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End of the Megabanks?; Scott Brown Makes the Rounds; Haitian Orphans Seek Emergency Visas

Aired January 21, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for your top-of-the-hour reset.

I'm Tony Harris in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It's 12:00 on Capitol Hill, where Scott Brown, the Senate's new Republican, makes courtesy calls on soon-to-be colleagues.

Across the street, at the Supreme Court, a landmark ruling today. Justices strike down parts of the McCain/Feingold finance law.

And in Haiti, the homeless risk a dangerous journey at sea to escape a city crippled by an earthquake.

Let's do this -- let's get started.

Cashing in on Americans' anger at big banks, big salaries and big profits, President Obama has just announced plans to put new federal restrictions on banks. The proposal would roll back some deregulation of the late 1990s with new limits on size and risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail. Now, limits on the risks major financial firms can take are central to the reforms that I've proposed. They are central to the legislation that has passed the House under the leadership of Chairman Barney Frank, and that we're working to pass in the Senate under of the leadership of Chairman Chris Dodd. As part of these efforts, today I'm proposing two additional reforms that I believe will strengthen the financial system, while preventing future crises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: White House Correspondent Ed Henry is here.

Ed, good to see you.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

HARRIS: Give us some specifics, if you would, sir, on the president's proposal.

HENRY: Specifically talking about regulations as a first step to try to prevent these banks from getting too big, from getting their risks to sort of blow out of control. But it's part of a broader effort to have a much bigger legislative proposal on Capitol Hill to really lay down some new rules of the road, including what the White House wants to have, sort of a strong consumer protection agency of some kind, sort of a super cop that can be looking out for consumers, make sure they're prevented from being abused by Wall Street. But I think if you take a step back from the legalese, the legislative proposals, the most important thing is what the president said a moment after that clip you just played, where he just said, look, some on Wall Street don't want change, but if these guys want to fight, that's a fight I'm ready for.

This is a president who's trying to get fired up, especially coming out of that election debacle in Massachusetts. He hasn't really punched through on these kind of Wall Street issues. There are some in his party who think he should have been focusing on this six, eight months ago when people were angry about the bonuses on Wall Street, et cetera. Instead, he plunged into the health care debate, spent a lot of time and political capital on that.

You now see health care, he's still fighting for that. But it's a little bit -- probably going to be a scaled-back version while he's going full speed ahead on really beating up on Wall Street, number one, and then going to Main Street. Tomorrow he's going to Ohio to talk about jobs. He's going full square on the economy and Wall Street now.

HARRIS: Look, $13 billion for Goldman Sachs last year. My goodness.

All right, Ed. A couple of pivot points here.

The senator-elect from Massachusetts making the rounds on Capitol Hill right now.

HENRY: That's right. You want me to talk about Scott Brown or...

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.

HENRY: I thought you were going to say more.

HARRIS: Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry.

HENRY: Well, he's up there. He's obviously meeting and greeting a lot of fellow Republicans. As well, he's going to meet, we're told by our Dana Bash, with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid.

Look, the Democrats don't know what to make of this upstart. They never thought they would lose that Senate battle. This has sort of changed the president's agenda in many ways, because all of a sudden, he doesn't have a filibuster-proof majority.

The one we're focused on, of course, is health care. And that's where you see the president already saying in this interview with ABC News yesterday, look, we're probably going to have to scale it back. We're going to have to have a smaller bill that focuses on what everyone can agree on.

And it's interesting that just last night, Paul Krugman, a very influential liberal economist and columnist for "The New York Times," had a blog post basically saying he's ready to give up on this president because he doesn't think he's really fighting for some of the things that liberals voted for. So, I think even as he tries to move to the middle ever so slightly, he's going to be getting pressure from the left, so it's very interesting -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right.

Our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, for us.

Ed, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

HENRY: Thank you.

HARRIS: The Republican Senate win in Massachusetts is shining a spotlight on the challenges for President Obama and his push for health care reform. Next Wednesday night, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, CNN will have unmatched coverage and analysis of President Obama's State of the Union Address.

And nine days now after Haiti's earthquake, aid may finally start flowing a bit more freely. Here's what we know.

