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American Morning
Senate Continues Procedures to Pass Health Care Bill; Republicans Say Health Care Deal Is Washington Politics as Usual; New Regulations Limit Time Airlines May Keep Passengers on Tarmac Due to Delays; Ex-Sheriff of Wall Street Sounds Off on Big Banks and Bonuses; Ben Stiller Uses Comedy to Make a Difference
Aired December 22, 2009 - 7:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Most News in the Morning. It's Tuesday, December 22nd, and I'm T.J. Holmes sitting in today for John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you with us. And I'm Kiran Chetry. We have a lot of big stories coming up we're going to be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
First, it's a developing story that we're following for you today. Don't get pregnant, that's the order from the new general in charge of troops in northern Iraq. He's telling soldiers who get pregnant or another soldier -- or get another soldier pregnant that they could face a court-martial.
We're going to find out why and whether or not it is an invasion of your own personal freedoms.
HOLMES: Also this morning, coming up in less than 30 minutes, we're expecting the Senate to move one step closer to a final vote on its health care reform bill. They're dealing with some final formality this morning, not expecting any surprises, but we're still on standby for any.
A lot of questions about out there about how to exactly pay for this deal and even how about getting more Democrats, how these Democrats actually got onboard to get this thing done.
CHETRY: Runway relief. Airlines being held accountable. Soon they will have to pay penalties for keeping people stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours. It sounds like a win for the frequent flier -- but.
First though, a developing story this morning -- a very controversial order from a general in charge of 22,000 troops in Iraq. He is telling female soldiers they could face a court-martial if they get pregnant.
He says it's because he can't lose anyone under his command during the withdrawal. Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, is this legal?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed it is, Kiran. General Anthony Coculo tells us in an e-mail from Iraq that his military attorneys have reviewed the policies and ruled it is legal.
There is a very limited concept of personal freedom in the U.S. military, especially in a war zone. General Coculo has issued this order that if you get pregnant in his zone in northern Iraq, you do face the possibility of a court-martial.
He says he just, as you pointed out, he just can't afford to lose soldiers. In his order to his troops, he says, quote -- well, pardon me. His order is quite limited. In his e-mail to us he says quote, "Anyone who leaves this fight earlier than the expected 12-month deployment creates a burden on their teammates.
Anyone who leaves the fight early because they made a personal choice that changed their medical status or contributes to doing that to another is not in keeping with the key element of our ethos."
And what he is saying there Kiran is in the war zone, the war comes first. If you get pregnant and have to leave, that just puts a burden on another soldier to take up your job.
Four female soldiers have become pregnant since the unit arrived in northern Iraq about a month ago, none of them have been court- martialed, yet they have received letters of reprimand. But the possibility is out there, a soldier could be court-martialed, a soldier could face jail-time for getting pregnant -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It sounds odd. You can understand some of the thinking behind it, especially in this crucial time, but it also does sound rather unusual, as well.
All right, Barbara, we'll check in with you a little bit later on that later throughout the morning, thanks.
HOLMES: And also in just about 20 minutes, senators will begin voting on the formalities in their $1 trillion dollar health care bill. They are on target for a full Senate vote maybe on Christmas Eve.
Now, a lot of late night sessions going on, a lot of this stuff being done behind closed doors, a little wink here and a nod there. It's how Senate Democrats got a leg up on the health care reform battle.
Politics as usual in Washington, D.C., a lot of people are saying. Republicans, as you could imagine, they're not feeling this one bit. Dana Bash is live for us on Capitol Hill. Dana, there has been some wheeling and some dealing, but, first, tell us what we're expecting to happen here in just a matter of minutes.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning at this early hour T.J. there will be a series of procedural votes the Democrats need to get over in their limp to the finish on this health care bill.
Look, Republicans are outnumbered, but they are doing their best to slow down what they call a rushed health care bill, and this is something that they say they're doing because Democrats formed it in a way that President Obama promised wouldn't happen -- business as usual, secret deal-making.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: It was a series of backroom deals that secured Ben Nelson's vote, the last Democratic holdout, one sweetener given only to his home state of Nebraska.
Here on page 98 of the compromise, the federal government will pay 100 percent of Nebraska's tab indefinitely for expanding Medicaid for low income Americans. And when we asked the Democratic leader, he revealed Nelson wasn't the only one getting special deals.
SEN. HARRY REID, (D) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: And I would say this, if you read the bill, which I'm sure you will, you'll find a number of states are treated differently than other states. That's what legislation is all about -- compromise. It's compromise. It's -- we worked on different things to get a number of people's votes.
BASH: Like Bernie Sanders. The liberal senator was unhappy that Democratic leaders dropped a public option and said this a few days ago.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: It is not for sure that I will vote for that bill.
