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American Morning

Taking on Wall Street: Dems First Bid at Reform Blocked by GOP; Prescription for Waste: Hospital Overcharges in Billing Statement; Taking on Wall Street; Arizona Immigration Law Protest; Bracing for a Disaster; Docs Testing Bret Michaels

Aired April 27, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday, April 27th. I'm Kiran Chetry in New York. John Roberts in Washington this morning. Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning to you, Kiran. Lots going on today here in the nation's Capitol, and here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes.

Today, money talks. This morning, current and former Goldman Sachs executives will testify on Capitol Hill. Did they know they were creating a monster that almost brought down the entire American economy?

CHETRY: Lines not only drawn over how Wall Street will do business in the future. Democrats not getting the 60 votes needed to start debate on financial reform, but is this a temporary setback? We'll break down the bid to reform Wall Street.

ROBERTS: And hospitals charging wildly inflated prices driving health care costs out of control, a real eye-opener for one doctor who needed surgery and got quite a surprise when the bill came. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with a "Prescription for Waste" just ahead.

CHETRY: And the "A.M. Fix" blog is up and running. Go to CNN.com/amfix and we'll be reading your comments throughout the morning.

ROBERTS: But first it is money versus power today in Washington. In a few hours, bigwigs from Goldman Sachs, the fastest and most powerful investment bank, will testify on Capitol Hill.

That's a look inside the hearing room that you're taking a look at. Our Ali Velshi is there. We're going to check in with him in just a moment. But first of all, let's bring in Christine Romans. And we're expecting I would expect quite a contentious question and answer period this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think so. And I think some of these Senators are really spoiling for a fight, because Goldman Sachs for a long time, John, hasn't really acknowledged that it has a reputation problem. Even in January when I asked people who work at this company, what are you going to do about the global reputation problem? They told me, we don't have a reputation problem. Our clients are happy we're still making money.

That's not good enough for Congress or Americans who have been hammered by the housing crisis. You're going to hear from Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of this company. He's a guy who -- he basically grew up on main street. He was born, raised in the projects in New York, public school education, went to Harvard, became the CEO of Goldman Sachs in 2006.

He was a gold trader who worked for a company acquired by Goldman. He's the son of a postal work and receptionist. He's worked on Wall Street since 1981.

And an interesting anecdote about Lloyd Blankfein, I think it's fascinating, people inside the company like to point out what makes this guy tick. When his father retired, Lloyd Blankfein found out he wasn't going to be replaced, that he was going to be replaced by a machine.

And that is something that really marked him. He wanted Goldman to be the kind of company that was going to make sure that there would be the oxygen of finance flowing through the economy so people wouldn't be obsolete, so the economy would be grow quickly and there would be new opportunities for people, at least that's the line inside Goldman Sachs that tells you how this guy thinks.

ROBERTS: We have to look at his testimony from this morning, in which he acknowledges that the SEC lawsuit filed against was a very bad day, the worst day in his life, saying our clients are number one, we have to have their trust.

Do they still have the trust of the clients now that the SEC is going after them saying, wait a minute, you were betting against your clients. And now Senator Carl Levin has said, and that's the tip of the iceberg.

ROMANS: That's the question. It's not until the clients are brought in and they're accused of betting against their clients that Goldman starts to really get tough about fighting back their reputation.

When main street and the media and Congress were upset about Goldman they weren't as concerned as when the clients were asking questions.

This is what this is all about. We have to find out here what the SEC is trying to find out, and we want to know, was Goldman doing what an investment bank is supposed to do which is just make money in any situation imaginable? That's what they do -- no apologies, that's what they do. Or was the game rigged? And was the game rigged --

ROBERTS: No matter how the economy went, you were still going to win. You have an opportunity this afternoon after his testimony to talk with --

ROMANS: We'll see how he -- we'll see how he plays. I'm sure he's going to be hammered on the Hill today.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans will be with us all morning. Our Chief Business correspondent Ali Velshi is also live with us today. He's inside the hearing room where Goldman execs are going to try to sell their story today.

And he here to give us a little look around at what it's like inside that room. Good morning, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. This is the room where the Senate permanent subcommittee will be talking to Goldman executives. They'll be sitting here, seven of them.

And if you wanted to characterize today, it is the day Goldman has to drop its sheen. They have had a very controlled PR machine and that probably ends today. The bottom line is in recent weeks they have come across as self-serving, as tone deaf, as greedy, thanks to both the combination of the SEC charges and this ongoing hearing.