A pier in Port-au-Prince reopened today. Tons of relief supplies are being unloaded from ships and will be rushed into the city. Logjams at the airport are being alleviated, with aid officials now stationed in the control tower, and Canadian troops opening another airfield south of the capital.

The never-ending task of burying the dead continues. According to the European Commission, Haitian authorities say 80,000 people have been buried in mass graves. An estimated 200,000 are dead.

Doctors in Haiti warn even more will die if medicine and equipment don't reach them soon. We are talking about the most basic supplies here. We're talking about bandages, rubbing alcohol to sterilize equipment, surgical saws. Rescuers involved in this incredible relief effort say they are doing all they can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JAMES MCPHERSON, U.S. COAST GUARD: Well, it's an extraordinary situation, so it's taken extraordinary measures. Anything that we can do to get information, to get rescuers, first responders on scene, we used e-mail, we've used text messaging, we've called CNN in Atlanta. We've done everything we had to do to get to locations of people in distress.

And the Coast Guard's been doing that for -- rescuing people for 200 years, but now we have to use new ways to do it. But it's certainly a challenge here. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You may be able to deduct the money you give to Haiti relief from your 2009 taxes. Under current law, you'd have to wait until you filed your 2010 taxes, but the House has approved a measure that would allow you to write it off now. The Senate is expected to follow suit. A similar law was enacted after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Big changes ahead in federal elections. The U.S. Supreme Court is out with a landmark decision on campaign financing. It gives big business, labor unions and nonprofit groups the power to spend more freely in elections for president and Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It basically says money is speech and corporations are people. Both of which are debatable propositions...

HARRIS: Right.

TOOBIN: ... but both of which seem to be, you know, popular at the Supreme Court at the moment. Let me just say what the decision is, what the report said.

HARRIS: Great.

TOOBIN: It says that a corporation may make independent expenditures in support or in opposition to a candidate. So, what that means is that Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, can put ads on television saying re-elect Scott Brown in Massachusetts when he runs in 10 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The ruling could have an immediate impact on this year's congressional midterm elections.

Boy, I've got to tell you, he shook up political world. Today, Republican Senator-Elect Scott Brown is shaking hands on Capitol Hill, fresh from his upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate race. Brown is making the rounds after making his way through the media crowd.

Congressional Correspondent Brianna Keilar is covering Brown's meet-and-greets, and she joins us live.

But, Brianna, before we talk about Scott Brown specifically, I understand you're hearing new information from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about how to handle health care legislation moving forward.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, because with Senator-Elect Scott Brown now giving Republicans that ability to get in the way of Democrats -- he gives them that critical 41st vote there, Tony -- Democrats have been scrambling to figure out exactly what their next step is going to be. Some of the ones that we talked about that have been ruled out, rushing something through before Brown will be seated, we know that's not going to happen. And then the other options that seem to be available were for the House to go ahead and just pass the bill that's already passed the Senate so that it doesn't have to go back through the Senate.

Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at her weekly press conference, said they are not going to take that route. She said they simply do not have the votes to do it.

But she talked about another avenue, Tony, which would be to pass the Senate bill. But ahead of passing the Senate bill, to pass other legislation that would essentially correct, as they see it, some of the things in the Senate bill, make some changes to the Senate bill, and using really sort of a procedural -- I guess sort of a procedural avenue. Send it back to the Senate in a way that it would only require 51 votes, a simple majority, instead of that 60 votes that they're obviously going to get, Tony.

But, still, Democrats are really unclear on exactly what they are going to do...

HARRIS: Right.

KEILAR: ... because this just House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicating they may be leaning in that direction. It's not even clear-cut at this point -- Tony.

HARRIS: Far from clear cut.

And Brianna, you had an opportunity to talk to Senator-Elect Brown. I think I saw your camera, your microphone just moments ago. What did he say to you?

KEILAR: Yes. We actually asked him as he was coming in the building -- because he has been running around, really, having meetings -- and trust me, the media has been following him. It's been quite an amazing circus.

But there's so much intense interest in exactly what he wants out of health care reform, because one of the other options, as you know, Tony, for moving forward on health care reform would be to really -- for Democrats to scale back their efforts, which would mean that health care reform in the way we've been dissecting it for months, the Democrats' plan, would really go by the wayside. They would have to find some common ground.