BASH: Suddenly his home state of Vermont got some extra help from Medicaid, too. But to clinch Sanders' vote Democrats added his pet project, $10 billion for community health centers nationwide.
SANDERS: One new provision that was placed in the health care reform bill by majority leader Reid, and I want to thank him very much.
BASH: Republicans accused Democrats of bribery.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, (R) UTAH: Chicago-style backroom buyoffs at the expense of American taxpayers.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R) TEXAS: Sweetheart deals which make this thing begin to stink to high heaven.
BASH: But Democrats didn't jus slip things in to win votes to pass health care. Leading Democrats also added provisions aimed at helping themselves back home.
Chris Dodd's support was never in doubt.
SEN. CHRIS DODD, (D) CONNECTICUT: This bill is long overdue and critically important.
BASH: But the Connecticut Democrat facing a tough reelection battle buried $100 million in the measure for a new hospital. Other states can compete for it, but he put it in hoping Connecticut gets the hospital. DODD: It doesn't involve just my state, although my state is very interested.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And the Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is unapologetic about all the wheeling and dealing he did. He said this is just the way it works. It is the art of compromise.
And get this, T.J., he also said I don't know if there is a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that is important to them. If they don't, it doesn't speak well of them -- a little mocking there.
HOLMES: This doesn't speak well of a lot of them, some people would say. But you bet the next time something comes up and Republicans do the exact same thing that Harry Reid and the Democrats will, you're right, this is how it works, and at least they're admitting it now, I suppose, Dana.
Thank you so much, and we'll check in with you again with a lot of action expected today. Thank you so much.
BASH: Thank you, T.J.
HOLMES: And joining us here at the bottom of the hour is going to be Steve Ellis. He's vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. He'll break down several plums in that Senate health reform deal that some critics are just flat out calling bribes, the term "corruption" being thrown around a bit, as well.
(WEATHER BREAK)
HOLMES: A story that every traveler needs to hear. The next time you're on a plane and get stuck on the tarmac, you now know how long you'll be there. As soon as the delay starts, start your clock. They now have so much time to get you off that plane. We'll explain the new rules.
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 10 minutes past the hour, and that means it's time for an "A.M." and, all right, we'll show it to you right now.
Basically every traveler's fantasy -- making the airlines pay for long delays that keep you stuck on the runway for hours. Well, there are new rules in place.
HOLMES: Yes, everybody would love to hear the new rules. You know exactly how long you're going to be stuck on the plane now. There is only so long they can keep you on there, according to the rules. But some people say it will lead to more delays. Our Lisa Sylvester explaining this for us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anxious JetBlue passengers stranded on this airplane for ten hours at New York Kennedy Airport in February of 2007. Same storyline for passengers of Continental and two smaller airlines left on a tarmac overnight at the Rochester Minnesota airport in August.
LINK CHRISTIN, AIRLINE PASSENGER: There wasn't any room. The plane was getting warmer. There were at least two babies nearby me who cried and screamed almost the whole night.
SYLVESTER: Under new rules announced by the Transportation Department, airlines in the future will have to allow passengers to get off the plane if the flight is delayed more than three hours.
If not, the airline will face a fine of more than $27,000 per passenger. The only exceptions, if there are safety or security concerns, or if air traffic controllers say it would disrupt airport operations.
That news came as a relief for holiday travelers at the Reagan National Airport.
JIM HOSETH, AIRLINE PASSENGER: Definitely better. Three hours is still kind of long in my opinion, but it's quite an improvement.
SYLVESTER: The Air Transport Association, which represents the largest airliners, says it will comply with the new regulation but warns it could lead to more headaches.
JIM MAY, AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION: A hard and fast three-hour window, and it is very clear to us that that plane has to be back at the terminal or back to a point where we can deplane passengers, has to be within that three-hour window, is going to lead to more cancellations and conceivably greater inconvenience for passengers than they would have had otherwise.
SYLVESTER: But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood disagrees. He says passengers will have more options instead of having only one choice -- to sit and wait on a plane.
RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They can go back to the terminal, re-board the next day, go home or figure out if they want to get back on this flight if they know it is going to be delayed. It gives them the option so they're not sitting there trying to figure out what's happening in their life.
SYLVESTER: The new rule won't help travelers this holiday season, though, because it doesn't take effect for 120 days.
Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Lisa Sylvester for us, thanks. We'll see. HOLMES: It sounds great. A lot of people who have been stuck on planes, it sounds great to say only three hours. But it could lead to other things. They have to take you off.
CHETRY: And the other question, too, is it three hours from when you thought you were taking off or when they first told you about the delay or when they had an update or when you were number 32 on the runway? You never know.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Well, our Christine Romans is going to be coming up next. Big banks and big bonuses we're talking about, and some criticism coming from a guy who a lot of people maybe do not want to hear any criticism from -- Eliot Spitzer of all people. That's coming up.