This hearing actually wasn't about the SEC charges. It's unrelated to that. This is an ongoing series of hearings, the fourth in that series. And it just so happens Goldman will be testifying today.

But I think what the senators hopefully are going to try to get to the bottom of for us is what role, if any, did Goldman play in the financial meltdown?

Bottom line, John, we know this recession was coming regardless of whether Goldman and John Paulson, the hedge fund manager, were making side deals. But how did we go from a regular recession into the worst recession since the Great Depression? And did Goldman and those firms have something to do with that?

While Goldman is testifying today, we shouldn't just think about the details in the e-mails that they are offering as exhibits. We want to think about, did Wall Street in its trading and in its greed and self-serving interests somehow do something that made this recession worse than it would have been otherwise?

That's what we'll be listening for carefully today, John.

ROBERTS: Ali Velshi for us inside that hearing room. And Clarification, Carl Levin, the chairman on the special Senate subcommittee on investigations, not financial services.

We have special coverage of the Goldman Sachs hearing beginning at 9:00 eastern right here on CNN. So make sure you keep it right here. Let's go back to New York. Here's Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

We also have some new information this morning regarding a terror case. A videotape just surfacing showing suspected underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab training in Yemen with Al Qaeda. That tape aired by ABC News shows the 23-year-old Nigerian speaking in Arabic about his impending attack and firing at targets, including a Jewish star of David.

Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane last Christmas with a bomb hidden in his underwear.

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: Lawmakers are about to tell Goldman Sachs, you're what's wrong with Wall Street. But efforts to clean it up aren't getting anywhere on Capitol Hill. We're going to take a look at whether financial reform will pass and whether it will have the teeth to stop another meltdown.

At 7:25, "Prescription for Waste." You think you were in pain when you went to the hospital? Wait until you get the bill.

Also at 7:40, a look at the oil slick from space spreading fast and threatening the Gulf Coast. We'll show you the all-out efforts to clean it up. It's eight minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 11 minutes after the hour now.

Just as Congress is about to go after some of the most powerful people from Goldman Sachs, Democrats and Republicans are going after each other when it comes to financial reform.

Yesterday Republicans blocked the first step in changing the way Wall Street does business. Joining me to talk about it this is A.B. Stoddard, the associate editor and columnist at TheHill.com, and Gerald Sive, the Washington executive editor at "The Wall Street Journal." Good morning to both of you.

So the Democrats attempted to have a cloture vote yesterday. It failed, but was all this kind of political theater, and was the timing conspicuous with the Goldman hearings on Capitol Hill?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": The timing for the Goldman hearings could not be better. And I think they knew the cloture vote would fail. They held it anyway. Republicans told them it was too soon. They hadn't completed bipartisan negotiations and begged for more time.

But the Democrats savored the opportunity to see 41 Republicans block the vote, particularly the night before we see Lloyd Blankfein and others testify about Goldman today.

I think the question on whether or not Democrats continue to do this repeated procedural vote tactic, it could end up backfiring on them. They were happy for the results of last night.

ROBERTS: What do you think Gerald? And they are going vote after vote after vote hoping that the Republican solidarity cracks?

GERALD SEIB, WASHINGTON EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": The Democrats sound as if they were happy to have four or five votes in which Republican stop the debate on the bill to reregulate Wall Street.

The danger here for both parties, when do you overplay your hand as you suggest? When do Democrats look at if they are just playing games? When do Republicans look obstructionists and look as if they really are in the pocket of Wall Street? That's what's going on right now.

The key thing to remember, this is not about killing the bill. This is about how you get it done. That is different from health care. Health care, Republicans wanted to say, stop, let's not do this at all. They want to get something done here almost as much as Democrats do. The question is how.

ROBERTS: Let's not do it this way. We've been hearing and you did some reporting on this yesterday, that the Republicans are saying they have an alternative proposal to pull out should it be necessary. What's in the proposal?

SEIB: It's not clear. What's not in there is this $50 billion fund to help the government wind down banks, the bailout fund that Republicans hate. I'm sure there's not a provision in there that says banks have to take derivatives business and spit it out.

But for Republicans, the question is, are you better off putting something out the Democrats can shoot at or keep it in your pocket and being accused as being obstructionists? That's an interesting game.

