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Into the Health Care Fray; Health Care Fact and Fiction; Afghanistan: Inside the Firefight; School Lunch Ads Make Point Using Obama's Daughters; Taiwan Struggles with Typhoon's Aftermath; Tropical Depression Could Become 1st Atlantic Hurricane; Study IDs Areas of Waste in Health Care

Aired August 12, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. It is Wednesday, August 12th, and here are the top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM right now.

Democracy in action. A Senator and key Republican player on health care reform faces an Iowa audience.

Protecting democracy abroad. U.S. Marines invade a Taliban town ahead of Afghanistan's presidential election.

The new GM charges into the future with a shocking claim. Chevy says its new Volt hybrid will get 230 miles per gallon?

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Another Senator steps into the fray during this make-or-break month for health care reform. Republican Senator Charles Grassley holding a town hall meeting right now. Grassley is one of the key negotiators working on a bipartisan reform plan.

Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley is covering Senator Grassley's town hall in Winterset, Iowa.

Candy, if you would, describe the mood of this event.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, I would say that it is very polite but it's very pointed. I mean, you have heard some tough questions here considering -- first of all, let me just tell you where we are, which is Winterset. It is Madison County. It's a conservative area.

So, you are hearing a lot of concern from people here saying, listen, do we have to overhaul everything? This looks like a fickle government takeover. I'm concerned that I won't be able to go to the doctor I want to go to if I have to go into a federal health insurance plan.

So, you hear a lot of that. But you also hear the other side, where there are some doctors here, some nurses here, some small business owners. So, you've got a pretty wide swath certainly in terms of career and jobs and perspective. So, you are hearing, but don't we need to reform the whole thing? I have to tell you that Senator Grassley has been doing these over the three decades that he's been a senator. He's now over the 2,800 mark in terms of town hall meetings, but he says that he senses that now is a different time.

He called it, in fact -- saying, "I sense that we are here at a time when people are scared for our country," and he ties that to a number of things. He says it's the stimulus plan, it was the bailout of the auto industry, both of which he was against. Things like that.

And so -- and they do say here that he's already done 71 town hall meetings this year over various breaks, and he's getting two to three times the crowds he usually does. So, they said this started well before the August recess.

HARRIS: And Candy, let's have the audience watching us listen to a bit of the exchange, at least one exchange. And this Senator Grassley taking a question from a woman who is a mom talking about shopping for health care insurance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Grassley, I have a family of four. I have been trying to buy my own health insurance for me and my children and my husband. Primarily my children.

I did estimates, and the cheapest insurance that doesn't have a $10,000-a-year deductible per person is $830-some-odd. This is a problem.

I can't take my children to the doctor with no insurance. I would be more than glad to buy my own insurance if it was more cost- effective. I need to know, what are you doing to these insurance companies that are putting everything in their pocket and just laughing at everybody else?

(APPLAUSE)

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: Well, you probably don't fall into the category of people that have been denied based upon pre- existing conditions, but that's the biggest discrimination we have, and we do away with that. And then for people who have high costs -- and you have very high premiums and sometimes very low premiums -- we're going to narrow the band of premiums.

And then for people that are below -- and what I'm telling you now has not been decided in our committee yet, but there is discussion going on right now of tax credits. And if you're below 300 percent of poverty, it would probably be in the neighborhood of what we call a refundable tax credit for you to have health to buy your insurance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Now, Candy, I think that's interesting, because that is a kind of discussion that we would really love to hear more of. There is a mom who is trying to shop for health care insurance for her family. She's got a real question. And you can see the senator grappling with that real issue.

It is separated apart from a lot of -- frankly, some of the noise that we've been hearing. And that's at the heart of the debate, isn't it, real questions from real people, real concerns, that these senators and representatives are having to grapple with?

CROWLEY: They are. And I have to tell you that all of the questions here have been that tenor.

They've been tough, saying, well, here's my problem. Small business owners saying, this is just too expensive, I can't pay for my employees.

We had a doctor saying, you know, "As a primary care physician, I just don't get enough reimbursement from Medicare," things like that. So, they were very serious questions, but very pointed questions.

