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American Morning
Climate Change Talks May be Stalled in Copenhagen; Citigroup's No Holiday Foreclosures a PR Move?; Inside the Teen Brain
Aired December 17, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning on this Thursday, the 17th of December. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have the top stories we breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, a 9-year-old boy at center of an international custody battle could be coming home to America. A Brazilian court deciding that the boy's American father should get his son back. Right now, the dad is on a plane to Brazil. One of our CNN producers is also with him following the latest developments, but the ordeal might not be over just yet.
ROBERTS: President Obama heads to the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen tonight. He'll get there in time for the final day, but it might not matter. Many people say his hands are tied. We're live at the White House this morning.
CHETRY: And inside the teen brain. How everyday violence can have a devastating impact on developing minds. Our a.m. original series "Walk in my Shoes" investigates what could be a recipe for disaster.
ROBERTS: But first the CNN exclusive, big news for an American dad who's been fighting a better international custody battle for his son. This morning, that father is on a plane to Brazil after a new court ruling. Jason Carroll joins us now at the exclusive. Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, do you know David Goldman, whenever a court has ruled in his favor in Brazil, he's actually flown down there at least a dozen times. He says he hopes this time is the last time. Right now, Goldman is in the air on his way to Brazil hoping to bring his son home.
Our producer Adam Reese is flying with him and snapped this picture last night just as they took off from JFK airport here in New York.
The big question of course is will his son be in one of those pictures on the way home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CARROLL: The decision by a Brazilian appeals court was unanimous, but there was no celebrating, not even a hint of a smile on the face of David Goldman.
DAVID GOLDMAN, GRANTED CUSTODY OF SON: I've been down this road for five and a half years. Until I'm on the plane with Sean and the wheels are up, I can only be hopeful.
CARROLL: The ruling upheld a decision this summer that ordered his nine-year-old son Sean to be returned home with him to New Jersey. But the homecoming could face one more road block. The family of Sean's now deceased mother is expected to file an appeal with Brazil's Supreme Court today.
But Goldman supporters are cautiously optimistic the ruling will stand.
REP. CHRIS SMITH, (R) NEW JERSEY: Remember, this is an abducting family. They're kidnappers. And yet they've -- but they come from a very high-powered legal family in Rio de Janeiro, so they've had a great deal of sway with the court.
CARROLL: The custody battle has now spanned five years, starting back in 2004, when Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took Sean to Brazil for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation. They never came back. She eventually remarried and then died last year during childbirth.
Her family has taken up the fight to keep Sean in Rio, arguing it would be traumatizing to remove the boy from the home where he's been raised. Here in the United States, Goldman's fight has been taken up by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And it's that international pressure that some say could make this ruling stick.
ROBERT ARENSTEIN, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: I think the justices are on their toes trying to do the right thing, because the world is watching this case. This case is being watched by the entire world.
CARROLL: A case that won't be over until this father watches his son board a plane home.
GOLDMAN: My emotions are in check. I'm focused on just doing what I can to comfort my son.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Secretary Clinton releasing a statement today saying she appreciated the assistance and cooperation from Brazil, and she hopes the long legal process is finally over.
Representative Smith from New Jersey, who you saw there in the piece, and who has been working with the family, says the appeal will be filed today. The Supreme Court could grant a stay, once again delaying Sean's return, or allow Sean to be returned to his father while the appeal is decided. So we're just going to have to wait, along with David Goldman, to see what happens today. It's been a long haul for him. He certainly hopes this is the final leg of that.
ROBERTS: He's being very stoic with the whole thing.
CARROLL: He's been down this road before.
ROBERTS: Jason, thanks so much.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It's three minutes past the hour now. Here's a look at what's happening this morning.
Well, $26, that's how much it's costing Iraqi insurgents to hack into live video feeds from U.S. predator drones. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that Shiite fighters in Iraq with some financing from Iran are using cheap software like sky grabber to capture the video, helping them evade detection.
One of the "Wall Street Journal" reporters who broke the story, Chavan (ph) Bormann (ph), is going to be joining us in an hour and a half.
ROBERTS: A terrorist tracking organization says the Taliban will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan. The name of the American was not given, but the only U.S. soldier known to be in captivity is Private Beau Bergdahl, who disappeared more than five months ago in Afghanistan.
CHETRY: The army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood is not out of intensive care but will stay in the hospital. Major Nidal Hasan was shot and paralyzed from the waist down during November's rampage.
His lawyer says he will be in the hospital for at least two more months. Hasan is then set to be tried in military court.
ROBERTS: New estimates from the census bureau -- by the year 2050, the bureau projects whites will no longer make up a majority of Americans. However, that is eight years later than previously estimated. Why the revision? The census bureau cites a slower U.S. economy and stepped up immigration enforcement.
