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House Vote Soon To Avoid Government Shutdown; Ten Oil Spills In Colorado Flood Zone; Three-Year-Old Among 13 Shot In Chicago; Better Timeline Forms In Navy Yard Shooting; Alexis, Snowden's Background Checked By Same Firm; Pope Shocks Catholics Worldwide; House Vote On Obamacare Funding Soon

Aired September 20, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. Let's begin on Capitol Hill, shall we, because it all has to do with deadlines and battle lines. With only ten days until a possible government shutdown, lawmakers in the House, as you can see, just minutes away from approving the money to keep it running.

But the measure also strips all the money from Obamacare. It's a poison pill that not only makes for a House divided, but a Republican Party divided. Listen to the squabbling going on among fellow Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Tomorrow we'll pass a plan to protect the American people from their president's health care law while keeping the rest of government up and running. The law's a train wreck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we will have a government shutdown. That's certainly not our intention.

SENATOR TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: To stop it would be totally reverse it. We don't have the votes to do that.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: Nobody's talking about killing each other or doing those types of things. What we're talking about is not funding Obamacare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is live at the White House this morning. So tell us more, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, what we can tell you right now is that President Obama just left the White House en route to a campaign style event in Kansas City. We tried to ask the president about this prospect of a government shutdown. He did not answer or perhaps did not hear the questions as he was getting on board Marine One, but Carol, this is more than the 40th time that House Republicans have tried to defund Obamacare, but today, there's a twist.

They are going to vote to continue funding the government. At the same time once again trying to strip away funding from the president's health care law and now the White House says the president is about to enter the shutdown fray.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With House Republicans setting a vote for today on a temporary spending bill that would defund Obamacare, Washington is edging closer to a government shutdown. Now just 10 days until the government runs out of money and a possible debt default not far behind, White House officials say President Obama is ready to engage with Congress.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will be in conversations with congressional leaders in the coming days about the need to deal with these pressing deadlines.

ACOSTA: That was a response to House Speaker John Boehner who complained in this web video with the president is more willing to haggle with Russians than Republicans.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: While the president is happy to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, he won't engage with a Congress on plan to deal with the deficits that threatened our economy.

ACOSTA: Ruling out any negotiations over the debt ceiling or legislation that defunds Obamacare, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney offered this colorful defense of the president's outreach.

(on camera): You're obviously referring to Speaker Boehner's video, is that right? Saying the president is more willing to negotiate with Vladimir Putin than he is with House Republicans.

CARNEY: That is irrefutably false. The video I thought demonstrated a little Putin envy.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House was instead taking note of the bruising battle inside the GOP, Texas Senator Ted Cruz seemed to give up on defunding Obamacare, then appeared to reverse course and promised to block any spending bill that leaves health care reform intact.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I will do everything necessary and anything possible to defund Obamacare.

ACOSTA: But some of Cruz's fellow Republicans, including a blunt John McCain shot back, saying that's just not rational.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: In the United States Senate we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ACOSTA: Now, no surprise, the Obama administration says the president would veto the legislation that is pending before the House today. That's putting aside the fact that it would probably never pass the Senate.

Meanwhile, as for that event in Kansas City later on this afternoon, it's really just a few hours from now, Carol, the president is supposed to talk about the economy, but again, no surprise here, White House officials are saying expect the president to go after the Republicans about this threat of shutting down the government -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jim Acosta reporting live from the White House. Again, the House of Representatives now in session and doing some housekeeping maneuvers right now. As soon as they get done with those, I guess they'll vote on that bill. We'll keep you posted, of course.

If the flooding of biblical proportion wasn't enough to deal with in Colorado, the state is also facing a crisis of what's in the water. There are ten different oil spills in the flood zone. Two are notable. Eight are considered minor. This one in Northern Colorado has been mixing with flood waters and already more than 100 barrels have leaked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR JOHN HICKENLOOPER, COLORADO: We've had a large amount of pollutants coming into the Platte River just by the flood, right? So they've gone through stockyards. There are a number of our waste water management facilities got overwhelmed and waste got flooded into the Platte. When you look at the amount of water going through that river, it will process these pollutants very, very rapidly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ana Cabrera joins us now from Platteville, Colorado. Good morning.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It is a situation still developing this morning. You can see the flood waters have dropped, but you still are seeing water surrounding this oil or gas tank behind me. We do know a lot of these oil and gas facilities in Colorado are near major waterways and that at least one case, there is a tank that is leaking into the Platte River. At this point, health officials still don't know how widespread the problem is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA (voice-over): As the Colorado flood waters recede, a new concern rising.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It smells flammable and something you definitely know.

