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American Morning

Kid at the Air Controls; New Obama Health Care Plan; Jobless Benefits Bill Passes; Chile Earthquakes Aftershocks; Best Paid College Graduates; Hospital Wastage in Pricey and Unnecessary Procedures; New Coffee Party USA promotes open political dialogue; Congressman Charlie Rangel to step aside as chair of House Ways and Means

Aired March 03, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.

Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.

He's including their ideas but not necessarily winning any Republican support. It's President Obama's last-ditch attempt to find some common ground on health care reform. We're live at the White House with details in just a moment.

ROBERTS: A $10 billion jobless benefits bill passed by the Senate and signed by the president last night. Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning finally backing off of his one-man filibuster, clearing the way now for more than 200,000 Americans to keep receiving their unemployment checks. The fallout from an intense week of fighting on Capitol Hill -- just ahead.

CHETRY: Also, a winter storm dumping ice and snow this morning from the Carolinas to New England. Rob Marciano is keeping an eye on all of it and he's going to tell you how it could impact your travel plans today.

ROBERTS: A developing story right now to tell you about. You may not believe it, but the FAA is now investigating an incident in New York City's JFK Airport after a child, apparently, was directing air traffic. It happened two weeks ago at the nation's sixth busiest airport. As you'll hear, the child, who is believed to be under adult supervision, makes at least five radio transmissions to pilots awaiting takeoff.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: This is 171 cleared for takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cleared for takeoff 171.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tried to bring my kid to work.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: One-seven-one contact departure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Departure, 171. Off the job.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Zero-three, clear for takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four-zero-three, clear to takeoff. Thank you very much. You have a great day.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Amax 403, contact departure, adios.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Contact departure, Amax 403, adios.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Contact departure, adios, amigo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adios amigo, departure, (INAUDIBLE) 195.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, the pilots didn't seem to mind. Apparently, they were warned about it, but the FAA not looking on this so favorably. It has released a statement that reads, quote, "Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees."

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has also released a statement saying that they do not condone this type of behavior in any way.

CNN's Susan Candiotti joins us on the phone now with more.

And clearly, when you listen to the pilots, Susan, they were not upset about it. They seemed to almost appreciate it. Yet, the FAA and the air traffic control association, they're of a bit of a different mind. Do we know exactly what happened here?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, we're trying to dig up more details about this. And certainly, from one source with knowledge of the investigation, John, they're saying that the child appears to have been the controller's son, that the controller let him talk on the radio and obviously, professionally, the source says, he shouldn't have done that.

Now, we've also learned that a second controller who was supposed to be in charge at the time -- this doesn't mean they had the title of an official supervisor -- the source said, should be making sure that things like this don't happen. Now, we also understand that the controller whose child it was later reported it to the tower that he had done this, that the controller had done this. The controllers that are involved in the alleged incident have been assigned to other duties pending the outcome of the investigation -- John.

ROBERTS: Well, like we said, it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, you look back and you say, perhaps shouldn't have done that.

Susan Candiotti for us this morning -- Susan, thanks so much.

CHETRY: Well, it appears there's still no "we" in health care reform. The White House is saying that it's going the extra mile to try to include some of the best ideas from both parties in the president's new health care plan which he'll be unveiling this afternoon. Republicans, though, are still saying that they think the best idea is to scrap everything and start over on health care reform.

Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House this morning.

And the president has indicated that that is certainly not an option on the table at this point.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It certainly isn't, Kiran. The president is going to make it very clear this afternoon he's not scrapping anything. He is moving forward on this comprehensive plan and he certainly hopes to get some nervous Democrats along. I mean, obviously, he's going to make the case that he's open so some Republican ideas, but he wants his own party, which is having a difficult time signing off on this, to get on-board.

Now, he sent a letter yesterday to the leadership, both Republican and Democratic leadership, saying essentially -- remember that bipartisan health care summit at the White House last Thursday? There are some ideas that I like from the Republican side that I am willing to sign off on. Some of those include taking on fraudulent medical charges, new funding for resolving malpractice disputes, increasing doctors' Medicaid reimbursements, and finally, offering tax incentives to curb doctor visits. These are all things that were ideas that came from Republicans. The president is now saying I like these ideas, I'm going to sign off on these ideas.

Republicans are saying, wait a minute, hang on here. This is not the approach that we are advocating here.

We heard from Minority Whip Eric Cantor, who's already spoken out, saying if the president simply adds a couple of Republican solutions to $1 trillion health care package that the American people don't support, it isn't bipartisanship. It is political cover.

But the message, Kiran, clearly from the president today is: let's get this thing done, and Democrats, we need you onboard.

CHETRY: And so, any word on the likelihood that this will be another step in that direction? That this will happen?

MALVEAUX: It's such a hard question, Kiran. I mean, obviously, there are a lot of Democrats who are looking at this. They're not -- they're not particularly pleased with the president's version of this bill. There are still those who oppose abortion, who don't like some of the language. There are those who still think that this is too expensive.

And so, he still has some convincing to do with members of his own party.

But clearly, what he's trying to do when he says, "I'm willing to accept some of these ideas from the Republicans," is to give a little bit of political cover to those moderate Democrats to say: Look, you know, we're doing all we can here. So, it's OK. Come onboard, sign this thing. Let's get something done.

CHETRY: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House this morning -- thanks.

ROBERTS: The Senate finally passing a $10 billion bill that extends unemployment benefits for one month. Senator Jim Bunning, a former Major League pitcher, is ending a high-stakes game of hardball by calling off his one-man filibuster. President Obama wasting no time, signing the measure into law last night so the money can start flowing.

We get more now on the pitched battle in Congress from our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, the drama, raw politics, and raw nerves that surrounded this standoff is now over and the money should be flowing back to support the unemployment benefits, the health care benefits, and even highway projects that were hurt by the blocking of this money.

Now, one agency already, last night, sent out word that 2,000 furloughed workers -- this is in the Department of Transportation -- should come back to work. So, that's already getting started.

Now, on the politics of this -- this, of course, was all about Jim Bunning, the Republican from Kentucky. And he argued all along that he supported passing this package, but he wanted it to be paid for. Not add to the deficit.

Here's the argument he made right before these votes.

(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. I support the programs in the bill we are discussing, and if the extension of those programs were paid for, I would gladly support the bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, as expected, Bunning's measure to pay for the $10 billion package failed. On the Democratic side, all but three Democratic senators voted against it. But Bunning insisted he would keep this issue of pressing for fiscal discipline alive. And in tone and tenor that has been typical of Bunning during the past several days, he said, "I will watch closely and check off the, quote, 'hypocrites' one by one," talking about Democrats -- John and Kiran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: All right. Dana Bash for us this morning -- Dana, thanks.

CHETRY: Nine minutes past the hour right now. We get a check of the weather situation with Rob Marciano.

So, there is some nasty stuff out there, certainly -- moving offshore now, but, boy, what a mess in some places.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And, you know, it's going to take a couple of hours before it does move offshore. The back end of it is going to create some stuff that's undesirable, especially for travelers.

Here it is on the scoop, the radar showing the rain/snow mix continue to ride up the eastern seaboard from southeastern Virginia to Delmarva area. Hampton roads, you're seeing a mixture of rain and snow right now. And the snow, mostly wet snow mix, is spinning its way up into the New York metropolitan area.

But this storm is not going to track to the north and west, it's going to track to the north and east, and that will bring most of the precip out of the area by this afternoon. But the winds will be whipping around this thing and that's going to cause a little bit of delay.

As far as accumulations go, generally speaking, it would be less than an inch, maybe two in spots. And the temperatures will get above the freezing mark in most places on the east coast. So, it shouldn't be too bad as far as roads go.

And then heading, looking at towards the weekend, we should see temperatures rise into the 40s, 50s, and in some cases, the 60s. We'll detail that outlook in about 30 minutes.

John and Kiran, back up to you.

