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California Shortfall; Debating the Stimulus Bill; Holder Expected to Be Confirmed
Aired February 02, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Showdown in the Senate. Lawmakers set to open debate on the massive spending bill just days after the house approved its version. The Senate version is costlier, though. The Republican opposition, more vocal. CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill now this morning to set the stage for us. That's right. So it is bigger, but is it better?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boy, that's a good way to put it. And that is probably the way a lot of these senators, in fact, all of these senators are looking at it. Because this is really going to be a wide-ranging debate, probably that will take all week long, Heidi.
And unlike what we saw in the House, senators, Republicans, and Democrats will likely have an opportunity to amend or change this $888 billion stimulus bill, which has about 3/4 spending and about - excuse me 2/3 spending and about a third tax cuts.
Now what we are hearing for the most part from republicans is, they say, at least the Republican leaders, they say you know we feel like spending money is one thing, but the most important thing to do is address the housing crisis and the credit crunch that goes along with the housing crisis. So you're going to see some amendments on the - on that from Republicans.
But for the most part, what we are hearing from republicans and democrats, Heidi, is the fact that they think that there is simply too much spending on things that don't stimulate the economy.
COLLINS: Yes, that is the big question. So, Dana, I guess, maybe you can give us a couple of examples that are like the most troubling as far as the success of spending.
BASH: Sure, I think we do have some examples of that spending. And again, this is spending that many senators say is fine and good, but not on a stimulus bill. There you see $400 million for HIV and STD prevention, $650 million for TV converter boxes, $345 million for agriculture department, computers, $75 million for anti-smoking campaigns.
Now, again, even talking to some Democrats, some centrist democrats, Heidi, they say these are all programs that they think may be beneficial, may be important, but not in this particular measure that is simply supposed to be stimulating the economy and creating jobs. And that's why we are likely to see some measures on the floor to strip those or scrap those kinds of spending measures. You know, for example, Susan Collins, who is a moderate Republican -
COLLINS: Right.
BASH: She says I'm somebody who supports the Department of Homeland Security, but there are a lot of things in there that will do that that I want to strip out because this isn't the time, this isn't the place for it.
COLLINS: Yes, it's getting really interesting. All right. We're watching closely. Dana Bash, thanks so much for that.
BASH: Thank you.
COLLINS: We are also watching the Dow very closely today. Right now we are at sort of teetering below that 8,000 mark. Dow Jones Industrial averages down about 87 points Friday, as I'm sure you remember the market closed at about 150 points to the negative. So watching closely those numbers.
And a new measure of the grim economy to tell you about. This morning, we learned U.S. consumer spending has fallen for the sixth straight month. That's a new record, in fact. December's drop of one percent was more than expected.
Gas prices continue to creep up, AAA reporting the national average for unleaded is now $1.88 a gallon, that's up 1.3 cents from the day before. This is the fifth consecutive increase.
Well, on the bright side, though, today's price still 54 percent less than that record set back in July.
COLLINS: Day 14 of the Obama presidency already underway, just a few minutes ago, the president attended his economic daily briefing. Next hour, he meets privately with Vermon's republican Senator Jim Douglas. Their focus, the senate stimulus plan. Douglas supports the package, most Republicans in the Senate do not.
This afternoon, the search for common ground, the president along with Vice President Joe Biden ill meet with congressional leaders at the White House. A big decision for President Barack Obama. He's going to be hearing from the Defense Secretary today about plans to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Robert Gates is giving the president the details on the plan this afternoon. He calls for ultimately putting two additional combat brigades. Most likely one army and one marine corps unit on the ground there. Secretary Gates was aware of the plan since last Friday, but is waiting to sign off on it until he briefs the president. So we'll be watching for that today.
And also on the White House radar. This afternoon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have her ceremonial swear-in at the State Department. She took the official oath of office less than two weeks ago in her Senate office. And we will soon have a new attorney general. The Senate is expected to confirm Eric Holder a little later today. If so, he will become the nation's first African-American to hold that position.
As early as today, the Obama White House could nominate a commerce secretary, as well. The leading candidate Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. The three-term lawmaker is known for being fiscally conservative. New Hampshire's democratic governor would likely fill the vacancy with another republican and that would leave democrats just shy of the filibuster proof senate.
Former Senator Tom Daschle continuing the fight to defend his nomination. He has a closed door meeting scheduled today with members of the Senate Finance Committee. He has already apologized to lawmakers for errors he made filing his tax returns.
Our Jim Acosta is live in Washington with more on this. Jim, it's like sort of a de javu. I mean I feel like we heard some of this before with Timothy Geithner.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right and we're hearing it again in Washington and people are sort of saying, oh, please, do we have to do this all over again?
You're right, and Tom Daschle is engaging in one of those old Washington traditions. He is giving a mea culpa. He has sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee apologizing for this tax error and saying he is deeply embarrassed and disappointed.
And it is a new distraction for the Obama administration. President Obama promised to usher in a new era of responsibility in government. Now two of his cabinet nominees have admitted they failed on their responsibility to pay their taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM DASCHLE, HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES SECY. NOMINEE: Has anybody chosen not to see a doctor? Because you just didn't want to pay the bill?
ACOSTA (voice-over): During the presidential transition, the man tapped to fix the nation's health care system, Tom Daschle, was busy meeting with community groups to hear their medical issues but Daschle also spent some of that time quietly paying $140,000 in taxes and interest he owed to the IRS, something he did only after he was nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Republicans say Daschle, a former Senate majority leader who has made millions in the health care industry and whose wife is a Washington lobbyist should have known better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can now why liberals don't mind that the tax rate goes up because they're not going to pay it anyway.
ACOSTA: Daschle's mistake? He failed to report income in the form of a free car service provided by media executive Leo Henry. He also didn't pay taxes on consulting fees due to a reporting mistake made by Henry's company.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes, but they were unintentional.
ACOSTA: Just one day after President Obama was sworn in, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was on Capitol Hill admitting he had failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Geithner was confirmed.
SEN. JOHN KYL (R), SENATE MINORITY WHIP: I just wonder if President Bush had nominated these people what the folks would be saying about that.
ACOSTA: During the campaign, Mr. Obama promised to reform Washington's ways.
PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: Reform isn't just the rhetoric of a campaign. It's been one of the causes of my career.
ACOSTA: On his first full day in office, the president signed an executive order placing new ethics guidelines on his staff. Even democrats say Daschle's tax troubles fight that reform message.
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It, obviously, was not intentional, but it's also embarrassing and not helpful.
ACOSTA: Not helpful but perhaps not fatal.
TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR "HUMAN EVENTS": Former Senate majority leader get confirmed by the Senate even when they forget to pay $128,000 in taxes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Daschle who is still waiting to be confirmed is scheduled to meet with the Senate finance committee later today behind closed doors. And despite a tax issue that might have killed other nominations leading Senate democrats say, Daschle is very much alive, Heidi, the republicans probably just don't have the votes to block this confirmation.
COLLINS: Wow, it is interesting. All right. Jim Acosta, thank you.
ACOSTA: You bet.
COLLINS: The National Guard doing their part to help Kentucky recover from that nasty ice storm. They've been removing fallen trees as you see and going door to door now, checking on houses and giving out food and water too. We've been getting different reports in fact, regarding the number of deaths related to this storm. Kentucky emergency management says now there are 16 deaths. Over 1/4 million people are still without power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. STEVE BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: We're in for a long haul here, and we're going to need the manpower that's exhibited by these 4,600 guard men and women. In addition to everybody that's out there, both from local officials to law enforcement to the private organization such as the American Red Cross and others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Kentucky's governor took a look at the damage across the state and met with residents and fire rescue teams thanking them for their hard work. Rob Marciano joining us now to talk a little bit more about this and what's in store for this area over the next couple of days. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Heidi. A little bit of a warm- up the past couple. You notice that some of the shots in that video taken yesterday, looked pretty pleasant. The sun, a little bit warmer. But we've got colder air that's going to be driving south.
Current temps, 30 in Cincinnati, four in Minneapolis, 17 in Detroit, 38 degrees in New York City and 35 in Pittsburgh.
Let's take a look at that city, which is celebrating their sixth world championship. Congratulations last night. There it is where the three rivers come together. WTAE, our affiliate out that way. Had a little snow this morning. That should be tapering off and you should be clearing out somewhat.
So weather looking all right after a very successful night last night. That was some game. Awesome. All right. Dallas, 58 degrees for a high. It will be 46 degrees in Kansas City, 42 in New York, 44 in Boston, just not quite cold enough for snow, but it probably will snow, I think, tonight once temperature cool just a little bit.