So, what might that common ground be? How does Senator-Elect Brown see this? We asked him that question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: If Democrats pare down some of their -- if Democrats pare down some of their ideas for health care, are there any elements that you would go along with?

SENATOR-ELECT SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I would like to look at the bill, but I'm certainly not in favor of higher taxes, cutting Medicare, and half a trillion affecting medical coverage for veterans, and basically having a one size fits all. So I know what I don't want. And now I'm looking forward to reading the bills, as I have the others, and coming up with a plan, because, you know, if it's something the president feels is important, I'm certainly willing to look at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, a pretty savvy politician there, Tony. He said a whole lot without revealing much, I have to say.

And at this point, Senator-Elect Brown, is, I believe, in the Capitol behind me. He's going to be meeting with a lot of other Republican senators over lunch. He's meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He's going to be meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the Democrats.

So, he still has some things, some bases he has to touch before heading back to Boston today.

HARRIS: All right.

Brianna Keilar for us.

Brianna, appreciate it. Thank you.

Quickly now, let's get to Soledad O'Brien. She is following a group of 121 orphans, mostly babies.

Soledad, if you would, tell us about this special mission.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm going to talk, but I can't hear you super well because we have kind of a bad connection. But I'll tell you what we've been doing this morning.

Slightly after 10:30, we hopped on a bus with the babies and the young children from Maison des Enfants de Dieu, which is this orphanage that we've been following for the last couple of days. You might remember our shots of those babies that were in the back of the truck, and people were saying these babies, they had diarrhea, they didn't have formula. So people were trying to figure out, how do you get those babies out, people in the middle of the United States who are in the middle of adopting those babies?

When we went to see them this morning, bused in a van in front, all the children were being loaded on with diapers and water. And they were taken to the embassy.

They had tried once before to get to the embassy, and the paperwork wasn't being processed, so they were sent away. So they were coming this time with the kids to get all the paperwork, see if they can get them out of the country.

They have a plane that had been given to them by a hospital. So we were riding in a bus with more than 80 kids, all squeezed in together, and a handful of grownups, some from the orphanage who were watching the kids, and others who were sort of handling the logistics of this bus.

And the van that's full of babies. I mean, it's the craziest sight to see.

So, we drove and drove. And, of course, it's a bus, and we had to turn around a couple of times because the roads aren't always passable if another car has broken down. And the bus getting really hot, like 90-degrees-plus, and the babies started getting very overheated. The babies started throwing up.

I mean, these are kid whose medical conditions already compromised, but really just -- people on the bus, the people who had come in to help save the babies, started getting very concerned that maybe they were putting them more at risk by putting them on a hot bus and trying to drive through the streets of Port-au-Prince to get them to the embassy. And it was hot -- hot, hot, hot -- and the traffic was really bad. So it was very hard to even move through the streets.

And then, of course, all these kids are literally just throwing up all over us, as we're trying to clean them up. But we don't really have stuff to do it.

So, the decision was made, a pretty painful decision, to turn around, because the people who were taking the children and the infants out felt like they were in a situation where one of these babies could die. There were a couple of very, very, very sick babies. I mean, everybody's not well, but these ones were really sick, and it was starting to get scary.

So they had turned around. They decided to go back to the orphanage. Very tense now because the medical professionals on board are furious that, had the folks trying to rescue the babies made things worse by these children throwing up, they're spreading more disease?

Just a really chaotic and a pretty bizarre experience.

HARRIS: Boy.

Soledad O'Brien with us.

Boy, that sounds awful.

And if you were with us last hour, you heard us talking with Cassandra Nelson from Mercy Corps, and she described her trucks, her teams, trying to get out and get from location to location. And oftentimes, getting stuck in logjams for an hour or more. So, we can absolutely identify with what that experience was like for those babies who are desperately in need right now.

Soledad, appreciate it. Thank you.

Got to tell you, we have special coverage planned for tomorrow night. Anderson Cooper is reporting from Haiti, as Wyclef Jean joins George Clooney in hosting "Hope for Haiti." It's the global telethon to air commercial-free at 8:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night.

We have all seen the destruction and misery, as the earthquake has caused there in Haiti. Are you ready if a quake hits where you live?

Gerri Willis will have some tips.