ROBERTS: All right. Rob, thanks so much.

Our Sara Sidner is live this morning in Concepcion, Chile, which was hit very hard by that huge earthquake over the weekend. The latest and a live report from her -- coming up. Believe it or not, they're still having problems getting essential goods to people in the wake of that earthquake, and looting remains a problem. The latest from there -- coming right up.

It's ten-and-a-half minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning. Now, 13 minutes after the hour.

The streets of Chile's second largest city are quiet this morning. A major military crackdown has finally stopped the many looters from picking at the bones of the devastated town. Troops are out in force helping people protect what little they have left. The threat of violence and aftershocks has slowed down the rescue efforts there.

Our cameras caught one rescue team literally spilling out of a collapsed building when the ground began shaking again.

Our Sara Sidner is live for us this morning in Concepcion with the very latest.

How are things looking this morning there, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we felt a few aftershocks this morning, but they're very light ones and we're sort of just getting used to it. But in this building, this 15-story apartment complex, it's really bad news. They don't believe that anyone is left inside alive. They believe that the few remaining people inside are dead.

And right now, they have just been able to finally crack open this building on the side and walk straight through it, trying to see what they can find. We saw people grabbing things like passports, writing down names. There have been family members who have been standing outside since this happened on Saturday, wondering about their loved ones.

So far, the news is not good here on day five after the earthquake hit.

But in the streets, as you mentioned, John, very quiet because there's a curfew in place. The military is all over this city standing, waiting, with their guns at the ready, making sure that there are no more incidents of looting as far as they can control anyway -- John.

ROBERTS: You know, Sara, we have seen since that earthquake early Saturday morning that there have been many, many, many aftershocks. Some of them are very strong, in the high sixes. And it's affecting a lot of people who don't trust the buildings and you're among them as well. Tell us about your situation in terms of accommodations.

SIDNER: All of the journalists here actually, the local journalists and journalists from all over the world ended up sleeping in their cars. We slept in a car last night that we got a van and slept in a van. For the last couple of days we've just been outside of this building because the situation is that every time you feel that aftershock and you look at some of the buildings here and some of the hotels, for example, nobody wants to stay in a four, five, six, seven-story hotel.

Everyone is fearful that these aftershocks will end up crushing those as well and nobody wants to be inside. We've all opted to stay in cars even though it is chilly, even though we don't really have any blankets. All of us would rather be out in the elements than in a building that might collapse, John.

ROBERTS: I'm sure, given the choice, the car is probably the preferred accommodation. Sara Seidner for us this morning in Concepcion, Sara, thanks so much.

CHETRY: Elizabeth Cohen's been doing an eye-opening series this past week, "Prescription For Waste". One of the things she is talking about is a hospital that is actually trying to save money, even though it actually eats into their profits.

ROBERTS: Yes, taking money out of their own pockets to try to keep costs down.

CHETRY: That's right. So, is this a successful model? We're going to talk to Elizabeth a little bit more about it. And one of the big reasons is, the difference between whether -- this hospital's rate of vaginal versus c-section births and others and whether or not that's actually a way to help save money for these institutions. 16 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Right now it is 19 minutes past the hour. Time for "Minding Your Business." Christine Romans joins us now about how to make money. The best paid college graduates. They got a big bill to pay off, many of them right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Little capitalists of the world listen up. Or parents of budding little capitalists, listen up. Look, it's March. About 3 million kids high school seniors, class of 2010 have taken the S.A.T. or A.C.T. They're going into college at a time when the job market is terrible. We don't know what it's going to look like four years from now.

But we have some indication of the kinds of places you should go to school to be paid the most and the kinds of things you should study to be paid the most. Okay, this is from payscale.com. Dartmouth College, mid-career medium salary for a Dartmouth College grad, $129,000. Look at MIT, Harvard, Harvey Med College, Stanford University, further down the list, you got Colgate, University of Notre Dame --

ROBERTS: When you say "mid-career," what does that mean?

