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American Morning
Senate Committee to vote on $829 billion plan; Why the Troop Request for Afghanistan Numbers 40,000; Medical Home Model Focus on Easy Access to Care; Health Reform in Action; Stimulus Money at Work; Obama Interacts with Women at Work, but Not at Play
Aired October 13, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. It's Tuesday, October 13th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us. Here are the big stories that we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
The clock is ticking. In four hours, the Senate Finance Committee will vote on its $829 billion version of health care reform bill. Supporters say it matches key parts of the president's wish list without busting the budget, but the insurance industry is launching a last-minute attack.
CHETRY: Also, pressure building on the battlefield, a call for more troops in Afghanistan kicking up a lot of debate. Right now, it's all about the numbers. In a moment, we'll find out just how many troops military strategists say are needed to root out the Taliban.
ROBERTS: Concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions has Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meeting with Russian leaders in Moscow today. And Clinton answers the question that's on the minds of many Americans. Will she make another run at the presidency? We'll tell you what she said.
CHETRY: We begin, though, with a story that you'll want to keep your eye on today. It's a major test in the fight for health care reform. In just a matter of hours, the Senate Finance Committee will be voting on an $829 billion plan. There's no government-run insurance option in this one, but supporters say that would extend coverage to 94 percent of Americans and also prevent insurance companies from discriminating against people who have pre-existing conditions.
The other big promise, this plan wouldn't add a dime to the federal deficit. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says that he has the votes to pass it. This morning, though, there is a new snag in an 11th-hour attack by the insurance industry and also claims that this plan could saddle American families with huge new expenses. Our Jim Acosta is in Washington to break it all down for us this morning.
Hi, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. You know, the health insurance industry's chief lobbyist in Washington insists the companies still support reform but just want to make some last- minute changes to lower costs. But Democrats on Capitol Hill don't see it that way. They're calling a new report from the industry on health care reform a hatchet job.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): On the eve of a critical vote in the Senate Finance Committee on health care reform, the nation's health insurance industry offered up a big dose of skepticism. Unleashing a report on the commission with the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the industry predicts the finance committee bill will drive up premiums 111 percent in ten years, versus 79 percent under the current system. The industry blames the bill's taxes targeting insurers, telling reporters in a conference call those taxes would be passed on to consumers.
KAREN IGNAGNI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AHIP: Imposing new taxes and fees on health care services and on insurance flies in the face of the goal of reducing health care costs.
ACOSTA: A spokesman for Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus called the report a health insurance company hatchet job. Plain and simple.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Karen represents America's Health Insurance Plans.
ACOSTA: The report came as a surprise to the White House which had invited the industry to help crack health care reform earlier this year.
LINDA DOUGLASS, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF HEALTH REFORM: What they did here was exclude all of the features of the Senate Finance Committee bill that lower costs for all Americans.
ACOSTA: So, what are the facts? Last month, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said quantifying the bill's effects on premiums would be difficult. The CBO added overall premiums would be higher because future policies would cover pre-existing conditions. The budget office also pointed a finger at the industry noting that 23 percent of some premiums go to administrative costs.
RICHARD KIRSCH, HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW: If the idea that the insurance industry would complain about high premiums is like the Yankees complaining that they're hitting too many home runs. It's totally preposterous.
ACOSTA: You think they're showing their cards?
KIRSCH: They're showing their cards.
ACOSTA: Not surprisingly the insurance industry's report also takes a swipe at the public option, the idea of giving the uninsured the choice of a government health care plan. It's something now backed by the nonprofit group behind Consumer Reports. JAMES GUEST, CONSUMERS UNION: We're very strongly in support of the public insurance option as an option because we think that you can't get health care costs down unless there really is true competition in the health insurance marketplace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: The insurance companies argue the Baucus bill also weakens the requirements that Americans get insurance hurting the nation's ability to lower costs overall, but critics of the insurance companies say the industry's report is one more shot in the arm for the public option -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, you know, and there still is a long way to go but it's very interesting how far this debate has gotten now.
Jim Acosta for us this morning. Thanks.
So we want to take a look at what's next if the Senate Finance Committee bill is passed today. Here's an "AM Extra" for you.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would then immediately begin closed door talks in an attempt to merge the bill with one that's already been approved by the Senate Health Committee. That one, by the way, includes a public health insurance option.
Once a compromise bill is hammered out, it then gets sent to the Congressional Budget Office and there it would be analyzed for its cost and its impact on the budget deficit. Then it would eventually go to the Senate floor for debate possibly by the end of this month.
