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American Morning

Senator Bunning Ends His Filibuster; President to Unveil New Health Care Reform Proposal, Ship Seized by Somali Pirates; Threat of Violence Slowing Relief Efforts in Chile; Madoff Whistleblower Weighs in on Regulatory Reform; Pricey and Unnecessary Procedure Puts Strain on Health Care System

Aired March 03, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday to you. It's the 3rd of March. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us in the Most News in the Morning.

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, a $10 billion unemployment bill passed by the senate and signed by the President. What it is really is a 30-day lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Americans who still cannot find work. All of that made possible by a Republican senator from Kentucky who finally backed off his one-man filibuster.

ROBERTS: Four days after one of biggest earthquakes ever, aftershocks are still complicating rescue efforts in Chile. The death toll now approaching 800. Our crew spent the night in their vehicle rather than test the roof over their heads. We're going to go live to our Sara Sidner who is in the earthquake zone.

CHETRY: And exotic animals kept in captivity and trained to perform. But what happens to these animals once their entertaining days are over? We're going to take you to the largest wild animal sanctuary in the United States.

ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning, Somali pirates have captured a Saudi tanker off the Horn of Africa. The European Union Naval Force is reporting that the Al Saudi was overtaken Monday in the Gulf of Aden between Somali and Yemen. Fourteen crew members have been taken hostage, all believed to be safe at this point.

The captain is Greek, but the nationalities of the rest of the crew are unknown. It was a 5,000 ton tanker that usually carried fuel oil. At the time of the hijacking, though, it was empty. The ship was not registered with maritime authorities as it sailed in unprotected waters.

CHETRY: And right now the tanker is believed to be near a known pirate stronghold in that region. Pirate attacks typically spike this time of year when the monsoon season ends and the calmer seas make it easier to board ships. Earlier we talked to John Harbour of the European Union Naval Force, and John talked about whether he thought the pirates would try to get ransom or would they try to use it as a base of operations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMANDER JOHN HARBOUR, EUROPEAN UNION NAVAL FORCE: Effectively the pirates will take almost any ship as far as their concerned. The target of opportunity gives them opportunity to do something with it. You're quite right in suggesting that the asking for the ransom might not be as forthcoming as a huge supertanker.

But at the end of the day there are still 14 lives involved. Of course, our thoughts go out to the crew at the moment and families of the crew on board that ship. But you're quite right in also suggesting that a ransom was not immediately forthcoming, they could use the ship as perhaps a mother ship in other pirating operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So if you're wondering how much the ransom could be, the Syria Star, this was a Saudi supertanker, much larger than this ship we're talking about now, was hijacked in 2008, released for $3 million ransom. That ship was filled with oil.

ROBERTS: Jim Bunning balked for nearly a week, and last night he finally blinked. That cleared the way for the Senate to pass a $10 billion measure that extends unemployment benefits for hundreds and thousands of Americans for one month.

Bunning, a former big league pitcher who's now a Republican senator from Kentucky decided to call off his one man filibuster that had proven to be very unpopular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JIM BUNNING, (R) KENTUCKY: We must get our debt problems under control and there is no better time than now. That is why I've been down here demanding that this bill be paid for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Dana Bash has been following the late-breaking developments from Capitol Hill. Dana, before we get to the politics of this whole process, let's take a look at people who are impacted bipartisan bickering.

It's estimated that more than 200,000 Americans were about to stop receiving unemployment checks this week. Thousands of federal workers had already been furloughed. How quickly is the money now that Bunning has removed his block, how quickly is the money going to get to these folks?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president has already signed this bill into law, technically the money should start flowing right away. One agency that was affected, the Transportation Department, they didn't even wait for the president's signature. I talked to a transportation official last night who said they were getting the word out to some 2,000 workers who are furloughed because of this since Monday. They should get back to work this morning. So that is already happening.

Now, people who lost unemployment insurance and COBRA health insurance benefits, at least subsidies from the government, Democrats here tell us they hope to restore some money they lost to do that retroactively.

But remember, this was a 30-day temporary restoration of these programs and they have to do this long term. Senators say that they hope to pass a larger package hopefully they say by the end of the week.

ROBERTS: Dana, Senator Bunning was pretty firm about his position. We saw that encounter between you and your colleague from ABC there as he was trying to get into the elevator. It seemed like he wasn't going to back down. Why did he decide to?

BASH: He said all along, John, that he wasn't opposed to this $10 million package of benefits programs. He said he just wanted to pay for it and not add to the deficit.