CHETRY: Now to the U.N. climate change talks taking place in Copenhagen right now. President Obama is heading there tonight, but a global agreement on reducing greenhouse gases isn't even close to getting done.
Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning. And as we've been talking about this morning, Suzanne, the negotiations there in Copenhagen seem gridlocked. Is there anything the president can do to change that when he arrives?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He's certainly going to try to change it, but right now Kiran there are a lot of signs that are pointing to the fact that this may not actually happen. I've been on the phone speaking with people on the ground in Copenhagen, officials who have been directly involved in the negotiations and talks, and they say it's crunch time, it's deal or no deal.
And clearly the last round of negotiations, a big problem, a big distance, if you will, between the United States and the Chinese. The United States is saying you have to be transparent if you're going to cut your greenhouse gas emissions. We want to make sure that if there's an agreement on the table there's a way of proving that you're actually doing that.
The Chinese see that as being rather intrusive. They feel that they're being singled out. So we're really at this point where it is deadlocked. And we heard from Secretary Clinton just within the hour or so essentially saying that this is potentially a deal-breaker. I want you to take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We have presented and discussed numerous approaches to transparency with a number of countries, and there are many ways to achieve transparency that would be credible and acceptable.
But there has to be a willingness to move toward transparency in whatever form we finally determine is appropriate. So if there is not even a commitment to pursue transparency, that's kind of a deal- breaker for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Kiran, does it mean that all of this is not worth it? You know, in the next 24, 48 hours, something has got to change. I pressed Robert Gibbs yesterday about this, whether or not the United States is going to offer China anything, some carrots or sticks or something to move it forward.
They are making sure they are emphasizing this transparency thing, but Robert Gibbs said just a couple weeks ago we didn't expect China was actually going to say they had a target to cut their own emissions, now they do have that commitment, they do say that.
We didn't expect the Chinese to show up at this climate conference. Now they will. So perhaps there will be some movement in the next 24 to 48 hours, and President Obama certainly hoping, and he's going to try to strike a deal -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Suzanne Malveaux for this morning at the White House, thank you.
And now one programming note. On CNN tonight, we're going to be talking about this issue. Will the 100-plus leaders at the summit reach any consensus on climate change? Can the U.S. take the lead? We'll try to get some answers. The CNN/YouTube climate change debate, it's tonight, 11:00 eastern, right after "AC 360."
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.
Coming up now on seven minutes after the hour.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, kill the bill -- there's a new push this morning to scrap health care reform, but it's coming from a very, very unusual place if you take a look at who's been pushing for health care reform -- the growing liberal backlash. Jim Acosta on "pulling a Lieberman."
ROBERTS: And Senior Chuck Schumer letting fly and calling someone the "b-word." Find out who and why on the Most News in the Morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's ten minutes after the hour now. That means it's time for an "A.M" original, something you'll see only on "American morning." But first a quick check with what's new this morning.
CHETRY: We start with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York apologizing after he was overheard calling a flight attendant the "b- word" when she asked him to stop talking and turn off his cell phone on flight. It happened on Sunday just before takeoff. Schumer office says the attendant has accepted the senator's apology.
ROBERTS: Bank of America getting a big new boss. Brian Moynihan will take charge after CEO Ken Lewis steps down at the end of this year. Moynihan's appointment is a break from the past. He is the first from Fleets, the Boston bank B of A acquired back in 2004.
CHETRY: There's a new report out from the CDC showing that nearly 20 percent of the American population, that's nearly 60 million people, lost their health insurance at some point since 2008. The majority who did not have coverage were unemployed adults.
ROBERTS: Joe Lieberman rejected a proposed Medicare buy-in, and, lo and behold, it was taken out of the Senate health care reform bill. Why? Because they desperately needed his vote. And it shows just how much power one senator has in the Democrats fragile coalition.
Will Lieberman inspire other disappointed Democrats -- although he's an independent, but he caucuses with Democrats -- to do the same? Jim Acosta joins us with this morning's "A.M." original. Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Senate Democratic leaders are hopeful they'll get all 60 votes. But the danger in the Senate is that you could have 100 Joe Liebermans with the potential to stop everything if their demands aren't met.
So the question now for Democrats is whether anybody else wants to, not to coin a phrase, "pull a Lieberman."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Remember Roland Burris, appointed to fill President Obama's Senate seat by impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich?
ROLAND BURRIS, (D) ILLINOIS: We must not settle.
ACOSTA: Burris has sounded like a spoiler in the Democratic quest for 60 votes to stop a GOP filibuster on health care reform.
BURRIS: I understand I have drawn a line in the sand, and I've said that I will not vote for any bill to come to me, especially if it's going to be a final bill, that does not have a public option in it.