ROBERTS: And then, of course, it's got to be merged with the House version and the conference committee. So still we're talking weeks, if not longer than that.
CHETRY: We're talking lots of sausage-making stuff. Right?
ROBERTS: And that's the stuff you don't want to see.
Also this morning, drafting a new way forward in Afghanistan. That's the big topic on the president's agenda. He has penciled in another top level meeting with his National Security team tomorrow. What we know so far, the president has a troop request from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said to call for up to 40,000 extra troops. But why that number? Our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is digging deeper on that for us this morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, we came at this asking why not 20,000 troops? Or 200,000? Why has 40,000 specifically been brought up as the right amount of additional troops?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Then 100,000 American and allied troops are already fighting in Afghanistan. To understand why it's believed General Stanley McChrystal wants 40,000 more, you need to look at a map the way military strategists see.
KIMBERLY KAGAN, ADVISOR TO GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: What 40,000 does is fill in the gaps around Kandahar, around Khost in Helmand province. It does not, however, cover the entire country.
LAWRENCE: Kimberly Kagan is an adviser to McChrystal. She says it's the minimum number to root out the Taliban and identifying and protect potential Afghan partners. But the military's own counterinsurgency ratio dictates it takes well over half a million troops to secure Afghanistan's 33 million people.
(on camera): But General McChrystal is not applying this ratio to all of Afghanistan. He feels certain parts of the country are peaceful enough like the north or just not as important like the west that they don't need the same number of counterinsurgency fighters as these areas do.
KAGAN: And that's what gets him from a figure of hundreds of thousands of troops down to a figure such as 40,000 or 60,000 troops.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Kagan says McChrystal would use those troops to turn the tide so the Taliban doesn't control every other town. She says 10,000 or even 20,000 troops just aren't enough.
KAGAN: It's not as though we can simply plug half as many holes with half as many troops and somehow seize the initiative from the enemy. On the contrary, half as many troops will probably leave us pinned down as we are.
LAWRENCE: The problem is roughly 25 million Afghans live in thousands of small rural villages scattered all over an area the size of Texas. Up to 80 percent of the population could still be out of reach for coalition troops.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: So with 30,000 American troops surged into Baghdad, that's where one out of every four Iraqis live. Even if you take the top 30 most populated areas of Afghanistan, you still only account for 20 percent of the population. That's how rural and spread out it is -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Chris Lawrence reporting for us this morning from Washington. Chris, thanks.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, more than 200 patients at a Los Angeles hospital received eight times the normal dose of radiation during CT scans. Officials at Cedar Sinai Medical Center are blaming a mistake that the hospital made resetting the scanner. This mistake went undetected for a year and a half. About 40 percent of those patients lost patches of hair.
General Electric makes that scanner. It says the machine is not defective. The FDA put out an alert urging hospitals across the country to review safety procedures for their CT scans. ROBERTS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Moscow this morning meeting with Russian leaders. She is pressing them to support tougher sanctions on Iran if Tehran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful. Meantime, Clinton is dismissing any future run for the White House telling NBC in an interview that she is not running and that she is "looking forward to retirement at some point."
CHETRY: And in search of the great pumpkin. Well, Linus has to look no more. Here it is -- 1,658 pounds of it. It won the annual weigh-off in California.
It was grown by an Iowa farmer, Don Young, and earned him close to $10,000. Folks across the northeast not so lucky. This summer's heavy rain and cold weather ruined a lot of pumpkin crop, although we've still been able to salvage it. There are some nice ones.
ROBERTS: That's a lot of pumpkin pie there.
CHETRY: It sure is.
ROBERTS: It's eight and a half minutes after the hour. A new model for medical care. You get to see your doctor any time you want. There's no waiting and you could even talk to him or her via e-mail or on the telephone.
Wow. Sounds revolutionary.
CHETRY: It's coming up.
ROBERTS: The biggest part of all of this is it might even save money. We'll talk about this. The medical home model coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. With a critical health care vote on tap today in the Senate, we're taking a closer look today at one reform option that is not part of the Baucus plan. It's called the medical home health model and provides one stop shopping for all your medical needs and could dramatically change how doctors and patients interact.
One such program is up and running at Montefiore Medical Center here in New York City. And Dr. Gary Kalkut is the hospital's chief medical officer. He's here this morning to talk about it.
So what is a medical home model? How does it work?
