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American Morning
Toyota Company Chose Saving $100 Million Over Recall; Obama to Unveil Health Care Fix; Conservative Commentator Glenn Beck Warns the GOP of Economic Holocaust; Credit Card Changes; "It's Getting Worse Day by Day"
Aired February 22, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's the 22nd of February. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
First, damning evidence against Toyota this morning that it chose saving $100 million over the safety of its customers and then bragged about it. We'll show you the new document surfacing just two days before the company's president goes to Washington.
ROBERTS: It's do or die for health care reform. In just a few hours, President Obama will try to resuscitate his ailing plan for reform by proposing new legislation. We're live at the White House with new details on what this could mean for your health care.
CHETRY: Also a special CNN investigation -- "Broken Government," from out-of-control deficit spending to Main Street getting squeezed. An in-depth look at what's so very wrong in government these days and what we may be able to do to fix it.
We begin this morning though with some of the most damning information yet against Toyota. An international company document that just surfaced shows that Toyota patted itself on the back for saving millions instead of facing its sudden accelerator problem head on.
ROBERTS: That may have cost a family of four their lives no more than a month after that document was written. Allan Chernoff is here now this morning with these disturbing new developments. He's got the details.
Good morning, Allan.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, and this gets to the very core of the Toyota controversy, the issue of whether Toyota was looking at profits ahead of the safety of the passengers of its vehicles.
This is the document itself. This was provided to the House Oversight Committee which will be holding a hearing today. And let's have a look at the document because it is referring to this very issue of sudden unintended acceleration.
The document says "wins for Toyota within the safety group." And within the document it says, "negotiated equipment" recall on Camry/ES," that refers to the Toyota Camry, the Lexus ES, in reference to S.A. That's sudden acceleration, saved $100 million-plus with no defect found.
Now this is a reference to the actual recall that Toyota did go through of just floor mats. There was evidence that they were having problems with the acceleration. What happened was in '07, they recalled 55,000 floor mats but that clearly wasn't the only problem that Toyota was having. And indeed this document was put out by Toyota, an internal document last summer. And only a month later a family of four did die in an accident that appeared to be related to this very issue.
ROBERTS: So the way they saved the money then was just recalling the equipment as opposed to the vehicles?
CHERNOFF: Right. The quote unquote, "equipment" was just the floor mats. And it appeared that there was a much deeper problem. A problem that Toyota clearly seems to have been aware of.
We do have a statement from the ranking spokesperson for the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, and he's saying if anything about the safety of America's drivers influenced the decision-making process, the entire purpose of NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will be undermined. And we also have an early statement this morning from NHTSA saying that safety is everybody's responsibility. It's not just the federal government's job to catch safety defects. It's the responsibility of automakers to come forward.
CHETRY: Very interesting stuff, Allan, and certainly a damning document that you showed us.
CHERNOFF: Toyota is going to have a very, very difficult week. There is other information --
ROBERTS: Akio Toyoda is appearing on Capitol Hill this week, too.
CHERNOFF: That's right, and he is going to be facing a grilling. Among the witnesses is a safety expert who has put together a study, a very, very detailed study. And this is from Safety Research and Strategies. This study says that since 1999, it appears that Toyota was aware of complaints and more than 2,000 -- more than 2,200 complaints regarding this issue of unintended acceleration.
ROBERTS: Going to be a busy week for you, too, covering all of this. Allan Chernoff for us this morning. Allan, thanks so much.
It could be the beginning of what could be a defining week for President Obama on health care. In just a few hours time, for the first time, the president will unveil his own health care reform plan. It comes just days before this week's health care summit with congressional leaders of both parties.
Our Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House for us this morning. And what do we know this morning about the president's approach, Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John as you mentioned, this really is the very first time that we're going to get President Obama's own health care plan. We've talked a lot about it, but this is going to be his signature health care plan that he is pushing forward.
And the White House made a promise, the president made a promise that they're going to put it up here on the White House Web site. We're keeping a close eye on what the details are coming out of the White House Web site. About 10:00 is when we expect as well as all of our viewers to get some of the details behind this plan. But already the White House is giving some initial indications of what we can expect.
First and foremost, we're talking about the president wants and will require most Americans to get health care. Secondly, he's going to be providing federal subsidies for low and middle income folks to help pay for private insurance -- health insurance. Third, another thing that he's going to do -- he's talked a lot about this -- is really pushing for the idea of making sure that insurance companies are not allowed to deny coverage for those who have pre-existing conditions. Very important.
And finally, something, John, that we are getting a whiff of and we're going to get more details later in the morning is that he is going to endorse an idea of really pushing for and regulating some of those insurance companies so that they don't charge excessive rates, excessive hikes on your premiums, insurance premiums. That that is just wrong and that that is not going to be allowed. That that's something that the federal government is also going to be involved with.
As we know, all of this is setting the table for a kind of "show me what you got session." That is happening on Thursday when Republicans, Democrats, and this president all sit down together and debate how they move forward on health care reform. But again, John, we're inside the White House, we're here. We're taking a look at the Web site to get those details. They will emerge in the hours to come, John.
ROBERTS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House. Of course that story not too long ago of the health care -- health insurance company in California raised rates by 39 percent. So very timely that provision.
Suzanne, thanks. We'll talk to you soon.
CHETRY: Other stories new this morning at five minutes past the hour. The space shuttle Endeavour and its six-astronaut crew are now back home. Endeavour landed at Cape Canaveral around 10:20 last night. During their two-week mission, the crew delivered and installed the new tranquility module to the International Space Station and also opened a seven window outlook, providing incredible views of earth. Only four shuttle missions are left before NASA retires the shuttle fleet.
ROBERTS: And a North American showdown on ice, Team USA beat Team Canada 5 to 3 last time, disappointing a fanatical hometown crowd at the Vancouver Olympics. It was not an elimination game though. Both teams advanced in the Olympic tournament. The Americans earning a buy into the quarterfinals. Canada must now win a qualifying game on Tuesday to earn a spot in the final eight.
CHETRY: It wasn't even a qualifying game, but tickets were going for five grand in some cases. Scalpers, I mean, people wanted to see that match-up.
ROBERTS: It's a good game.
CHETRY: Well, also, blame it on global warming. A study by an international team of scientists says the earth's warming means that we will likely experience fewer hurricanes, but they'll be more powerful. Researchers say that the number of storms could drop by as much as a third, and the overall strength as measured in wind speed could increase by as much as 11 percent.
ROBERTS: Well, Rob Marciano is tracking the extreme weather across the country today. And we've got some of it, particularly right there at home in Atlanta, Rob, where it's been pouring all night long.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been. Quite a bit of rain across parts of the south, turning out to be a very active weather week after a bit of respite last week. And thunderstorms across the south now and also pretty heavy snow across parts of the north.
Let's go to Chicago and to Detroit. You're seeing some snow this morning. Most of the heavy snow will be north of I-80, and we could see anywhere from four to eight inches of snowfall in that particular part of the world. And then rain spreading across parts of the south down into the deep south.
Atlanta seeing some heavy thunderstorms. That will come to an end. But a number of major airports will be under the gun today for seeing potentially some delays. We'll run that down, plus the next storm rolling into the southwest, another -- yet another very El Nino- like situation for folks in Southern California.
John, Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right, Rob. Thanks so much. We'll check in with you a little bit later.
Meantime, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, Glenn Beck rallies the conservatives but he also takes a surprising swipe at one target in particular. Why he's taking aim at the Republicans next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Ten minutes past the hour right now. A check of the other stories new this morning.
At least 33 civilians are dead following a NATO air strike yesterday in southern Afghanistan. NATO forces believe that their planes were firing on a caravan of insurgents, but they actually hit three vehicles that had women and children inside. General Stanley McChrystal has personally apologized to Afghanistan's president.
ROBERTS: A toxic fire from a train derailment near Bakersfield, California, is finally out this morning, and evacuated residents now have the all clear to go back home. Firefighters have been battling the fire since Saturday when two cars carrying alcohol and plastic pellets jumped the tracks and burst into flames.
CHETRY: President Obama hosting the nation's governors last night. The black tie Governors Ball marked the end of the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. The president thanked the state leaders for making tough decisions in a difficult economy and for working across the aisle to get things done.
ROBERTS: Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has a warning for the GOP. He says an economic holocaust is coming. Beck was the keynote speaker closing out the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this weekend.
Our Jim Acosta was there and he joins us now from our Washington bureau to break it all down. Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I wasn't exactly there, John, but I did watch it on C-SPAN. Speaking of Glenn Beck, I feel like I should have one of the chalkboards that he uses behind me for the segment. But you know, the keynote speaker at CPAC did not spend much of his time going after President Obama. Glenn Beck did refer to progressives as a cancer on the constitution, but he did have another target -- the Republican Party.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: It is still morning in America.
(APPLAUSE)
It just happens to be kind of a head pounding, hung over, vomiting for four hours kind of morning in America.
ACOSTA (voice-over): It's no mystery why the Conservative Political Action Conference elected Glenn Beck as its keynote speaker.
BECK: Is this cold -- yes. I'm turning into a freaking televangelist... ACOSTA: With his off-the-wall outbursts on all things Obama, Beck is a conservative household name. But at the conference, the conservative talk show host surprised the room with a rant against Republicans.
BECK: All they're talking about is we need a big tent. We need a big tent. Can we get a bigger tent? How can we get a big tent? What is this, a circus?
ACOSTA: At times sounding like a self-help guru, a Dr. Phil to the GOP, Beck ordered the Republican Party to take the first step toward redemption.
