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American Morning
Dick Cheney Hospitalized With Chest Pains; Toyota Execs to Testify Before Congress; Criminal Trial of Terror Suspect Touted as Successful by Justice Department; A Closer Look at the Senate Jobs Bill; Broken Government: Can Community Banks Save Small Businesses
Aired February 23, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us today. It is Tuesday. It is February 23rd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us.
CHETRY: We have the top stories now. Former vice president Dick Cheney in the hospital this morning after experiencing chest pains. Cheney, 69, with a long history of heart trouble, including four heart attacks. Our Dr. Sanjay gupta Is digging deeper on his condition and also what this latest episode could mean for his health.
ROBERTS: In just a few hours, Toyota's top U.S. executive will testify on Capitol Hill. The head of U.S. sales for the auto giant set to take the hot seat, and tomorrow, Congress gets to grill the global chief of Toyota, Mr. Toyoda himself, with the future of his company hanging in the balance. We're live in Tokyo with the very latest.
CHETRY: And are millions of small American businesses about to go bankrupt? The president plans to spend billions on the community banks to help save them. Many believe that won't fix what's really broken. Carol Costello is canvassing the country to bring us her next installment of "Broken Government" in less than 30 minutes.
ROBERTS: Happening now, doctors are keeping a close eye on former Vice President Dick Cheney after being hospitalized with chest pains yesterday. Cheney is said to be resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital.
The former vice president has quite a heart history, suffering four heart attacks, the first when he was just 37. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta. And Sanjay, do we have any idea of what the cause of the chest pains this time around might have been?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, far and away the top of the list is going to be still his heart, certainly doctors investigating that overnight. The real question, John, in situations like this, was there an actual heart attack, meaning that part of the heart muscle went for so long without blood supply that it actually died, or is this angina.
People have heard this term. It basically means there was inadequate blood flow, but it didn't actually cause a heart attack. Figuring out what happened specifically is crucial.
But to your point, John, any time someone comes in with chest pain, you want to think about the heart. In his case, it's of heightened concern given the history you were talking about.
But you also have to make sure you're looking at the lungs, if there is some sort of clot in the lungs, and make sure that you look at the esophagus, sometimes that can cause chest pain confused with heart pain. This is the standard workup.
ROBERTS: In terms of that history too, Sanjay, we knew several years ago when he was vice president, he got a pacemaker implanted and bypass surgeries. Give us more of an idea of what he's gone through in terms of his heart health. And if he comes into the emergency room, he's brought in, what's the process? What happens?
GUPTA: As you mentioned, his first heart attack at a very young age, 37 years old. He obviously has significant what's called coronary artery disease, blockages in lots of blood vessels in his heart, and he had the quadruple bypass operation.
But he has had other important things done. One is he has this implantable defibrillator placed. The way that works, it's constantly monitoring the heart rhythm and finds if the heart goes into a disastrous rhythm where it is not pumping enough blood adequately, it will automatically give a shock to the heart.
And then a couple of years ago, we talked about this, he had what is known as atrial fib lags. It's a rhythm that needs to be addressed. In this case he had his heart shocked back into normal rhythm in 2007.
If someone comes into the hospital with chest pain and someone with his heart history, it's a pretty logical and standard sequence of events. You want to first of all give nitroglycerin which expands the blood vessels in the heart and take away the pain. You can see what's happening in the coronary vessels. You have blockages and the blood can't get through.
Giving aspirin to prevent clots as well, but then just really starting to investigate what happened. An EKG, they can check blood tests. What happens if a heart muscle dies, there are certain things released in the blood. We can measure that to tell if someone had a heart attack.
So, there is a standard sequence he went through last night and maybe into this morning.
ROBERTS: As we understand, more tests on tap for this morning. So we'll hear more about that. Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Doctor, good to see you, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're also following the breaking news, developing news from Toyota. Two top executives are about to go toe-to-toe with Congress.
Jim Lents is hot seat today, the head of U.S. sales, and tomorrow the showdown the world will be watching, Toyota president Akio Toyoda set to testify, all of this while Toyota is dealing with big issues this morning, the carmaker confirming it is the target of a criminal investigation.
Also, newly released Toyota documents saying company officials visited with U.S. regulators years ago and those regulators laughed and rolled their eyes in disbelief over safety claims against the carmaker. Toyota is announcing it is installing a brake override backup system in three more models.