DR. GARY KALKUT, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: Medical home is a model for primary care delivery. It really emphasizes teamwork, physician-led teams but about communication, coordination, diminishing fragmentation that's inherent in our system today. It's about the patient. It's about the health of the patient and the health care needs. So it's really primary care in a way that uses all forces in the system. ROBERTS: Yes. Some of the things that you get out of this medical home model, according to what's happening at Montefiore, doctors can be accessible on short notice. They can have expanded hours, open scheduling so that you can -- I need to come in this afternoon.
KALKUT: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Sure, we've got an appointment for you. Consultations via e-mail?
KALKUT: Yes.
ROBERTS: And telephone? What doctor will take your e-mail or your telephone call? Regular checkups, prevention measures, coordinated care, how do you achieve that? You know, the -- you try to make an appointment at your average doctor and they say we're not seeing any new patients until December.
KALKUT: Well, access to health care is a major issue in health care reform as is cost. Primary patient center medical home addresses both access to physicians and the whole team, nurses, educators, social workers who care for the patient today. It also can reduce cost by decreasing fragmentation, reducing emergency department visits, reducing admissions to the hospital.
For example, readmission is a major issue in health care right now. A study back in April found that 20 percent of Medicare recipients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after they're discharged. An enormous cost. Half of those people never saw a doctor before they went back in the hospital. The patient center medical home would reduce readmissions by having primary ambulatory care.
ROBERTS: What I find intriguing about this, this whole model is that every time you come to see the doctor you don't necessarily see the doctor.
KALKUT: Right.
ROBERTS: You might see a nurse, you might see a nurse practitioner. You might see an acupuncturist. You might see a massage therapist, a chiropractor depending on what the model is. It's like -- it's interdisciplinary.
KALKUT: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: And multidisciplinary.
KALKUT: Right. So, multiple people help take care of a patient now. Take care of the health care needs of that patient. A nurse visit can be extremely helpful. A telephone visit.
We have 37,000 patients on e-mail right now who communicate with their physician or the team on a regular basis to answer questions and avoid those visits. And that creates access. ROBERTS: There's a clinic in Seattle that I read a little bit about that - the way that they run their medical home model is the first time a new patient comes in, they spend an hour with the doctor. The doctor goes over the medical history. You go into the waiting room. There's hardly anybody in the waiting room, if anybody at all. You don't have to wait very long to get in.
I mean, it seems to be the sort of thing that you say OK, well, they can't see as many patients because they're taking so much time and there's nobody in the waiting room as opposed to some waiting rooms you see where they're literally spilling out the door.
KALKUT: Right.
ROBERTS: How do they -- but according to the Seattle model they can actually see more patients. How do you get that level of efficiency in a system like that?
KALKUT: By putting more resources in, by giving the physician -- people that can hand off certain tasks to. You create more access to the physician and to the entire system. So access increases and the number of patients that can be seen by a physician or other people in the team increases.
ROBERTS: You know, I was out at the Cleveland clinic about a month ago looking at the model there. And the model there is that you have -- you have integration horizontally and vertically. Everybody is on the payroll. There's no fee for service.
KALKUT: Right.
ROBERTS: That's how they increase efficiency. That's how they save money. This is a typical fee for service application here. You're not on salary.
But, you know, I asked the head of the Cleveland clinic, I said why aren't more hospitals doing it the way you do it? He said because it's hard to change a culture.
So, how hard is it to change the current medical culture to the "Medical Home" model?
KALKUT: I think it - it requires changes in - in the way people do medicine, in their workflows and in resources. We have an integrated system, with 1600 employed physicians at Montefiore. We're able to deliver core data care using electronic systems in a similar way. What we want to do is formalize it in a patient-centric medical home and we're in the process of doing that now.
ROBERTS: But people are resistant to change, though, across the board, aren't they?
KALKUT: People are resistant to change, and it comes from the medical system and patients also need to accept this system where they my not able - they don't get their doctor but (ph) get the nurse, but what they get is their question answered. ROBERTS: An intriguing model and I'm not sure why it's not being discussed in Congress. Dr. Gary Kalkut, good to talk to you this morning.
KALKUT: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about who is benefiting from the job savings stimulus efforts. It looks like teaching and teaching profession might be one that's really getting a boost. We'll explain when Christine Romans comes in a moment.
Sixteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There's a new controversy engulfing (INAUDIBLE) radio host Rush Limbaugh. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson now teaming up with some NFL players to block Limbaugh's bid to buy part of the St. Louis Rams.
Well, Sharpton sent a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell saying the NFL should keep Limbaugh out because of comments he's made about African-American players in the league. Limbaugh blasted Sharpton for the attack, saying he believes in freedom and doesn't discriminate.
ROBERTS: California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signing a bill recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states while gay marriage was legal in California. Gay and lesbian couples who got married before November the 5th when voters approved Prop. 8 will get all the same benefits as straight married couples. Proposition 8 is the constitutional amendment that limits marriage to that between a man and a woman.
CHETRY: Well, a Colorado insurance company that said no fat babies allowed is now backing off that claim. Rocky Mountain Health Plan said it will no longer consider obesity a "pre-existing condition" barring coverage for "hefty infants." This change comes after the company turned down a 4-month-old who weighed 17 pounds.
It would be funny if it wasn't so...
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: My kid was 11 pounds when he was born. I don't believe (ph) he would have been covered.
CHETRY: See that (ph)?
ROBERTS: Remember that newborn in - where was it? South Korea? - that was 16 pounds?
CHETRY: Wow.
ROMANS: Poor thing. ROBERTS: Big baby.
ROMANS: I know. Wow.
CHETRY: I mean, obviously you weren't overfeeding him in the womb.
ROMANS: No! I mean, that's crazy. Cover (ph) babies - cover (ph) babies. They haven't done anything wrong yet (ph).
CHETRY: I know. Exactly. Well - hey, we've been talking a lot about jobs being saved by the stimulus. Can you really count the jobs saved or created from the stimulus? And you say that when it comes to teaching positions, you really can.
ROMANS: You really can. Some of the stimulus money was earmarked for the states and it was meant to help them figure out how to cover some budget gaps and also to deploy as they wanted to to get their economies going. Now, recipients of stimulus money have to file a lot of paperwork with the government to explain what they're doing and that paperwork starting to come in right now. So we're starting to see and we should see from Washington a real good accounting of how the states have been spending this money.
What we've seen so far is that it is teaching jobs, education jobs - sometimes they're called paraprofessionals, special ed helpers in the classroom. In California, 62,000 jobs have been saved and these have been counted. These are confirmed by state officials. In Michigan 14,625 jobs, in Missouri, 8,500 jobs, in Minnesota, 5,900 teaching jobs, in Utah, 2,594 teach jobs. As more of these states start to report to the government, we'll have a better idea of how they're doing.
But what we can tell is this. Budget cuts were so severe for some of these states the first thing they did with their money is they went to put it to work to make sure their teachers stayed in the classroom and in fact many of these states are saying they thought this was the best use of their stimulus money. They didn't want kids to suffer and classrooms to suffer because of a recession.
So the biggest driver of stimulus from the states so far seems to be teachers, also construction jobs and we're counting those as well, but trying to get an accounting - a better accounting here of how this is being spent. And this is what the preliminary reporting is showing.
ROBERTS: So early here on a Tuesday morning, do you have a "Romans' Numeral" for us?
ROMANS: I certainly do. It's $288 billion dollars, and this has to do with another chunk of the stimulus. This is the stimulus with the tax relief. It's going to be harder to count specifically how many jobs were saved or created by that tax relief, but I think that just the teacher - or just the state money, there's other big parts, $288 billion, there will be more jobs created from that tax relief as it trickles down too. CHETRY: And when you talk about the stimulus and you talked about unwinding the money, bringing it back out of the system, what happens to those jobs as the stimulus money trickles off?
ROMANS: Kiran, that's a great question, because when I was just in Florida talking to these 2,000 teachers who were saved by the stimulus money, they're very concerned because at the end of two years, that money sunsets. It's gone, and they're not sure that, in Florida at least, they're going to have the revenue from the state coffers to - to fill that gap. So there is a yawning problem just around the corner, and they're happy that they've saved the jobs for now but concerned about what happens next.
CHETRY: All right. Christine Romans, good to see you.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: So President Obama likes a little pickup game of basketball at the White House, every once in a while invites a few folks over to play a game. It's an intramural game. It's the president, it's the House, it's the Senate, it's the Democrats and Republicans, but it's not intergender. What's going on? Where are the women in these basketball games?
Twenty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the president. The 36th president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, said that.
Our current president has been hitting the golf course and the court a lot lately, and in a town where access equals influence, some say his teammates are sending a very powerful message. Dan Lothian has got the game within the game.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OBAMA: A resolution has been adopted...
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama surrounds himself with powerful women: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Top Adviser Valerie Jarrett, UN Ambassador Susan Rice. But on the golf course, on the basketball court or ankle- deep in a Montana river, Mr. Obama surrounds himself with men.
Where are the women?
AMY SISKIND, PRESIDENT, THE NEW AGENDA: Well, they're missing out on no only the ability to (INAUDIBLE) to relationship-build with the president, to relationship-build with others who he surrounds himself with.
LOTHIAN: Based on CNN's review, no woman has been listed as participating in his presidential sports outings, including a recent White House basketball game for Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress. Fifteen names on the list, all men.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Did the president invite any women?
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think your appearance on the list appears to be accurate. I would say that the point's well taken.
LOTHIAN: Especially since some of the administration's top women - to borrow a popular slang - "got game." Ambassador Rice played high school ball, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius played in college. And on Jay Leno's show, she seemed eager to join all the president's men.
JAY LENO, NBC HOST, "THE JAY LENO SHOW": Who would win in a game of horse, you or President Obama?
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: You know, I actually made my college basketball team.
LENO: Oh! Oh!
SEBELIUS: You know? Bring it on.
LOTHIAN: To put all this in perspective, we're not talking about winning a war, insuring Americans or fixing the economy, but what some see as a "boys club mentality" complete with heavy sports images and overused metaphors...
GIBBS: Still got a lot of heat on the fastball.
LOTHIAN: ... gives the perception that women, who voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama, don't always have the all-access pass.
SETH KAPLAN, INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY: His kind of gender lines are not created intentionally, but they emerge more naturally, and so I think it's important for everyone at work to be aware of these issues.
LOTHIAN (on camera): While some women's groups say that the president has also been tone deaf to some of their issues, the administration will point out that the very first piece of legislation he signed dealt with equal pay for women and that the White House established the Council on Women and Girls aimed at knocking down barriers.
Dan Lothian, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Very interesting. He said point well taken, so we'll see if that changes.
ROBERTS: We will see.
CHETRY: Meanwhile...
ROBERTS: There are a lot of good women who play basketball.
CHETRY: Yes. Kathleen Sebelius.
ROBERTS: I know a few women who can knock the ball around a golf course as well.
CHETRY: See? Well, it's half past the hour right now. Checking our top stories, people in Southern California this morning are bracing for heavy rains that could trigger mudslides in areas that were burned out by summer wildfires. A pacific storm is expected to dump as much as eight inches of rain with wind gusts up to 60 miles an hour in some areas. The so-called Station fire destroyed some 80 homes and torched more than 160,000 acres in Los Angeles County.
ROBERTS: The Taliban has a lot more cash and a lot more clout than al Qaeda right now. A Treasury Department official says the Taliban is financing attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan by extorting money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers. They're also squeezing protection money out of legitimate Afghan businesses. The official says al Qaeda, on the other hand, is strapped for cash and rapidly losing influence in the region.
CHETRY: And congratulations to model Heidi Klum and her husband, Grammy-winner singer Seal. The two are now proud parents of a baby girl. Klum gave birth to Lou Sulola Samuel on Friday in Los Angeles. And Lou has two big brothers as well as a sister from Klum's previous relationship. That's a busy house.
Well, the Senate Finance Committee votes will be voting on this $829 billion health care reform plan in just a few hours. The president is also facing some criticism right now over possible delays in getting the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy overturned. Something that he promised on the campaign trail. All the while keeping an eye on unemployment which is now near double digits.
Critical issues and a lot of claims floating around about all of them. So who is telling the truth and who is just stretching it. For some answers, we bring in the editor and founder of PolitiFact.com, Bill Adair.
Great to see you, Bill.
BILL ADAIR, POLITIFACT.COM: Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: So we're taking up a bunch of issues.
Let's start with health care. And you guys have been busy running a lot of claims about health care through the Truth-O-Meter. And let me read you one from Senator Jay Rockefeller. He said that, in an opinion piece for the Hill Newspaper "Roll Call" that, quote, "Health care premiums for consumers have doubled since 2001."
How did this Truth-O-Meter rate that statement? ADAIR: We gave that one a true on the Truth-O-Meter. In the statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation backed that up. I'm not sure we have to ask the Kaiser Family Foundation about it. I think we all felt this. The average family premium in that period has gone from about $1800 to a little over $3500 per year. So the amount that we are paying in premiums has indeed doubled. So he gets a true on the Truth-O-Meter.
CHETRY: All right. And another hot-button issue. President Obama taking some heat for not moving more quickly on overturning the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy when it comes to gays in the military. This is the claim that was made by Senator Levin, that, quote, "other militaries in the west, the British and other western armies have ended this discriminatory policy."
