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American Morning
Another Round of Snowstorms Hits Northeast; President's Health Care Summit Produces Little Bipartisanship; Health Care Summit: What was Accomplished?; SeaWorld Will Keep Killer Whale: Video Surfaces of Trainer's Final Moments; Bill Aims to Create Jobs by Luring Tourists; Leahy/Lugar Bipartisanship Lives; Trying Times in Toxic Town; Health Care, Now What?; Afghanistan Bomb Attacks
Aired February 26, 2010 - 7:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: There you go. That's a live look at New York City. A powerhouse snowstorm pounding the city this morning. Cabs are slipping, people are sliding, more than a foot of wet, heavy snow on the ground right now.
Welcome back to the AMERICAN MORNING. It's top of the hour. I'm Christine Romans sitting in for John Roberts this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us on this Friday, February 26th.
We begin with what is now a deadly winter storm that's still dumping snow and sleet, also flooding parts of the northeast this morning. Parts of the region could see as much as 30 inches of snow by the time all of this is over. Some are calling the snow, really they're calling it a snow hurricane because of the blizzard-like conditions, the high winds, snow and ice coming down sideways, gusts up to 55 miles an hour.
ROMANS: New information for people stuck at the airport, the dangerous conditions have forced American Airlines to cancel 42 flights this morning. That's on top of close to 1,000 flights that never got off the ground yesterday. And Amtrak says it will cancel a number of trains in the northeast, its busiest corridor.
CHETRY: We're all over the extreme weather. Our Susan Candiotti is live in Central Park. We have meteorologist Reynolds Wolf down in the Jersey turnpike in Philadelphia for us this morning.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROMANS: There are some huge new snowflakes coming down in New York City. The combination of 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts and that heavy, wet snow proved deadly when a 100-pound tree limb came down on a man in Central Park. Susan Candiotti is outside Central Park with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The wet and heavy snow proved too much for some trees, raining down branches across New York Central Park. In one unfortunate case, the timing proved deadly. Police say a 46-year-old man from Brooklyn was killed when a large limb fell on his head as he walked through the park.
Just blocks north of that scene, an entire tree fell on a city bus, forcing police to close part of New York's famous Fifth Avenue. Luckily no one was hurt there, but crews were scrambling to keep up with trees falling all over the city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now we have trees down at four locations, 76th street, 71st street, 69th street and 68th street.
CANDIOTTI: It made for an uglier than usual commute for New Yorkers, with people literally racing to get home before it got worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jersey is snowing a lot more, so I figure let me go now.
CANDIOTTI: But the worst of it wasn't in New Jersey. Some areas northwest of New York City could see more than two feet of snow. There were some brave souls out during the day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving is crazy today, crazy, ridiculous.
CANDIOTTI: But by nightfall, Orange County, New York, had declared a state of emergency, banning all but plows and emergency vehicles from the roads. The storm knocked out power for tens of thousands in the area, and outages extended as far north as Vermont.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And joining you now live, here's a look at what things are starting to appear to be now in the morning. As the sun is coming up, we're seeing a little more traffic, a few cabs now than we did before, one being towed by a tow truck.
But they're talking about maybe up to 30 inches of snow in some parts of New York, about a foot here. You can see some of it is gathered up. We have seen some snowplows going by, and in some areas, the streets are clear. But as soon as the plows go by it doesn't take long for them to be covered again by snow.
Yesterday, slush. Now we've got ice because it's gotten colder and snow on top of that. Just a real quick chat with this gentleman who came in from a commute from where?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Queens.
CANDIOTTI: And how was it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't that bad. I mean, it was bad, of course, but there were a lot of people on the trains coming to work.
CANDIOTTI: And now you're seeing the sidewalks here are pretty clear, but how was it walking out of work?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was worse. In Queens it's like up to your knees. It was quite a walk to work.
CANDIOTTI: I bet you're curious to see how many people will show up to work today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CANDIOTTI: Thank you very much for joining us.
So again it's going to be a bit of a mess. Public schools are closed for the day here. Some bus service out of New Jersey coming into the city suspended for now. Many flights canceled, you've heard about that. So it will be a mess today. Back to you guys.
ROMANS: Susan Candiotti in Central Park. We'll check with you again, Susan, thank you.
CHETRY: And the weather is really bad in parts of northern Pennsylvania. In fact, so bad the National Guard had to rescue some high school students that were stranded after their busses got stuck in the snow.
There's also power outages, as we've been talking about, this heavy, wet snow downing trees and downing power lines. Our Reynolds Wolf is live in Philadelphia this morning. Good morning, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. Snow really began to pick up last night around 2:00 in the morning and then really started to let up just a little bit, but not before dumping I would say around six to maybe eight inches in this area.
The roads are pretty good thought for the most part. They have been treated. You see a lot of slush down the roads. Susan was talking about that issue in New York.
But the thing that's interesting about this entire scenario is not just the snow, as my friend Rob Marciano has been talking about all morning, not just this, it's the wind. The wind is going to play a huge factor.
There's a reason for that, America. The reason why the wind is going to be a big issue because you look up at these trees over here, Ken Moreland (ph) our photo journalist has a shot of that, you will see these trees are coated with the snow. And all the way down this thoroughfare off Second Street, you can see the tree-lined streets have a lot of snow.
When the wind picks up the trees are going to move, when they move with the frozen stuff on it, the ice and snow, we're going to see some of these branches break and more power outages.
Power outages for the time being have not been too significant. You can see here, things are pretty nice in Society Hill. You have all the lights on, traffic is moving through. But as wind picks up we're going to see more of those issues.
In terms of air travel -- Susan was talking about that, too -- here in Philadelphia, all the flights of Southwest Airlines have been canceled. In terms of other transportation, city busses, they have been out and about, but it has been sporadic at best, same with taxis.
Anyone getting on the roads today needs to use extreme caution. Many places we do have some ice covered by a thin veneer of snowfall. So it's going to be interesting to see. All the schools are out, some businesses open, and people are moving, as you can imagine very slowly. Let's send it back to you.
CHETRY: Reynolds Wolf for you in Philly this morning, thanks.
ROMANS: Other stories new this morning -- at least 17 people were killed in two huge explosions at a hotel in the heart of Kabul. Dozens more were injured. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for the coordinated suicide bombings. A Taliban spokesman says five suicide bombers carried out the attacks which occurred 20 minutes apart.
CHETRY: The father of missing actor Andrew Koenig says that his son took his own life. Koenig's body was discovered yesterday in a park in Vancouver. The 41-year-old actor who you may remember from starring in the '80s sitcom "Growing Pains" was visiting friends in Vancouver when he disappeared more than a week ago.
ROMANS: New York Congressman Charles Rangel will receive a formal admonishment today for breaking House rules. The Ethics Committee found he accepted Caribbean trips from a lobby -- from a company rather that lobbied Congress. Rangel says it's his staff's fault and he shouldn't be blamed.
The action could jeopardize Rangel's chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
CHETRY: A burglary suspect gave police in Oklahoma a lot more than they bargained for. You can see on the dash cam video the suspect was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. He jumps out, there you see it, gets into the front seat, and he sped off. Clearly he somehow managed to get out of the handcuffs.
Police say that he used an officer's cell phone to then call his girlfriend and tell her he had just stole a police car. The high speed chase ended with a crash that totaled the cruiser. The suspect is charged with 11 separate criminal counts.
ROMANS: Or he had the handcuffs in front of him, which might not be a good idea.
CHETRY: How would he call the cell phone too?
ROMANS: True.
CHETRY: He must have found a way to get out of those things.
ROMANS: All right, two parties and one president in one room to talk about one issue. The health care forum made for good TV but did anything really get done? Our senior White House Correspondent EdHhenry is taking a look coming up next.
CHETRY: And at 15 minutes past the hour, Sea World reassessing its procedures and where it goes from here two days after a killer whale grabbed a trainer by her hair and pulled her underwater to her death. Ahead, how the theme park is responding to the demands from some animal rights group this orca should be released back to the wild.
ROMANS: And at 50 after a special report on "Broken Government," this morning Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates a Louisiana community where people say they're being poisoned by toxic chemicals. So why did it take the Environmental Protection Agency more than a decade to do something about it?
It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The president's health care summit is history, and the all-day meeting of Democrats and Republicans did not produce a meeting of the minds. Republicans say it did nothing to change their position and Democrats say if the GOP won't cooperate, they'll pass health care reform without them.
Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry is following developments for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The stakes couldn't be higher. He's betting his presidency on getting a health reform deal. This was his last-ditch attempt to save it.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: What I'm hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree.
HENRY: A tall order when you throw dozens of members of Congress into a made for TV drama at the historic Blair House.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Can I just finish, please if?
HENRY: The president's 2008 rival, Republican John McCain, quickly tweaked him over campaign promises.
MCCAIN: Eight times you said that negotiations on health care reform could be conducted with the C-Span cameras. I'm glad more than a year later that they are here. Unfortunately, this product was not produced in that fashion. It was produced behind closed doors. It was produced with unsavory -- I say that with respect -- deal-making.
HENRY: The president defended the transparency of the talks and gave as good as he got.
OBAMA: Let me just make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore. The election is over. MCCAIN: I am reminded of that every day.
OBAMA: Yes.
HENRY: Even the sharp exchanges were civil, if a bit jaded, each party hammering familiar talking points.
SEN. JOHN ROCKEFELLER, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: The health insurance industry is the shark that swims just below the water. And you don't see that shark until you feel the teeth of that shark.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: Regulate all this -- should people in Washington decide how this works and what you can and cannot buy?
HENRY: After about six hours, Republicans believed they made their case to the American people, that the president's plan is simply too costly.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER, (R) TENNESSEE: It means that for millions of Americans premiums will go up because when people pay those new taxes, premiums will go up, and they will also go up because of the government mandates.
HENRY: But Democrats believe the president got the better of the Republicans.
OBAMA: So, Lamar, when you mentioned earlier that you said premiums go up, that's just not the case according to the Congressional Budget Office.
ALEXANDER: Mr. President, if you're going to contradict me I ought to have a chance to --
OBAMA: No. Let me -- and this is an example of where we've got to get our facts straight.
HENRY: A CNN fact check gives the edge to the president. The CBO found that his plan would lower premiums for millions of Americans. And those facing hikes would get better coverage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Where does that really leave us? The president likely now to pursue a Democrat's only strategy on Capitol Hill by using that maneuver known as reconciliation where you just need a simple majority.
But it's not clear yet that it's going to work. First of all, kick up a lot of controversy among Republicans using that tactic and even among his fellow Democrats. It's not clear yet the president can get a clear majority in both the House and the Senate. So even after all the talk, after all the debate and maybe all the maneuvering, still not clear the president is going to get a victory, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. And the plot thickens. OK, thanks so much, Ed Henry in Washington -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour. We've an A.M. follow up now on the killer whale that killed his trainer at SeaWorld. There's been a lot of calls for the theme park to actually release Tilikum back into the wild or in some sort of sea sanctuary. SeaWorld, though, is responding to those demands and saying they're not going to do that. We do have new pictures as well this morning of the trainer's final moments with the massive partner that she loved so much.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): This video of trainer Dawn Brancheau, performing with Tilikum, was shot by a SeaWorld spectator, shortly before the six-ton killer whale grabbed her by the ponytail and pulled her under water. The Orange County sheriff's office told Larry King last night she died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning.
JULIE SCARDINA, ANIMAL AMBASSADOR TO SEAWORLD: Right now, we're obviously, concentrating on, you know, sending our thoughts and prayers and any support that Dawn's family needs to them and we're sending our deepest sympathies to them, of course. And on top of that, we're doing an investigation into exactly what happened so that we can determine what steps to take next.
CHETRY: While SeaWorld officials review all procedures, the shamu shows in Orlando and San Diego will, again, be canceled today, although the parks will be open. Trainers are also being offered counseling. And SeaWorld confirms its plans to keep Tilikum in its Orlando park, despite calls to release the killer whale to a seaside sanctuary. And that's not sitting well with animal rights groups.
INGRID NEWKIRK, PETA PRESIDENT: If I were a parent, I would run screaming from this place, not only because my child might see a trainer killed, but might come away with the idea that this is all right, acceptable way to keep animals and it isn't.
CHETRY: Park officials say setting Tilikum free is not an option because he's been in captivity so long, he'd likely die in the wild. And they won't consider putting him down.
As for conditions at the park, Agriculture Department inspectors visit once a year to make sure the animals are being treated humanely. Despite a few minor violations, the USDA calls SeaWorld, quote, "a top-notch facility that cares for its animals."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: It is chilling to see that video in the moments before she was killed. Tilikum is said to be worth millions to SeaWorld. This is a whale that has sired many of the killer whale calves who perform and also live there.
ROMANS: Interesting. And this whale was born in captivity or born in the wild? CHETRY: No, this whale was actually taken from the wild but since then, as they said, he sired so many other killer whales, orcas that have been born in captivity. And, you know, there were some who argue, marine biologists, that when you take a whale from the wild, they were used to a different life.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: And it is a hard adjustment.
ROMANS: Right. It's 18 minutes after the hour.
Bipartisanship lives. Could it be? Candy Crowley is going to tell us to what degree and will it last? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Is this how you do it? I dared Kelly, our director, to do his best my "Party in the USA" dance moves. And there you go.
ROMANS: Oh, that's great.
CHETRY: It's scary when your 4-year-old can choreograph to "Party in the USA," you know.
ROMANS: Oh, it's catching a little fun. We're still in the "Thomas the Train." No girl, unfortunately. So just "Thomas the Train."
It's 21 minutes after the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business." A new effort to get America working again by making it a vacation destination. The Senate yesterday approved the travel promotion act. The bill is aimed at luring tourists here and their cash.
CHETRY: There you go. Come on over. The water is fine.
Gerri Willis joins us now with more on this bill, and she's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hey, Gerri.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, good morning, guys. Great to see you.
Yes, you pretty much said it. This was passed by the Senate. It's a program that was really initiated by the travel industry to boost tourism here. They say they can create as many as 40,000 jobs. Let's see how it would work.
Essentially they would charge a $10 fee to foreign travelers and there would be folks who are from 35 countries that don't need visas to get into this country. They would pay an extra 10 bucks every two years and there would be up to $100 million from the travel industry.
Now, the travel industry says our business is not that great when you talk about people coming to this country. They say since 2000, visits have gone down nine percent and they say, hey, we're an important part of the economy. So let's talk a little bit about what they think could happen if they invested an additional 1.6 million visitors might come to this country, boosting spending by $4 billion and creating -- get this -- 40,000 jobs.
So, you know, the Senate was all over this. Some Republicans having objections saying, don't we already spend for this?
ROMANS: Right.
WILLIS: You know, think about it like a convention and bureau, convention and traveler's bureau in a local city. You know, you always have those, you know, promotional campaigns that go on and there's really not that done for the U.S. The U.S. is the only developed country that doesn't do this kind of thing. So --
ROMANS: They never had to before.
CHETRY: You always see the "visit Israel" sign.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: You know, the big posters out there.
ROMANS: Explore Ireland.
WILLIS: That's right. Explore the U.S.
ROMANS: All right.
WILLIS: Come to New York when it's snowing.
CHETRY: You're right. Exactly. It's a treat.
ROMANS: Gerri Willis.
WILLIS: It's a treat or it's something else. I don't know what it is.
ROMANS: "Minding Your Business," thanks, Gerri.
CHETRY: Still ahead, the president's health care summit. We're going to be speaking with Ken Thorpe and Dr. Bernadine Healy live after the break. Was anything accomplished?
And some say scrap it, some say let's work with what we have. But will anything get passed this year?
Twenty-three minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Top stories just minutes away.
But first, all week long, CNN's been looking at Washington gridlock in our special series "Broken Government." So today, we wanted to find out is bipartisanship completely dead? Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley sat down with two long-time senators who say no, not yet anyway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You all, almost came to the Senate together.
SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: Yes.
CROWLEY: Couple years apart.
LUGAR: That's a couple years before.
CROWLEY: Right.
(voice-over): He is a conservative from Indiana. He is a liberal from Vermont. Theirs was a friendship born in obscurity. Two very junior senators at the far reaches of a committee room table.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: Herman (INAUDIBLE) Jimmy said cut some deal. And neither one of us could hear what they were muttering. And I said, well, wait a minute, could I ask what was in that amendment? You could see the two look down like who the heck are these two guys at the end? Takes his gavel and said, we're adjourned.
CROWLEY: After more than 35 years, Patrick Leahy and Richard Lugar are senior senators now. A lot has changed, except the friendship. It has proven stronger than their political differences. Lugar ran for president in 1996.
(on camera): Just out of curiosity, had Senator Lugar won the Republican nomination, would you have gone into a voting booth and voted for him?
LEAHY: Mercy (ph). Well, (INAUDIBLE) I find it very difficult not to vote for him.
CROWLEY (voice-over): They know each other's families. They have visited each other's states.
LEAHY: Poor guy, he had to take back so much of the Leahy's Vermont maple syrup.
LUGAR: Pat introduced me to all the leaders of the state, Republicans and Democrats, and really to this date, why he was so interested in dairy, for example, why certain things were occurring vis-a-vis the other New England states. It's tremendous.
CROWLEY: And that's the thing. This is not just about close friends who accept their different views. This is about getting stuff done. The pair revamped the Agriculture Department and pushed out two major agriculture bills in the 1990s, the Lugar/Leahy farm bill and the Leahy/Lugar farm bill. There are other bipartisan friendships on the hill.
LEAHY: Probably happens more than you see. Does not happen as much as it should.
CROWLEY: And Lugar thinks that's a shame.
LUGAR: Or even if they disagree sharply, that they have really compassion and respect for each other as human beings. There will be things which are not going to be on the same page, but we will not really literally commit political suicide to stop each other.
CROWLEY: These days fund raising and trips back to the state take up enormous amounts of time. Many lawmakers don't even move their families to Washington. A pity.
LEAHY: Dick's son and daughter-in-law and our daughter and son- in-law live about 100 yards from each other, and there's a little playground right nearby and you see the kids playing there all the time. They're trading toys. We call it the bipartisan playground.
LUGAR: We cherish those moments, too, with John and Kelly Lugar and their three very beautiful children and they literally are that close to Pat's beautiful children.
CROWLEY: This year, the senior senator from Indiana and the senior senator from Vermont are working together on retooling the school lunch program and on two refugee immigration bills. One authored by Leahy/Lugar, the other by Lugar/Leahy.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And next hour, Candy will join us live to talk health care and the ethic problems for New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. That's at 8:10 Eastern right here on the Most News in the Morning.
It's about 30 minutes past the hour, and that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
People in the northeast waking up to near blizzard conditions. Heavy, wet snow creating danger on the ground, grounding close to one thousand flights and taking down trees and power lines. Rob Marciano coming up to tell us where we could see as much as three feet, Kiran.
CHETRY: Oh, goodness. All right.
Well, explosions shaking Kabul. 17 people killed and the Taliban claiming responsibility for as many as four suicide attacks.
A hospital official says that many of the dead are foreigners. These blasts literally shook our correspondent Ben Wedeman out of bed. He's going to be joining us live with more on the aftermath and what happened in about 10 minutes.
ROMANS: The house voting to extend a lifeline for 1.2 million out of work Americans receiving jobless benefits. Unemployment benefits and subsidies through health insurance through Cobra. They are set to expire for these more than a million people on Sunday. It's now up to the Senate to pass this stop-gap measure.
CHETRY: Well, all week we've been taking a look at why almost nothing has been getting done in D.C. in our special series "Broken Government." So a day after both parties sat down with President Obama to talk health care, are we really any closer to reform?
Here to break it down for us, we have Kenneth Thorpe. He's a professor of health policy at Emory University. He also worked for the Health and Human Services Department for President Clinton in evaluating what the impact the former president's health care proposals would have had. Good to have you with us this morning, Kenneth.
KENNETH THORPE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
CHETRY: And also we have Dr. Bernadine Healy for us, the health editor for "U.S. News and Health Report" and also the former director for the National Institutes of Health. Great to see you as well, Dr. Healy.
DR. BERNADINE HEALY, HEALTH EDITOR, "U.S. NEWS AND HEALTH REPORT": Good morning.
CHETRY: Kenneth, let me start with you. I mean, look, we have this year of back and forth, proposals on the table, something passing in the House, something passing in the Senate. Now the president basically moderating a big discussion and debate about health care. Do you think we're any closer to reform?
THORPE: Well, I do. I thought yesterday was really monumental. I think we moved past the sound bites and really got into substance. And I think the American people can sort of see where both parties were coming from. And it kind of exposed two big issues. One is the extent to which we are going to regulate the insurance industry. There are big differences of opinion about how much regulation to have there.
The Democratic proposals would go a little bit further in making sure that you can't deny people coverage if they have preexisting conditions, for example, and the second big difference was, how serious are we going to be in covering all Americans?
The Democratic proposal as it stands, would expand coverage to about 31 million Americans. That's going to cost some money. The republican proposal would expand coverage to about three million Americans. So there's a big (INAUDIBLE) there.
CHETRY: Sure is. And one of the interesting things was this exchange because people are still going back and forth about the facts and arguing their points of view. I want you to listen, Dr. Healy, to this exchange between Lamar Alexander and President Obama on whether or not premiums would rise under President Obama's plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So Lamar, when you mentioned earlier that you said, premiums go up, that's just not the case according to the Congressional Budget Office.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: Mr. President, if you're going to contradict me I ought to have a chance to -- the Congressional Budget Office report says that premiums will rise in the individual market as a result of the Senate bill.
OBAMA: No, no, no. Let me -- this is an example of where we've got to get our facts straight.
ALEXANDER: That's my point.
OBAMA: Well, exactly. So let me respond to what you just said, Lamar, because it's not factually accurate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. So this was fact check, Dr. Healy, by a lot of folks who essentially called it a draw, saying that they were both cherry picking information from CBO reports that premiums would go up a little bit but it's more complicated than that. But doesn't this illustrate how difficult it is to really get a straight answer of how some of these changes would affect the cost and healthcare in the future.
HEALY: Well, I think that's right. In fact, you picked out the nugget, an important nugget, which is what's going to happen, America is asking, to my premiums and to my cost of medicine and the real answer is, it's going to go up. And finally, there was a concession. Yes, it will go up, but guess what, you're going to get a better policy.
And that gets to the second issue, which is, that people are going to be getting policies that are selected by the government, sometimes more than they need. The catastrophic policy, was sort of dinged by the president. He believes everyone should have the same policy, the same comprehensive policy. Well, maybe that's not what the 30-year-old needs. Maybe they can get by, get by very well with a primary care plus catastrophic.
But one thing that came through loud and clear, is that D.C. is going to say this is what everyone needs. And the trouble with that is it increases the costs. Premiums will go up, especially on young people, and that has to be discussed. It's the one thing I wish that had been discussed.
CHETRY: And you know, Ken, the other interesting thing, you just spoke to this as well, that the president's plan, Democrats say we need to cover 31 million uninsured Americans. I mean, there's 47 million uninsured Americans, they argue and when you talk to Republicans -- we talked to Senator John Cornyn yesterday, said no, no, no. That's a wildly inflated number.
When you talk about people that actually want and need insurance and can't afford it, you're talking about a much lower number. If you can't necessarily agree on who wants and needs health insurance at various stages of their lives, how can you move forward on who is going to get it under a plan?
THORPE: Well, I mean, again, going to the facts are really important as we've just been talking about. According to the Census Bureau, about 46 million Americans on a typical day don't have health insurance coverage. So that's a fact.
Secondly, on the cost of insurance if you look at people buying insurance in the individual market by themselves, the CBO, Congressional Budget Office, has said that 18 million will have lower premiums. So that's right out of the CBO report. The remaining 14 million people who buy individual coverage, will either pay the same or a little bit more, but they'll get better policies. Just really quickly in terms of --
CHETRY: Go ahead.
THORPE: On this Washington issue, the states actually are much more prescriptive in terms of health insurance premiums and what's in a package and what's in the Senate and House bills. I mean, these Senate and House bills would provide tremendous flexibility in what would be in these packages. You can buy an insurance package where you would pay 40 percent of the costs, all the way up to a package where you pay only 10 percent of the costs, out of pocket.
So, the packages are much less preparative in the House and Senate bill than they are under current state regulation in terms of state mandate on what has to be an insurance benefit.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're going to have to leave it there. Kenneth Thorpe and Dr. Bernadine Healy, I thank both of you for being with us this morning. Thirty-seven minutes past the hour.
THORPE: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most Mews in the Morning.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban is claiming responsibility for two suicide bombings in the Afghan capital targeting foreigners. At least 17 people were killed and many more wounded. CNN's Ben Wedeman is following developments live from Kabul.
Good morning, Ben. And these blasts, literally shook you out of bed?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The blast occurred at 6:35 in the morning on the Friday morning. Friday is the weekend here. We expected a quiet day but we were all jarred out of bed. Our villa is less than a mile from the site of the blast. We rushed there and the action was ongoing.
There was gunfight, gun battles going on in the street between the attackers and the Afghan police. This was not just one bombing. It started with this car bomb. A massive car bomb. And then it was followed up by suicide bombers and also gunmen dressed up in Afghan security uniforms.
The situation now seems to have calmed down a bit. We saw investigators both Afghan, French and American, going over the scene, but as we know, there's no question about who is behind the bombing. The Taliban wasted no time to claim responsibility for the attacks. Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, Ben.
CHETRY: Well, women could soon be on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. The top Army brass considering lifting a ban on having women in a combat role. Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with an "AM Original" this morning.
And Barbara, it's interesting because when you take a look at the unique nature of both of these wars, women are already, you know, on the battle ground, if you will.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oh absolutely, Kiran. You know, technically the law says women are not supposed to be on front line combat units, but, of course, the reality is so very different.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. JENNIFER HUNT, U.S. ARMY: My convoy was hit by a roadside bomb. It impacted the side of my humvee.
STARR (voice-over): Army Sergeant Jennifer Hunt's job was to help Iraqis to rebuild the country, but suddenly one day, she was in combat.
HUNT: I had shrapnel through my cheek. It came into this side of my cheek and it left the front.
STARR: It's not really supposed to be this way. 16 years ago, the Pentagon banned women from serving in battlefield units whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground. But the reality is, today, women are going on patrol, driving convoys, flying helicopters, in a war with no front lines. This week, an astounding admission from the head of the Army.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: General, what's your view about expanding the ability of women to serve in combat roles?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, I believe that it's time that we take a look at what women are actually doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and look at our policy and then we've discussed this between ourselves here.
STARR: 235,000 women have deployed to the war zones, 125 have lost their lives, 668 wounded. The military already struggling to allow gays to openly serve, may not be ready for more change. Elaine Donnelly of the Conservative Center for Military Readiness has long opposed women in combat writing recently, "women on average do not have the physical capability to lift a fully loaded male soldier who has been wounded under fire." But Sergeant Hunt, wearing a Purple Heart, says women and men face the same dangers.
HUNT: I do feel that I was in combat, yes. I was engaged by the enemy when they, you know, exploded an IED near my humvee. You can't hit the pause button and say, you know, I'm not -- I'm not supposed to be here, you know, don't shoot at me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: You know, Kiran, officially the Pentagon position is that they are not looking at this issue at all right now. I think General Casey's remarks took a lot of people in the Pentagon by surprise. Right now, here, they have their hands full working on that don't ask, don't tell issue. Just yesterday the head of the Marine Corps said he opposed lifting the ban to allow gays to openly serve in the military. So change is pretty hard to come by here at the pentagon. Kiran.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Barbara Starr for us this morning. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. It's 43 minutes past the hour. Rob will have this morning's travel forecast right after a quick break.
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CHETRY: Picture of the snowy white Columbus Circle on Manhattan's West Side this morning. You see the cars moving, and they're taking it a little bit slower than usual, and actually not as many as we usually see out there at this time, right?
ROMANS: Over in Brooklyn (INAUDIBLE) that was blowing sideways and in the subways there's still snow coming down through the grates and blowing sideways. And drifting in the actual subway so people who are going to work are saying, wait a minute, I thought once I got down the steps it would be better. But it isn't.
CHETRY: No. No, I mean, it's blizzard like. I mean, they're calling it a snow hurricane, really.
Twenty-seven degrees right now. More snow later, 35 degrees for a high. And our Rob Marciano keeping track of all of it for us.
ROMANS: All right, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO: Christine, Kiran, come on, guys. Tough it up. It's not that bad out there.
CHETRY: Give it to it (ph) straight. Give it to us straight. We can take it.
MARCIANO: Look at the -- look at this thing. I mean, it exploded overnight. The cloud canopy extends into almost Central Canada, certainly up through the -- the Maritime Provinces, getting down through the Delmarva. This thing a beast for sure.
If it is not the snow, it's the wind that's killing you in Maine, 70-mile-an-hour winds there, Concord Airport, 68-mile-an-hour wind gusts, and New York City, 45-mile-an-hour wind gusts. So certainly enough to take down some tree limbs across the city as we've seen.
Snowfall across parts of Pennsylvania and Jersey, a foot and a half, in some cases in Orange County, unofficial reports of two feet of snow. And then this thing continues to spin more in the way of snow across parts of New York.
Pleasantville, New York -- this is on the east side of the Hudson River, which actually saw -- it took a while for it to change over from rain to snow. So a wet snow, but doesn't that just look -- it just looks like mush. It is so heavy and so hard to get through. They're going to have a tough time today digging out, as will many folks across the tri-state area.
More snow rotating in. We're trying to get some dry air into this thing but it's not having great success, so we do anticipate seeing more significant snowfall today, although it will begin to wind down, at least the snow rates.
But look at all the advisories and warnings up from Northern Maine all the way down to North Carolina where right now there are blizzard warnings in effect. So snow showers across the Appalachians, with winds blowing that snow sideways at times, reducing visibilities down to zero.
How much more snow do we expect? Generally about 4 to 8 inches on top of what you've already seen, so that will bring grand totals of 12 to 18 inches in -- in some parts of New York City.
Big block out (ph) in the Atlantic Ocean kind of just putting the brakes on this thing as it kind of got to it and stalled and it's doing a -- a bit of a loop the loop over -- over -- top of New York. So that's why it's pretty much a two-day storm.
We haven't -- I can't remember the last time we saw one of these things. Just to get northwesterly movement of the track, and then to see it do a loop like it's doing, crazy storm with -- wrapping up, hopefully, what is a crazy winter.
But looking at the long range models, guys, just -- just keep your boots handy because next week just -- looks just as active for some folks across the Eastern seaboard.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROMANS: Crazy meteorologist, Rob Marciano.
CHETRY: Yes. We're going to become hardened folks, used to the snow. It's like we're in Buffalo.
ROMANS: Back in Iowa. MARCIANO: Embrace it, guys. Embrace it.
CHETRY: We will.
ROMANS: Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: We don't really have a choice. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you guys.
CHETRY: Well, this morning's top stories just minutes away, including the storm. It's dumping snow, as Rob just told us, and sleet in the northeast. We're outside in the elements.
We're also keeping a tab on the airports. If you're flying, call ahead because cancellations are piling up.
ROMANS: At five after the hour -- that was uncomfortable. President Obama basically telling Senator John McCain to get over it during the Health Care Summit, and some other highlights you might have missed in the seven-hour marathon.
CHETRY: Also at 25 minutes past the hour, a look at how people are struggling as the government squabbles over health care. What if you had to choose between insurance or paying for your child's education? "Broken Government" -- the real consequences.
Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
All week long we've been investigating broken government, and this morning we're focusing on the environment, specifically one town's fears that pollution from nearby chemical plants is actually making them sick.
CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story of Mossville, Louisiana and the government's failure to the respond to the residents' cries for help.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran and Christine, you know, we've all driven by places like this. You -- you look at those smokestacks, you see all the smoke coming out of that. Is that smoke? Is that steam? Is it good? Is it bad? What could it potentially be doing to me?
That's the question that people in Mossville, Louisiana have been asking for some time, and I can tell you as a starting point, they don't believe that stuff is very good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): They've been complaining for decades. Residents of this Louisiana community say the 14 chemical plants here are making them sick. They're sounding the alarm to the companies, to state officials, to federal agencies -- anyone who would listen.
GUPTA (on camera): I was really curious what the people of Mossville were experiencing on a day to day basis, so we put up some signs around town asking them if they wanted to talk about it, and they did.
How many people here have had a -- either themselves or a family member affected in some way through illness or something else because of what they believe to be the chemical plants?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). I had one kidney removed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Encephalitis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I go to dialysis three days a week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter suffer with endometriosis to the point to where she had to have a total hysterectomy done. I end (ph) up having a total hysterectomy like most young women do in this area.
GUPTA: Most young women have hysterectomies?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GUPTA: You did? And you did too? And you believe it's because, again, of this pollution that causes --
GUPTA (voice-over): As a doctor, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. All along, local industry says there's no connection between health problems and the plants.
LARRY DEROUSSEL, LAKE AREA INDUSTRY ALLIANCE: They have no ill effects on the local community.
GUPTA: And it wasn't until 1998 that the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the ATSDR, took up their case and actually tested the blood of 28 Mossville residents. What they found were levels of dioxins, known carcinogens that were three times the national average.
RICHARD LIPSEY, LIPSEY AND ASSOCIATES TOXICOLOGIST: But in Mossville, it's three times too high, which means it's being stored not only in their fat, but it's being stored in their pancreas. You're going to see a lot of diabetes. It's being stored in their liver. You're going to see liver cancer. It's being stored in their kidneys and in their brains.
So are there going to be adverse health affects? Yes.
GUPTA: But even after the 1998 study, there wasn't any federal government action. Instead, in 2001, there were more tests to see if dioxin levels had gone down. They hadn't.
Still, the agency, ATSDR, concluded the levels didn't pose a health risk, but did deserve more investigation.
DR. HOWARD FRUMKIN, AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND DISEASE REGISTRY: Part of the problem is setting these lines in the sand as if they're --
GUPTA: Dr. Howard Frumkin is the head of the ATSDR.
GUPTA (on camera): Did the agency, this agency or any other agency, fail the people of Mossville there?
FRUMKIN: I think that as an overall system with all of the agencies, all of the companies, all of the stakeholders who are involved, we probably haven't done as much as we could. It may be that, going forward, we need to be thinking about the locations of industrial facilities and the locations of where people live and keeping a healthy distance between them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: There may be some good news, Kiran and Christine, regarding Mossville. Right now, the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, is conducting an investigation to see if there is that, quote- unquote, "healthy distance".
They're also looking into whether or not they may qualify for cleanup under the Superfund law. That's typically reserved for America's most polluted places. So we'll certainly keep you posted on that. But, again, this is what's happening in Mossville, Louisiana.
Kiran, Christine, back to you.
CHETRY: Unbelievable. A great investigation there from Sanjay.
And be sure to tune in to CNN on Saturday, March 20th, 8:00 P.M. Eastern. Dr. Sanjay Gupta's documentary, "Toxic Towns USA". He's going to be taking a closer look at the plight of the people of Mossville, Louisiana and also how their health issues have been handled or mishandled by a broken government.
Meantime, AMERICAN MORNING continues. Your top stories coming your way in just 90 seconds. We'll be right back.
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