But first, our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.

Good to see you, Gerri.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories right now.

A new Republican Party hero visits Washington. Scott Brown, the new senator-elect from Massachusetts, is on Capitol Hill today for a round of courtesy calls. Brown pulled a political shocker Tuesday, knocking out the Democratic candidate in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat. No word yet on when he will be sworn in.

President Obama getting tougher with the nation's biggest banks. He is calling for tighter regulations that would limit the size of banks and their right to engage in high-risk investments. His plan is aimed at preventing another financial meltdown.

Big business getting a bigger say-so in federal elections. The Supreme Court issued a landmark issue on campaign financing this morning. It gives corporations, labor unions and nonprofit groups more power to spend freely in elections for president and Congress.

Another check of top stories in 20 minutes for you.

The devastation in Haiti is a reminder about how vulnerable our own homes may be in the event of an earthquake. While we have the good fortune to have the option and the money, in many cases, for insurance, there are some things Americans need to know.

Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis is here with more.

Boy, get us started on this, Gerri.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, Tony, your standard homeowner's policy doesn't even cover earthquakes. You'll have to buy a supplemental policy to your homeowner's insurance.

And if you think earthquakes only happen in California, think again. Earthquakes pose a significant risk to 75 million Americans in 39 states.

Now let's take a look where earthquakes are most likely to occur. As you can see, the areas in red are the most active. California remains the U.S. state most at risk of a major earthquake. The yellow areas indicate where moderate risk of an earthquake may occur.

Now, to gauge your area's risk of an earthquake you can go to the Web site of the U.S. Geologic Survey at USGS.gov. You can also check in with your local building official, city engineer or zoning administrator.

Since premiums vary on where you live, talk to your insurer. Since earthquake insurance is a type of catastrophic coverage, most policies carry a high deductible, usually anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent of your coverage limit -- Tony.

HARRIS: Gerri, how can you keep your home safe, sort of, in the final analysis here?

WILLIS: Well, look, if you're in the unfortunate situation of being in one of these, the kitchen can be one of the most dangerous areas of your home because of shattered glass or even spilled chemicals. Keep your cleaning products and your chemicals stored at floor level. Locate your gas, electric and water shutoff. You may want to paint these white or fluorescent so the area is visible when smoky.

You want to move your bed away from the window. Make sure there are no pictures or mirrors mounted on the wall above the bed. Keep a pair of shoes and a flashlight underneath the bed.

And if a quake happens at night, you probably won't have any electricity. And you should protect your feet from broken glass or fallen debris.

And, of course, if you have any questions, send them to me at Gerri@CNN.com. We love hearing from you.

HARRIS: Terrific tips as always, Gerri. Appreciate it. Thank you.

The Supreme Court has spoken on how much companies can spend on campaign ads. We are going to look at the political fallout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: All right. The Supreme Court's decision on campaign finance comes just as the 2010 midterm races gear up. The fallout is sure to be immediate.

Let's talk to Mark Preston, CNN political editor.

Mark, good to see you.

And Patricia Murphy, a columnist at PoliticsDaily.com.

Patricia, good to see you.

Both joining us from Washington.

So, Patricia, let me start with you. Everyone saying this is a landmark decision that dramatically reshapes the way federal elections are financed. Do you buy that? And tell me how.

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST, POLITICSDAILY.COM: Yes. Well, I absolutely buy that. This is a case the Supreme Court actually decided to hear twice because they wanted to go back even further in campaign finance law and look back at the history of all these laws that have led up to this.

What this means and the reason it's going to have such a huge consequence, is that corporations right now which have some restrictions on what they can spend, how they can spend and the type of commercials they can run during campaigns, this has lifted all of those restrictions. So corporation X will just grab one out of a hat, AIG, Goldman Sachs, anybody...

HARRIS: OK.

MURPHY: ... they can spend as much money as they want to before -- up to a race, and they can run specific ads against specific candidates.

Now, that obviously has candidates in 2010 very, very worried. I'm sure we'll get into this in a little bit. Democrats, for the most part, are very, very worried about this. Republicans feel like it's going to be something that comes out in their favor. It will have huge, huge ramifications on 2010.

