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Historic Health Care Bill Signed by President Obama; Energy- Smart Schoolhouse
Aired March 23, 2010 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, there will soon be a whole lot more "Bad-Back Bobs" in our health care system, tens of millions of them. Where will they all go to get health care? And is this a golden opportunity for job creation?
Also, ever dreamed of heading into space? You could get your chance, and it might be less expensive than you think. The VSS Enterprise boldly going where no commercial spacecraft has gone before.
All right. Well, it's the law of the land now, President Obama's remarks just after signing into law the historic health care reform a short while ago. You saw it right here on CNN.
A hard-fought battle going back decades. It's not officially over yet, but the president calls it the begins of a new season in America. Those are his words.
Who is that cute little guy wearing a vest?
The overhaul guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans, and in numerous ways will touch the lives of many people.
Mr. Obama paid tribute to members of his administration, Democrats on the Hill, but especially you, the American people. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's easy to succumb to the sense of cynicism about what's possible in this country. But today we are affirming that essential truth, a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself, that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations.
(APPLAUSE)
We are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust. We don't fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what's easy.
That's not who we are. That's not how we got here.
We are a nation that faces its challenges and accepts its responsibilities. We are a nation that does what is hard, what is necessary, what is right. Here, in this country, we shape our own destiny. That is what we do. That is who we are. That is what makes us the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. We're back with Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, who has been following this very carefully, specifically with these cute little avatars that she has that tell you how health care reform affects you.
We saw "Bad-Back Bob" and the middle-income martinis, as I dubbed them in the last hour.
You have got different ones for us.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We do.
VELSHI: Where did they go?
COHEN: And you know what? I don't see them up here. They must have, like, taken a little --
VELSHI: They should be up here, right?
COHEN: Yes.
VELSHI: Your little avatars.
COHEN: OK. So, what we're going to do instead is I'm just going to tell you.
VELSHI: OK. So there's -- who is that? Young Yvette.
COHEN: Young Yvette. There we go. She was hiding.
VELSHI: Oh, I see them. I see something back there, too.
COHEN: Oh, OK. All right. So, they were hiding. Thank you. I appreciate that.
So Young Yvette, you can see, just graduated from college. Now, in most states, that means that she would get knocked off mom and dad's insurance.
Now, Yvette doesn't have a job yet. She's hoping to, I don't know, travel the world, or go to graduate school, or one of those silly things that people do when in their 20s. Right?
So she is now -- under health care reform, she will be covered by her parents' insurance until the age of 26.
VELSHI: Wow.
COHEN: As long as she's a dependent. That's a huge difference.
VELSHI: That assumes that the parents have coverage.
COHEN: Yes.
VELSHI: Whether it's through work or on their own.
COHEN: Yes. That assumes that the parents have coverage.
But that's a lot of people. I mean, this is a huge deal.
A lot of people are looking at health care reform and saying, well, there is nothing in it for me, I'm already insured. Well, here's something that would be in it for you if you have got a kid who's coming of age.
VELSHI: What's the general advantage? Because generally, we think of people in their early 20s as not being big consumers of health care. What's the big advantage of people who are otherwise uninsured becoming insured? Does that mean they get involved in more preventive health care, they develop better habits?
COHEN: Yes, preventive health care is a big thing. And, you know, God forbid if Yvette gets cancer. You know, if she's uninsured, that's costing you and me to take care of her.
If mom and dad's insurance covers her, then she doesn't. Bad things do happen to young people and it can be very expensive.
VELSHI: Yes. And as we both know, it's one of the major causes of personal bankruptcy --
COHEN: That's right.
VELSHI: -- health issues when you're not insured.
All right. Who have we got behind Young Yvette? Are we going to turn that on?
COHEN: Behind Young Yvette we have here mom and pop.
VELSHI: All right. This is a big, big deal.
COHEN: This is a big, big deal.
VELSHI: Self-employed mom and pop.
COHEN: Right. The reason why it's a big deal is that they are self-employed. They don't have any insurance. And so now they are wondering, what do I do?
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: And so what's going to happen here is that they now are going to get huge subsidies to help them buy insurance. And this will take, you know, a couple of years to kick in.
