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Focus on the Economy; Trying to Feed Haiti's Poorest; Fed Chief's Confirmation
Aired January 25, 2010 - 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: Hello, everyone. It is Monday, January 25th. And here are the faces of the stories driving the headlines today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, the man credited with rescuing the U.S. from a second Great Depression, now must rescue his job.
Cassandra Nelson, Mercy Corps worker in Haiti. We will ask her about life in Port-au-Prince 13 days after the catastrophic earthquake.
And Mikeal Maglieri, Sunset Strip business owner. How federal stimulus dollars are helping the bottom line at the Whiskey a Go Go.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
President Obama coming off a tough week and facing a pivotal week ahead. He delivers his first State of the Union speech and sharpens his focus on the economy. And throughout this week, CNN is focusing on the president's biggest economic initiative, the $787 billion stimulus plan.
T.J. Holmes and his team are at the stimulus desk tracking your tax dollars.
But first, White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux on the president's agenda.
Suzanne, good morning to you.
After, look, a challenging week last week, how is the president and the administration approaching this big week, with the State of the Union right in the middle of it?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tony, they certainly are trying to regroup here. Obviously, last week was a very tough week. I spoke with a number of senior administration officials who outlined the State of the Union Address.
They say, simply, he's going to focus on creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, changing Washington and fighting for middle class families. And one of the things that we saw over the weekend, just yesterday, the president's top advisers on the political shows saying, look, the president gets it, he understands that the American people's number one priority here is creating jobs. And they're addressing that. They say he understands the message and he's going to be working very hard on that.
But the other thing, Tony, is they are not saying that this president has been lackluster in dealing with the economic crisis. And what do they do? They point to that economic stimulus package, the $787 billion plan, and they say the administration has helped create or save some jobs. But, Tony, very interesting, they all give some different figures here.
I want you to take a listen to how three different advisers put it this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIE JARRETT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: The Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We finally saw the first positive economic job growth in more than a year, largely as a result of the recovery plan that's put money back into our economy, that's saved or created 1.5 million jobs.
DAVID AXELROD, SR. WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: The Recovery Act the president passed has created more than -- or saved more than two million jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Tony, it could be confusing to a lot of people. Which number is it, essentially? We're going to be drilling down on that, obviously, with the briefing today with Robert Gibbs.
Two out of the three people you saw there on camera I had a chance to speak with last week. And they all said, look, one of the goals of the administration moving forward here is to be clear in their message, to hone the message and make their economic plan more palatable and understandable to the American people. Clearly, they still have some work to do on that front -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. And Suzanne, what are we expecting out of this middle class tax force meeting later this hour?
MALVEAUX: Well, White House officials say there are five different initiatives, essentially, that you're going to hear from the president, the vice president lay out. These are initiatives to help working families, middle class families, they say.
Three of the ones that are critical, nearly doubling the child independent care tax credit. That's for middle class families earning less than $85,000 a year. There's something also for students when it comes to their student loans, limiting their federal loan payments to 10 percent of their income. And then the third one, expanding tax credits to match retirement savings. All of these a part of a larger initiative. And Tony, we should let you know, this is part of the president's new budget plan that he's going to be announcing February 1st. So it is going to require congressional approval.
HARRIS: All right.
Our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, for us.
Suzanne, appreciate it. Thank you.
We will have live coverage of the middle class summit scheduled to start at 11:25 Eastern Time.
And Wednesday night, watch President Obama deliver his State of the Union Address on CNN. Our primetime coverage begins at 8:00 Eastern. That's 5:00 Pacific.
Now to the stimulus project, our weeklong look at where money from the stimulus plan is going, who it is helping and who is abusing the program.
And speaking of abuse, wow. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds 21 percent of Americans think nearly all the stimulus money has been wasted, 24 percent say most of it has been wasted, 29 percent say half, and 25 percent say little to none.
T.J. Holmes is at the Stimulus Desk.
T.J., look, a lot of people think there's plenty of waste in the program. What we do here is some fact-finding.
How are we going to be tracking the dollars this week, Doctor?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are tracking them a page at a time. Take a look here, actually. You've been seeing these in the NEWSROOM, here, Tony, but they're set up here at the Stimulus Desk. But, literally, all these binders you see around me here, they make up the $158 billion that's been doled out so far.
Each project is in here, and how many of the jobs it's supposedly saved or created. All of these binders represent, like I said, $158 billion, some 58,000 projects, and some 640,000 saved or created jobs.
There's another number to throw in there. You just heard Suzanne saying we've got one adviser saying this, another adviser saying that. You go to recovery.gov right now, the Web site that's supposed to track all this. The front page, it says 640,000 jobs.
So, who really knows there? But that's the point of this.
Let me step out and let you see. This is a busy, busy place right now. It's going to be a busy place for the rest of the week. But we are literally going through as many of these projects as we can, and we're trying to essentially hold the government's feet to the fire here. Exactly where are these jobs? Where is that money? Is it being put to good use? And when we find waste, we will let you know about it.
And we've got one coming up here in just a minute. We've been looking through these, as you know, Tony, all morning so far. But another one which essentially -- and it sounds great, jobs being created to create -- going to create some energy through one of these wind farms. You know?
HARRIS: Right. Oh yes.
HOLMES: But does it really create jobs here if 70 percent of those turbines are made in a foreign country?
HARRIS: Right.
HOLMES: Is that meant, really, is that the purpose, is that where our tax dollars are going here? So that's the kind of stuff we're looking into.
We're going to be checking in with you in I think about 20 minutes. We'll try to get into that a little more. So I'll see you soon, buddy.
HARRIS: Awesome. Awesome, T.J. Appreciate it. Thank you.
HOLMES: All right.
HARRIS: And, of course, we want to hear from you. Are you for or against the federal stimulus plan? And tell us why.
Leave us a comment on my blog at CNN.com/Tony, or go to my Facebook, Twitter pages and tell us there. And let's do this -- let's have a real conversation about the stimulus program at Twitter and Facebook, please. No one is interested in what you're having for lunch.
We will read some of your comments a bit later this hour.
And checking the day's other big stories.
An Ethiopian airlines taking off from Beirut crashes minutes later in the Mediterranean Sea. Ninety people on board headed for Ethiopia's capital. Twenty-three bodies have been recovered. So far, no survivors. Lebanon's president says there is no indication of sabotage or foul play.
An audio recording believed to be the voice of Osama bin Laden surfaced on the Al-Jazeera network yesterday (INAUDIBLE) for the failed attempt to blow up an American commercial plane on Christmas Day and vows more attacks against the United States.
So, if it is bin Laden, how seriously should counterterrorism analysts take this threat?
Here's CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCES FRAGOS TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: I think most U.S. officials currently in the counterterrorism community would say to you whether or not bin Laden releases a tape doesn't move our counterterrorism policy, whether there's a Republican or Democratic administration. His statements really aren't that big a deal inside the policy community that has to execute the war.
And so I think what you'll see is this administration has upped the number of drone attacks in the tribal areas. They've increased the support to Yemen and their counterterrorism capability. I think you're going to continue to see that. And I don't expect that bin Laden's statement is going to move them one way or the other, nor should it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All right. Standing in line for hours for a sack of beans. Maybe you'll get them, maybe you won't. It is a daily reality in Haiti.
And Jacqui Jeras is tracking weather, including some flooding in the Northeast.
Sorry, Jacqui -- Brett Favre. Not so well. Didn't go quite as well.
Let's take you to Wall Street now, the New York Stock Exchange.
Who that?
Let's take a look at the numbers. The Dow in positive territory, up 15 points.
We're tracking these numbers with Susan Lisovicz for you throughout the morning, throughout the day, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Feeding the hungry in Haiti's most desperate shantytown, the slums of Cite Soleil. It is where the poorest of the poor call home. It was hard enough trying to scrounge a meal there before the quake, and Karl Penhaul tells us now it is almost like winning a lottery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sun up in the shantytown of Cite Soleil. Help rolls in aboard a heavily armored convoy with Brazilian peacekeepers and American soldiers.
If you want to eat, you'd better move quick. There's not enough to go round.
GEN. PURL K. KEEN, U.S. ARMY: You cannot feed every citizen every day.
PENHAUL: That's nothing new in Cite Soleil. This is Haiti's most desperate slum. Even before the quake, survival was hand to mouth.
The United Nations and U.S. generals are putting on a joint show, apparently to dispel criticism about the often chaotic relief effort. They say they have a plan.
KEEN: Provide food for a percentage of them every day, so over a two-week period every citizen has sufficient food to last for that two weeks.
PENHAUL: Today, there's more trucks of blue helmets and U.S. soldiers than food. Cite Soleil has a fearsome wrap for violence.
Brazilian peacekeepers have reined in gangs here over recent years, but some fear crime bosses may regroup in the slums after a prison break on the day of the quake. Not so, peacekeepers say.
GEN. FLORIANO PEIXOTO, U.N. PEACEKEEPER: The security situation is completely under control. The nature of the incidents we have now here we used to have before the tragedy.
PENHAUL: Soldiers fix their sights on passing out bags of beans, rice and oil to the luckiest few, high-energy cookies or ready-to-eat meals to those farther down the line.
Ancilia Josaphat struggles home with her supplies. "One of those white guys gave me a box for my things. Of course it's good stuff, otherwise they wouldn't be handing it out," she says.
(on camera): Now, here's precisely one of the problems. For everyone that's been getting food today, thousands more will go home hungry. These people have been standing in line under a hot sun since early on. They've had their expectations raised, and now they're going to be frustrated.
(voice-over): Shattered hopes have become a way of life for Haiti's failed state. This time around, international donors are promising not to turn their backs and vowing to rebuild Haiti. A bold pledge for the future, but right now, kids scurry for any offer while it lasts.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Cite Soleil, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Boy.
We have been tracking efforts to get clean water to the people of Haiti. We will check back in with Mercy Corps, live from Port-au- Prince, in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: An official death toll from Haiti's earthquake is expected today. The government says more than 150,000 bodies -- boy -- have been buried so far. That is not including those still beneath the rubble or carried off by relatives. Aid workers are getting more food and water to desperate survivors in the earthquake zone, and donors from 20 nations are meeting right now in Canada to draw up a recovery plan for Haiti. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Haiti's prime minister among those attending.
One of the biggest needs in Haiti right now, water. And we have been following the efforts of Mercy Corps to meet that need. And you are looking at images shot by Mercy Corps' Cassandra Nelson. She has been documenting her group's efforts since the crisis began, efforts to help families desperate for a glass of water.
Well, we keep asking Cassandra to come on back and give us an update on the progress, and she's kind enough to do it for us. And she's with us now from Port-au-Prince.
Cassandra, talk to us about -- first of all, good to see you again. Thank you for the time again, as always.
Has the water situation improved?
CASSANDRA NELSON, MERCY CORPS: Yes. The water situation is definitely improving. Water trucks are now running, and there have been water bladders that have been set up in numerous of the spontaneous camps that have formed around the city.
So, the water situation is improving. It certainly is not ideal.
Right now, the quantity of water is not so much a problem as the quality of water. Mercy Corps actually has a team out right now that's going around from water point to water point, actually testing the water that's available to make sure that it is acceptable to drink. A lot of this water here needs treatment, and that is really the next phase. Now that they have water, we have to make sure it's good water.
HARRIS: Yes. Give us an update on the filtration systems you were waiting for to arrive. Have they gotten there for you yet?
NELSON: The water filtration systems have not arrived yet. They actually -- as I understand, one is in Santa Domingo and it's on its way here. We certainly have found places where we will be putting those up and are expecting them, we're hoping, in the next 24 hours.
HARRIS: Yes. Give us an overall assessment of where things are in your efforts there in Haiti.
NELSON: Well, the aid effort, I have to say, in the last few days really has gained some serious traction and things are, I think, turning a positive corner. The situation remains absolutely dire, I think, as everyone is aware here. But the markets have opened, which has been a very good thing. People who actually do have some money can actually go out and purchase some supplies themselves, which has taken a little bit of relief off so the people that are the most needy, the people that are the poorest, who don't have money to buy food, now can be focused on. So that has definitely helped.
The banks are opening. So the situation has improved and food is getting out.
Mercy Corps has got about 15 tons of food delivered so far. We're delivering more food today and continuing with the water project. So things are improving, but a long way to go.
HARRIS: Hey, you know, a pretty dramatic rescue over the weekend. A 24-year-old man trapped for 11 days.
I'm just curious, do you hear those stories? And what kind of a positive impact does a story like that have on the spirits of your people?
NELSON: You know, it has a very positive impact. I think these are sort of the miracle stories that everyone needs right now in a time which feels incredibly hopeless. So those stories have a lot of positive impact.
At the same time, they do create sometimes a challenge in that many families are camped out in the rubble, next to their homes, in the hope that maybe someone's still alive inside. And these are very unsafe places for them to be, often.
If there's additional tremors and shakes in the evening, again, the building can continue to fall down and actually hurt people that are camped out outside. So we do encourage people to move away from the structures despite the fact that their loved ones might still be inside.
HARRIS: Hey, one more quick one here before I lose you. Tell me about this program that you've started where you're actually working with kids, young people who have been through this horrible, traumatic experience.
NELSON: Well, Mercy Corps is starting a program called Comfort for Kids. It's a program we've actually used many times. We used it after 9/11 in the U.S., and around the world in many earthquake zones and other disasters.
The idea is that we go in and we work with actually caretakers of children. So, families, teachers, people at churches, and we teach them how to identify traumatic symptoms in children and how to work with them to actually bring them forward and to make sure that they get those feelings out.
We have all sorts of activities and games to encourage children to tell their stories. We find that it's a very therapeutic way for children to cope with the disaster, actually to talk about it. HARRIS: That is wonderful.
Cassandra, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time. And we're going to give you a couple of days to get back to work here, and then we're going to dial you up again.
Cassandra Nelson from Mercy Corps.
Thanks for your time.
The Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, will he be reconfirmed? He is under fire by Republicans.
And how did the stimulus money help a Pennsylvania wind farm? T.J. Holmes and our researchers, on the stimulus desk, bring you the details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's get you caught up now with our top stories.
Baghdad rocked today by three explosions, all within minutes of each other. Police say 36 people were kill by the suicide car bombs and dozens were wounded. The attacks targeted hotels popular with westerners.
Crude cleanup in Texas today. A tanker lost close to half a million gallons of oil at Port Arthur this weekend when it collided with a towboat. Crews say already almost half the oil has evaporated or dispersed.
Good stuff. It is really good, good stuff.
"Who dats?" shouted out on Bourbon Street for the first time in franchise history. New Orleans is going to the Super Bowl. The Saints will face Peyton Manning from New Orleans. Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
The clock is ticking for Ben Bernanke. The Fed chief's first term expires on Sunday. Last week, his reappointment was in doubt, but now the tide appears to be changing in Washington.
Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with details.
And Susan, good to see you.
What are his odds now of being confirmed or reconfirmed?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not going to give you exact numbers. I'm not a betting woman. After all, I thought the New York Jets were going to upset the Colts yesterday. And if that game had finished by halftime, I would have been right on that.
But, I mean, there is a sense, and it's one of the reasons why the market rallied at the open, that he will have the 60 votes he needs to save his job. You know, after all, this is a guy who's been trying to saver the economy for the last couple of years. Now he has to work on his job.
Over the weekend, you had all sorts of talkers, including senior adviser David Axelrod, who was on "STATE OF THE UNION," saying that he believes Ben Bernanke will get his job back for a second term, and that he said that the economy would have slipped into the abyss without him.
What exactly did Ben Bernanke do? There was a whole lot.
Just to refresh ourselves, well, cut interest rates to practically zero; increase the portfolio of loans and securities to more than $2 trillion from $800 billion; bailed out Bear Stearns and AIG. Not so popular. Let Lehman go into bankruptcy, and backed a whole lot of spending increases and tax cuts.
So, that has a lot of Republicans upset and some key Democrats as well -- Tony.
HARRIS: All right. So stocks sold off on Friday, on at least the sense that Ben Bernanke might not be reappointed. So, is what we're seeing today a bit of an endorsement from investors?
LISOVICZ: Well, you know, what really rattled the market on Friday was the fact that all of a sudden, something that was seen as a given a week before was in doubt a day after we got surprisingly harsh words from the president on banking regulation. This, at a time when the pace of economic recovery is not exactly a given.
HARRIS: Right.
LISOVICZ: So it was something that really jolted the markets. And you saw a nearly 550-point drop by the Dow in three days.
I mean, look, there will be continuation if Ben Bernanke is not appointed. Donald Cohen would probably be likely vice chairman. But there is a sense that he's in better stead today, and the market is higher despite a disappointment we got on the housing report we got about an hour and a half ago -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Susan. Appreciate it. I'll talk about that maybe with you next hour.
Susan Lisovicz on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Floodwaters slamming parts of the country. Jacqui Jeras is tracking it for us right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: President Obama is set to announce a five-point plan to help middle class families. We'll bring you the president's remarks live, scheduled for any moment now. And how did the stimulus money help a Pennsylvania wind farm? T.J. Holmes and our research team on the stimulus desk to bring you the details. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So all this week the CNN stimulus project is looking at how your $787 billion in tax money is being spent. About $1 billion has been allocated for renewable energy projects. What are we talking about here? T.J. Holmes is at the Stimulus Desk and a touch screen.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm not going to touch it though.
HARRIS: You're not?
HOLMES: No.
HARRIS: This is about a project in Pennsylvania, right?
HOLMES: Yes, in particular here. That sounds great -- renewable energy, everybody's in favor of that, right?
HARRIS: Right. Sure.
HOLMES: Let's take a peek. Now, to give you an idea, folks, we're going to be doing this all week. What these dots represent are current investigations that CNN has going on, essentially looking a little deeper into where your $787 billion went. You want to know what that money's going towards and where exactly are those jobs? That's the question. So these are active investigations.
Just this morning, this shows one in Chicago. It's turned green now. That means we've gotten an answer. We have gotten some kind of an answer as to how many jobs have been created and exactly where the money's going. So as the week goes, you'll see more yellow dots, you'll see more green dots as we go through and do the investigations.
In particular, we're focusing on what Tony was just talking about. In Pennsylvania, renewable energy. That is great and it's creating jobs, they got some stimulus money. But we're going to have to look into this a little deeper, and to do so we're going over, Tony, in particular, to our desk. This is where a lot is going to be happening this week. These folks are working nonstop, around the clock, literally, working on these projects and making a lot of calls.