Cold air coming from Canada, pretty interesting storm developing across the East Coast. If these two were to come together, like actually we thought they would as of Thursday and Friday of last week, we really have a nasty winter storm if not blizzard wrapping up, but they're not phasing. So that's good news, not going to be quite as bad.
Newark, though, by the way, is having 40-minute delays there on a departure side. We had several delays about 1/2 hour ago. So they're starting to be cleared up in places like Cincinnati and Dayton and also La Guardia.
All right. Heavy rain from Huntsville or at least moderate down through New Orleans, east toward mobile bay, this will continue to roll east as that storm heads toward the East Coast, the northern part of it. Now there's not a whole lot of ice with this, going from rain, quick mix, and then develop the snow eastern Kentucky through West Virginia and the Allegheny Plateau.
This is all heading toward the i-95 corridor, which for the most part will be all snow beginning later on tonight. Here's a look at the accumulation forecast. New York City, You know, you might get one to three inches, Boston will get a little bit more than that with when will this thing develops. And then tomorrow, really the bottom drops out as the temperatures at the next Arctic air mass drives south. And that's going to be the problem, Heidi, with the folks who still don't have power in that ice. But there's not going to be anymore accumulation of ice that we see at least in the near future. So that much is happening.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. All right. And we're going to stay on top of that story that we've been talking about for a long time now. Rob, appreciate that.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COLLINS: And certainly not to steal any of your thunder, Rob, but on groundhog day, there is one weather forecast everyone looks forward to. That poor animal. Punxsutawney Phil made his annual prediction this morning. Sorry to say, he did see his shadow. So it looks like it's going to be six more weeks.
MARCIANO: You don't feel bad for the groundhog, he's got a pretty good life 364 days of the year.
COLLINS: I know.
MARCIANO: You know, this party is for him.
COLLINS: He looks like he's not missed a meal.
MARCIANO: He's probably scared of these guys in the funny hats. I never understood that.
COLLINS: I don't get the hat either. But anyway, it's a fun day for them. Let's be nice.
MARCIANO: And for all weather people and weather geeks alike.
COLLINS: That's right.
MARCIANO: Happy groundhogs day, guys.
COLLINS: Thank you, Rob.
Trouble putting food on the table. If you turn to food stamps for help, just how far could you make them stretch? Our Sean Callebs is finding out personally.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: News as it develops, only CNN can bring it to you. See for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: California's budget crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to meet with legislative leaders again today. The state is facing a $42 billion shortfall, and lawmakers failed to meet Friday's deadline for a new state budget. Now the state is running out of cash needed to pay for everything from tax refunds to supplemental security income.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) on SSI. You know, she gets a pretty meager amount of money each month. Her rent just went up, and, you know, and now maybe her income's going to go down. So that's going to be tough for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are just concerned that they're not going to get anything. State workers and most people are disappointed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Beginning Friday, state workers are being forced to take two days off every month without pay.
Bare cupboards and mouths to feed, food stamps are already affecting lives for millions of Americans. If you become one of them in this economy, will it be enough to make ends meet?
CNN's Sean Callebs is actually trying to answer that question himself. He's in New Orleans this morning. So Sean, tell us a little bit more about the experiment that you're doing.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm going to try to live on basically the equivalent of what one person would get for food stamps here in the state of Louisiana for one month. And that maximum amount - I'm getting the maximum amount, it's $176.
The state's very clear about it. They say, look, this money is supposed to supplement any other kind of money that you have coming in. But, in this day in age, a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have other income coming in.
Basically one out of 10 people in the country are on food stamps. Here in Louisiana, the number's even higher. You may not realize how much you spend at the grocery store until you're in dire straits. 31 million Americans need food stamps to make ends meet.
In Louisiana, for instance, one person out of 6 receives government help in keeping food on the table. Louisiana officials know it's humbling.
We've done everything we can to remove that stigma. We don't feel there's such a stigma. In times of need, you just have to seek help.
Here and in other states, food stamps have been replaced by this less obtrusive government debit card. To better understand this life, I'm going to spend February living on the maximum amount one person can get for food stamps.
CALLEBS (on-camera) Never had I had to pay so much attention to every single thing that goes in a basket. I have $176 to live on the entire month. That's all 28 days, break that down, it's about $6.25 a day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Arkesha Darensbourg and her three children depend on food stamps off and on. She says it's tough to make ends meet. But she's going to show me how to stretch a dollar.
ARKESHA DARENSBOURG, ON FOOD STAMPS: You have to squeeze in a lot of things. You can't get name brand items, you have to get store brand.
CALLEBS: The challenge is eating healthy and eating enough.
It's 32 ounces here and there's 16 here. I'll get two of this. It says 30 cents. That's not that great, isn't?
DARENSBOURG: What about - do you eat mac and cheese?
CALLEBS: I like that that's my window.
DARENSBOURG: Do you think again that the good deal is two for this, two for that, in reality really not.
CALLEBS: Because it adds up quickly.
DARENSBOURG: Yes. It's logical now. That's $35 and 13 centavos left.
CALLEBS: That's right, just $105 and change for the rest of the month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Got to go a long way. Look this is what This is what the people in state get for food stamps. We couldn't use one because it would be fraud. So I put $176 on this grocery gift card. Here's some of what I bought, Heidi, so far out. The dietitian told me to get a lot of carbs, try to eat cabs in every meal because I'll need it for energy.
Also, we got some chickens, some lean ground beef. I had a little breakfast this morning, a little cereal, a banana and a cup of tea. Now just three or more so hours before lunch but you know, I find myself getting hungry. It's only day two but you know when you can't snack, when you just can't get something you want, time drags on.
COLLINS: Yes, no question. Well, it's a good experience. We'll be following with you. I know you're going to be blogging about this. You're going to do it for a month. So we will definitely be checking back with you throughout. OK? Sean Callebs for us this morning, coming to us out of his kitchen in New Orleans. Thank you, Sean.
A teenage girl has autism and her family suffers.
Her parents and siblings have let her have her way. Now things are changing a bit. A look inside an intervention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: More products to watch out for in the current peanut recall. Grocery chain Kroger is recalling some cakes and cookies made with peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America. The fear, Salmonella contamination. We've been telling you about it here. Health officials traced an outbreak of the bacteria to a plant in Georgia. In fact, eight deaths are now linked to that outbreak. More than 500 people have gotten sick.
Struggling with autism. Families may allow an autistic child's bad behaviors to go on because it's easier not to force a change or because they really just don't know how to fix it or change it. Our CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now. Elizabeth, I know you met with one family who actually said that they really weren't going to take it anymore and they did want to go ahead and learn how to make some of these changes.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we all know how hard parenting can be when your child does not have any kind of disability. You can imagine how hard it is to parent a child with autism. So we spent the week with a therapist who was there day and night with the Billson family to help them with their child. Take a look and let's see what happens.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): Meet Marisa Bilson. Like many 13-year-old girls, she likes to play on the computer, eat junk food, and shop. But in other ways, she's very different.
Marissa has autism, diagnosed when she was a toddler. She has fits like this every day, several times a day.
Do you think people who don't have a child with autism, do they get how tough it can be?
MARISSA BILSON, MOTHER: I don't think so. No. It's not the same.
COHEN: To cope, the Billson family - Mary, John, 15-year-old Brittany and six-year-old Brennan basically lets Marisa do whatever she wants. Who runs the house?
MARY BILSON, MARISSA'S MOTHER: Marisa does because everything we do resolves is Marisa going to get upset? Yes.
COHEN: She gets to use the family's only computer for hours on end.
BILSON: Let's go cook.
MARISA: No!
COHEN: She's allowed to wonder around the house at will going into her siblings room and taking their stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to take those outside? And every night she drags luggage stuffed with toys outside as her parents try desperately to stop her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marisa, get yourself out of the street.
COHEN: Taking her to a store becomes a public nightmare. Because she doesn't get the candy that she wants.
BILSON: Come here.
(SCREAMING)
COHEN: Desperate to make changes, the Bilsons invited the group Autism Partnership into their home to help determine if Marisa and their family can be saved. The program is similar to the popular TV show "Nanny 911."
It involves having a therapist spend a week in the Bilson's home using one type of approach which focuses on modifying some of Marisa's worse behaviors.
RICH SHROEDER, THERAPIST, AUTISM PARTNERSHIP: The family is starting to realize that something needs to change, and that is very good. But as far as Marisa's behavior goes and the level that she is capable of going to, she's pretty out of control.
(SCREAMING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now the Bilson's received these services for the week for free because we were videotaping. Ordinarily, families pay $20,000 to have a therapist come spend the week with them. Obviously very pricey. To learn more about helping children with autism you can go to cnnhealth.com and you can see our story there about the Bilson family.
COLLINS: Yes. I know this is the first of a three-part exclusive series that you're working at. I'm so glad, because there are a lot of people who are dealing with this within their family. And you can see, at least, just with that short story there how difficult it is for them. What about health insurance, though? For this type of therapy or treatment?
COHEN: The folks who run this therapy they say insurance doesn't pay for it. You know of course, they would love it if they did but they don't. So people have to pay $20,000 a week out of pocket. I mean, not a lot of people can afford to do that. And this is pretty common with therapies for autism that insurance won't pay for all of it or won't pay for any of it. Parents often end up paying out of pocket.
COLLINS: That's an awful lot of money.
COHEN: An awful lot of money.
COLLINS: What about tomorrow, what have we learned about?
COHEN: What we're going to see tomorrow is the therapist's first few days with the Bilson family. We're going to see, can he help them change Marisa's behavior? Because they just can't live like this anymore.
COLLINS: Yes. We'll be watching closely. Thanks so much, Elizabeth. Your money has bailed out their company, so how come many of those CEOs are raking in huge bonuses? Washington may crack down on the big paydays.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN NEWSROOM. Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: It's bigger, but will it be better? Today the economic stimulus package makes its way to the Senate. Its price tag, about $890 billion. That's $70 billion more than the approved House version. In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, President Obama predicted that Republican critics will get behind it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am confident that by the time we actually have the final package on the floor that we are going to see substantial support and people are going to say this is a serious effort. It has no earmarks. We're going to be trimming out things that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Both Democrats and Republicans are calling for changes. Many lawmakers say the package needs to cut any needless spending and invest that money in creating jobs.
Here's what's going on with the president on a busy day 14. Last hour he attended his economic daily briefing. At the top of the hour, he meets privately with Vermont's Republican Senator Jim Douglas. Their focus, the Senate stimulus plan. Douglas supports the package, but as we've been mentioning, most Republicans in the Senate do not.
This afternoon, the search for common ground. The president along with Vice President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders at the White House.
The Dow Industrials posted their worst performance in the indices' 113th-year history last month. And unfortunately, it looks as though February starting just as poorly as January. And then Stephanie Elam is in the New York stock exchange with more. Good luck, Stephanie, because I really set that up nice and positively for you.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: For all the rosy news for I'm about to tell everybody, right, Heidi? Yes.
Well, it was not only the worst January ever for the Dow and the S&P 500, but also the fifth month in a row of decline for the indices. It wasn't pretty. We all know that. Both of those averages erased more than 8 percent of their value last month -- that may be surprising to people -- while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled more than 6 percent.
In fact, only 2 of the 30 Dow components posted gains -- Those would be IBM and Kraft Foods -- while financial stocks Bank of America and Citigroup led the declines with losses of roughly -- get this -- 50 percent, five-zero percent. So, if you are a believer of the theory that the major average's performance in January predicts the rest of the year -- so goes January, so goes the rest of the year -- then we are in for a rough 2009, and theory has been right about 75 percent of the time.
So with that in mind, more rosiness, let's take a look at where the market stands right now. The Dow off 69 points, 7,931 there. Nasdaq, though, back in the green, up 6 points at 1483, Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, you've been telling us over and over again that these losses are tied to the flood of bad economic data that we've been getting.
ELAM: And you know what? We're not done. There's more to tell you about today.
COLLINS: Super.
ELAM: I know, it's just a great way to start February. The latest reading on personal spending shows a greater than expected, 1 percent drop in December. Spending has dropped for six straight months. And while consumers are spending less, they're saving more in the wake of the ever-worsening recession.
And then we've got to take a look at construction spending. It fell 1.5 percent in December, marking the third straight month of declines. If we were to find one little piece of upbeat news, we got it from the manufacturing sector. The ISM Index improved in December even though it's still at recessionary levels. But in times like this, Heidi, you've got to take what you can get, so we're taking the ISM today.
COLLINS: Yes, we are. All right, Stephanie, thank you.
ELAM: Sure.
COLLINS: It's bigger, but will it be better? Today, the economic stimulus package makes its way to the Senate, as we've been saying. That price tag about $890 billion, $70 billion more than the approved House version. In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, President Obama predicted, as we said, the Republicans will get behind it. Listen here.
