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American Morning
Health Care Reform Debate Continues in Town Halls During Congressional Recess; Passengers Stuck in Grounded Small Continental Plane for Hours; General Motors Pilots a Program in California to Sell Cars on EBay; Booming Rum Business in Cuba
Aired August 11, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning."
It's 7:00 on the dot here in New York, on this Tuesday, August 11th, I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, I'm John Roberts.
We begin with breaking news this morning, and sad news to tell you about. The sister of former President John Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead this morning. The 88-year-old had suffered a series of strokes in the past few years. Her family says she died at Cape Cod Hospital in Massachusetts at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Shriver was well known for the founding of the Special Olympics. The family released a very heartfelt and emotional statement just a couple of moments ago.
In part, it reads, quote, "Inspired by her love of God, her devotion to her family, and her relentless belief in the dignity and worth of every human life, she worked without ceasing."
Eunice Shriver passing leaves only two surviving members of the nine child Kennedy clan, Senator Ted Kennedy and Gene Kennedy Smith.
We're breaking down several other big stories for you in the next 15 minutes. The president getting ready for a road trip to sell his plan for health care reform. He'll start with a town hall meeting this afternoon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We're live at the White House this morning with the president planning to change his tone and his tactics.
CHETRY: Also Secretary of State Hillary Clinton losses her cool a little bit while meeting with some students in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She thought she was being asked what her husband thought about an international issue. It was all a misunderstanding. We'll tell you what was lost in translation and we'll show you her reaction.
ROBERTS: Stranded on an airplane all night long -- 47 passengers on a Continental express jet from Houston to Minneapolis wound up trapped on a tarmac in another city for six hours. Babies were crying, diapers were filling up, the toilets were filling up, there was no food. We'll talk to one passenger about a flight on and a night that he would like to forget.
Our top story this morning, though, is health care reform and the president's big pitch. President Obama taking his message straight to the American people starting today with a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and he is expected change his approach in the face of mounting criticism and the kind of fear expressed by one woman at a senior center last night in North Arlington, New Jersey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's my opinion that we have the best health care in the world. People from Canada and Europe come here for life-saving procedures. Where are we going to go if this health care gets passed and you know this president --
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta is live in Portsmouth this morning. The president will be there later on today, Jim, and already we've seen some spirited protests.
We start though, this morning at the White House with Elaine Quijano. And, Elaine, we understand that the White House plans to employ some new tactics today. What are those tactics?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. The White House is looking at aim its message now more directly at people who already have coverage. The president is heading, as you noted, to New Hampshire. That's a state where a lot of people, almost 90 percent have health care.
So we're going to hear President Obama hit on familiar themes, including changing the system to make sure that insurance companies are not able to deny someone because of their preexisting condition.
At the same time the White House is also trying to push back on another front. It's launched a webpage on the White House web site. it's calling it "The Reality Check" and obviously underlines the fact that White House officials are concerned about some of the arguments out there getting some traction, possibly.
So this is just another tool that the White House is using to push back against what it sees as misinformation -- John?
ROBERTS: We haven't heard a whole lot, Elaine, from the White House about the fireworks at some of these town hall meetings. Are we getting any insight into what the president thinks about them?
QUIJANO: Oh we heard from President Obama himself yesterday. He said, look, these are vigorous debates, and they're healthy, and they're necessary, because he believes that health care reform is something that cannot wait. But aides also say the president believes that shouting someone down is not at all constructive. It's not productive. It certainly doesn't do anything to further the debate.
So we'll see what happens at the town hall meeting coming up here. But obviously the White House will want to be respectful of the people who have legitimate concerns, John. They say it's another thing if you're simply trying to out-shout someone else.
ROBERTS: There might not be any shouting inside the town hall, but I know that opponents of health care reform, or at least this particular form of health care reform, planning some protest outside of that venue. So we'll see what happens.
Elaine Quijano for us this morning. Elaine, thanks so much.
QUIJANO: Sure.
CHETRY: And as president continues this make or break push on health care, Americans are still bitterly divided on the issue, and they're going grassroots, making signs, flooding the web.
So what kind of perception can President Obama expect today in New Hampshire? Our Jim Acosta is live in Portsmouth. He's already taking the temperature out there, talking to both sides of the fight.
Hey, Jim.
ACOSTA: Good morning, Kiran, that's right. From what we can gather, the president just might get a taste of some of the rowdy town hall meetings later today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Asked by White House officials whether or not the president could possibly get shouted down by some of the protesters who are showing up at some of these town hall events, White House officials did say that the president does expect a vigorous debate.
They think there will be roughly 1,800 people at this event later today. But that will be inside the auditorium. There should be hundreds more gathered outside to protest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Opponents for democratic plans for health care reform aren't just sounding off at congressional town hall meetings. In New Hampshire, protesters descended on staff member of Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen in the middle of a routine constituent services meeting.
It wasn't a town hall forum, and the senator wasn't there. The protesters recorded the confrontation and put it on YouTube.
SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN, (D) NEW HAMPSHIRE: One constituent who was there wound up almost in tears where our staff person had to be escorted out with a police escort.
ACOSTA (on camera): And have you ever seen anything like this in all of your years of public service?
SHAHEEN: Never where people have been encouraged to be disrespectful.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Democrats charge the people shouting health care questions at members of Congress these days are being encouraged by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, whose Web site compares the reform supporters to Nazis.
But Corey Lewandowski with American for Prosperity, a conservative group that's backing the protest, insists the antireform movement is real.
ACOSTA (on camera): How do you respond to the charge that this is all orchestrated and artificial if it's all coming from talk show hosts and websites?
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY, NEW HAMPSHIRE: I think if that were the case, then you wouldn't see the massive turnouts that you're seeing at each and every event. The average person is at work when Rush Limbaugh is on the radio.
ACOSTA (voice-over): As we were talking, almost out of nowhere, a bystander listening in on our conversation came right up to us to say ditto.
LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you very much.
ACOSTA (on camera): And you happen to agree with this gentleman?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But Democrats are also flexing their grassroots. The former Obama volunteers were back in campaign mode.
EILEEN FLOCKHART, SUPPORTS OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PLAN: I really think you have some folks who are very anxious about change who really love to play the fear card.
ACOSTA: Corey Lewandowski says it's about facts not fear. But time and again, he falsely compared Democratic health care proposals to a Canadian style universal system.
ACOSTA (on camera): The ones coming out the house are not Canadian style universal health care, and you know that.
LEWANDOWSKI: Universal health care in any way, shape, or form is a bad notion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: As for Senator Jeanne Shaheen, she is not sure she'll have a live town hall meeting here in New Hampshire. She held on over the telephone and had more than 10,000 people call in.
And just to give you a sense of some of the public discourse here, there was a political cartoon in the very conservative Manchester local newspaper, the "Union Leader." It says there's a doctor standing in the doorway saying, "Hello, I'm your doctor. Bend over." And the name tag reads Karl Marx.
So if that gives you a sense of the public discourse -- that's in the newspaper, Kiran -- as to how things are shaping up out here, it should be, as the White House is calling it, a vigorous debate later today.
CHETRY: What did Corey Lewandowski says after you said, wait a minute, you're saying it's Canada-style health care and it's not?
ACOSTA: I tried my best, but he would not concede that this was not Canadian-style health care. I have talked to this organization in the past. They're based out of Washington. He's the New Hampshire rep.
And what they believe is that this public option that's being debated in the Democratic health care plans would lead to a Canadian- style health care plan. So that's why they think they can say that.
But that, of course, is not the case. If you look at the bills that are being proposed right now, even the one that is being talked about in the Senate finance committee, they're not talking about Canadian-style health care. The president himself tried to bat that down yesterday.
But with a lot of these rumors, the president, the White House, they are trying every day, almost every hour to try to bat down some of these claims. As we've been reporting. The White House has even set up a fact check page on its website to go after some of these erroneous claims that are coming from opponents -- Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, John Acosta for us this morning. Great to talk to you, thanks.
And also the health care debate has some of our viewers fired up as well. We've had calls pouring in to our amfix.com hotline. We love to hear from you. Here's a little sampling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE, VIEWER FROM TEXAS: I'm very disturbed at the town hall meetings and the misinformation that's out there on health care. I think it's really -- a lot of Americans don't know what's going on. So they're just ranting.
DAVE, VIEWER FROM KENTUCKY: This is absolutely the worst bill that's ever been introduced in congress. It will take us to socialism and socialized medicine and will do anything to make health care higher.
CHRISTY, VIEWER FROM MISSOURI: I live in Branson, Missouri. And I've got to tell you, there's so much bigotry down here and death threats about Obama and his health care. They don't care about whether it gets fixed. All they care is trying to destroy what he's doing.
ROBERT, VIEWER FROM TEXAS: We do not want people telling us what kind of health care insurance we want. Please, do not pass this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: We want to hear more from you. Call our hotline. You can drop us a note on our Web site as well at CNN.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: Listening to that, you have to wonder, are the two sides ever going to come together on this.
CHETRY: And there is so much out there. There's so much being said about where this would lead. And it is, it's hard to wade through it and really see how you feel.
ROBERTS: Yes. And -- see if the plan is still in flux, no one knows what the eventual plans going to look like.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: So that's why the discussion is so contentious.
Other stories for you this morning, divers will be back in the Hudson River this morning after locating the wreckage of a small plane and the body of a small victim inside. Nine people died when the sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson on Saturday.
Now we're hearing the first 911 call from witnesses just moments after impact.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911 operator, what is your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think someone just wiped out in the Hudson River. I think it was a helicopter. Can you have somebody check, please?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Recovery crews will now begin the process of lifting the plane remains to the surface.
CHETRY: The price of gas is down just barely. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.64. It's down just a fifth of a penny overnight. But it is the first drop in 21 days.
ROBERTS: Take it when you can get it.
And a rather undiplomatic moment for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was in the middle of her marathon tour in Africa and flashed some anger in response to a student's question in Congo. He wanted to know President Obama's opinion on an international trade deal involving China. However, the translator misspoke. Instead of saying "President Obama," the translator asked the secretary what "President Clinton thought." Here's what followed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state, I am. You asked my opinion. I will tell you my opinion. I'm not going to be channeling my husband.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Oops.
(LAUGHTER)
It all ended well, though. There were handshakes afterward. Apparently, no hard feelings, at least not after the initial hard feelings.
CHETRY: She's -- they explained it was also in the context of, you know, talking about violence and victimization against women and women not being held to the same esteem and stature in parts of Africa. So, anyway, that whole mix there.
ROBERTS: What a moment to get lost in translation, huh?
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: It's all about timing.
CHETRY: Hey, at least she wasn't stuck in a plane overnight for ten hours.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine? Can I tell you something? I hate flying on the little tiny regional jets to begin with. Even if you have to spend an hour in one, it's like --
CHETRY: I know, it is. At least our next guest describes it as being stuck in a sardine can, but --
ROBERTS: Cigar tube.
CHETRY: I personally would have gone crazy.
ROBERTS: How long were they in there, 10 to 12 hour?
CHETRY: They were in there for 10 to 12, including overnight, seven apparently crying babies and an overflowing toilet. He's going to explain why all of this happened anyway in the first place.
ROBERTS: I would be psychotic.
CHETRY: It's 13 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 15 minute past the hour right now.
Summer thunderstorms can mean delays in airports. But how about this one -- 47 passengers trapped on a plane that wasn't moving, it was on a runway all night long, limited food and water. The Continental express jet was flying from Houston to Minneapolis when the storms hit and that's when the nightmare began.
Link Christin was one of the passengers. He joins us from Minnesota this morning to recount exactly what happened. Link, thanks for being with us.
LINK CHRISTIN, STRANDED ON AIRPLANE OVERNIGHT: You're welcome. Thank you.
CHETRY: So, as we understand it, you guys were from Houston, you were supposed to headed out to Minnesota, to Minneapolis, when this happened. Some thunderstorms forced you guys to go down in Rochester.
So you're sitting on the runway there. And take it from there. What happened after this?
CHRISTIN: They took us to Rochester to refuel, because the plane was a very small, sort cigar-shaped commuter plane and probably didn't have a lot of gas. So we went to refuel.
They -- they told us for an hour or two they were waiting for the storm to pass in Minneapolis. And we all waited. Then they started telling us that they had a bus ready that was ready to take us back to the Twin Cities which is only 60 miles away.
And they spent the next three hours telling us the bus was going to come, the bus wasn't going to come. They were having problems.
And that's what happened throughout the night. At all points, we thought we were just a half hour from leaving the airplane.
CHETRY: And during this process, you're describing a plane that was very small, as you said. It was full, right? And there were babies on that plane. So what was it like after all of the time was ticking by? Were people asking to get off? Were people were saying, hey, we need something to eat or drink here?
CHRISTIN: There was very little communication among the passengers. We were all kind of bunched in in these tiny little seats kind of strapped in. I didn't see a lot of communication with the passengers.
I had a baby two seats in front of me on the lap of two young parents. I had a baby behind me on the lap of two young parents. I was by the bathroom, so I was able to observe what was happening with the babies and with the bathroom.
CHETRY: So, sort of describe how things started to go from bad to worse, then, when you were on that plane.
CHRISTIN: I think each hour, the bathroom odors got worse, the odors of the babies got worse. The air got staler. I think people got more tired. I think people got hungry. They add no food whatsoever. And I had made a connecting flight, for example, and had not eaten for 15 hours.
So I think the combination of thirst and hunger and not able to sleep because the babies were crying, I just think there was a deterioration that took place throughout the flight in terms of people's emotional stability.
CHETRY: I understand there were a few things that came in to play. The flight crew was claiming they were on limited flying time, right? They had hit their limit, and so then they had to bring another crew.
They claimed that they couldn't let you off because TSA screeners had gone home and then you legally couldn't get back on the plane.
But then again, the airport manager said that wasn't the case, that there is a secure area. Another flight apparently had to deplane, Delta flight had to deplane in the middle of the night as well, and those passengers were brought into the airport.
What do you think when you hear all of these reasons or excuses for why you guys were stuck on that plane all night long?
CHRISTIN: I think, my own observation is that they're pretext for not doing what they should have done was to get us off of the airplane. We were in a little, tiny airplane all night, and they need to get us off of the airplane. There was a terminal 50 yards away.
When we went in to the terminal at 7:00 in the morning and spent another three hour, we never went through security. We sat in the terminal. It's after security. We spent three hours. We got back on the plane. Security was not involved at that point and should never have had to be involved.
CHETRY: All right, well, here's what Continental says. They said that "We're reaching out to our customers to apologize and to offer them a full refund for the entire trip and a certificate good for future travel." Is that enough for you?
CHRISTIN: No. I haven't thought about what is enough, and I'm not sure anything is enough.
But the question is, what's the right thing for them to do? And I really haven't thought about that and thought it through yet. But Continental can do something, I think, that is the right thing to put people through what is a very unique experience. And I'm not sure a travel voucher and refund necessarily escalates to that level.
CHETRY: Do you think there a lack of common sense or a lack of good judgment in what went on? CHRISTIN: There was a horrible lack of judgment, and there certainly was no consideration of the -- of the psychological needs, the medical needs, the physical needs of the passengers.
You had 47 people with 40 different situations, and I have no idea what those other 46 stories are like. But there might have been a lot of people there who suffered egregiously. And I don't think Continental thought for a second about the needs of those passengers.
They needed to get them into the terminal, and then if they want to make decisions, they can. But at least we're comfortable then. We have lights, we have bathrooms, we have telephones, we have food. Why they didn't put us in the terminal, I, quite frankly, have no idea.
CHETRY: Well, it's something we can all sympathize with. It's something nobody would want to have to go through for sure. Link Christin stranded in the plane overnight. Thanks for joining us to tell your story today.
CHRISTIN: You're welcome.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: You have to wonder how after all of the nightmare stories that we report on over these years how something like that could ever, ever happen.
It's 21 minute after the hour. So you want to buy a new car, but you don't want to go to the showroom and deal with the sales people? General Motors wants to give you an alternative. How would you like to buy a car on eBay? We'll tell you how coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Christine Romans is out today. It's Stephanie Elam minding your business, and we want to get to that. But we just can't stop talking about the flight.
CHETRY: We are talking about the things we would do if we were trapped on that flight.
ROBERTS: You would fake a heart attack, right, and take one for the team?
(LAUGHTER)
I'm coming, got to get me off.
CHETRY: John said he would be arrested.
ROBERTS: I would be in jail in a heartbeat.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I would e-mail and call everyone at CNN I know.
ROBERTS: However, I would be on every cable channel the next day as the hero who rescued everybody and took one for the team and went to jail.
CHETRY: But it is. You just imagine, everybody talk about these tough times for the airline industry and everything that's going on. That's the exact type of thing you don't need to see happen.
ELAM: That's the last thing that you need as a public thing, that you can't get people from a small town up to where they're trying to go.
ROBERTS: Let's talk about what you hear for us, selling cars on eBay. Lots of people do it, but now a company's going to do it.
ELAM: Yes, and the company would be G.M., a rather large company trying to do some new things here, trying to reinvent themselves, get you back in there. So that's been kind of an issue for them. So that's what they're doing now with a Web site called gm.ebay.com.
They're working with 225 dealers in California. I'm sorry, for all you people who want to try this and you're not in the golden state, this is not exactly for you. This is just a four-week trial, and they're going to sell cars and truck and eBay that are made by Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Pontiac.
And so there will be a selection of up to 20,000 vehicles and for model years 2008, 2009, and 2010. The program does begin today.
You have a couple of options. Buyers can go in and haggle for the price they want to pay or buy the average highest price that they see out there if you just really do not like the idea of haggling. I guess a lot of people don't think that's how they get the best deals.
The trial runs until September 28th, and they're hoping that this will give an idea that people can go out, get cars in the neighborhood. I actually just went on the Web site, typed in the zip code of where I grew up in California.
And it shows you -- I was looking for an Envoy. If you look for an Envoy, there you go. There's the Web site there. Type in the zip code and they tell you how close they have to where you are. The one I came up with was 350 miles away from where I grew up, so that's a little far.
But depending on where you are in California, look it up, find it that way, and then decide if you just want to buy it now and then put in all of the details that you want.
So you can get a car through eBay and G.M. And there will be a press conference today too at 8:00 a.m. eastern time.
ROBERTS: You need to know what you want, right?
ELAM: Yes, you do need to know what you want.
ROBERTS: So at some point, you need to go to the dealership to find out what you want or drive a friend, or something like that. ELAM: I generally would say it's a good idea to go and tangibly figure out exactly what you like about a car first and do all that test driving. But once you figure it out, a lot of people feel like they can get a better deal and not have to deal with the salespersons interaction that they don't like.
ROBERTS: Yes. Interesting idea. We'll see if it works.
So we talk a lot about this morning and the last couple of weeks about the divisions that this health reform issue is causing. How about splitting families?
In just a couple of minutes, we're going to introduce you to the Woodhouse brothers. One is with the grassroots coalition that is opposing health care. The other one is the communications director of the Democratic National Committee and he's trying to sell health care.
If families can't come together, how is the nation going to come together? We'll get to that debate in just a moment.
It's 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And it's coming up on the half hour. Checking our top story this is morning.
Former President Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died this morning at the age of 88. Family and friends rushed to be by her side, including Shriver's son-in-law, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The family says Shriver, well-known as the founder of the Special Olympics, died around 2:00 a.m. eastern at Cape Cod hospital in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
He's already in trouble for abandoning his state to see his soul mate in Argentina. Now there are new calls this morning to impeach South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. A Republican state senator says the governor broke the law by not taking the cheapest flights not taking the cheapest flights on state trips to London and China a few years back.
South Carolina requires its governor to charge the state the lowest fare possible.
CHETRY: And the results are in. But the L.A. county coroner's office is keeping Michael Jackson's autopsy sealed. This is because of the ongoing investigation into his death. Police are still trying to determine whether anyone should be charged.
But we do know from a source that Jackson's physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, gave the singer the powerful drug Propofol in the 24 hours before he died.
ROBERTS: It's a make or break month for health care reform. Even south of the border, President Obama brought up the debate. But he's back from Mexico today and taking his push to New Hampshire. He's got a town hall meeting there. The president could find the crowd at that town hall deeply divided.
In fact, the debate is dividing not only along political lines but familial lines as well. We found two brothers on opposite sides of the aisle who are also on the opposite sides of the issue.
Joining me from Raleigh is Dallas Woodhouse. He is the director of Americans for Prosperity in North Carolina and is against the proposed reforms. And his brother, Brad Woodhouse is in Washington. Brad is the communications director for the Democratic National Committee and is for the reform.
Brad, let's start off with you. Your brother, Dallas, organized bus trips under the banner of hands off my health care, he called the plan Health Control, called it health rationing. You have called some of the people who come out of these town halls protesting "angry mobs of rabid right wing extremists."
Did you include your brother in that?
BRAD WOODHOUSE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTION, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: John, unfortunately, I think I do. I didn't see the results of his bus tour. And I don't think he personally attended any town hall meetings.
But I think it's the misinformation, in fact, in some cases the out and out lies that the other side is telling about the president's plan that are inciting these people and making them angry. I mean if some of the e things that they're saying about the president's health care plan were true, I'd be angry.
The fact of the matter is, though, they're not. Whether it's the euthanasia charge or rationing or government take over or Canadian- style health care, I mean, these are just crazy charges. And, of course, that would make people angry. The problem is they happen to be true.
ROBERTS: Well, let's bring Dallas in here. Dallas, Brad says that you're helping to incite confusion and anger, spread mistruths about the health care reform plans. What do you say to that?
DALLAS WOODHOUSE, NORTH CAROLINA STATE DIRECTOR, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: John, can I just tell you that it is simple that the president is losing this debate. You know he's losing this debate when people like my brother and the White house start attacking hard- working tax-paying citizens as mobsters and when Nancy Pelosi calls it un-American. They're losing this debate because people are reading the bill. They're learning information. And they know the government - the same government that can't get water to thirsty people in a hurricane will destroy the best health care system in the world by complete government takeover.
They do not want a Washington bureaucrat in the exam room with them and their doctor. And by the way, Brad, when you report me to the White House snitch campaign, please get my name spelled right. It is Dallas, like the city, last name, Woodhouse.
ROBERTS: Brad, you're not going to report him to the White House, are you?
BRAD WOODHOUSE: No, of course not. And see this is just the problem though, John. You cannot have an honest debate with folks like my brother on this issue. I mean, no one has proposed - the president has been the last person to propose a government takeover of health care. He said we need to build on the current system. So, you know -
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: What about hundreds and billions of dollars out of Medicare. You can't cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare without denying sick and old people treatments. You know, your mom is on Medicare, Brad, your mama.
BRAD WOODHOUSE: Dallas, that's just not - first of all, that's not just true. That's not what the president has proposed. He told AARP -
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: Is it not in the House bill to cut hundreds and billions of dollars out of Medicare?
BRAD WOODHOUSE: He told the AARP group - he told the group there's not one penny of benefit cuts has been proposed by the president out of Medicare. He's talking about something. He's talking about that for a long time. Bringing inefficiencies out of the system, stopping over pricing -
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: You mean sick and old people?
BRAD WOODHOUSE: And closing the prescription drug doughnut hole. Dallas, you're pedaling falsehoods here and you shouldn't do that.
ROBERTS: All right. Let me play mom and jump in here for a second to keep the brothers apart. Dallas, your group of Americans For Prosperity is aggressively advertising against the proposals that are making their way through the House and the Senate. Let's just run one a little bit of one of those ad campaigns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Do you trust Washington with your life? Congress is rushing to take over health care too, paid for by $600 billion in new taxes and cutting $400 billion for Medicare. Plus tens of millions will lose their current insurance and wind up on the government health plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Dallas, let's take a look at that. You talked already about the cuts in Medicare. There's some argument about that. But you just said that tens of millions of people will lose their health insurance and be forced into a government plan. Where does it say that in any of the plans? DALLAS WOODHOUSE: You know, John, we're reasonable people that can look at a piece of legislation and look at the consequences of what that legislation will do. It doesn't have to be written on paper. It wasn't written in the FEMA legislation for them to bundle getting water to thirsty people.
The reality is that this plan will incentivize private companies for dropping their insurance. I would ask my brother three questions -can he guarantee that no company in America will drop private insurance to put people on the public plan? Can he guarantee it won't increase the deficit? And can he guarantee that it won't put the government in charge of rationing health care. He can't say that.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Let's answer these three questions, Brad?
BRAD WOODHOUSE: I can answer all three of those questions. First of all, the president's plan will eliminate the type of rationing the insurance companies are doing now. Remember, the insurance company rationed health care by denying people coverage for pre-existing conditions, dropping people when they get sick. So the president's plan will say no more of that. Second of all, the CBO said that the president's plan would not result in insurance companies going out of business -
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: After he put the muzzle on them at the White House.
BRAD WOODHOUSE: I'm answering your questions, Dallas, with the public option. And so you're pedaling more falsehoods here and this is what -
ROBERTS: What about increasing the deficits? The CBO said it would add $239 billion to the deficit.
BRAD WOODHOUSE: Well, first, the president has said that this has to be -- he said he won't sign a bill that's not deficit neutral over the next 10 years. So he'll depend on the CBO to score whatever the final bill is. And he said he will not sign it if it's not deficit neutral. Dallas, I think I answered all of your questions.
ROBERTS: Let me put one more question out to both of you. It will just take a few seconds to answer this. If two brothers can't agree on this plan, how is the rest of the country ever going to agree on it?
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: I think the rest of the country has agreed on it, John. They don't like it. The polls show the president dropping like a rock on this issue. And the reality is he's losing on the merits because the more people find out about it, they don't like it. They may be frustrated at their insurance companies but at the end of the day, they do not want government managing all of the health care system. At least with our private insurance companies, if they don't like them, they can go sue them.
ROBERTS: Brad, final words to you, can't you just all get along on this? Find common ground?
BRAD WOODHOUSE: Clearly we can't. Clearly my brother is looking at maybe his own polls. I mean, over and over again, the public has said they want to reform the health insurance system. And you know what? The problem for Dallas and the people that are doing these protests is the truth is in the end the president is going to get a bill. He's going to get -
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: In other words, they're going to shove it down the throats of the American citizens.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Can I ask a question? Do you guys get along normally though? Are you buds or do you guys always sort of butted heads, sibling rivalry?
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: We're very close. I love my brother to death. He's one of the best partisan political acts in America and he wouldn't be at the White House and he wouldn't be invited over to the cocktails at the White House if he weren't very good at what he does. I'm just a little simple community organizer like the president used to be in North Carolina.
BRAD WOODHOUSE: Oh, come on. That's just --
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: ... I go around defending taxpayers.
ROBERTS: All I can say is it's going to be an interesting thanksgiving.
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: It's very loud at the Woodhouse house.
ROBERTS: Dallas and Brad -
BRAD WOODHOUSE: It is very loud.
ROBERTS: That's one of the more interesting debates we've ever had.
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: I love you, brother. Spell my name right. Spell it right.
BRAD WOODHOUSE: Bye, Dallas.
DALLAS WOODHOUSE: ... to the snitch campaign.
ROBERTS: Gentlemen, thanks very much. We'll get you back again. This is too much fun.
By the way, we want to hear from you what you want to hear from the president in today's town hall meeting. What kind of healthcare reform do you think we need or do we need it at all. You can leave a comment at our show blog at CNN.com/amfix or call our show hotline at 1-877-myamfix.
CHETRY: Can I leave a comment now? Mom and dad, thank you for making me an only child. Thank you. ROBERTS: We'll also have Mary Matalin and James Carville, right. They love each other to death. But she calls him stupid and you know -
CHETRY: Yes, you know. It's passion. It's love.
ROBERTS: Yes. You know, sometimes that just fuels the fire.
CHETRY: All right. Well, speaking of fueling the fire, how about this? In the midst of a global downturn, there's one thing that is recession-proof. Well, there's many. But this is a good one. Cuban rum. 39 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: 42 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. You know, rum is making the recession a little more bearable to the people who drink it and also for the people who sell it in Cuba. In fact, the rum business is booming there even though they can't sell it in the United States. Shasta Darlington is minding your business live from Havana this morning. Good morning, Shasta. Good to see you.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Don't get me wrong. Cuba's economy had been hit hard like so many other countries. And in fact, it's main export, nickel, the price has plummeted. But other sectors are relatively, shall we say, in high spirits.
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DARLINGTON (voice-over): Not even a global financial crisis can stop the flow. Aged in oak barrels, using native ingredients and centuries of know how. Could Cuban rum be recession-proof? The country's premier brand, Havana Club said so.
Double digit growth may slow this year but they still expect an increase in sales. Thanks in large part to the international cache of Cuban rum. They've been popular for a long time now, at least in Spain, says this tourist. But Consuelo said in Mexico, even the bars are feeling the prices.
With expensive blends, frosty daiquiris, and mojitos, rum makers have overcome the stereotype of teenage party drink. But Havana Club faces a bigger obstacle - the U.S. trade embargo. The company is a joint venture between the Cuban government and France's Ricard.
(on camera): The image, Cuba in a bottle, is a big reason for the big sales in Europe and Latin America. But with the embargo banning the import of all Cuban goods, a huge market just 90 miles away is off limits. In fact, their arch rival Bacardi has registered the Havana Club trademark in the United States. The Bacardi family left Cuba at the start of Fidel Castro's revolution when their assets were confiscated. According to the company's website, Bacardi owns the rights to the Havana Club rum brand having purchased the trademark from the original legal owners, creators, and the proprietors of the brand. But now relations between Cuba and the United States have started to thaw. And under the Obama administration, calls for an end to the embargo are getting louder. Havana Club is listening.
MARC BEUVE-MERY, GENERAL DIRECTOR, HAVANA CLUB INTL (through translator): It would be great if the American consumer could enjoy a Cuban rum and for us, it would make things easier. We could access a market that represents 40 percent of the global market.
DARLINGTON (voice-over): A lot could happen before this rum is uncorked.
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DARLINGTON: Now, the next move could come this fall if Congress decides to vote on a bill that would allow all Americans to come to Cuba and tastes some of it's forbidden fruits while they're here, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We know many people who would like to do that. Shasta Darlington, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: 45 minutes after the hour. Surf is up in Hawaii. Look at that. they are out there riding the waves as tropical storm Felicia approaches. Jacqui Jeras has got the latest and is there trouble brewing in the Atlantic Ocean? Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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ROBERTS: Good morning. Central Park here in New York City where it's partly cloudy and 76. Later on today, afternoon thunderstorms and a high of 87. You know what that's going to mean.
CHETRY: It means -
ROBERTS: Yes, flying in to LaGuardia is going to be a real problem.
CHETRY: Oh, great.