I'm stopping in to talk to Ines Ferre. She has done extensive reporting, in particular, on this wind farm. Now, this sounds great -- $42 million and jobs have been created. But as you call and the reporting you've done, you have to look into it a little more, a little more extensively. What have you found out?
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With this project, about 30 percent of the parts were domestically made, 70 percent foreign made. So you have to take that into consideration. But they're saying, look, more manufacturers are now getting into the game of manufacturing wind farm parts in the U.S. So they're saying that for phase two of the project, which is what they're going to use this $42 million for -- because they got the $42 million for a project that was already under construction -- for phase two they're going to have the same amount of jobs and they're going to actually use venders that are mostly making these parts domestically.
As far as jobs are concerned, it's about 150 people on the construction of the site, six full-time employees to manage it. They're saying also that they're using, you know, local goods as far as steel, electrical cable, et cetera. And also over, $1 million going into the local economy through fees to the local government and royalties to the homeowners.
I've been talking or e-mailing with their CEO and their director of development all morning on this.
HOLMES: See, that's just to give you an idea, Tony, of what we're talking about here. And Ines and the rest here are literally on the phone and they're on the e-mail, they're literally making these calls and getting answers to the questions. Because initially you might hear, wait a minute, 70 percent of the money went to parts that were elsewhere? That doesn't really sit right with me. But when you look into it a little more, some of the questions get answered and you see how that money can still affect the local economy, U.S. economy and U.S. jobs in such a way. That's what we're doing all week right over here. And we might be able to turn that dot green here in a minute as well.
HARRIS: T.J., Ines, appreciate it. Thank you both. Good stuff.
HOLMES: You got it, buddy.
HARRIS: All right, we want to hear from you, obviously. Are you for or against the federal stimulus plan? And if you would, tell us why. Leave a comment on my blog at CNN.com/Tony or go to my Facebook page, my Twitter page, and tell us what you think. And let's have some real conversations on this issue. It's a big one. We're talking about $787 billion here. We will read some of your comments later this hour.
We are awaiting President Obama and the middle-class summit. We will bring you the president's comments live when it happens, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK, following the money. CNN has set up a Stimulus Desk, all this week we are tracking those 787 billion stimulus dollars -- that is a mountain of money -- to show you where all the money is going.
One place we can highlight is the Denver suburb of Inglewood, Colorado. Stimulus money has put more police officers on the street. Details now from CNN's Jim Spellman. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Swing shift roll call at the Englewood, Colorado PD. Two rookies are ready to roll.
OFFICER EDDIE BLACKWELL, ENGLEWOOD POLICE: A new recruit. I just got hired as of October 12th.
OFFICER PATRICK DUNN, ENGLEWOOD POLICE: I just started three days ago.
SPELLMAN: Hundreds of people applied for their jobs, jobs that came courtesy of the federal government.
DUNN: If it wasn't for the stimulus, I probably would have been hired.
SPELLMAN: An engineer by trade, Officer Dunn was laid off numerous times before finally losing his job for good last March. At 42 years old, becoming a cop wasn't an easy decision to make.
DUNN: We've had one income. My wife has handled the whole income. We have three kids; I have 5-1/2-year-old daughter and 20- month-old twins. And so there was a lot of pressure put on her.
SPELLMAN: Officer Dunn says so far, so good.
DUNN: This has probably been the best three days of my life.
BLACKWELL: I said I always wanted to become a police officer.
SPELLMAN: After 11 years on the job as a probation officer, 40- year-old Eddie Blackwell decided to chase his dream.
BLACKWELL: The stimulus package open the opportunity, gave me the golden opportunity to become a police officer, so I jumped on it.
CHIEF TOM VANDERMEE, ENGLEWOOD POLICE: Our slice of this stimulus package I can tell you has been extremely rewarding for this community.
SPELLMAN: In March, 2009, Chief Tom Vandermee applied for a chunk of a billion-dollar federal grant program design to put more cops on the street for community policing.
VANDERMEE: We submitted our application in March just like 7,000 other cities across the country. And we really didn't expect that we would be successful with it.
SPELLMAN: But sure enough, his department received $697,000 to hire three new officers and form a Community Policing Unit they've dubbed "The Impact Team."
Sgt. Christian Contos will lead the new squad.
SGT. CHRISTIAN CONTOS, ENGLEWOOD POLICE: Drug activity, transients coming and going, alcohol, stolen cars.
SPELLMAN: It's houses like this the Impact Team will focus on, recurring issues out in neighborhoods that can be hard for police to deal with.