HARRIS: Mark, where do we go from here? What's your take on this decision?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: You know, Tony, this really is arguably, I think, the most important political decision we've seen in the past six, seven years, ever since McCain-Feingold was passed back in 2002. This is what it's going to come down to.

We are going to see more and more negative ads...

HARRIS: Oh, my.

PRESTON: ... being run in the coming months. Let's look at what happened in Massachusetts, Tony.

$9.5 million spent in the last 25 days, half of that by the candidates, half of that by outside groups. So, think about if you're a corporation and you have an issue, or you're trying to defeat a candidate, you are going to try to pour as much money in to try to take that person out.

On health care, Scott Brown ran on the issue of being the 41st senator, right? He was the one who was going to stop health care. Can you imagine if there are some candidates out there, Democrats or Republicans, that a corporation wants to take out? They can just open the floodgates and try to take that person down. HARRIS: So -- but everyone gets to play, correct? This is not just -- we think about big corporations, but we're talking about unions and on and on and on and on.

Correct, Patricia?

MURPHY: Yes, that's exactly right. Unions are going to have these same restrictions lifted from them that corporations will. But if you look at the amount of money that unions can probably give, it's really dwarfed in comparison.

There just aren't as many unions as there are corporations. And certainly, corporations can now go into their actual profits. They can go into any money from anywhere that they want to instead of just from the small amounts that's set aside for political giving.

So, this opens up how much corporations can give. And just because there's so many more corporations than there are unions, it will just serve -- it will be a huge imbalance there.

HARRIS: So, Patricia, which party -- let me start with you -- in your view, stands to benefit the most from this decision? And tell me why.

MURPHY: Well, I think probably Republicans are going to benefit the most, mostly because they just philosophically are more free market than Democrats are. Democrats are also right now trying to get hold of a populist way. They are introducing financial reform, health care reform, restrictions on what banks can do, punishments for how much executives can get in pay.

Those corporations now can run ads against specific candidates. So the ones who are putting forward these populist measures tend to be Democrats. Republicans tend to have been better funded by corporations in the past as well, so Republicans stand to gain in this.

HARRIS: So, Mark, what's your view on which party stands to benefit from this decision?

PRESTON: Well, if you -- just to look at the statements that have been released just in the past hour, Republicans, they are very happy with this ruling. The fact is, when McCain/Feingold was passed in 2002, which put greater restrictions on how money was spent in campaigning, Republicans were very upset. Democrats already have a structure in place. Unions already spend money. They have Hollywood. They have these built-in structures. Corporations, by and large, have been restricted in how they spend money. Republicans are the big winners in this, Tony.

HARRIS: Wow. So at this point, Patricia, you can't contribute as a corporation to an individual candidate, but do you see a case coming one day to challenge that part of the campaign finance law?

MURPHY: Oh, sure. There will be -- this is just the beginning, I'm sure, of more -- more challenges to these laws. I want to say one quick thing. I was just at a press conference with Democrats and they said that they are going to do everything in their power to stop this. That means they're going to have hearings. They will try to introduce laws to reintroduce...

HARRIS: What do you mean to stop this?

MURPHY: Well, not to stop the decision, but to put new laws in place. So put in new campaign finance restrictions. The man to watch is going to be John McCain, because he was more with the Democrats on this issue than before. If they need 60 votes to get it. They could have John McCain there. So he's really the person to watch here.

HARRIS: So, Mark Preston, the spigot on campaign finance dollars, wide open at this point?

PRESTON: Wide open at this point. You know, in addition, we're focusing a lot on corporations and unions, but you know what, Tony, wealthy individuals who want to play, people who have so much money and they want to influence an election for whatever reason, expect to see individuals come out and start spending money.

HARRIS: Wild and woolly. Patricia Murphy, Mark Preston, appreciate it, both of you. Thank you.

PRESTON: Thanks.

MURPHY: Thanks.

HARRIS: Who are these populist voters who are driving so much of the debate in politics today? We are going to examine the impact they're having in just a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: How tough are the economic times and who's to blame? A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll sheds some light. Twenty percent of those surveyed say economic conditions are good compared with 80 percent who say conditions are poor. As for who's responsible, 39 percent blame Republicans. That is down from 50 percent a year ago. Thirty-two percent think Democrats are to blame. Twenty-seven percent say both parties are equally responsible.