It's 13 minutes past the hour now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is 7:15 now, 7:16. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business" with Christine Romans.
A name we're familiar with has been I guess infamous the last few times we've seen him in the news. But the guy we forget kind of knows what he's talking about.
CHETRY: Eliot Spitzer is infamous for something?
ROMANS: Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York. Look, before he was the former governor of New York, he was attorney general of New York and he was known as the sheriff of Wall Street. He had taken on the big investment banks several times and really was tough with them about some of the business as usual on Wall Street that he thought just wasn't fair for the little guy.
Now, he is still raising questions about bonus season and what that's going to say about taxpayer money being used to infuse many of these big banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, and what we're getting for it and why more -- why more digging hasn't been done on just the circumstances that allowed so many of these banks to get such big taxpayer payouts and now potentially, potentially record bonus season. I asked him about the president sitting down with the big bank CEOs and, you know, giving the so-called fat cats a talking to. This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIOT SPITZER, FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: That was, I think that meeting disappeared into the ether (ph) and, unfortunately, I think the way somebody said it to me, if Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt have called the CEOs to Washington, first, they all would have shown up. Second, he would have looked at them on camera, radio, TV, whatever technology was back then and said how much are you getting paid this year?
In front of the nation, he would have said, how much are you getting paid? How much did you get from the taxpayers? How do you justify that? Make them feel the heat. The picture that came out it was everybody sitting around laughing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And he's pretty furious about that. He says that the bonuses are just wrong. The public anger a year now into this mess is rightfully placed and will persist unless we have more details and more answers. He says taxpayers own 80 percent of AIG. He says we need to know more about why these big banks got so much money through AIG that they don't have to pay back a tax.
We talked about it for some time now, a taxpayer transfer of funds to AIG to big banks. He still says we need to have more answers on that. He's very feisty about Congress, about Timothy Geithner, about the president, and what we need to do next. Regulatory reform, I asked him about that. He said it's shuffling the boxes on a flow chart. This is a regulatory charade. That's what he said.
CHETRY: You know, there's a lot of people that would agree with him and we'll see if any action happens, though, at a Congress on that one.
Meantime, you have a "Romans' Numeral" for us. This is a number that Christine brings us every day that's driving a story about your money. What's our numeral this hour?
ROMANS: It's $50 million.
HOLMES: Fifty?
ROMANS: $50 million.
HOLMES: $50 million.
ROMANS: You know that has to do -- who in the world gets $50 million these days? Certainly not us.
HOLMES: No. Seems like a small number compared to so many others we see thrown around these days. But is that -- somebody's salary?
ROMANS: It's a bonus number.
HOLMES: Bonus number.
ROMANS: According to "The Financial Times," Lehman Brothers, which is dead, Lehman Brothers is dead. The company doesn't -- it blew up, right, in this whole drama. A judge just approved $50 million in bonuses for Lehman Brothers derivatives traders who are still trying to unwind some of their trades. So derivative trader's bonuses at Lehman, $50 million.
This bonus thing hasn't gone away, folks. We're going to be -- this is a real serious issue that it's just not going away.
HOLMES: You told us before you brought the numeral that it was going to have us scratching our heads.
ROMANS: $50 million to a company that already blew up.
HOLMES: All right.
CHETRY: That's right, although everybody said, oh, they would have propped them up, right? Is that the one? The one they owe.
ROMANS: Lehman. Right.
(CROSSTALK)
They got to unwind these trades and it takes -- you know, professional derivatives traders to do that. But just to let you know, the money is still flowing.
CHETRY: All right. Somewhere, right?
HOLMES: Thank you.
CHETRY: The president got more than he bargained for when he was reading "The Polar Express" to school kids in D.C. One of them wanted to come back and not to forget his game next time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like to come back and visit us? Would you? Would you come back and would you like to play me at foosball?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're a pretty good foosball player? You know, I hate getting beat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to let you win.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: How adorable.
HOLMES: Kids, man.
CHETRY: What a cute kid. I'll let you win.
HOLMES: Kids sometimes just don't know any better that honesty cools the fan.
CHETRY: That's right.
HOLMES: He's standing there with the leader of the free world and say, I'll let you win, big man.
CHETRY: Parents will save that tape. Rewind that in ten years.
HOLMES: All right. Well, coming up here next, we all know Ben Stiller. He uses his comedy to make money, make a living, but he's also using that comedy to make a difference. You know the look and, yes, he's talking to our Alina Cho. That's after the break.
It's 21 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-four minutes past the hour just in to CNN. This is a live look right now at the Senate chambers. A second test vote on the Senate's health care reform bill is under way this morning.