And what's interesting about this woman's question to me, Tony, is it shows you what the American people really are grappling with right here in this little microcosm in Winterset, which is, we want reform. We want people to be able to get insurance, but we don't want the government taking things over, so we don't want too much reform.

So, it's finding that sweet spot that these senators are grappling with. In particular, Senator Grassley, who is in that core group in the Senate Finance Committee that's trying to come up with something that would pass the Senate.

I have to tell you, he didn't sound that optimistic, by the way, about the Senate Finance Committee negotiations. He sort of pondered aloud that he might be pushed away from the table because of things that he just simply wouldn't support.

He also mentioned that he was a little disturbed at something the president said yesterday because it sounded like the president was willing to push forward in what Grassley called a partisan way. So, there was not all that much optimism about those Senate Finance Committee negotiations; however, he's still at the table and he says still working on it.

HARRIS: And Candy, look, let me spend a little more time with you, because this is really, really important.

Now, I'm a little confused by that bit of information and that revelation from the senator, because I have heard him -- and I know you have, as well -- say on other occasions that he feels that that committee is anywhere from 90 to 95 percent there on crafting a bill. So, I'm trying to figure out, what is going on here and what are the issues for him that may force him away from the table?

CROWLEY: That last five percent is always the toughest, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, he did say that. Yes.

CROWLEY: So, that's kind of where they've been, absolutely. And the fact of the matter is, it's about that public system. It's about, should there be a government alternative to try to drive down prices in the insurance industry? What that woman was talking about. But I also have to sort of set the political scene for you to try to explain why Senator Grassley might bring that up here.

This is a very Republican area. Madison County, "Bridges of Madison County," Winterset. This is a Republican area.

And Senator Grassley, because he's in on these negotiations with Democrats, has been pushed from the right, saying, wait a second, don't you compromise too much on things that are really important to us. And so, he needs to come here and reassure people that he is still the senator that they voted for, still a conservative, and that he thought it was his duty to be in on these negotiations.

And he said, listen, all these people saying we're doing this too quickly, I went into these negotiations six weeks ago, and so people have had a chance to see it over these six weeks. He said, otherwise, we would be marking this bill up in June. So, you know, there's a slight bit of defensiveness you can read here simply because of where he is in trying to explain to his conservative base, listen, I'm on your side, I'm with you on these issues, but we've got to get something through that's acceptable.

HARRIS: Candy, terrific, as always.

Candy Crowley for us in Winterset, Iowa.

Candy, thank you.

You know, a lot of the fear about health reform is over the government's role. You just heard that in Candy's reporting. But some reform advocates want more government involvement. Among them, President Obama's former doctor. On CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," he faced off against Representative Ron Paul over the so-called single payer national health plan.

Here's a bit of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DAVID SCHEINER, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FORMER DOCTOR: The cost of private health insurance administration is $400 billion year. If we had a single payer, that would be eliminated. The 50 million or 48 million could be covered just by that saving alone.

Continuing private health insurance is crazy. The private health insurance companies have not shown us they can be trusted. Why do we keep coming back and asking them to be -- that we can trust them? And the pharmaceutical companies, why aren't we buying in bulk and negotiating the prices of the drugs?

The rest of the world looks upon us with disdain. We're 37th in the world in health statistics. Even Slovenia is ahead of us, and as Carville said, we pay twice as much as our nearest competitor. This is insane. REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: We have a one-payer system with Medicare, and we have -- it's broke. And so that's part of the problem that we have today.

Everybody agrees we have reform, but where I find we're missing the boat is the definition of what we're doing. For some reason, I think it's the fact that 35 years ago, we introduced the notion of managed care based on the fact that people have a right to medical care. I don't accept that, because if you do, that means the majority can vote to demand anything they want from the minority. And in a free society, you're supposed to protect the minority, not the majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow. OK.

President Obama says replacing the current employer-based system with a single payer system would be too radical of an overhaul.

While on the road in New Hampshire yesterday, the president said the AARP was backing a health care reform bill. Is that really the case?

Our Josh Levs is looking beyond what the president and others are saying to get to the facts on this.

Good to see you, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good to see you, too, Tony. And in a couple of words, not exactly.