ROBERTS: So what do you think about that aspect of it? They don't really want it to come out?

STODDARD: I think if they had a bill they were proud of and they felt they would not expose themselves politically they would have brought it out a while ago so as not to seem obstructionist.

The fact they are hiding the bill and they are still at the table with the Democrats means they really want the Democrats to make concessions so that Republicans come out a few days from now or perhaps next week and say we're on board, we were always on board.

We didn't like the political games on the floor. We wanted to make sure we close bailout loopholes. These are serious policy changes and now we have a bipartisan bill.

ROBERTS: Interesting twist to the dramatics yesterday when Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson stood up and said I'm not voting for the bill because I'm afraid of its impact on small businesses, and at the same time I'd like to put forward this Warren Buffett exemption saying that existing derivatives contracts are not covered by the new legislation. Do they have a problem now with Nelson?

STODDARD: That's an interesting question. I think they always have a problem with Nelson, the Democrats. And I think if that was -- if he was the deciding vote he probably wouldn't have taken it down. He knew it was going to get blocked and he could jump on board and make a protest vote.

I think the Democrats were wise to know that making special carve-outs for people like Warren Buffett, especially on the day they want to blame Republicans for protecting Wall Street and the Goldman hearings, it probably wasn't going to be good for that.

SEIB: I think this is worth noting here that this is not necessarily a bed scenario for the two senators who need to make it happen, Chris Dodd on the Democratic side and Richard Shelby on the Republican side.

Chris Dodd can go back to his caucus and say, look, you can see we don't have the votes without making some more compromises. He needs some ammunition to make that argument to his own people. And Senator Shelby needs to do the same thing. He needs to be able to say to his people, look, we're just going to get nowhere here. We're going to be blamed for it if we don't start moving. So, in the next few days, the fact that there's a stalemate isn't necessarily a bad thing for the process.

ROBERTS: Do you think they can bipartisan agreement here? How many Republicans do you think will eventually sign on?

SEIB: You know, I don't know. I think they can. I don't think this happens without 10 or 12 Republicans signing on.

ROBERTS: You know, there's another problem too, creeping in for the Democrats, particularly for the White House. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who's been cooperating to some degree with Democrats, now said yesterday and said, I'm going to stop cooperating because Senator Harry Reid now wants to push the immigration bill ahead of the energy bill and I'm not -- I want the energy bill to come through.

Does he really have a problem here with this, or is he just trying to throw some cover to his good old friend John McCain, preventing him from having to make a tough vote on the immigration bill before a very tenuous election in Arizona in November?

STODDARD: Well, Senator Lindsey Graham has shown unique leadership in this very polarized atmosphere. He is willing to join on these high-profile, very contentious bills with Democrats, and that would speak to his concern over the policy on principle. You'd think that he would not be throwing tantrums about the timing of legislative calendar.

At the same time, he's probably correct that the Senate majority leader, when he said two weeks ago at a rally in Nevada to a largely Latino audience that he was going to press for immigration reform that really surprised almost every Democrat in his caucus. ROBERTS: Yes.

STODDARD: So, it did look political. I don't know where it's going. I don't know if the White House can convince for Graham to stay on board with the climate.

SEIB: Well, I think Lindsey Graham has got a point. You know, this is an election year. There's a limited amount of time left. There are only so many big heavy lifts that Congress can do. And if you're going to do immigration, that probably does push something else off the back just in terms of logistics and the political traffic that you can bear. So he's probably been dealt a bad hand here considering what he's been working on the last few months.

ROBERTS: Gerald Seib, A.B. Stoddard, always great to see you.

SEIB: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Thanks for coming in this morning -- Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

Well, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, new charges for the American missionary still being held in Haiti accused of trying to smuggle children out of the country. We have an update for you coming up.

Seventeen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Kidnapping charges have been dropped against 10 American missionaries who were detained in Haiti for trying to take children out of the country after the January earthquake. Laura Silsby, the group's leader and the only missionary still in jail, will have to stand trial on lesser charges. She still faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Well, Chicago's mayor, Richard Daley, is considering calls to put National Guard troops on the streets to curb violence in the city. Daley warns that the idea, though, is a Band-Aid solution that could have dangerous consequences. He is calling for more police officers. Already, there have been 113 murders this year in Chicago. Back in 1968, federal troops took to the city streets to control deadly riots. It followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The tech blog Gizmodo has posted police documents showing the house of one its editors was raided. Police took computers, digital cameras and a cell phone. They're investigating a leak of what's thought to be the new prototype of Apple's iPhone. Gizmodo made headlines last week when it posted pictures and video of the device online. The site says that the smart phone was lost in a bar near Apple's California headquarters and that's how they ended up with it. Gizmodo has since returned that device to Apple -- John.

ROBERTS: So this story was just another wrinkle into this whole sort of conspiracy theory that it was an intentional leak on Apple's part just to gin up some publicity for a new 4G phone. Maybe it was in fact lost?

CHETRY: Yes. I mean, we'll have to see what happens with this situation. But, you know, Gizmodo, of course, they posted the pictures. Now they're posting the police warrant. And the police didn't confirm if it's authentic, but exactly what they're trying to figure out still remains to be seen.

ROBERTS: All right. We'll see where the story goes.

Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, outrageous hospital overcharges, billing whatever they want, hoping insurance will pay and that you won't look. Elizabeth Cohen with her series "A Prescription for Waste" coming right up.

It's 22 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 25 minutes after the hour. Your top stories just about five minutes away. But first an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.

Dr. Linda Galloway learned that she needed surgery to save her vision. She scheduled the procedure immediately with her ophthalmologist. And what an eye-opener it was for her when the hospital bill arrived.

Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen now with part two of her series "Prescription for Waste."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You recently had an experience when you were in the hospital that really blew your mind.

DR. LINDA BURKE-GALLOWAY, OUTRAGED BY SURGERY BILL: Well, when I got out of the hospital and got the bill. Yes, I definitely had an alarming experience. I received my bill and noticed some items that were totally inflated. Forceps, 25-gauge disposable, $863.20.

COHEN: What went through your mind?

BURKE-GALLOWAY: I was outraged. I said, listen, I'm a physician. This is an instrument that you're going to throw away. And I encountered a very arrogant young man from the Billing Department who basically said, "When you sign consent for the procedure, you allowed us to charge you anything we wanted to."

COHEN: And so you then went on the Internet to see what it would cost to get a pair of forceps from a medical supply company. BURKE-GALLOWAY: Yes. Yes, I did.

COHEN: OK. So come show me what you've got.

BURKE-GALLOWAY: Forceps, similar to the one I had, $192.

COHEN: You paid 863.

BURKE-GALLOWAY: Right.

COHEN: But you can go buy from a medical supply company for $192?

BURKE-GALLOWAY: Yes. Yes, that's very troubling.

COHEN: Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the American Hospital Association. I'm going to ask them, please explain this markup to me.

BURKE-GALLOWAY: I thoroughly agree with that.

COHEN: And so the markup on these forceps was more than four times what it would cost to just get it from a medical supply company. Why? Four times. Because people want that -- people want to know why.

RICHARD UMBDENSTOCK, PRESIDENT AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION: I think everybody understands the notion that when you buy something, let's say like, a steak, and you want to have a really nice steak dinner at home, it's a lot less expensive to prepare it and enjoy it at home than it is out in a restaurant.

COHEN: They want to charge you $863 for a disposable piece of equipment, they can do it?

UMBDENSTOCK: The hospital has to be able to bring in more money than it spends or it won't be there for the next patient.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: OK. So he's intimating there, Elizabeth, that there is a cost markup on the instruments to cover the costs of the hospital. But don't they also have those charges separately?

COHEN: You mean the supply separately? The charges on the supply separately?

ROBERTS: No, supplies for operating rooms, salaries, things like that, aren't the supplies separated from everything like that?

COHEN: They are separated. And so what they say is, look, basically, if we want to do a four or five times markup, in other words make something that's $100 $500, we can do it. And we markup these supplies to pay for our nurses and to pay for our electricity and all of that. And Dr. Galloway's argument was, look, I have to pay 20 percent of my bill. Let me bring in my own supplies. Why can't I do that? You want to mark it up five times, that's fine, I want to bring in my own supplies. But of course, hospitals don't let you do that. They say that's an issue of quality control.

ROBERTS: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, if you were to do that, how could you maintain quality control? Because I would assume that a patient is looking for the cheapest price and made by something that's substandard.