As we talked about, there are many procedural hurdles that need to be crossed before a final bill is passed and then, of course, goes on to reconciliation with the House bill. But, of course, the big one, as we said, was that they got 60 onboard to close, cloture as they call it to move on and to actually vote on this thing. They have enough. They have 58 Democrats, two independents voting with them. Not a single Republican, but as we said before, the way that things work in the chambers of Congress, they don't need a single Republican.
HOLMES: They got a lot of rules and lot of procedures and a lot of people scratching their heads about all these votes. So when is the actual vote?
Well, they're on pace. They have to jump through all these hurdles essentially because the Republicans are doing all they can to slow this thing down. So essentially require them to go through all this process. So a couple of procedural votes today.
We saw the big vote overnight on Sunday night which everybody thought --
CHETRY: 1:00 in the morning.
HOLMES: That was the big deal to show them that they did have enough votes but on pace now to actually get a vote on the bill Christmas Eve evening.
CHETRY: Right, 7:00 p.m., right?
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: On Christmas Eve, they want to get that thing done.
HOLMES: They're taking to the last moments. So we'll keep an eye on that vote. We'll let you know what comes out of that this morning.
It is 25 minutes past the hour. It means it's time for an "A.M. Original," something you'll only see here on AMERICAN MORNING. This week, we're highlighting celebrities who are truly giving back the holiday season. All year long, really.
Today, we've got actor Ben Stiller and something that only he could really pull off here.
CHETRY: Yes. He basically launched a parody of a charity.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: And it actually is raising a lot of money, though. Our Alina Cho is here to explain that. As part of our series, "Big Stars, Big giving," you and Mr. Ben Stiller sitting down for some laughs.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We had a good time. You know, Ben Stiller, as you guys know, is one of the funniest people on the planet. So when he started to get interested in philanthropy, he began to brainstorm about how to make an impact and he decided why not use comedy to try to make a difference.
Well, guess what, it's working.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): He makes a living making people laugh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN STILLER, ACTOR: Well, I guess the look I'm best known for is "Blue Steel."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: But talk about philanthropy and suddenly a side of Ben stiller you see.
(on camera): You're actually skeptical about philanthropy.
BEN STILLER, ACTOR: Yes. I think I have always come at it from a pretty cynical point of view, maybe just charity fund-raisers and the whole show business aspect of it. I made fun of it in the past but I think as you see what's going on in our world, it's kind of hard to sit back and not do anything.
CHO (voice-over): It all began this summer. The actor traveled to Haiti with the charity Save the Children. He saw how kids didn't have access to clean water, how they weren't going to school and he wanted to help.
STILLER: It's really sort of overwhelming when you see the level of poverty that these people are living with every day. It's just a different reality. Yes.
CHO (on camera): They know who you are.
STILLER: Not really. Some do. Most don't, though. I mean it's --
CHO: Most don't.
STILLER: Yes. CHO: Really?
STILLER: Yes. It's not about me. I think these people are just more focused on just getting through their day.
CHO (voice-over): The problem is serious, but Stiller, by nature, is not. So, when he thought about how to raise money, he turned to what he does best, comedy.
STILLER: And, basically, I'm going to sell these headbands 300, 400, 500 bucks a pop. OK? And you get one, all the money goes to the school.
CHO: Stillerstrong, the slogan "stealing great ideas from other charities to build a school in Haiti."
(on camera): You came up with this really brilliant original idea of Stillerstrong.
STILLER: Well, I thought it was original. So I came up with the idea of a headband.
CHO: Right.
STILLER: A yellow headband.
CHO: Yellow?
STILLER: Yes, it's great because it's useful. I later learned that Lance Armstrong had I guess done something with a --
CHO: Bracelet.
STILLER: Bracelet, yes. Sort of like a little --
CHO: Also yellow.
STILLER: Yellow, also yellow, but it doesn't really do anything.
CHO: Right.
STILLER: See, the great thing about the headband is it actually wicks away sweat.
CHO (voice-over): Go to stillerstrong.org and you'll find a social media bonanza what some call the future of fund-raising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You give 400 bucks to wear it. I'm happy just to wear it.
STILLER: You pay $400 --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pay you to wear it?
STILLER: No, for the school to support the school.
CHO: And this plea from Stiller and Robert De Niro, to Ashton Kutcher who has millions of followers on Twitter.
STILLER: So, Ashton, please retweet it. Thanks.
ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: Retweet it, Ashton.
CHO: It worked. Within seven minutes, Kutcher complied. The power of celebrity.
STILLER: Which color would you like? The yellow?
CHO (on camera): I like the yellow because it's kind of --
STILLER: All right. You go for the yellow. I'll go for the red because -- see what I mean that it looks cool. See, you actually look great in it. I like to wear multiple, multiple bands sometimes just for a different kind of look.