Let's go to this first. This is what the president said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors.

AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: AARP has responded. They sent out a statement. Let's take a look at it. We've got it for you right here.

And they start off by saying, basically -- and you can see it here on the graphic -- "While the president was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."

I want to go on to show you another thing that they say in the statement, though, because they do say that they "... share President Obama's commitment to act this year, and our members appreciate his insistence that any Obama reform package will not reduce Medicare benefits..."

So, there's a concept there, Tony, that they are agreeing with, but they don't endorse, and they wanted to make that clear. So there you go.

HARRIS: Good, good, good.

Also, you're following claims coming from Republicans. What do you have for us on that score?

LEVS: We do, yes. One of the most -- probably one of the biggest attacks that people have heard about lately is coming from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Take a look here.

Politifact.com has taken a look at this one. This is where she said seniors and the disabled will have to stand in front of Obama's death panel so bureaucrats can decide based on a subjective judgment of their level of productivity in society whether they are worthy of health care.

And you can see next to it, Tony, they gave this -- if we pan to the right a little bit, "Pants on fire." That's their ruling there.

Let me give everyone some basic facts about this. Let's go straight to this graphic. I want you to understand kind of where this comes from and what it's about.

They say, "It's definitely not what President Obama or any other Democrat has proposed." It's not in there.

And they go on to say in this next one, "There is no panel in any panel in any version of the health care bills in Congress that judges a person's level of productivity in society to determine whether they are worthy of health care."

But they do say -- Politifact points this out -- they say, "Conservatives might make a case that Palin is justified in fearing the current reform could one day morph into such a board. But that's not what Palin said."

And Tony, that's important when we think about this, because so many of the attacks -- you and I talked about this, right?

HARRIS: Right.

LEVS: So many of the attacks are predictive, are people fearing that something will eventually happen.

HARRIS: Yes. Predictive, predictive, predictive, predictive. Got to say it again and again and again.

LEVS: Right. Because we cannot -- and you know I love fact- checking -- but we cannot fact-check a prediction. I can't tell you what will or won't happen 10, 20 years from now. I can tell you what legitimate analysis says and what's actually in the bill.

So, those are the kind of facts we want to make sure to give you right here.

HARRIS: Can't fact-check a claim that is a prediction.

LEVS: You can't know for sure. There's no way to be 100 percent sure.

Even if it sounds farfetched to some people, we cannot tell you factually that something will never happen. But there are facts along the way. Like, what it really says in the bill, and that's what we want everyone to understand.

The concrete stuff that we do have and all the myriad bills that haven't even been merged yet, let alone anything that's even close to getting to the president, we want people to see what's in there. That's why we come at you like this.

HARRIS: Terrific.

You're back with us next hour. What are you working on?

LEVS: Yes. Next hour, I'm going to show you some key Web sites you can use at any time of day if you hear a claim of where to go to check it out, including, Tony, the grand return of the CNN entry (ph) spot.

HARRIS: All right, Josh. See you next hour.

LEVS: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Let me take a moment with you here.

You know, all of the screaming, shouting and shoving we're seeing at some of the health care reform town halls certainly makes for great TV. But too often the real questions and concerns get lost in that noise. That's why we're doing all that we can here in the CNN NEWSROOM to cut through the rhetoric and the rumors and to address your real concerns and fears about the future of your health care and where this debate is leading our country.

Is all the fighting and frustration that we're seeing in these town halls a symptom of something bigger brewing in America? Do you fear a big government takeover? Does the prospect of doing nothing scare you even more?

Most people agree something has to be done, but what? OK. This is where you can help us.

We want to know what you think. Send your comments, your questions, your concerns to my blog page. You know the address by now -- it's CNN.com/Tony.

Look, and our expectation is that most of your questions will take a little time to research, so we won't be able to get back to you right away. We're going to put together really smart informed people in our shop from Elizabeth Cohen to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to the CNN Money team, Dana Bash, Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill, Suzanne Malveaux, Ed Henry at the White House, to answer your questions.