How did the Truth-O-Meter rate that statement?
ADAIR: He also gets a true on the Truth-O-Meter. He said that on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. And we -- we checked into it and found that indeed he is correct. Australia and Canada actually ended their bans back in 1992, 17 years ago. And according to the statistics we found, more than 25 western countries do not have a ban on gays serving in the military. So Senator Levin gets a true.
CHETRY: I got you. All right. Well, also it's a tough time in our nation's history when we are talking about unemployment right now. The recession, 9.8 percent was last month's unemployment numbers. And a lot of questions over how we got there. One of the more well-known and often controversial documentary filmmaker is Michael Moore. He has a new one called "Capitalism: A Love Affair." And he takes on the economy here. And this is one of the things that he said in the movie. He makes a claim that during the Reagan era, millions were thrown out of work.
How did that statement by Michael Moore rate on the Truth-O- Meter?
ADAIR: That one gets a barely true on our Truth-O-Meter. If you have seen the movie you know that this is one of the central points that Moore makes. That basically the Reagan administration was sort of the turning point for the American worker. That after that, the -- the disparity between the rich and the poor and even the middle class really grew. But when you look at the numbers, it's just -- it's actually just barely true that there has been the -- the -- millions of people lost their job during the Reagan administration. Yes, that part is true. But when you look at the overall employment figures for the Reagan administration, they actually grew in terms of the employment rate. And the trend of the decline in manufacturing jobs actually began before Reagan was president. So Michael Moore gets a barely true for this one.
CHETRY: Yes, they are interesting thing for people that are interested in you guys do fact check a lot of Michael Moore's stuff, and it's interesting, you show how he rates it in some of the statements and in many of the statements he said in this movie, in this documentary, as well. So it is very interesting. People can check that out by heading to our Web site.
Bill Adair, always great to see you. Thanks for being with us.
ADAIR: Thanks, Kiran.
CHETRY: And, again, if you want to check out some of the other claims that Bill Adair of PolitiFact has run through the Truth-O- Meter, head to CNN.com/AMFix.
ROBERTS: Got a really interesting story coming up of a doctor who had to take time off from her practice to have a couple of kids and a little business that she developed on the side that makes more money now than she makes as a doctor, even though she's back to work practicing medicine. How did she do it? One tiny little word -- eBay.
Thirty-five minutes now after the hour. We will tell you how she did it, coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
She's a doctor, a mother of four, and she's got a third hat that she puts on. It's actually making her more money than she's ever dreamed of.
Allan Chernoff is "Minding Your Business" this morning with a story of a woman who found her plan "B" completely by accident.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Jennifer Lickteig was a busy mom of two. Then twins arrived, forcing a career pause for the family practitioner. Between feeding and changing her genetically identical daughters, Dr. Lickteig was on eBay selling apparel and discovering she had the genes of a businesswoman. A trait that had been hiding behind her medical degree.
DR. JENNIFER LICKTEIG, EBAY ENTREPRENEUR: It's just kind of this thrill, you know, for me I thought that was the most amazing thing.
CHERNOFF: Natalie and Melanie are now 3 years old. Allowing Dr. Lickteig to practice medicine again part time, but she hasn't given up on eBay. In fact, she says she made $120,000 selling on eBay last year. More than she makes practicing medicine. For her, it hardly seems like work.
I think it's the thrill of, like, having built up this business and just done it myself. You know, I don't have to get an NBA. I don't have to have a storefront. You know, this is like mine.
CHERNOFF: The doctor orders merchandise from wholesalers and uses much of her home and garage as a warehouse.
(on camera): Isn't this crazy? A doctor buying all this warehouse stuff?
LICKTEIG: It sort of is. But I mean, it's just -- it's a business. You know, it's successful business.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): So successful she's the postman's best customer. Jennifer's husband, Larry, has a good job as an actuary. So it's not as if Dr. Lickteig needs a second career, but you just never know when it could come in handy.
(on camera): How important do you think it is for people to have a plan "B" or an alternative?
LICKTEIG: Oh, I think it's pretty important. I mean, when you look at all the -- you know, the recession and people losing their jobs. I mean, if you have something to fall back on, there's a little bit of insurance.
CHERNOFF: Medicine still has its rewards for Jennifer. But like many doctors, she's frustrated that insurance companies and malpractice lawyers have so much influence on medical practices.