Kyung Lah joins us live from Tokyo now with more on all of this. Good morning, Kyung.
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. The pressure is mounting, not just in the United States but also here in Japan. And trying to defuse some of that pressure, in this morning's "Wall Street Journal" Akio Toyoda wrote an op-ed piece, "The past several months have been humbling for all of us at Toyota. We didn't listen as carefully as we should or respond as quickly as we must to our customer's concerns.
I pledge that Toyota will set a new standard for transparency and speed of response on safety issues."
Toyoda's words and his actions and his company's action will be called into question in a forum that is extraordinarily rare here in Japan. A corporate head, a company president being hauled in front of lawmakers, that's something that just doesn't happen here in Japan.
So this is a totally new game for Toyota for Akio Toyoda as well. Japan lawmakers are weighing in, saying Akio Toyoda must perform, do well, try to get lawmakers to understand and win over U.S. consumers.
The reason for that, Toyota really is a company that represents Japan, all of those made in Japan products. So Akio Toyoda a lot at stake as he appears before Congress. He is seen as not just representing his country but the government in Japan and the economy to some extent, Kiran, of this country.
CHETRY: Kyung Lah for us this morning in Japan. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning, a rare display of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. Five Republican senators, including the newest member, Scott Brown from Massachusetts, broke ranks to join Democrats in shutting down a GOP filibuster of a jobs creation bill. The bill includes tax breaks for businesses that hire new workers.
A final Senate vote is expected tomorrow. CHETRY: The deadliest crash in D.C. metro history will be the focus of a hearing that gets underway in about two hours this morning. The crash killed nine people and 80 others were hurt when one metro train slammed into the back of another that was standing still.
That rear car basically collapsed like an accordion on impact. Federal investigators have focused on the failure of automated controls.
ROBERTS: Students at the University of Mississippi will vote today on a new school mascot seven years after the last one was shown the door. Colonel Reb, a caricature of a white plantation owner was retired in 2003 in an effort to distance Ole Miss from stereotypes of the old south.
CHETRY: Historic decline in driving that began three years ago is over and gridlock is once again on the rise. Traffic in major U.S. cities bottomed out in March of 2009, but now congestion levels have begun to bounce back. The study says it due to recovering economy.
Cities with the worst traffic in America -- number one still L.A., number two, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Dallas rounding out the top five.
ROBERTS: New York City budget cuts could mean we'll see less of those balloons and floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Beginning April 1st, parades must shorten routes about 25 percent and can't last longer than five hours. Officials expect to save more than $3 million with the changes.
CHETRY: After vanishing last fall, the sea lions of Pier 39 of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco are back. So far 60 have returned. It's a far cry from the usual 1,700, but the harbor master says the number is growing every day.
The sea lions took off in November hunting for food off the Oregon coast. But the tourists are very thrilled as well they are back.
ROBERTS: They're been away for a little while. There they are, coming back.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: And President Obama wants to give $30 billion to community banks to help struggling small businesses, but will that fix what's broken? Our Carol Costello is crisscrossing America to bring us more of her series, "Broken Government," this morning.
Stay with us, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Attorney General Eric Holder is not ruling out a New York City trial for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Plenty of politicians, including New York mayor Michael Bloomberg say that would be an extraordinarily horribly, horrifically bad idea.
But Holder says, no decision has been made over where to try him and four other suspects.
CHETRY: The attorney general is also focusing on another trial, saying it shows the criminal justice system is effective in prosecuting terror cases. Suspect Najibullah Zazi has pleaded guilty to three charges in New York, admitting he conspired with Al Qaeda to make bombs and to target the city's subway system.
For more, let's bring in Jeanne Meserve live from Washington. And remind people about the case as well. How close was it to actually happening?
JEANNE MESERVE, HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It was just days away from being executed, Kiran, and the attorney general says the Zazi conspiracy was the most serious threat the country has faced since 9/11. He is using it to make a point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: In a New York City courtroom, Najibullah Zazi admitted he was a suicide bomber trained to blow up the city's subways, ready to martyr himself to draw attention to civilian deaths in Afghanistan, his native country.
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This attempted attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion. And it would have been deadly.
MESERVE: Zazi told the court he went to Pakistan in 2008 intending to join the Taliban but was recruited by Al Qaeda and received explosives training. This video purportedly shows him purchasing chemical components in Denver last summer. Prosecutors say he used them to make TATP, the same explosive used by shoe bomber Richard Reed.
Zazi traveled to New York in September, intending to strike the subways, but when he realized he was under surveillance he threw away the chemicals. Now he has pleaded guilty to use weapons of mass destruction and commit murder in a foreign country and to providing material support to a terrorist organization, al Qaeda.
A former federal prosecutor called it a home run for the Justice Department.
ANDREW MCBRIDE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It shows a civilian court and the threat of life without parole can induce a plea and cooperation.
MESERVE: Since the decision to Mirandize the alleged Christmas day bomber, the attorney general has been under siege arguing terror suspects should only be prosecuted in military commissions. The attorney general used the Zazi plea deal to defend criminal prosecutions.
HOLDER: To take this tool out of the hands, to denigrate the use of this tool, flies in the face of the facts and the history of the use of this tool and is more about politics than it is about facts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The plea agreement was sealed at the request of the government, but a government source says the threat of legal action against Zazi's family and associates persuaded him to cooperate. Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: Very fascinating. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning, thanks.
ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 15 minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right.
ROBERTS: We're going to get snow in New York on Friday?
MARCIANO: Looks like it. Could be a lot, too.
ROBERTS: I've got to try to fly somewhere. Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: Oh, good luck with that. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: Marines advancing in Afghanistan in the biggest battle since the war began. Military leaders now warning that it could be a longer and more painful road to victory than first thought. Our Barbara Starr is going to have the update for us from the Pentagon this morning.
CHETRY: Also Christine Romans "Minding Your Business." She's going to take a closer look at the jobs bill that's likely to pass the Senate. What's in it and why you should care about it?
Sixteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: In the control room this morning.
ROBERTS: Gainfully employed folks. You'll see them hard at work.
CHETRY: Exactly. And the goal is, of course, to put more people back to work.
Twenty minutes past the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" right now. We're going to be talking to Christine Romans about a jobs bill.
ROBERTS: Yes. Exactly. And you've got some really interesting graphics to share with us this morning as well.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I do.
ROBERTS: This sort of cancer of joblessness spread across the country.
ROMANS: And why in an election year it is still a very big issue for the voters and also for the people who are going to be hopefully -- they hope voted in again in the fall.
Let's talk about the job goals of this Senate bill, its slim-down version. The House passed 154 billion. This one is 15 billion. And here's what it looks like. There's a tax break for companies who hire people who've been out of work for a very long time.
They don't have to pay their share of the social security taxes for those unemployed workers for up to a year. There's funding for new highway and transit programs to continue to 2010. There's also some funding to continue to broaden really the Build America Bonds program. This allows, you know, municipalities to borrow money so they can get some of their projects done as well.
It excludes a jobless benefit extension. This is something that concerns the consumer advocates. 1.2 million people are going to run out of their jobless check in just a matter of days.
Also, you may not know this, but the government, you the taxpayer, you're covering 65 percent of the premium for COBRA health insurance. That runs out also within just a few days. There's a separate measure that the Democrats are hoping to put together to try to stop that in the very near term.
But what's driving all of this? This whiff, as we said, bipartisanship. Five Republicans came over and voted with most of the Democrats, excluding Ben Nelson, by the way, the Democrat who did not go for this.
Well, what's driving it is this animation. I want to show this grad school project by a grad student. She's now done. She's now a graduate from American University named LaToya Egwuekwe (ph).
Yellow is good here for jobless, the jobless rate. Anything that's pink or purple is bad. Watch the stain of joblessness spread from July 2007 to December 2009 across the country. Where you see this stain growing, this shows painfully, painfully high unemployment. I would say politically dangerously high unemployment, basically consuming this entire country except for that little orange sliver in the middle.
ROBERTS: Nebraska -- look at Nebraska.
ROMANS: Interesting, the Nebraska senator did not vote for this $15 billion measure. You know, this just shows you what the urgency is here for some of these people who may even -- 30 of these Republicans, some of them said, you know, we don't have the money for this. We don't have the money for the last one. They're just concerned about -- they're also concerned about how many jobs it will create in the end for $15 billion.
CHETRY: About 50 billion.
ROMANS: It's 15 billion.
CHETRY: Oh.
ROMANS: This one is 15 billion. Right.
You know the question is, it's going to probably go through. You know, Harry Reid says they're going to try to get it voted out on the next day or so.
ROBERTS: You've got a numeral for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do.
ROBERTS: A "Romans' Numeral"?
ROMANS: I do.
ROBERTS: The famous "Romans' Numeral."
ROMANS: Thirty-six, and it's 36 seats.
CHETRY: Oh, this is...
ROBERTS: Go ahead.
CHETRY: I always guess wrong but what the heck. Thirty-six seats in the House that are expected to be lost?
ROMANS: Oh, that's a good one. You guessed wrong but guess very good ones, Kiran. No, 36 Senate seats are up for election in November. So you can imagine if you are facing the voters, right, and you're seeing that stain cover your own state, maybe it makes it a little easier for you to spend money we don't have to try to get the jobs thing moving again.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll see how this goes.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans for us this morning "Minding Your Business." Thanks.
Twenty-three minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Your top stories just five minutes away here on the Most News in the Morning. But first an "A.M. Original," something that you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
All this week CNN is focusing on "Broken Government." In just a moment, we're going to speak with Wendell Potter. He's a former health insurance company executive and Karen Tumulty, who's the national political correspondent for "Time" magazine.
But first, President Obama's plan to give billions to community banks so they can help keep small businesses from slipping into bankruptcy. Some people say that it will not fix what's really broken and what's really broken is our government.
Carol Costello has been canvassing the country over the past few weeks to better understand what average Americans are up against. Today's piece took her to Dallas and Boston, clear from one side of the country down to the Deep South. Carol, back in Washington this morning. What did you find out in your travels, Carol?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I found lots of stuff, John. President Obama has tried to get big banks to lend money to no avail, his latest idea to try to get smaller community banks to lend to small businesses since smaller banks have relationships with businesses in their neighborhoods. Some bankers are listening but told me the president's idea may not fix what's broken.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Jimmie Hughes is itching to grow a small supply business, but he needs a little help in the color green. So he asked six of his friendly community bankers for a loan.
JIMMIE HUGHES, OWNER, GRAND AMERICA: This is all the paperwork that I had to generate. It weighs 4.5 pounds.
COSTELLO: Despite his pristine credit, all six turned him down.
HUGHES: I could double the size of my company right now if I wanted to. But what I need in order to do that is to have operating capital.
COSTELLO (on camera): Whatever happened to bankers -- bankers like Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey and "It's a Wonderful Life." He lent money to people in a bad economy at the expense of his own savings and loans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have to wait and save their money and before they even thought of a decent home, wait -- wait for what?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Oh, wait, didn't bankers like Bailey spark the subprime mortgage crisis by loaning money to too many people who couldn't pay it back?
(on camera): You're not Jimmy Stewart from "It's a Wonderful Life"?
EDWARD MERRITT, PRESIDENT, MT. WASHINGTON BANK: No, no, I'm not.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Edward Merritt runs a community bank in Boston. He may not be George Bailey, but he's not his nemesis, the evil Mr. Potter, either.
MERRITT: We appreciate your business.
COSTELLO: Merritt's bank doles out $7 million and $10 million a month in commercial loans, mostly to mom-and-pop businesses in Boston. He'd like to lend more, but good credit isn't enough these days.
(on camera): What if I came to you and I said, you know, I need this loan to meet my payroll because I can't do it this month because, you know, people aren't paying me on time. That means I can't meet my payroll on time. Can I have a loan?
MERRITT: That would potentially be a challenging situation because the first question that I would have to ask you is why can't you meet your payroll.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Would that persuade Merritt?
MERRITT: I'm not really looking for any more money to lend quite frankly. I'm looking for more qualified borrowers to lend to. And that is as big a problem as I see it today as it is the bank's willingness to lend money.
COSTELLO: So what is the answer? What should government be doing?
BART NARTER, CELENT: What we really want from small business is more employment. So perhaps it would be a good idea to create a program that reduces taxes on new hires, for example.
COSTELLO: Jimmie Hughes is open to that but it doesn't solve his problem. He still doesn't have the money to hire.
HUGHES: I'd like to have President Obama or any of his financial advisers just take a nice long walk down Main Street, and then maybe they could come up with some answers. Because if they don't have the answers, we certainly don't have the answers, but we can tell them what's wrong?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The president has proposed reducing taxes on new hires. Some lawmakers have actually crafted a proposal and that would be the jobs bill which actually made it through the first step, made it through the Senate, but has a long way to go.
The root of the problem, though, John, remains. Small business owners have a problem with cash flow. And with falling real estate prices, they have less collateral and that makes it difficult for small banks to loan them money. As Mr. Merritt told us, he can't lend a small business person -- rather he can't lend a small business person a million bucks but he might be able to lend them $800,000. It's just that many small business owners can't come up with enough collateral to back the loan up.
ROBERTS: It is so tough out there for so many people. My goodness. Great piece this morning.
COSTELLO: And all goes back to the housing crisis.
ROBERTS: It does. And now, of course, a lot of commercial properties are being foreclosed on as well. It's kind of like the other shoe to drop. Carol Costello for us this morning. Great piece. Thanks so much, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Is government the solution or is it broken? We want to know what you think. Sound off at CNN.com/amfix. And we're crossing the half hour now, it's 7:30 Eastern. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Former vice president Dick Cheney is at George Washington University Hospital this morning after experiencing chest pains yesterday. Live pictures from outside of George Washington this morning. Doctors are evaluating the 69-year-old Cheney who already survived four heart attacks. Cheney's treatment includes or his history includes a quadruple bypass, two angioplasties, including one stent and a pacemaker defibrillator implanted in his chest.
CHETRY: Well, Toyota's American sales chief is set to appear on Capitol Hill in just a few hours, answering to a House committee, investigating the company's handling of the gas pedal issue. The grilling comes on the heels of yesterday's disclosure that federal prosecutors have now launched a criminal investigation into the car maker's safety problems and also that the securities and exchange commission is looking into what the company told investors about it.
ROBERTS: Executives from California's largest for profit health insurance company on the hot seat today. California lawmakers want to know how Anthem Blue Cross can justify a proposed rate increase of nearly 40 percent. One state congressman called it unconscionable. President Obama has criticized the proposed hike and yesterday proposed a national healthcare plan which would give the authority to deny or limit substantial premium increases.
CHETRY: All this week. CNN is digging deeper into signs of a broken government and take a look at this latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll. Only 26 percent of Americans say that they trust the government in Washington. 33 percent say that they trust their state government. Although a majority, 52 percent say they do trust their local government most or all of the time.
Well, now, President Obama is hoping that the American people trust him when it comes to health care reform. He laid out his own vision online yesterday. It would cost an estimated $950 billion over 10 years and it would extend coverage to about 31 million uninsured Americans. It would also expand Medicaid and close the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare where seniors have to pay out-of-pocket for prescription drugs.
So where does all the money come from? I'm joined now by Wendell Potter. He is a former insurance executive. He is now with the Center for Media and Democracy as well as Karen Tumulty, the national political correspondent for "Time" who has done extensive writing about the healthcare situation. Thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.
WENDELL POTTER, FMR. INSURANCE EXECUTIVE: Thank you.
KAREN TUMULTY, "TIME" MAGAZINE, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.
CHETRY: Carol, let me start with you and just break down for us how the president is proposing to pay for this nearly $1 trillion proposal? Let me start with you, Karen/
TUMULTY: Well, the biggest change, he has a lot of money that he has to make up here because he has done a couple of things, he's dramatically increased some of the subsidies that would be given to people to help them pay for health insurance and he has also cut way, way back on this so-called Cadillac tax on high -- on very expensive insurance plans.
So the main and I think most controversial thing that they have done in this bill is that they are going to impose a brand-new tax on payrolls to pay for Medicare. And this is going to be there for first time ever going to begin taxing investment income to the tune of almost three percent. That's a huge new tax.
CHETRY: Not just wage income but investment income as well.
And Wendell, I want to ask you about this. We're actually focusing on this and part of our "Broken Government" series, "AC 360" is doing this tonight are the efforts, some say, are too focused on industry -- insurance industry regulation and not enough on bringing the cost of health care of the actual medical care you receive down? What do you think about that?
POTTER: I think you have to start somewhere. This is an important place to start. It's not the ultimate health care reform but it is important health insurance reform and it will help to bring more people into the ranks of the insured and it will begin to help lower the cost of health care.
CHETRY: Karen, one of other big ideas is this regulatory board. This will be a federal regulatory board that would allow the federal government to roll back or in some cases even prevent insurance companies from raising premiums. How would this work?
TUMULTY: Well, this is a provision I think that was thrown in in response to the current headlines, which are showing that people on the individual insurance market, people who do not get health care -- health insurance at work are facing huge insurance premium increases this year. 30 percent and more. And so basically, this would give the federal government a chance to review this and see if they believe they are justified.
Now, a lot of states already have this sort of mechanism in place. And I think the main impact it would have would be in these years before this health insurance reform plan was completely rolled into place. Because once you have absolutely everybody, healthy people, sick people, everybody pretty much having to buy health insurance, you wouldn't have some of the problems that the insurance companies are talking about now, which is that sick people are keeping their insurance but healthy people are dropping it in the middle of the recession.
CHETRY: I got you. Wendell, some of the critics are saying that this federal rate control if it indeed would be enacted would simply mean less competition in the insurance market and then ultimately, insurance companies would find a way around it, and one example would be that they would flee expensive states or regions, et cetera. You've worked inside the insurance industry, do you think that they will find a way around it? Or do you think that this will make sense?
POTTER: I think they'll find a way around it. The regulators need to focus on how the insurance companies are shifting the cost of health care from them and to their consumers, to people who are insured. They have been -- obviously they've been increasing premiums but they've also been making people pay more a lot out of their own pockets. And that's what regulators need to look at. They can see that they are increasing the premiums modestly.
But if you look closely, they are shifting more and more of the cost to consumers. So that's something that regulators will have to watch in the future.
CHETRY: And the other question, Karen, just in terms of politically speaking how viable this is, how likely this is. This is sort of just a blue print laid out by the White House. It still has to be hammered out within the walls of Congress. How likely is it that some of the key points, a lot of it is taken from the Senate. There are some stuff plucked from the House bill, will actually pass.
TUMULTY: Well, what this bill does, there are a number of things in there are that are real sweeteners for House democrats, particularly this big roll back of the so-called Cadillac tax and I think we're just going to have to see over the next few days if this is going to be enough to essentially force House members to sort of swallow their misgivings about the Senate bill. Because that's basically what this is and vote for it and to swallow their mistrust of the United States Senate.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we have to see how it goes. Wendell Potter and Karen Tumulty, thanks for shedding some light on it and explaining some of the intricacies of this for us. We appreciate it.
POTTER: Thank you.
TUMULTY: Thanks, Kiran.
CHETRY: Our "Broken Government" series, by the way, continues tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Campbell Brown takes a look at defense contractor Raytheon, which has scored yet another major defense contract. CNN investigates the controversy.
And also we're talking about, just a moment ago, Anderson Cooper is going to be focusing on efforts to fix America's health care system, and asking is it too focused on coverage and not enough on lowering cost in general. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be investigating whether the American consumer is being ripped off.
And coming up tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, can we actually gamble our way out of the recession. We're going to be taking a look at the virtual stampede by states to approve new gaming sites. Thirty-eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 41 minutes past the hour now. We're closing in on a tragic milestone in Afghanistan. CNN's official tally now has 991 service members killed in Operation Enduring Freedom. Last year was the deadliest for the U.S. in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.
This morning, there's more violence. Afghan police say that a bicycle bomb exploded at the bus station killing eight people, including a woman and a child. This attack occurred in the same southern province where NATO troops and U.S. Marines are in the middle of an intense battle with the Taliban.
ROBERTS: Well, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has publicly apologized to Afghanistan after a NATO air strike that killed 33 civilians. It's something that the U.S. have gone to great lengths to try to avoid as part of its new strategy.
Our Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, this is something that we reported on yesterday. It's just a terrible tragedy.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Very sad business, John. And it really just goes on. In the last two weeks more than 50 Afghan civilians by any count killed accidentally in military strikes in Afghanistan. General McChrystal now issuing a public apology.
In fact, the military put it out on video for those Afghans who have television that can see it. It was translated into the local language of Dari and Pashtun, apologizing once again for all of these and all of the recent incidents. But here at the Pentagon, there is growing concern, of course, about all of this because these accidental killings are becoming a serious problem for the strategy in Afghanistan, the top two officials here talked about it yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I think it's just a very difficult environment. It's tough terrain. It's tough to know, and these are split second decisions that commanders in combat on the ground have to make.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: General McChrystal is doing everything humanly possible to avoid civilian casualties. But it is also a fact that the Taliban mingle with civilians, they use them for cover. Which obviously complicates any decision process by a commander on the ground in knowing whether he's dealing with the Taliban or innocent civilians or a combination of the two. I'm not defending it at all. I'm just saying, that these kinds of things in many respects are inherent in a war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: A challenging environment that Taliban continue to use civilians, of course, as human shields, but General McChrystal knows that this cannot go on. That he has to get a handle on it. In fact, we learned that he is updating now several of his directives to the troops about how to conduct operations but those directives we are told will not be made public until some of this calms down, John.
ROBERTS: So we saw this before, we saw those rockets that were fired at the opening of this offense, it was originally believed that they had gone off course but it looked as though it was an intelligence problem. That they had hit their intended target, they didn't know civilians were inside, if these three vehicles that were targeted as well.
I mean, obviously intelligence is an art form as much as it is a science. But do they have to try to step up their intelligence here before they pull the trigger?
STARR: Well, you know, in some cases I think clearly yes. What General McChrystal is talking about though, is don't fire if you think there are civilians involved unless you're taking direct fires as a U.S. or NATO military unit and you feel your life is at risk, you always have the right of self-defense, but these air strikes that continue that kill civilians on the ground, he we wants to see better intelligence. He wants to see the military take a deep breath and make sure before they fire.
Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates point out the harsh reality. In the heat of combat it's so difficult to really know. John.
ROBERTS: It is. Barbara Starr for us this morning from the Pentagon. Barbara, thanks.
STARR: Sure.
CHETRY: 45 minutes past the hour right now. Rob is going to be along with our morning travel forecast right after the break.
ROBERTS: And at 10 minutes' time, time for an "A.M. House call." Today, Sanjay Gupta is talking hypertension, high blood pressure -- how to spot it, how to treat it and best of all, how to prevent it from ever happening in the first place. You are watching the Most News in the Morning.
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CHETRY: Rolling Stones getting you started this morning. Forty-eight minutes past the hour right now.
We get a check on this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano is in Atlanta.
There's some snow happening and there's some snow that's going to happen.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We got a lot of stuff going on. Look at...
CHETRY: I only see the (ph) -- you know what I see? I see a tiny little, little tiny pile of snow left at Columbus Circle. Most of the -- for most of it, the rain's washed it away.
MARCIANO: You guys are getting a little bit of a rinse, but we may recharge the snow battery as we get towards the weekend.
You know, it's a difficult call but it looks like you'll get some snow this weekend. It's just a matter of how much. It could be a couple of inches, it could be a couple of feet.
All right. We'll deal with that -- we'll cross that bridge when we get there, just like what my father likes to say.
Here's what's going on today. A couple of feet -- no, maybe a foot, though, Upstate New York, northern parts of New England. More rain/snow as you saw in that picture of Columbus Circle on the I-95 corridor. So this isn't -- this is really just a precursor of -- of the next storm that's going to come in Thursday, Friday and into Saturday.
All right. Yes, we could see an hour delay in Dallas because of -- what? Snow? Yes. We'll talk more about that in a sec. Here's your rain/snow across parts of the northeast and here's your rain/snow mix across parts of Texas.
Check out this shot, a live picture -- at least it was live a few minutes ago, of snow coming down just west of Fort Worth. This is in Weatherford, Texas, where the school buses are still going at it, man. It looks like they haven't cancelled classes there yet, but it is coming down sideways just west of Fort Worth.
They could see an inch or two of snow here today. If Dallas gets -- if Dallas gets 2 inches today, they will break the all-time snowfall record for any single season. The forecast for about an inch of slushy snow and you're going to sit in that bench, you may want to wipe it down first.
Three to 6 inches of snow possible across parts of Central Texas with this storm coming in, and maybe even 1, 2, or 3, maybe 4 inches of snow across the Sabine River into Eastern Texas, mostly north of I- 10. Thirty-four expected in Kansas City, 39 degrees in Dallas, so that snow that does fall probably wouldn't stick, at least to the main roads, and 39 degrees expected in New York City. The same deal for you. Any snow that doesn't mix in wouldn't stick to the main roads.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: There you go. So your Friday (ph) flight may take off.
ROBERTS: Let's hope. Fingers crossed.
Hey, we've got some school cancellations in the New York- Connecticut region, too. So if you're living there, check with the school and make sure that things are still going this morning.
CHETRY: Yes. Some of these poor kids are going to be in school until July with all the snow days they've had.
Well, it's 15 minutes past the hour. Your top stories just minutes away, including Toyota now facing possible criminal charges as top executives head to Capitol Hill today and tomorrow. Is it too late to make repairs to the company's image?
ROBERTS: At 10 minutes after, voting "none of the above". So many people fed up with both parties and becoming Independents. Why that could keep them out of some key elections.
CHETRY: At 20 minutes after, it's sold for 10 cents back in 1938. Wait until you hear what Superman's debut sold for today. Got to keep it in the wrapper, though.
Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: All right. We've got 54 minutes after the hour. It's time for your "A.M. House Call" stories about your health this morning.
High blood pressure -- simple to diagnose, fairly easy to treat and the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Now, a new report from the Institute of Medicine says hypertension is responsible for 1 out of every 6 adult deaths.
This morning we're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent. He's in Atlanta this morning. And this is something that's very close to my heart because I suffer from hypertension. We all know it's not a good thing. What is the new study telling us?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it -- it's interesting, because this is a term -- hypertension or high blood pressure, John, that most people have heard of. But, even despite that, this is still considered a neglected disease by this new report that you cited here. Interesting -- neglected and silent as well.
A couple of things really sort of jumped out in this. About -- close to 86 percent of people who have out-of-control high blood pressure or hypertension have insurance and are seeing their doctor regularly.
So what does that mean? It means that probably doctors are not diagnosing hypertension enough or early enough, and they're not treating it enough as well. So there was a message out of this report, certainly for doctors and health care providers about being more aggressive in the treatment of this.
But also, on the consumer end, you know, on the individual end, sort of knowing numbers, it gets a little confusing. People don't always want to pay attention to these numbers. But knowing your blood pressure is a very good, important starting point and you can get that checked pretty easily. Even supermarkets have some of those blood pressure checking stations.
If it is over 140 over 90, you have hypertension. Now that is -- that is sort of what this report said, and over 120 over 80 means that you're -- you're at risk for it.
The top number, incidentally, John, systolic, the bottom number diastolic. People always forget that. I remember the saint's on top of the devil. It's a little moniker I remember from medical school.
But knowing your numbers, John, really important as a starting point.
ROBERTS: I -- I thought it was the Saints on top of the Colts, but no. That's a -- that's a different sports.
OK, so let's say that you've got hypertension and you're not getting the guidance that you need from your doctor. What ways can -- what -- what methods can you use to try to keep your blood pressure down?
GUPTA: Well, I'll give -- I'll give you a few simple ones, and I can tell you, these really do work.
First of all, keep in mind that most of the hypertension we're talking about right now is preventable. Simply losing a little bit of weight helps, around 10 pounds of you're overweight. Exercise about 30 minutes a day. These are things we talk about all the time.
Diet really seems to make a big difference when it comes to hypertension, and even more specifically sodium or your salt intake. We simply eat too much salt in this country, on average about 4 grams per day. That number should be closer to 2 grams per day. In addition to that, John, what's interesting, if you eat a lot of salt, you tend to deplete your body of potassium, and potassium's also necessary to help regulate blood pressure.
So making sure you get a lot more potassium, through -- through, you know, bananas, through sweet potatoes, through all sorts of greens, and really reading the labels on salt. You know, if you're eating 4 grams per day, you drop that down to about 2 grams, you can dramatically reduce your chance of developing hypertension now or even later.
So that -- that's really crucial, I think, probably more than anything else is reading those labels and paying attention.
ROBERTS: Snack foods are -- are huge in salt, a lot of soft drinks as well. And, you know, one thing that I do, Sanjay, is I go to local grocery store and I get the salt substitute. That's potassium salt. It doesn't taste exactly the same, but that's a good way to get potassium in your body and lower your sodium intake.
GUPTA: Right. Yes. There's no question about it, and people, you know, that I talked to, my patients say they get used to that slight difference in flavor as well. If you start doing that now or teach your kids to do it, if they're adding any kind of flavoring, it -- it will make a huge difference later on.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Doc, thanks so much. Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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