We will, of course, go outside the shop for answers, if we need to. And once we're able to answer your specific concerns, we will air them for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

On the radio and on the road, CNN's Ali Velshi taking it to the streets to hear what's on -- where's the music? -- to hear what's on the minds of Americans when it comes to the economy and health care. We are talking to him live across multiple CNN platforms, and that is straight ahead for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: You know, beyond some of the rowdier town hall meetings, there are real concerns and questions about health care reform. Our Ali Velshi is listening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, my husband and I are two of the 47- million-plus that don't have health care. And I'm not talking insurance. Of course we don't have insurance, but I want health care.

My husband has diabetes and he just had a bout with cancer. What insurance company is going to cover us? There aren't any.

If I get sick today, where do you think I'm going? I'm going to the emergency room. Who is that costing? That is costing us, the taxpayers.

So, if it's going to cost my bottom line, if they have to tax me more in order to get health care, tax me. Tax me. Tax me. Tax me. I am willing to pay.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk about the 46, 47, 50, whatever million you want to use of the number of people who are not insured in this country. What's your thoughts on that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would really love to drive a Hummer. They're cool cars. I can't afford one, so I don't drive one. I drive what I can afford.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. I can't believe you're saying people don't deserve health care if they can't afford it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did I say that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what I hear you saying. Then you're not listening, Heather. I said... VELSHI: Well, you did say that you'd like to buy a Hummer and you can't buy a Hummer because you can't afford it. So, if you can't afford the Hummer, you don't drive it. If you can't afford health care, you shouldn't get it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. I'm saying you have the basic stuff. You get a catastrophic illness, you're in a car crash, something like that happens, of course you get coverage for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow. This is it. This is it right here.

Ali is with the CNN Express on the road from Paducah, Kentucky, taking it to the streets, to the Mt. Vernon, Illinois. He's also doing his radio show from the road today.

He joins us live from Benton, Illinois.

Ali, that's it. I love that chunk. We are grabbing as many chunks of your town hall on the road as we can for this program over the next two hours.

What are you hearing from your listeners today? And then we'll talk more about what you're hearing from folks on the road.

VELSHI: Well, we just got started a few minutes ago on the radio show, and people can call us, because it's part of us going into the heart of America to discuss health care.

But what you heard there from Paducah was quality. It was people disagreeing. They were not on the same side of the issue, but there was more light than heat in that discussion, as you can tell.

They were not insulting each other. They were not talking about things that were way off from health care. They were having a discussion about what they understand the health care system to be, what they understand the proposals to change it to be, what they'd like it to be, and why they feel so threatened by some of the changes. And others were saying why they fell it's so important.

We talked with people, as you heard, with pre-existing conditions, saying they can't get insurance. We talked to others who couldn't afford health insurance if they could get it.

It is so much more a calmer and more civil conversation that we're having, and that's not just Paducah, that's the tone of conversations we're having with Americans. We've pulled the bus up, and they come up to us, and it's on everybody's mind, and they feel that there's a lot of misinformation out there. It is a very heated discussion -- Tony.

HARRIS: And love that you're doing this. I think I sent you a note to that effect this morning.

What are you hearing from people about whether the recession is ending?

VELSHI: Well, this is an interesting one, because we were on this bus back before the financial crisis, really at the very beginning of the recession. And, in fact, it's where we first heard that the economy was issue number one to so many voters.

The reality is that people are struggling. We've heard from some people, a few people, who say things are a little better. We talked to a restaurant owner who said things were good. We spoke to a real estate salesman in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who said he's actually seeing a pickup, people are actually buying places.

But most of the people we're talking to are still struggling through it. So, they're probably not all that interested in some economists from the Northeast deciding that the recession is over.

The recession is probably ending under us as we speak. That's true. But how many times have you and I discussed the fact that the while the stock market might be up, it's going to be a while for that housing market to come back. And jobs? Well, that's going to be several months of us losing more jobs.

HARRIS: Well, I tell you what, I want to give everyone the phone number so they can call you right now. We'll put it up on the screen as well: 877-266-4189. There it is.

You're on the road right now. And again, my friend, we are going to run extended chunks of your town hall. That stuff is terrific.

Ali, have a grit time. And when you get some more folks, you pull some more tape together, give us a heads up and we'll get it on the air as soon as we can.