BECK: Hello, my name is the Republican Party, and I got a problem. I'm addicted to spending and big government.
ACOSTA: It was a battle cry for conservative purity right out of the tea party movement. Even presidential hopefuls were getting in on the act as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty reflected on the saga surrounding a certain American golfer.
GOV. TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: I think we should take a page out of her playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government in this country.
ACOSTA: But before you think this is a sign of the Republican Party to come --
REP. RON PAUL (R), FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: It sounds to me like the revolution is alive and well.
(APPLAUSE)
ACOSTA: When Texas Congressman Ron Paul was named the winner in the conference straw poll in the 2012 presidential race...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now...
ACOSTA: The winner of this year's CPAC straw poll is Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
There were boos. Some Republicans worry their party is sending the wrong message for the upcoming midterm elections.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: They have to do everything they can in order to win in November. So they're going to say no to everything. They're going to say it's not good what Obama is doing. That's natural.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they are the party of no.
SCHWARZENEGGER: They're the party of no.
ACOSTA: As for Glenn Beck's call for Republicans to admit they have a problem with conservatives... SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Everybody in this country has got a right to their opinion. I think the American people are very open to our proposals. And if the election were held tomorrow, would be very inclined to vote for us in large numbers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: There was one surprising outcome at the CPAC conference. Two percent of those surveyed at the event approved of President Obama's performance. One Republican pollster said he'd like to know who they are -- John.
ROBERTS: Interesting the way that the Ron Paul vote was booed. I mean, they voted for him, right?
ACOSTA: Yes. They voted for him. A lot of people feel those Ron Paul supporters, they're very organized. And so they may have pulled out all the stops to make sure that Ron Paul wins that.
We should note that Mitt Romney came in second in that straw poll, and he got a boisterous round of applause when that was announced. No boos for Mitt Romney when he came in second there, John.
ROBERTS: Yes. He's won the last few in a row, so no surprise there.
All right, Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: You bet.
CHETRY: Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, there are some new rules that you should be paying attention to. They affect your credit card and they start today.
Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" and she'll bring you everything you need to know about it.
Fifteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Eighteen-and-a-half minutes after the hour now, and that means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
Disturbing new evidence this morning that China may be to blame for a cyber attack on Google. "The Financial Times" reports today that a spyware program used in last year's attack has been traced to a Chinese security consultant, and a U.S. government official reportedly believes the Chinese government had special access to that program.
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour.
Christine Romans is here. She's "Minding Your Business" for us this morning. A lot of changes coming up. It starts today with your credit card, and I wanted to ask you about this because I got a bunch of credit card advertisements in the mail, it seems like, over this past week, saying zero interest and introductory rates --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I tell, you they're going -- they're trying to find -- they're trying to find people who can (ph) open cards...
CHETRY: Threw it all in the trash.
ROMANS: It must mean -- it must mean you have a good payment history because they are trying to find people -- they're mining the data to try to find people who they think are going to be good customers in the future.
And they're going to be looking for people who have a long history of paying their bills or whose credit card -- whose credit score has fallen in the recession but used to have a good credit score. You will be finding that you're going to get credit card offers.
But, look, these are the new credit card rules. This is what everyone has been waiting for. You probably noticed these changes already in your credit card bill. This was to shut out the credit card practices that critics said were basically pushing Americans into debt.
No rate hikes anymore on existing balances. It will end the double billing cycle, and you're going to get more time to pay. This is why, because you're going to get your credit card statement a little bit earlier, and you're going to be able to really take a look at what's in there. And also, these overdraft -- the overdraft fees are going to be much harder for the banks to put on you.
What to watch out for, though -- but these are very important protections, and on balance, consumer advocates say this is good for you. All of this is good for you, but you need to watch out and you need to really protect yourself against certain things.
You're going to see higher fees, especially if you're one of those people who've always paid your bill on time, you've -- you rack up a lot of money on your credit card but you pay it off. You're going to see higher fees. You're going to see fewer rewards. We've already been seeing this.
And it's going to be harder to get a card. If you missed a couple of payments, if you have a poor credit history, you're going to have a harder time getting a card. If you're under 21 -- I'm going to have more about this in the 7:00 hour -- if you're under 21, it's going to be very hard to get a credit card.
Now, ahead of the law, of course, some of the card companies have already made changes according to creditcard -- credit.com. Twenty- seven percent have increased their interest rates already, 19 percent have increased their fees, and 15 percent increased their minimum payment that you have to pay.
So you're already seeing these changes. It doesn't mean you can sit back and say, OK, now Congress has taken care of everything. I'm going to be protected. These banks are not going to give up $26 billion in fee revenue very easily. We're going to find some creative new ways for them to get money out of your pocket.
Just please make sure you are paying your credit card on time. If you miss two payments, all bets are off. They're going to be able to raise your interest rates and -- and charge you a lot of fees.