ACOSTA: Ever since senators stripped the public option out of their version to placate Joe Lieberman, liberal bloggers have cried "kill the bill." Former DNC chairman Howard Dean is leading the charge.
HOWARD DEAN, FORMER DNC CHAIR: This is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG. This is an insurance company's dream, this bill, and I think it's gone too far. It's a shame.
ACOSTA: Dean also accuses Democrats of watering down insurance reforms in the bill. Not so, says Senator Jay Rockefeller, who is firing back at Dean -- "shame on you."
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: That is so inaccurate, I don't know how to express it, but to say that Howard Dean is a doctor, he should know better, and he should be ashamed of himself.
ACOSTA: The White House was also having none of it.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think any rational person would say killing a bill makes a whole lot of sense at this point.
ACOSTA: But even Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, a self- described socialist, has said he may not vote to block a filibuster.
BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: I'm not on board yet. At this moment I am an undecided. We're working hard to make this bill a better bill.
ACOSTA: Despite the fact he condemned filibustering health care last summer.
SANDERS: I can respect people in the Democratic caucus would end up not voting for final passage. But at the very least they have got to prevent the Republicans from stopping progress in health care reform.
ROCKEFELLER: I know senators don't like to talk about other senators and what they're doing but...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't mind.
ACOSTA: Senator Rockefeller says it's time for unity.
ROCKEFELLER: You don't want to be the person who brings the whole thing down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: But it could happen. A case in point, when Senator Sanders introduced an amendment for single-payer health care system, a measure that has no chance of passing, Republicans insisted on having the entire 767 pages of that amendment read aloud, a process that could have taken eight hours.
Democrats say it was a delay tactic at a time when they fear time is not on their side. And John, if you want to get health care reform passed by Christmas, that is not the way to do it. That would have slowed things down considerably.
ROBERTS: And that motion to read the measure was another demonstration, Jim, of just how much power one senator has in that body.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. Tom Coburn exercised that power right there.
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, top bankers met with the president. He called them on the carpet and then they promised to do a better job helping Main Street. But is the help that one of the big banks is now promising just a PR move? Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" next. It's 15 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Seventeen minutes past the hour right now and that means it's time for "Minding Your Business" with Christine Romans. But first, the business headlines.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: There are still plenty of deals on airfare if you want to get home for the holidays. Bestfares.com reports several major airlines are now offering flights of prices usually reserved for those who book well in advance and running one right now, as a matter of fact.
CHETRY: There you go. Well, as we hit the holiday homestretch, as they say, there's fewer deep discounts at the stores. That's because most stores didn't load up on the merchandise this year and that means that they're not having to slash prices on a lot of leftover items.
ROBERTS: And Domino's is reintroducing its pizza to the public with a new garlic, season crust, sweeter, bolder sauce and blended cheese mozzarella with a hint of provolone.
CHETRY: That looks so good right now.
ROBERTS: Isn't it, though? Yes. The new pizza recipe has already popped up in most stores and will be in all of them by the end of the month. Let's hope for their sake the new Domino's doesn't end up on a Web site with new Coke or Pepsi.
CHETRY: That's right.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They changed the box, even changed the box made people go crazy.
CHETRY: Yes. Yes.
ROMANS: That was horrible.
ROBERTS: That was among the stupider things that the company has ever done.
ROMANS: But I mean -- knowing Domino's, people, you know, live in college on Domino's. If you change it, I don't know.
ROBERTS: That new one though sounds like, hmm, just a little good.
ROMANS: So very good.
CHETRY: Maybe they should send some over here, we could try for ourselves and figure it out.
ROMANS: I like it just the way it was. I'm a little averse to change.
CHETRY: All right. Well, Christine Romans joins us now to talk a little bit more about whether or not one big bank, saying they're going to stop foreclosures. Is this a PR move or is this really going to help homeowners?
ROMANS: This is a Citigroup, Citibank holiday gift. Four thousand homeowners will likely be helped and they will not be foreclosed on or evicted from their home.
Now a lot of viewers, thousands of viewers sitting there saying, hey, wait, I write my mortgage every month to Citigroup. These are Citi-owned mortgages only. It is through -- starting Friday through January 17, 2010.
I've been trying you guys to figure out how many mortgages this is in relation to how many foreclosures are happening at Citi right now. There are about 70,000 or so foreclosures in the process this quarter. So this would be 4,000 of those would be halted here for the holidays. And again, they have to be owned and serviced by Citigroup. It can't be another mortgage that Citigroup services because there are a lot of mortgages that they might not own but they do service. And it's the primary mortgage only. So there's some important clarification there for you.
Look, this is -- this is a real problem. This whole problem of trying to figure out what to do with these foreclosures because people are losing their jobs. People have crushing credit card bills, and they're having a real difficult time figuring out how to triage who they think can stay in the home, is going to be able to get their finances in order.
