinton coming up in a few minutes time including what he will or will not be doing at home while his wife is on the road -- Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We look forward to it.
Well, a deadline looming for the flat-lining American auto industry. Millions of jobs are potentially at stake. GM and Chrysler have until tomorrow to prove to the government that they're worth saving. Now the Obama administration is putting together a team to help Detroit work through the worst car sales in a generation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: We're going to need a major restructuring of these companies. How that restructuring comes is something that has to be determined, but it's going to be something that's going to require sacrifice not just from the auto workers but also from creditors, from shareholders and the executives who run the company. And everyone is going to have to get together here to build companies that can compete in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Now for more on this, we're joined by White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux live in Chicago for us this morning.
Hey there, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. Obviously, the administration looking very carefully what they've going to submit tomorrow. GM and Chrysler, they're setting up a presidential task force. It does not consist of a car czar per se but rather a group of agencies working together. It's going to be led by the treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, as well as the top economic adviser, Larry Summers. They're going to be working with these automakers in the next couple of weeks, senior administration officials say, to make sure that they have a plan to pay back the billions and billions of federal dollars and loans and whether or not they're going to get any more money.
Now, Kiran, this is all a part of President Obama's very busy week, an aggressive week where the economy is the urgent focus.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): A quick glimpse of the first couple leaving a Chicago restaurant after sharing a Valentine's dinner, but the private weekend at home will give way to a very public PR campaign this week as President Obama hits the road, first to Denver on Tuesday to sign the $787 billion economic stimulus legislation, the point to put the president in front of real people, to convince them the jobs will eventually return.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Things have not yet bottomed out. They're probably going to get worse before they improve, but this is a big step forward toward making that improvement and putting people back to work.
MALVEAUX: Not everyone is buying that. Only three Republican senators supported the massive stimulus plan. Wednesday, Mr. Obama is heading to McCain's home state of Arizona to lay out his plan to address the housing crisis. McCain will be in Arizona that day but says he's made other previous plans.
The state has the third highest home foreclosure rate in the country. The administration's housing plan is aimed at stemming foreclosures and driving down mortgage rates.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We've got to get back to stabilizing the housing prices, buy up these bad mortgages, give it to people that can afford the housing, so they can stay in their homes.
MALVEAUX: Also on the president's urgent agenda, filling two cabinet positions recently rocked by scandal. Aides say that's going to take some time.
DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Choosing cabinet members isn't like "American Idol." You don't throw contestants out there and let the American people vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Kiran, not like the "American Idol," aides say that the vetting process is going to continue in the weeks to come. And also on the president's agenda this week, on Thursday, his first international trip that is simply to neighboring Canada but some of the issues that they're going to be focusing on obviously is going to be trade, the environment as well as energy -- Kiran.
CHETRY: A lot of big issues to tackle, for sure. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning, thank you.
ROBERTS: First, President Obama called for salary caps for Wall Street executives if their firms took a slice of the industry bailout. Now one lawmaker on Capitol Hill wants to make sure those bank bosses don't make up for it with billions in bonuses.
Jim Acosta is live in Washington "Minding Your Business" this morning. So what are they doing, Jim, to make sure that they don't?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll see, John. They worked on this as we know until the weekend. And at the last minute, a provision was slipped into the stimulus bill that goes after these bonuses. And when the president signs the stimulus plan into law, it could be a whole new day on Wall Street where many executives may be waving bye-bye to their bonuses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. CHRIS DODD (D), CHAIRMAN, BANKING COMMITTEE: I can't begin to describe the anger that we hear.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Added at the last to the stimulus, an amendment from Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd that would slash those big executive bonuses at the nation's bailed out banks.
DODD: The idea that we continue to pour billions of dollars into institutions that are still awarding their employees massive amounts of income, is infuriating.
ACOSTA: For banks receiving bailout money, the Dodd amendment would cap bonuses for top executives at one-third their annual salary and no more of those lavish severance packages or golden parachutes.
KENNETH LEWIS, CEO, BANK OF AMERICA: We understand that taxpayers are angry.
ACOSTA: Take Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, his salary in 2007 was $1.5 million but his actual take-home pay was nearly $25 million, including bonus and stock options. Dodd's plan would have shrunk that bonus. AXELROD: Well, obviously, Secretary Geithner and Mr. Summers had concerns about that.
ACOSTA: The amendment goes beyond what the White House originally proposed. President Obama wanted to limit executive salaries, not bonuses.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Top executives at firms receiving extraordinary help from U.S. taxpayers will have their compensation capped at $500,000.
ACOSTA: Opponents of the bonus cap say it would cause a bank brain drain driving away some of the industry's brightest executives to other jobs.
REP. PETE KING (R), NEW YORK: I think the terms of some caps I think this went too far, and I think it can be counterproductive.
ACOSTA: But supporters asks, what brain drain as in the brains who got the banks into this mess?
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: We should put a limit on where, what these people make, where they're begging for our money. We should protect the taxpayers here.
ACOSTA: Dodd says his office is getting flooded with calls from Wall Street that he says amount to boardroom belly aching.
DODD: We're in the deepest economic crisis in the lifetime of any living American, and they're worried about their pay.
ACOSTA: But limiting executive pay may be just the beginning as one key Republican put it --
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I would not take off the idea of nationalizing the banks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Talk about raising eyebrows in Washington, well, critics of the bonus cap say it will tempt some banks to return their bailout money or find loopholes in the new law but some in Congress aren't buying any of that saying the banks need the bailout to survive. There is one thing lawmakers will have to keep in mind, bankers pay taxes and capping their bonuses will mean less revenue coming in to Uncle Sam -- John.
ROBERTS: Yes. I think people are looking for the symbolism more than anything. And Jim, on the subject of brain drain, there are plenty of people who make lots and lots of money who'd give up those big fat salaries to go join an administration. So --
ACOSTA: That's right. The party is over. And that brain drain or no drain, the party is over.
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us in Washington. Jim, thanks so much -- Kiran.
ACOSTA: You bet.
CHETRY: Well, two submarines armed with nuclear warheads reportedly slamming into each other at sea. The accident grabbing headlines across Europe. What's the danger and how did it happen?
Also, Hillary Rodham Clinton arriving in Japan. It's her first stop on her first trip abroad as secretary of state. We're live in Tokyo to show you what she's planning to tackle today.
And loved ones wiping away tears and wondering why. And there are new details about the moments before Continental Flight 3407 crashed just outside of Buffalo. We'll bring them to you.
It's 13 1/2 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You know, terrifying new details are coming out today about the final moments of Continental Flight 3407. Investigators say that plane fell 800 feet in just five seconds eventually landing belly down on a home killing all 49 people on board and one person in that house in Clarence Center, New York, outside of Buffalo.
They also determined that the commuter plane was on autopilot as it fell from the sky. Many people who had loved ones on the flight are asking why it took off in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROGER DES FORGES, VICTIM'S HUSBAND: She knew that it was going to be a rough ride. Unfortunately, she didn't know it was going to be in a plane which probably shouldn't have been flown in those conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Commercial pilot John Lucich is back with us this morning. He was here as the story unfolded on Friday. Good to see you again, John.
So they say the plane was on autopilot during the approach, and the NTSB is not calling it pilot error. But they said that in the past, the NTSB has recommended that in severe icing conditions it's best to disconnect autopilot. So what are you making of that situation?
JOHN LUCICH, LICENSED COMMERCIAL PILOT: Well, I think what happens is when an airplane is on autopilot, the pilot sometimes gets a sense that the airplane is more stable in that, OK. The problem is though the pilot does not get to feel what's going on with the airplane.
In this particular instance, if icing was a problem, icing had built up on the tail and we had a tail stall, now a wing stall, a wing actually provides lift upward. A tail provides lift downward because an airplane all by itself has a tendency of nose down, pulling the nose down. A horizontal stabilizer creates downward lift and actually keeps that balance of the airplane flying straight.
If that tail had stalled and it was on autopilot, the autopilot was correcting for that nose down. And then all of a sudden when the wings stalled, if that autopilot kicked off like it was designed to do, the nose would have caused a pitched it up and according to the NTSB, it pitched up 31 degrees.
CHETRY: So the reason now that we're getting just more examples of exactly what motions this plane, what maneuvers were happening with this plane, this is leading some in the aviation community to believe it may have suffered from this tail plane stall that you're referring to. So that again caused by an icing situation and what happens?
LUCICH: It may have. Exactly with a wing stall, what happens is the air over the wing is disrupted. With a tail stall, the air under the wing is disrupted.
When you recover from a wing stall, you push the nose down. In order to recover from a tail stall, you pull the nose back to get that air flowing underneath that wing. But the problem is if the ice had built up, it was the ice that was disrupting the flow of the wing so it wouldn't have been able to recover if it was severe enough. But the NTSB came out and said it was not severe icing.
CHETRY: All right. So then where does that leave us? I mean, we've been told this is a solid aircraft. Icing conditions happen all at time. Do you think we're going to learn more about why this happened so that we can prevent it in the future?
LUCICH: Absolutely. I think there's more research. Some people are calling for this airplane be grounded. This airplane is certified in known icing conditions. This airplane I do not believe should be grounded. I think that there's more research needed into the use of autopilots in icing conditions.
CHETRY: All right. So and then -- all right. So that's one of the big things, is going to be discussed because at the same time the NTSB was saying this, he also said that sometimes encouraging autopilot helps in intense weather situations as well. So it seems to be -- there seems to be some debate.
LUCICH: Absolutely, there is that debate. But the thing is, though, the pilot will know much more what's going on with that airplane if he gets here or she gets to feel of that airplane. That tendency, that nose down, he or she would have felt that and most likely, you know, when they listened to the cockpit recorder, they heard the term "significant buildup." I'm surprised they didn't contact the tower and ask for priority handling to a warmer altitude or to get in quicker.
CHETRY: John Lucich for us, licensed commercial pilot, thanks so much for being with us. LUCICH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: It is day one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip abroad today. Here why she chose Asia as her first destination and what she hopes to gain by traveling there. We'll go live to Tokyo.
And more of my sit down with President Bill Clinton. It's tough times for charities, so how is the Clinton Global Initiative weathering the recession? We'll find out.
It's 20 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Right now, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Tokyo. It's her first overseas trip as secretary of state.
Our Jill Dougherty joins us now live from the CNN bureau in Tokyo. And what's the former first lady's first priority on this trip, Jill?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have to say there really are two, John. Number one, she has to remind everybody that Japan really is the cornerstone of the relationship of the United States here in Asia. And then when she meets with the leader, she'll be talking about essentially two things.
Number one, of course, the economic crisis. Japan is hit very hard, the world's second largest economy, and she'll be talking about what the United States is doing with its stimulus plan. And then also, she'll be talking about security and here, that for the most part means North Korea. So trying to pull back that attempt to induce the North Vietnamese to stop their nuclear weapons program.
And then also a concern to the Japanese are the abductees, as they're referred to, the citizens, Japanese citizens who are kidnapped by North Korea back in the 1970s and '80s. There hasn't been an accounting of them. The families want to know and, in fact, Secretary Clinton will be meeting with some of the families of the abductees. And it's really a strategy to talk with the leaders but also to reach out to citizens, John.
ROBERTS: She's also going to be visiting China, talking with China's leaders. During her husband's administration, the relationship with the United States was sort of a strategic partnership. During the Bush administration, then candidate-Bush came out and said I don't see them as strategic partners. I see them as strategic competitors. So what is the strategy going to be in approaching China?
DOUGHERTY: Well, there it's very delicate because as you said, there are a lot of different layers to it. But she has already said publicly, this is not a relationship that should be feared by the United States. It is not a competition that these countries can work together. And that actually does have some substance because there are some very serious issues. The economy, economic issue and the crisis, for one, and also global warming, the climate change issue. And she has her climate change envoy with her, Todd Stern. They will be talking very specifically about some things that China and the United States can do together on that subject -- John.
ROBERTS: It will be a very important trip. We'll e watching it very closely through your eyes.
Jill Dougherty for us in Tokyo this morning. Jill, thanks so much.
And President Bill Clinton is a house husband. Why do so many women say his place is at home right now? More of my special one-on- one interview with the former president. That's ahead -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And deep underwater, two subs carrying nuclear weapons slam into each other. Reports say it happened weeks ago, so why are we just finding out about it now? We're live in London with the answer.
It's 26 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Topping the news this half hour, a terrifying report.
Two subs carrying nuclear weapons slamming into each other deep underwater. According to British newspapers, a French and a British vessel collided at sea.
Our Phil Black is tracking the story from London for us this morning. And a lot of people are wondering, they claim this happened a couple of weeks ago, why are we just finding out about it now?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Kiran. That's right. This is the headline that broke this story here in London this morning. You can see it, "Nuke Subs Crash." It's pretty dramatic stuff. According to this report, we understand that a British and a French nuclear submarine collided somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic over the night of the 3rd and into the 4th of February. We don't know how they came to be operating in that same patch, how they failed to detect be operating in that same patch, how they failed to detect each other.
Both ships were damaged and we understand the submarines have limped back to their respective bases. It's embarrassing but it could have been so much more significant because of what these submarines carried. They're both powered by nuclear reactors. They both carry up to 16 ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It seems shocking that there wouldn't be more sensing equipment to make sure something like that doesn't happen. I mean, do we know more about just exactly how this was able to happen?
BLACK: The basic function of submarines at sea is at all times be able to detect precisely what other vessels are in their immediate vicinity. Somehow it seems that the very sophisticated sonar detection equipment simply didn't work perhaps in this case.
There's no official comment on this from the British ministry of defense which is where I'm standing today. They say no confirmation, no denial. Their policy is to not talk about submarine operations.
From the French though, an interesting report. They put out a statement a few days ago confirming that its submarine, the Le Triomphant, had, in fact, hit something underwater at sea, but it was probably a shipping container. It is embarrassing. No one, if this is true, wants to take credit for it, Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. Leaving more questions than answers this morning for sure. Phil Black for us, thank you -- John.
ROBERTS: Thirty minutes after the hour, and here are this morning's top stories on this Presidents' Day.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arriving in Tokyo this morning. It is the first stop on her first overseas trip as Secretary of State. She's also going to visit Indonesia, South Korea and China. I caught up with her husband, former president Bill Clinton in Austin, Texas over the weekend and asked him if he was worried about a power struggle developing atop the state department.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Your wife is on a big trip over to the Far East. She talking with the leaders of China. She is going to be taking on the North Korea issue. There's been some talk in the last week with the appointment of all of these high profile envoys from Richard Holbrooke to South Asia, George Mitchell to the Middle East, Dennis Ross in the same area, Vice President Joe Biden out there talking about foreign policy that maybe she might get a little bit elbowed out here when she it comes to the big projects. Are you concerned about that? Do you talk to her about that?
CLINTON: No. I'm not concerned about it. And these envoys are her idea, both the idea of the envoys and the people who were selected. She thinks that Joe Biden has got one of the best foreign policy minds and certainly some of the most important foreign policy experience we've had. Let me remind you when I was president, Al Gore had special relationships with both Russia and South Africa. And it didn't undermine the authority of either Warren Christopher or Madeleine Albright as secretary of state.
The reason they're doing this, and the reason the president agreed to support it and came to the state department to support the announcements of Holbrooke and Mitchell is that they all want to get off to a fair start and you've got to do a lot of things at once. And it's inconceivable that she could devote the time and detailed attention right now to having a diplomatic strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that exactly parallels the military strategy that General Petraeus has or figure out how to start the Middle East peace negotiations again and what the timetable is and do all this other stuff.
So as long as they're working on a team and nobody is playing sharp elbows and this is a team - these guys have got a team concept. The president has made it clear he wants everybody to be on the team. They all report to her as well as to him. They're all working together. I'm very impressed by that. I think that she made a judgment that we needed in the country's interest to do everything at once. And I think she's right.
ROBERTS: Of course, bilateral relations between the United States and China, a big focus of your administration. Did you talk to her at all about this trip before she embarked?
CLINTON: Sure I did. We, just like she consulted with a lot of people, we talked about it. I told her what my we take on the Chinese is and especially in light of the fact that I work there now in AIDS. I have a big AIDS project there. And I know how they think economically and I think she'll do quite well there. And I think she made a really good decision obviously, she had to go to Japan and South Korea, but going to Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country sends a loud signal because Indonesia has a part of it, Bali, which is predominantly Hindu, which has been the subject of terrorism attacks. So it's a good deal. I mean, the whole thing it's the right place to start.
ROBERTS: A couple of real quick questions, what president do you think you're most like?
CLINTON: Well, personally, I'm not sure. One guy wrote a book saying I was most like Thomas Jefferson, but the times in which I governed were most like Theodore Roosevelt's. And we had the results I received were similar. He had enormous success, the country was better off when he quit than when he started but several of the things he recommended were not actually done until his cousin Franklin Roosevelt became president, you know, more than 20 years later.
I think that a lot of the things that I recommend in terms of health care reform will come to fruition now that we have a more modern democratic Congress and a new democratic Congress and the Obama administration. I'll be surprised if they don't health care reform and some of the other things I recommended. I'm excited about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And the Clinton Global Initiative not immune from the global financial crisis. The former president talked to me about how the economy is affecting his charity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Is it changing your fund raising structure? Do you have to go from some of those big dollar donations that you're getting from overseas down to a more grass roots type of campaign, similar to what President Obama did during his campaign?
CLINTON: Yes I think all of us will have to. And not just overseas but even some of our big donors in America. I noticed, you know, I'm in Harlem, and Harlem is the home of the Harlem Children's Zone and it's probably the most innovative urban development program in the country for families and children. Most of their money came from Wall Street so they've got to get smaller donations.
Most of my -- I've already had a lot of small donors, I have over 200,000 donors of $100 or less, but most of the rest of the money for my projects came from people who gave $500,000 or more. So what I am doing is paying the first six months of this year restructuring our foundation, putting out the word about what we do and asking people who can give to give more modest amounts of money and maybe make multi-year commitments, but I feel the same way about my foundation and all of this movement that I'm involved in that I do about America.
This is a tough time but when we get through this we'll be on sounder ground. We'll have more broadly shared responsibilities and more broadly shared prosperity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: We should point out too that volunteerism is sill still very strong with his global initiative. He was in Austin for the Global Initiative University Conference, and behind us there, as we were doing the interview, students from the University of Texas at Austin who are helping to spruce up a community play ground in a low income neighborhood.
CHETRY: They're going to need that.
ROBERTS: That still are still willing to pitch in with manpower at least if not money.
CHETRY: Right. As he said, I mean, $500,000 donation, and when Wall Street suffering you know the trickle down certainly does happen.
ROBERTS: And because of his wife being secretary of state, he can't attract those big half million dollar donations from overseas anymore either. By the way, a new poll asked women what they think the former president's role should be. And most of them said, get this, house husband. I'll ask the former president if he's up for it coming up in our next hour.
CHETRY: Also after a fierce political fight, as $787 billion economic recovery plan is now a reality. The president is set to sign it into law on Tuesday. Stephanie Elam is "Minding your Business" this morning. Hey, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Yes, now that the stimulus bill is done and over, the dust has settled on Capitol Hill, what happened to the winners and losers? I'm going to take a look at them. You're watching the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, we're coming up on 40 minutes after the hour. Stephanie Elam is "Minding your Business" this morning and she joins us now. We're talking about the stimulus plan. You're breaking down some of the elements so we can get a better idea of where this money is going.
ELAM: Exactly. Right now we're going to take a look at who's winning and who's losing here because obviously with so much money there still manages to be room for losers at this point. But let's start with the winners. Everyone likes to start off with the winners. All right. First of all, high-speed and inner city rail getting $8 billion. Now here's this. The House wanted $300 million for that. The Senate $2.25 billion. It settled out at $8 billion. So go figure there.
There's also a $6.9 billion provision for public transit, separately Amtrak is also getting $1.3 billion but no more than 60 percent could go to the Northeastern corridor. Also, government oversight getting $184 million. House wanted $14 million, Senate wanted $7 million but the board to oversee the stimulus bill spending plan will get $84 million, and then more than $100 million will go to different inspectors general for different agencies.
Then, National Institutes of Health getting $10 billion, the House wanted $3.5 billion, the Senate wanted $10 billion. So the Senate winning out on that one. All right. Moving from the winners and moving on to the losers now to see who is missing out here. Starting off with veterans, $2 billion for VA construction completely wiped out. Completely. Now, nearly all VA line items were reduced in fact, but the veterans did get $1 billion for a medical facility renovations and repairs.
Obviously this one is going to upset a lot of people. Now military construction, money was not targeted for each branch of service as it was originally proposed. The House wanted $3.75 billion, the Senate $118 million, the final result $1.45 billion for all services. So going into one pot. The last loser here we'll a look at right now is the FBI. The Senate had set aside $475 million, they got zero. Nothing at the end of that.
Yes, so if you're the House version or the Senate version and what comes down at the end completely and totally different.
ROBERTS: You know, it's terrible to see veterans coming on the short end of the stick yet again there.
ELAM: And if you listen to some of what those VA hospitals have been dealing with, some of those conditions -
CHETRY: Yes, tough.
ELAM: You know it's really going to upset a lot of people.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. We'll keep following that part of the story. Stephanie, thanks so much.
Fireball in the sky, right in the middle of a marathon, news cameras (INAUDIBLE) the mysterious white blaze shooting across the sky. We'll tell you what the FAA is saying about what happened in Austin. It's 42 minutes now after the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): Real life drama over a daytime TV storyline.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: A lesbian wedding. Now that's first.
ROBERTS: The buzz, the backlash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of things that people really don't want to see, and lesbian weddings are certainly one of them.
ROBERTS: We're behind the scenes as the actresses say I do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The other part of it is oh, hurray.
ROBERTS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: You know something in the sky in Texas has a lot of people wondering what's going on. In fact, we have the video right now. There you can see it, it's in fact a mystery. It just basically ripped across the Texas sky from Austin to Dallas Sunday, those white lights.
At first speculation, maybe it was wreckage from two satellites that collided. The military says no, no wreckage and no satellites collided. Adding to the confusion, the FAA says we don't know what it. So for now, it remains a mystery. E-mail us at AMERICAN MORNING if you think you have an idea.
Meanwhile it's 45 minutes past the hour. Rob Marciano joins us now. It's a UFO.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's got to be something. It made a serious right turn there that's what is kind of a little bit disturbing. There it goes. It turns around. Anyway, I don't have an explanation. If you're looking to me for answers. Kiran.
Clear skies, we're looking at meteorites, satellite, and fireballs not a problem today. East of the Mississippi River, a little bit of a chill in the air for sure. A lot of action west side, and this will be the setup for what will be a fairly active week weather-wise for everybody else. Los Angeles to San Diego, San Francisco, Vegas. Everybody is going to see delays out here if you are heading west on a plane, be aware of that and certainly pack your foul weather gear. Pittsburgh and Cleveland may see a little bit in the way of low clouds.
Check out some of the numbers for San Francisco, this was just yesterday, over two inches there. Oakland, California, two inches as well and some of these numbers will yield to some flooding and some higher elevations snows for sure if you're heading to could do some skiing, that's not a bad deal.
Speaking of snow, a little bit of snow across parts of North Carolina and Virginia but it shouldn't be too big of a deal today and that will be exiting. And temperatures will be seasonably chilly in places like D.C. and New York. Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Find out for us what that light in the sky was because a little creepy.
MARCIANO: You're making me work. All right. I'll do some research.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
ROBERTS: You've heard some of the opposition to the president's stimulus bill, but have you heard the outrage? You're about to. Congressman Ron Paul will tell us why he thinks the bill will make the recession worse. It's 47 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Can't argue with that.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. After nearly four decades on the air, one of television's most popular soaps "All My Children" is celebrating a first, wedding bells for a lesbian couple. Our Lola Ogunnaike takes a look at the groundbreaking nuptials and the controversy surrounding them.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dearly beloved, welcome Erica, Jackson -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will.
OGUNNAIKE (voice-over): Weddings are a dime a dozen in the world of soap operas. Luke and Laura, Erica Kane and more men than you can count on two hands, but a lesbian wedding? Now that's a first.
EDEN RIEGEL, "BIANCA": When my character did first come out of the closet, there was a lot of negative reaction. People were very protective of Erica Kane's daughter, and I think that the beauty of the show was that we were able to reach people and get people sort of used to the idea.
SUSAN LUCCI, "ERICA KANE": Once Bianca came out and said she was gay, Erika said but now we won't get married. And now that Bianca is getting married the other part of Erica is like, hooray, I get to play my daughter's wedding after all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The uniting of these women today to establish a new family is an important and memorable event.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I promise to love you and devote myself to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I promise to always put my hand in yours so that we can face what's ahead together.
OGUNNAIKE: But at least one religious group is not happy with the long running show's latest love affair.
GLENN STANTON, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: I think it's really is important to understand that there are a lot of things that people really don't want to see and don't want coming into their home, and lesbian weddings are certainly one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before you, I was in a timeless fog, unable to see past yesterday.
NEIL GIULIANO, GAY & LESBIAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DEFAMATION: It's reality. And so when we see a lesbian couple getting married on daytime drama, it simply reflects what is happening in the real world. So in that sense, of course, it's a victory.
TAMARA BRAUN, "REESE": With the divorce rate as high as it is, you should have that right. No matter what sex you are, who you love, what color you are, you know, how many extra toes and feet you have. Equal rights for all people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Standing here with you, it's where I belong.
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OGUNNAIKE: John, it's not the first time that "All My Children" has pushed the envelope at all. They had the first transgender character on daytime television and the first same-sex kiss.
ROBERTS: I tell you. They are touching the heart strings there with the wedding ceremony.
OGUNNAIKE: I have to say it was pretty emotional. I shed a tear. I really did. I have to confess.
ROBERTS: Susan Lucci seems to approve as well.
OGUNNAIKE: She was very pleased. Absolutely and she is holding up very well, and she has got 10 weddings under her belt. So she knows a thing or two about walking down the aisle.
ROBERTS: There you go. As the one said, you know, with the divorce rate as high as it is, perhaps another path needs to be taken here. Creating a buzz, no question about that.
OGUNNAIKE: People are talking about it. ROBERTS: Yes. Lola, thanks so much.
OGUNNAIKE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Fifty-three minutes now after the hour.
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ROBERTS: The plane that fell to earth in five seconds flat. Using autopilot in ice. What investigators are saying now.
Plus, one-on-one with Bill Clinton. With the secretary of state on official business in China, what's a former president to do?
ROBERTS: Will you ever be comfortable being a house husband? You're watching the most news in the morning.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, BUDGET COMMITTEE: There's nothing about this process that's been bipartisan. This is not change we believe in. You ram it through the House. You started out with the idea we won, we write the bill.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Candidate Obama said that these conferences would be open to the public. He said that the American people would have five days to view it on the Internet. There was commitments made that are certainly not being kept now and maybe it's all because of their sense of emergency. But it's not what they said they were going to do.
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CHETRY: Well, right now, President Obama is poised to cap a huge legislative victory and not everyone is happy about it, but he is signing the $787 billion stimulus bill into law. He's going to do it tomorrow in Denver. And after all the talk of bipartisan change in Washington, only three Republicans supported it, and most Republican leaders insists that they were left in the dark during the process. Congressman Ron Paul is one of the hundreds of no votes in the capital. And he joins us now from Clute, Texas this morning. Thanks for being with us. Now you say --
REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Thank you. Good to be with you.
CHETRY: You say that the legislative process around this bill was atrocious. President Obama, when he was a candidate on the trail, pledged that the public would have five days to review legislation online before he signed it and of course as we all know this bill was more than a thousand pages long. You said your staff did not have a chance to read any of it until after midnight the night before and that there were only five hard copies available. What was going on?
PAUL: There were five copes available to the House and I think five in the Senate. And that wasn't available until the House opened at noon time. So , no, essentially what's not available to us and who could stay up all night and read a thousand pages.
So, obviously, it was done, it was done - you know, like business as usual. Things have been going on like this for a long time but this one was a little bit worse and it was bigger than usual. So it was not a very good day for America.
CHETRY: So besides the problems that you have with how it went down, you also have major policy concerns and differences with what you think this stimulus will do. You say you that you just don't think it's going to stimulate the economy, that it's going to actually prolong the agony. Why do you feel that way?
PAUL: Well, you know this is the whole thing. It was a bad process but if you come to the conclusion that it's a negative, it's really a sad day. Because we got into our mess by spending too much money, running up too much debt and printing too much money and that is exactly what we're doing, we're printing money and running up debt. This bill was equivalent to what we had spent prior to 1980.
The national debt was $800 billion in 1980. We had to raise the national debt this time with this bill by another nearly $800 billion. So it's a process that will delay the recovery, we won't have the correction, and we will drive ourselves into depression the way we're going. So that is our real problem.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about a couple of things.
PAUL: Unfortunately --
CHETRY: OK. The stimulus in the tax credits, right? Because people get to keep a little bit more of their own money, they spend it. A third of this is tax cuts.
PAUL: Yes. If that was the only thing we were doing, that would be fine. But you really should do that with cutting spending, too. I mean, just to explode the deficit - this has been the theory by supply-siders for a good many decades and they've compounded our problems by setting the stage for conservatives running up the debt.
So you cut taxes. I always vote to cut taxes, but I always vote to cut the spending, too. And I think the most vulnerable place to cut spending would be overseas spending, to run our empire we spent a trillion dollars a year. We need to cut spending and cut taxes and get the control of the money back into the hands of the people and out of the control of the Congress and out of the control of the Federal Reserve system, then we will have a recovery.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about this though. What about the fact that we do have a crumbling infrastructure in many places and that you know, if they're going to spend this type of money, at least spend it on something that, will, a, I mean they talk about shovel- ready projects, put some people back to work now and, b, make things better for the future. PAUL: Yes, it wouldn't be the perfect way to do it under our constitutional system but under today's conditions, if you cut, you know, all these building projects over in Iraq and around the world, yes, bring that money home, save some of it and put it against the deficit and use it in the infrastructure. That would be OK as an interim but just think of how many bridges we pay to blow up around the world and then we go and we pay to rebuild them and then the money gets loss in corruption overseas.
So I would say yes, we could. We could have some infrastructure rebuilt in this country but the rate we're going, we're just throwing more money at it, we don't change any policies whether it's the welfare policy or it's the warfare policy, the policies always remain the same, either party's in power.
And right now, the Republicans are doing a much better job, but all I got to say is where were we for the past eight years? We contributed to this problem and that's why our credibility is low. But what we need to do is just look to the Constitution, follow the rules and we would come up with all the answers that we needed.
CHETRY: Ron Paul, always great to talk to you. Texas congressman, thanks so much for being with us.
PAUL: Thank you.
CHETRY: John?