CABRERA: Damaged oil and gas wells now showing up in the flood zone. The state has confirmed at least ten leaks. This one is near Milikan. A damaged oil tank releasing more than 5,200 gallons of oil into the South Platte River, but it's not just the oil residents are concerned about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can just smell all the chemicals in the water.

CABRERA: Chemicals from fracking, a process companies use to access the oil and gas. It requires chemicals and millions of gallons of water shot into the earth to crack the rock.

SHANE DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF FRACTIVIST: There are communities that are going to be inundated with petrochemicals and fracking fluids as well.

CABRERA: Environmental activist, Shane Davis, wanted to show us the damaged facilities. Frac Free Colorado took us on an aerial tour.

(on camera): The state has about 51,000 oil and gas wells all across the state. Some 20,000 of those are in this area.

(voice-over): It didn't take us long to find a toppled tank. We saw a handful like this one. As we continued to fly, we came across the Milikan spill. You can see the red booms in the water helping to collect residual oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One over here.

CABRERA: Then another apparent problem, a brownish-colored sheen surrounding another tank that looked to be leaning. The oil and gas industry says it took early precautions and insists its facilities are safe.

TISHA SCHULLER, PRESIDENT, COLORADO OIL AND GAS ASSOCIATION: Our facilities were shut in as flooding began, and the tanks are designed to withstand a certain amount of flooding. So what people see is tanks that have been toppled, but what we're doing now is going site to site to make sure that we don't have leaks and where we do, we report it and address it with the local officials immediately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: The Colorado Department of Natural Resources has launched its own investigation. We're told there are six teams of inspectors currently assessing all these facilities in the flood zones. The State Health Department just warning people to stay away from the water until this assessment is complete.

Not only are they concerned about the industrial contaminants but they are also worried about other things like sewage, agricultural waste, even household chemicals that may have been spread by the flood waters. So at this point, we're learning it could be awhile before we know exactly what's going on here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ana Cabrera from Platteville, Colorado. Thank you very much, Ana. We appreciate it.

Checking other top stories this morning at 8 minutes past the hour, it's been another horrifying night of gun violence in Chicago. A 3- year-old boy was among 13 people gunned down in a park on the south side. Even crime-hardened neighbors were shocked by the sheer scale of the carnage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just heard the shots, like 20 shots. I just come out, walked over here. Police is over here real quick. They got here real fast.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many people did you see?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, I think it's about 10, 11, 12. It's right up in that number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: This morning, that 3-year-old boy remains in critical condition. Police say the attack appears to be gang related, but they have not made any arrests so far.

Investigators in Washington have a better idea about how a contractor entered the navy yard and was able to kill 12 people. We have learned Aaron Alexis' movements were captured on video from the time he parked his car. The FBI now says it took Alexis just minutes to assemble his gun inside a bathroom and then he emerged firing.

We also know more about his mental state in the weeks leading up to that deadly shooting. There was an incident at an airport where Alexis thought a group of people were laughing at him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLYNDA BOYD, ENCOUNTERED ALEXIS AT AIRPORT: Well, he started, you know, getting a little belligerent and start using profanity and going off and he kept reaching towards his midriff, his waist, like he was reaching for something, maybe a weapon, and you know, I just feel like we were so fortunate, fortunate and blessed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make it through that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The contractor that conducted Alexis' background check also did one for NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Still no clear motive for Monday's shooting.

The pope is shocking the world by saying the church should not be obsessed with controversial issues like abortion, same sex marriage and contraception. In his first major interview, Pope Francis said he doesn't discuss those issues often, because the church's stance on them is clear. He's been criticized for not being more vocal about those issues. His comments, he says, does not change church policy.

Still to come, health care as we know it is changing, but most of us simply do not understand Obamacare. Coming up next, we are going to try to help you through the confusion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, we want to pop back into the House of Representatives right now because you can see Congressman John Lewis is standing there and he is making a statement about the short-term spending bill that includes the defunding of Obamacare. Of course, if that measure passes, there's a real possibility the government will shut down.

Right now, the congressmen and women will continue making statements, then they'll pass a series of bills, then they'll finally get to this resolution, the short-term spending resolution. When they do, we're going -- here's Nancy Pelosi. Let's listen to her.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED) REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: As a mother concerned about the children of America, as a grandmother concerned about all of America's children, but as a mother who comes, steps into this chamber to say this place is a mess. Let's get our house in order. We are legislators. We have come here to do a job for the American people and that job means we have to make the government run for the good of the people.