VELSHI: Right. COHEN: But they're going to get subsidies so that they will only be spending about $100 a year to get insurance.
VELSHI: Wow.
COHEN: Let's say they make $30,000 a year. I'm just sort of making that up, but if they're making $30,000 a year in today's dollars, they'd be spending about $100 for an insurance policy that would ordinarily cost them, you know, like, $9,000.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: So, that's a lot of health --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Now, like you said earlier, if self-employed mom and pop happen to be doing very, very well, and making $100,000 a year, maybe more than that, $150,000 between the two of them, those subsidies are going to drop off.
COHEN: Actually, even if they're just making $88,000 those subsidies drop off. So, once you hit around that $88,000 mark, you are not getting subsidies anymore.
VELSHI: Got it. OK.
COHEN: But, for them, there you can see they are a little sad. They are not doing that well. They're only making, like, $30,000, they just opened their shop.
VELSHI: OK. Now, do we have more here or am I going to come back?
COHEN: No, we're going to come back. And these folks have done well, Young Yvette and mom and pop here.
VELSHI: You're going to show us some people who are not --
COHEN: We're going to show you people who maybe won't do so well under health care reform.
VELSHI: OK. Very good. We're going to look at that.
And again, in these avatars, you might see yourself. We're going to take a closer look at some people who may not be so thrilled by this landmark, historic, whatever you want to call it, legislation that was signed into law today.
Stay with us. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. We're back here.
Elizabeth and I have been figuring out this board. Elizabeth has been looking at her little avatars, people who may remind you of yourself. Some of them look strangely like me, but how health care reform is actually going to affect them.
So, in the last segment, we looked at a couple of people who were benefiting from heath care reform, or who were likely to benefit. Now you've got some people, because not everybody is going to see their premiums or costs reduced by this health care reform.
COHEN: Right, not everyone is going to be happy with health care reform.
Now, this one, Ali, I've got to tell you, I don't think she looks a thing like you because --
VELSHI: No, she doesn't. She's got hair and muscles.
COHEN: -- she's got a full head of hair.
VELSHI: Invincible Isabelle.
COHEN: Invincible, right. She's not invisible. We can see her. She's invincible.
Look at how healthy she is. Look at these muscles.
Now, Isabelle is so invincible, that she says, I don't need health insurance. Why spend $10,000 on a policy when I can go to Hawaii? Right? So that's Isabelle's thinking.
And so what's going to happen under health care reform is that she is going to get a $95 fine for not having health insurance.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: Now, that doesn't sound big. That's going to go up every year. OK? And if she were the head of a family of four, it would get into the thousands of dollars.
VELSHI: So she has to make a choice of either buying health insurance or paying that fine, or it's a percentage of her income.
COHEN: Right. Exactly. This is what it would be sort of as a flat fee. And some folks like Isabelle are going to say, what, the government is telling me what to do? I should be able to do what I want.
VELSHI: Now, does she have the ability to buy some kind of bare- bones coverage because she doesn't want the health care -- maybe it's catastrophic coverage that only kicks if something really bad happens?
COHEN: Right. She can go on the exchange and get the cheapest, most bare-bones kind of policy. There's a bunch of different levels. She doesn't have to get the platinum level, she can get sort of the basic level.
VELSHI: Right. Yes. OK. So Invincible Isabelle isn't loving it for the moment.
COHEN: Right. Exactly.
All right. And here's another person who may or may not be so happy.
This one is a little more complicated. This is Medicare Marlene.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: She's on Medicare, and Marlene is smart, and Marlene knows that Medicare spending on her personally has gone up four percent a year.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: And she likes that. You know, it's a steady increase, paying her doctors and all that stuff.
You know what? With health care reform, not going to happen. Instead, it's going to go up two percent a year, or perhaps even less. That's according to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office.
And some people say Marlene's going to feel that. She's going to feel the difference in her care --
VELSHI: And she'll get some kind of cut somewhere. There will be something she won't get.
COHEN: Right. Exactly. Doctors won't want to see her because Medicare is not paying enough, or she won't get all the MRIs she's used to. Other people say Marlene's never going to feel it, that these cuts are just sort of -- it was waste that should have been cut anyhow.