Appreciate it.

VELSHI: Absolutely will, Tony. Thank you so much.

HARRIS: All right.

Still to come in NEWSROOM, U.S. forces in Afghanistan engaging the enemy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We've got a developing story just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. We will bring you the very latest one. Let's start with a map here.

Acworth, Georgia, is about -- let's say about 40 minutes north of downtown Atlanta. We have a helicopter that is down in a residential neighborhood in this town of Acworth, suburban Atlanta.

I'm not sure exactly when this exactly happened, but you can see the helicopter right there on its side. Obviously, pretty heavily damaged right now, in the bushes, not very far from the back of this home, the single family homes in that development, in that neighborhood.

We understand that two people have been hurt in this crash and have been taken to an area hospital. At this point, no word on the cause, and at least at last word, no word of anyone on the ground being injured.

We will keep an eye on this story for you.

Action here from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. Look at these images.

U.S. Marines mounting a helicopter assault to seize the Taliban held town of Dahaneh. Their operation beginning before dawn this morning, with Marines fighting their way into the town, while others battled militants in the surrounding mountains.

And we understand the fighting lasted several hours. Taliban militants striking back with strong arms fire, as well as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

We can tell you that military officials say the troops are trying to protect voting sites ahead of next week's elections.

Live now to the Afghan capital of Kabul and CNN's Atia Abawi.

Atia, good to see you.

What are the troops doing, specifically, as you can tell us, to try to fortify these voting locations?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're doing, Tony, is they're trying to secure and hold areas, and they're actually going after the Taliban. But mostly, they're trying to secure the area for the Afghan people. When they meet resistance, they fight. But their main tactic right now is to secure Afghans, to help them go out and vote, to make sure that they feel comfortable enough to vote.

But Afghanistan is only eight days away from its second ever presidential elections. And, yes, the picture that you saw were from the Nawzawd (ph) district of Helmand Province. Eight days will not be enough for these Afghan villagers to feel confident enough to go out to the polls, and we might even see the fighting continue in that area because the Taliban, they're ready, they had time to prepare.

The coalition forces, the U.S. Marines, they caught them off guard last month when thousands of U.S. Marines flooded into southern Afghanistan. But the Taliban knew that the fighting was going to go on and it was going to come to them, so they've had time to prepare, and now they're retaliating against these forces -- Tony.

HARRIS: I'm going to ask you a tricky one here. Because of the safety concerns you've just cited, has any thought been given to possibly postponing the elections? Because you wonder if all of the action that is going on right now is really going to be enough to make the Afghan people feel safe in coming out and voting. ABAWI: What we're hearing right now, Tony, is it won't be postponed again. It's already been postponed. It was actually supposed to be held in May. The constitution of Afghanistan says that elections must be held in May. They postponed it until August for security reasons.

But when we spoke to a top U.N. official, he said that it won't be postponed again, even though they know that certain areas are still under strong Taliban control, and even though they know that there will be a lot of fraud in this election, that they know that some of these candidates will go out there, they will take advantage of the polling system, they'll take advantage of the ballot system and they will be fraudulent when it comes to these elections. But there's nothing that they can do about it. And this U.N. official also told us that this is the circumstances that Afghanistan is in, but the elections must be go on -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Atiwa Abawi for us in Kabul, Afghanistan. Atia, great to see you. Thank you.

A U.S. soldier accused of being a hit man for a Mexican drug cartel. Our Ed Lavandera has the disturbing details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a chilling example of the influence of Mexican drug cartels. Three men, one of them a young U.S. soldier, accused of carrying out a deadly hit on U.S. soil.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Eighteen-year-old Michael Jackson Apodaca, still wearing his military uniform, in handcuffs and charged with capital murder. El Paso police say Apodaca fired the shots that killed this man three months ago outside his home in an upscale El Paso neighborhood. The shooting victim was a mid-level member of the Juarez drug cartel, but also an informant for American federal agents.

CHIEF GREGORY ALLEN, EL PASO, TEXAS, POLICE: What we do feel is that this was retribution for the fact that the dead -- the deceased person had pretty much gotten the person in trouble in Jaurez who was arrested by authorities over there. And so, consequently, this was the retribution for that arrest.