Under considerable pressure from his Republican colleagues, which until last night he was not really listening to, he decided to agree to a Democrat offer to have a vote last night and a couple more down the road, to pay for and offset this $10 billion package.

We've seen over the past several days an ornery side of Jim Bunning. I want to read you, John, the statement he released just before the vote on his amendment last night.

He said "I hope Senate Democrats tonight vote for their own pay- fors and show Americans that they are committed to fiscal discipline. I will be watching them closely and checking off the hypocrites one by one."

John I think he has a lot of check marks on his ledger because the way his amendment went down last night. All Democrats but three voted against it. They simply have a difference with him and see this as emergency spending that does not have to be paid for.

ROBERTS: Dana Bash for us this morning on Capitol Hill. Dana, thanks.

CHETRY: The battle for the Texas governor's mansion is now set. Incumbent Governor Rick Perry defeated Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in a hotly contested Republican primary yesterday. Senator Hutchison was once thought to be headed towards an easy win over Perry, but Perry telling supporters that this is another GOP warning shot fired at Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY, (R) TEXAS: There were folks watching the national campaign in 2008 and started to celebrate at what they considered to be the end of the Republican Party and the final nail in the coffin of American conservatism.

(BOOS)

But there were a string of victory that's have come along lately. There was a victory in New Jersey, a victory in Virginia, a victory in Massachusetts.

(APPLAUSE)

And now there has been a victory in Texas!

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Perry will face former Houston mayor Bill White in the November general election. White won a six-way race in the Democratic primary. Democrats have not won a statewide office in the last 16 years.

CHETRY: In just a few hours President Obama will take the wraps off of his revised healthcare proposal. It's a last ditch effort to win Republican support for health care reform. The question now though is, will it succeed?

Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House. What can we expect to hear from the president as he unveils this latest proposal?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, that's a good question about whether or not he's going to succeed. Aides are saying this is his final act. He's showing he is open to some Republican ideas and at the same time push along the people in his own party who are on the fence about this.

One of things he did yesterday, he sent a letter to the leadership of Democrats as well as Republicans saying remember the bipartisan health care sum submit last Thursday, there's Republican ideas I'm willing to listen to and put on to his version of health care.

Some of those things include taking on fraudulent medical charges, new funding for resolving malpractice suits and increasing doctors Medicaid reimbursement and offering tax incentives to curb doctor visits.

All of these things together, he says I will go ahead and sign on to. Republicans are saying, look, this is not going to solve the issue and not going to solve the problem. We have already heard from the minority whip Eric Cantor who said if the president adds a couple of Republican solutions to $1 trillion health care package that the American people don't support, it isn't bipartisanship, it's political cover.

But, Kiran, the president later today will make it very clear, he's not interested in starting over and in piecemeal. He's encouraging Republicans to join him, but more importantly, he's saying Democrats, let's get this thing done.

CHETRY: Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning at the White House. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Also new this morning, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel is insisting he is not going anywhere despite allegations of ethics violations. Rangel walked out of a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he will not resign as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means committee, even though a senior House Democrat aide told CNN he's going to step aside.

CHETRY: Gay couples who want to marry in the nation's capital can start applying for licenses today. The Supreme Court clearing the way for that yesterday when it refused to block D.C.'s gay marriage law.

Opponents want the issue on the ballot. Chief Justice John Roberts says it is up to local courts to decide.

ROBERTS: The military's view of don't ask-don't tell is beginning to take shape. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said an outline of what it should include. He said it should involve our troops but not disrupt the force engaged in two wars and other operations. The review is the first since the law took effect in 1993 banning openly gay service members.

CHETRY: The Obama administration is considering new requirements for carmakers in the wake of the acceleration issues that sparked Toyota's massive recall. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood telling Congress that the government may require all cars and trucks sold in the U.S. to have a brake system that can override the gas pedal.

He says that the new safety feature would require an inexpensive software upgrade.

ROBERTS: Hulu is losing two of its most popular programs. Next week, Comedy Central will pull "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" from the popular video streaming web site which offers hit TV shows for free. Viacom owns both programs and was unable to reach a deal to keep the shows on their site.

CHETRY: Spring break at Cancun is bouncing back. Cheap airfare and big, wonderful package deals helping the party get started after a recession and fears of swine flu meant millions less tourists last year. Hotel occupancy is up 85 percent in February and expected to go higher in March when, of course, the real fun begins, spring break.

ROBERTS: But do you need to go away for spring break, because the weather is beginning to look up a little bit?

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: Coming up at 7:13 we'll go live to the quake zone in Chile. We're getting the latest on the rescue and recovery efforts, but on the crackdown on looting as well.