ROBERTS: I tell you if someone opens a wet nap in LaGuardia, it will close the place down.
Jacqui Jeras is watching all the weather for us this morning, including some tropical weather at the Pacific and something brewing in the Atlantic Ocean as well, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. We got a lot going today. I like your wet nap analogy, by the way. You know there's always problems at LaGuardia. If there's any kind of hiccup. And that 87 degrees may be a little conservative today. I think we're going to get well to the 90s. Heat advisories in effect for you in New York City. You got record highs yesterday into Washington, D.C., still in the low 90s. And we also have heat advisories for Houston.
So a lot of people are going to be feeling some very sticky weather across much of the eastern part of the country. Now, those thunderstorms have been across parts of New England for the most part this morning. Few sprinkles here to Boston, we think this afternoon we'll see more of that action. Thunderstorms could be a little bit on the strong side. But we think the greatest potential for severe weather will be down here into the lower Mississippi River Valley.
Let's talk tropics now for a minute. We have a new tropical system. This is TD number two, which is out there in the Atlantic. It does have some potential to strengthen. It could become tropical storm Anna, way too early to tell whether or not this is going to be impacting the U.S. coastline. All right. What will be impacting the U.S. is tropical storm Felicia. Check out this huge waves off of Hawaii from yesterday - 15 footers are out there and likely for today, the storm is continuing to weaken, but will be bringing in some heavy rainfall to much of Hawaii. John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.
CHETRY: At least for now the surfers are loving it out there. Taking advantage.
ROBERTS: I tell you, getting some good rides there.
CHETRY: Yes, they have.
All right. Well, still ahead, Sanjay's going to join us. He's been trying to help answer some of the questions a lot of people have about health care reform, what it may mean for you. He's going to join us after we take a quick break. It's 50 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Well, it's a make or break month for health care reform. And with all the carrying on at these town hall meetings and all the information out there, it's more important than ever to really understand what the shouting is about. So we're cutting through some of the confusion to try to clarify what the changes could really mean for you and your family.
ROBERTS: All this week, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes your questions to do just that. And Sanjay's with us in Atlanta. Today's question, Sanjay, has been thrown around a lot. One of those hot-button topics. Let's listen.
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RANDY: Hi, this is Randy from Alaska. Do they plan to cover illegal immigrants with their health care plan and their children?
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. So, you know, this is a specific question about undocumented aliens, undocumented workers. We're hearing this quite a bit. And it is controversial, John, as you mentioned, this idea of how would you pay for that? Who is covered specifically? Just give you a couple of numbers.
First of all, when you talk about the 46 million number, people who are uninsured, about 17 percent, roughly, are undocumented workers. So that's a number to sort of keep in mind. How exactly will they fall into this insurance plan? Well, the president was asked specifically that by Katie Couric and this is how he responded.
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KATIE COURIC: Do you think any illegal immigrant should be eligible for health care under the new plan?
PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: No. The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children? Partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds and at schools and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases -
COURIC: Aren't getting vaccinated.
OBAMA: Aren't getting vaccinated, that's I think a situation where you may have to make an exception.
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GUPTA: You have a firm answer there from the president, at least with respect to adults. Now John, Kiran, as I mentioned to you, we've really been drilling down on this, trying to read the entire House bill. So we want to give you some of the details specifically around this issue. For example, in the House bill, there's a section that specifically deals with this specific issue. I don't know if you can read that there but what it says basically is nothing in the subtitle, referring to the question of undocumented aliens. Nothing in the subtitle should allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
Now, again, with the details that people will say well what about the situation where you have one legal parent, one illegal parent? Also what is the verification process going to be? If you start to sign up for something, maybe perhaps this public option, how do they verify whether someone is lawfully or unlawfully present? So again, these are some of the details being worked out.
CHETRY: And the other thing is, right now, if you need critical emergency care, you go to the emergency room and get treatment, they don't ask whether you're legally here or not. Would that change under a new plan?
GUPTA: Probably not. I think, you know, that's the way it is now and it probably won't change, in part because a lot of these emergency situations are emergencies. Now if you actually are in an emergency situation, doctors are obviously rushing to take care of the patient, nurses not doing that sort of triage as far as insurance goes. So that is likely to stay the same.
ROBERTS: Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Doc, great to check in with you. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: All right.
ROBERTS: So you saw the movie "Lost in Translation," right? Scarlett Johanssen, Bill Murray, well, what happens when the question to the secretary of state gets lost in translation? It ends up making the news. We'll show you what happened, coming right up. It's 56 minutes after the hour.
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