We are not here to expand government but we're not here to eliminate government. If the idea is to limit government, let's work together to do that. But what is brought to the floor today is without a doubt, without a doubt, a measure designed to shut down government. It could have no other intent. Its purpose is clear.

And if our colleagues on the Republican side deny that, then they have no idea of the gravity of the situation, to quote the music man of the trouble that is contained in this resolution today. It is a wolf in wolf's clothing. The underlying bill to shut down government, the C.R., is reason enough to object to it, because that bill will cost at least a million jobs in the course of the next year, will cost a million jobs.

It will not only do that, it will cut our investments in the future in education and biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health has the biblical power to cure, where there's scientific opportunity we have a moral obligation to meet that scientific opportunity with the resources. To respect the talent, the intellect, the God-given intellect of the science to cure, and what do we do in this bill?

Say no, we cut that, doing serious damage, doing serious damage to science, to health and not only that, to our competitiveness as a nation. It's a vote that guts those investments and not only that, it's the underlying bill, if it were not bad enough, if there were not reason enough to say no, are you kidding, no, then they cloak it in wolf's clothing in saying in their view, that they are going to defund the Affordable Care Act.

And you know what that's about? That's simply about putting their friends, the insurance companies, back in charge of medical decisions for your families. But it goes farther than that. If that were not bad enough, it slashes the strongly bipartisan children's health insurance program by 70 percent, effectively eliminating an initiative that provides much-needed health to millions of low income children.

I remind my colleagues that that bill passed the United States Senate in a bipartisan way with a veto-proof majority, a veto-proof majority. But that's not good enough for you. You've got to slash it by 70 percent to harm those children. Once again, it wreaks havoc, disrupting provider payments for Medicare and Medicaid.

Either you don't know what you are doing, or this is one of the most intentional acts of brutality you have cooked up with stiff competition for that honor. It cuts billions of dollars, again, I say, from the National Institutes of Health, delaying important research and denying medical breakthroughs for future generations.

Democrats have a responsible proposal that balances, that brings -- reduces the deficit under leadership of Chris Van Hollen, our ranking member on the Budget Committee. It reduces the deficit in a responsible way, ends the devastating across the board cuts of the sequester and it makes investments in the future and keeps government open as opposed to this bill, intended to shut government down. It keeps government open and working for the American people.

I know my colleague, Mr. Hoyer, has been very vocal on this subject and he will quote some Republicans in what they have said about this, so don't take it from us. Take it from you, Mr. Chairman, that this bill -- well, I'll leave Steny to have the exact quote, does not enable us to do the work of government.

I urge a no vote on this continuing resolution. It's a terrible proposition for our families and our communities and our country. It's always, always time for us to work together to help ensure, not endanger, the economic security and prosperity of the American people. I urge my colleagues to vote no and yield back the balance of my time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gentle woman yields back and the gentleman from Kentucky is recognized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam Speaker, I yield one minute to the distinguished majority leader of the House --

(END LIVE FEED)

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to back away. We were expecting House Speaker John Boehner, maybe he would speak next. Jason Johnson, you're the political science professor. Here's Eric Cantor. Can we listen to Eric Cantor, the republican from Virginia? Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this measure providing for the continuing resolution. Madam Speaker, today millions of Americans across this country are struggling. They're struggling to find good paying jobs and they're struggling to pay their bills, and their frustration with government continues to grow. These Americans, these hard-working middle class Americans, are counting on their elected representatives to show leadership during these hard times. This continuing resolution will keep the government funded at its current level without increasing spending on the discretionary level, while Congress finishes working on a real budget.

Americans are tired of seeing their government continue to spend more and more of their hard-earned tax dollars and for the first time since the Korean War, it will be possible to have two consecutive years of discretionary spending cuts. This resolution will also protect the working middle class from the devastating effects of Obamacare.

Each week, we hear stories about how both major employers and small businesses are cutting back benefits and cutting back hours. The president's health care law is turning our full-time economy into a part-time economy. Even the heads of major unions who were once so supportive of Obamacare want to see this law drastically changed to avoid further quote, "nightmare scenarios," unquote.

Let's defund this law now and protect the American people from the economic calamity that we know Obamacare will create. Americans back home are fighting for their families, and we in congress were sent to Washington by our constituents to fight for them. They have put faith in their leaders to do what's right.