LAVANDERA: According to court documents, Apodaca was hired to carry out this hit and paid by Reuben Rodriguez Dorado (ph), a member of the Juarez cartel. Court documents say Dorado (ph) ordered the murder because the Juarez cartel discovered the victim was talking to American authorities.

ALLEN: And I want to stress that this was a payback situation and not something that's an ongoing type of battle like you see in Mexico right now. So, a whole lot different. And even though this can be considered to some degree spillover, we don't look at it in the same way as it's occurring in Mexico.

LAVANDERA: According to officials at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Michael Apodaca joined the Army about a year ago. He worked as a crew member that launches Patriot missiles. But his family says they don't believe the charges against him.

DAVE JACKSON, MICHAEL JACKSON APODACA'S GRANDFATHER: He's in the top of his class. You talk to all his sergeants, he's a good soldier. Now, before he went in, he was in with a bad crowd.

LAVANDERA (on camera): For years, we've heard reports of Mexican authorities and officials being corrupted by the drug cartels, but now there is growing concern on the U.S. side that U.S. officials and authorities along the border might be susceptible to the reach and influence of drug cartels, as well.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Health care reform. What's in, what's out? The facts, the fiction. CNN iReporters are weighing in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Justice is served at the White House. President and Mrs. Obama hosted a reception last hour for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The newest member of the United States Supreme Court took the oath Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Our Constitution has survived domestic and international tumult, including a civil war, two world wars and the catastrophe of September 11. It draws together people of all races, faiths and backgrounds from all across this country who carry its words and values in our heart. It is this nation's faith in a more perfect union that allows a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx to stand here now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Pretty good. Pretty good. Justice Sotomayor is the first Hispanic on the court and just the third woman.

Now a rather touchy subject. New ads in Washington referring to the president's young daughters are causing a stir at the White House. Here's CNN's Elaine Quijano.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: These ads are only up at one train station here in Washington, but they're apparently enough to make the White House sit up and take notice.

(voice-over): In Washington's Union Station, the ads never show their pictures or mention first daughters Sasha and Malia by name, but next to an image of a smiling 8-year-old, the question: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't i?"

DR. NEAL BARNARD, PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE: We wanted them to see this ad not once, not twice but over and over again so that they're thinking about children, especially disadvantaged children all across the U.S.

QUIJANO: Dr. Neal Barnard heads up the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine, the group behind the ads. They're aimed at congressional staffers who pass through, to prod Congress into getting more vegetarian and vegan lunch options in public schools. Barnard says the ads grabbed the White House's attention, too.

BARNARD: They called and said, basically, would we take the ads down? And I'm quite sure that the president himself would be delighted with the ads, but some of his handlers got nervous.

QUIJANO: The ads are still up. Historian Doug Wead, who wrote "All the President's Children," doubts President Obama would be delighted.

DOUG WEAD, HISTORIAN: Famous quote of a president is, "My children are nobody's damn business."

QUIJANO: And former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart agrees.

JOE LOCKHART, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think president's children are off limits, particularly young ones.

QUIJANO: He recalls the Clintons deciding against having daughter Chelsea introduce her father at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

LOCKHART: It would have been a magical political moment, and the president and the first lady said no way. No way, because if we use her for that, then she's fair game.

SASHA OBAMA, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Daddy, what city are you in?

QUIJANO: Fast-forward to the 2008 Democratic convention. Still, Lockhart believes children growing up in the White House deserve to be kept out of debates, no matter what the cause.

LOCKHART: These are young kids. They didn't sign up for this. They deserve their privacy.

QUIJANO (on camera): The White House isn't confirming whether officials asked that the ad be taken down. But spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration hopes others will be respectful and not use the first daughters as a publicity stunt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN's Elaine Quijano for you.

Health care reform, the facts, the fiction, what's in, what's out. CNN iReporters are weighing in.

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HARRIS: CNN iReporters are trying to cut through some of the noise in the raging debate over health care reform. Tyson Wheatley is watching it all from CNN.com's iReport desk. And you know what? Yes, there is some noise, but, it is such a good and important debate for this country to be having right now -- Tyson.