ROBERTS: Do you have a "Numeral" for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do, and this has to do with how long it would take to pay off $10,000 in credit card debt, $361.52. Your credit card statements very clearly are going to have to tell you how long it will take to pay off the balance that you have.
ROBERTS: So what's the $361.52?
ROMANS: If you carry the -- American average of $10,000 in credit card debt, you have to pay $361 every month to pay it off in three years.
ROBERTS: Wow. (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: And the goal here is to be debt free in three years. On your new credit card statement, it's going to tell you how to be debt free in three years. Look at that number. Figure out a way to make that happen.
CHETRY: But that's if you don't make another single charge, right? It's the $10,000 and that's it.
ROMANS: That's if you stop your charging immediately. That's right.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine, thanks. Bless you, by the way.
CHETRY: Sorry about that. Go away for a couple of days, catch a cold. Someone asked are we just passing it back and forth continuously for...
ROBERTS: Just like a vicious -- a vicious circle. You started it. You, young lady.
ROMANS: It did start with me.
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, the right and the left and everyone in between all agree on one thing -- that the government, seems like it's broken. It's all part of a week-long series, coming up right after break, "The Middle Class Squeeze."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOIRA BINDNER, ALEXANDRIA, VA: It just feels like the rug has been totally pulled out, and it's really challenging on a day to day basis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: Our politics in Congress has become tribal in some ways. I mean, we have the tribe of the Democrats and tribe of the Republicans, and I think part of it's because of the caucus system.
I mean, you look at yourselves as part of those tribes rather than as people who have come here, yes, with that informing (ph) your general outlook, but that's not all there is to life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Tribes on both sides, and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh voted himself off the island. After almost 12 years in the Senate, Senator Bayh said he is so fed up with Washington that he just has no interest in running again.
Bayh among the many Americans who think that their government is broken, and all this week, CNN is focusing on how we got here and how to fix it.
Our Carol Costello live in Washington for us this morning. And, Carol, you talked to a lot of middle-class Americans, what's the prevailing sentiment about how they feel about government?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're really angry. Middle-class Americans are seething, John. I don't really need to tell you that.
The president says he gets it. Republicans say they get it. Well, maybe they do, but there are plenty of Americans who don't believe that. They believe government didn't just break. As far as the middle-class Americans are concerned, government has long been broken and hasn't been honest with them for decades.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): The American Dream, 1950s style. Middle- class America seemed to have it all then.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we'll have the living room right here.
COSTELLO: A nice home, a car, economic security.
MO. BINDNER: You and your chocolate brownies.
COSTELLO: Sixty years later, the Bindners and much of the middle class think thanks to Uncle Sam all of that is disappearing.
COSTELLO (on camera): Do you think government is broken?
MO. BINDNER: No, but I think it's bruised.
MICHAEL BINDNER, ALEXANDRIA, VA: Yes. That's a good term.
MO. BINDNER: I think it's bruised.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And not exactly working for Moira and Michael Bindner. Like many Americans, they're one financial crisis away from falling out of the middle class. Both had to find new jobs which shrunk their income by $30,000 a year.
MO. BINDNER: You don't go to the dentist. You don't get the car repaired until it's desperate, you know, and we've got 165,000 miles on the Ford Focus and every repair is $600. The retirement plan went out the window.
COSTELLO (on camera): President Obama says he gets it now. He's talking about job creation, he's talking about giving tax credits to small businesses. Do any of these things make you feel hopeful?
MO. BINDNER: I'm not sure because over the last year, I've got -- the only thing that I think that's come out of Washington is more and more gridlock and more and more game playing.
COSTELLO (voice-over): The Bindners say Washington's lost its moral compass and hasn't really cared about the middle-class pocketbook for decades.
Commerce Department statistics show from 1990 to 2008 middle- class incomes rose just 20 percent, and most of that happened in the first decade. Income stagnated after 2000, yet home prices shot up 56 percent, college costs 60 percent, and health care costs shot up 155 percent.
So how did it happen when president after president after president after president went to great lengths to show middle-class Americans they got it?
JACOB HACKER, AUTHOR, "THE GREAT RISK SHIFT": Money matters a lot more in American politics than it used to.
COSTELLO: Jacob Hacker is a political scientist who wrote "The Great Risk Shift".
HACKER: There's a lot of pressure for politicians to appease those who have the most money in the system.
COSTELLO: As in big political donors and lobbyists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats aren't listening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republicans are ramping up their attack machines. COSTELLO: Hacker also says partisanship has hurt the middle class.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats chose to go it alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) role in this is all about slow down, stop, and no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pelosi and Reid, why don't you just...
ISABEL SAWHILL, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: None of them are willing to do the unpopular things, which means they're not willing to raise taxes, and they're not willing to cut spending. So we're at an impasse.
COSTELLO: And until Washington comes together, the Bindners say they keep hanging in there, hoping that financial catastrophe doesn't happen.
MO. BINDNER: It just feels like the rug has been totally pulled out, and it's really challenging on a day to day basis to accomplish everything with the paychecks coming in the door.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Hacker, our political scientist, says the traditional protections of the middle class have lost enormous clout. Unions are not as powerful as they once were. Many companies don't provide guaranteed pensions anymore. 401(k)s are in, but employer contributions are getting smaller.
All of this adds up to hard times for middle-class Americans, John.
ROBERTS: Well, it really drives it home, Carol, when you take a look at that graphic you showed us where you said income has pretty much been stagnant in the last decade but those other costs have shot up to the degree that they have. I mean, how can you not get underwater with a case like that?
COSTELLO: It's -- it's virtually impossible not to get underwater. You know, voters think it's time to throw the bums out because of all this.
But Hacker, our political scientist, cautions that may not be the answer, either. It will only mean a new crop of politicians working in the same broken system. Lobbyists will still be powerful, the filibuster will still be in place, and partisanship -- well, John and Kiran, what do you think will happen to partisanship?
ROBERTS: Oh, I think they'll do away with it tomorrow. They'll realize there are other ways...
CHETRY: If they can only get 60 votes to pass it, to end bipartisanship. It's tough.
ROBERTS: There you go.
CHETRY: Carol, thank you.
COSTELLO: Sure.
ROBERTS: Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, President Obama has proposed giving $30 million to community banks to help small businesses. But is it already too late for many small business owners?
CHETRY: Also tonight at 8:00 Eastern, Campbell Brown is going to be breaking down the 10 greatest hits of congressional incompetence.
ROBERTS: And on "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Are the lobbyists running Washington? An investigation reveals how Beltway lobby shops are really just waiting rooms for incoming politicians.
CHETRY: Thirty-one minutes past the hour right now. It means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Damaging new evidence that Toyota chose savings over safety. An internal company document bragged about saving $100 million in 2007 by avoiding a full recall over its potentially deadly, out-of-control action acceleration problems. A Toyota executive in that memo calling that a, quote, "win."
ROBERTS: Using bulldozers and other heavy equipment, rescuers are frantically digging this morning to find any survivors of huge landslides and flooding in the Portuguese island of Madeira. At least four people are still missing under tons of mud, boulders, and snapped trees. Officials say 42 people have been killed. Flooding started after a month's worth of rain fell in just eight hours.
Also later this morning, President Obama, for the first time, will lay out his plan for health care reform. And among other things, his proposal is expected to give government the power to ban excessive rate hikes by health insurance companies. Just last week, Anthem Blue Cross of California temporarily postponed premium hikes of up to 39 percent because the administration demanded the company justify that big hike.
ROBERTS: Shocking new Senate report concludes that the diabetes drug Avandia is linked to tens of thousands of heart attack.
CHETRY: It also says that its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, knew about the risks for years and kept them from the public. And that report is also highly critical of the agency that oversees the drug companies, the Food and Drug Administration.
ROBERTS: Joining us this morning from Cleveland with more on all of this is Dr. Steven Nissen. He co-wrote a study at the Cleveland Clinic nearly three years ago, tying Avandia to an increase risk of heart attack and death.
Dr. Nissen, thanks for being with us this morning.
A few months after you released that report, the FDA warned that Avandia was associated with some 83,000 heart attacks since it came to market. That would be about 500 heart attacks every month, 300 cases of heart failure every month. And a lot of people at home may be thinking to themselves this morning and asking the question: why is it still on the market?
DR. STEVEN NISSEN, CLEVELAND CLINIC: Well, that's a very good question. We have a problem within the agency, within the FDA. And the problem is that the people responsible for approving drugs in the first place are the same people that have to decide to take a drug off the market. And they just aren't willing to do that because what it is, it's an admission that they made a mistake in the first place by approving the drug.
And so, the agency reacts very defensively when challenged on drug safety rather than acting in the public interest. And this has happened before. And we need to change the system.
CHETRY: It's interesting because FDA officials did order a study and they wanted to do a comparison of how many heart attacks, strokes, and heart-related deaths occurred in people taking either Avandia or a similar drug that's out there called Actos or a placebo. And it suggested that this drug, Actos, which also works a similar way that Avandia does, lowers the blood sugar as well as Avandia but without as much damage to the heart.
If you're a patient out there today taking Avandia, should you be talking to your doctor about switching?
NISSEN: You definitely should be talking to your doctor about switching. But I think it's also important to note that released with the Senate report were internal FDA documents where its own safety reviewers said that that trial comparing the two drugs was unethical and exploitive. Those are very strong words.
CHETRY: And the reason they said -- that just to provide a little bit of context -- is because they said that the bottom line is the patients were not being told that they did have that increased risk of heart attack or heart troubles without any type of obvious benefit compared to the other drug or the placebo. Correct?
NISSEN: Yes, but you can't do a study to find out if a drug is harmful. That isn't -- that isn't appropriate or ethical. There has to be what's known as equipoise, a condition in which no one knows which of the two drugs is better in order for it to be an ethical study. The FDA reviewers said this is not an ethical study, and yet it's currently going on.
ROBERTS: GlaxoSmithKline gave us a statement, Nancy Pekarek, one of their spokespeople said, quote, "We disagree with the conclusions in the report. The FDA had reviewed the data and concluded that the dug should be on the market."
As you said, the Senate report also criticized the FDA, saying that it overlooked safety concerns, had become, quote, "too cozy with drug-makers." You said that the same people who approved these drugs shouldn't be responsible for deciding whether or not they take them off the market. But, you know, the FDA doesn't have a responsibility here to look after the safety of Americans, and that it shirked that responsibility in this particular case?
NISSEN: Absolutely. But what I think we've suggested is that there are two divisions in the FDA -- one that approves new drugs, but there's a second division that does safety analyses. We'd like to see the agency beef up that safety side and give them independent authority so that someone that is not conflicted can make the decision about when to remove the drug.
You know, the other thing that appeared in the Senate report that's terribly disturbing is that when we published our manuscript in "The New England Journal of Medicine" in May of 2007, the company was able to steal a copy of the manuscript while it was still in review. They did their own analysis of the findings, concluded that it was correct, that the drug Avandia was, in fact, a risky drug, and then planned a public relations campaign to discredit the manuscript.
That's just not acceptable. The pharmaceutical industry and companies like GlaxoSmithKline have a moral and ethical responsible to the American people not to do that.
CHETRY: One of the other issues, as you said, and it's something that Charles Grassley, the senator who's overseeing this, said is that bottom line, there needs to be either perhaps a difference, a bit better separation or, in some cases, more power given, because there were the safety and efficacy officers in the FDA that did sound the alarm about this in that study. And they were later, I guess, overruled, correct?
NISSEN: That is absolutely correct. And that they do -- there's a 50-page document there where they do a very elegant analysis of the two drugs, Actos and Avandia. And they make the recommendation that Avandia should be withdrawn from the market. But that had never surfaced previously. Until it was obtained by "The New York Times" we didn't know that an internal FDA document had actually recommended removal of the drugs from the market.
ROBERTS: Wow. Now what about -- what about doctors themselves? You know, if you say that doctors should be prescribing something else, is there a way for doctors to get around what's going on at the FDA, or are some of those doctors actually working in their own interests by promoting this drug?
NISSEN: Well, this is an industry that -- as we all know -- has a lot of resources. Many physicians give talks on behalf of industry. You know, the effect on continuing education of industry is enormous. And so, it's very difficult.
And the other problem is, individual physicians can't understand the medical literature. They can't read every article. That's why we have regulators. We have regulators so that an unsafe medicine can be removed from the market, so that physicians don't have to know everything all of the time.
ROBERTS: All right. Dr. Steven Nissen, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
NISSEN: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Up next on the Most News in the Morning: a break this morning in a string of church arsons in Texas. Our Ed Lavandera joins us with a story coming up.
Thirty-eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty- one minutes past the hour right now.
This week, CNN is focusing on a growing problem that's becoming more and more obvious to many Americans: that the government appears to be broken.
ROBERTS: President Obama is hoping to get the wheels of government moving again with a bipartisan summit on health care later this week. But already, Republicans and Democrat are skeptical.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: He's been open to ideas from other sides from the other side, and that has shown in the legislative agenda that he's pursued and what's -- and the substance of that agenda. But I think that the American people are going to hold accountable those who simply sit on the sidelines and root for failure.
GOV. JIM DOUGLAS (R), VERMONT: We have to work together, but remember what we -- what real problem is, and that's the cost of health care that keeps rising at rates that are multiples of inflation year after year after year. And I think there's been --
PATRICK: Whether we have a universal program or not.
DOUGLAS: Exactly.
PATRICK: That's happening everywhere.
DOUGLAS: That's the point, because it doesn't matter whether it's a publicly funded program or private health insurance companies. If we don't get costs under control, we're going to be broke either way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Thursday's event also fulfills President Obama's campaign promise of transparency. It is going to be broadcast live on C-SPAN.
CHETRY: There you go.
Well, tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING: President Obama has promised giving $30 billion to community banks to help small businesses. But is it already too late for some small business owners?
ROBERTS: Tonight at 8:00 Eastern, Campbell Brown breaks down the 10 greatest hits of congressional incompetence.
CHETRY: And on "AC 360": Are lobbyists running Washington? An investigation reveals how Beltway lobby shops are really just waiting rooms in many cases for incoming politicians.
ROBERTS: Well, the arrest of two men in connection with a string of church fires has people in east Texas breathing a collective sigh of relief this morning. Right now, the suspects are each charged with one count of arson. But authorities believe they are linked to a total of 10 fires that were deliberately set since the first of the year.
Our Ed Lavandera is in Dallas this morning following the story for us.
Good morning, Ed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, for almost two months, church fires have horrified residents and clergymen across east Texas. But now, authorities say they've arrested the two men responsible.
(voice-over): Ten churches torched across east Texas since January 1st, and these two men are accused of burning them down: 19- year-old Jason Bourque and 21-year-old Daniel McAllister. They've been charged with one count of arson so far.
But authorities say more will follow.
STEVE MCCRAW, TEXAS DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY: We're confident that these are the individuals responsible for it. And the -- but the investigation needs to continue.
LAVANDERA (on camera): This is a map of northeast Texas. And I wanted to give you a sense of where these church fires have happened. We're here in the city of Tyler where there have been two. Three more have happened outside the city limits, another three down here in Henderson County. There have been here in Van Zandt County.
The first thing we're going to do is go visit one of the pastors of these churches.
This is the entrance to Clear Springs Missionary Baptist Church and this is Pastor Brandon Owens. You're going to show us around.
PASTOR BRANDON OWENS, CLEAR SPRINGS MISSIONARY BAPTIST: Yes, sir.
If you look down here, look like that could have been one of the Bibles.
LAVANDERA: To see a Bible like this or part of a Bible...
OWENS: Never would have imagined, never.
LAVANDERA: When you stand here and you look out at what was your church, what do you see?
OWENS: I just still see everything intact the way it should have been (INAUDIBLE). I still see my podium sitting right here in front of me. I still see my Bible open and me preaching. That's exactly what I see right here every time I stand here.
LAVANDERA: There have been Baptists. There have been Methodists, Church of Christ, Catholic...
OWENS: Everything.
LAVANDERA: ... black, white...
OWENS: No denomination. Black, white, everything.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): For almost two months, the Tyler, Texas, area has been on edge. We took a late-night tour last week with Commissioner Joann Hampton to see how people were guarding churches.
JOANN HAMPTON, COMMISSIONER, SMITH COUNTY, TEXAS: Who would go around burning church? And so, that's where the confusion would come in. What type of person would do something like that?
LAVANDERA: Investigators aren't saying what drove McAllister and Bourque to allegedly burn down churches. Bourque is a college student. His Facebook page shows he's a fan of a bonfire site. Ironically, authorities say both men attended the same Baptist church. Their church was not burned.
OWENS: We actually are not going to let this hurt us. We're going to actually rebuild.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Investigators say they have DNA evidence linking one of the suspects to one of the fires. Authorities won't say how the church fires were started, but a federal law enforcement source tells me many of the fires were ignited in the same way -- John and Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Ed Lavandera for us this morning. Ed, thanks so much. Forty-five minutes after the hour now. Rob Marciano tracking this morning's travel forecast. He'll be in right after the break, and you're going to want to hear what he has to say. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Time to say good morning to New York City. It's 29 degrees right now. A little bit later going up to a high of 42 degrees, but there is some rain in the forecast for later today, so bring the umbrella.
Forty-eight minutes past the hour, and welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Time now for your "A.M. House Call," stories about your health. New research shows that taking regular naps during the day can actually boost your brainpower. In a recent study, scientists at the University Of California Berkeley found a group of adults were able to remember more after a nap than those who were kept awake all day. They say that, in some ways, your body actually and your brain need time to reboot.
Anti-retro viral drugs could dramatically slow the spread of HIV- AIDS, according to a leading expert on the disease. The drugs are currently being used to help those already infected live longer. More research still needs to be done, but a prominent epidemiologist who's working to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa says that we could effectively stop transmission within five years.
And more than 30 years after the first test-tube baby was born, researchers say there were only a few medical differences between those kids and children conceived the natural way. The findings were announced Sunday by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Some test-tube babies do run the risk of birth defects like lower birth weights. Researchers say test-tube babies now account for about 4 percent of all live births, so back to the napping study, can you nap during the day?
ROBERTS: On occasion, I kind of just go -- I mean I don't have any planned naps.
CHETRY: It's the only thing that keeps me going. I try to lay down for an hour.
ROBERTS: But the test-tube baby study is interesting, too, because I think there are about three million of them in this country. Not many over the age of 30, so they still don't know what the extra long-term effect might be, but so far, things look pretty good.
CHETRY: Yes. It is. Very promising.
ROBERTS: Okay. So, things look good on the reproductive front, but how do they look on the weather front? Not so good. Rob Marciano is tracking the weather for us. He is in Atlanta this morning. You have a rainy night there, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We did. And across the southeast, it was rainy and stormy, that's for sure and still storming out across parts of the southeast. Not a bad day to take a nap if you have the time and the luxury of that. One storm here and another one, very El Nino-like storm that rolled through Southern California. That is now rolling through parts of the southwest. If you are traveling today, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte, those are your two big deals as far as where I think we'll see, in some cases, over 60-minute delays and to a lesser extend the New York Metro, but tomorrow is going to be your bad day.
All right, a sliver of snow across parts of the Western Great Lakes. Most of the accumulating snow I think is going to be north of I-80, but where it is accumulating, it will be fairly heavy, and therefore, difficult to move and shovel. Four to eight inches expected across these highlighted counties where there are winter storm warnings out including the City of Detroit. Here's your thunderstorms that came through Atlanta last night. We'll see some clearing today, but no severe weather warnings with these particular storms, but they were pretty heavy and dumping quite a bit of rain and thunder and lightning.
All right. Vegas through Phoenix, seeing some showers and some higher elevation snows with this El Nino-like system, 52 degrees. It's chilly in Las Vegas. It's going to be 44 in New York. When this storm gets to you, guys, tonight and tomorrow, as I think you mentioned, it's going to be mostly in the form of rain, but just drive a little farther north, up in through upstate New York and Northern New England, it will be all snow. John and Kiran, back over to you.
ROBERTS: As long as it falls in Vermont and New Hampshire where they've got mountains that's good. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: Exactly. See you, guys.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob. Still head, this morning's top stories, minutes away including what could be now a damning piece of evidence against Toyota. Did the carmaker choose millions over saving lives?
ROBERTS: And 10 minutes after, Glenn Beck telling Republicans it's not enough just to not suck as much as the other side. Is that a warning to the GOP and whether the crowd really wanted to hear it?
CHETRY: And at 18 minutes after, they can still punch you in the gut. They just have to tell you it's coming. Credit card companies playing by new rules this morning what to look for in your next bill. Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Five minutes now to the top of the hour and that means it's time for the Moost News in the Morning and the only reason this next guy put his hands up was to get a signal on his cell phone.
CHETRY: Jeanne Moos has the 411 on what happens when you call 911 on the cops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So there you are waving your arms around, being wrestled to the ground by a highway patrol officer. Who you going to call? UNKNOWN MALE: This is crazy. This is insane.
MOOS: Kevin Allen called the police on the police.
UNKNOWN MALE: I'm being dragged out of my car. This is ridiculous. I'm being assaulted. He's yelling at me and grabbing me, and he has maced me once, okay? This is not cool.
MOOS: After being stopped for speeding on a 55 mile-per-hour interstate, Allen pulled his cell phone on a Florida highway patrolman and dialed 911.
UNKNOWN MALE: Get Channel 2, Channel 5, Fox 35, all of them down here.
MOOS (on-camera): Police say that Allen passed the marked police car, that he was doing 72 miles an hour, but that when they pulled him over, he refused to hand over his license and registration.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: He told the troopers afterwards, it was a matter of principle. That he felt he did nothing wrong, and therefore, he decided to break the law and batter a law enforcement officer.
MOOS (voice-over): Allen thought the officer was battering him.
UNKNOWN MALE: I'm going to hold the phone as long as I can. Dude, I'm not even fighting you. I'm not even fighting you.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Okay sir, you need to listen to what the trooper's saying.
MOOS: Hey, now we're all listening. Thanks to Allen's cell phone...
UNKNOWN MALE: Help! This guy's beating me!
MOOS: Allen was charged with resisting arrest and battery on an officer. He was released on $2,700 bail.
MOOS (on-camera): Now, there is something odder than calling the police on the police and that's when police call police on themselves.
MOOS (voice-over): Current TV made an animated cartoon out of this classic 911 call from a few years back. A Dearborn, Michigan policeman called for help saying he and his wife had overdosed.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Overdose of what?
UNKNOWN MALE: Marijuana.
MOOS: Remember, this is a real 911 call.
UNKNOWN MALE: Please come. I think we're dying.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Okay, we're on our way. Okay, how much did you guys have? UNKNOWN MALE: I -- I don't know. We made brownies, and I think we're dead. I really do.
MOOS: He didn't die, but his career as a police officer did when he resigned. We may be in the age of the cell phone, but that won't necessarily keep you out of a cell.
UNKNOWN MALE: Get off of me!
MOOS: The question remains...
When you get busted.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That one makes me laugh every time.
ROBERTS: You got to love the cop who OD'd on the brownies. I think we're dead. Quite the line on the telephone (ph) for you if I'm dead, but my career's probably dead, but I'm not thinking about that because I'm so high.
CHETRY: I know.
She said, "Do you know how much you ate?" "well, we made some brownies." Better luck next time.
ROBERTS: All right. Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