Call it a wake-up call, if you will, for Washington. Independent voters saying, listen to us or we will elect someone who will. It happened Tuesday in Massachusetts. CNN's Tom Foreman on the power of nonpartisanship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Of you are searching for the secret to Republican Scott Brown's long-shot win in Massachusetts, look no farther than Illinois, where not so long ago a long-shot Democrat, Barack Obama, also celebrated victory. In each case, the decisive factor was voters, many of them independents, angry about the economy and politics as usual. More than half of Massachusetts voters are independent. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want a change in Washington.

FOREMAN: Independent voters have been trending up for more than 30 years. In Richard Nixon's day, they were just 19 percent of the electorate nationwide, compared with 46 percent Democrat and 35 percent Republican.

(on camera): But now it appears they have reached a tipping point. Independents are now casting a third of all votes, some say even more, and this militant middle seems ready and willing to rip into either party if they feel ignored or taken for granted.

(voice-over): A case in point, while some Democrats tried to rally around the Massachusetts race as a contest for the late Ted Kennedy's seat, analysts believe Candidate Brown scored big when he said this...

BROWN: With all due respect, it's not the Kennedy seat and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat.

FOREMAN: In his upcoming book," John Avlon argues that independents, by their nature, are not all the same, but many want limited spending, generous social policies and most of all, government that listens to them. Simple, yet bedeviling ideas for both parties which constantly play to their conservative and liberal bases.

JOHN AVLON, AUTHOR, "WINGNUTS": What's different now is that independents are stepping up and saying, stop. Stop with the extremism. Stop with the hyper-partisanship. Stop the thediology (ph). Let's focus on solutions and not this build my party up, tear your party down approach to politics.

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that is a wake-up call for everybody in this town.

FOREMAN: In Massachusetts, they've already heard the alarm loud and clear. Senator-elect Brown says he'll work with Democrats and Republicans. But who did he thank?

BROWN: Tonight, the independent majority has delivered a great victory.

FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: The stunning GOP win in Massachusetts and it's not just the independent voters feeling stung. David Sirota, a political columnist and author of "The Uprising and Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington," joining me live from Denver.

David, good to see you. Thanks for the time. Let's start at the top here. I want to play for you President Obama's take on what's happening -- what happened in Massachusetts and what's happening nationally, and then I want your thoughts on it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Certainly, I think, a lot of us were surprised about where this was going about a week ago. Here's my assessment of -- of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country. You know, the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry and they're frustrated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, David, does the president have it right there?

DAVID SIROTA, POLITICAL COLUMNIST: He's got it exactly right. Where he's got it wrong is that -- that it's his constituency, it's his administration, it's his policies that are making people angry. And I say that as somebody who supported President Obama's election. I mean, what I think is going on here is that in 2008 you had a country that was very angry at a government that seemed to be listening to big money, corporate interests, powerful interests in Washington, and you had a candidate, President Obama -- or Candidate Obama -- who ran against that.

Unfortunately, what you've gotten in the first year of the President Obama, are policies that have basically tried to coddle those corporate interests. Basically tried to apiece those corporate interests. So you get Wall Street bailouts. You get a health care bill that would give away a trillion dollars to the private drug insurance companies.

HARRIS: David, what is it -- what is it that the -- David, I've got to stop you. What is it that these groups, Democrats and independents, would have had the president do in the face of what was being described as a potential collapse of the economic system in this country?

SIROTA: I'll tell you what they would have had him do. They would have had him put in place serious strings on the bailouts. They would have had him at least, at the very minimum, asked for transparency. I mean, Tony, look at what we've gotten in the last couple months, right? We've gotten these bailouts that are subsidizing massive executive bonuses. The administration could have stopped those bonuses.

HARRIS: No question.

SIROTA: We've got a situation where the administration is still hiding e-mails from AIG to tell us just what happened. So those are just two examples of just the most minimal things that this administration could have done.

HARRIS: So if you then come back and say, you know what, we're going to levy this fee. We're going to make sure you, the taxpayer, get all of your money back. It just seems to me you don't get much credit for averting the disaster. SIROTA: Well, I mean, the part of the problem is that the disaster was created by both -- in part by both Democrats and Republicans who deregulated the economy.