CONTOS: We will be able to devote 100 percent of our time to solving problems like this house or quality of life issues that the patrol officers don't otherwise have time to solve.
SPELLMAN: For the new guys, these are stimulus funds well spent.
DUNN: I think the stimulus package in areas like this is a great thing. Fire departments, police departments, anything that serves the people, that we need to protect the people.
BLACKWELL: It's definitely a win-win situation. Yes, we win as new recruits and also the community wins.
SPELLMAN: Jim Spellman, CNN, Englewood, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Top stories now.
Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" put to death today in Iraq. Ali Hassan al-Majid had been sentenced to death in four separate trials, most recently last week for the 1988 gassing of thousands of Kurds.
World leaders including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are meeting in Canada today. They are discussing ways to improve relief efforts in Haiti.
Oops, my bad. An original Picasso hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now has a six-inch gash in it after a visitor somehow lost her balance and fell on to the unusually large 6'4" painting. Here's what "The Actor" looked like before the mishap. It should be back on the wall in a few months after repairs are made.
We expect to hear from the president on initiatives for the middle class in moments. But what will they really mean for you? Personal finance editor Gerri Willis has tips. Gerri is next right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: President Obama is rolling out a handful of new initiatives to help everyday Americans. He is meeting with his Middle Class Task Force this hour. Personal finance editor Gerri Willis is here.
Gerri, good to see you. What is the president considering?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: It's a long list of things, Tony. Let's start with child care assistance. It would nearly double the child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000. Hey, even if you earn up to $115,000, you would see improvements in that tax credit. Now, the administration here notes that two-thirds of families with children are headed by working parents or a single working parent and of course, that makes child care all that more important.
Now another group of folks who have really been hard hit by the economy over the last few years, college students who are graduating into a horrible jobs environment. So there's a program here for college affordability. It would limit loan payments to 10 percent of discretionary income.
Now, think about that for just a second. So let's say you spent a lot of money on your college education, you graduate, maybe you get a job, but it doesn't pay what you expected. You could get government help to make those payments. The estimated cost of this plan, $400 million to $500 million over ten years. That's according to experts we talked to. It would also do this by expanding an existing program called the Income Based Repayment Plan, which primarily helped people who were working for government or nonprofits.
There's also information in here, programs for people to improve their retirement security. It would expand the Savers Tax Credit, matching 50 percent of the first $1,000 of contributions for folks making $65,000 or less. Plus, this credit would become refundable. So let's say, Tony, that you're not even making income tax payments, you don't owe income tax. You would actually get that money.
They also want to promote annuities, which could become somewhat controversial, because a lot of personal finance experts don't like annuities because they tend to be sold aggressively and the fees can be high.
And here's one that is going to make a lot of people happy, improved disclosure of 401(k) fees. Typically, they are not disclosed very well. It can be difficult to know what you're paying for your 401(k).
Also elder care assistance. A lot of people, sandwich generation, they're having to pay for taking care of their parents. There's some increased funding for caregiver support. Funds for adult day care, home services, transportation. The increases are not huge, but they are there -- Tony.
HARRIS: That's terrific. Gerri, you know what? I think we're close to the president. We may just have to leave it there, but we'll talk to you again next hour. Gerri Willis for you.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
HARRIS: We are getting word that we're just minutes away from the president's remarks live from the middle-class summit. We'll get a quick break and get you back just in time for the president's remarks. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The resilient people of Haiti are struggling to get back on their feet following a devastating earthquake. Our Gary Tuchman reports on street life in Port-au-Prince.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tomas Street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- like so many streets in the city, the destruction is everywhere you look. But the residents need to figure out how to make a living, so they're trying to make money in the streets. Here, they're using sewing machines from another era to make T-shirts. Here they've reopened a mini restaurant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I have spaghetti.
TUCHMAN: And here...
(on camera): what are you selling here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I sell moonshine. Hard liquor.
TUCHMAN: On this block that has been devastated, capitalism is alive and well. You can buy clothes, you can buy hot dogs, you can buy spaghetti, you can buy candy and gum, you can buy liquor. When I say capitalism is alive and well, I probably should have said the concept of capitalism is alive and well. Because while there are plenty of sellers and product, there are very few buyers.
(voice-over): The family that is sewing together doesn't really have anyone who is ready to buy their T-shirts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We need someone to help us.
TUCHMAN: The spaghetti guy also says that nobody has money and he has paid twice as much as he used to for his inventory. Like so many here, he is personally suffering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My house is gone. My mother died and my brother died.
TUCHMAN: While we were on Tomas Street, aid came in a water truck, but it's for bathing, not drinking.
This is Isla (ph) and her extended family.
(on camera): And where do you live?
(voice-over): Right across the street is her house, or was her house. Now she says she and her family sit outside, hungry and thirsty.
(on camera): Right next door, they're selling spaghetti. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I have no money.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The only businessman we found making some money on Tomas Street...
(on camera): Do you drink that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Oui.
(voice-over): ... is the moonshine man. He says it's because people need to put their minds at ease.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All right, let's do this. Let's get you to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. You see the vice president, Joe Biden, he heads up the task force, and he is making remarks now and will eventually hand things over to the president.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... making under $115,000.
Secondly, the president is going to be proposing an increase in funding for child care and the so-called Child Care and Development Fund to serve an additional 235,000 children in America. This is going to help working parents who are struggling to lift their families into the middle class.
And thirdly, elder care. I mean, we all -- you know, we're a generation, the so-called baby boom generation is becoming very knowledgeable about elder care and the need to help middle-class families who are caring for aging parents and relatives. People like Jill and me are part of what's called that sandwich generation. And I make a very good salary. But just going through caring for my mother the last year-and-a-half, and before that my father who, thank god, lived to ripe old ages, it was -- it's not easy.
And I -- we sit there with my brother and sister and I, brothers and sister and I divided up the cost of the care. We were able to do that. No complaints. Not a problem. But I thought to myself, my lord, what would it be like, a couple making -- with two kids, making $85,000 a year? Even $125, 000 a year. How do they do it?
So today we're proposing more support for care givers by providing counseling, training, help with transportation, and temporary respite care when -- when they just need a break, or, you know, or they have to work, which most all them do.
This is going to allow nearly 200,000 people who are now balancing work and providing care to an elderly relative to be served, and 3 million hours of respite care are going to be provided.
The fourth thing is, we're going to be strengthening the income- based repayment program for student loans. Fancy way of saying a lot of kids and families graduate with significant loan responsibility, and literally -- literally -- are left with very few options. They got to go out and get the highest-paying job they can, maybe in an area they had no intention of working in, just to pay back the loan.
Today, the average debt of a graduating senior from college -- now, listen -- the average debt, people of my generation, the average debt is $23,000. That is literally $2,000 more than my first house cost. But -- and any standard, it's a lot of money.
Average debt. Some are graduating with a great deal more debt than that.
So our proposal ensures that federal student loan payments for overburdened borrowers are never more than 10 percent of their income. A change like that makes a real difference for a kid just out of school. For someone who earns 30,000 bucks and owes $20,000 in loans, this would lower his or her monthly payment from $228 a month under the standard repayment plan to $115 a month.
People who have to, you know, budget every day just to get by, they understand that's a big difference. That's a big difference.
And, finally, we want to strengthen retirement security, which we've talked about with the secretary of the treasury, for American workers. Too many working people in this country don't have a good option to save their hard-earned money for retirement.
And too many of those who do save are finding that at the end of the day, they don't have enough saved to afford the basic retirement they deserve.
That's why we're proposing to give more workers better access to retirement plans at work, to match retirement savings for middle-class Americans, so they can save more, and to strengthen and update the 401(k) regulations, so that they can save with greater confidence.
This means establishing an automatic individual retirement account. Today, 78 million Americans, working Americans, roughly half the workforce, don't have employer-based retirement plans anymore. Our proposal lays the groundwork for an employer who do not currently offer retirement plans to enroll their employees in direct deposit IRAs.
We've found it's a simple proposition. When you do that, people -- if you're automatically enrolled, you can -- you can opt out, but they save a great deal more.
And it just puts in place the requirement of the employer to provide that access out of their paycheck to go into an IRA. It's a simple proposition, but it's a big deal.
It also means simplifying and expanding the savers' credit, which helped working families save for retirement by providing a 50 percent match on the first $1,000 of retirement savings. So if you put a thousand bucks into a retirement account, your government is going to add even more -- another $500.
It's an incentive, but long term, it saves the government a lot more money than the 500 bucks put in, if, in fact, we find we have a generation that's able to care for themselves and not have to look to the government to provide some basic needs they need.
This will not only help build up a -- a nest egg for existing savers, but it's going to encourage workers who currently have no retirement accounts to start to save.
Taking together these and other middle-class proposals, we believe, will go a long way toward easing the strain on working families, allowing them to save more today to get further ahead tomorrow.
Because, if we give a working man and woman in this country -- and first of all, we've got to make sure they've got good jobs -- if we give them an opportunity, they're the most productive workers in the world. If we give them the tools, the flexibility, even just a chance to succeed, we're not only going to rebuild this economy, we're going to offer millions of Americans an opportunity to build a future that they hope and still believe is available to them.
So we want to thank all you guys. You've been meeting with me on a regular basis. I've been a little bit of a pain in the neck. I know you have urgent, urgent, urgent things that were left on our plate, placed on our plate when we took office.
And one of the things you've done, and I thank you for it, when the president set up this task force, is you have not taken your eye off the ball; you have a serious people insight (ph). Each of your agencies is doing nothing every day but getting up, putting both feet on the floor and saying, what are we going to do inside my shop that's going to ease the burden and increase the opportunity for people to get into the middle class and stay in?
So, Mr. President, I think the president is here. I'd like to invite him to come out, because we owe -- we owe the president a great deal for focusing this issue throughout the campaign and the first thing you did when you came to office. Mr. President, it's an honor working with you on this.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Thank you, Joe.
Hey, guys, everybody, have a seat. Have a seat.
Well, I wanted to stop by to comment on all the great work that the middle-class task force is doing. And you've just seen why Joe is the right person to do it. No one brings to the table the same combination of personal experience and substantive expertise.
He has come a long way. And achieved incredible things along the ride, but he has never forgotten where he came from and his roots as a working-class kid from Scranton. He's devoted his life to making the American dream a reality for everyone because he's lived it.
Now, we all know what that American dream is. It's the idea that, in America, we can make of our lives what we will. It's the idea that, if you work hard and live up to your responsibilities, you can get ahead and enjoy some of the basic guarantees in life, a good job that pays a good wage, health care that will be there when you get sick, a secure retirement, even if you're not rich, an education that will give our kids a better life than we had.
They're very simple ideas. But they're ideas that are at the heart of our middle class; the middle class that made the 20th century, the American century.
Unfortunately, the middle class has been under assault for a long time. Too many Americans have known their own painful recessions long before any economists declared that there was a recession.
We've just come through what was one of the most difficult decades the middle class has ever faced: a decade in which median income fell, and our economy lost about as many jobs as it gained.
For two years, Joe and I traveled this country, and we heard stories that are all too familiar: stories of Americans barely able to stay afloat despite working harder and harder for less, premiums that were doubling, tuition fees that were rising almost as fast, savings being used up, retirements put off, dreams put on hold.
That was all before the middle class got pounded by the full fury of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Their stories are why Joe and I ran for this office: to reverse those trends, to fight for the middle class, to make sure working families have a voice in the White House, and to do everything within our power to make sure they don't just survive the crisis, but again they can thrive.
And when we walked through these doors last year, our first and most urgent task was to rescue our economy, to give immediate relief to those who were hurt by its downturn, but also to rebuild it on a new, stronger foundation for job creation.
So we helped state and local governments keep cops and firefighters and teachers on the job, helping to plug their budgets. We invested in areas with the most potential for job growth, both immediate and lasting, in our infrastructure, in science and technology, in education, in clean energy.
These steps have saved or created about 2 million jobs so far. But more than 7 million have been lost as a consequence of this recession: an epidemic that demands our relentless and sustained response.
Now, last month the House passed a new jobs bill. The Senate, as we speak, is hard at work developing its own job creation package.
Creating good, sustainable jobs is the single-most important thing we can do to rebuild the middle class. And I won't rest until we're doing just that.
But, we also need to reverse the overall erosion in middle-class security, so that when this economy does come back, working Americans are free to pursue their dreams again.
There are a variety of immediate steps we can take to do just that, steps we're poised to begin taking in the budget that I'll put forward next week. Joe already spoke about some of these proposals in detail -- proposals that make it a bit easier for families to get by, for students to get ahead and for workers to retire.
To make balancing work and family more realistic, we'll make it easier to care for children and aging loved ones. To make college more affordable, we'll make it easier for students to pay back their loans, and forgive their debt earlier if they choose a career in public service. And to make retirement more secure, we're going to make it easier to save through the workplace.
Joe and I are going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle-class families -- an education that gives our kids a chance in life, new clean energy economy that generates the good jobs of the future, meaningful financial reforms that protect consumers, and health reform that prohibits the worst practices of the insurance industry and restores some stability and peace of mind for middle- class families.
Now, none of these steps alone will solve all of the challenges facing the middle class. Joe understands that. So do I. So do all my members of the Cabinet and our economic team.
But hopefully some of these steps will re-establish some of the security that's slipped away in recent years, because, in the end, that's how Joe and I measure progress -- not by how the markets are doing, but by how the American people are doing. It's about whether they see some progress in their own lives.
So we're going to keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising, and the middle class is once again growing. And, above all, we're going to keep fighting to renew the American dream and keep it alive, not just in our time but for all time.
So, again, to our team -- and that includes, by the way, the folks over here -- thank you for the great work that you've done. I'm excited about a lot of the proposals that you've come up with. And we expect that we're going to be able to get some of these critical initiatives passed soon, so that folks can get some help right away.
Thank you very much.