LICKTEIG: If you would looked into a crystal ball and someone told you that you were going to have four children some day and given all the hassles of medicine, would you have ever done it? You know, then I would have said -- heck no.
CHERNOFF: But this super mom is trying to do it all. Juggling two sons, twin girls, and twin careers. The ultimate balancing act for a doctor who believes in having a little moneymaking fun on the side.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Hiawatha, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So there you go. If you've been thinking of a plan B, there is an idea for you. And for more on how the eBay doctor is making big money on the side, check out Allan Chernoff's article on our blog. Just go to CNN.com/amfix.
CHETRY: I mean, obviously, remarkable lady for everything that she does. Because isn't it amazing that she makes more selling items on eBay than she does in her practice?
ROBERTS: When she makes $120,000 selling on eBay, what does that say about the state of medicine, and how long do you go to school to become a doctor?
CHETRY: Many, many years.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: And you have many, many loans to pay back.
ROBERTS: You don't need to go to school to sell on eBay. CHETRY: Well, it's 41 minutes past the hour. When we come back, Rob Marciano is going to be joining us. A lot of weather woes going on around the country. There's snow in the Midwest and there are storms out west. He's going to track it all for us.
Extreme weather in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A lot of people probably going to sleep in Vegas right now.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
A live look thanks to our friends at KTNV. Sixty-one degrees. It's going to be 72 a bit later and should be mostly sunny today.
Well, it's time now to fast forward through the stories that you will be seeing and hearing on CNN. At 10:00 a.m. Eastern, the Senate Finance Committee meets with a make or break vote expected today on its health care reform bill. The so-called Baucus Plan to pass and move on. The bill needs 12 of the 23 senators to sign on.
At 1:05 Eastern this afternoon, President Obama will be sitting down at the White House with the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero. It's the first official invitation of a Spanish leader to the White House since Spain pulled its troops out of Iraq back in 2004.
And Bob Dylan will be singing Christmas tunes. No joke. His new album hits stores today. Critics do seem to like it. Dylan performs songs like "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "O Come All Ye Faithful." The rocker said he is planning to donate royalties from the album to three charities that help feed the hungry. So, there you have it. Dylan singing Yuletide cheer.
ROBERTS: Then it's great that the proceeds are going to charity as well. But you know, you got Dylan doing Christmas songs. You got Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys doing Gershwin songs. I mean, where is this shot. What do we head down to Atlanta. Rob Marciano is checking the weather across the country. And Rob, looks like we got some storms out in the West Coast today.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, we do. And some snow. So, you know, a perfect time to buy the old Bob Dylan's Christmas album if you want to get in the mood for some snow. Will it be a white Christmas across the Northeast? I don't know. I can't guarantee that at this point.
But there is a little bit of snow mixed in with the rain across parts of Northern New England. This shouldn't last long. The major metropolitan areas only Boston I think is going to see some scattered showers this morning. Looks like New York for the most part in the clear. But frost and snow on the pumpkins across the Midwest.
This video out of Wisconsin where, yeah, the leaves are not even off the trees yet and they got a dusting accident in some cases a couple of three inches of snow. And that was enough to certainly slow down some roadways. Unusual for this time of year, and in some cases record breaking, Minnesota and Minneapolis and Rochester, they saw a record breaking amounts of snow. But just two or three inches and it's certainly - just kind of fun video to look at.
But, no snow last night in Denver. We have to turn it off in the eighth inning and Phillies came back. Quite a game in the eighth and ninth innings. Quite a storm across parts of the West Coast today. San Francisco, Sacramento, rainfall in the valley. Going to go about 78,000 feet to get snow. But where it's going to rain? It's going to rain heavily. We'll probably see some flooding issues or maybe some mudslides especially in some of the areas that got burned.
And winds are going to be an issue as well. We got high wind warnings that are opposed. This is an old typhoon that at one point was the strongest storm this year on the planet. Just remnants of that now, but it's certainly going to be a stormy day across parts of California and rains getting theirselves together again across Texas. They will be moving through the Southeast tomorrow. But today, finally, a dry day after the minor flooding rains compared to two weeks ago across Georgia yesterday. John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Rob for us this morning. Thanks.
ROBERTS: So how many times have you been in this situation where you have to, you know, look like you are poised, exhibited decorum, and suddenly you realized I have a wad of gum in my mouth, what do I do with it?
Jeanne Moos found out what happens when gum incidents are caught on tape. 47 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: There you go. I didn't know there were more than 1,000 varieties of bubble gum. Learn something new every day. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. When you are chewing the fat, as they say, with the head of the United Nations, you don't want to get caught with gum in your mouth.
ROBERTS: No. California Senator Barbara Boxer clearly knows this. As Jeanne Moos tells us, she made sure to spit it out first.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was one of those sticky situations, Senator Barbara Boxer was meeting with the U.N. Secretary General.
Senator Boxer doubled her embarrassment.
SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just fine. Getting caught whipping out of her gum. But hey, who hasn't? When Tom Brokaw moderated a presidential debate, he deposited his gum on the desk next to him. When Rosie O'Donnell announced she was leaving "The View," we got this view of her gum leaving her mouth. When President Obama said that the president has to be able to...
OBAMA: Walk and chew gum at the same time.
MOOS: He didn't mention the ability to talk and get rid of Nicorette at the same time. But the real trick is to sleep and chew gum.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me have it because you're falling asleep.
MOOS: But want him to choke or he will probably die of the embarrassment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matthew let spit your gum out, okay.
MOOS: When he sees himself sleeping, chewing gum, and sucking his thumb years from now and when driving, make sure your window is all the way open before you spit out your gum, even before you go on TV.
ANN COULTER, COMMENTATOR: I'm putting my Nicorette back in like smoking before I go on.
MOOS: Gum chewing isn't safe from prying eyes. Ann Coulter was offered another piece of Nicorette.
COULTER: If you can chop it up so I can snort it.
MOOS: Could have been worse. Much worse. At least no one did this.
After Joaquin Phoenix came closest during his bizarre appearance on Letterman.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ACTOR: I will come to your house and chew gum. Just relax.
MOOS: A minute later, he peeled the gum off and it is not safe to leave it. Britney Spears had a wad of her gum auctioned off. Maybe the best thing to do is just say no. Russia's President said yes to a piece of gum. But Vladimir Putin had the sense to say no. Even pretty woman wasn't that pretty.
Did Cobi Keith (ph) hit anyone? Sometimes you just wish you could take it back.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: How did you know that Ann Coulter chewed Nicorette? CHETRY: You know what, if she is not smoking, congratulations.
Rush Limbaugh always at the center of controversy.
ROBERTS: Somehow that seemed to go perfectly.
CHETRY: There is a big commotion over him wanting to buy a football team. Why are some not happy with that? You're going to find out. Fifty-three minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News of the Morning. Fifty- five minutes past the hour now. Rush Limbaugh has never been shy with his opinions about the National Football League or anything else really.
Now, he wants to put his money where his mouth is. The conservative radio host announced last week that he is part of a bid to buy NFL's St. Louis Rams. Some critics are lining up to try to block the bid saying his comments in the past should be held against him now. Our Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A shot across the bowl (ph) for the idea of Rush Limbaugh becoming part owner of an NFL team. In an e-mail, the new director of the Football Players Union, Demora Smith (ph) encouraged players to speak up about the conservative talk show host's bid for the St. Louis Rams.
Folks, we will not risk going backwards. Sport in America is at its best when it unifies. Overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred. Some players have said they would be uncomfortable playing for an ownership group that includes Limbaugh because of comments he has made about race.
One of them "the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and Crips without any weapons." And in 2003, an implication on ESPN that Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO HOST: The media has been very desirous at a black quarterback duel.
TODD: Contacted by CNN, Limbaugh's producer declined to comment about Demora Smith's (ph) statement. Limbaugh, himself, has said he is not racist. Sports commentator, Stephen A. Smith says "players may be posturing about Limbaugh, but in the end, they will go where the money is. And he says that's how Limbaugh's bid should be judged.
STEPHEN A. SMITH, COMMENTATOR: If he has the dollars, he should be allowed to do it. He is definitely an NFL fan. I have listened to him and talk about football. Not like he's ignorant to the game of football.
TODD: But could this controversy actually sink Limbaugh's bid? In the end, it will come down to a vote among NFL owners.
DAMON HACK, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: I think that could be the big question mark. How much will the owners listen to their players? How much, you know, will there be communication and contact between the players and the ownership of the respective franchises to say that, you know what, Rush Limbaugh will be a part of this league or not a part of the league.
TODD: Limbaugh does have competition in this bid. There are half a dozen groups trying to buy the Rams. And the winning investors need the votes of 24 of the 32 owners of the other teams. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. So, what do you think? Should Rush Limbaugh be allowed to own an NFL team? Let us know. 1-877-my-am-fix. You can also go to our show blog, cnn.com/amfix. Right?
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Down low.