COHEN: Right. Exactly. But her argument was, look, I can go to the exact same medical supply company that you went to. I mean, the hospital goes to a medical supply company, can buy a pair of forceps for 200 bucks and marks it up to 800 bucks. And she was saying I can go to that same medical supply company and pay 200 bucks and bring it in its nice sterile case. And they said no, we won't let you do that.

ROBERTS: Yes.

COHEN: That was not an option.

ROBERTS: And so is there anything then that patients could do?

COHEN: But what you can do is you can do what Dr. Galloway did, which is that you can go to the Billing Department, call the Billing Department and ask for an audit. In her case, this didn't work but sometimes that does actually work.

Now, the other thing you can do is that there's a whole profession of people called medical billing advocates. And what they will do is they'll go through your bill and they'll see if there are any items that were a mistake. And they can help you get those fixed and then they charge you a percentage of whatever they recoup for you. So medical billing advocates can be very helpful.

ROBERTS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen this morning with her "Prescription for Waste." Elizabeth, thanks so much for that.

Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, why can't we regulate what hospitals charge? They've been doing it in one state for 30 years, saving $40 billion. Could this be the way to solve America's health care crisis? Tomorrow only on AMERICAN MORNING -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Some of those charges just outrageous. It does make you scratch your head. John, thanks.

Well, we're crossing the half hour right now. It's time to look at the top stories this morning.

Accused Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has shown up at a training video produced by Al Qaeda. It was obtained by ABC News, aired last night. It shows the suspected underwear bomber in Yemen firing at targets that include a star of David and also discussing his impending attack on a U.S. airliner in Arabic.

ROBERTS: Former Panamanian director Manuel Noriega appearing in a courtroom in Paris this morning, to face charges of money laundering. Noriega spent two decades in the U.S. in custody in the United States for drug trafficking before he was cleared for extradition yesterday. The French government claims Noriega laundered some $3 million in drug money. He could face another 10 years behind bars if convicted in France.

CHETRY: And they were forced to break out the umbrellas inside of Ukraine's parliament. If you take a look at the video, they are putting up umbrellas and other protective sheet because people are hurling eggs and actually setting off smoke bombs. They're upset over an agreement that allows Russia to extend its lease of a key naval base there.

And despite all the chaos, there you see the smoke bombs, officials did try to push ahead with their business as if nothing was taking place. Amazing.

Well, Goldman Sachs big wigs are preparing for a hostile hearing on Capitol Hill today. They are accused of a plan to pocket billions from the housing collapse at the expense, in some cases, of their own clients. In opening remarks already released CEO Lloyd Blankfein will say that this firm did not bet against the housing market and its own clients.

Joining us live is Senator Claire McCaskill. She will be on the panel today. Today is the first time we're going to be hearing from Goldman Sachs executives since the SEC filed charges. Senator McCaskill, welcome.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: Thank you.

CHETRY: We know that these fraud charges are coming and you guys are going to get a chance today to question some of the executives, including the CEO. What answers are you looking for from Lloyd Blankfein and others?

MCCASKILL: Well, what I want to find out is, first of all, for everyone to understand, it's not just Goldman Sachs that was engaging in this casino like behavior. It was all across Wall Street. People need to understand, they were making stuff up to bet on it, essentially that's what they were doing it. These synthetic CDOs were made out of whole cloth just for people to bet.

And they have less regulation than casinos in Las Vegas. That's what I want to get out today in the testimony.

CHETRY: You're right. A common practice, this trading in derivatives that we've been hearing so much about but most people don't quite exactly understand. And as I understand it, that's sort of the point. But Goldman is the only one that actually had these SEC fraud charges filed. Is that going to make it harder fro you to get answers? I mean, for example, if I'm advising Goldman Sachs, I'm going to tell them, not to say anything today because of the pending litigation.

MCCASKILL: Well, they may refuse to answer some of the questions. But this is about getting at the policy problem here. Whether it was technically legal or illegal is not as important as whether or not it was wrong. Whether it's immoral that you are betting against products that you are trying to convince people to buy. That's ridiculous.

I mean, it's like the house telling one side of the bet that they get to set the line on the football game. You know, we can't let the house -- and by the way, the bid they get as the bookie is ridiculously high.

CHETRY: You know, and there are a lot of people at home who have been steaming about this and also wondering, why was it allowed to go on so long? Meaning that the point is companies on Wall Street is to make money any way they can. The point in Washington is that regulators are supposed to make sure that things are not happening the way they were. So why is Washington in some ways just waking up to this now?

MCCASKILL: There's no question, the SEC was in a coma. They were not doing their job. And part of the reason was that some of these instruments were not -- didn't have to be filed with the SEC. They are called private placements and they were very complex and Wall Street took advantage of that. You know, it's one of those things, pet everybody on the head. You just don't understand, it's too complicated.

CHETRY: Right.

MCCASKILL: Give me a break. It was not so complicated that the SEC shouldn't have gone in there and cleaned this stuff up, raise the flag of warning. None of that happened because Wall Street was in such a rush for greedy profits, they were really lemming like, they were competing against each other. They cared more about the story in the "Wall Street Journal" than they cared about whether or not the regulator were going to pounce on them.

CHETRY: You talked about not so much whether it's illegal or whether it's immoral. Are you less concerned about whether or not the SEC is able to actually prove a fraud case against Goldman, which some business analysts say it's going to be very difficult, insider trading, they say, is hard enough to prove but to try to prove malicious intent in a sub prime scandal will be even harder. Do you care so much about the legality?

MCCASKILL: Well, here's what I care about. I care about fixing this mess. I cannot believe the Republicans are not letting us debate this bill. And just the crassest, most bare knuckled political way. The Republicans are saying, yes, behind doors, saying, yes, we got a problem and yes, we probably need to do something. But then they are refusing to let us go forward with the debate on the bill.

What we've got to do. What our job is is to get busy and make sure this never happens again. Make sure taxpayers are never on the hook for this kind of greed ever again in our country.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about the bill as you alluded to right now. It is not coming to the floor because Republicans are arguing that they want to have some more time to talk behind the scenes before bringing it to a vote. But one of the items in the bill calls for transparency in the world of derivatives. These are those synthetic investments that you were just speaking of, or bets, as many people call them, requiring the banks to put them on exchanges and then also post collateral.

Some in the financial world say what this basically does is force these companies to go overseas and drive investors overseas because they are not bound by those same restrictions. How do you make sure that anything in an eventual bill doesn't hurt enterprise in the U.S.?

MCCASKILL: Well, here's the bottom line, if we don't have the guts to clean up an industry that is doing things that are wrong, then we ought to just put the vacancy sign on this building. You know, this is a ridiculous notion, let us do whatever we want for rampant greed or we're going to take our football and go to another country. If that's the case, good riddance. Good riddance.

CHETRY: What if --

MCCASKILL: There's plenty of things these investment banks can do that will make them still profitable. I mean, the idea that this kind of casino stuff -- this isn't the meat of their business. They are supposed to be locating investments for companies to go public. They are supposed to be, in fact, helping municipalities with bond issues.

For years and years the investment bank community in this country flourished without this kind of nonsense that is basically casino gambling on steroids.

CHETRY: you know, this is another interesting thing. I understand that you know, often times we talked and we get hung up on certain provisions when many people on both sides of the aisle agree on certain things. One thing that everybody seems to agree on is what you said, these risky bets that are allowed and that sort of overshadowed everything else in terms of investments. Why not just try to pass something first on that alone where there is bipartisan agreement?

MCCASKILL: Well, because we have -- first of all the notion that the Republicans wants to negotiate behind closed doors is ironic to me. After all the podium pounding they did over closed door negotiations during health care. So the notion they don't want to this debate in public, that's wrong. This should be a transparent debate, just like these derivatives should be transparent. And there's other things we need to fix. We need to be able to bust up these big banks.

We need to be able to make sure that they have a funeral when they get upside down. We need to make sure the money that's used to conduct that funeral is their money and not taxpayers' money. We need a consumer agency that is making sure credit cards are not raking average Americans over the coals on a monthly basis. That's the kind of things that are in this bill that are important, aside from just the casino gambling in the derivative market.

CHETRY: I got you. Well, certainly a busy day ahead and everyone is going to be watching to hear the types of questions you guys ask of the executives at Goldman Sachs. In particular today, Senator Claire McCaskill, great to talk to you. Thanks so much for joining us.

MCCASKILL: Thank you.

CHETRY: Well, 38 minutes past the hour.

Still ahead, the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may reach land in just days. But can robots stop the leak and the potential environmental disaster? We're going to have a breakdown and show you exactly where this spill is headed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Nineteen minutes now to the top of the hour. There's more backlash over Arizona's controversial new law, cracking down on illegal immigrants. Vandals targeted the state capitol yesterday using refried beans to smear swastikas on windows and calls to boycott the state are coming from across the country.

The new law allows police to demand proof of citizenship from people they believe are in the country illegally. Both sides had their say on "Larry King Live."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: This is just another tool that law enforcement can use to detect those here illegally. It's now a misdemeanor. They can be arrested and put in jail. And we have a big problem in this state and across our nation. Something has to be done. The federal government needs help and we're here to help.

REV. AL SHARPTON, OPPOSES NEW IMMIGRATION LAW: If you're going to target people based on who they are, in this case Mexican-American, but if it is anybody, that is racial profiling on its face. To say that we're going to stop the incoming of people that are Mexicans into America is to say that you're going to look for people that look Mexican, which is racial profiling, for a lot of illegal citizens of Hispanic descent.

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ROBERTS: Arizona's governor insists that police will implement the law properly. It is scheduled to take effect this summer. Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks. We want to bring you up to date right now on the heroic efforts right now by disaster teams to try to help with this oil spill in the Gulf Coast. It seems now inevitable that it will be badly stained and affected by this oil slick in the next few days. And I want to show you here on the magic wall. Let's play this video right now. This is a large shot of what happened with that oil rig explosion that took place. The latest right now is that crude oil is still poring from the two leaks about a mile beneath the surface, off the coast of Louisiana. That is where this oil rig exploded and sank last week. And the Coast Guard unfortunately admitting that no matter how much cooperation they get from the currents as well as the winds, it probably will not be able to stop that 1,800-mile slick from splashing onto shore by the weekend.

Let's show you right now what's going on underground. And this is a look at the submarines, right there. And these are robotic subs. There are more than 5,000 feet below the surface. And these are still shots that are being taken of the submarines. What they are trying to do is activate equipment at the well head, that's about a mile underneath the service that's supposed to help cut off the flow of oil from the well.

But so far they've had no success in doing this. And what that means is 42,000 gallons of fresh crude are still pouring into the gulf everyday. And when you talk about that type of impact, let's take a look at some of these pictures from NASA. These are aerial shots right now of what's going and where this is. You see the Delta National Wildlife Refuge there and the Breton National Wildlife Refuge there, as well.

Here is the oil slick. And if you look at the close-up right now, you see where the slick is. If you get a little bit closer with this shot, you can see, here's the growing oil slick coming from NASA. Here's where the ships are right now. It's roughly the size of Rhode Island and right now, it stretches about 80 miles across the gulf, off the gulf rather, 36 miles southeast of Louisiana.

And scientists are still unsure where this oil spill is likely to make landfall. They are considering the high winds, moving at closer to shore this morning and also making it more difficult for the Coast Guard to try to contain or disperse the chemicals. So again, if those robotic subs are unable to bring in the slick, what they are going to do, if they're unable to shut if off underground, British Petroleum is going to bring in two drilling vessels, might be able to stem the flow by injecting special heavy liquids into the well.

Unfortunately though, that process can take a long time, perhaps two months to complete. So we're going to give you the latest throughout the morning. Meanwhile, cooler temperatures, scattered showers. Rob Marciano with a look at what's in store for our forecast, still ahead.

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ROBERTS: Lovely day in Washington, and a lot better than it was yesterday. Right now, it's partly cloudy, a little cool, 55 degrees. Later on today, we're going to get lots of sunshine, a little bit of cloud and a high of 63.

Rob Marciano is tracking all of the weather across the country for us this morning, and, Rob, a lovely day here in Washington. What's it like for the rest of the country?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not too shabby, certainly not as turbulent as it has been in the past few days.

Good morning, again, John. Yes. You've got another system and it would be rolling into D.C., but not until, I think, tonight and this one, it's pretty weak. And the system that brought all of the severe weather across much of the Plains in the mid south has moved offshore.

It did bring a fair amount of rough weather and heavy rain yesterday across South Florida, Miami getting 2.8 inches, Fort Myers getting just over one and a half, and West Palm Beach getting 1.55 (ph) as well.

What kind of travel delays do you expect today? Some rain and wind in New York metros and Boston. Just a couple of morning showers in and around D.C. and Philly, but those look pretty much done. Wind will be the main concern.

Here's the back half of the moisture now rolling across Long Island, up I-95 through New Haven, up towards Providence, Rhode Island. But look at the white showing up on the radar scope. Upstate New York, Northern New England, you've got a winter storm warning that's posted for parts of that area, 6 to 12 inches of snow.

Adirondacks, the green and white mountains, and maybe some of the mountains of Maine as well, so winter not quite done yet, at least near the Canadian border.

All right, here's our next system. St. Louis, wrapping around towards Nassau (ph). This is pretty weak, but it does have some cool air, so there'll be some thunderstorms that will pop up through the day today, 66 in Atlanta for a high, that will be 55 in Chicago.

I want to show you this video, if you haven't seen it yesterday, or when this -- when the tornado came through Yazoo City a couple of days ago, this wedge tornado, a mile and three quarters wide, it was on the ground. Now they're saying it was on the ground for 149 miles. Can you imagine that, 149-mile path of a tornado that was almost two miles wide in spots, a deadly wedge with (INAUDIBLE) winds of 170 miles an hour.

My goodness. Unbelievable video there.

Another batch of rough weather potentially, John or Kiran -- I'm not sure who I'm going back to -- on Thursday and Friday as the next system comes to the West Coast. But a beautiful day in D.C. today, so enjoy that.

ROBERTS: Yes, very nice. But, wow, that -- that tornado, what an incredible weather event that was, Rob.

MARCIANO: It certainly was, my friend.

ROBERTS: And I've got something for you that I know would be of interest for you, Rob. A big off day for the world champion New York Yankees, Rob's favorite team.

They were honored by President Obama at a White House ceremony, celebrating the team's 27th World Series title. And the president, the devoted White Sox fan, used the occasion to poke fun at Chicago's other team.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been nine years since your last title, which must have felt like an eternity for Yankees fans. I think other teams would be just fine with a spell like that, the Cubs, for example.

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ROBERTS: The Yankees presented the president with the number 27 jersey, autographed by the entire team -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Making fun of the Cubs there, that was funny. He got his cross-town rival. He's a White Sox fan, right, the president?

ROBERTS: He is. He is a White Sox fan and, you know, the long suffering Cubs fans know exactly what he's talking about.

CHETRY: Exactly. John, thanks.

Well, our top stories just minutes away, including new links between accused underwear bomber and al Qaeda, a video showing him in training in Yemen. What is the significance of that video?

Paula Newton has that story.

Also, at half past the hour, the winds of war are blowing again in the Middle East, growing concern that Israel could take matters into its own hands and take out Iran's nuclear sites. We'll ask the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. about that.

And at 48 after the hour, cartoon solidarity. Bart Simpson saying, I'm with you, Kyle and Cartman, sort of. A shout out from Springfield to South Park.

Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 55 minutes past the hour right now, time for your "A.M. House Call," stories about your health.

There are just four bad habits that can age you 12 years, according to a new study. Researchers tracked nearly 5,000 people and found that smoking, lack of exercise, drinking too much and eating poorly significantly raised the chance of premature death. And, of those who dies, the majority suffered from heart disease.

Well, from ketchup to deli sandwiches, more than a dozen large food companies and chain restaurants are pledging to cut the salt. To name a few, Kraft, Starbucks and Subway Sandwich chains all are going to reduce sodium levels as part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's nationwide initiative to cut consumption by 25 percent over five years.

As many know, eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure which also raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.

So, can a slushie increase your endurance? One researcher thinks so.

There's a New Zealand study, and they tested two groups of athletes. One group drank a syrup-flavored ice drink before running on a treadmill in a heated room, the other just had sweeten cold water, and the slushie group was able to run 10 minutes longer before stopping.

Experts say that the lower body temperature pre-workout might explain it. They also say benefits are short lived and not suited for sports like marathon races.

So there you go. Next time you want to increase your endurance, John, on the bike, have a slushie first.

ROBERTS: That sounds very tasty and very enjoyable, although I could say, for marathon races, you'd have to have a whole beltful of them --

CHETRY: Exactly.

ROBERTS: -- and that might slow you down a little bit.

We are learning more this morning about the condition of former Poison frontman, Bret Michaels. His condition remains critical and doctors still cannot find the source of the bleeding in his brain.

Reports from TMZ and Radar Online say he is awake but that his speech is slurred and his vision is blurry.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta says even though Michaels does have Type one diabetes, that probably did not play a role in his brain hemorrhage.

It's 56, almost 57 minutes after the hour. We're back with your top stories right after the break. Don't go away.

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