HARRIS: Yes.

SIROTA: So there's that problem.

Look, I think the public wants a government right now, and political representatives, who feel as angry as they are at the institutions and corporations that created the problems we face. That's both Wall Street and that's the health insurance bill. I mean, let's talk about the health insurance bill here, right? The bill, the Senate version of the bill, is a huge giveaway to the drug and insurance companies that are part of -- a big part of what got us to a health care crisis.

HARRIS: Hmm. You're talking about Democrats. Let's stay on health care for a moment. The Democrats are embarrassed by their leadership on health care. Explain the embarrassment.

SIROTA: Well, the -- I think the embarrass -- I think Democratic voters are saying, look, you made all sort of sweeping promises about what you would try to do -- you, the Obama administration. You would try to pass a public option. And I think what people are feeling humiliated by, Democratic voters, is that they're now begging their elected officials, Democratic elected officials, to just give it the good old college try.

I mean let's not forget, Tony, the public option, just as one example, the Senate did not even have a floor vote on this. President Obama went back and forth on whether to create a public option. That's the most minimal shred of health care reform that he kind of promised. And the fact is, he didn't even they have not even made a good try. It would be one thing if he tried and failed, but I think people are saying, you're not even trying!

HARRIS: All right. David Sirota, that's good stuff. Let's have you back and let's talk about this some more. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

SIROTA: Thank you.

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

Senator-elect Scott Brown is making the rounds in Washington today. First stop, Capitol Hill to meet with his soon-to-be- colleagues. He was elected Tuesday. The first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts since 1972.

A big change in the way federal elections are financed. This morning, the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on campaign spending. Now corporations can spend freely in elections for president and Congress. It also allows labor unions to get more involved in campaigns. One-time socialite Betty Broderick has her first date with a California parole board today. She was convicted in 1991 of sneaking into her ex-husband's home, killing him and his new wife. Broderick says she was a battered wife suffering years of emotional abuse, which led her to kill.

We have heard the phrase "too big to fail." What is the Obama administration doing to address that issue? Our CNN Money team has some answers.

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HARRIS: Too big to fail. We've heard that phrase a lot during the financial crisis to justify the government bailout of Wall Street. Now the Obama administration is moving to prevent history from repeating itself. Stephanie Elam is in the cnnmoney.com newsroom in New York.

Stephanie, good to see you. What is the president proposing here?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony, well, President Obama wants to change the nature of banking with two key reforms. First, the president wants to limit how much risk banks can take on. He says bank deposits are backed by taxpayer money, so banks shouldn't be using that cash to run hedge funds, private equity funds or other trading operations. Critics say it's that kind of trading that helped trigger the credit crisis when many banks lost billions on the risky mortgage-backed securities they bet on.

Secondly, the president wants to limit the size of banks by preventing further consolidation in the industry. He says Americans are not served by a system made up of just a few massive firms, Tony.

HARRIS: How is this going to play on Wall Street?

ELAM: Yes, well, you know what, if you take a look at the little bug down there in the corner, you can see how it's working out today so far.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

ELAM: We're definitely going to see a bit of a push back. And you can see that today, the biggest drop has been in the biggest bank, and that's leading to the down movement on Wall Street.

The investment banking units at commercial banks have grown dramatically in recent years and have been a lot more profitable than traditional banks. So a move like this could hit their bottom line.

But at the same time, there's a lot of public anger about the bailout and those big bonuses and the president made it clear where he stands on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My message to leaders of the financial industry is to work with us and not against us on need reforms. I welcome constructive input from folks in the financial sector. But what we've seen so far in recent weeks is an army of industry lobbyists from Wall Street descending on Capitol Hill to try and block basic and commonsense rules of the road that would protect our economy and the American people. So, if these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Now, in recent days, the president has been going after Wall Street pretty aggressively and that's why he's mentioning all those lobbyists. Just last week, you may remember, Tony, he proposed a tax on some of the 50 largest banks to make sure taxpayers don't lose a penny on TARP. A tax Wall Street lobbyists have called punitive and counterproductive.

Of course, Tony, as you know, we'll be keeping an eye on that to make sure we keep you updated.