CHO: I think that's very cool.
STILLER: Yes. You happen to be abducting somebody and you don't want them to talk. So, any kidnappers out there?
CHO (voice-over): Kidding aside, Stiller knows comedy can help shed light on the world's problems and maybe even begin to solve them.
STILLER: You know, when you're somebody who is -- you know, when people know celebrity or whatever, it doesn't mean that you know anything. I'm not claiming to be an expert on Haiti. I've been there once, but it affected me and I'm trying to do something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Stillerstrong launched just three weeks ago and already thanks to one big donation and several small ones, the charity has raised more than $170,000. Incredible, guys. And it's about half the money needed to build one school in Haiti. He does plan to go back in February.
The one thing about the headbands, he says, if you wear it for a really long time and you're wearing the small size, the kid size, your brain starts to shrink. He says that's what happens.
CHETRY: He figured that out first hand, unfortunately. No, he's great. And tomorrow it's Madonna.
CHO: Tomorrow is Madonna. We look forward to that.
CHETRY: We know how passionate she's been about Malawi and we're going to hear more about her cause and her passion.
CHO: That's right. It's the first time she's talking about building a school in Malawi. She broke ground in October, opened in 2012. But she's very excited about it and we'll bring you that interview tomorrow.
CHETRY: Thanks, Alina. HOLMES: All right. Thanks, Alina.
CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now and checking our top stories. Punished for getting pregnant. There's a new order from a general in charge of more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, saying that if a woman in his command gets pregnant she could face a court- martial. That is Major General Anthony Cucolo and says the military is simply stretched too thin. He added he considers his female soldiers invaluable and wants to ensure that they fulfill their deployments.
HOLMES: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani expected to announce today he's not running for the Senate next year. "The New York Times" and "Daily News" reporting he is also ruling out a run for governor and he'll also endorse Republican Rick Lazio. Giuliani plans to continue working as a security consultant and occasional TV commentator.
CHETRY: All right. Well, the Ford Motor Company is trying to cut its staff. That's right, the automaker is offering a new round of buyouts to many of its 41,000 hourly workers. The amount of those buyouts ranging from $40,000 to $70,000.
As we were showing you before, live pictures of the Senate going through yet another procedural vote. There's another live picture of the Senate chamber right now. They're on track for a full vote on health care reform as we said by Christmas eve evening. A few remaining formalities in the bills are being finalized this morning and has the Republicans very upset. They're saying this deal was cut under the cloak of darkness brokered in the back rooms of Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: The fact is the year after the debate started, few people would have imagined that this is how it would end. With a couple of cheap deals, a couple of cheap deals and a rush vote at 1:00 in the morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Steve Ellis joins us now. He is vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan budget watchdog group. Thanks for being with us. First -- just the first thing out of the gate, a lot of people who have been around Washington for a long time, Steve, say, you know what, this is how things are done.
In fact, Harry Reid seemed to, you know, almost allow what happened saying, you know, you got to work for your constituents and you got to make things happen. This is how deals get done in Washington. It's all about, you know, the art of negotiating and compromise. But this administration said when they came into office, especially President Obama, that he wanted things to be different.
He wanted a new transparency in Washington rather than having special interests really holding all the cards. Do you think that he's proud of the way that this happened? STEVE ELLIS, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE, VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I certainly hope not. This is certainly not the change that the president promised when he was swept into office and, I mean, it is true, this is the way historically deals have been cut and deals have been made here in Washington in the proverbial smoke-filled room. But that doesn't mean that that's the way it should be.
And certainly on something that I think all can agree is incredibly important and incredibly critical to this country. Health care reform -- this should all be done out in the open and lawmakers should be able to hold the legislation hostage to get a pet project back to their state.
CHETRY: 2,100 pages is the bill and I was reading a few commentaries this morning and many said, with the pace of how quickly this was moved, I mean, so much happening and changing in 38 hours, there's really no way that many senators can say they actually read the contents of it and that it's quite confusing.
What do you make of the fact that it is so big and that we're seeing this happen rather quickly after a final deal was hammered out, at least in the Senate?
ELLIS: Well, it's not surprising that a sweeping piece of legislation to deal with health care would be large. I'm not surprised at that. It's just mostly the fact that they are trying to cram this through by a deadline, by Christmas and, so, it is incredibly hard and anybody who's looked at legislation realizes that it's very opaque and it's hard to really follow the line of logic through it. It's not sort of self-contained.
CHETRY: Right.
ELLIS: And so, there is the need to be more time for lawmakers to actually read and understand what they're voting on.
CHETRY: Well, Senator Ben Nelson was considered the last Democratic holdout. He secured a deal for his home state. He got the federal government to basically pick up 100 percent of Nebraska's tab indefinitely for expanding Medicaid to low-income Americans and a lot of Republicans decry the fact that, you know, he -- that they were arguing it was an exchange for his vote.
But he isn't the only senator that actually secured a sweetheart deal. Let's take a look at a few of the others. We're going to start with Chris Dodd here. And Chris Dodd, the Democrat out of Connecticut, is facing a tough re-election, as we know in his home state of Connecticut. He got a $100 million earmark for a construction of university hospital inserted into the bill.
Can you explain this provision, Steve, and how he was able to secure this earmark in a health care reform bill?
ELLIS: Sure. Unlike Senator Nelson's provision that actually specifically stated Nebraska, this one is reverse engineered. Meaning that they wrote the equation backwards to come to one answer. And so when you look at it, it designates that the $100 million facility he built at a school where the state loaned public medical school and dental school are located.
So that narrows the field down, considerably down to about 9 to 11 states and then even beyond that, it talks about that there would be, it would be critical to the economic success of the overall facility and that it be place where there has been a challenge in raising the money in the past. And so essentially narrowing the field even further so that UConn, which was never mentioned -- University of Connecticut in there. That would actually be really in a prime position to compete for this funding.
CHETRY: All right. Let's move on. Let's get to Senator Bernie Sanders. He is the independent from Vermont. He is not happy with this bill and spoke publicly about it when the public option was dropped. He said he wasn't even sure that he was going to vote for the bill just a few days ago. Well, he has been able to secure $600 million in Medicaid help for his state of Vermont and also to clinch his vote, Democrats added his pet project. This is $10 billion for community health centers nationwide. What is going on with this one?
ELLIS: Well, certainly the community health center nationwide is a bigger issue for Senator Sanders and something he has been pushing. But as far as particularly for the state, it's actually in the same section that the Nebraska provision that Senator Nelson got was in. But it's a 2.2 percent increase that has been for this level of assistance and under Medicaid from the federal government and, essentially, that was written so that it would only affect the state of Vermont.
CHETRY: There you go. All right. Well, we're going to leave it there, Steve. We're going to put up on our web site a couple of the other interesting ones that you guys dug up and the other interesting part about all of this as you said is it's not so clear to see these earmarks that you have to actually really comb through it for these nuggets and so it just shows you how things go in Washington. But again, we're going to link it up to cnn.com/amfix.
Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. Thanks for being with us.
ELLIS: Thanks for having me.
HOLMES: Yes, it's really hard to keep all this stuff straight.
CHETRY: That's their full-time job. They're digging through this 2,100 page bill, trying to purse out some of the language here.
HOLMES: The earmarks and the deals, that's one thing but how about the actual bill itself? How is it supposed to help you out? We're going to try to get some straight answers from Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He is answering your questions, viewer questions coming up.
Also this morning, we got a story about three astronauts and a fluke going into space. Our John Zarrella will be along to explain in his exclusive look at the journey of getting ready. That lady there, a mom getting ready to go into space. That's coming up. Stay with us.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 40 minutes past the hour. Time now for CNN exclusive. A story you'll only see right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Our John Zarrella has been granted unprecedented access to follow a working mom, her name is Cady Coleman. Now what does this working mom do? She's an astronaut. Right now, she's training for a trip to the International Space Station. That's coming up in exactly one year. John live for us in our Miami bureau with this morning's "A.M. Original."
John, I guess they got six months or some time. They'll be up there for six months together. So this crew is preparing and I guess, one way to prepare is you all better get to know each other and like each other.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, that's exactly right and they're fortunate because they do seem to all get along. And you know, with their training schedules as hectic as they are, they're never in the same place at the same time. One may be training in Russia, one maybe training in Japan and another in Houston.
We had an opportunity, a week and a half or so ago, to catch up with all three of them at the same time in the same place.
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ZARRELLA (voice-over): Claustrophobic, don't even consider it? There is no wiggle room inside the Soyuz spacecraft.
CADY COLEMAN, NASA ASTRONAUT: (INAUDIBLE) same peak. (INAUDIBLE) on the left, the commander is in the middle and I'm on the right.
ZARRELLA: This is the expedition 26 crew. For two days next year, as they hurdle towards a rendezvous at the International Space Station, the Soyuz will be home to Cady Coleman, Italian Paolo Nespoli, and Russian commander Dmitri Kondratyev. It's rare catching all three in the same place at the same time. The training schedule is brutal.
COMMANDER DMITRI KONDRATYEV, EXPEDITION 26: We have some things with Paolo and Cady in Star City (ph), with Paolo some weeks ago and with Cady, maybe one month ago.