Another thing I want to tell you about is this shadow inventory of foreclosures. So Citi is stalling, or is going to hold out, suspend 4,000 or so homeowners. Let them stay in their home and stall the process for them. But we know that there are millions, maybe up to seven million foreclosures that haven't been started yet. People who stopped paying their bills, are badly, badly in default. And because of just this backlog of all these foreclosures they haven't even started to be counted yet. So there are a lot of people out there that need help. This will help 4,000.
ROBERTS: As we saw last winter, there was that suspension between, you know, over the holidays and then, boom, a whole run of on foreclosures at the end of January.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTS: Could that potentially happen again?
ROMANS: If you see other banks following suit and trying to -- look, they all sat down with the president on Monday, right? Or in the case of Citi, on the phone with the president on Monday. And the president said I want to see results. So I think you're going to start seeing these banks come out with their initiatives that may help some people. Maybe a lot of PR. In the end, will it really help? I think next year is going to be a little bit better for people.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: They're going to help, yes.
CHETRY: But they're still going to kick you out on the 17th of January. So, I mean, you know --
ROMANS: Maybe, maybe.
CHETRY: It's cold comfort. But anyway, a "Romans' Numeral" and this is a number that Christine brings us every day on the program that's driving a story about your money today. So what is your "Romans' Numeral" this hour?
ROMANS: Gives this Citi issue a little more contacts. The number is 39 percent. And these are people -- these are people in this distressed homeowner category -- 39 percent. I know. This can be anything, right?-
CHETRY: What? People better in the foreclosure category?
ROMANS: Yes. Thirty-nine percent of the people who had a loan modified, 12 months later are in default again.
ROBERTS: Wow.
ROMANS: That's what Citi is facing and the big banks are facing. We're all screaming at them. The government is screaming at them. The president is saying you've got to help more homeowners. They help them. Thirty-nine percent of them are behind again.
ROBERTS: I understand. All right.
CHETRY: When you don't have a job, you can't pay your mortgage.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans for us this morning "Minding Your Business." Christine, thanks so much.
Coming up now on 22 minutes after the hour, we've been showing you this amazing series all week on teens and teen violence and the dangers that they face. Well, today, to wrap it all up, T.J. Holmes takes a look at the teen brain. How it's wired in such a way that might make them prone to violence. You'll be surprised at what he found out. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after 7:00 now. Your top stories just five minutes away. But first, an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. "Inside the Teen Brain." Everyday violence can have a devastating impact on their developing minds.
T.J. Holmes examines the causes of youth on youth violence across the country in his series "Walk in My Shoes."
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning there, guys, John and Kiran. We are, as we know in this series this week, we've been looking at kids, seeing what they're subjected to and seeing how they act out sometimes. Sometimes violently acting out.
Well, now we want to take a look at why they do what they do. And there are all kinds of reasons you could point to for why it happens, certainly the environment. But in some measure, in some small way you could explain it this way. They're teenagers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Have you all witnessed some kind of violence, shooting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They happen every day and it will be mostly over petty stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Petty stuff.
HOLMES (voice-over): Makes the constant presence of violence these kids on Chicago's west side face with the developing teen brain, and researchers say you've got a recipe for danger.
DR. JAY GIEDD, NEUROSCIENTIST, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: In the frontal lobe right here is very late to mature. Now we're talking about age 25.
HOLMES: And so teens are prone to act more impulsively, according to Dr. Jay Giedd, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health.
GIEDD: Whenever there's high emotion, and this part of the brain is really taxed. It's really has to work extra hard to sort it all out.
HOLMES: That's true, even for teens living in the best of circumstances. But add a constant barrage of violence to a kid's life and that risky behavior can become magnified.
GENE GRIFFIN, PSYCHOLOGIST, NORTHWESTERN MEDICAL SCHOOL: They misinterpret signs of danger. They overreact to it all the time, and they have trouble calming themselves down and seeing the world the way other people see it.
HOLMES: Dr. Giedd says the brain can actually get used to the violence, taking even more violence to shock it.
GIEDD: If the world of the teen is violent and that people need to be aggressive in order to survive in that environment, the biology will make the brain change and adapt to whatever demands they are.
HOLMES: The teens we spoke with say they've seen so much violence that they've actually grown used to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In front of the store from my house, there was a boy with his brains blew out. So really seeing dead people and stuff, it don't even scare me no more.
DR. CARL BELL, PSYCHIATRIST: How is it that we have forgotten that we need to raise children?
HOLMES: Experts say as much as the teen brain can be transformed by excessive exposure to violence or danger, it has the ability to change, also responding to a nurturing environment.
BELL: You've got children who are all gasoline, no brakes. It's for parents and society, schools, communities, to provide the brakes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need a volunteer group to go first.
HOLMES: One such program is Umoja. It partners with Chicago's Manley high School helping teens to cope by surrounding them with support, teaching them leadership skills and encouraging students to see a future for themselves.
LILA LEFF, FOUNDER, UMOJA: There is not a magic thing we say to kid that make them stop -- that will make them stop killing each other. That's not how it works. We connect and we have relationships or none of this ever changes.
HOLMES: When the program started 12 years ago, only 10 percent of the students went to college. Today that number has grown to 60 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They take you beyond the school. They took me out of town where I never thought I'd be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They show you like there's more to life than just being around the hood. You can just go out and experience more things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, despite so much of what we seem to be seeing, some signs in the headlines about teenage violence in this country, the numbers have actually been trending down for the past several years. In fact we are at a point, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, as far as violence, between 14 and 17-year-old black males, that has gone down dramatically in this country.
However, guys, it's totally different in Chicago which is where we focused here and where you see these teenagers are from. The violence there over the past several years has been trending up, with more and more school age kids for the past several years being killed each year. And as we highlighted in the series this week, guys, 49 so far have been killed this school year. And Chicago is on pace to be the deadliest city in the country for youth violence.
ROBERTS: What's the reason then, T.J., that things are trending up in Chicago and nationwide they're trending down?
HOLMES: Well, you see so much of it, and again it's not the only community, but so many of the communities are gang infested. There's poverty in so many of those communities, and Chicago just has, quite frankly, it's a very volatile situation that is just quite frankly ready to explode at any moment. So you combine all of those things, and that is what specifically makes Chicago unique.
CHETRY: You know, New York, NYPD has had a lot of success with their community policing programs, bringing those new and young recruits out into the streets, getting to know people in the community. Because as you know in some of those urban communities, there's a big disconnect. People do not trust the police at all and they're very unwilling to turn people in, even if they see a crime happen right in front of them.
HOLMES: That's true. We see that in so many places. That's certainly not unique, like you say New York. It happened in Chicago, as well. But another thing that Dr. Bell (ph) points out guys, in talking about kids, is being on edge all the time. For you or I, if you see something happen on the street, you get that rush, that energy, and then you calm down.
You know, you could see someone get robbed or something like that. You're up for a second and then you come down. But for those kids, they are on that heightened state of alert 24/7. And you combine that with the teenage brain and you just you've got an explosion ready to happen.
ROBERTS: All right. Terrific series, T.J.. Thanks for bringing it to us. We really appreciate it.
HOLMES: Thank you, John.
CHETRY: Well, it's 30 minutes past the hour, that means it's time for our top stories. Militants in Iraq using cheap internet software to hack into U.S. predator drones. "The Wall Street Journal" reports that insurgents are able to view live video feeds from the planes, and that potentially allows them to evade attacks to know where U.S. drones are targeting, what areas to avoid.
We're going to be having much more on this when we're joined by one of the "Wall Street Journal" reporters who broke this story coming up in just an hour.
ROBERTS: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi just released from the hospital. Doctors kept the 74-year-old leader for a fourth day after he experienced persistent pain and difficulty eating. Berlusconi was attacked, if you remember, on Sunday when police say a mentally ill man whacked him in the face with a statuette, breaking his nose and teeth. The man is still in jail and has since apologized.
CHETRY: Cincinnati Bengal's player Chris Henry is in critical condition. He fell out of a pickup truck in North Carolina. Police say the wide receiver jumped in the bed of a truck during a fight with his fiancee who was driving. The 26-year-old is now being treated in a hospital in Charlotte.
ROBERTS: The national debt now tops $12 trillion and CNN has learned the president may confront all that red ink with new taxes and drastic cuts in federal spending. Joining me now to talk about all this is Jeffrey Sachs, a leading international economic advisor, and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Jeff, good to see you again. Thanks for coming in.
JEFFREY SACHS, EARTH INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
ROBERTS: So you look at this year's deficit, $1.4 trillion projected for 2010 at $1.5 trillion. We said the debt was above $12 trillion. Where is all this headed? Some senators like Judd Gregg of New Hampshire saying we're going to bankrupt the country.
SACHS: We're not going bankrupt, but we're not managing properly. And the gap between what we're spending every year and what we need to spend and what we're taxing is persistent gap. It's not something that's automatically going to close on its own. Nobody wants to talk about the T-word, obviously, you know, taxes.
It's the most reviled word in America, in the whole lexicon. And yet the fact of the matter is that there is no way to cut to close that gap just by cutting. Because the most basic things that we are doing, social security and health care and so forth, eat up all of that revenue. Now, one thing that's making it all the more complicated is the president spending more on the military, more on these wars. And that's exacerbating the gap.
ROBERTS: Let's flash back to a year ago during the election campaign as the economic meltdown was happening. You were with us and you said, OK, right now you can spend. You know, you can put yourself in a little bit of a deficit hole but eventually those chickens are going to come home to roost and you're going to have to raise taxes. You're going to have to raise them broadly.
The president promised in the campaign not to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000 a year in order to dig us out of this hole. Is he going to have to break that promise?
SACHS: This country is going to have to take the direction with more taxes. Now whether this president is going to do it, or what he's going to do. I don't know. But when they made those commitments last year, I said to the advisers, you can't manage properly the budget this way over a many-year period.
Most people didn't want to say anything like that, unfortunately, because in this country we're allergic to the idea of taxes. We have one political party, the Republicans, who's only mantra is cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes. People like to hear that but we can't balance the books the way we have them right now.
ROBERTS: So high income earners are the ones who are being targeted right now. You know, New York State put a surtax on high income earners. In the House, they're talking about doing it to pay for health care. They're also talking about doing it to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you derive the revenue you need just by taxing high income earners?
SACHS: High income earners should be paying more taxes and the banks should be paying special taxes right now. We may see Goldman Sachs and others in a few weeks making billions. They would not be able to do it on their own. But people are annoyed that they see billions going out when everyone else is suffering.
So the first thing is we do need to be fair about this and right now the system's not fair because the rich have been getting off the hook and the bankers have been getting off the hook. But it's not enough. It will not close the gap that way. So we're going to need something more broad based, and people hate to hear it. I don't blame them. Also everyone's struggling right now. But the truth is we've got spending up here, we've got revenues here, and if you tax the rich, as they should be, you'll close some of the gap.
ROBERTS: But not all of it.
SACHS: But you will not close all of the gap. Because if we want education in this country, if we do, if we want roads that work, if we want bridges that work, if we want an energy system that works, you have to pay for it in the end. And we don't have the revenues that are paying for it right now. Now I say also, let's get out of these wars. That's my own view because that would save more of the money, but still there'd be a gap.
ROBERTS: You remember that on Tuesday night, Ed Henry broke the news that the president is considering an executive order to strike an outside commission to look into ways that the deficit can be reduced, either through raising taxes, and he put it as a dramatic increase in taxes or cutting spending. An outside commission, is that the best way to approach this?
SACHS: Well, I think that's what we hire the president and the Congress to do, and I'd like to see some leadership to say, let's get on a track that's going to get that gap down. And that's really what the president should be guiding us. But these commissions, these are trick that's have been used in the past. They're kind of gimmicks to take the pressure off the immediate politics, to go past the election and then do something.
But in the end, we do need leadership. We need guidance to say, look, here's our spending levels, here's our tax levels. What are we going to do? Do we want to not have education? That's the choice we're facing.
ROBERTS: And what happens if we don't bend those curves together? If expenditures keep going like this and revenues stay even or drop or go up a little bit. If we don't close that gap, if we keep borrowing money to the extent that we are, what's the inevitable outcome?
SACHS: Of course, the debt is growing, we're owing a lot of it to the rest of the world. China is our biggest creditor right now.
ROBERTS: But if we do start to fall behind?
SACHS: We already are falling behind in a lot of areas because we're not spending on some of the things that we need to remain in the world leadership. Look at our education system right now. These are crises already. But as the debt continues to grow, the burden on us and our children continues to grow. It's pretty irresponsible.
ROBERTS: Jeff Sachs, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming in this morning.
SACHS: Great to be with you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, it is Sarah Palin going after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Candy Crowley breaks it down as only Candy can. It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: There you go. This is a scene outside of what's going on in Copenhagen. Punches thrown, police called in, exploding tempers flaring in the street. The Climate summit heating up this morning. And welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 40 minutes past the hour. Hope is starting to fade fast for a global agreement on reducing greenhouse gases. President Obama heads to Denmark tonight. He will attend tomorrow's final session of the U.N. climate summit. Talks appear to be, at this point, at least hopelessly stalled. Frustrated demonstrators are now clashing violently with police. We get all of this from our Phil Black in Copenhagen.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Danish police haven't shown a lot of tolerance for protesters during the climate talks. But they didn't hesitate when hundreds of people tried to break into the conference center to hold their own people's forum. They used batons, tear gas and pepper spray to move the crowd.
But in some cases the protesters fought back. There were heated scenes inside the center too. The number of activists allowed inside is being dramatically scaled back each day as more world leaders arrive. The activists aren't happy. This group from Save the World had the necessary credentials but security refused to let them past. So they sat down and refused to move.
The United Nations climate chief Yvo De Boer talking to them.
YVO DE BOER, U.N. CLIMATE CHIEF: I think if we can get that process moving we can still get a result out of this conference. But we're at a critical moment in the process.
BLACK: It didn't go well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were here at 7:30 in the morning. Come on.
