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American Morning
Bracing for a Government Shutdown; Fargo Vs. Red River; Patty Duke Discusses Social Security Online Services for Seniors
Aired April 08, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I expect an answer in the morning. And my hope is, is that I'll be able to announce to the American people some time relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it has not. Time is up, it looks like.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
President Obama wanted Congress to act now. The government is set to run out of money at midnight. Millions in line to take a hit, whether you work for Uncle Sam or not.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
The cost of a shutdown -- what happens when 800,000 people are out of work and federal agencies close up shop? More than you think. We're looking at the American fallout this shutdown could cause -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: And good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us.
Eight o'clock here in New York, 8:00 in the nation's capital -- and still no deal on a budget.
VELSHI: We are 15 1/2 hours away. It is D-Day for the federal budget. Fifteen and a half hours left now before the government shuts down and sends -- that's right, 16 hours -- sends 800,000 workers home for who knows how long.
President Obama is demanding answers from congressional leaders by this morning, as you heard him say moment ago. Congressional aides worked through the nights after talks last night broke off without a deal.
CHETRY: And we just had a chance to talk to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer who says still no deal?
VELSHI: He says they are 70 percent of the way.
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: But that's not enough for something.
CHETRY: The president has cleared his slate to focus on getting a budget. He's actually canceled a trip. He's going to go to Indiana. He says he's holding out hope that they can keep the government running.
Ed Henry has the latest from the White House this morning.
Hi, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
You know, new this hour, I'm hearing from officials close to the talk that it's likely President Obama will get a phone call mid-morning, maybe 10:00, 10:30, from Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with some sort of a progress report on what happened with these talks overnight.
I'm told that there's not a specific time yet scheduled because in the words of one occasion, they don't want to make this sort of an arbitrary deadline. They want to call the president when they actually have some sort of progress to report. That fits in with what you just mentioned about the president's deadline set last night -- that, look, I want to hear one way or another this morning.
Bottom line is the president was also pushing very hard last night when he addressed reporters after his fourth meeting with congressional leaders in something like 48 hours. He was making it very clear there'd be a real impact on people, that they wouldn't get their tax refunds if they're filing paper reports and the government shuts down; the military won't get its pay. And he also it could be devastating to the still fragile recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Earlier today, one of our nation's top economists said -- and I'm quoting here -- "The economic damage from a government shutdown would mount very quickly. The longer it dragged on, the greater the odds of a renewed recession."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, officials close to these talks are also telling us that there is not a deal yet, as you were mentioning with Steny Hoyer. They are close. And what that means in terms of specifics is that Democrats are offering around $33 billion, $34 billion in spending cuts. Republicans still want something like $40 billion. So, they're only a few billion dollars apart.
And then you've got those legislative riders dealing with side issues like abortion the Democrats want stripped out of this legislation. They don't want to deal with it in the context of the budget at all.
So, those are still the sticking points that have to be dealt with.
But the president is expecting this call the next couple of hours from the congressional leaders. And they got to figure out, what do they have to do in the last 12, 14 hours to make sure that this does not shut down tonight at midnight -- Ali, Kiran.
VELSHI: All right. Ed, thanks very much. We'll stay on top of that with you. Good information that you're getting, though, that -- you know, you wonder whether President Obama is drawing a line in the sand by saying he wants something by this morning. Now, we are hearing that he may be getting some update in the next two hours or so. We, of course, will be on top of this all day at CNN.
The House, by the way, made a move to try and keep the money running a little longer last night. It passed a stopgap spending plan that would keep the government running for a week. It includes $12 billion in spending cuts, almost entirely along party lines. The president has threatened to veto it. It's not going to get to the president anyway because it's not going to get through the Senate.
CHETRY: That's right. So, joining us to talk more about this is political contributor, CNN senior political contributor, Ed Rollins, and also, chief political correspondent and anchor of "STATE OF THE UNION," Candy Crowley. We also want to say that we were supposed to be also joined by Democratic strategist Rob Zimmerman. He's feeling a little bit under the weather this morning.
But anyway, thanks so much for being with us to all of you.
The reason that didn't go through, what we just said, is this -- that was passed by the House is because of two -- what some would argue policies, were, you know, hot button issues, EPA and abortion that were in that, quote, "riders." What does that mean?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, what that means is that the budget isn't about numbers. It's about policy. And, in fact, I think you will remember the stimulus bill. There was a lot of complaints by Republicans at that point that House Democrats were shoving policy into a money bill to stimulate the economy.
The budget is a statement of your priorities, what you want to spend money on. That is necessarily a policy debate. And, guess what? They don't really agree on what they should spend money on.
VELSHI: And the problem, I want to show you, Ed, a poll you've seen over and over again, a Gallup poll taken on April 5th, asking lawmakers should do if it means a shutdown? Republicans say -- 51 percent of Republicans say they should hold out, 27 percent of Democrats say they should hold out, and only 29 percent of independents say they should hold out. This is a problem for Republicans.
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Sure is. I mean, obviously, Republicans promised certain things in the course of the campaign. And elections do have results. Many of these are new members. Many of these people have never been in government before and this is their first big battle. And this is the beginning of a long battle, not a short battle. And this is an issue that should have been done last year.
The two issues that Candy talked about, one is abortion, that's been outlawed for 25 years. What they want to do is give governors the option, sort of give them a block grant and they can basically pay for Planned Parenthood or not. It's a red flag on both sides.
The other is basically eliminating some of the funding for Obamacare which could not pass the Congress today with the new Congress.
CHETRY: But you say it could have been done last year. And, Steny Hoyer, when we talked to him, said, no, it couldn't be brought to the floor with the 41 GOP senators voting in line to not bring some of these issues to the floor.
ROLLINS: They never tested. That's the end of the day. Democrats had total control of the Congress until two months ago.
CHETRY: I mean, technically, what this should have been is a huge GOP victory, don't you think? I mean, they brought along people who were wanting to cut $5 billion to $33 billion --
ROLLINS: I would be very -- I would be very satisfied on the monetary side, I'm not part of the Congress. I'm not a -- I'm not a Republican strategist inside the tent. But I would say at this point, there's a moral victory. We're on the right track. And I think Democrats have been pretty cooperative. And I think we ought to basically move forward and --
VELSHI: So, Candy, there's four parties involved here. And I want to say four parties, I mean the Tea Party Republicans, the non-Tea Party Republicans, the Democrats in the House and Senate and the president. Who wins or loses if the government shuts down tonight at midnight?
CROWLEY: Well, you know, we'll see is the fact of the matter. I mean, obviously, whoever does the best and saying, here's what -- all our polling indicates that people would mostly blame Republicans. The same polling indicates that they prefer the Republicans' approach to the budget. So, once again, it is a little uncertain trying to read the tea leaves.
But if I could just be a little bit cynical here for a moment and say, we're in an election cycle, presidential, congressional and elsewhere. When have we paid this much attention to a budget? This is a time for people to go out there and lay out their priorities to a public that generally isn't watching -- so that they are pushing this up to the deadline doesn't surprise me. It's a great big platform for everybody.
CHETRY: That's interesting. And you asked -- none of this is accidental, right? I mean, you've been around long enough. And so, you said, when was the last time -- '95, '96 -- and who paid dearly for it? Well, it ended up being the GOP-led Congress and Newt Gingrich.
ROLLINS: It was. And Gingrich was more boisterous and you also had Bob Doyle, who was the leader in the Senate who ran against Clinton, wasn't a very big candidate at the end of the day.
John Boehner is not going to get very far ahead of his herd. He's not going to be like Gingrich, go to the White House, cut a deal and come back and see it. Boehner is trying to sell what he thinks he can get done. And, obviously, there's internal battles. The second in command that is not quite there --
VELSHI: How do you handle that, Ed? Because we were talking to one Republican congressman, member of the Tea Party this morning.
ROLLINS: I saw it.
VELSHI: He doesn't sound like he's going to accept much of what John Boehner --
ROLLINS: He is a very articulate a advocate of that particular position. I think at the end of the day, they'll come to a conclusion that he doesn't benefit anybody.
CROWLEY: And he doesn't have to.
ROLLINS: No.
CROWLEY: He can vote no as long as they get enough people.
ROLLINS: Sure, there's enough Democrats that will vote for this just as you saw yesterday. There were 15 Democrats.
CHETRY: And does Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party, you know, caucus leader in the House signaling that she wants a deal -- does that change anything?
CROWLEY: You know, I -- it is my experience with these freshmen that, (a), since they broke the template, they're hard to protect. But, (b), they have jobs to go home to if they want to. They're like pizza parlor owners. They sort of came here. So, they aren't kind of beholden to the same career track that most of them are.
ROLLINS: And Mrs. Bachman is a leader of the caucus. She is not a leader of the Tea Party. The Tea Party is leaderless. And each person has an individual constituency. And I think that's what this is about.
VELSHI: Let me ask one quick question. Candy, you are off to talk to Donald Trump later on. He's going down this road of where Barack Obama was born again. As somebody who's advised presidential candidates, what do you think of that?
ROLLINS: I don't like it. I think it's totally irrelevant. I think what's relevant is what the president is doing today. I think it keeps the issue front and center. And it's not good for Republicans and not good for the other candidates. Donald Trump will fail like Ross Perot, who's campaign I managed and what-have-you. When the scrutiny goes on him, he'll crash and burn, and I don't think he'll really run for president.
CROWLEY: Listen, if you were thinking about running for president or thinking about grabbing attention, either one of those things, this would be an issue that you would bring up, because it's appealing to some way conservatives and it gets that attention. So, either way, your ratings on your show go up or you lay down the road work for a presidential race.
CHETRY: It seems to me it's so radioactive. It doesn't matter. You could never with that position get out of the primary. You could never with that position get out of the primary if you got that far.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
ROLLINS: Well, the thing about America is anybody can run.
CROWLEY: That's right, that's right.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Good to see you, guys. Thank you both.
CROWLEY: Thanks.
ROLLINS: Thank you very much.
CHETRY: And we'll keep watching Candy, by the way. She's on "STATE OF THE UNION" this Sunday morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Great to see both of you.
ROLLINS: Great. Thank you.
VELSHI: All right. It's been a very bad 24 hours for rebel fighters in Libya -- the opposition overwhelmed and retreating. And did NATO accidentally fire on a rebel convoy again? They are addressing that issue this morning.
CHETRY: And Japan hit again with a strong aftershock, deadly aftershock, power knocked out to 3 million homes. But is it going to have an impact as they struggle to get a handle on the failed nuclear reactor? We're going to have new developments just ahead.
VELSHI: And ready to fly. Southwest airlines says it's repaired jets are going back up tomorrow. What did it cost to fix those cracks? We'll tell you after the break. Eleven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirteen minutes past the hour right now. In the battle for Libya, rebel fighters are overwhelmed by pro-Gadhafi forces. That's what they're saying right now -- the rebels seen in full retreat from Ajdabiya in eastern Libya. Gadhafi troops are also advancing on the rebel-held town of Misrata.
Meanwhile, NATO is now acknowledging that two airstrikes may have killed four people in a rebel convoy. A spokesman blames the fog of war.
VELSHI: Also, the Libyan government says four foreign journalists detained earlier this week are safe and will be released. James Foley and three others working for the international news site "Global Post" were dethroned (ph) -- detained, I'm sorry, by pro-Gadhafi, while reporting on the fighting outside of Brega. Libyan officials are not saying when they will be released, just that they will be released.
CHETRY: And a 7.1 magnitude aftershock rattled northern Japan. This was center near Sendai, one of the largest cities there. Buildings shook more than 200 miles away, though, in Tokyo. Three people were killed and more than 103 others injured. It did trigger a tsunami warning that was then canceled 90 minutes later.
VELSHI: And that aftershock sent oil prices to 2 1/2-year high. Right now, oil is trading above $111 a barrel. So far this year, take a look at that surge in oil prices. Twenty percent gas prices also up for the 17th straight day. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, if you pour it yourself, $3.74.
CHETRY: Well, lawmakers are having a tough time getting a budget passed in Washington state as well because protesters keep disrupting them.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Seventeen people arrested at the state capital in Olympia. Others had to be escorted from the statehouse gallery after shutting down the legislature for 30 minutes.
VELSHI: Labor groups are angry about millions of dollars in proposed cuts to state-funded health care services.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I paid for this house. They are killing our clients. I have a client that has to be turned every hour. He is going to die. Do you want that on your conscience? Apparently, they do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we don't stand up, they're going to keep taking and taking and taking from our seniors and people with disabilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: One protester was arrested for assaulting a trooper. Organizers say an even larger crowd and demonstration is expected today.
CHETRY: Well, it's Fargo versus the Red River. And volunteers in the city of Fargo, North Dakota are busy sandbagging ahead of the expected spring flood. The river has risen seven feet in the past week, and it is expected to crest at around 40 feet this weekend and then stay there through the beginning of next week. Federal disaster aid has already been approved to help with those recovery efforts.
VELSHI: Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us. He's tracking that flooding around the Red River and weather across the country. What have you got, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I tell you this. Those guys are pros. I mean, they've done this year after year.
CHETRY: Yes, they are. I was wondering, though, Rob. We talked about some federal aid. I mean, every year this happens and you see these people in the sandbag brigade, I mean, can't they do more to help them?
MARCIANO: Well, you know, just downriver, communities just downriver have taken larger steps to build more permanent structures to do that, but that's multimillion-dollar projects, and also, you know, you affect one part of the river and you kind of squeeze the other part. So, it's a much more complicated issue than we think. And they're doing the best they can to prevent the disaster that would happen if they didn't come together like they have been coming together.
As I mentioned, the river is expected to crest over the weekend, and as it does so, it will approach record stage. It probably won't get there, but nonetheless, they did pretty much what they yesterday -- last year to prevent disaster, and they've done the same thing this year, and they're fairly confident. We do have a little bit of -- one of the reasons, by the way, is that the warm up this spring, we haven't seen 70, 80-degree temperatures across the Northern Plains this spring.
For that reason, the melt of that record snow pack hasn't been that drastic or that fast, and that's one of the reasons that things haven't been as bad as they could have been. Ninety-two degrees for the high temperature across Dallas today. Come on. Seventy-nine in Atlanta. It got to be on the chillier side across the northeast with rain moving that way, but it won't be a whole lot of rain.
It's raining right now in Detroit. Some of that is heavy at times. We had some heavy rain overnight in Chicago, and we'll see if severe weather threat today across the Ohio and Northern Tennessee Valleys with the potential of seeing some thunderstorms that could pack a punch there and other storm heading into the West Coast. More details on weather, and we'll keep tracking flooding situation. See you guys in about half an hour.
VELSHI: Thank you, sir.
CHETRY: All right. Rob, thanks. VELSHI: OK, trekkies. Original trekkies. You trekky? You're too young to be an original trekkie, aren't you? George Takei reprising his role as Sulu, Commander Sulu I and Captain Sulu --
CHETRY: I know this, right? You, guys, do this all the time.
VELSHI: Live long and prosper? Yes. He is preparing with legendary actress, Patty Duke. And she's going to join us live to explain. It's actually got to do with this federal budget shut down. We'll tell you about it when we come back.
CHETRY: Also, government shutdown is looming and looking more likely. We want to ask viewers their ideas how would you balance the books. Well, we're getting some pretty interesting ideas from you guys. We'll share some of them coming. It's 18 1/2 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: This is Washington, D.C. I think you needed to know that. Kiran has been troubling me all morning about --
CHETRY: Troubling you?
VELSHI: The temperature in D.C. is actually going to be. You seem troubled by the fact that it's going to hit 49 degrees because you mentioned that three times this morning. What's the issue?
CHETRY: It's because when we showed that map, it looked like it was in --
VELSHI: In a hot zone.
CHETRY: Yes. It looked liked that nice hot zone. I find out, boy, the only thing hot is people hot around the color if we don't get this budget going, but we're actually warmer in New York today. We're looking at a high of 53, and D.C., where I guess they're going to be spending a lot of time indoors --
VELSHI: No matter what the temperature is in D.C., they are working indoors.
CHETRY: It could be 80 degrees and sunny, and they're stuck inside because they have four meetings in 48 hours, still no deal, back at the discussion table. I don't even know if it's a bargaining table at this point.
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: So, how does the U.S. balance the budget? Lawmakers can't agree. Some people are saying, wait a minute, if regular Americans were there, could they come up with a solution? CNNs Maggie Lake hit the streets of New York to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAGGIE LAKE, CNNI CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Politicians in Washington are squabbling over how to deal with the enormous deficit problem facing the U.S.
REP. ERIC CANTOR, (R) HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: We have got to solve the debt crisis in this country.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: They want to just use a meat ax and cut everything.
LAKE: Neither side can agree on how to best balance the books. So, we decided to talk to ordinary working people to see if they could lend a hand. We started with recommendations from the Republican senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn.
$200,000 to study, why politicians are vague?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you serious? There is really a study about that.
LAKE: $600,000 to digitize grateful dead memorabilia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a grateful dead fan, but I don't think that's worth it.
LAKE: Eliminating wasteful spending is a start, but only 19 percent of the U.S. budget is actually non-defense discretionary spending. The rest is entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and military spending.
Budget experts if we're going to tackle the deficit for real, we've got to look at those big ticket items. So, which should go, grandma's pension, health care for the poor or defense?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a few years away, not many years away from Social Security. I want my Social Security protected, obviously.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's tricky because we need defense, I mean, especially now what's going on in the Middle East.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need health care.
LAKE: What about grandma's pensions?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely. Definitely. I mean, she has worked hard for those.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we could get rid of the war expenditures, first and foremost, and then look at the other expenditures.
LAKE: What if raising taxes? If you can't cut spending --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. People are out of work right now. No more tax increases.
LAKE: What if we do raise taxes, does it matter where they're raised? Is there a group that should bear the burden, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Only because I feel if we put the tax too much on the rich, they will leave. And if they leave, then we just did damage to ourselves.
LAKE: So, shared pain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shared pain, unfortunately.
LAKE: The debt clock continues to tick higher as Americans struggle to solve their budget crisis.
Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Maggie, thanks so much. Well, tell us your ideas about how you'd balance the budget, right?
VELSHI: Mine?
CHETRY: Well, I know yours, but yes. You tweet them out a lot. Get online and head to our AMERICAN MORNING blog at CNN.com/AM. We're also at CNNAM on the Twitter.
VELSHI: It's a tricky question because there are some people who believe a budget doesn't have to be balanced. We all assume that it does, but there are actually economists who say it doesn't always have to be in balance, but we want to hear what your thoughts are. This is for you, so send us something.
The government shutdown, does the economy slowdown? Who gets hit? Who gets hit the hardest? Is these government employees, is it military, is it somebody else? How big a deal is this looming shutdown to our entire economy? Stephanie Elam is going to have that for us. She's watching your money.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: As we've been talking, 30 more minutes have clicked away this hour. Still no deal, and when the clock strikes midnight tonight, the federal government will shut down. And of course, we've talked about the implications for the economy. Our Stephanie Elam is here. She's watching your money this morning. So, what are we going to be watching about our money if this budget -- I mean, if the government shuts down?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are some economic consequences, obviously. You know, it gets serious when we break out the clock, just in case -- I mean, what was (ph) wondering exactly.
CHETRY: Did you see the clock?
ELAM: Yes. So, since we're watching the clock now, let's talk about the economic consequences from this, and starting off with just the idea of economic data. I know you probably don't pay attention to when the government sends out their little updates about how many jobless claims there were during the week and all that, but we monitor them, and we let you know what these indicators say about the economy. Well, guess what, we're not going to get any of those if the government shuts down. And then, beyond that, even bigger than that, take a look at someone who say wants a mortgage. If you're trying to apply for a mortgage and you want to get an FHA loan which is back by the federal government, no, not going to be able to do that. So, that means you may not be able to sell your house or buy property during this period if the government does shutdown.
Also, economic growth, it could be slowed during this process. It depends on how long the shutdown lasts if it does happen. Now, some argue it probably won't be that huge of an impact. Others say it could be a big one. That will be one of those things that we'll have to take our review mirror out and look after it happens if it does happen.
The other thing that we're keeping our eyes on, the stock market does not like uncertainty. And this is just about in any case that there could be. Take a look at yesterday, just for example. There is a big earthquake. I think it was, 7.3 on the Richter scale in Japan.
The markets here in the United States fell off about 95 points and then came back a bit throughout the day, but the whole point is the uncertainty of what that could mean. If there is a shutdown, the government is not working, that could also lead to some uncertainty there for the stock markets.
So these are the some of the ways we have seen economic consequences that will cover all of that. When you take a look at a story like this and we are looking at all the things that could happen, it is important to keep in mind, if a deal comes through, we won't be talking about this anymore. But we have been looking at all morning all the things that could happen. That's really important to keep in mind.
VELSHI: We did get a deal which makes us talk about it for another week.
ELAM: Then, we will talk about what's in the deal.
VELSHI: We still have a debt limit we haven't dealt with and the 2012 budget we haven't talked about.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Why a lot of Americans are very disgusted with what's going on now. Thanks, Stephanie.
We want to bring you our top stories at half past the hour. Hundreds of thousands of people are wondering if they will get a paycheck. Congressional aides worked through the night, and still no budget deal. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Obama is waiting for results, demanding answers from congressional leaders right now after yet another you can successful round of emergency talks late last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I expect an answer in the morning and my hope is that I will be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The House cast their own short-term spending plan that would keep the government running for a week and fund the Pentagon and cut $12 billion in domestic spending. Democrats flat out said no. Republicans used it to send a blunt message to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JEB HENSARLING, (R) TEXAS: Why Mr. President are you issuing a veto threat? To put it in a larger context, you want to say, Senator Reid, Mr. President, what part of broke don't you understand?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Let's give you a good idea of what a government shutdown might actually look like. I want using this wall to show what it might be. Federal agencies touch almost every aspect of your life. The government will still keep making money. The department of treasury will keep making money and printing coins.
Reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which we rely on are not going to come out. They will stop issuing those reports. That's really important, actually. That's how we know how things are going.
Places like the department of education, the federal department of education, you know how many workers are going to be deemed nonessential? It's 92 percent? It is going to be almost entirely shutdown, 92 percent of its workers will be furloughed.
Let me show you another few options. The Department of Agriculture for your food, the inspections will continue. The National Weather Service will continue to send out weather alerts, but workers there may not get paid until after the deal is done.
And, the Federal Aviation Administration will retain all employees necessary to keep the national air space system operating safely. That includes most air traffic control operations as we've discussed on this show before. Some air traffic control operations can be done without human staffing.
So that's a picture of what some of the agencies that may affect you are going to be doing if there is a shutdown starting midnight tonight.
CHETRY: Thanks so much, Ali.
Southwest Airlines, four planes, they say they are now repaired for the aluminum skin cracks that were such a concern. They say they should be back in service tomorrow. The airlines mechanics are replacing an 18-inch section of the roof on each jet. A fifth plane with cracks in its skin will be held back for additional maintenance. Southwest grounded 79 of the older Boeing 737-300s for inspections after the hole popped up in the roof of a plane in mid-air over Arizona last week that forced an emergency landing.
Donald Trump is a birther, and he is not letting up with it. He will be in New York with Arizona Republican, Carl Seals. Seals is sponsoring a birther bill that would require all presidential candidates to prove they were born in the United States. Trump said he sent investigators to Hawaii to search for the president's birth certificate and they are coming up empty-handed.
Academy award winning actress Patty Duke and "Star Trek," what do they have in common? About 80 million Americans are in the same boat. Patty Duke joins us live in our studios next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: It is not your typical TV reunion, but two stars familiar to baby boomers are teaming up on a "Star Trek" themed campaign to tell boomers about Social Security services that are offered online.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE TAKEI, ACTOR: Boldly go to SocialSecurity.gov.
PATTY DUKE, ACTOR: If it wasn't so important, would I be wearing pointy ears?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: That, of course, actor George Takei, Sulu in the original "Star Trek" series, and a true original, the great Patty Duke, who joins us now. What a pleasure to see you.
DUKE: I can't tell you. I am just awe struck. I see you on my little screen at home every day, every day. You are actually real.
VELSHI: There we go.
CHETRY: You think his head looks bigger in person than on the TV.
DUKE: He is perfectly proportioned.
VELSHI: You are so kind. And you are a great communicator. You are taking this out to people who aren't quite sure how to necessarily utilize Social Security stuff online. How savvy are you online?
DUKE: I am computer illiterate. I do an e-mail by saying, "Mike," which is my husband and he does the thing. Oddly enough, being involved with Social Security for these couple of years, I am getting closer to taking my phobia and throwing it away.
What we are trying to urge people to do is to realize that if they go online, they are saving themselves the time of travel to an office and all of that. Also, it helps the system by if we say, let's say, 15 minutes for each person who goes online, that translates to millions of dollars saved by Social Security, which goes right back for services.
CHETRY: So it is interesting. This is a great idea. SocialSecurity.gov.
DUKE: You taught me to do this.
VELSHI: Live long and prosper.
DUKE: My fingers don't want to do that.
CHETRY: Neither will mine. My parents are about to come up to that anyone of collecting Social Security. They are Internet savvy. The grandparent age, the computer is a scary thing. How do you demystify getting online and figuring it out an being able to trust if you can't see it or talk to a person, your benefits are going to come through?
DUKE: First of all, for those of us who are computer illiterate, we either have a mate who can do it, or I go to my youngest grandchild and they can get me on there in a blink.
It seems to me that people who are disabled, people who just don't want to take the time to go to the Social Security office, don't want to put on makeup and hair, it affords them the privacy and the convenience of getting themselves into the system. At some point they will have a face to face with someone in one of the Social Security offices. This just takes care of the preludes.
VELSHI: A lot of it is the questions, the only thing that is more complicated to most people than the internet is Social Security itself.
(LAUGHTER)
So at least this might be, this is it for all of us.
DUKE: This makes it nice and easy. The questions are clear and concise -- and there will be, you must sooth yourself by knowing that there will be a follow-up. You will talk to a human being.
VELSHI: This is not doing away with human contact for Social Security. It is trying to save you the trip to the office, save you waiting in line for these folks.
DUKE: Which saves Social Security.
CHETRY: You brought up a good point. I want to show you this graphic because more and more seniors are feeling insecure about their future as they head into retirement.
DUKE: I wouldn't know about that.
CHETRY: You sort of hit on this, less than half feel they are going to have enough money to retire comfortably, far more pessimistic than they were a decade ago. Do you feel optimistic things are turning around for seniors? DUKE: I don't know that I feel optimistic really. But I do see hope. The fact that a group of people got together and came up with this concept, to make things easier for seniors says to me, OK, I'm not so over the hill that they are just going to put me in a room somewhere. I actually can fend for myself.
VELSHI: That's a good idea. That's a good point. If you can make people literate on the computer and get them a little closer to accessing these things, it also means you can learn the Internet to learn about things.
DUKE: I am getting embarrassed now about not being able to do that.
CHETRY: We are going to set you up on twitter before you leave.
VELSHI: We are going to introduce you to pete.
DUKE: We are all New Yorkers. That's why.
VELSHI: Pete can receive an e-mail. He doesn't reply.
DUKE: I reply. I write it long hand and give it to my husband.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: We are getting you a twitter account.
VELSHI: We love you. It's our pleasure. Great to have you with us.
DUKE: And boldly go online to SocialSecurity.gov.
CHETRY: You look fantastic. I know you are a few years away from collecting Social Security.
DUKE: I'm only a year and a half away.
CHETRY: The countdown is on.
DUKE: Yes.
CHETRY: Thanks so much.
VELSHI: We are going to get back to the budget discussion. Senate Budget committee chairman Kent Conrad joins us live next as the government begins to get ready for a shutdown that could start in just over 15 hours. Kent Conrad, can they cut a deal by midnight? We are going to ask him right after this. It is 43 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Forty-six minutes past the hour right now.
And they were working through the night and into the early hours of the morning on Capitol Hill, but still no budget deal. The federal government is now getting closer to a shutdown, basically sending 800,000 workers home from their jobs, as well as any other ramifications.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Shutting down a lot of agencies and a lot of private workers will be affected by this.
Joining us now from Capitol Hill, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
Senator Conrad, thanks for being with us.
We were speaking to Steny Hoyer a little bit earlier. He said that as far as the numbers go, he thinks that you are 70 percent of the way there. Give me your evaluations.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Well, if we remember that this started with Republicans wanting to cut $100 billion from the president's request for this year --
VELSHI: Right.
CONRAD: -- they have largely agreed on the number of $73 billion. So, they are, you know, three-quarters of the way towards what the Republicans wanted in terms of cuts. There are minor differences now about the makeup of those cuts, how much out of mandatory spending, how much out of discretionary.
But the big hang up appears to be these other issues, these riders that have been attached to what is supposed to be a spending controversy. And items like the funding of Planned Parenthood, abortion in the District of Columbia.
Curiously enough, mountaintop mining was put on the table late in the game. Who knew that was going to lead to the shutdown of the federal government?
You know, it would be unconscionable not to have an agreement to avert a shutdown and the economic damage that would cause to this fragile recovery?
CHETRY: Who's to blame if you can't come to an agreement?
CONRAD: Well, given the fact Democrats have given Republicans nearly three-quarters of what they were asking for on the issue that started this all, and now, our friends on the other side and the House have introduced 55 side issues, so-called riders, public policy issues that are distinct from the funding controversy that started this all -- I think they'd have to bear the lion's share of the responsibility.
VELSHI: Senator Conrad, let me ask you this. This is a tricky one because when you're talking about health care reform and you add riders that aren't specifically related, that's interesting. But the budget really is the priority for the government. It is really how you spend your money, because the government collects taxes and then spends them.
So, isn't it hard to say that these riders aren't relevant when, in fact, this is the opportunity to discuss the priorities that this government is going to implement?
CONRAD: Look, understand, this is different than the budget resolution. This is the appropriate -- just the appropriations part of a budget resolution and typically, on appropriations bills, you cannot legislate. The rules of the Congress say you cannot legislate on an appropriations bill. And yet, that is exactly what they are trying to do here.
VELSHI: What does this say, by the way, about the Democratic side of things, Senator Conrad, when you say that you're 70 percent or 73 percent of the way there -- does that allow Democrats to say to their constituents, we held firm?
CONRAD: Look, to me, this is way beyond who is holding firm and who is weak in the knees. This is about getting a job done that has to occur. And let's get off what is really minor differences. We're talking about in the single digit billions of dollars and get to the big issue, which is getting America back on solid foundations.
We've got to cut and reduce the deficit and debt by $4 trillion to get back on track. And we're spending all this time and attention on single digit billions? I mean, boy, you talk about a disconnect from reality, that's what's happening in this discussion, in this debate.
CHETRY: I know that you are retiring in 2012. You're not running for re-election. But how do you think this is going to affect politically some of your Democratic colleagues if, indeed, you guys shut down?
CONRAD: I don't know. I'm no a political prognosticator. I will say this: far more important, far more consequential to the country and to the elections in 2012 is whether or not we face up to the death threat looming over this country. That is the real test. And that's where we ought to be spending our time and attention.
CHETRY: All right.
VELSHI: Senator Kent Conrad, thanks for joining us. I know it's going to be a busy day for you and your colleagues. We hope that you are able to come to some conclusion on this. but thanks for taking the time to explain it to us.
CONRAD: You bet.
CHETRY: Thanks. VELSHI: Well, thousand of protesters are moving into Egypt's Tahrir Square. Egypt's military has a warning for its soldiers not to show up. You're looking at live pictures right there.
It's 51 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Happening right now in Egypt, large crowds are gathering in Cairo for what's being called a day of trial and cleansing. Those are live pictures of Tahrir Square. The people are demanding that Egypt bring ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his regime to justice. The ruling military council is also threatening immediate prosecution before a military tribunal for any troops, any troops at all, who participate in today's protest.
CHETRY: Wow.
All right. Well, also a deadly aftershock, 7.1 magnitude. This hit northern Japan. Three people were killed and more than 130 others were injured.
This is video that was taken inside of some restaurants there. You can see the shaking. Roads were damaged and widespread power outages. Officials say there was no new damage for the crippled Daiichi nuclear plant, although for a time, workers did have to evacuate that site.
VELSHI: And Toyota says it will resume production of all 18 of its factories in Japan, between April 18th and 27th. But they will be at reduced capacity. They will be operating at reduced capacity.
Work was suspended at those plants after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
CHETRY: Former President Bill Clinton is back in Haiti this morning, just 15 months after the earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince and killed more than 300,000 people. Former President Clinton will be visiting a school and he's also launching a national cholera awareness campaign before meeting with the commission for the reconstruction of Haiti.
VELSHI: All right. We are, of course, staying on top of the budget developments for you today and all day.
It is 55 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANE LATIKER, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: Guns, guns, and more guns.
These are our young people. (INAUDIBLE) accidental. We are losing a generation to violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they start shooting, you have to grab the kids and run in the house.
LATIKER: People run in the house and closed their doors. They don't even talk about it.
But there are some people who are not scared to go outside and I'm one of them.
My name is Diane Latiker. We opened the community center called Kids Off the Block. We are known as KOB.
They are kids that are in the gangs. They are homeless, some of them with drug dose. So, they've got a lot of issues going. Who signed up for the youth in Chicago?
I told kids this is the peace place. This is a safe place.
This is a range of things that goes on in here. We started out with 10 young people. The next thing I knew, I had 15. Then, I had 25. At one point, I had 75 young people in three rooms of my house. That's how Kids Off the Block started, in my living room.
We opened the doors for the new KOB center in July. Last year, we served 301 young people, but they're not going that door. They can come here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was 12 when I got in here. Diane, she just changed my life. I love her for that.
LATIKER: I am no different from nobody else. I just opened my door. Why can't y'all come outside and see what's going on in our neighborhoods. There are people here who care. And I'm one of them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Who do you know that's making a big difference in your world? Tell us about it. Head to AMERICAN MORNING's blog at CNN.com/AM to nominate them.
CHETRY: All right. Well, before we leave, we just want to give you a quick update. We're talking about 15 hours and counting to a shut down.
We just heard from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who said that basically this all comes down now to the issue of funding abortion. He says this all deals with women's health. Everything else has been resolved, everything.
VELSHI: All right. So, we know that we're most of the way down with that money. Now, we got to deal with this. This is the issue of those riders about Planned Parenthood.
We'll, of course, stay on this topic all day. CNN has got it for you. We'll see you back here Monday morning. But we'll be following this all weekend.
CHETRY: Of course. And meantime, the news continues with Carol Costello in THE CNN NEWSROOM.
Good morning, Carol.