PAOLO NESPOLI, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ASTRONAUT: What gets me worse, I think, is constantly changing of training environment and on top of that being jet lagged.
ZARRELLA: On this trip to the Johnson Space Center, the three met together for the first time with their flight director and his team.
COLEMAN: (INAUDIBLE) we had that training and Dema is somebody who eats, breathes and lives robotics.
ZARRELLA: With their flight less than a year away now, planning for the six months they'll spend on the station is taking shape. Nespoli spends time in the virtual reality lab. Here, he gets a feel of what it feels like lifting a large mass in space. There's also a lesson for Cady and Paolo simulating with computer animation --
COLEMAN: Going to manual (INAUDIBLE) blue.
ZARRELLA: The capture of a cargo carrier using the station's robotic arm. Just as critical as polishing their skills, solidifying a bond.
KONDRATYEV: As to me, every woman --
ZARRELLA (on camera): Do you think you'll say that after six months in space with her?
KONDRATYEV: I am hoping I will.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Getting along is important. You can't bring much from home to keep you busy during down time. Get this, the limit for personal items is a measly two pounds. Dmitri is packing family pictures and CDs and Paolo calls himself a minimalist.
NESPOLI: Maybe a kilo is too much, a pound is too much or something. I don't know, maybe not. We will see. I still have no good answer for that. And if you have any suggestion, I'll take it.
COLEMAN: I'll probably bring my flute.
ZARRELLA (on camera): Bring your flute?
COLEMAN: Probably about two pounds right there.
ZARRELLA: OK. You mean, you're going to have to put up with her playing the flute now.
KONDRATYEV: Sure, of course.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Their selection to fly together, purely random, now permanently linked. The crew of Expedition 26.
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ZARRELLA: Cady was telling me this morning that she and her husband, Josh, were out about 6:00 and they were looking up and you know, they could see the space station going overhead and she's thinking about that trip coming up now in less than a year and a half. Something to pass on to you, T.J., last hour you dissed her flute playing and you haven't even heard her. She's not happy with you right now, T.J.
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HOLMES: Well, I'm glad she's watching. So, let me look at her and address it. Dear lady, I have no idea. I was only saying that maybe in close quarters. I didn't know if the flute was the best idea, but I'm sure it's lovely. John, I appreciate you passing it along.
And, again, Cady, I'm sure it's lovely, dear lady.
You could check out Cady's latest blog posted just this morning, exclusively for CNN. Cady dishes on her fellow astronauts who just yesterday blasted off for the International Space Station -- hopefully she's not dissing on me -- at cnn.com/amfix -- Kiran.
CHETRY: You got to watch it. You never know who's watching, you know? Oops!
Thanks, T.J.
Well, are we experiencing a little bit of calm before yet another major storm, Christmas week, no less? Our Reynolds Wolf we're checking in on Extreme Weather. He's got a look at our national forecast.
It's 45 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: There you go. "Cowboy Casanova". Carrie Underwood wrote this song. I don't know if she wrote it for Reynolds or T.J. I'm trying to decide.
HOLMES: Well, Reynolds is dancing. Look at this.
CHETRY: I know. Look, (INAUDIBLE). Please, take it. Please, take it. Please, take it. Please -- there you go! All right, busted. This is what he always does any time we play a little bit of music before we head into him.
You know, despite your -- wow!
HOLMES: See, we get this every weekend. That's why -- this is what he does.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely!
HOLMES: This is Reynolds unleashed.
CHETRY: This is how he is -- Please, don't break something or pull something. We need your forecast.
WOLF: It's amazing what coffee can do. Coffee makes me strong like bull. It does. That's right.
Guys, I'm working on no sleep, but we got a -- a great story to share with you, a great day along the eastern seaboard. You know, we've had rough weather there. Millions of Americans are going to enjoy some sunshine today, but enjoy it while you can because if you look out west, you see what is brewing.
Another storm is going to bring some storms to the parts of the mid-Mississippi Valley later on today, and a chance of snowfall from parts of the Ohio Valley and then back over the Corn Belt, scattered snow showers in places like Chicago. But then, when you get back to the Rockies, we see the very beginning, what will be a very potent storm system. In fact, snowfall today, but as we fast forward into Wednesday and Thursday, we're going to see this bringing all kinds of elements, different types of weather for a lot of different people.
Chance of severe storms mainly by late afternoon for parts of the Gulf Coast, clear up into the mid-Mississippi Valley. A chance of some extreme icing for parts of the Midwest and then some heavy snow back towards the plain states. That is going to be for Wednesday and into Thursday. So it could be very rough as we get closer to the -- the Christmas holiday.
Meanwhile, in terms of your temperatures today, enjoy them because we're going to be seeing better conditions, far better than what we're going to see on Thursday where the heavy snow begins to wrap right into and pull into parts of the Central Plains. And then ice really going to move into parts of Michigan, right along portions of 75, and even on 96, back into Wisconsin also. So Milwaukee, you could have a rough time as we get into Thursday.
Now, again, today's forecast, 57 your high in Atlanta, 33 in New York, 27 degrees in Boston. Back out, we go to Denver with 43 degrees, 52 -- or rather 53 degrees in San Francisco and 61 in Los Angeles. So, again, as I mentioned, East Coast, enjoy it while you can. Same to you for much of the midsection. But again, as we get closer to Wednesday and Thursday, rough weather is on the way.
Let's send it back to you guys.
CHETRY: Oh, I mean, I just feel bad for all the people that are going to be flying. I mean, you know, people are going to -- I mean, the worse is to be stranded in an airport, you know, on Christmas Eve.
WOLF: I know. There was just a very, very -- a quite window, a really quick window where the weather was going to be perfect for a good part of the country. But now, you only had the first storm. Here's the second one. So it's going to be tough trying to dodge both of them.
HOLMES: For the holidays. Lovely for some folks if you're settled in, but for the folks who hadn't made it yet, this is horrible.
CHETRY: Right. You're snowed in (ph) or live in Hawaii. Thanks, Reynolds.
HOLMES: Thanks, Reynolds.
Well, coming up, Dr. Sanjay Gupta answering your questions -- and we know you have them -- about this whole health care debate, what's in this new bill now, what will end up, maybe, in the final bill. But he is answering your questions. He's coming up.
It's 51 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
As the Senate health care bill moves closer to a full vote (ph) by Christmas Eve, a lot of people out there -- a lot of you wondering how it might change your life, your budgets, the quality of your care you receive (ph) if this thing happens to get passed.
CHETRY: Which it's looking more and more likely that that will happen. So we're paging our Dr. Gupta this morning, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent. He's answering your questions from Atlanta. Hey, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
CHETRY: All right. So let's get right to it. The first one comes from Tom in Mountain View, Arkansas, and he writes, "My wife and I operate a restaurant (small) and earn about 50--60K annually. Is there a ball park figure of our projected costs should this bill, as presented, pass Congress?"
GUPTA: It's a great question. We're getting questions from small business owners quite a bit.
Let me point out a couple of things. Right now, there's another procedural vote happening even as we're -- we're talking, and after the Senate vote happens, this has to still go through what's called reconciliation and then go to the president's desk. So, I point that out because some of the details obviously are still being worked out.
The key number for the small business owner, Tom, to remember is the number 25. If you have fewer than 25 employees, in the Senate bill there's nothing that mandates that you buy health care insurance for your employees. If -- also, if you make less than -- if you make $50,000 or less a year, you can qualify for federal subsidies to help your employees get health care insurance, about $1,000 to $2,000 per employee. So, specifically, that number, 25, is sort of key there, Kiran, for -- for Tom and other small business owners.
CHETRY: Got you.
HOLMES: All right, Dr. we've got another one here from Daniel. He sent us this e-mail. His question is, "If someone can't be denied for preexisting conditions, what is the motivation for a lower income individual to pay for health care insurance? Doesn't this make paying into an insurance plan unnecessary?" Essentially asking, well, why -- why would I pay? Shouldn't I just wait until I get sick, essentially?
GUPTA: That's exactly right. That's exactly what he's asking, and this has been a criticism of this particular bill. Could you, quote-unquote, "game the system?"
Well, there's a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, when we talk about mandates for health care insurance, that means people have to have health care insurance if they can afford it. That's what they're talking about here with regard to the mandate. And, again, that's been a controversial issue.
But what that means, more specifically, is if you don't buy health care insurance, there is a penalty involved. It's either $750 or 2 percent of your income, whichever of those numbers is greatest. Now, the second part of that is if you can't find health care insurance at all. It's just too expensive or it's more than 8 percent of your income, you can get subsidies. You can get what's called a hardship exception and subsidies to help pay for health care insurance.
But the -- but the interesting thing here is -- well, and Kiran, I talked about this a few days ago, is let's say you -- you buy health care insurance because you just got sick, you get better and then you cancel it. That -- that sort of gaming of the system is also going to be deterred, they say, by another penalty which prevents that sort of thing, buying it and then canceling it immediately. So, a couple of penalties built in there and an exemption as well for people who simply can't afford this.
HOLMES: All right, just a couple of the many questions I know a lot of folks have about it. We appreciate you breaking it down, simplifying as you always so. Dr. Gupta, thank you so much. We'll see you again soon, buddy.
GUPTA: All right. You got it.
CHETRY: Thanks, Sanjay.
HOLMES: We will be back in just 90 seconds with the top stories.
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