ROMANS: Early-30s, mid-30s. You've been around the block. Yale and Penn also have pretty significant six-figure salaries. Now, the degrees that pay off, mama, don't let your babies grow up to be liberal arts majors because they're not on this list. Aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering and economics. These are the degrees that really pay off also when you first start, and mid-career and late-career. Now, degrees that pay off the least -- I was a French major by the way and a journalism major. They're on this list. Spanish, music, theology, elementary education and social work. You'll notice that the bottom three on that list, I don't think they're even barely even the median income in the United States. Social work certainly isn't.

If you are an English major and you love the art of the letter, well, the top-paid English majors are technical writers. The top paid political science majors are intelligence analysts. I'm told we need those, by the way. An awful lot of engineers on this list. So, you know, going into your first year of school, remember, you want to get out in four because your poor parents are going to be broke by the time you're done. So will you.

ROBERTS: Those are all undergrad degrees, right? Obviously the whole thing changes when you get into post grad.

ROMANS: And in post grad there is a lot of engineering, too. It is very expensive to get all these degrees. Don't you remember your parents telling you this?

CHETRY: Yes, what are you going to do? Broadcast journalism. I'm minoring in philosophy. Isn't that fantastic?

ROMANS: Yes.

CHETRY: But, you know, a lot of schools encourage you to get a broad degree. Many people aren't sure what they are doing in those first years after high school.

ROMANS: And people switch. A lot of people go into their freshmen year, and they think they are going to do one thing, and they completely do something else. You know, I went in chemistry, and completely switched gears by sophomore year.

ROBERTS: Chemistry to French.

ROMANS: I know. Guess which one was easier for me. I chose the one that was easier. Okay, so, "Romans' Numeral" is 4.9 percent. This is the unemployment rate, and this is why a college education is still so incredibly important even though we talked about how expensive it is.

ROBERTS: And this is the unemployment rate among people who have college degrees?

ROMANS: Yes, 4.9 percent. Four to five percent is considered full employment in this country. So, you have a built-in insulator if you have a college degree. If you have the right college degree for the skills that this economy is demanding, then you have an economic and salary insulator as well. As long as you are not living beyond your means. That's the other thing here. Make $100,000, live on $80,000. I say it all the time. Make $100,000, live on $80,000.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans for us this morning, Christine, thanks so much. Well, you've heard of the tea party. What about the coffee klatch? Yes, there is a new political party out there. It's actually not called the coffee klatch, it's called the coffee party USA. We'll be talking to the founder coming right up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after the hour. Your top stories just five minutes away now. But first, an AM Original, something that you will see only on "American Morning." It's believed that more than 30% of all the births in the United States are by Cesarean. But often the pricey procedure is done out of convenience, a lot of times for the doctor rather than to avoid complications. You want to be out on the golf course by the first tee time. Right?

Our Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen is live at the CNN center. Elizabeth, this is putting a strain on our health care system, all of these extra costs. You went someplace where they're actually trying to reduce those costs miraculously and ironically by taking money out of their own pocket.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This hospital in Utah is taking money out of its own pockets in many ways, but they want to get medical costs down because we feel it, all of us feel it, in our wallets. And getting that c-section rate down is just one of the things they're doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (on camera): We're here at Intermountain Medical Center in Murry, Utah where Haley Nelson is about to have a baby. How's the labor going?

HALEY NELSON, PATIENT: It's going well.

COHEN: That is good. Any pains yet.

NELSON: No. We're good to go.

COHEN: Did the epidural kick in?

NELSON: Yes.

COHEN: Okay. We're going to catch up with you in a bit. I want to say something that will sound a little bit crass. But how Haley has this baby affects 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 Haley's doing well in there.

DR. BRENT JAMES, CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER: Very well. I think in about an hour we'll have another citizen of 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, show me how you do it?

JAMES: I'd be delighted. COHEN: 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. It's not just CT scans. It's other imaging exams.

COHEN: And here's another way Intermountain saves money. I'll tell you, it is so much cuter than an MRI. Here at this hospital, 2 out of every 10 babies are born via Cesarean section. However, the national average at hospitals around the country is that 3 out of every 10 babies are born by C-section.

Now you might think, okay, one extra baby by C-section, what's the difference? 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 dollars 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, makes me a little bit nervous when I hear that 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: It turns out that in almost all circumstances, better care is cheaper care.

COHEN: How could better care be cheaper care?

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

COHEN: Okay, so Dr. James, I'm going to go check on Haley now.

JAMES: Wonderful.

COHEN: So congratulations, Haley.

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. It's a good way to look at it. Huh?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: So, Elizabeth, this is a program that would seem to make sense, keeping health care costs down. So, why aren't more hospitals doing it?

COHEN: I'll tell you, John, there are several reasons. But one of them is, to tell a hospital, hey, stop doing so many MRIs, that's tricky because they make money off of all of those MRIs. To tell obstetricians, hey, stop doing so many c-sections, that's problematic, they make money off of those C-sections, and also they do those c- sections in many cases because they fear lawsuits. So, it's a real cultural shift here, and financial shift, that's hard to do.

ROBERTS: You know, I got to say it too. I was only kidding about ObGyns going off to the golf course. Most of them are very dedicated professionals, although I have heard stories of them going through caesarean just so that they can get out. It's been mostly tennis they have been playing, though. Elizabeth, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Great story.

CHETRY: A lot of things go into it as well. I mean, malpractice fears as well. Complications. My doctors in my practice always say technically it is the safest thing for the baby, a c-section.

ROBERTS: Well, it could be. But, you know, extra costs and risks to the mother any time you open somebody up. There are attendant risks with that.

CHETRY: Nothing quite fun about any of it. But in the end, a beautiful gift.

ROBERTS: I wouldn't even begin to guess.

CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now. And that means it's time for this morning's top stories. The last roundup for health care reform. President Obama set to unveil his revised prescription in just a few hours. One that includes Republican ideas. But GOP leaders aren't buying it and they still want the president to scrap his plan and restart the health care debate.

ROBERTS: The military's review of "don't ask don't tell" is taking shape. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent an outline of what it should include in a letter to senior military officials. 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 which banned openly gay service members. CHETRY: And gay couples who wish to get married in the nation's capital can start applying for licenses today. The Supreme Court cleared the way for that yesterday when it refused to block D.C.'s gay marriage law. Opponents want the issue put on the ballots making it up to the voters. Chief justice John Roberts says that it is up to the local courts to decide.

Well, the tea party movement, we've heard a lot about it recently, and it's been spreading like wildfire with tens of thousands turning out for rallies and also protests. Now there is a new political movement also gaining some steam. It is called the Coffee Party USA.

ROBERTS: And while the two share similar names and a frustration with gridlock in Washington, similarities may end there. The founder of the Coffee Party USA Annabel Park joins us now live from Washington. Annabel, great to see you this morning.

The question many people might have right off the bat is tea party has gotten some historical context to it. Why the name, the Coffee Party, and why the need?

ANNABEL PARK, FOUNDER, COFFEE PARTY USA: Right. First of all, I love coffee, though at times I definitely like tea as well.

But there is actually a historical reference as well. During the American Revolution, after they dumped tea into the harbor, they actually declared coffee the national drink. That was the solution to the problem.

So I associate coffee not only with solutions, but also with people working, working hard, because we need to wake up and work hard to get our government to represent us.

CHETRY: Annabel, what are some of the principles? What do you guys stand for? What do you want to see change in Washington?

PARK: Well, we basically just like in the American Revolution, are looking for real representation. We don't feel represented by our government right now, and we don't really feel represented well by the media either.

So it's kind of a simple call to action for people to wake up and take control over their future and demand representation. And it requires people standing up and speaking up. And that's what we're encouraging people to do by getting together and start the conversation going.

ROBERTS: We should point out that all of this started on your Facebook page, which now has 64,000 fans. It's just been around for a few weeks as well.

But we also noticed, too, there's a little survey on there, and 61 percent of people who have responded to the survey say that health care is their number one issue. Is this a political movement that could be built around health care as an issue? PARK: Well, I think what's happening is people are responding to what happened in the past year with the health care debate, because it was something that is obviously very important to many Americans, and it was reflected in the 2008 election.

And since we feel like the health care debate showed not only that we are very divided country, but there's something really wrong with our political process. We kind of got to see the innards of the political process and realize there's something very broken.

And I think that's what we're responding to, not only the negativity that we see in the rhetoric and the discussions, but the fact that it's just something very wrong with kind of the system, the entire political system.

So we want that change. We want that addressed, because it doesn't matter what issue it is, we can't make progress if we can't even talk to one another. So we want to really focus on the political culture.

CHETRY: And it is interesting, because the tea party movement really in some ways has been a challenge to Republicans to move more toward fiscal conservative ideals.

Are you aligned with a party? I mean, as we know, passing health care reform has been a huge goal of liberal Democrats for decades. Are you aligned with the Democrats trying to get them more to move to the left when it comes to health care?

PARK: No. I wouldn't say we're aligned with the Democrats or Republicans or any party. In fact, I think most of us feel that kind of that two-party system is an incredibly outdated system. It encourages people to think of politics as a kind of game, like a football game, in which there are two sides, and it's a zero sum situation. If one person wins, the other person loses.

And that's really not a healthy way to conduct collective decision making. That's not a democracy. Democracy should start with the sense that we're a community, we share common goals and values, and that there's such a thing as a common good that we're all working towards.

And the two-party system really doesn't encourage that way of thinking about it. It's about winning and losing, and we're really tired of it.

ROBERTS: All right, it's called the Coffee Party. It's a brand- new political movement. Annabel Park, the founder, thank you for joining us this morning. We'll watch it closely.

PARK: Thank you.

CHETRY: Good to talk to you this morning, Annabel.

Well, still ahead, "Building up America." Casey Wian with more on teachers desperate for school supplies and getting some help from corporate America. It's 35 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes after the hour.

This just in to CNN -- we are hearing reports that in about 20 minutes' time, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel is going to hold a press conference, at which, according to sources that our Brianna Keilar has been talking to, he will announce that he is temporarily stepping aside as the chairman of that powerful tax writing committee.

Of course Congressman Rangel has been the subject of an ethics committee investigation for quite a while now. He has been under pressure certainly from Republicans to step aside. He had the support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a long time, though in recent days that support has waned somewhat.

And now he's under pressure from other members of his party to step down, kind of clear the air while this investigation goes forward.

So again, according to sources that our Brianna Keilar has talked to, he is going to announce that he is temporarily stepping aside. We are just waiting to see if we can get Brianna on the phone. She's got more details coming up. This is all about to take place in about 20 minutes from now.

Brianna is on the phone. Brianna, what are you hearing from your sources there this morning?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): John, I'm hearing from a Democratic source that Chairman Rangel is going to announce here in a matter of 20 minutes that he'll step aside temporarily as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

We were starting to get some ideas that this is going to happen last night. We were hearing from senior Democratic aides that he was going to temporarily step aside as early as last night. But actually we were outside of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office as Rangel came out of a meeting with her and he told us he was not going to step aside.

But increasingly he's facing pressure from within his own Democratic Party to really take some action, and some ethics issues loom over his head, including on Friday he was admonished by the House Ethics Committee for breaking a gift rule for taking a trip to the Caribbean that was actually sponsored by corporations.

When we talked to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last night asking her if he was going to step aside, she told us "No comment," John.

ROBERTS: So, as we said Brianna just before you got on the line, he had the absolute support of House Speaker Pelosi for so long but that that has waned in recent days. You said just a second ago that she's not really talking publicly about it. But behind the scenes, what are you hearing about the decline in her support for Congressman Rangel?

KEILAR: Well, you know, all along he's had a lot of support as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. And we've actually seen here in the last couple of days that some of that support has waned.

And -- pardon me, John. I'm actually going through security here at the capitol. We've heard that that support has started to wane.

And one of the big issues is that today Republicans were planning on putting forth a privileged resolution, really a vote on the floor, and it was going to be a tough vote. We were under the impression that certainly some Democrats were going to vote really against Charlie Rangel, and it was going to be different than some of the other votes we've seen regarding him.

ROBERTS: All right, Brianna Keilar with the very latest for us from Capitol Hill this morning. Again, in 19 minutes we expect a press conference with New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee expected to announce that at least temporarily he's stepping aside while this House Ethics investigation continues.

CHETRY: We'll follow the latest as we get more information on that as well. Right now, through, we're going to take a quick break. It's 42 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: It's 44 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

They say one person's garbage can be another person's treasure. That's proving true for a group of teachers and students in Los Angeles thanks to a nonprofit making a big difference. Here's Casey Wian with another example of everyday people building up America.

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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Lisa McNabb (ph) is celebrating her birthday by standing in this line to go shopping. But she's not shopping for herself, it's for students and teachers at Aguilar high school where she is assistant principal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the name of your school?

LISA MCNABB, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, AGUILAR HIGH SCHOOL: Aguilar High School.

WIAN: Why is it necessary to come here to get supplies?

MCNABB: Well, right now there is a budget freeze in L.A. Unified. And they're not hiring new teachers. We have no money at all for supplies. So any supplies that we need we have to pay for out of our own pocket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please fall in line. Grab a bag. MCNABB: How many can I take of these? Unlimited? Oh, yes. I'll take colored. I don't care. This is so hard to come by.

WIAN: Why is paper so hard to come by?

MCNABB: Because it is so expensive.

WIAN: Tell me about L.A. Shares. What's this organization all about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were a non-profit materials reuse program. We usually go out to the corporate sector everyday and hope we say politely -- what do you have that's left over be new or used? We arrange for the transfer free of charge to our local schools and not- for-profits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing. I'm just looking around at all the tags and saying, wow, these people? Wow, that was really nice.

WIAN: When you get this stuff back to school how quickly is it going be in use in the classrooms?

MCNABB: Tomorrow. Oh is that the exit?

WIAN: This box of envelopes was donated by a southern California animation company called Renegade Animation. They've recently moved so they've donated their old office supplies and some furniture to L.A. Shares.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One big thing we had tons of was binders. You need binders for paper-based stuff and now we don't need it anymore so we've got boxes full of empty binders. So we thought we can't throw this stuff away. I just don't feel good about it.

WIAN: Companies can either bring their unwanted or unneeded office supplies here to the L.A. Shares facility or they can donate online and the organization will come to the company and pick up the stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a trash program. We're a waste program, waste diversion. If the items didn't come to us they would have gone to the landfill.

On an annualized basis we keep about a million pounds out of the landfill. And of course it grows each year.

WIAN: Here are several shelves full of metal organizers donated by the Walt Disney Company. Over here three pallets full of labels donated by the Avery Company. And for teachers who need something to brighten up their classroom a little bit, there's even fine art.

MCNABB: Ms. Frederickson -- there was all this scrap-booking material there. We got her some of those supplies which will save her a lot of money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what do we have here? Oh, look at these, you guys. These are the best.

MCNABB: And when students see that businesses are giving to them right now, they're going to be much more willing to go out into the community and give back when they're in that position.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Just a few minutes away now from an "AM House Call" with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. A new study out today that suggests, that food-borne illnesses cost this country $152 billion each and every year.

Sanjay will be breaking it down for us, looking for solutions this morning. Forty eight minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: Nine minutes now to the top of the hour.

And it's time for your "AM House Call"; stories about your health this morning. A landmark report reveals just how much tainted food is costing America. A study by the Product Safety Project estimates that food borne illnesses sicken 76 million people a year and kill about 5,000. That ultimately costs the United States -- listen to this -- more than $150 billion a year. That is more than four times what the government previously thought.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta with more. You know we talked to one of the authors of this report this morning Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ROBERTS: He said those figures surprised even him.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, they're certainly staggering. But they really do account for the total cost of the impact of food-borne illness. And I really want to dissect that down.

Incidentally there are sort of two groups -- two groups of people who sort of make up the people who are victims of food-borne illness, people who unwittingly eat some of these contaminated foods, John, that we've been talking about -- spinach, tomatoes, cookie dough, peanut butter; but also people who don't always prepare the foods the way that they should. So it's really these two groups of people.

But when you look at the number and the cost here, it has to do not only with people who get sick but people who miss work as a result of food-borne illness, people who go to the hospital; about 325,000 hospitalizations as a result of all this.

And also the investigation, John, to try and find the source of what causes food-borne contamination in the first place. You know, there's a lot of you know, obviously cooking food improperly but also dirty irrigation perhaps at some point along the way. You know, I was in California looking at that spinach contamination you remember a couple of years ago.

And it was interesting because you have acres and acres of food being grown out there and they literally have to try and sort of figure out which specific parcel of land from which this contaminated food came from. And that's a very expensive investigation and a very lengthy investigation as well. So, all of that in the end costs money -- John.

ROBERTS: Actually we had on a victim of that E. coli outbreak earlier today. Her name was Ashley. She's 5 years old. She got kidney failure, hemolytic uremic syndrome (ph) as a result of the E. coli 0157. She'll need to have a kidney transplant, multiple kidney transplants; it's the long term effects for her.

But let me ask you, in the House there was an FDA food modernization -- Food Safety Modernization Act passed. It passed the committee and the senate unanimously, broad bipartisan support, stuck in the senate now though because of the logjam there. Will that bill address all of the problems? Will it fix our problem with food safety?

GUPTA: You know, that's a good question. First of all, I know Ashley Armstrong really well as well. I met her before and she looked great this morning, by the way.

ROBERTS: She did, didn't she?

GUPTA: Yes, compared to how sick she was. I don't think people realize how sick you can get from a food-borne illness. She almost died certainly from this. Regarding what's happening with this particular bill, you know part of the issue, John, is that there are so many steps literally from the farm to the fork. If you look at all those various steps, how the food is actually picked, where it is stored, how it's put on trucks, different warehouses, eventually to grocery stores and then to your dinner table, there are just so many steps at which food can be contaminated.

As we were researching this really looking into that, those are hard things to address. Obviously you can increase safety standards all along the way, but even a small amount of contamination, what would otherwise be innocuous can become widespread as a result of the way the system is now.

One piece of advice that I got that I thought was good was buy local as much as possible. Why? Besides supporting local farmers, you're also cutting down on the number of steps that could possibly lead to a contamination for you.

And also, pay attention to these recalls.

John, in college it was always when in doubt, throw it out, is the adage now. But in college, didn't always pay attention to that. People get sick as a result of those sorts of things as well.

ROBERTS: We got a 15-day-old hamburger. Maybe we'll just take a chance.

But the way food is grown these days, too, Sanjay, does that add to the problem? You have these mega farms that are not just supplying a local market but they're supplying so many supermarket chains across the country. If you have one little outbreak in one area, that can rapidly spread across the country.

GUPTA: There is no question. And that's what makes the investigation so hard as well. They literally have to try and track this down to a particular parcel of land. And if you look at these farms in California, maybe you've seen some of these, they are vast. And as a result, having a potential contamination -- which could be bad irrigation in one part of the farm or it could be that an animal came over these fences which aren't always the best protective barriers and contaminated the farm. It would be very hard to trace that back.

You're right, it would be just localized to a specific area. But as a result of the way we distribute this food, it becomes all across the country, if not many countries around the world.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, pretty staggering finding today from this research report.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta thanks for bringing it to us. Appreciate it. Good to see you, doc.

GUPTA: Thank you John.

ROBERTS: All right.

GUPTA: Sure.

ROBERTS: It's now four minutes to the top of the hour. Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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