TYSON WHEATLEY, CNN.COM PRODUCER: Absolutely, Tony. Let's go ahead and take a look at what iReporters are saying about these town hall meetings on health care reform. That's what's actually driving a lot of this discussion right now on ireport.com. And we're going to start with a couple of New Yorkers who are responding to accusations from the left that basically the disruptions that we're seeing in a lot of those town hall meetings are being organized by the right. Let's go ahead and take a listen.

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WILLIAM O'REILLY, CNN IREPORTER: Come on, we all know the system we have is unworkable and needs changing. And if it weren't for a Democratic White House, this issue would not even be in the public forum.

JEAN LINDSAY, CNN IREPORTER: There is such a thing as loyal opposition, and the majority of the loyal opposition do not go and disrupt meetings. You cannot characterize an entire party, the Republican Party, as organizing groups that go in and disrupt meetings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHEATLEY: Tony, there's one more iReport I want to single out for us today. This is from Adriana Maxwell. She's from Marietta, Georgia. And not only has she attended one -- a local town hall meeting, she's actually started reading the thousand-plus page bill, and she has made it up to Page 183, and she's been talking about what she's been reading, so let's hear...

HARRIS: Talk about summer reading.

WHEATLEY: Absolutely.

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ADRIANA MAXWELL, CNN IREPORTER: To me, the system that makes sense. We'll see what actually comes out of the bill, because right now it's still sitting in committee, and there's four bills out there. And the Republicans have their version, and the Senate has their version. And I think if people just dial it back a little and read it and then figure out how to improve it, we actually could end up with a fairly workable system. At least, that's my hope.

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HARRIS: Wow.

WHEATLEY: Yes. You know, now...

HARRIS: Yes.

WHEATLEY: ... we didn't have time to show her entire video because she's actually going, not page by page, but really highlighting some key points. So, I encourage you to go to ireport.com and see the rest of Adriana's iReport.

But also, we want you to take part in this important discussion. If -- you know, weigh in on health care reform. If you've been reading the bill, well, let us know your thoughts. And certainly if you're attending one of these town hall meetings, take photos, take video, let us know about it. Just go to ireport.com.

HARRIS: And it's worth repeating. You know, Adriana's doing a great thing by trying to read this. And it's long, it's cumbersome, and she's doing a great thing working her way through it.

But she makes a very good point there. It's not just one bill at this point. There are versions of -- there are three different House committees that have been working on it and have some kind of a bill. I mean, there is what's come out of the Health Committee on the Senate side, and then the Finance Committee is working -- so, we don't have a bill, one single bill yet that we can call the health care reform bill. So, she's doing a great thing, and it's important to keep that in mind.

And one other point here, Tyson.

WHEATLEY: Yes?

HARRIS: I think we want to -- you have contact information on her? We'd like to have her on the program after she makes her way through the legislation there that's been crafted and proposed right now. You have contact information?

WHEATLEY: Yes, absolutely.

HARRIS: Pass that on.

WHEATLEY: Actually, you know, that's a real significant point, actually, to make.

HARRIS: Yes.

WHEATLEY: You know, when you submit an iReport, you're reaching out directly to CNN producers. And we watch these videos. We take it very seriously, and we want to hear from you. We'll reach out to you, and we can set something like that up. Absolutely.

HARRIS: Well, you can help us work on that?

WHEATLEY: Absolutely.

HARRIS: You the man. Tyson, appreciate it. Thank you. Homes swept away. And the horrible side of this story, people buried alive. Look at these pictures. Pretty dramatic stuff here. Taiwan's raging floods, massive mudslides and desperate rescues in the wake of a typhoon.

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HARRIS: A desperate situation in Taiwan. Look at the images here, where a catastrophic typhoon has killed at least 67 people. Dozens of others from villages now buried in mud, still missing.

CNN's Tim Lister has the latest.

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TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mud slithers down a mountainside like a tide of gray lava, sweeping up trees and rocks and carrying them into the valleys below. This was northern Taiwan in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, which has caused the worst flooding on the island in a half century.