Also, it's believed more than 30 percent of all births in the U.S. are c-section deliveries. We'll take a look at how the procedure is putting strain on our health care system.

ROBERTS: And at 7:40, exotic animals sometimes abused and exploited for our entertainment. But what happens to these animals when their performing days are over? We'll show you.

It's 12 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

The number of dead in Chile now approaching 800 in the wake of the strongest earthquake, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The number is rising as rescue crews finally getting a chance to dig into some of the collapsed buildings. Also, the threat of aftershocks and violence has slowed down relief efforts.

Our Sara Sidner is live in Concepcion, Chile. And, Sara, first of all, what is the situation right now for the half million estimated displaced people in Chile in the wake of this earthquake?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, a lot of those people are finding alternative places to live. They are not comfortable for certain. They're living, for example, in tents outside of their damaged homes, outside of their damaged apartment complexes.

And some people say that while the buildings are still standing, because many buildings are still standing here in Concepcion, the vast majority, but they're afraid because the aftershocks keep coming. Some of them pretty strong and they're afraid that structurally, those buildings may not withstand all of these aftershocks. So they are sleeping outside, sleeping in tents. Some are trying to find family members and going in their tents sleeping with them.

So, the situation is very difficult. And there's the problem with supplies. There is no running water in the city, in and around the city. There is no electricity in and around the city. And so people are starting to get quite desperate about trying to make food, for example, to eat, to have something warm to drink. And it's pretty chilly here in Concepcion. So, there is still an air of desperation here in the city. But the army has come in. The military has come in, in great numbers over the last 24 hours. They have brought in supplies. Firefighters are also trying to help people at least have enough water so that they can survive -- Kiran.

CHETRY: You know, a lot was made in the wake of this earthquake, how it was different than Haiti and that this is a country that had more resources. This is a country that was not poor. Yet, we're still seeing some of the same problems, I guess with distribution, in terms of relief and supplies. Why is that? SIDNER: Well, this is one of Latin America's most developed nations and a lot of people are wondering what happened. Why was the response so slow? The government says that they don't believe the response was slow. This is a huge earthquake, an 8.8 magnitude quake, certainly nothing to sneeze at. But there is the situation where a lot of the buildings are still standing, so the building code seemed to have held up in many of these areas.

But as far as help, no one can figure out why exactly things were so slow in the beginning although help is arriving in the last, as I said, 24 hours. There's going to be a lot of questions that the government has to answer on that -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Interesting things when people were comparing these two devastating earthquakes that took place, one in Haiti, one there in Chile. The looting situation -- people thought that there was going to be a lot of looting in the aftermath in Haiti. We didn't see that as much. And here it's turned into a real problem. Why?

SIDNER: People are angry. It really seems that they are angry and it's politically polarizing. You can really tell that. People complained about the government. They complain about, you know, the police. Where were they? Where were the military right after? And some of it is just simply crimes of opportunity.

But yesterday, we did see looters who had been caught by the military, their guns pointed to their backs as they were waiting to go ahead and pick them up and arrest them. But the vast majority of looters, really that had stopped because the military has put a curfew in place from 6:00 p.m. until noon. So a long time where people just aren't allowed to be in the streets, but is really squelched the looting issue here. But we noticed downtown in the business districts, somewhere around 10 percent of the stores had been looted -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Sara Sidner for us this morning in Concepcion. Thanks so much.

We're going to take a quick break. It's 19 minutes past the hour. When we come back, we're "Minding Your Business."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Hey, welcome back. Twenty-two minutes after the hour. It's time for "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ROBERTS: Yes, Christine Romans is here with us today. And what are we going to talk about this morning?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, yesterday, I sat down with Harry Markopolos. He is the guy who in 2000 wrote the entire Madoff scandal. Sent to the SEC and said look, this guy named Bernie Madoff is scamming people to the tune of hundreds of millions of billions of dollars. And the SEC went oh and didn't know about it. So I sat with him yesterday and said as we're sitting here talking about federal regulators changing, or in the troughs of reforming our financial regulatory system, do you think we'll be able to protect consumers going forward, both from high octane financial products on Wall Street and from guys like Bernie Madoff? This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY MARKOPOLOS, AUTHOR, "NO ONE WOULD LISTEN": I'd say that the regulators are working for the bad guys. They are captive to the industry, and that's who they tend to represent. They should be protecting us investors, us bank depositors, and they're not. They're representing the bank CEOs and they're representing the Wall Street titans and they're not doing their jobs for us.

ROMANS: Do you think Tim Geithner, Sheila Bair, Ben Bernanke, all these people who are supposed to be leading us out, the president's team?