Actually, we are going to continue to follow that story for you. Obviously a lot going on on that package today, so we will update you as we get it here. Meanwhile, Christine Romans standing by now to talk a little bit more about that and some of these bonuses. Should the CEOs who have gotten some of this bailout money now be taking their bonuses? Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, and this is a story that, gosh, it just continues to really, really dominate public conversation here. This idea that the American taxpayer has pumped billions of dollars into the banking system, into Wall Street, and then Wall Street gave out $18.4 billion in bonuses last year.
We learned about this late last week, and policymakers in Washington are furious. Still, the president in his Saturday radio address to the nation, again, saying the Wall Street behavior was shameful. And Claire McCaskill, the Democratic senator from Missouri, actually coming up with some legislation that she'd like to see. She'd like to see that any company that takes government money, takes our money to stay in business, should have to pay a limit of only $400,000 for its highest-paid employee. That's what the president of the United States makes. Listen to what Claire McCaskill said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And she is very angry about this situation, and so are a lot of other people as it continues to dominate. So, let's take a look at just how big those bonuses were. They were down sharply last year, $18.4 billion, but it was still the sixth largest bonus pool on record. Now, listen, a lot of people who cover Wall Street, myself included, Heidi, if you are creating jobs, creating wealth, and making the economy grow, by all means, get the big salaries and have the perks. There's no one who is questioning that.
The question here is if it is proper for the very companies that led us to the brink in the global economy because of bad bets made on mortgages, the very companies that had to take billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to stay afloat, if it's appropriate for them to be paying out such big bonuses. And that's what's happening here.
And I think that what you're seeing today is a shift of the center of gravity of American finance and the economy to Washington from Wall Street. I mean, that is happening. And the president's putting his -- you know, putting himself forward, saying he's going to be a tough cop on this. Partly because there will probably have to be more banking rescue, quite frankly. Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to learn more about what the White House wants to do in terms of shoring up the financial system beyond the stimulus, beyond the first $700 billion.
So, they have to come out -- the Obama administration has to show that they're going to be tough, tough, tough on Wall Street because the American people do not have the appetite for spending more money after -- with all of the shenanigans we've seen.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about it. All right, Christine. Thanks so much. Sure do appreciate that.
ROMANS: Sure.
COLLINS: Could there be better days ahead in Iraq? Seven and a half million people cast ballots in the weekend vote, according to the country's election commission. That's in stark contrast to 2005 elections, when violence and intimidation kept many people from the polls. Preliminary results are expected later this week. President Obama says it was a positive outcome.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We have a sense now that the Iraqis just had a very significant election with no significant violence that we are in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis. And that's good news for not only the troops in the field, but their families who are carrying an enormous burden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Some American commanders are still keeping a watchful eye on the situation. They say the security gains could still be undermined by insurgents.
In the pool, he's an Olympic superstar, but Michael Phelps's recent behavior out of the pool has many people saying, what was he thinking?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Many people in Kentucky wondering when the lights will be back on. More than a quarter-million people still without power after the devastating ice storm last week. National Guard troops going door to door checking on families in the worst-hit areas. Kentucky Emergency Management says the storm has been blamed for 16 deaths.
Meanwhile, Ohio recovering just a little bit. Some may have to wait a little longer to get power back on, while others are actually being allowed to go back home. The Red Cross packing up cots after many took shelter in their shelters, mostly in high school gymnasiums.
Welcome back. I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Weather Center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: All right. Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK. See you, Heidi.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans taking their party into the streets after the team's Super Bowl win. Pittsburgh police didn't report any major problems, but more than 100 people were arrested for failing to disperse. The Steelers beat Arizona 27 to 23 to win their sixth Super Bowl.
Caught up in a controversy. Olympic star Michael Phelps admits to a lapse in judgment after a British paper publishes a certain photo of him. Here now our national correspondent Jason Carroll.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Phelps is calling his behavior regrettable, after the British tabloid "News of the World" published this picture showing him appearing to be smoking pot during what the paper said was a party at the University of South Carolina last November.
Phelps released a statement saying, "I'm 23 years old, and despite the successes I have had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way." He went on to say, "For this I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes.