VELSHI: You know, I was on a plane on Sunday night as the vote took place. And as I landed in Atlanta, the final vote just happened. And a guy was standing with me and we were watching CNN in the airport, and he said, "I'm a doctor and I'm the first one you're going to meet who's not going to be taking Medicare patients anymore."
COHEN: I hear doctors threaten that sometimes, but I'll tell you, if you don't take Medicare, you're saying no to a huge chunk of patients. I mean, who get sick in this country? Older people, and they all use Medicare.
So I've heard doctors say that, but I don't know if you have that guy's card or not. Get back to him in a year and see if he really stopped taking Medicare.
VELSHI: All right. Well, if he's watching, let him come and talk to us.
COHEN: Oh, yes. AliVelshi@CNN.com.
VELSHI: All right. So this is fantastic. You've given us a whole lot of people and how they are affected differently.
So, remember, this is not one of those things where everybody benefits or everybody suffers under it. It really does depend on who you are.
All right. Listen, we often talk about in nice weather teachers taking kids outside to learn about nature. Well, what about an interesting shift where teachers keep kids inside specifically to learn about nature?
We'll talk about that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. Students in a classroom in Connecticut don't just learn about energy efficiency, they actually see it at work. Their building is solar-powered and it is energy-neutral.
Here is Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may look like a typical high school classroom, but it's not. Everything's powered by solar energy. In fact, the whole building is solar- powered.
JOHN BRACKER, HEAD OF SCHOOL, "THE WATKINSON SCHOOL": This is a science and global studies building. It's three classrooms. It's about 4,000 square feet.
COOPER: The Watkinson School located in Hartford, Connecticut, and built in 1881 was looking for another building that could go up quickly but could also inspire their students. That's where building design company Project Frog stepped in.
Frog supplied the license for the design of the building, but local companies produced the parts, and construction workers simply snapped them together. It only took seven months to complete. The building can be modified to be larger or smaller.
Watkinson is the first building in New England to be energy- neutral.
MARK MILLER, FOUNDER & CEO, PROJECT FROG: This building, over the course of the year, will consume no more energy than it's able to produce within its footprint.
COOPER: The key to this school's energy efficiency are the solar panels located on the roof of the building.
MILLER: This building preheats in the morning by where the sun comes up. We orient the building properly.
We use proper insulation. We use natural sunlight to bounce off of surfaces. The sun's come up a little bit here. And as you can see, our lights are off, and anywhere in this classroom, a student can learn.
COOPER: The temperature of the building is also uniquely energy efficient.
MILLER: What we have here is the heat pumps. We're using the energy and the power that's in the earth that already exists to help regulate the temperatures and controls of this building.
COOPER: No impact on the energy grid, but a major impression on the students.
JONATHAN DUMEER, 6TH GRADE STUDENT: When we're here, science is much easier to learn, because say we're studying about solar energy. In a normal building, it's harder to study solar energy, like, without a solar panel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the end of the year, the students are going to be working on a sustainability for Haiti projects where they're going to be evaluating and finding organizations and initiatives to bring economic, social and environmental sustainability to Haiti.
COOPER: Reducing energy consumption, one simple thing, one classroom at a time.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, Hartford.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. When we come back, I'm going to talk about snow on Earth and whatever we want in space. Chad is following this. There's a bit too much snow on Earth right now, but there could be a pioneering mission to space in the near future.
We'll talk about both of those things with Chad Myers on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
VELSHI: All right. Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? How about sick and tired of being jobless? The health care bill could actually tackle both of those things, being sick and tired and being jobless.
We're going to talk about this when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. The Democratic health care overhaul now the law of the land, but still unfinished business.
Officially, it is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. President Obama used 20 pens to sign it. Check this out. He signs a little bit, puts the pen down, takes another pen. Signs a little bit, puts the pen down. Each B, A, R, A -- see, this is apparently what happens. And then he gives the pens out as souvenirs to supporters of the bill.
Now, soon after he finished this, the whole Party -- officials, lawmakers, activists -- they moved to a larger room in the Interior Department for a bit of a rally and a celebration.
Listen to the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Although it may be my signature that's affixed to the bottom of this bill, it was your work, your commitment, your unyielding hope that made this victory possible. When the special interests deployed an army of lobbyists, an onslaught of negative ads to preserve the status quo, you didn't give up.
You hit the phones and you took to the streets. You mobilized, and you organized. You turned up the pressure and you kept up the fight.
When the pundits were obsessing over who was up and who was down, you never lost sight of what was right and what was wrong. You knew this wasn't about the fortunes of a party. This was about the future of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK.
Ordinarily, that would be that. The bill is signed, it goes into law. But that's not the case here.
Supporters and critics alike want to get on with their lives and move on to other battles, but no. In fact, not this time.
Late on Sunday night -- you saw this -- the House passed the same bill that the Senate had passed on Christmas Eve. That's that bill that the president signed. But then the House passed a companion bill that changes the first bill in some very important ways.
Now the Senate -- this is the House side, this is the Senate side. Now the Senate has to pass those changes. And I want to break down what these changes are.
The so-called reconciliation measure -- these are the changes -- well, it tweaks the fines for not buying coverage. By 2016 -- Elizabeth Cohen talked about this a little bit -- if you don't buy coverage, you're going to be fined $695, or 2.5 percent of your income, whichever one is greater, by the way.
It also raises fines on employers that don't offer coverage. By 2014, it will be up to $2,000 per employee. When it comes to seniors, the tweaks give seniors a one-time $250 rebate to Medicare to fill that doughnut hole in prescription coverage. As you recall, you are covered under Medicare to a certain amount. Then there's a hole, then you get covered $1,700 later again.
They are meaning to close that gap sometime after 2020. Oh, my God, 2020? For now, you get $259.
It also kills the Cornhusker Kickback. You remember this? This was promised in Nebraska in the Senate bill -- only Nebraska -- that Washington would cover all the costs of expanding Medicaid. Well, the new bill would boost Medicaid help for all states.
Now, on the revenue side -- we think of this all as expenditures -- something has to pay for this. The tweaks that the Senate will look into that the House passed will delay a tax on high-cost plans. We are calling that the Cadillac tax. And it raises the definition of what "high cost" is.
It raises the Medicare payroll tax on high earners quite substantially, and it adds -- this one is important. We talked about this yesterday with an economist. It adds a 3.8 percent tax to high earners on investment income, having nothing to do with Medicaid. It is rental income, dividend income, things like that.
So, the president said he was going to do this, and this is the case. High-income earners and rich people are going to pay higher taxes to pay for some of the provisions in this health care bill.
Now, the Senate plans to debate for 20 hours, and the republicans plan to make it as messy and complicated as possible. We'll stay on top of it for you.
VELSHI: Let's look at the possible economic benefits of health care reform. Could the new act create jobs in some less-expected places? Joining me now CNN analyst Roland Martin and Dr. Tom Fogarty who is the president of Concentra Medical Centers, he joins us from Dallas.
Roland, let's start with you. Thank you for being with us, both of you. Roland, let's start with you.
We've seen a rise in the number of walk-in health-care centers and emergency facilities already. You were talking about this at great length yesterday, thinking that there could be a boom in those places as a result of this health care reform.
ROWLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. You know, I've been talking to folks, you know, trade organizations, trade entities all morning about this.
There are some 1,200 facilities in 32 states all across this country, and so what you're seeing is you're seeing these facilities located in strip malls, employing doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants. And so, in talking with the trade groups, they say when Massachusetts, when they signed into law universal health care, all of a sudden they saw a need for an expansion in individuals; same thing in Pennsylvania.
So, all of a sudden you're seeing community colleges trying to fill the need because we have a shortage of nurses in this country, so there's no doubt these folks are also competing not only with ER rooms but also doctors' offices and being able to provide cheaper care --
VELSHI: Sort of a middle space.
MARTIN: -- for many of the basic needs we need. Absolutely, including Walgreens and CVS. Yes.
VELSHI: Right. People that don't really need urgent care or emergency care, maybe they don't need the high-end doctors' offices.
Dr. Fogarty, this is the business that you are in. Is Roland on to something here?
DR. TOM FOGARTY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, CONCENTRA MEDICAL CENTERS: That's correct. You know, in our company, Concentra -- and I'm the chief medical officer for Concentra, not the president for Concentra. But our organization, we are a primary-care based health care organization that has physicians in our clinics. And we have 315 clinics in 40 different states and, you know, we are situated in a position to meet the needs. If you look at the needs out there, there's going to be a number of people that have not had insurance in the past, they're going to be looking for access, and we are a convenient, affordable access point for health care.
VELSHI: Now, Tom, has anything changed as a result or will things change as a result of passage of this bill, or were you on sort of a growth track anyway?
FOGARTY: We were already on a growth track. We see the need for an accessibility, a transparent pricing that we have on our visits that patients can come in. And, you know, if you look at where people get care now, primarily the uninsured get care from the emergency rooms --
VELSHI: Yes.
FOGARTY: -- and emergency rooms are much more expensive.
VELSHI: All right, stay with us guys.
We'll come back and have a little more of a conversation with this with Roland and Dr. Tom Fogarty, who is the chief medical officer of Concentra Medical Services, but for a few moments there I made him the boss of the company. I hope he appreciates that later in life.
Stay with us. We'll be right back to continue this conversation in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, let's continue our conversation with CNN analyst Roland Martin and Dr. Tom Fogarty who is the chief medical officer for Concentra Medical Centers. We're talking about the new health care reform creating some unexpected jobs.
Hey, Roland, since I promoted him a few minutes ago, I got to promote you. Tell me about your new book. Just give me the name of your new book?
MARTIN: Well, actually, the book is called "The First Black President: Barack Obama's Road to the White House." And so, it's my coverage of the historic journey of him obviously going from state senator to U.S. senator to the presidency. So the book and the DVD are all packaged in one.
VELSHI: All right, very good.
Roland, you've been sort of taking these very interesting -- I mean it in the best way -- peripheral views of health care.
MARTIN: Right.
VELSHI: In other words, not just the big mainstream view that everybody is talk about. But let's just get back to brass tacks here.
We're talking about a number of people in America who do not have health care prior to this bill and who are using emergency services, the emergency room, for what you might think of as, you know, primary health care. At the same time, they don't need perhaps access to the fanciest of doctors, and you're talking about this middle road --
MARTIN: Right.
VELSHI: -- that can be an employment opportunity for people, because we're going to need to staff the kinds of centers that Dr. Fogarty is involved in.
MARTIN: Right. Look, I've used him. I mean, there have been times when I've been traveling --
VELSHI: Right.
MARTIN: -- and so, I can't see my normal doctor. And I'm sitting here saying, man, I'm sick or there's something wrong. And so, you know, I have gone to the yellow pages and sought these facilities out.
And so, it's very interesting because they are located in strip centers in different parts of various cities. A lot of them are 24- hour centers, and so if you're sick and it's 2:00 in the morning, you obviously can't call your doctor. You go there.
And so what I'm looking at -- sure, we can fight and talk about lawsuits and stuff along those lines, but the question is what are going to beat economic benefits? And so, when you have 32 million who are now going to be insured --
VELSHI: Yes.
MARTIN: -- you have to service those people, so the question is how do you fill those roles?
VELSHI: Yes.
MARTIN: I certainly expect community colleges who train most of our nurses to see expansion because people who don't have jobs, you go where the jobs are going to be.
VELSHI: Well let's -- this is a good question -- you have indicated, there do, in many parts of this country, appear to be shortages of nurses and every study I've read, Tom, indicates it's a good profession to get in to. As much as doctors are in some cases complaining about how much they'll earn under health care reform, the reality is being a doctor is a good profession.
How do you recruit the people for the expansion of the type of centers that you run or that Roland is talking about if they are going to meet a big need over the next decade?
FOGARTY: Well, it is a challenge. One of the issues right now is the number of primary care physicians that are available, you know, with the -- the expansion of the coverage out there. The statistics show we'll need approximately 15,000 new primary care physicians, and there's not that many medical students that are opting to go to primary care, primarily because of the reimbursement. A specialist gets reimbursed significantly more than a primary care doctor gets reimbursed. And so there are some issues of trying to fill from a clinician or from a physician's perspective.
The staff support is a little bit of an easier of an issue to staff from an availability. But I think we're seeing and we have seen and I think we'll continue to see, a deficiency in the number of primary care. And, you know, part of the health care from my perspective is it really doesn't support the prevention, which is really kind of the direction that if we want to improve the health of America is to really focus on prevention.
VELSHI: Right.
Tom, great conversation. We're going to watch very carefully about how, you know, the development of more of these centers.
And, Roland, you bring a good point up, you should be seeing more of these centers and hopefully, they'll be serving more people over the course of the next few years.
Thanks to both of you.
MARTIN: And, Ali, next time we talk, I want to see you have the "JOHN KING USA" open-collar look.
VELSHI: Is that the look? I've been hearing everybody telling me about this. Gergen was talking about it. You were talking about it. All right, we'll do that.
Dr. Tom Fogarty is the chief medical officer at Concentra Medical Centers and Roland Martin is our chief CNN fashion analyst joining us from Chicago.
(LAUGHTER)
All right, checking some of the top stories that we're covering for you here at CNN.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top administration officials are heading south of the border for a summit with Mexican officials on the country's drug war. Also high on the agenda, drug trafficking and border security. An estimated 16,000 people have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in 2006.
The community activist group ACORN is closing its doors. A move due in part to falling revenues, but the decision also comes six months after video footage surfaced showing some ACORN workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute. A spokesman for the 40-year-old liberal group also blames its demise on attacks from, quote, "partisan operatives and right-wing activists."
And in Washington, with the stroke of a pen -- actually, a bunch of pens -- President Obama signed the landmark health care reform bill into law today. Among other things, the measure extends coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. Now senators must OK a package of changes to reconcile the differences between the Senate and the House bills. And 14 states are suing the federal government over the reforms. They're saying that they are unconstitutional.
All right, look at the clock -- 2:40, almost 2:41 Eastern time, and that means -- there he is -- Ed Henry, the senior White House correspondent. He's going to tell us about why the president used 22 pens to sign the -- sign the bill. He's also going to tell us about swearing at the White House.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not me. It wasn't me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Till Tuesday, "Voices Carry." That will become relevant in just a moment.
Ed Henry is standing by at the White House, he's our senior White House correspondent, you see him all the time on CNN, you've seen him a lot in the last few weeks. But he gives us something a little special on this show, including dropping the F-bomb.
HENRY: Yes, I've got a little "F" on this piece of paper here, I don't know if you see it.
Let me set the scene, I mean, there's no other way to tell this. But here's the president coming in, signing pretty historic legislation. A lot of folks like David Gergen has said this is the biggest domestic achievement since Medicare. He's doing it in the East Room, which if people haven't been there, it's got all these wonderful chandeliers, very majestic. There were several hundred people in the room for this bill signing. There were children in the room, I'll include.
And let's just show what happened when Vice President Biden decided to introduce the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
This is a big (EXPLETIVE OMITTED BY NETWORK) deal.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: He was quite excited about that.
HENRY: Yes, this is a big deal. Maybe you don't want to use that extra word, but it is a big deal.
And I thought Robert Gibbs had the best response. He went on Twitter, he was obviously getting e-mails and calls from people like me saying, what the heck. Robert Gibbs said, quote, "And yes, Mr. Vice President, you're right." That's all Robert Gibbs said.
And I talked to the vice president's office hoping to get some sort of comment. They said, we're going to Robert Gibbs' tweet speak for itself. I think that's the first time I've heard that in this job at the White House -- I'm going to let that tweet, that tweet speak for itself. We're in a new era.
And basically, this things ricocheted around the Internet immediately after it happened and the vice president's office had no choice but to basically use truth as the best self defense, I guess. They believe it's true, they think this is a big deal.
VELSHI: There you go, all right.
Here's something that was interesting is the pens. The president signed his name, each letter with one pen and then gave it over.
HENRY: Yes. Each letter -- actually, I think there's 11 letters in Barack Obama, right?
VELSHI: Yes.
HENRY: I'm not too good at math.
VELSHI: He used 22 pens.
HENRY: And he used 22 pens, so basically two pens per letter. And President Bush used to do it as well. These are great souvenirs obviously when you have an historic piece of legislation. So you basically sign, you know, half a letter with one pen, you put it down, you finish the letter with the second.
We just got the list. In the last couple of moments, CNN had gotten the list of who got these pens. I've been getting on Twitter a lot of people saying, who got them, I want one. This thing would obviously be pretty hot on Twitter. The aforementioned Vice President Biden, despite having a potty mouth, got a pen. Speaker Pelosi, of course, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
This is an interesting one, Congressman Dingell, who has been in the House since I think 1955, his father before him pushing comprehensive health reform, he got a pen. And his office tells me that he also has a pen from Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare. So now John Dingell has two of the most amazing pens, I think. A little bit of political trivia you have to keep in mind.
I was also -- a lot of other House members, we've got the full list I just put out on Twitter and we're putting it on CNN.com on the political ticker as we speak.
VELSHI: Did the little boy whose mother died who was sort of taking center stage, did he get a pen?
HENRY: He did not. The 11-year-old. He got a shout-out from the president, though. That was pretty cool.
VELSHI: Yes. Did you notice he was -- on his vest?
HENRY: He commented on his necktie.
VELSHI: Oh, I was going to say, on the fact that he was wearing a vest, I thought maybe --
HENRY: Yes, you know, I thought the vest worked on him. I'll leave it at that.
And then also, I will just point out who is not on the list. I thought it was interesting that former President Clinton who made some lobbying calls this weekend on behalf of this did not get a pen and neither did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Of course, they pushed health care reform almost two decades ago and it failed, but they have been big supporters of this president on it. I mean obviously I do not want to stir up something. There's a limited number of pens, but I thought maybe the former president would have gotten one.
A lot of staffers here got one including Phil Schiliro, who is sort of the congressional liaison, Secretary Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle who is sort of the health care czar here got one. So this is kind of a cool thing, a little memento.
And Harry Reid, I want to point out, his office tells me that as soon as he got the pen, rather than keeping this really cool thing, he gave it away to his health care staffer who has been toiling away many hours. An example of a lawmaker saying, look, the staff does a lot of work and you get to keep this pen. That's kind of cool.
VELSHI: Ed, good to see you. Loving the stripes and the dots all in the same place. If you want to get a little crazy, take a look at the vest. Me and the little guy in the White House.
HENRY: You know, this is how crazy it is now, I'll look in the mirror in the morning and I say, you know, I think Velshi will like this because of all these weird combinations and that's how I dress now.
VELSHI: You know the world is upside when we are worrying about whether the other one is going to like how we dress. Always good to see you, whatever you're wearing, as long as you're wearing something.
Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent at the White House.
Hey, listen, is there anything our mobiles and our Blackberrys and our iPhones can't do? Here's an interesting one -- when I come back, I'll talk about a technology that uses your cell phone to determine how much time you're spending waiting in security lines at the airport. Is that a good idea or is that invasion of privacy? We'll discuss it when I come back.
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VELSHI: You probably heard about how much I fly, how often -- how much time I spend at airports. No surprise to anyone these days, that means a lot of time in security lines. Now, sometimes I zip through, sometimes it takes so long I actually nearly miss my flight. It's actually happened a couple of times. It's a total crapshoot.
Luckily, there's the TSA wait-time calculator -- or not. The web page for the calculator is still up, but the calculator itself has been down for a couple of years now. The TSA does apologize for the inconvenience and notes it's working to make the tool more user friendly. You have to be pretty user friendly after two years.
In fact, it's looking for entirely new ways to clock wait times, to help people plan. The agency put out a call for technologies that would automate things. Actually, this is a neat idea.
One of the ideas it's looking at came from researchers at Purdue University, and this is how their system works. You enter the airport security line with your cell phone, your laptop, your iPod touch or PSP, any device that is on and has Bluetooth wireless capability. A little receiver picks up your specific Bluetooth identity, your signal, and it records the time. You wait in line, take off your shoes and belt and whatever else you want to take off, the normal routine. Finally, you're through walking out of the checkpoint and that's when a second Bluetooth receiver picks you up. It records your exit time and records exactly how much time you spent getting friendly with the TSA.
From there, the real time data could be streamed onto the web or to mobile devices wherever helping the next guy, who might be me, to plan his trip. How much time do I actually have to leave to get in there? It will give them data that they don't have.
It's a neat idea. What a creative use of existing technology, right? Well, maybe not. I put it on my website and I put it on Facebook and a lot of you are thinking it's an invasion of privacy.
Joining to us now fro Perdue University to talk about this is Darcy Bullock, professor of civil engineering and computer engineering as well.
Darcy, you and your team at Purdue tested this technology at the Indianapolis airport last year.
PROF. DARCY BULLOCK, PERDUE UNIVERSITY: Yes, we tested it during the month of May.
VELSHI: Tell me, what did you learn? Is this going to be a helpful tool if they adopt it?
BULLOCK: Yes. We partnered with one of my colleagues, Jay Wasson at INDOT and Bob Spitler at the airport, and one of my graduate students, Ross Hosman (ph), to, you know, perform a pilot during the month of May. And the idea was to explore what does the distribution of wait times look like Monday through Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, weekends.
VELSHI: And is the idea to deal with staffing, or is the idea that it either gets on the website and sends me a message if I subscribe to this to say, hey, wait times at the airport are particularly long today? What is the end result?
BULLOCK: So I think you can look at it from two perspectives, from the traveler perspective and from kind of the engineering and operations.
From the traveler's perspective, what you need to do is you want to know how long is the line, when is it the longest. And then when you get to the airport, if there's multiple choices, line "A" or line "B," you want to decide which line to get in. So, that was the traveler's perspective.
VELSHI: All right. Let me ask you this, the technology is such that it reads, so my device, whatever device I'm choosing to use, has some kind of a signature, and it takes only a portion of that signature. So it doesn't store all the information and your system is designed not to store information after I'm gone, right?
BULLOCK: Yes. So, the key to this is you want to have kind of a good data steward policy, so you keep the match address only as long as you need it. So, if it takes 20 minutes to pass through the security line, after you've matched it when they've left the security line, you discard the data.
VELSHI: Yours is one of the systems that the TSA is looking for, because they asked for a lot of input. Are you concerned, I mean, for those people who have gone on to Facebook and told me, yet another invasion of privacy, what's your response to that? BULLOCK: Well, I think it needs to have good -- good policies in place, but with good data steward policies, I think it's no more invasive than, say, the amount of information cell phone providers know about where we are.
VELSHI: And can I choose not to be a participant in this sort of thing if your system were taken up by the TSA?
BULLOCK: Yes, absolutely. We only picked up 8 percent to 10 percent of passengers had those devices on them. And if you elect to turn off Bluetooth discovery mode, would you wouldn't be picked up.
VELSHI: All right, good conversation, Darcy. Thanks very much for joining us.
Darcy Bullock is a professor of civil engineering and electrical computer engineering at Purdue University. His team has tried out one of the technologies that the TSA is looking at in terms of trying to manage how long you take in those lines.
The health scare battle was long and grueling, but this weekend it got ugly. It got really ugly, and I don't think there was any excuse for it. I'm going to have more to say about that in my "X-Y-Z" straight ahead.
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VELSHI: Time now for "The X-Y-Z of It." Whether you support health care reform or not, I want to talk to all of you for a moment.
On Sunday, as the landmark House vote approached, three African- American lawmakers said protesters shouted racial slurs at them at the Capitol. One of those lawmakers is Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights pioneer. Also, openly gay Congressman Barney Frank says anti-gay slurs were shouted at him.
Look, there's no place for this in the political debate, for this kind of racism and intolerance. While people have the right to express themselves and it's a right we all take seriously, mixing in racism is not the way to bring people over to your point of view. I understand people have strong views, and that is fine.
But while some people went way too far, others didn't go far enough. Those who oppose health care reform have and continue to give quarter to extremists. And yes, I do think people who use racism to make their points are extremists. The opponents of health care and government spending have simply not done enough to make it clear that they don't want bigots in their midst. We've seen them with the signs -- we've seen those signs with President Obama in a coffin or Obama with a loincloth and a bone through his nose. To say that expresses the sentiments of people who oppose government action is an insult to people who have valid reasons for their opposition.
Before we become supporters of something or opponents of something, let's try to be decent human beings first.
That's my "X-Y-Z," here's Rick and "RICK'S LIST."