HARRIS: Stephanie, look at that sell-off.

ELAM: I know.

HARRIS: Two hundred and nine points.

ELAM: We're going to have some rough days ahead. Everything's not going to be rosy. We're better than we were, but it's going to take some time before things get worked through. And when you see moves like this, people are still a little jittery, and that factors into the numbers that we see on Wall Street.

HARRIS: Oh my goodness.

All right, Stephanie, appreciate it. Thank you for "The Breakdown."

Thousands of Haitians are gathering at the port, hoping to escape to a better place. We are following their story.

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HARRIS: The port for Haiti's capital city was heavy damaged, as you know, by last week's earthquake. But that hasn't stopped many from trying to get away from Port-au-Prince by sea. But there are dangers there as well. Ivan Watson filed this report for us late yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Chaotic crowds in the ports of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of Haiti's new hoards of homeless have been gathering here, within sight of American ships anchored far offshore. Nearly all these people have seen their houses destroyed. Some lost loved ones. They have all been sleeping for days on this filthy, quake-damaged wharf, waiting for a ship to take them out of the city.

This is where we meet Annette Clement (ph) and her daughter, Anikia.

WATSON (on camera): And they've spent several days sleeping out here. They say they moved up to this hill after this morning's aftershocks because it was so terrifying. And they're just sitting here waiting desperate for a ship to take them to another part of Haiti. And she says she doesn't know how many days they're going to stay here.

WATSON (voice-over): When a rusting blue ferry finally does pull into sight, families (ph) jump on wooden rowboats. An armada of dangerously overloaded dinghies sets out for the ferry, launching a chaotic scramble aboard the ship. Parents passing babies up a floating assembly line.

The Haitian government gave away fuel to provide free transport to the port of Jeramide (ph), but officials left out one crucial detail.

WATSON (on camera): Has anybody offered you any help with crowd control of these thousands of desperate people?

ROGER ROUZIER, SHIPOWNER: No. We have no, no crowd control whatsoever. We are trying ourselves to control the crowd, but it's impossible.

WATSON (voice-over): The ferry is licensed to carry 600 passengers. But on board, there must be thousands. With few lifeboats, this could be another disaster waiting to happen. But it's here that we spot a familiar face.

WATSON (on camera): A nice little surprise here. We came across little Anikia and her mother who made it on board.

WATSON (voice-over): Against all odds, they got on board and planned to travel to an aunt's house in a safer part of the country. Amid this anarchy, a moment of joy and relief. A little girl and her mother are about to escape their shattered city.

Ivan Watson, CNN, in the harbor of Port-au-Prince.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: All right. Very quickly here. We want to get to Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange.

And, Susan, when I started the program a couple hours ago, we were in negative territory, triple-digit losses, 167 points. And we've gone from bad to worse here. What's going on?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's yet another example this week, Tony, of the merger between Washington and Wall Street. We told you the other day how health care stocks rallied on the sense that there was an upset win in Massachusetts. And today we are seeing stocks on track for the worst two-day sell-off since last summer, Tony.

Banking stocks, in particular, getting hammered on a day when Goldman Sachs recorded a record profit. $13 billion for 2009. Why is that? Because one of the things the president proposed, it's not happened yet, but he said, any big bank should not have a proprietary trading desk that doesn't cater to its clients.

And quite simply, one of the reasons why Goldman Sachs was able to really come out of the financial crisis relatively unscathed is they do lots of trading. Countless types of executions. There were plenty of trades that were done in the last couple years that were related to the housing market. Those subprime bets, right? But what Goldman did with its proprietary trading desk, not related to its clients, it made its own bets against the housing market. And that's why Goldman was in much better stead than basically the rest of Wall Street.

And what the president wants to do is end that. That basically you have to work for your clients and your clients only. Whether that will happen is another story. But it's one of the reasons why you're seeing financial -- financial stocks like Goldman, Bank of America, Citigroup, all down, at least 5 percent right now.

HARRIS: Yes. Boy, I can't wait to hear you and Ali talk about that in a couple of minutes. Must-see TV.

Susan, appreciate it. We'll take a break. We're back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

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HARRIS: It is go time. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, you have a good one.

Hello, everybody. I'm Ali Velshi, on the beat every day from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern