Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Dow Opens at Highest Level in Nine Months; Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley Plan for Next Meeting; New Counterterrorism Strategy Involves Public; Some States Seeking Focus on "States' Rights"; on; New Proposal to Tax "Cadillac" Insurance Policies
Aired July 31, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Randi. And good morning to you. It's Friday. Happy Friday. It's July 31st. I'm Carol Costello, filling in for Kiran today.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm John Roberts. Crossing the top of the hour. Here's what's on this morning's agenda. Stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
The running of the bulls on Wall Street. The Dow opens this morning at its highest level in nearly nine months. We are seeing more signs that the economy is improving and evidence that the recession may soon be over. Our Christine Romans "Minding your Business" this morning.
COSTELLO: Cash for clunkers, already out of gas? The government program to help people replace gas guzzlers with more fuel efficient vehicles may be a victim of its own success. CNN's personal finance editor Gerri Willis is looking at what that could mean for you.
ROBERTS: Is America ready for the threat of another terrorist attack? Federal and state officials are working to improve their communications with each other and Uncle Sam is trying to get you involved. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano joins us live in just a few minutes.
COSTELLO: And the president, the professor and the police officer kicking back over beers at the White House. All left with spirits high and saying they're ready to move forward. We look at just where they go from here.
ROBERTS: Well, when Wall Street begins its day in about 90 minutes' time, the Dow will open at 9,154. That's a new high for the year and its best level since last November. Sure to be a busy day in the markets. In just 30 minutes, we're getting new numbers in the state of the economy when the GDP is released for the second quarter. So is the economy in fact getting better? Christine Romans here this morning, "Minding Your Business."
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: A lot of happening this week that's telling us the worst might be behind us and that's what the stock market has been telling us. So when you look at the stock market, you can see that you're starting to get back some of those big colossal losses of the past year. And now, the Dow having -- Dow and S&P are having their best month really this month since, I think, 2002.
Take a look at this one. This is the S&P 500, March -- remember March, when it was a 12-year low, and we were all very worried about what was going to happen next? And then a powerful rally from there because a lot of people in the market, which is forward-looking, were saying, look, things are going to get better, a stimulus is going to start to kick in, we're going to see jobs lost that are going to continue but corporate profits are going to improve. And that's exactly what has been happening.
Now, where are we in that spectrum of being a recession to recovery? Well, the data, I mean, every day, we're getting high- frequency economic reports that are telling us different things. But today, we're going to get this GDP report. This is the broadest gauge of what's happening in the economy. It's rearview mirror. It's the last three months. It's the second quarter.
But I want to show you here on this chart what it's been looking like. It could very well be four quarters in a row of shrinking growth. The president yesterday kind of sent a few people by saying, you know, it looks like the second quarter GDP shrank. I'm not sure he's seeing that number yet, but it's pretty good guess.
You can see the first quarter and second quarter of last year we had growth and then boom, third quarter, fourth quarter, and first quarter this year. Now, we're expecting down 1 1/2 percent for GDP.
The reason why we like to look at this one even though it's rearview mirror, it's got everything in there. It's got exports, imports, inventories. It's got labor. It's got housing. Everything you can think of is in this number. It's the broadest gauge, rear view.
But it'll tell us we shrank, but we didn't shrink as much the last quarter as we did the prior two.
ROBERTS: I'm detecting an almost uncharacteristic expression of optimism here.
COSTELLO: Yes.
ROMANS: I like to be very careful. I can only say what happened behind us. I can't say what's going to happen ahead. But, I think, if you're looking at shrinking GDP, shrinking economic growth of 1.5 percent, that's an improvement from the last few quarters.
And we want to look in there and see if the stimulus -- the tax benefits and the stimulus was maybe starting to goose things a little bit and slowing down. Now, when you see GDP shrink, it means parts of the economy are shutting down. Let me be clear about that. But they're shutting down more slowly than they have been before and that's what you need before things can turnaround.
COSTELLO: Well, the problem is, is those people who are out of jobs and may not get a new job for quite a while, it doesn't feel like the economy's getting better.
ROMANS: And we have said a million times and I'll say it again, when the economy recovers and the recession is over, most people are not going to feel a difference.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: Not for a while at least.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine, thanks.
ROMANS: Sure.
COSTELLO: A Boston police officer now turning to national television to apologize for a mass e-mail he wrote describing Professor Henry Louis Gates as quote -- well, you've heard it, I don't want to say it again. Officer Justin Barrett could lose his job over the e-mail, which he also sent to "The Boston Globe." Officer Barrett and his attorney were doing damage control last night on "LARRY KING LIVE."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER JUSTIN BARRETT, BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that these words have been received as such. I truly apologize to all involved.
PETER MARANO, BARRETT'S ATTORNEY: Justin stepping into this event between Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley, and what has occurred was a poor choice of words, and not a well thought-out sense of what he was doing when he did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, many of you would say, "Wow, that's an understatement." We want to hear what you think about this story or anything else that's on your mind. Call our show hot line, 877-MY- AMFIX.
It was a high-profile happy hour at the White House. President Obama having Professor Henry Louis Gates and Police Sergeant James Crowley over for a beer. After the drinking and talking was over, the two men at the center of a national debate on race agreed it was worth the trip.
CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is looking at the fallout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Carol.
They came, they sat, they talked. In the end, there were no apologies, no agreements on what's past, but remarkably, similar sentiments about moving forward.
(voice-over): On a humid summer night beneath the magnolia tree just off the Rose Garden, the vice president, the president, the black professor, and the white policeman who arrested him had a beer together.
SGT. JAMES CROWLEY, CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT: There was no tension.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No tension?
J. CROWLEY: No tension.
C. CROWLEY: Apparently, it did go well. The president called it a friendly, thoughtful conversation. And you'll never guess what. Sergeant James Crowley says he and Professor Henry Louis Gates are planning their next meeting.
J. CROWLEY: I would like, not only to discuss, but I also like to listen to Professor Gates' perspective and, certainly, he has the credentials to enlighten me a little bit. And I think that perhaps the professor, as he expressed to me, has a willingness to listen to what my perspective is as a police officer.
C. CROWLEY: Ditto from Professor Gates who wrote on his Web site that he and Crowley need "to foster greater sympathy for the daily perils of policing for the genuine fears of racial profiling."
Heads of state have come away from the White House with a lot less, but do not call this a beer summit.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. And that's really all it is.
C. CROWLEY: Not exactly all. It is also the president's attempt to get out from under headlines he helped write. It was a rather routine cop call on a possible break-in at a home in Cambridge, it turned into a national shock test on racial profiling and relations between police and minority communities. The story was elevated and propelled by five words at the presidential news conference.
OBAMA: The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
C. CROWLEY: It fuelled the fire and knocked the president's health care message off the front pages. The president had to explain, re-explain, call Sergeant Crowley to personally explain, and then invited both Crowley and Gates to the White House. Now, the professor and the cop are working out details of their next meeting.
J. CROWLEY: I think, meeting at a bar for beer on a second occasion is going to send out the wrong message, so maybe a Kool-Aid or iced tea or something like that.
C. CROWLEY: The president is dying to get back to his agenda and put Cambridge on the back page.
OBAMA: I will be surprised if you guys all make this the lead as opposed to a very important meeting that we just had with one of our most important partners in the world.
C. CROWLEY: Maybe tomorrow.
(on camera): Given how ugly the situation had gotten, the meeting had a pretty positive outcome, and it may help the president undo some of the damage. A recent Pew poll found that 41 percent of Americans prior to this meeting had disapproved of the way the president handled the issue and only 29 percent approved -- John and Carol.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Candy Crowley for us this morning -- Candy, thanks.
Another day, another baseball star -- this time Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz reportedly tested positive for performance- enhancing drugs back in 2003. "The New York Times" says Ortiz's former teammate, Manny Ramirez, was also named. The report says that the two were among roughly 100 players who tested positive. Ortiz has responded by saying he was surprised to learn that he tested positive.
COSTELLO: And big news for "Seinfeld" fans -- the cast will reunite in the season's finale of Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and a storyline about a possible "Seinfeld" reunion. It's the first time Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine will be together on-screen since "Seinfeld" ended 11 years ago.
ROBERTS: And take a look this. This is an actual road shine in Portland, Oregon, that says, "Caution: Zombie Strippers." It turns out a huge number of digital road signs have been taken over by hackers lately from Oregon all the way down to Texas. No word yet on who is behind the hacking, but rest assured, there are no zombie strippers ahead.
COSTELLO: I didn't even know you could do that. But apparently you can.
ROBERTS: Hackers can do just about anything these days.
COSTELLO: But change street signs -- that's amazing.
ROBERTS: There you go.
So, Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary, went out the other day before the Council on Foreign Relations, talking about a new strategy for fighting terrorism in this country. We will find out what the secretary's got in mind when she joins us -- coming up next.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: And look at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street here in New York City, where we've got light rain and 74 degrees right now; later on today, thunderstorms, and a high somewhere between about 78 and 81. So, if you're getting up in about New York City today, make sure you take an umbrella, ella, ella, with you.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Uncle Sam is asking for your help as part of a new effort to fight the threat of terrorism in this country. So, what can you do? And is the government's plan really going to make us safer?
We're joined now by the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano.
Madam Secretary, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks for being with us.
JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So, this new counterterrorism strategy, you want to involve the public to a greater degree than ever before -- how do you get the public involved in protecting this nation against the threat of terrorism?
NAPOLITANO: Well, one way is being on shows like this one and just saying, "Look, we want to make the country safe, keep the country safe, every individual has a role." Cities, counties, towns, they all have a role -- all of the federal government, of course, is involved, and then, even our international partners. So, it's a multilayer strategy for how to get at this problem.
ROBERTS: You know, if you ride the subway here in New York City, and I do quite often, you see signs all over the place that say, "See something, say something," you know, everybody has to participate.
But many people might wonder, you know, will this become a case of, you know, neighbors reporting on neighbors, spying on neighbors? And how do you prevent, you know, an increase of suspicion, particularly across ethnic and religious lines?
NAPOLITANO: Well, I think you're right to point out that there's a balance to be struck. But what we're asking people to do is when they see something unusual, a package left unattended on a subway platform -- we've had incidents even during my short tenure as secretary where an individual seeing a gun being passed in an airport that had been screened that would have gotten onboard but for that passenger sounding the alert. Those are the kinds of things that individuals can help us with.
ROBERTS: You're also advocating a better sharing of information between agencies. This is something that the Bush administration worked on and they said that they were quite pleased with the expansion of the sharing of information. But do you think we've still got a lot to do in that area?
NAPOLITANO: Yes. I think work was done during the Bush administration, but much is left to be done.
And when we talk about information sharing, it's not just sharing a piece of data, it's really sharing analysis. What does that mean?
You know, if we see an increase in a certain kind of seizure at a port of entry, what does that mean for nearby cities? What does that mean for gang activity? What does that mean for drugs coming into our neighborhood? What does that mean for the threat level?
You know, all of those things, you know, go into information sharing.
ROBERTS: You know, talking about this threat level, there's some scuttlebutt around that you may be think of -- at the very least -- modifying this color-coded threat level system, if not getting rid of it altogether. What are your thoughts on that?
NAPOLITANO: Well, my thought is that it needs to be reviewed. It's been around long enough that we should take a fresh look.
And so, yes, I have appointed a task force. They've got 60 days to look at the color codes and say, "Hey, is it working? Is it not working? Should we keep it the way it is? Should it be changed?"
ROBERTS: And where do your thoughts run on that? You know, we go to the airport, and, you know, a lot of us go to the airport a lot, and it's, you know, threat level of orange, but we're pretty used to that. So, does it really mean anything anymore?
NAPOLITANO: Well, right now it's different, you know, there are different sectors. The aviation sector has been at orange, other sectors are at yellow, which is lower than orange. But I've been very careful not to express my opinion. I want this task force to feel that it has the authority and it does have the authority to really take a fresh look.
ROBERTS: You know, we talk about threats facing this country from within our borders and outside of our borders. This case of Daniel Boyd that we heard about earlier this week in North Carolina -- does that suggest that there may be a greater threat within our borders than from without -- and, you know, we talk about al Qaeda versus homegrown terrorism?
NAPOLITANO: Well, I wouldn't rank outside versus inside. I would say that there are threats that are both homegrown, individuals that have become radicalized on our own soil, and those that come internationally. When I say radicalized, what I mean is into the world of violent extremism.
ROBERTS: And what do you think is driving that? You know, Homeland Security report that was somewhat controversial earlier this year suggested that the election of the first African-American president might have something to do with that. Did you think that had any relevance on this case from North Carolina?
NAPOLITANO: Well, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't associate the report with this case. But I do think, it is fair to say that one of the things we are working on at our department is violent extremism from whatever source, domestic or international. And, again, everybody has a role to play here -- and a very careful role to be careful, be mindful, report to local authorities when something really unusual is seen.
ROBERTS: Secretary Napolitano, thanks for being with us this morning, appreciate your time.
NAPOLITANO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Carol?
COSTELLO: Car dealers caught off guard, customers driving their clunkers, sometimes for up to two hours to try to get it in before the program ends. Is the "cash for clunkers" program soon to be a thing of the past? Because, man, it's burning through some money.
It's 16 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning, Chicago. Right now, it's sunny and 62 degrees. But later today, it's going to be a beautiful day, 81 degrees in sunny Chicago.
It was an offer we couldn't refuse, and buyers flooded in to take advantage of the government "cash for clunkers."
ROBERTS: Now, just days after it began, though -- I mean, this is how well it worked, the program is strapped for cash, apparently a victim of its own success. So, what does it all mean for you?
Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, is breaking it down for us this morning.
Good morning, Gerri.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good morning, guys.
Yes, the demand for this program is out of sight. Everybody wants to get involved.
I want to walk you through some of the numbers associated with this program. Let's take a look. The government says -- the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says some $95.9 million deals, "cash for clunkers" deals have already been approved.
But when you talk to the National Auto Dealership Association, they've already projected that $1.2 billion deals are in the pipeline. Now, you know that only $1 billion has been allocated to this program. So, we're already beyond what we thought we would be in this program.
As you know, a lot of experts out there said, "You know, OK, the program officially ends in November, but we think it could end as early as August" -- wrong. We end four days, possibly, unless we get more money, after the program started.
So, you know, with 23,000 dealerships out there part of the program, and if you go on the Web and look at the Web sites of the major automakers, there is such a push to get people in this program. It's really working.
ROBERTS: It was originally supposed to be $4 billion. They pared it back to $1 billion.
WILLIS: That's right.
ROBERTS: There were a lot of people out there who were probably told that, yes, they are eligible for this program or some might already have a new and they're waiting for repayment. I mean, so -- where do they all stand today?
WILLIS: Well, that's a great question. A lot of people are asking that. They want to know, "Hey, I just thought I took advantage of this, will I actually get the money?"
What you should know is the dealerships may have had you sign a waiver, a waiver that indicated if the program didn't go through that you had to pay the voucher back or you had to return the car. Now, if you did get a new car, make sure you look for any documents like this. However, there's a lot of talk that Congress could extend funding for the program.
And as you said, John, you know, originally, they were going to have $4 billion in this program, scaled it back to $1 billion. The administration last night is saying, "Oh, we'll continue the program," but they have to get the funding.
So, if you're in this situation, you definitely want to go through your paperwork, see if you signed that waiver, check it out, and I...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: That's a lot of panic over this.
WILLIS: Yes.
COSTELLO: We heard from one of our colleagues, Shannan Butler, who works in the Washington bureau, she said that she heard that the cash for clunkers program was out of money, she got in her clunker, drove to (INAUDIBLE) going to the car dealership, and waited all night long so she could trade in her clunker because she was afraid the program was suddenly end.
People were driving up to two hours in their clunkers to get to the dealership in time for this deal.
WILLIS: It's amazing. You know, this is so popular. People really want to take advantage of it. And I have to say, there's no guarantee at this moment that those people will be served. But, I think Congress will probably prevail here and put more money in the plan. I think that's the most likely thing to happen at this point.
ROBERTS: It's amazing that the government spends so much money, so much of our money on things that don't work.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIS: And here's something that does.
ROBERTS: And then we find something that does work and they don't have the money for it.
WILLIS: That's right.
ROBERTS: Because they spent all our money on other stuff that doesn't work.
COSTELLO: Speaking of money and taxes, just saying.
ROBERTS: Oh, here we go.
WILLIS: Oh.
COSTELLO: Yes, it's time for the "Just Saying" segment. And we're talking about states' rights. At least 20 states have resolutions proposed that the federal government is interfering too much in their lives, you know, as in health care reform and forcing them to pay taxes they don't want to pay. So, "Just Saying," some states are fed up with government involvement. Should states' rights trump the feds? We'll talk about it more.
It's 23 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
President Obama has made overhauling the nation's health care system his top domestic priority.
COSTELLO: Oh, and that's caused some controversy, hasn't it? The prospect of paying for a massive new health care plan is stoking anger among some states' rights advocates. They think the government's already way too big and they're pushing back, "Just Saying." Should states' rights trump the fed?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): The concept of states' rights is as old as America, but lately it's become a red hot issue.
GOV. RICK PERRY (R), ALASKA: States' rights, states' rights, states' rights!
(CHEERING)
COSTELLO: Texas Governor Rick Perry takes them very seriously.
PERRY: Those states' rights that are enshrined in the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
COSTELLO: In other words, Perry says, if you don't like Washington spending your money, tell it to butt out. It's a notion that's catching on.
SARAH PALIN (R), ALASKA'S FORMER GOVERNOR: Alaska will lead...
COSTELLO: As Sarah Palin left office, she signed a resolution asserting Alaska's right to govern itself. It has become one of seven states passing Tenth Amendment resolutions this year, more than 20 others are now considering them, a way to tell Uncle Sam, "one size doesn't fit all."
(on camera): "Just Saying."
(voice-over): Should states' rights trump the fed?
CHARLES KEY, OKLAHOMA STATE HOUSE: Absolutely. I mean, it's part of our Constitution.
COSTELLO: As in the Tenth Amendment. It says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
What are those powers? Take a trip to the Oklahoma State House and ask Republican lawmaker Charles Key.
KEY: There's nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government has the legal right and authority to tell the people in the various states how to educate their children.
COSTELLO: That's why President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind mandate left him cold, as does President Obama's stimulus package, and legislation that would give the federal government a much bigger role in health care. The debate is as old as the nation.
PROF. DAVID LAW, WASH. UNIV. AT ST. LOUIS: It has been going on since our country was born.
COSTELLO: Thomas Jefferson argued for strong states' rights. But over the centuries, the federal government's powers have grown because it has the money.
LAW: In real life, money comes with strings attached. Federal money is no exception.
PERRY: We didn't like oppression then, we don't like oppression now.
COSTELLO: Critics say Governor Perry found that out when he rejected $555 million in federal stimulus money to cover unemployment benefits because it had strings attached. But months later, he had to ask the federal government for a loan to cover unemployment costs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Now, keep in mind, these states have passed or these states will pass or considering resolutions. Resolutions are non- binding, they're not laws. Lawmakers say that's OK because it's prompted discussion on a topic that's on people's minds.
ROBERTS: Now, you would think because states' rights advocates are so strong in their opinions that the opinions -- we've been asking for comments, right? Therefore, you would think that most people would be in favor of states' rights, but it's running to a large degree the opposite way.
COSTELLO: Oh, yes. But my favorite comments so far, you know, asking for states' rights is asking, you know, the children to be the parents.
ROBERTS: Right.
COSTELLO: It's comparable to that.
ROBERTS: Somebody else wrote in and said, "We're the United States, not the divided states."
COSTELLO: Yes.
So, keep them coming. We're going to read some later on. We want to know what you think. Could states' rights trump the fed? E- mail my blog at CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: Coming up now in the half hour and checking our top stories: A British court is sending an admitted computer hacker here to the United States, rejecting his appeal to have his case heard in the U.K., Gary McKinnon, who said he has a form of autism, will be extradited and face trial here in the U.S. for hacking into the Pentagon and NASA computers.
The U.S. says McKinnon breached computers at the Pentagon and NASA starting in March of 2001 and did damage, costing the government $1 million.
COSTELLO: British forces officially pulling out of Iraq today. At the height of the war back in 2003, around 46,000 British troops were on the ground, 179 have died since the war started. The U.K. still has about 9,000 people in Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: And we are learning this morning that a lot of stimulus money is not being used to fix many of America's crumbling bridges. The "Associated Press" reports $2.2 billion is going to fewer than 1,300 of the nation's worst bridges. But engineers say over 150,000 bridges really need work. Instead, the "A.P." found that most of the money is going to shovel-ready projects like repaving roads.
Well, they call it Cadillac Care, top of the line gold-plated health care plans that cost nearly four times the national average. There is a new push afoot to tax them in order to pay for health care reform. But at what cost?
Our Brianna Keilar live on Capitol Hill this morning to help navigate that one for us.
Hey, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, John.
So, if you're one of this people getting what some would call an over-the-top health care plan seen by many as the domain of Wall Street CEOs and others, you actually would not pay a tax under this plan, the insurance would pay for it, but just wait, say critics, the middle class could get stuck with the bill as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): They're the best health insurance plans money can buy. In Washington, they have a name.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Super, gold- plated, Cadillac plans.
KEILAR: What makes them so great?
PAUL FRONSTIN, EMPLOYEE BENEFITS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: No deductible, no co-payments, no co-insurance, unlimited choice of drugs, no restrictions on network.
KEILAR: These plans are often marketed to the wealthy. They cost as much as $40,000, far above the national average of $12,000, and critics say they encourage the overuse of doctor visits and procedures.
A Democratic proposal to tax insurance companies that provide these pricey plans is gaining bipartisan support in the Senate as a way to help pay for health care reform and keep costs down.
SEN. RON WYDEN, (D) OREGON: Tax insurance companies, and that will then put pressure on them to try to make sure that people look for more cost-effective health care packages.
KEILAR: Some lawmakers say a tax on plans with premiums over $25,000 could raise as much as $90 billion to reform health care.
The insurance industry, which opposes the tax, insists it would hit the policies of middle class Americans and not just the rich. Economists and insurance expert Paul Fronstin agrees. FRONSTIN: You may also find a plan that costs $25,000 because the average age of the workers is 55, and because they use a lot of health care, because the plan is very high.
KEILAR: Labor unions, a powerful Democratic ally, also oppose the tax. The national largest union for public employees and health care workers says insurance companies will pass the cost on to consumers.
STEVEN KREISBERG, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES: Well, we think that any plan involving taxation and health care reform should not make health care more expensive. So, alternatively, we think taxing income levels is a better way to go. Another way to do this is to tax capital gains.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Senator John Kerry proposed this tax on these so-called Cadillac plans as a way to break up the logjam in the Senate over how to pay for health care reform.
And it's getting a look, really, from Republicans and Democrats. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a key senator in these bipartisan negotiations in the Senate, is looking at it.
And it's no coincidence, John, that top Democrats in the house and the Senate have been stepping up their rhetoric against insurance companies in recent days. Just yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling them "immoral villains."
ROBERTS: Yes. And they're all going to be going to the districts as of next Friday to probably hear an earful from their constituents, and we'll see which direction this heads in when they come back in September.
Brianna Keilar, great to see you this morning, thanks so much.
COSTELLO: Coming up, the waiter. What you don't know, don't want to know, but should know about who is serving your food.
ROBERTS: And then we have this other great thing this morning. What happens when you take a couple of 24-year-olds, give them piece of high technology and a little bit of time on their hands? You get this, the latest craze tearing up the Internet.
It's call the "Auto-Tune mash-up." Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck, God bless, and away we go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's not exactly time to do the crazy dance. But news just into us shows another bright note about the economy.
ROBERTS: You might get your feet moving a little bit.
ROMANS: The economy shrank 1 percent last quarter. So, in the spring what that tell us is that the bitter, painful, and long recession was looking like it was starting to wind down.
So, in the first quarter of the year, the economy shrank 6.4 percent. In the second quarter of the year, it shrank 1 percent.
Now this is rearview mirror stuff, but what it does show you is that some of the optimism we've been seeing recently, at least maybe the stability we've been recently seeing in these economic figures are reflected in that second quarter.
This is mostly April and May kinds of numbers, rearview mirror, again, but it shows you that the pace of the declines in the economy are slowing and slowing pretty significantly.
ROBERTS: So dare we, dare we hope that maybe we'll see some growth in the third quarter?
ROMANS: There will be economists who will say certainly they think that the third quarter they will see a little bit of economic growth. If not the third quarter, then definitely the fourth quarter. People are saying this is what it looks like when a recession is in the death throes.
But again, how many times have we said when there is a recovery, when there is actually a green arrow on economic growth, we're still going to feel our wages not moving, we're still going to have a lot of jobs lost.
So, I don't want to paint an overly optimistic picture, but this is at least showing that those big declines are slowing here in the economy.
ROBERTS: Well, I guess the absence -- in the absence of good news, a little less bad news is great.
COSTELLO: That's exactly right.
ROMANS: We'll take it.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Christine.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
Some of the most popular videos right now on CNN.com, "Up in Smoke." CNN's Christian Purefoy tracks down marijuana farms with Nigerian drug law enforcements. They burn down about 30 farms every month.
And dive right in, the sharks probably won't bite you. That's the message the Discovery Channel is sending ahead of the network's "Shark Week," which kicks off on Sunday.
Shark experts say the animals really don't like the taste of humans, for the most part.
COSTELLO: They taste like chicken.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Also, take a look at the fittest men on earth. "Men's Fitness" magazine has come out with the most ripped guys of 2009. Topping this year's list, tennis player Rafael Nadal just squeaking past basketball star LeBron James and rapper Akon.
COSTELLO: I like that list.
ROMANS: John Roberts is number 45.
COSTELLO: Is that true?
ROBERTS: No. Sorry.
COSTELLO: He's number 67.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: The waiter. We're going to talk to a waiter with lots of experience. He's written a book, and he's going to tell you what really goes on in the kitchen with your food. Maybe you won't want to know this.
But please come back. It's 39 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: OK. It's not a very nice day in Atlanta, Georgia, today. Later today they're going to have thunderstorms and 80 degrees, and that usually means airport delays all along the east coast. In fact, some airports are reporting 45 minute delays right now, so call ahead.
He started out as an anonymous writer of a blog called "Waiter Rant," venting about what restaurant servers put up with every day. Then the waiter revealed his true identity in a book that soon became a "New York Times" bestseller.
Now Steven Dublanica's book "Waiter Rant" is available in paperback with a new postscript. He join me now for some candid talk.
Good morning, Steven.
STEVE DUBLANICA, AUTHOR, "WAITER RANT": Good morning.
COSTELLO: I can't wait to talk to you.
OK, so when you look at a customer in a restaurant, can you immediately tell if that customer's going to be a good tipper or a bad tipper? DUBLANICA: I always said I could see the tip floating above their head like a halo.
COSTELLO: What gives it away?
DUBLANICA: One of the first things you need to do as a waiter is you need to evaluate their pain in the keister potential like right away. You need to know, is this going to be a difficult customer, is this going to be an easygoing customer.
Easygoing customers tend to be better tippers. And you can usually tell by their facial expressions, how they carry their body. If they look relaxed and like they want to have a good time.
COSTELLO: So, you'll give those people better service and maybe the ones that are surly, not so much.
DUBLANICA: Part of your job is to make people feel at home and hospitable. So, sometimes if you get someone in a bad mood, you want to put them in a good mood.
But some people are just crazy, and you can't help them.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the crazy people, because I know you say, like, 80 percent of customers are nice people.
DUBLANICA: That's correct.
COSTELLO: But there's that 20 percent. Tell me some crazy stories.
DUBLANICA: Well, with some of the things that people do that are really crazy is, they will walk into an Italian restaurant and order sushi. I'm not making this up. So, some people will not order what's on the menu.
You'll have people come in with varying degrees of intoxication.
But the other thing that people do is they tend to treat the restaurant like it's their living room, like they think it's an extension of their personal space. So, we have the big thing that drives me crazy is cell phones.
COSTELLO: Oh, so people talk while they're ordering?
DUBLANICA: While they're ordering.
I mean, it's bad enough when someone's on a date they're not talking to each other, but they're text messaging each other.
COSTELLO: That's great.
(LAUGHTER)
DUBLANICA: But when they're all of a sudden -- like you shouldn't drive and talk on a cell phone, you shouldn't eat and talk on a cell phone.
COSTELLO: So do you have the urge to say, "You're being really rude, please pay attention to me"?
DUBLANICA: One time I had a TV producer who was on her BlackBerry with her husband. And I knew her really well. I just snapped it out of her hands, put it in my pocket and said "You'll get it at the end of the meal." And her husband was like, thank you.
COSTELLO: OK, there's a chapter in your book called "Vengeance is Mine." And a lot of people think that if a waiter doesn't like the customer, they'll bring the food back into the kitchen...
DUBLANICA: And do some enhancement.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
DUBLANICA: Yes.
COSTELLO: Thank you for filling in the blank for me. But does that really happen?
DUBLANICA: I think it happens very rarely.
I know it does happen. I never did it. And I know it happens because I thought about doing it, you know.
But I think there's no fun in making anyone sick. I mean, I go out to eat. If I get something I don't like, it's my hard-earned money, I'll send it back.
It's how you send it back. If you send it back, saying you're stupid, you can't do anything right, then you're asking for trouble.
COSTELLO: So, when you say "trouble," like what kinds of trouble can you create for the customer that doesn't involve putting like weird substances in their food?
DUBLANICA: I once had a Wall Street fellow at my restaurant, and he was very rude to me. And he was entertaining a client. And when dinner was over and he was paying the bill, I didn't run his credit card. I just told him it was declined.
(LAUGHTER)
And he was, you know, very embarrassed. And his client's going, how you going to close the deal if you can't pay for dinner? So, he was -- and I put my own tip in. I was like, I'm getting 20 percent.
So, he learned his lesson, without any spittle.
COSTELLO: I must say, though, you know, if you're going out with a new date, and the new date treats the waiter or the server rudely, that's a good sign not to date that person ever again.
DUBLANICA: I once had a lady when her date went to the bathroom ask me how much he tipped.
COSTELLO: Really?
DUBLANICA: Really.
COSTELLO: It's a good gauge.
DUBLANICA: It is. If you're, you know, if you're generous to people you don't know, the odds are you're going to be generous to people that you do know.
COSTELLO: Interesting book. Thank you for talking with us this morning, Steven. We appreciate it.
DUBLANICA: Thank you for having me.
COSTELLO: John?
ROBERTS: All right, it is the latest, greatest political spoof. It's gotten at least 6 million hits on YouTube. We want to share it with you as well as the geniuses behind it. You've got to see these clips coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
As U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq, one man is staying behind. Meet our hero of the week, Brad Blauser.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRAD BLAUSER, PROVIDES PEDIATRIC WHEELCHAIRS TO IRAQI CHILDREN: Disabled children, they're really the forgotten ones in this war. They're in the back rooms, often not seen in society.
I came to Iraq as a civilian contractor. There were a lot of children that either dragged themselves on the ground or they have to be carried.
There were so many kids out there with a need, and so many people willing to reach out and touch the lives of these kids.
In 30 days we had 31 pediatrics wheelchairs that had hit ground.
My name is Brad Blauser. I bring pediatric wheelchairs to Iraqi children in need.
People donate on my Web site. The wheelchairs are brought over, and I distribute them to the different military units and help fit these children into the wheelchairs.
The experience for me in my first distribution was awesome. To see the smile come across their face and look over at the mothers and fathers, they've definitely been changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all about humanity. He wanted Iraqis to feel that there's humanity in America. It makes us happy to see such a thing.
BLAUSER: There's no paycheck. It's not really safe here, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, knowing that you have done something for someone that no one else has done before, and made a difference in the life of families. Definitely the sacrifice has been worth it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: It's the latest, greatest, political spoof.
ROBERTS: It really is fun.
COSTELLO: We laughed for at least a half hour this morning over it.
You have to see it close. We have a little tape. This is John Boehner as you've never seen him before.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: You might be asking yourself this morning, what the heck is that? Well, it's a brand-new form of political satire that takes video tips from Congress in the news and runs them through a high-tech recording gadget called the Auto-Tune.
COSTELLO: That's where spoken words become music. And the mash- up is taking the online world by storm, racking up millions of hits on YouTube. The brains behind Auto-Tune the news are brothers Evan and Michael Gregory, and they join us live. Welcome.
EVAN GREGORY, AUTOTUNE: Thanks for having us.
COSTELLO: Can you believe how popular this has become?
MICHAEL GREGORY, AUTOTUNE: It's been a trip. We can only imagine it because we're sitting here in front of you right now. We were making music videos about the news, and now we're on the news.
ROBERTS: So you're sitting there at home, watching Congress, C- SPAN. Where did you ever get the idea of let's run this through an Auto-Tune, mash it up into a video clip?
M. GREGORY: Well, anything really sounds better with a baseline and a cow bell. So we figured why not apply that to the news. I regret I forgot my cow bell today or I would have brought it.
COSTELLO: Are there certain people whose voice cadences more lend themselves more to Auto-Tune than others?
M. GREGORY: Certainly. Bachmann is great. We just saw an example of that. Also Katie Couric and Joe Biden are all stars. ROBERTS: We've got a clip of Katie Couric in just a minute.
But first of all, for folks at home who have never heard of this, Evan, what is an Auto-Tune and how does it work?
E. GREGORY: So if you imagine the photography industry, everyone's heard of Photoshop, and this is a tool that's completely pervasive. It's used for both retouching and fixing pictures, but also can be used to, say, put things together that never should have been there in the first place.
Similarly, Auto-Tune is a tool in the music or audio industry that's used pervasively for corrective methods. Say, if I make a mistake, I don't need to do another take.
ROBERTS: Or you're not such a great singer, you're pitchy as Randy Jackson would put it.
E. GREGORY: Yes, imagine that.
But it can also be used for extreme effect. So not just a corrective method to fix your mistakes, but to take it to some totally different place.
And this was a commonplace sound now on hit radio where there's kind of a robot effect on your...
COSTELLO: The Cher song, right? That's a good example. Cher does it a lot.
ROBERTS: And it can take things like Nancy Pelosi up in the House talking about a recovery bill and make it sound like music. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: Just remember these four words for what this legislation means jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs and don't forget about jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It can also take Minority Leader John Boehner and turn him into a singer, as well.
E. GREGORY: He turned into a real star, that's for sure.
ROBERTS: How long does it take you to sift through the clips and say this goes with this, and set the music track with it, and then put it through the pitch corrector and come up with this?
M. GREGORY: It takes about three days, because we really have to make all of the music first before we shoot the video, and we lip sync to that.
COSTELLO: And has anyone commented on it? Has John Boehner office given you a call and said, "Thanks for making me a star"?
MICHAEL GREGORY: We haven't heard from Boehner yet, fingers crossed. But we have heard from a few of the people that have reached out to us, and most of them are pretty tickled and not too embarrassed.
COSTELLO: Spill it. Who, and what did they say?
E. GREGORY: Well, I had a delightful chat just last week with Brian Oxman, who is a family lawyer for Michael Jackson and the Jackson family. And he was featured in the same video in which we saw Michelle Bachmann and John Boehner.
And we had a little bit of light-hearted fun with his interviews that he had done. But he was really a spectacularly good sport about it.
ROBERTS: In fact, I think we've got a little bit of Brian Oxman in a bit of a mash-up where we have Katie Couric, who is talking about Tylenol perhaps being taken out of narcotic pain medications like Vicodin. Let's watch this clip and see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and other medications. What about Vicodin, you know it's unconstitutional, pharmaceutical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am warned that one day Michael Jackson would wake up dead
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So that's the way that Brian Oxman was talking about the death of Michael Jackson and his warnings that one day it was going to happen, and yet he took that all in good humor?
M. GREGORY: That's right. So he had made predictions about there might be this terrible outcome. And so we found a number of interviews in which he said that and mashed them up into this chorus.
And when he called me, I was very worried he would be offended, but actually we had a lovely chat.
ROBERTS: Interesting.
COSTELLO: I've always wondered if there is a YouTube video that's incredibly popular and gets millions of hits, but where do you go from there? Are you making money off this? Probably not. But where do you go from here?
E. GREGORY: Very little money out of YouTube. But what it has acted as is a YouTube calling card that gets us other work related to auto-tuning and related to writing music.
ROBERTS: When you listen to you guys, you're half decent singers. Have you got a band together, or something, you can see a future actually performing music? Or do you think you'll be behind the scenes maybe as producers?
M. GREGORY: Well, anything's possible in terms of where this could take us. But we have a long history as musicians and played in a band together for years. That's our background and where we came from, and this happens to be the latest project that's caught on.
ROBERTS: It certainly is a lot of fun.
We thank you guys for coming in here, continued success in the future. Evan and Michael Gregory, amazing stuff.
E. GREGORY: Thanks for having us.
Continue the conversation on today's top stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
COSTELLO: Wow, we're out of time. The show went like lightning today.
ROBERTS: Had too much fun today. More fun than people should legally be allowed to have.
COSTELLO: Maybe not that much fun. But that would be fun.
We have to say goodbye. It's time for "NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins. We'll send it down to Atlanta now. Thanks for joining us.