DE BOER: I have been reasonable throughout my three years in this job, trying to create - all right. Goodbye.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK: Kiran, with a day and a half left on these talks, all the key issues remain unresolved. The officials running this conference hoped that as more world leaders arrive here in Copenhagen, the pressure will build and the deadlock will break, but at the moment that's a lot to hope for. Kiran.
CHETRY: Phil Black for us this morning in Copenhagen. Thank you.
ROBERTS: And breaking news. We have been telling you about David Goldman, the New Jersey dad - yes, breaking news, we've been telling but David Goldman who has been trying to reclaim custody of his nine-year-old son in Brazil. Right now, he is in Brazil, just landed after a court ruled that Goldman should get his son back.
He joins us now live on the phone. He's in - as we said, he just touched down. And David, you've traveled this route many times before. What's your understanding of the situation this Thursday morning?
DAVID GOLDMAN, NEW JERSEY DAD (ON THE PHONE): I hope that this is the last trip that I'll have to come down here to bring my son home, that he will be on the plane with me. And I also wanted to thank CNN for not airing the hostage videos that were made of my son in this mental institution, and I thank you for not putting him in harm's way even greater situation as here. Thank you for that.
And I do hope that we will finally be able to bring him home, to me, his only parent, his only father, and his family that have been waiting for him for over five years, agonizing for his return. We just touched down, and we're just deplaning now, and they're telling me I have to hang up and - and deplane.
ROBERTS: OK. Maybe you could hang with us for just a second. I know Kiran's got something to ask you.
CHETRY: As we understand it, the plan, David, if you could just tell us quickly before you do have to deplane, is for this meeting to take place, this handover, I guess you could say, at the U.S. embassy there. Have you been given any guidance on whether or not the step father as well as his family member who have been fighting you so hard are going to acquiesce and actually bring your son to you at the embassy?
GOLDMAN: I could only hope that being officers of the court themselves that they will follow the rule of law. Obviously I didn't deplane yet and still have to take a connecting flight and meet and consult with my attorney and find out the next steps. Hopefully they will stop harming my son.
ROBERTS: Right. So this is going to the Supreme Court as we understand it. What do you know about that part of the procedure this morning, David?
GOLDMAN: Honestly, I jumped on a plane and I don't know really any other news. I got the word from my attorney to come down and bring Sean home and that's my focus.
ROBERTS: All right. Well -
GOLDMAN: That's the only thing I can control in my own mind and that's my focus. The other variables as to what may or may not happen, I don't know.
ROBERTS: David, we know it's been an awfully long journey for you and we certainly wish you the best of luck today. We'll stay in touch. Thanks for you checking in. We really appreciate it.
GOLDMAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. Take care.
GOLDMAN: Thank you. Thank you, bye-bye.
ROBERTS: So coming up now on 45 minutes after the hour, Reynolds Wolf is going to head this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: And then in 10 minutes we're "Paging Dr. Gupta." He's answering your questions about the health care reform bills that are running through Congress right now. What is in, what is out, what ultimately may be left in any bill once the House and Senate get together on this, and what it will mean to you.
We'll be back in a moment.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, Des Moines, where it's cloudy and 24 degrees right now. Later on today, partly sunny with a high of 33. Actually not too bad in Iowa for this time of year.
CHETRY: Downright balmy, I guess.
Reynolds Wolf is tracking all of this for us, including some really wet weather that you're dealing with in the South as well as a bit of a cold snap, I guess you could say, for other parts of the country. Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, you know, you're absolutely right. We are going to be seeing some rain in parts - parts of the southeast. We're also going to be seeing at the same time chances of rain showers and maybe even some snowfall in parts of the northeast.
Now, with that, you could also have some wind in the northeast which could cause some delays, up to 30 minutes, even an hour in parts of New York, all your major airports, Philly, Boston, same story. Now, Houston and New Orleans could see some rain and low clouds, and we actually had some record rainfall in parts of South Texas, Brownsville, even McAllen, same story. And what we're going to see today is that area of low pressure that brought that rain actually move a little bit more along the Gulf Coast. You could see some heavy rainfall into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, even Florida.
I-10 corridor, if you're making that drive, say from Jacksonville over to New Orleans, look for some rain, maybe even some heavy thunderstorms into the afternoon hours. But when you get across parts of the nation's midsection, it looks pretty nice. Some wind can be expected to pop up in parts of the Central Rockies, so although it - it looks kind of a little good in parts of, say, I-25, you make that drive from Denver southward into Albuquerque, strong wind gusts may make it kind of tough for high profile vehicles, so keep that in mind.
Now, the Pacific Northwest, rain is going to be an issue north of San Francisco all the way up to Portland and Seattle. Back in the High Hills, yes, you could definitely see some snow there. But some powder, fresh powder - I've been talking about this all morning - in parts of Colorado, especially in places like, say, Steamboat Springs, so good for you.
Hey, take a look at this. Now, we've talked about the delays we might be seeing, but check out the temperatures, going to 42 degrees in Washington, DC, but certainly cool this morning, temperatures right at or below the freezing point, 78 degrees in Miami; 71 in Tampa; 54 in Houston; 62 in Vegas; Los Angeles, outside the Staples Center, about 73 degrees; 51 up in Seattle will be your expected high; 39 in Billings and 42, as we wrap things up, in Kansas City.
That is a look at your forecast. We'll have more on travel delays coming up in just a few moments. Back to you in New York.
CHETRY: Reynolds, thanks so much.
And still ahead, this morning's top stories are just minutes away. Also, at 8:10 Eastern time, when they take over, we can go home.
Our Barbara Starr in Afghanistan. She's talking to the man in charge of training the Afghan army.
ROBERTS: And at the bottom of the hour, breaking news, militants reportedly hacking into their worse enemy - US drones with relatively little effort, and it only costs $26. We'll talk with on of the reporters who broke that story.
Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: It's 7:54, and that means that we are "Paging Dr. Gupta."
Health care reform is getting nastier, Republicans trying stop the bill at every bill, Democrats angry about compromises that Senate leaders are making.
CHETRY: Yes, and our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to explain what is left in the Senate bill and what it means for you this morning. Hey, Sanjay!
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning guys.
You know, we've been talking about that, really, since the summer, and so many things have changed with the bill - first the House bill and now the Senate bill. I want to go over some of the big hurdles that still remain and some of the ones that they've already crossed.
One of the things we've been talking about really since the campaign is this idea of a public option, as people have been following this. Now, no - there is no public option in the Senate bill. People have been focused on this for some time.
Also, something that came up over the last several weeks, the idea of expanding Medicare to people 55 and older. Looks like that's not going to happen either as things stand now. Another one that a lot of people may not have heard of was this idea of lowering drug costs by purchasing drugs from overseas, and, again, because of concerns about safety sort of in the long run, they thought that's not going to happen now either.
Let me tell you about some things that are happening with the bills overall. There will be health insurance exchange. This is important. This is this idea of trying to make this more competitive for people to buy their health care insurance, allowing various companies to compete. No lifetime caps on benefits.
There was this cap for families, usually around $500,000. All these expenses, once you hit that, you couldn't spend any more. It looks like that will be taken out as well.
Employers will have to cover their employees if they - and if they don't there'll be penalties for those - those employers, and no denial of coverage for preexisting conditions. Now, I think, Kiran and John, that was probably the big one I think people have been talking about for some time. You know, if someone is already ill, you can't say you're going to get health care insurance because of that preexisting condition. So it looks like both the House, the Senate and the final version of this, whatever it may look like, will have that in there.
CHETRY: Yes. It is interesting, you know, requiring insurance companies to cover these preexisting conditions is a big step that you talked about before, but what's going to stop somebody from just waiting to buy insurance until they get sick? I mean, some of the mandated fines are quite small.
GUPTA: They - they are small, and this came up in Massachusetts as well, how do you - how do you sort of pick the perfect fine that's going to be big enough to deter that sort of behavior? Because you're exactly right. If you're healthy, you'll say I'm not going to buy it until I get sick, and then cancel it.
So, right now, you're going to get penalized for not having insurance in the first place. That's sort of a mandate. And then if you buy it and then cancel it, there's going to be penalties for that as well. So sort of two penalties involved. Together, they may be large enough.
ROBERTS: And there's been some compromising on the bill on both sides, and when we say both sides, we mean both sides of the Democratic side of things.
GUPTA: Right.
ROBERTS: But what's the main issue holding things up?
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, I think in many ways it's abortion, which is, you know - This is 2009 (INAUDIBLE). Yes there's been (ph) that, but we are still talking about this. This is the hot button issue, which is...
CHETRY: Yes. They wanted to strengthen the language that would - that would ban federal money being used to pay for abortions.
GUPTA: That's right, and people feel very, very strongly about this. No government money should go toward funding abortions.
They may still get to some sort of compromise here, having certain demographics be eligible, other demographics not be eligible, teenagers for example may be somebody - may be a group that can - can be eligible for funding. I don't know how that's going to sort of pan out, and as we've seen over the last couple of days and the reporting you guys are doing this morning, a single vote - as you mentioned, Nelson in this case - could - could make all the difference. So it could come down to an issue like abortion.
ROBERTS: And they're still waiting for the cost estimates, right?
GUPTA: That's right. And we know what happened with the House bill over the summer, when those cost estimates came out, had a lot of momentum, and when those CBO numbers came out at that point, a lot of that enthusiasm was lost.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay, it's great to see you. Thanks.
GUPTA: All right.
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us now. Three minutes to the top of the hour.
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