In the south, a wall of mud inundated and completely cut off the village of Xiaolin, burying houses. Officials believe up to 100 people may have been buried alive. Local residents fear the figure may be even higher.

Hundreds were evacuated by helicopter from Xiaolin, traumatized after being trapped for four days. This woman says she has seven family members still trapped in the village.

"Please don't waste time," she pleads with rescuers. "They need help."

Another woman evacuated begs for a young boy on a stretcher separated from his parents to be rushed to hospital.

After three meters of rainfall in just a few days, normally placid rivers have cut a sway through valleys. This primary school in a town in central Taiwan leans precariously towards the foaming waters below. Nearby a road has been cut as if by a giant knife.

In Sishan (ph) Township in southern Taiwan, as in scores of other towns, the cleanup has begun. Soldiers drafted in to help people shift tons of mud. But in some places, the government's response is coming in for harsh criticism. The prime minister, Liu Chao-shiuan, was confronted by angry villagers when he visited central Taiwan.

"The typhoon came on Friday," one woman berates him, "and you didn't shut the bridge on Saturday. Now we have people who are dead. What are you going to do about it?"

Government agencies say nearly 1,000 people have been airlifted to safety, and tons of supplies brought into worst-affected areas. But some villages may be beyond recovery after the wrath of Morakot.

Tim Lister, CNN, Atlanta. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And Rob Marciano, you see those images, and you're reminded that of course, this is the Atlantic hurricane season for us. And you want to swing us through the tropics for what's going on there?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, we've been talking about this thing percolating just west of the Cape Verde Islands, which is right here. So, about 5 or almost 600 miles west of there. Still over 1,000 miles from the Windward Islands, but the National Hurricane Center, it's got a bead on it.

Winds at 35 miles an hour, so still a tropical depression, not a storm yet. If it becomes a storm, its name will be Ana, and a late storm at that to start things off. But the forecast is to bring it west and west-northwest towards the Leeward Islands. Note, it doesn't bring it to hurricane strength, but of course that certainly could change.

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HARRIS: We put the health care problems in focus next hour. Meet a man whose health insurance payments almost quadrupled, forcing him to drop coverage. He worked in insurance for decades, and now he's angry about the entire industry.

Plus, you hear a claim about health care, and you want to get the truth. Which online sites do you go to first? Our Josh Levs will show you how to have the facts at your fingertips.

And we're checking out the Chevy Volt hybrid. Will it really get 230 miles per gallon like GM says it will?

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HARRIS: You want to cut to the chase on health care? You want to know what's wrong with health care? Well, a recent study points to three factors: Americans are too fat, doctors are too sloppy, insurance companies are too fond of paperwork.

Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This study by PricewaterhouseCoopers identifies what it calls three key areas of massive waste. And the first is us. Medical problems related to obesity, such as heart disease and high blood pressure cost our medical care system $200 billion a year. Problems related to smoking, over here, cost us $191 billion a year. If we just took better care of ourselves, this study suggests we could save as much as a half trillion dollars that our government and we are your currently spending on our problems.

The second big area of waste is clinical problems. Doctors and nurses sometimes prescribe the wrong medicine. They overmedicate. They make other mistakes, too. Patients use emergency rooms for some problems like sore throats that ought to be handled by their regular doctors. The cost of all of that, more than $90 billion.

In addition, the study found that sometimes doctors overcharge because they can make more money from it, but also that they're sometimes so afraid of malpractice lawsuits that they order many tests and procedures just to protect against possible accusations that they overlooked something. The cost of that, $210 billion a year.

That's why senators in support of reform like Maryland's Ben Cardin are being confronted in town meetings by people demanding that legal reform be part of any health reform package.

QUESTION: Why isn't tort reform a part of any of these bills?

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FOREMAN: Of course, this study also found sometimes doctors just overcharge because they can make more money that way.

And finally, this study found waste in operational cost. Just filing the papers to collect from insurance companies cost up to $210 billion a year. One case the researchers cite is Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Seven hundred different health plans. Employers and other groups are involved in paying the bills there, each with its own rules and paperwork.

All of these combined areas could add up to $1.2 trillion in waste, or as the study notes, more than half of our health spending.

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