CARROLL: Phelps broke the record books in Beijing this past summer, winning an unprecedented eight gold medals. However, this incident should have no impact on his medal standing. Marijuana is a banned substance, but an athlete is subject to sanctions only if a positive test result occurs during competition.
The U.S. Olympic Committee said it was disappointed in Phelps but added, "We are confident, going forward, Michael will consistently set the type of example we all expect from a great Olympic champion."
This isn't the first time Phelps has found himself in a potentially embarrassing situation. In 2004, he was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Maryland at the age of 19. He pled guilty and received 18 months probation.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: If he continues to make a mistake -- I think this is his second -- I think the third one is probably the last strike, but I think he's fine now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really disappoints me because I thought he was this great all American athlete that was, you know abiding by the rules.
CARROLL: Phelps's main penalty could be his endorsements. He collects millions a year from companies like Visa and Speedo. It remains to be seen if any of those sponsors are having second thoughts.
RYAN SMITH, SPORTS ATTORNEY: Unlike an athlete that plays sports every year in the public spotlight, the Olympics for swimmers comes every four years. So, he doesn't have that chance to rehabilitate his image immediately like a lot of other athletes, a basketball player or a football player would.
So, companies might say, you know what? Let's not work with Michael Phelps right now because he doesn't really have a chance to redeem himself.
CARROLL (on camera): Phelps' million-dollar endorsements are highly coveted and the bread and butter of Olympic athletes. One cannot take away his accomplishments in the pool, but those endorsements could now be in jeopardy. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
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COLLINS: A ray of hope in a bleak economy, solar power. It's infusing new energy in one town's dismal economy.
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COLLINS: This month, hundreds of new electric cars will be hitting the road, and people are shelling out big bucks for the privilege of driving them. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" now. Good morning to you, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey there, Heidi. You know, we all know we're in a recession. We all know gas prices have fallen, but there are still people out there, believe it or not, willing to shell out $850 a month to lease a car. That's what BMW's new zero emission all electric mini costs. Only 450 are available as part of what is a one- year pilot program in L.A., New York and New Jersey. BMW says they've got more than 1,800 applications.
I recently took one for a spin. I ran into a little trouble.
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HARLOW: I'm about to do something I've never done. I'm going to drive an electric car. Check out the key here. Literally, you stick it in right in here, click it in, start button, there goes the power, silent. Not a sound because there is no motor in this car. This is very weird, guys. Here I am trying to back up, and it's not working.
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HARLOW: It didn't work. We did get it started on the second try. Have to admit, though, it felt odd. Heidi, it felt a little bit -- it felt just like bumper cars, actually.
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HARLOW: When you take your foot off the accelerator, it comes to a complete stop. It doesn't ease like a normal car. Other than that, though, it's just quiet.
We're at about 95 percent charge right now. This car will go about 150 miles on average in a single charge. Right now we're pretty fully charged, but again, you want to keep your eye on that gauge because if you run out of power, it's not like you can go to the gas station.
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HARLOW: That's the problem, you can't go to the gas station, and falling gas prices, they make these electric cars less attractive from an economical standpoint. The company, though, still says you're going to save cash on a vehicle like this.
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JIM MCDOWELL, VICE PRESIDENT, MINI USA: I would guess if gasoline ever returned to 80 cents a gallon to $1, at that point probably the electric MINI would cost as much to drive per mile as the gas MINI, but until we're at that point, the electric MINI is less expensive in terms of its fuel cost.
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HARLOW: OK, but still costs $850 a month right now, Heidi. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to charge if you use a wall box that BMW installs in customers' garages, but if you plug it into a regular outlet, it'll take you 24 hours to charge. So, Heidi, a lot of challenges here, but they are hitting the road across the country this month.
COLLINS: OK, we'll be watching for them. Thanks so much, Poppy. Appreciate it.
HARLOW: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, he pledged more alternative energy. And since then, the economy has tanked and priorities shifted. Now a new ray of hope, a solar-power project that could address both problems. CNN's Kara Finstrom has the details.
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KARA FINSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight years ago, the Cabreras chased their American dream to Lancaster. They bought an affordable home and started a family. But when the economy tanked, the Cabreras watched houses all around them foreclose.
Lancaster's foreclosure rate skyrocketed to one of L.A. County's highest, and already-scarce jobs disappeared. Marcos Cabrera couldn't find coonstruction work and feared he might lose his home.
MARCOS CABRERA, SOLAR WORKER: No matter where I looked, nowhere I tried, it didn't matter. There was nothing anywhere.
MAYOR REX PARRIS, LANCASTER, CALIF.: We're at a challenging time right now. And we're probably at a chipping point as to whether or not we're going to thrive economically or fail.
FINSTROM: Lancaster, near Edwards Air Force Base, was once a booming aerospace town. And Mayor Rex Parris believes what it needs now is more innovative technology. His hope, a glistening solar power plant now going up and nearly complete.
PARRIS: Well, I think eSolar is not going to save the world, it's going to save Lancaster first.
ROBERT ROGAN, ESOLAR: We're going to be building thousands of megawatts in the Lancaster area. That's enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean, renewable energy. And additionally, we'll be creating up to thousands of construction jobs.
FINSTROM: Robert Rogan is with eSolar, a tw-year-old company that's already contracted to sell power to southern California Edison and is giving Marcos a full-time job.
CABRERA: Eight years of searching and finally found the perfect job for me.
FINSTROM: Marcos is helping construct the company's first solar plant, which will capture Lancaster's sunshine.
ROGAN: These mirrors all trap the sun and focus the sunlight at the top of the tower.
FINSTROM: That heat will boil water, produce steam and ultimately generate power. The company says its energy will be cleaner and cheaper than burning fossil fuel.
(on-camera): eSolar is hoping these 24,000 mirrors are just the start. Right now, they're working on plans for four other plants within the Southwest. And their timing couldn't be better, with a new administration pushing for green power.
OBAMA: We will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years.
ROGAN: What we're building here is a five-megawatt power plant. When we build a 245-megawatt power plant for southern California Edison, there's a large amount of capital acquired. We're confident that we'll be able to obtain that capital with the right support and government incentives.
FINSTROM (voice-over): Lancaster hopes eSolar's presence will also attract other green industries. It's a big dream for a struggling city and for a young company. For Marcos Cabrera...
CABRERA: They just started training us on these (INAUDIBLE) and everything we're doing.
FINSTROM: ... it's a paycheck with promise.
CABRERA: It is the future. And our resource is the sun, so until the sun goes out, we're going to be here.
FINSTROM: Kara Finstrom for CNN, Lancaster, California.
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COLLINS: Holding the president accountable for campaign promises. The promise the new president is being accused of breaking.
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COLLINS: It is tough sticking to every vow you make when running for president, but some people are holding President Obama to every word. 14 days into his presidency, he's been accused of broken promises. Here now, CNN's Josh Levs.
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BILL ADAIR, POLITIFACT.COM: And the first one he broke was one where he had said he would post bills on the White House Web site and give a five-day comment period before signing them. But he didn't do that with his first bill. His first bill, as I'm sure many of your viewers know, was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have video of him signing that the other day. So, what this boils down to, basically, is when he signed this, right, he did not post it for five days in advance to allow public comments. And you guys are pointing out that he had said any non-emergency legislation he would post on the Web site for five days in advance.
ADAIR: Exactly. And so, clearly this one didn't meet the promise that he had made, so we rated it as our first promise broken on our Obamater.
LEVS: All right. So, did you contact the White House? Did you ask them about that?
ADAIR; We did. Boy, they've been busy there. They haven't had e- mail for much of the first week and a half in office. So we haven't actually heard any response from them, but we did hear from a lot of Obama supporters who were very unhappy with it.
LEVS: You did. I want to talk to you about that. Let's zoom back in on the board behind me. Look at the headline. This is one thing that really struck me and one reason I want to talk to you. This is your headline right now: "Are you freaking serious?" at politifact.com. And you're pointing to some e-mail that you received from some viewers out there who were not happy that you're declaring this a broken promise.
Why did you guys decide to lead with this and to post them online?
ADAIR: Well, we wanted to give our readers a voice on the site.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Day 14 of the Obama presidency already under way. Last hour, the president attended his daily economic briefing, and minutes from now, he meets privately with Vermont's Republican senator, Jim Douglas. Their focus, the Senate stimulus plan. Douglas supports the package. Most Republicans in the Senate do not.
This afternoon, the search for common ground. The president, along with Vice President Joe Biden, will meet with congressional leaders at the White House.
I'm Heidi Collins. You can join me again tomorrow morning beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern. For now CNN NEWSROOM continues with T.J. Holmes.