MARKOPOLOS: I like Sheila Bair. I think she's pretty outspoken. She's an advocate for investors. Ben Bernanke, he didn't regulate the banks and he was supposed to be doing that and he got reappointed. Tim Geithner, president of the New York Fed -- well, a major bank heist occurred right beneath his feet in New York and he didn't see it going down. And he gets appointed the secretary of the treasury. That doesn't seem fair. The American people don't feel they're being represented in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So where are we now with financial regulatory reform? Well, senators are working on a deal to put the Consumer Financial Regulatory Agency within the fed. They're also talking about how to make sure that too big to fail doesn't happen anymore. But, guys, he says that the SEC, in particular, they're making some changes. He says that Mary Schapiro, who runs that agency, has been doing the right things but they need to go 100 times faster. And he says there's nobody in our government who understands the financial engineering on Wall Street and can figure out what's happening before it happens.

He says it's math guys and quant (ph) women and people who understand, you know -- over the --

ROBERTS: Quant women?

ROMANS: Quant, yes -- over-the-counter derivatives and people with these real mathematical and quantitative analysis who will be able to figure out how to protect consumers and that's absolutely lacking in the federal government.

ROBERTS: Interesting fellow.

ROMANS: Yes, he sure is.

ROBERTS: Christine, thanks so much.

Twenty-four minutes after the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: 7:26 now, your top stories just about four minutes away. But first, an "A.M. Original," something that you're going to see only on AMERICAN MORNING.

The number of women giving birth by caesarian is on the rise. It's estimated that one in three moms have a C-section these days, but often the pricey procedure is done out of convenience rather than to avoid complications. And as our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen tells us now it is putting a strain on our health care system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, where Hailey Nelson is about to have a baby. How's the labor going?

HAILEY NELSON, PATIENT: It's going well.

COHEN: That's good. Any pains yet?

NELSON: No, we're good to go.

COHEN: Did the epidural kick in?

NELSON: Yes.

COHEN: OK. Well, we're going to catch up with you in a bit.

I want to say something that's going to sound a little bit crass, but how Hailey has this baby affect my pocketbook and yours, too. Let me explain.

I'm here at Intermountain with Dr. Brent James, who's the chief quality officer. It looks like Hailey is doing well in there.

BRENT JAMES, INTERMOUNTAIN, CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER: Very well. I think in about an hour, we'll have another citizen in the state of Utah.

COHEN: All right. Now here at Intermountain, you are very focused on not wasting money. So can you take me on a little tour of the hospital and show me how you do it?

JAMES: I'd be delighted.

COHEN: So you found that you had a lot of CT scans that were unnecessary, wasting money. How much money did you save when you stopped doing repetitive scans?

JAMES: We dropped the total number by about 20 percent. It would have been measured in the tens of millions of dollars. And it's not just CT scans, it's other imaging exams.

COHEN: And here's another way Intermountain saves money. And I'll tell you, it's so much cuter than an MRI. Here at this hospital, two out of every 10 babies are born via caesarian section. However, the national average at hospitals around the country is that three out of every 10 babies are born by C-section.

Now you might think, OK, one extra baby by C-section, what's the different? Well, a C-section costs about $2,000 more than a vaginal birth. So if you do the math, if every hospital in the country had statistics like this hospital, the nation would save about $1 billion. So by instituting all of these changes to get rid of waste, how much money are you saving?

JAMES: We estimate that we're saving a minimum of about $150 million per year.

COHEN: That's a lot of money. So why can't all hospitals do this?

JAMES: Frankly, they can.

COHEN: I got to tell you, it makes me a little bit nervous when I hear the hospitals are trying to save money, because I want you to spend money on me when I'm sick. So you're saving all this money, but are you delivering good care?

JAMES: Turns out that in almost all circumstances better care is cheaper care.

COHEN: How could better care be cheaper care?

JAMES: Well, you avoid the complications, so you don't have to pay for the complication. We have a great way of saying that the best patient outcome at the lowest necessary cost.

COHEN: OK. So Dr. James, I'm going to go check on Hailey now.

JAMES: Wonderful.

COHEN: So congratulations, Hailey.

NELSON: Thank you.

COHEN: She's beautiful.

NELSON: Thank you, we think so too.

COHEN: So she was not born by C-section.

NELSON: No.

COHEN: So she saved everyone a little bit of money, huh?

NELSON: Yes. That's a good way to look at it, huh?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: So, Elizabeth, as the chief quality officer there said, they're looking at that particular hospital for the best possible outcome at the lowest possible cause. Seems like a common sense solution, so why are more hospitals doing it?

COHEN: You know what, John, this is actually in some ways a relatively difficult thing to do, because you have to change the culture of your doctors and of your patients, telling doctors and patients, you know, we're not going to do as many C-sections as we used to. It's a difficult thing.

You have to change the way doctors practice and also what's interesting is that when hospitals cut costs, they make less money. They can't charge as much money. So this hospital you just saw, they make less money than they used to in many ways because they can't charge as much as they used to. And telling hospitals to make less money, not always an easy thing to do.

ROBERTS: Just thinking about that very thing that every time you don't do a CAT scan, you're taking money out of your own pocket. But they do seem willing to do it.

COHEN: That's right. That's a great way to do it. They're taking money out of their own pockets.

ROBERTS: Great story this morning. Elizabeth, thanks so much.

We're crossing the half hour now. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.

Triple suicide blasts in Iraq and a cold calculated trap set up by attackers. Officials say two explosions went off in the city of Bacuba. And as the wounded are being taken to the hospital, another bomb went off at the hospital. The blast killed at least 29 people, and come three days before elections.

CHETRY: Taxpayers in Hawaii are getting a big bill for a small wave triggered by the earthquake in Chile. The mayor of Honolulu says the city spent $330,000 responding to the tsunami threat Saturday. Much of that money was on overtime cost, for police and firefighters but also lost revenue from city facilities that were closed as the tsunami approached.

The mayor though defended the city's response saying you can never have enough practice at this.

ROBERTS: Millions of Americans are waking up this morning knowing that they still have unemployment benefits. The curtain finally closing on a bizarre political drama in Washington. Republican Senator Jim Bunning dropping his one-man filibuster, clearing the way for his Senate colleagues to pass a bill that extends jobless benefits for 30 days.

CHETRY: So because of all of this, we're seeing a lot of finger pointing in Washington, much of it aimed at Senator Jim Bunning, of course, the Republican from Kentucky. But many are also saying that the Democrats had the power to stop this sooner but let the situation marinate, perhaps for political purposes. Here to help us break it down from Washington, Patricia Murphy, a columnist at "Politics Daily.com." Good to see you this morning.

PATRICIA MURPHY, POLITICSDAILY.COM: Good morning.

CHETRY: And also our own CNN senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, live on Capitol Hill this morning. Glad to have you as well, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.

CHETRY: I mean, you're the one that chased Senator Bunning into that members only elevator that we saw. He was not clearly interested in explaining to reporters why he was filibustering. So give us the back story on the big turnaround that happened?

BASH: I tell you it was interesting because he had a reason. It was just getting him to talk in the hallways as is the culture here. We talk to senators all the time, all day long was not very easy. But what happened was it was late yesterday morning that he actually told our own congressional producer Ted Barrett, it was the first indication that he was going to potentially back down.

And the way that that happened was by finally relenting to significant Republican pressure, pressure that he was really not interested in before, to agree to the Democrats' offer to give him what he wanted, which is a vote on paying for the $10 billion package. He was never against it. He just wanted to make sure that it was paid for. That didn't pass but at least he got a vote.

CHETRY: Right. But in the meantime, he turned into public enemy number one for much of the day yesterday and perhaps moving forward. And Patricia, how big of a misstep, in your opinion, was this for Senator Bunning and by extension, the GOP? I mean, technically no one came out to defend his move really.

MURPHY: Oh, yes. I think for Jim Bunning he has nothing to lose at this point. He's not going to be up for re-election, he's retiring this year. The problem came for Senate Republicans who knew that Senator Bunning's obstructionism with this piece of legislation. Democrats had a perfect villain for all Republicans. And so Democrats really used this to their best advantage against Republicans to say, look at what Jim Bunning is doing, he's doing it to the most vulnerable Americans, people who were out of work, people who need their checks to survive.

So this was really a political gold mine for Democrats and they really did use it to their biggest political advantage. Republicans knew that and they started backing away and distancing themselves from Bunning yesterday and that was I think part of the reason he stepped away. That he really had nothing to lose. And what Dana said, is that he really did have a substantive point. Republicans were trying to ride that a little ways but then they really were losing the PR game.

CHETRY: And so, Patty, just a quick question about that, why weren't more members of the GOP in the Senate more outspoken about it, coming out and saying, you know what, this is a time when we get to put politics aside and you know, we understand the sentiment behind these but we can't let this happen in practical purposes.

MURPHY: Some Republicans were saying that and they are trying to use this again to their political advantage and making the point that Bunning was making was that Democrats have passed the law. That they would stopped deficit spending, and then in every bill that they have passed since they have not stopped deficit spending. They have been declaring these bills emergency spending to get around those rules.

So, the Republicans knew they had a good issue there. The problem is that Jim Bunning is not a perfect messenger for them and kicking reporters out of elevators where Dana was. He would not talk to reporters. He wouldn't explain his thinking. So they are really starting to lose the PR battle.

I do think it is important to recognize though as you said, Democrats could have stopped this at any time. They could have filed closure. They have the votes to stop the process. They chose not to do it because they knew they really had a winner on their hands.

CHETRY: All right. And Dana, let me just ask you a quick question as well about the Democrats milking this situation. You know, as it turns out it ended and the construction workers back to work, the checks are going to be in the mail. But it really did sort of break in their favor.

Politically speaking, some are asking on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well, are they just playing politics with the situation as well?

BASH: What happened was -- you know, look, and everybody is playing politics here. There's no way to sugarcoat that. That's just what it is. But what happened was this all began last week when the Democratic leader thought that he could just push this through unanimously and Jim Bunning did surprise them when he objected.

And at that point yes, it is absolutely true that the Democratic leadership had procedures that they could have used to work around Jim Bunning. They thought maybe he would back down and they did quickly realize Kiran, that they had as Patricia was saying, a very potent issue. They have been hammered by Republicans have really been on the upswing here in terms of the PR message against Democrats and this was finally a chance for Democrats to, you know, have as Patricia said sort of the villain in that the Republicans are obstructing message.

Very interesting moment yesterday on that point. Republicans came to the microphone as they do every Tuesday, trying to talk about healthcare, trying to talk about the issue that they think is the most potent for them. Every question to the GOP leader Mitch McConnell was about Jim Bunning, his fellow Kentuckian who he has a pretty terrible relationship with and he simply wouldn't answer the question.

It almost got to the point of comedy -- CHETRY: Right.

BASH: -- because he was trying so hard to avoid the question. Because he knew that in terms of the politics and in terms of the substance, it was a political nightmare for Republicans.

CHETRY: All right. Well, I want to thank both of you. Dana Bash, our senior congressional correspondent, Patricia Murphy with politicsdaily.com. Thanks to both of you.

MURPHY: Thank you.

BASH: Thanks, Kiran.

ROBERTS: It's 37 minutes after the hour. About 20 minutes away from an "A.M. House Call" with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This morning Sanjay has got some amazing news about a new asthma treatment that if approved by the FDA could certainly change lives. Stay with us. We'll tell you all about it, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROBERTS: We're back with the most news in the morning. After the recent deadly accident at SeaWorld involving a killer whale, there has been a lot of attention on these animals kept in captivity and trained to perform. Our Gary Tuchman takes a look now at what happens to other exotic animals once they are no longer able to entertain.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, sea mammals are certainly not the only species that perform for human beings. At this ranch behind me, there were many animals that were in show business who are now retired. It's the largest wild animal ranch in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Babe the elephant used to perform in a traveling circus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's got two broken legs, the front right and the rear right.

TUCHMAN: Now the 26-year-old African elephant is being taken care of at the largest wild animal sanctuary in the country. A Humane Society of the United States facility where more than 1,200 animals live on 1,300 acres in east Texas.

DIANE MILLER, BLACK BEAUTY RANCH: We're here to provide permanent sanctuary for animals who have come from all different manner of cruelty and abusive backgrounds.

TUCHMAN: Dave's legs are hurt from treatment back in the performance days. Sad situation but certainly not something you can compare to the treatment of killer whales, right? (on camera): Isn't it apples and oranges with the killer whales at a place like SeaWorld?

MILLER: I think it's very similar in concept. You know, sea mammals just like these terrestrial land animals that we have here at Black Beauty Ranch, sea animals are also wild animals that are being taken from their natural habitats and asked to perform for people in a very unnatural setting.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The director here shows us horses at the sanctuary who are hurt and sick after performing in circuses and shows. And then there is this animal.

(on camera): This is Roo the kangaroo. Roo used to be one of the stars at a roadside attraction here in Texas. His specialty was that he boxed. He boxed human beings. Once when he was fighting a human being, he broke his left arm and ultimately it had to be amputated by a veterinarian.

(voice-over): So is the comparison between these animals and the killer whales fair? The SeaWorld employee in charge of whales training says totally unfair. At SeaWorld, whales are stimulated and happy.

CHUCK TOMPKINS, CURATOR OF ZOOLOGICAL OPERATIONS FOR SEAWORLD: I've been doing this for 32 years and you know I have spent my whole life taking care of animals and to have somebody make a reference that, you know, these performing animals are mistreated is just so offensive I can't even put it into words.

TUCHMAN: There are people who say money affects decisions about animal welfare, a former senior scientist for SeaWorld in 1980s tells us the parks could not financially afford to ever get rid of their killer whales. It would heavily damage the bottom line but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will say, they spend a great deal of money on their facilities and taking the best care of the animals they know how. I think that the whales probably would prefer to be in the ocean, but that's obviously not an option.

TOMPKINS: Most of them raised in the care of man their entire lives. It would be torture to put these animals back into a wild environment.

TUCHMAN: Aquariums and zoos all over the world have star attractions, whether they are pandas or tigers or apes. That certainly would affect the bottom line if they were to leave.

Richard Farinato used to be the assistant director of zoos in Boston and Greenville, South Carolina. That zoo had a star white tiger.

RICHARD FARINATO, FMR. ASST. DIRECTOR, GREENVILLE ZOO: There were days on the Sunday when zoo (INAUDIBLE) with the white tiger there it would be twice the crowd that we would see.

TUCHMAN: Babe is on a diet because of her condition.

(on camera): She weighs 6,800 pounds but used to weigh 7500 pounds. 7600 pounds. Good job losing the 750.

(voice-over): Unlike the killer whales, Babe isn't going back to work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: I asked Diane Miller, the director of the ranch if she thinks it's realistic that Sea World would ever free its killer whales. She says maybe not eminently, but if you change one mind at the time, who knows what could happen in the future. But when you talk with the people who work with the whales at SeaWorld, not only do they scoff at that but they are very insulted by that. Because they fervently believe that their whales are very happy and very healthy. John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Gary Tuchman for us this morning. Gary, thanks.

If memory serves correct, Tillikum the whale at SeaWorld, he was wild.

CHETRY: He was. He was and then I think he sired about 12 to 13 Orcas that were then born in captivity. That was what Chuck was talking about that they would probably not be able to survive in the wild.

ROBERTS: You wonder, could you take an animal that was in the wild, who has been in captivity for so long and put them back in the wild and have them survive?

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) you know, the flopped over fin and he's got the curved tail.

CHETRY: Also, a lot of broken teeth. So those were all things that are very difficult.

ROBERTS: Yes. Boy, they may have a problem on their hands trying to figure out what to do with that -- that whale.

CHETRY: All right. Well, it's 45 minutes past the hour now. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Rob's going to be joining us. He has the morning's travel forecast.

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CHETRY: A beautiful shot this morning of New Orleans, where right now it's 42 degrees. A little bit later it's going to be quite nice there, sunny, going up to a high of almost 60.

ROBERTS: The temperatures are starting to creep up after we had a pretty cold winter.

Our Rob Marciano in the Weather Center down in Atlanta tracking the forecast today. What are we in for today across the country, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Just a little bit of rain, wind and snow for the northeast. Actually the northeastern third or half of the country seeing this storm, which brought all the snow to parts of the southeast yesterday, now moving off the coast.

Is it going to head backwards and retrograde northwesterly like the last blizzard did last week? No, it's not. It's going to take its normal course and actually scoot out to sea a little bit more than anything, and that will limit the snow amounts.

But across parts of the south, especially of higher terrain, including Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, 11.3 inches, pretty substantial. Places in Georgia seeing over 8 and 9 inches as well. While the temperatures today starting out below freezing, we'll see them rise quickly into the 30s and 40s and start the melting process.

But right now we're looking at a rain/snow mixing process, the New York tri-state areas seeing some of this. We don't expect a whole lot of accumulation, but some wind with it as well, and that's going to create some travel delays.

Speaking of wind, gusting to 47 miles an hour across parts of the beaches of North Carolina. Virginia Beach right now and the naval station down there seeing some gusty winds with a rain/snow mix. But again, snow accumulations not expected to be all that dramatic, 47 expected in Atlanta. So we'll start to see the melting there.

Thirty-seven in New York and another West Coast storm heading into California, but warming up this weekend, so you have that to look forward to.

John and Kiran, back up to you.

ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much. We will be looking forward to it.

This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including breaking news, Somali pirates capture a Saudi tanker with 14 people on board. We've got the very latest for you on that.

CHETRY: Also, at three minutes past the hour, Senator Jim Bunning with a change of heart, 2,000 people now back to work this morning. Why he decided to end his one-man stand that cost jobs and benefits.

ROBERTS: And at the bottom of the hour, you've heard of the Tea Party. Well about the Coffee Party? It has exploded on Facebook. We're going to speak to the founder of it.

Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.

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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

In this morning's "A.M. House Call", a potential breakthrough treatment for asthmatics. Some 23 million Americans suffer from the disease, and believe it or not, asthma death rates have increased more than 50 percent since 1980.

As our Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us now, a new treatment, if approved by the FDA, could most certainly change lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You wouldn't know it, but Jenny McLeland and her husband Michael have battled severe asthma since childhood.

JENNY MCLELAND, ASTHMATIC: I was on the highest dose of a corticosteroid maintenance inhaler, as well as had to use my rescue inhaler at least two to three times a day.

MICHAEL MCLELAND, ASTHMATIC: Even with medications and stuff like that, I was in and out of the emergency room a couple of times a month.

GUPTA: But now a new medical breakthrough could change the lives of thousands of asthma suffers. It's called bronchial thermoplasty.

DR. MARIO CASTRO, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It allows us to go down into your windpipes, into your bronchial tubes, and deliver a very controlled energy, a controlled heat to the lining of the windpipe.

GUPTA: Here's how it works. When the smooth muscle around your windpipe constricts, it causes shortness of breath, chest tightness.

CASTRO: And so what we're able to do with this treatment is to decrease that muscle so it's not doing that to you.

GUPTA: It's three treatments, three weeks apart, and no overnight hospital stay. Asthma symptoms could flare up for 24 hours, but within a week they're generally gone for good.

CASTRO: Deep breath. Now through your mouth.

GUPTA: Mario Castro, a pulmonologist, led the study of nearly 300 patients, the largest of its kind in the United States.

CASTRO: It resulted in a decrease in your asthma symptoms, the shortness of breath, the wheezing, chest tightness. It also resulted in less emergency room visits, less hospitalizations, less days missed from work or school.

GUPTA: To be exact, patients in the study who got the treatment logged 84 percent fewer visits to the E.R. than patients who didn't.

But it doesn't come without risks.

DR. NORMAN EDELMAN, AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: It's a complex procedure. People have to be trained to use the technique.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: There you go. So, I mean, as always, when you talk about things that are seeking approval and there are benefits and there are of course risks, but who would be, I guess, the ideal patient for this type of treatment, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, it's interesting, it's -- it's not sort of to be done prophylactically, meaning trying to take somebody who has minimal asthma and prevent them from having severe attacks -- at least, not yet.

The best candidate is someone who has severe, somewhat debilitating asthma and who -- who simply hasn't responded, Kiran, to -- to some of the basic things, whether it be avoidance therapy or whether it be some of the existing medications, they're not getting any response.

These are the people who are often young, healthy and show up in the emergency room in significant distress. That's the candidate that they're sort of zeroing in on right now.

ROBERTS: Now, obviously, Sanjay, people who have these severe asthma attacks are -- are at risk, but, you know, they don't have any long, long, long-term studies about the effects of this. You're actually destroying some tissues in the lungs.

Do they know anything about potential long-term complications, and if somebody doesn't want to have this, any other treatment options out there for them?

GUPTA: Yes. That's a very good question.

So what -- what happens often in asthma, as you saw there, is that the muscles sort of just constricts a little bit too much, and that blocks off the airways. In this case you're sort of thinning that muscle so it can't constrict as much.

Based on the studies they have so far, it doesn't seem to limit pulmonary function or lung function at all. People can go on to -- to be very active, as you saw there in the story about Jenny and Michael. So it doesn't seem to -- at least in the -- in the studies that exist, have those effects, but obviously longer-term studies will take more time to get.

As far as existing medications, John, this is fascinating. If you look at the way the FDA approved drugs, there's a lot of drugs that are approved for asthma, but basically are variations of drugs that already exist in the same class. So -- and they offer incremental benefit, but they're not huge game changers for people who simply aren't responding.

This area of thermoplasty seems to be very fertile in terms of treating, but also this idea of -- of controlling inflammation overall in the body. Now that seems to be another area that researchers are really focusing in on. Inflammation seems to be key to asthma. Fix that and you might be able to help as well. ROBERTS: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta for us today with some promising research. Doc, great to see you. Thanks so much.

CHETRY: It's also interesting what he said is that, you know, you have to be able to train doctors. They have to become familiar with this procedure.

ROBERTS: Yes. And, you know, everything's got a learning curve to it, but you know? At least there's some things in the pipeline because people who suffer from severe asthma, it's just terrible.

CHETRY: It is. It's a devastating illness.

Well, we're going to take a quick break. Your top stories are coming your way in just two minutes. Stick around.

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