For this entire Congress, the House has led on restoring faith in our economy and trust in our government. We should pass this continuing resolution so the Senate can finally begin to do the same. Again, I would like to thank the gentleman from Kentucky, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, for his work on this measure, along with the help of the gentleman from Louisiana, for their hard work on the issue. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gentleman from Kentucky reserves. The gentlewoman from New York is recognized.

(END LIVE FEED)

COSTELLO: All right, we are going to jump away again, and in addition to Amy Kremer and Jason Johnson, I want to bring in Wendell Potter. He's a senior analyst for the Center for Public Integrity and he is a former health insurance company executive. The reason we want to bring in Mr. Potter right now is we heard two very starkly different things on the floor of the House, right?

Eric Cantor says that passing Obamacare would just destroy the economy. Nancy Pelosi said exactly the opposite. She said, Mr. Potter, that getting rid of Obamacare would add to the deficit. Who's right?

WENDELL POTTER, SENIOR ANALYST, CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY: You know, Carol, I think that I was a newspaper reporter before I was a health care insurance executive and I have never seen anything quite like this. What I think is really going on is that people are getting sick and tired of the same old political arguments. They are really wanting to know, at this point, what is actually in the law and how it will affect them and what they're most concerned about is whether they will have affordable care that's there for them when they need that. More and more Americans are beginning to realize that actually Obamacare is delivering on that promise. So I think what we're seeing is just more and more of the same old political posturing that Americans are really sick and tired of.

COSTELLO: Amy Kremer is here. She is with Tea Party Express and she fought to have Obamacare overturned because Amy does believe that it will be harmful to our economy. So address Mr. Potter and tell him why you think that.

AMY KREMER, CHAIRWOMAN, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: Well, I mean, look, every day something else comes out, more and more companies are dumping their employees into these exchanges, and that is not what the president campaigned on and promised. He promised that you could keep your doctor, you could keep your insurance, and it's not happening because these companies can't afford it. Here in Atlanta, Delta Airlines, even Time Warner, IBM, Home Depot, every day more and more come out --

COSTELLO: Let's stop there and ask Mr. Potter if -- we do see that happening. Why is that happening?

POTTER: What's happening is a continuation of a trend that began many, many years ago because insurance companies were unable to control the cost of health care. This is something that the news media didn't pay a lot of attention to until just now but this has been something that's been going on for quite a long time.

But also, 100 million or more Americans already are benefiting from the affordable care act including people like my daughter, who was able to stay on my policy until she was 26, and my mother, who is 89 and has been able to save literally thousands of dollars on her medications because of Obamacare. It's been in effect really for three years and some of the most important provisions are about to go into effect that will help a lot more Americans.

COSTELLO: We are going to pause here, take a break. We'll be back with much more on this. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, let's pop back into the floor of the House of Representatives. As you can see, our representatives are debating the issue of this continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the government, but also defund Obamacare, something that's sure not to pass in the Democratically-controlled Senate. Something sure to be vetoed if it does end up on President Obama's desk and something that many analysts say might shut down the government to the detriment of our economy.

Joining me to talk about all of this, Jason Johnson, Amy Kremer, our long-time friends, and also Wendell Potter, who is a senior analyst for the Center for Public Integrity and a former health insurance company executive, because he can sort of explain what Obamacare is, because I think, Jason, you said it before, almost 70 percent of Americans don't understand this health care law.

JASON JOHNSON, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, HIRAM COLLEGE: I consider myself, you know, people who are Democrats, they are going to say it's great and Republicans hate it. For those of us in the middle, those of us who are simply trying to find out is this bill going to help us. We are getting mixed messages. In some places it seems it will work. In other places it's raising rates and that's not clear. That's a failure on both parties' behalf in not being able to explain their case.

COSTELLO: OK, so Wendell, we will pose that question for you because my health care premium went up. I pay more for health care now. Is it because of Obamacare?

POTTER: No, it's not. You know, opponents want us to maybe have amnesia because between 2001 and 2011, health insurance premiums for families went up 133 percent. That's because insurance companies again have failed to keep the cost of coverage down. So the premium increases we're getting now has really little, if anything, to do with Obamacare. It's because we still have insurance companies who are in many cases controlling a system that they can't control costs.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to bring in Wolf Blitzer now because he can sort of explain to us what's happening on the floor of the House right now and how we expect the vote, the outcome of the vote to be. Hi, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Hi. Well, the Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives.