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Not Unthinkable, Not Inevitable; What Default May Mean To You; He's In A War; Inciting More Hate; Racial Wealth Gap Skyrockets; Defending Against Cybercrime; Generic Drugs Offer Cheaper Option; Million of U.S. Dollars in Taliban Hands

Aired July 26, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: It used to be unthinkable. Today, an unprecedented U.S. government default is still not inevitable but it could be, one week away. Hours after President Obama and how speaker Boehner each addressed the nation on the debt ceiling standoff, and the other party's abstinence, Republicans are planning yet another fall-back. Not a new plan to borrow more and spend less but a blueprint for post August 2nd if no plan is agreed to.

If the treasury couldn't meet its debts and obligations, a bill being circulated would prioritize debt interest payments, Social Security checks and paychecks for troops. Everything else would be covered, if possible, with cash on hand or put off until we can take on more debt. Two main default avoidance plans remain on the table right now. Speaker Boehner's plan would raise the debt ceiling twice, this year and next, with spending cuts now and an election year overhaul of the tax code and entitlements.

In the Senate, majority leader, Reid, is pushing $2.7 trillion in spending cuts with a $2.4 trillion hike in the debt ceiling. Reid's plan would not include tax increases, nor touch entitlements, nor require any follow-up votes in 2012.

All right, I am going to stop talking right now because we want to hear from you today. You have heard the speeches, the pitches, the accusations, denials and doomsday predictions. What do you make of it all? We sent cameras to the streets of Atlanta to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats not wanting to, you know, cut spending and Republicans not really wanting to increase taxes at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something we pay taxes toward doesn't seem to be working.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: College student. Don't have to worry about it that much right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't really looked too much into it, but anything that would stop me from making the money I'm supposed to make or cause me to make lesser money, then I wouldn't (ph) want to go. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Washington is doing the best it possibly can do under the circumstances that was made available to them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's frustrating. I am continually flummoxed by the fact that we're just two parties so divided and can't come together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't seem to get it together and compromise but today may be the day, if we're lucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just they will approve it the last minute just like football. You knew it was going to get fixed, it got fixed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: How's that for consumer confidence? But if it doesn't get fixed, if Americans' creditors and debtors begin to get stiffed a week from today or simply fear they'll get stiffed, what will it mean for you and me and those people we just heard from right there? And what if anything can we do about it?

If anybody knows, it is these people. Ali Velshi is CNN's chief business correspondent and co-host of "AMERICAN MORNING." He's watching your 401(k). Poppy Harlow from CNNMoney.com is watching your mortgage, your car loans, your student debt. And we are happy to welcome Dave Ramsey, best-selling author and broadcaster who wants all of us to live debt-free.

Ali, I want to start with you. What could default mean to our retirement savings and what, if anything, can we do about it?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, you can think about it as a chance of a hurricane hitting you. Can't stop the hurricane, but you can take a few steps to protect yourself in case it does hit. Look, I don't think people should take drastic steps at the moment, but there may come a time in the next few days where markets start to react fairly violently to the idea that a debt agreement has not been reached.

And I think when people want to start dealing with their 401(k) and their investments, a lot of people don't deal with it regularly, Randi, so you should at least know where it is. If you use an advisor, have the conversation today, not on Friday or on Monday. Know how to log into your 401(k), make sure you're not overexposed to stocks more than you should be. I don't think you should be downsizing your holdings at the moment.

Remember that if there is a debt crisis, if we end up not doing this, the stocks that will do the best, the companies that will do the best in this environment are those that don't have to carry a lot of debt and there are a lot of those out there. But there is -- there is definitely a lot of danger. I just worry that people make decisions a little too early beforehand and there may not be the reaction in the stock market that some people fear. KAYE: All right, Ali, excellent advice. Poppy, I want to go to you next. What would a default mean for our mortgage rates, car loans, student loans, how much should we care about this?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: We should all, every single one of us, care about this. And what's important to point, Randi, is it's not just about a default. Even if we reach an agreement in Washington on the debt ceiling, it's also about whether or not the big rating agencies decide to downgrade the stellar AAA credit rating of this country. Even if that happens, this is why it matters to you.

Let's start with your home, right? Most people's biggest investment, what is likely going to happen in the case of default certainly and even in a downgrade is your mortgage rate is going to go up and experts say this isn't just a temporary issue. Mortgage rates will go up for a significantly long period of time. That's going to affect you, more houses sit on the market, prices fall further. This hurts the already weak housing market.

All right, let's transition to college, right? Your college loan, your savings for college, similar story. The interest rate on private college loans is going to go up, it's going to be harder for folks to necessarily get credit if credit starts to freeze. The only sort of silver lining to this is that a lot of people do have their student loans lined up for at least the next term.

It also affects your car. If you have a car payment, and it's very similar to your mortgage payment, when you talk about your car, interest rates are going to go up. They think car prices would go up as a result. It's going to be tougher for folks with middle to lower credit scores to be able to get financing for a car. Means fewer new cars sold.

Again, the housing market, the car market, neither are strong right now but the experts that I talked to say the real concern here is outside necessarily your home and your car. The real concern here, as Ali was pointing out, is your job and your savings. Companies, if there is not an agreement, are not going to want to be hiring in this very uncertain environment. That's your job, and if this market gets out of control, that's your retirement savings.

KAYE: All right, Poppy, thank you. Dave Ramsey, to you next. Are you going around telling people already now, I told you debt was bad?

DAVE RAMSEY, HOST, "THE DAVE RAMSEY SHOW": Well, I think they are exactly on track, as always, when I'm with them. You know, yes, obviously debt increases risk, whether it's a nation or whether it's an individual, and so yes, there's a bit of an I told you so I guess, but you know, I'm not telling you anything your grandmother didn't tell you.

If you don't have a car loan and you're going to save up and pay cash for your car, suddenly you're not as concerned about that. If you're not buying a home in this current market, well you're kind of missing out because real estate's on sale and interest rates are the best since 19, what, 59? Oh, my gosh, the real estate market did fine with seven percent and nine percent interest rates. I wouldn't want it to snap back there instantly while we're trying to recover but over a period of time, we're at unusually low rates.

And so you know, we're going to be fine in the long term. I think that -- you know, Ali and I have talked about this many times on the air that when these kinds of things happen, jumping in and out of your 401(k) on a panic basis is a good way to lose your shirt. 401(k)s are supposed to be long-term investments. The only people that get hurt on roller coasters are those that jump off.

VELSHI: I think, Dave, that you would agree that sticking to your allocation makes sense here. You should be allocated, your 401(k) should have to do with your risk tolerance, which is very easy to find out anywhere on the Internet. That's what you should be sticking to right now. If there's a reason to really panic, Randi, Dave will be talking about it, Poppy will talk about it and I'll talk about it. Sometime, we're going to have some kind of massive collapse, until then, I don't think we should act prematurely on this, Dave, do you agree with that?

HARLOW: Right.

RAMSEY: Absolutely. I think that's the danger of this being the leading news story for the past three or four months is that Joe and Suzie are just freaking out, they're scared, they don't understand everything necessarily. Sometimes I don't understand all of it, either, that's not a put-down. But you know, it just -- the bottom line is that 20 years from today, in your 401(k), I'm 50, my 401(k), I'm going to continue to invest in it next week regardless of what they do in D.C., because 20 years from today, it's going to be a nonevent.

KAYE: Right. All right. Yes, Poppy? Do you want to have one final word there?

HARLOW: I was just going to say something interesting that we should all notice, this has never happened before in the history of this country, right?. We've never defaulted and we've never had our credit downgraded. So, we are telling you what we believe will happen. We don't know how quick the impact will be, how significant it will be so this is fluid. You just have to be aware of why it matters to you.

KAYE: Be aware and don't freak out, I think that's the message that I got from all of you today. Thank you so much for the advice, I'm sure viewers appreciated it as well. Thanks again.

Our "Sound Effect" take takes us to Norway. More shock, more revelations in the wake of unspeakable hate. We heard, today, from the lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik who says the suspect is, quote, "a little bit surprised he was able to set off a deadly bomb in Oslo, and then open fire on dozens of young campers on a nearby island." The lawyer says Breivik took some kind of drugs beforehand and now is quote, very tired. And his fellow Norwegians are devastated. Among them, Muslims and other targets of Breivik's war on multi-culturalism (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIVIBA HASSAIN, NORWEGIAN MUSLIM: It's horrifying. I can't even describe it in words. It's really horrifying that he actually killed so many young people because he hates us. It's really horrifying.

GEIR LIPPESTAD, ATTORNEY, ANDERS BREIVIK: (Inaudible) he's indicated that he's insane. He's in a war and he says that the rest of the world, and especially in the western world, don't understand his point of view, that in 60 years' time, we all will understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Anders Breivik's father has spoken out as well. He told a reporter in France, and I'm quoting here, "Rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life."

Up next, Glenn Beck's controversial comments about the Norway youth camp where dozens were murdered. Is he just inciting more hate? We'll talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: He is no stranger to controversy but have you heard the latest thing Glenn Beck said on his radio show? He was talking about the shooting rampage at a Norway youth camp that left 68 people dead. Take a listen.

(B EGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, HOST, "THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM": As the thing started to unfold and then there was a shooting at a political camp which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth or whatever, I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAYE: Well, that was yesterday. Today, he didn't refer to that comment directly but did continue making Nazi comparisons, saying he saw parallels between Hitler's statements to the Germans and President Obama's statements to the American public.

So, the question we want to ask is this. Is Glenn Beck actually inciting the kind of hate he's talking about? Joining me now is CNN contributor, SiriusXM radio host and stand-up comedian, Pete Dominick; CNN Political Analyst and senior analyst for the "Tom Joyner" radio morning show, Roland Martin; and Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of "Talkers" magazine. Glad you're all with us, thank you, guys.

Before I ask what you think of Beck's comments, I want to let our viewers know that we have reached out to Glenn Beck to be on our show today or at least explain why he said what he said yesterday, but we have yet to hear back from him. OK now, Pete, let's start with you. What do you think of Glenn Beck's comments?

PETE DOMINICK, HOST, SIRIUSXM RADIO: Well, Glenn Beck is an entertainer. He just made a major transition in his career and whenever he does that, he makes a Hitler or Nazi reference. Some people might argue he's made more Hitler references than Hitler. Of course, that's inaccurate and not true but it was entertaining, wasn't it, Randi? That's what he does. He's an entertainer, he's not unlike Howard Stern, except for Howard's the greatest radio entertainer of all time and everyone knows he's there to entertain.

Glenn Beck, people aren't so sure and they confuse it which is why a lot of people think he's dangerous. The bottom line, there is a comparison between political camps when you're trying to teach young people how to think? However, the Hitler youth were trained to be genocidal murderers and these kids were going to lead perhaps the most peaceful country in the world for generations to continue being that way.

KAYE: Roland, you know talk radio -- you're on talk radio. Was this entertainment?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: First of all, I will -- there's no doubt you can classify him as a rodeo clown, he's called himself that. I won't call it entertaining because once you begin to interact and delve into the whole issue of politics, you, frankly, are separate than other people. And so, I won't try to say he's the same as Howard Stern, no.

Look, if we had to create a stuck-on stupid segment, Glenn Beck probably would be our top candidate four out of five days a week. And so he loves to make these ridiculous comments. And so I wonder what he would say, though (ph), about Jesus' Camp, a documentary. I wonder what he would say about conservative camps for youth right here in the U.S. How can a man stand here dressing like one of the founding fathers, always talk about our values, sit here and rip some people who are trying to teach young folks about democracy? Hell, we need those kind of camps in this country. Folks can't even name the speaker of the House and barely the vice president.

KAYE: Michael Harrison, what's your take on this?

MICHAEL HARRISON, PUBLISHER, "TALKERS" MAGAZINE: I think Glenn Beck gives us plenty to talk about and he's really good at that, isn't he? So, God bless Glenn Beck. Where would we be if we didn't have him to give us material?

That being said, I think when you get into the realm of Nazi comparisons, you're going to have problems, because that's the extreme of hatred. That's the extreme of evil.

But there's a degree of truth to everything political. And that's where people like Glenn Beck are able to create such excitement. They take a little grain of truth and they put it into a whole bunch of drama.

In terms of this whole entertainment business, I don't know where the line begins and ends separating from entertainment, from journalism, from news, from documentary. We live in a crazy time. And one person's entertainment is another person's education and vice versa.

KAYE: Right.

Let me just step in here, because there are certainly other radio hosts that have made questionable comments. Don Imus, remember he called the Rutgers University women's basketball team, quote, "nappy headed hoes." There's also Dr. Laura Schlesinger. She used the "n" word. So I guess, you know, then you also have the fact

DOMINICK: I might --

KAYE: Sorry, Pete, yes?

DOMINICK: Well, I do a radio show for three hours a day on Sirius XM, like Glenn Beck and Howard Stern. The difference is, I'm also a comedian. I know when I'm entertaining. But entertainers say really outrageous things to get people to talk about them.

That's what we're doing right now. Glenn Beck needs us to do this for his new transition. That's what we're doing.

KAYE: Right.

DOMINICK: But the difference, of course, is, public fascination versus public interest. What I do, I would argue is public interest, and that is entertaining for some people like me.

KAYE: Sure. But I do want to point out, though, and, Roland, this goes to you, I mean Glenn Beck has said this but he also founded and supports an organization that has camps in several states. So should he be attacking a camp like this?

MARTIN: First of all, he should ask himself, will he call his own camp that? There is a clear line of demarcation, Randi, when it comes to people like Howard Stern and when it comes to shock jocks, when it comes to people who want to be taken seriously in the political space. When you want to begin to share a stage with politicians, with people like that, then you are operating on a different level. And so you don't see Howard Stern trying to have a rally with faith leaders, trying to go to Israel and have a huge faith rally and political rally like Glenn Beck. And so he wants to play the game, oh, I'm serious, oh, I'm not. No, I'm sorry, you've crossed that line and to say Hitler camp, that's just idiotic. Just idiotic.

KAYE: All right. Roland, we'll leave you with the final word. Roland Martin, Pete Dominick and Michael Harrison, thank you all for weighing in.

We all know that the recession affected different people in different ways, but you may be surprised to know just how big those differences are. Race and the wealth gap, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAYE: There's always been a wealth gap between white families and minority families in America, but a new study shows that the gap got much bigger during the recession. Christine Romans takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, ANCHOR, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE": Brand new analysis from Pew Research shows the recession widened the racial wealth gap. So much so that it created the largest differences in wealth between racial groups that we've seen in the past 25 years.

Take a look at this. This is 2005. The median household net worth for white, Hispanic and black families right here before the economic downturn, you can see a disparity already. What does that mean, household net worth? It means how much you own, like your house, your car, minus how much you owe, your debts for things like mortgages and auto loans. So this was 2005. And then, bam, 2009, there's that disparity. The housing bubble burst in 2006. The recession hit in 2007, continued into 2009. And this is the toll it took.

Let's check out 2005, 2009 side by side. Minorities were much harder hit than white Americans by the economic downturn and the financial crisis. And that wealth gap is almost twice what it used to be. And that's really interesting here, also, that Hispanic households lost a whopping 66 percent of their household net worth over those few years.

Why? The Pew study says it's because a huge number of Hispanic Americans live in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Those states were the hardest hit by the housing bubble when it burst. And still today, those states have the lowest home values in the U.S. This is how much wealth was lost for white families, Hispanic families and black families, just over the years 2005 to 2009.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And next hour we take a closer look at how the recession has affected the U.S. Hispanic population. We'll have a live report from Sandra Endo in Los Angeles at 2:10 Eastern Time right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It's time right now, 23 minutes past the hour, and it's time to take a look at today's top stories.

Democratic Congressman David Wu of Oregon says he will resign from the House of Representatives. On Sunday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi asked for an ethics investigation of Wu, accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's daughter. Wu served in the House for seven terms.

President Obama warning Washington not to consider compromise a dirty word. The president discussed the debt ceiling crisis on national television last night. House Speaker John Boehner responded by saying he has done all he can to reach a consensus. Congress only has a week to come up with a solution to the crisis, otherwise the U.S. could default on loans and lose its good credit rating.

A lawyer for Anders Breivik says his client is surprised he was able to carry out Friday's attacks in Norway. The lawyer also quotes Breivik as saying he took drugs before the attacks to stay strong and awake. At a hearing yesterday, Breivik was charged with two acts of terrorism. His father says his son should have killed himself instead of going on a killing spree.

The woman accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of assault and attempted rape is expected to meet with prosecutors tomorrow to discuss her case. Prosecutors say Nafi Diallo has told several lies that have weakened her case. Diallo did interviews with ABC and "Newsweek" yesterday, insisting she is telling the truth. Diallo says the former IMF chief assaulted her at the Manhattan hotel where she works. Strauss-Kahn maintains that the sex was consensual.

Arming the future cyber warriors. Attending special camps to learn the secrets of computer hacking. We'll take you to one, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. We are going in depth on the cybercrime economy. Today we'll take you to a special cybercrime camp where students are learning the tricks of the hacking trade so they can stop cyberattacks. CNN's Ted Rowlands is at one of those camps in Columbia, Missouri.

Ted, what are they doing there? Are they learning how to be hackers in order to prevent hacking?

KAYE: Pretty much. Yes, you take on the identity of the hacker and you're better equipped to prevent hacking going on. Basically, the kids are at lunch right now, but all of these kids that are taking part in this camp and several other camps around the country over the summer have been invited. So these are kids that have demonstrated through experience or some other way that they are knowledgeable enough to hang with the curriculum here. So it's a very intense five- day learning experiment. And then on the fifth day, they compete against each other to see who can hack the deepest into a simulated network system.

The instructor at this camp is Justin Searle.

And, Justin, we're talking about some very bright young men, some of them a little older, but people that really are being brought into this -- the good side, if you will, to combat hackers. How important is it to harvest this talent?

JUSTIN SEARLE, FOUNDER OF UTILISEC: I think it's incredibly important. We have a lot of people that we need inside of this industry that simply just don't have that expertise and we don't have enough staff to be able to fill all of our organizations. And so we need to introduce people and get these -- get college students thinking now about their futures and try to get the kids with the talent and the capabilities into these fields.

ROWLANDS: Because, quite frankly, the hackers have a lot of talent.

SEARLE: Oh, yes.

ROWLANDS: And there are kids around the world that are bringing multi-million dollar companies to their knees, even infiltrating the United States government. The CIA had an issue recently. How -- give us a sense of the war. Where are we? Are the hackers winning or are we well equipped to defend?

SEARLE: Well, if we look at the number of machines and organizations that have been compromised lately, all we see is the number of attacks and the number of companies that have people breaking into them are simply increasing. So I think it's pretty safe to say that we're on the losing side currently. But the good news is, is I think we're at least keeping up.

ROWLANDS: And we need to keep the wages high, or at least opportunities high, and things like that. What do you have to do to get to a kid before they go to the dark side with the intellect to break into these systems? Come join our side.

SEARLE: I think, number one, we need to instill passion for them, not just the passion to learning how to do these attacks and learning about the security issues that are here, but also kind of instill a little bit of a sense of unity and a group membership that we're all part of this good side, going through and trying to defend these systems against people trying to attack us.

ROWLANDS: All right. A U.S. cyber challenge going on here in Columbia, Missouri this weekend, across the country all summer long. Randi, we are trying to recruit these good brains for our side to combat those hackers.

KAYE: After what happened at Sony and the CIA, as you said, we need them. Who are the future cyberwarriors? Are they mainly college kids?

ROWLANDS: You know, there's a gamut. We met a couple kids who are in college still, 18, 19 year old, then there's a 50-year-old guy from Denver who has been at it for six years. It runs the gamut.

If people have not only an interest but a skill level they have been able to demonstrate, that's what gets them invited to this camp.

KAYE: All right. Ted Rowlands in Missouri for us, Ted, thank you.

Well, if you're planning to mail a letter, listen up. The U.S. Postal Service may close thousands of post offices around the country. We'll tell you which one are in jeopardy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Thirty-two minutes past the hour. Let's take a look at some of the news and other headlines you may have missed.

The August 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling is just one week away. But the political war surrounding it continues to rage. President Obama addressed the nation on television last night, urging viewers to pressure elected officials to work out a compromise. The president singled out House Republicans, saying this is quote, "no way to run the greatest country on earth," unquote.

House Speaker John Boehner responded that Congress won't give Mr. Obama a blank check.

Democratic Congressman David Wu of Oregon has announced that he will resign from the House of Representatives. He was accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's daughter.

A lawyer for Anders Breivik says his client was, quote, "a little bit surprised," unquote, that he was able to carry out Friday's attacks in Norway. Breivik is being held in solitary confinement, facing charges. He killed 76 people in downtown Oslo and at a nearby youth camp. Breivik's father says his son should have killed himself instead of going on that killing spree.

A source says a New York hotel maid will meet with prosecutors tomorrow to discuss her allegations against the former head of the International Monetary Fund. Nafi Diallo claims that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her may 14th at New York's Sofitel Hotel. She went public this week, revealing her name and giving media interviews after prosecutors questioned her credibility.

Your post office could be slated to close. Postmaster General Patrick Donohue released a long-awaited post office study of nearly 3,700 post offices that may be closed to reduce red ink. They include outlets in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Most have so little foot traffic that employees average less than two hours of work per day and average sales are less than $50 a day.

Good news for McDonald's lovers who trying to watch what they eat -- a healthier happy meal on the way. Under pressure from nutritionists and children's advocates, the fast food giant has announced plans to add low-fat milk and apple slices to every Happy Meal and to cut the portion of French fries. McDonald's says it expects to cut the number of calories by 20 percent. The new healthy Happy Meal debuts in September.

Don't pay full price on those prescription drugs. Really? Before you head to the pharmacy, the latest on how you can save some major bucks on your medication. That is in less two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Some prescription drug prices are expected to plummet over the next few months -- thanks to expiring patents. That means you'll have cheaper generic alternatives to some of the expensive brand names which translates into big savings for you.

So, let's bring in CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Now, I know we talked about this yesterday, but we were talking about Plavix and Lipitor. What other drugs might be involved here?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And those are two biggies, right? I mean, lots of people take those. So, here's -- there are a couple more on this list. Lipitor and Plavix, as you mentioned, plus Singulair is going off-patent which means that more companies can make it, when more companies can make something, that's more competition, which is good for us. And Lexapro, which is a popular antidepressant.

KAYE: So, generics go, what, 20 percent to 80 percent less than prescribed medications?

COHEN: Right. It's hard to say. I mean, you can get, you know, some generics are like, let's say, $40 a month, others are $4 a month. It all depends.

But look at what these are now.

KAYE: OK.

COHEN: That will make you go oh, my goodness. Right, exactly. So, it's a big difference.

A month of Lipitor, a very popular cholesterol lowering drug, $186 if you don't have insurance. If you got to pay for it yourself. Plavix, $215. These are drugs people need. These are drugs that keep you from getting blood clots.

KAYE: So, this is what it will save you.

COHEN: No, no. This it what it costs now.

KAYE: OK.

COHEN: If you went to the store right now without insurance, and you had to pay for a month of Singulair, it would cost $182. Lexapro, the antidepressant, $117. Again, I don't have a crystal ball so I can't predict what they will be when they are generics in the next year or so, but, I mean, it could be say $40 a month, could be $20 a month. Maybe some of these will soon become $4 generics.

You know, the difference is going to be huge, though.

KAYE: OK. And so, what do you do if you have been prescribed one of these pricier drugs? Can you do anything about that now?

COHEN: Yes. It is very easy to be an empowered patient in this circumstance. It's one question to the doctor which is -- doctor, is there another drug that I can take that will work just as well but cost less?

KAYE: I think that's key, what you just said, just as well.

COHEN: Right.

KAYE: Generics do work just as well.

COHEN: They do. Now, there might not necessarily be an alternative but often there is.

So, I'm going to give you a couple illustrations. So, for example, say your doctor prescribes Lexapro. You could possibly take Fluoxetine, which is generic Prozac.

KAYE: Sixteen dollars.

COHEN: Right.

KAYE: Look at the difference, $101.

COHEN: Right, $101 per month difference. Now, what happens is patients say, well, he suggested Lexapro, the doctor did. So, o I must have to take it

No. There are other drugs in that class that may very well work just fine or even better.

So, here's another example. This one is for high cholesterol. Lipitor, $186 a month. Lovastatin, $4 a month. That's a gigantic difference.

Now, your doctor for some reason may want you to take Lipitor but you need to get him to spell that out. Say, look, doctor, this is a huge difference. There better be a good reason why I need to take that rather than the $4 alternative.

KAYE: Unless you're paying the bill, explain it to me.

COHEN: Send the bill to the doctor.

KAYE: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, great numbers. We'll keep that in mind.

COHEN: Thank you.

KAYE: Millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money in the hands of the Taliban. How did it happen? A live report from Afghanistan right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It just may be the most egregious example to date of widespread corruption in Afghanistan -- American taxpayer money, hundreds of millions of dollars, ending up in the hands of the Taliban. A year-long U.S. military task force discovered that the money was siphoned from a $2 billion transportation contract to provide most of the supplies to American troops.

A source with knowledge of the investigation has briefed CNN's David Ariosto about how it all went down.

And David is joining us now from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

So, David, just tell us briefly, how did this happen?

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is coming from an internal report. But basically what happened was trucking companies subcontracted out to local entities here, who then in turn subcontracted out to even more local providers.

What happened was, it turns out that some of those local, more local firms actually had some ties to nefarious elements, including the Taliban. So, what we see here is a bulk of the transportation costs being filtered through some of these trucking companies and part of that money is actually ending up in the hands of the very individuals who are fighting NATO forces here in Afghanistan.

KAYE: And how long ago did the U.S. government find out about this?

ARIOSTO: Well, a task force was set up last year basically in response to some questions by congressional lawmakers about the potential of nefarious activity here. So, effectively, this task force was just looking at what transpired in between 2009 and 2010. They focused on trucking because it is such a major, major industry here in Afghanistan. But it also raises questions as to what other industries and what other contracts might be borne of some nefarious activity in and of themselves.

KAYE: And speaking of those contracts, why use the local companies in Afghanistan instead of the American companies that the U.S. government uses in Iraq?

ARIOSTO: In a word, security. The way things work here in Afghanistan is many of these local companies need some of the areas to be protected, so they pay off local travel groups or security firms which in turn provides some of that assistance and provides safe passage.

The problem is that safe passage may be guaranteed one day but the same individuals may be working in tandem with the Taliban or might be Taliban insurgents themselves a second day. So, it is really a mish-mash of tribal allegiances here that combines with the lack of transparency in some of these contracts that makes for a muddled situation.

KAYE: And any U.S. taxpayer watching this is probably asking what are they going to do about it? Can they fix it, can they get the money back? What's the answer?

ARIOSTO: The officials we have spoken to say they have basically radically revamped the awards and contracts program that was in place in the former system that allowed for some of this egregious activity to take place.

Some of the examples of that is under the previous system, eight companies were allowed under the contract. Now they are providing up to 40. And the purpose of that is so that the U.S. government is not relying upon any one singular firm to the extent that they were.

They also say they have racheted up some of the transparency measures, but even as in Washington, where keeping track of subcontractors and contractors is difficult, here in Afghanistan, it provides extreme difficulties.

KAYE: David Ariosto in Kabul. David, thank you for your reporting on that story.

Time right now, 46 minutes past the hour. It is time to check some of other top stories.

Negotiations over the debt ceiling dragged on today between the president and congressional leaders. Capitol Hill phone lines were jammed and some key lawmakers' Web sites crashed after the president and House speaker John Boehner addressed the nation in dueling speeches last night.

In Norway, more details on the suspect in the massacre of 76 people. His lawyer says Anders Breivik was surprised that he was able to carry out the bombing and shooting rampage on Friday. Breivik's father says it would have been better if his son had killed himself. Police continue to investigate Breivik's claims that he didn't act alone.

In Mexico, sentencing is expected any day now in the case of a 14-year-old U.S. citizen charged with being a hit man for a drug cartel. As we have told you, prosecutors say the teenager confessed to killing four people by cutting their throats. Forty-two witnesses testified at the trial. He faces three years in a correctional facility.

All right, everybody. Watch what you touch. A new device can test for drugs, alcohol and tobacco in your fingerprint. Much more on that next.

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KAYE: So, do you think fingerprints just reveal who you are? Well, scientists have created add way for your print to reveal what you've been up to, like drinking, smoking, even breathing. That's right. It could now be possible for police to pull someone over and know if they have been drinking just by taking their fingerprints. The method is being developed by researchers and intelligent fingerprinting in the United Kingdom, led by Paul Yates who joins me via Skype.

Hi there, Paul. First, help me understand how this all works?

PAUL YATES, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, INTELLIGENT FINGERPRINTING: Hi, Randi. First of all, thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk to you today. The whole basis for intelligent fingerprinting technique is that we're able to detect tiny traces of sweat that are left in a fingermark whenever you touch anything.

Now, sweat testing is not new. But what the intelligent fingerprinting technique allows us to do is use sweat both to produce a high-definition image of the fingerprint itself, which can be used for identification purposes. But we can also analyze chemicals within the sweat to tell you about the recent lifestyle of the individual.

KAYE: So, how accurate is this?

YATES: Well, we've been testing the technique. First of all, we use it on smokers. I guess everybody is sort of familiar with smokers. The reason why somebody smokes is because obviously they are addicted to the nicotine in tobacco.

Now, when a smoker smokes a cigarette, that nicotine gets metabolized or changed in the body to a secondrug called cotenine that then gets dispersed throughout the body. Now, we took a sample of fingerprints from some volunteers and we tried to detect this chemical cotenine in their fingerprints. Now, we found it in a few fingerprints. When we checked that back against the rest of the people that had given us samples and we only found the cotenine in the finger marks of smokers.

Now, we tried it again on different smokers for people taking drugs of abuse. And again, we have some volunteer samples from some people who are in a drug rehab program. We've looked at those and, again, checked our results back with the people that gave us the prints. And in each case, our results tie in with the particular drugs that the individual is taking.

KAYE: What if say, you're out at a bar and you haven't been drinking but someone has spilled beer on you. Would that beer come out in your fingerprint and then you end up getting in trouble for that?

YATES: No, not really. I mean, you'd actually have to ingest the sample itself. So, you'd have to drink the beer. I mean, our test doesn't actually detect alcohol. Police already have good breath detection devices --

KAYE: And this can also be used at a crime scene, from what I understand. What would you be able to pick up there?

YATES: That's right. Yes. Say you've got the scenario where there's a crime scene. The police have found some fingerprints. They looked at those fingerprints, they've checked them against their databases, and they don't have the identity of that person on their database.

Now, you could look at that fingerprint, and you could get some intelligence from the fingerprints. As we said before, is the individual a smoker? Are they taking drugs, are they taking over-the- counter medication?

You could even potentially pick up some hormones. Say, pick up testosterone, say whether it's from a male or female and use that to build I guess what you'd call sort of an intelligence profile of the individual you're looking for. The police could use that in their investigations to try to find who the perpetrator of the crime was. KAYE: And just very quickly, could this be admissible in court, this type of evidence?

YATES: The technique as it stands at the moment, I think it's fair to say it's more of a screening technique. You would identify a person if you're looking for somebody. You've been through the convention tests the police would do in order to provide the evidence to sort of take that individual to court.

KAYE: All right. Paul Yates. It really is fascinating. Good stuff. Thank you so much for coming on the show and talking about it with us.

And for much more on intelligent fingerprinting, you can check out my Facebook page. That's Facebook.com/RandiKayeCNN. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow, of course. Same "Big I" time, same "Big I" channel.

Jamming the phone lines. So, why are so many people calling their congressmen? Your CNN political update, straight ahead.

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KAYE: Time now for CNN Political Update. And a resignation today in the House of Representatives. CNN's Joe Johns joining me now from Washington.

Hi there, Joe, who is out and tell us why.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Randi, Congressman David Wu's time on Capitol Hill is coming to an end. He has announced his resignation to become effective after the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis. He has generated a lot of extremely negative attention that finally led Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and others to ask for an Ethics investigation. The last straw, you may remember, an allegation he denied that he engaged in inappropriate behavior, alleged sexual advances even, involving the 18-year-old daughter of one of Wu's longtime friends, who is also a campaign contributor.

So, now that Wu has announced he's out, the next question is what happens to his congressional seat in Oregon? We've been talking to the governor's office out there. They're trying to figure out the options for a special election. Don't have anything on that just yet because we don't know when his last day will be due to the uncertainty of the debt limit debate.

By the way, though, this is a district Wu won by double digits last time, so there's a reasonable chance Democrats can be optimistic. Now he's out of the way, they can hold onto the seat, Randi.

KAYE: And Joe, I also want to ask what's going on on Capitol Hill. I would imagine phone lines are heating up after President Obama spoke last night and urged people to call their congressmen to get this debt ceiling mess fixed up.

JOHNS: Right. A lot of calls, e-mails to the Capitol complex. I personally tried a few times on the Capitol operator line, couldn't get through today. Turns out that's the experience for a lot of people right now So much so that congressional offices are being advised to provide district offices' telephone numbers so constituents can call the office back home, if you will, in order to get through to the Congressman, Congresswoman or their staff.

So, got to sort of go around the Capitol operator.

KAYE: Yes, you know how to do that. We know that.

What about the White House, Joe? Are they making any preparations for a possible default?

JOHNS: A lot of preparations. I just got off the phone with the Treasury Department. But we've also been told veterans advocacy groups have actually been called to the White House for a late afternoon meeting Tuesday to be briefed by Obama administration officials on the impact of veterans if Congress doesn't pass legislation raising the debt ceiling. The president, as you know, has suggested there could be some type of cuts or delays in federal benefits to veterans and Social Security benefits if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Republicans have pretty much been calling that a scare tactic. So a lot of talking going on as you know, Randi.

KAYE: Oh, yes, a whole lot of talking, Joe. All right, Joe Johns, great to see you, thank you. And your next update from The Best Political Team on Television is just an hour away.