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New Stimulus Figure Released: Why is it so Much More?; Failing Grades for the U.S. in Protecting Citizens From Terror Threats; The Children of Haiti

Aired January 26, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, when you are freezing the $46 billion roughly that the president can freeze in the next budget, isn't that kind of the opposite of what you are saying? How do you increase spending on things that are going to help the middle-class while announcing that you're freezing domestic spending in the budget?

JARED BERNSTEIN, BIDEN ECONOMIC ADVISER: This is a really important question, and I appreciate the chance to answer it. If you did an across-the-board freeze where everything came down, and what I call a sledge-hammer freeze, where everything comes down by the same amount, you couldn't, and your question would be absolutely on point.

The freeze that the president is talking about is not across the board. It is a scalpel. not a sledge hammer. It gets into the budget and pulls out those parts that don't have anything to do with boosting middle-class incomes and jobs and everything to do with the boosting lobbyists and special interests. You take that part and lower it, you raise -- this is a freeze where in certain parts of discretionary spending that apply to our agenda will actually come up. Other parts will come down. Now, clearly more will come down than go up. But it is not an across the board freeze in any stretch.

VELSHI: Thank you, Chairman Bernstein. I'm hoping on the way back to your office, you walk through the White House and the offices of your colleagues and tell them that you just told us that it's 2 million jobs that you think stimulus has created or will create so we are all on the same place.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

VELSHI: Jared Bernstein is the chief economic adviser to vice president Biden, talking to me just moments ago about tightening the purse, about the decision that the president made yesterday to try to get Congress to freeze the spending on things that are nondiscretionary. What that means is that there are some things that are entitlements that are discretionary and some things that the president can't easily freeze spending on.

So he is planning to make the announcement in the State of the Union speech, and he is saying that the spending cuts could save $250 billion over ten years.

We go over the Gloria Borger. She joins me now to discuss this more. What we are hearing from Jared Bernstein is that the president wants to emphasize certain things to help the middle-class and he announced it yesterday for the middle-class task force and he is trying to freeze spending on a whole host of other things. Try to help us get our heads on this.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The interesting thing you have pointed out all throughout the show is that this discretionary spending pot, right, is only about one-sixth of the entire budget, and it is a small pot of money relatively speaking to the rest of what we spend in a budget, but it is a huge part of the politics.

Small amount of money, and big amount of politics here. Because what the president has to show, and particularly with this new news that you pointed out about the stimulus going to cost more than we thought, the president understands, he has a huge problem when it comes to spending. People think he is a big spending, big-government president, and that is what they don't like.

So, he has to show some fiscal restraint here, and that is what this is about. So, it is a way to start, but make no mistake at it, Ali, it is not a huge part of the way we spend our federal money.

VELSHI: I want to just clarify for the viewers what you were referring to, and that is that we had it at the bottom of the screen, the fact that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has hiked the forecast for how much the stimulus bill is going to cost. We are talking about this all week this week, and we are talking about $787 billion. The Congressional Budget Office now saying they are raising the estimate of the cost by $75 billion to $862 billion, which is the cost of the stimulus bill.

We just asked Jared Bernstein about that, and he was not able to confirm that from his end.

Gloria, who wins and loses in the president's attempt to say we will have more fiscal discipline and we will be more responsible or try to show that we are more responsible with the money? Who does that anger and who does that win support of?

BORGER: Well, first of all, let's talk about the voters. The voters out there, particularly the independent voters that we've been talking about so much that the president has lost a lot of traction with lately. This is exactly what those voters want to hear. They don't like big government, they don't trust big government and they don't want to spend more money on big government. Health care has been a part of that.

The president is probably going to make everybody a little frustrated this with. He is going to make the liberal colleagues frustrated, because they believe that you ought not to do it. And some of them say, okay, we will go along with that, but guess what? You ought to cut back defense, too, if you are going to cut back domestic discretionary spending.

But these are people who had eight years of George W. Bush and even though Republicans say that Bush spent a lot, Democrats say he didn't spend enough. Now on the other side, you have Republicans in Washington saying this is a just drop in the bucket, and gimmick and it won't do anything. I am sure they will go along with it, but they think it's too little too late.

VELSHI: Let's actually listen to one of the Republican representatives, Steny Hoyer, and what he had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Yes, the freeze will be a constraint, but most of the members to which you refer understand that they are publics, and they are committed to fiscal balance in the long term. I think that they understand that we have to make priorities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Obviously I misspoke, that is the Democrat majority leader, Steny Hoyer, not a Republican.

We have a response from Republican Michael Steele, representative John Boehner - minority leader Representative John Boehner spokesperson saying that "given Washington an unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you are going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest." Gloria.

BORGER: That is what we were talking about, neither seemed excited about it. Did Steny Hoyer seemed excited to talk about? It was like he had to take his castor oil.

And by the way, some Democrats this does appeal to, though, are those 50 or so moderate Democrats that were elected in red districts in the last election that need to go home to show they have voted on spending cuts, and that is important to them. But then again, John Boehner says this is silly, because they are spending so much money, and by the way, the stimulus package won't be affected by this, either.

VELSHI: Thank you, Gloria, for helping us through this. We will stay on this, not only today, but through the State of the Union tomorrow, which is the centerpiece of the president's address to the nation, which we will have live coverage of starting tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern.

All right, when we come back, we're going to talk to Christiane Amanpour. She joins me. We're going to explore a very difficult question: did Haiti's government fail its people? Right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It has been very hard to criticize those in Haiti for their response to the earthquake, given the devastation that we saw there. But the reality is that there are a number of people who have experience with earthquakes or disasters of that magnitude who think that maybe the Haitian government didn't do if right thing in the immediate aftermath of this devastating earthquake. We go to the chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour who is in Port-au-Prince to give us a sense of what this is about. Christiane?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, as you know, since the beginning, the Haitian people have been desperate for instruction, desperate for guidance, and the government was all but knocked out on the first day of the earthquake, symbolized by all of the buildings of the government, including the presidential palace, which had either crumbled or been badly damaged.

Now they are relocated, but still it seems a hard time to get the message out to the people showing they are in charge. Now, we have spoken to several officials here and spoken in fact to the Brazilian foreign minister who is at the Montreal conference and he said, yes, it looks like despite the hardship, the government should be getting the word out to the people better.

I spoke to the former Haitian prime minister last night who is on her way to the World Economic Forum, and she said if she had been the prime minister at the time, she would have requested from the United States huge tents for the people from the United States government or whoever would have given them to the government, put them in the shadow on the lawn of the presidential palace to show that they were giving instructions to the people about what to do next. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELE PIERRE-LOUIS, FORMER HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: It is the time to talk to the people. It is the time to give directions. Everybody is in a sad mood. Everybody has lost people. Everybody is mourning. But we have a country. We have 9 million Haitians here that need to know what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And precisely that, they need to know what to do and where to get what they need. For instance, the whole issue of food, medicine, shelter. Right now shelter is becoming a big issue, because there aren't these huge tents that have been put up. They just haven't had happened yet, for the most case, so people in makeshift bits of sheet, of curtain and plastic and tin that they have recuperated and recycle to try to set up these shanties.

I seen none of what I've seen in many disaster zones. Huge green tents to house multiple families. Where are they? The people are asking for that, and the government are also asking for that. The president, Rene Preval have asked for at least 200,00 big all-purpose tents, because of course soon in the spring, more rains and in the summer there may be more hurricanes, and shelter is a basic necessary.

Food is getting out more and more to the people, and more and more lines we are seeing, but at the same time, there are some disturbances at the lines. Nothing major, but still some impatience, some anger and frustration about the food being distributed. As I say, the pipeline is still quite difficult to unblock since the earthquake.

Medicine, we were at a hospital earlier this morning up the hill, and what we saw there was huge numbers of international doctors, whether they be from America, from Europe, from all parts of the Caribbean and Latin America and Europe and elsewhere. And also military in the hospitals just trying to do the best they can, and there we did see lots of medical supplies, food supplies and a lot of people trying to get the medical situation in order. But, shelter right now is shaping up to be a big and dire necessary.

VELSHI: Christiane, to the point that the former prime minister was making and you made earlier, how effective is the government at this point communicating with the people? How are they doing it? Are there bullhorns or radios or fliers? Are they communicating better today than let's say ten days ago?

AMANPOUR: Better, yes. They are going on the radio. They also have twice daily briefings at the makeshift government headquarters which is the police headquarters near the airport near the U.N. headquarters. They're having a 10:00 briefing, a 3:00 briefing, and various different ministers and officials, depending upon what they have to send out and what they have to say.

Also, of course, as I say, it is very difficult, because the infrastructure has collapsed. The governmental infrastructure has collapsed.

But for instance, when it comes to school, the kids are not in school. Obviously, it's very difficult because many of them have collapsed, but there is no instruction. There has been no assessment yet, or idea of how and when to bring the children back into some organized group where they can at least congregate with friends, with teachers.

So many problems trying to organize even that. I was speaking to the education minister earlier today, and he said he is still waiting to talk to the prime minister to try to figure out that urgent need as well.

VELSHI: Well, the only good thing about this is over your right shoulder, a couple of kids kicking the soccer ball around, so at least one little piece of normalcy.

Yes, I hear you.

AMANPOUR: Yes, but they would much rather have a school.

VELSHI: Yes, and food and place to live. Christiane, thanks for joining us. That is Christiane Amanpour, our chief international correspondent joining us from Haiti.

And we have brought you news a few moments ago that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has hiked the forecast for the cost of the stimulus bill. The cost that the stimulus bill will add to the deficit. We had been talking about $787 billion until now. That's what it was when it was passed. They are now saying it will now cost $75 billion more, $862 billion.

We are on this story. This is news just coming in, but we are on the stimulus story all week. That is the stimulus desk, and we are following every one of the 56,000 projects receiving government money to see what is going on. When we come back, we will talk more about this and to Josh Levs who is right there following the stories for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: That is our unnecessary Canadian content that we have to have on this show. Good Canadian band.

Josh Levs is at our Stimulus Desk. Boy, if you had a million dollars times many, many more million, you might come up with the amount of money that is in the stimulus bill and that is why we are spending the week on it. Some big important news that has just come out.

LEVS: Has just broken. What I want to do is help you understand and all of our viewers understand what's just happened. Why it suddenly broke.

What I want to do is open up this, because the figure you have been hearing that's used forever is this, right? $787 billion for the stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Well, what we've just been told by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is we're now going to call this $862 billion.

So what happened? Where did that money suddenly come from? Why is it suddenly costing so much more?

Let's clear that out, I'm going to show you a few of the key reasons that they're saying in a report that has just come out today. First of all -- this will not a shock -- unemployment is a little higher than they expected.

VELSHI: Yes.

LEVS: A lot of to the money, a lot of what we were calling the 787, the stimulus, is not for projects. It's for, you know, things like unemployment and some other benefits like social security. So basically, when you have unemployment suddenly jumping, that's billions of dollars more.

Next, this is one of the biggest, I have done some reporting on this, you have too, way more Americans are on food stamps than we foresaw. It's a crisis in America. There are millions and millions of Americans on food stamps. That money is also coming out of this pile.

Another thing, and this is sort of a good and a bad, the Build America Bonds initiative is pretty successful. And what that is is these bonds that are being sold to help raise money which are then being used to fund some of this, but bonds are also debt, bonds are government debt. So with the success of this, more people on food stamps, unemployment being much higher -- boom, you are jumping way higher. All the way up to $862 billion.

VELSHI: All right. I talked with Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to the vice president. He was not really able to give me a confirmation that they agree with these numbers.

But here's the thing, unemployment is 10 percent plus right now. It is higher than they expected. The irony is that it is not higher than a lot of people said it was going to be. So for this to catch them to catch them off guard, to make the $787 billion into a higher number, which as you just said is $862 billion now, is an interesting discussion that the administration is going to have to explain.

LEVS: It will.

And let me add something else as well. We have been saying from the beginning that 787 is the figure that was given and we'll also remind people that the CBO is what the government uses, too. When President Obama says he wants his health care plan to pay for itself, he is waiting for the CBO to say. So people trust the CBO inside of the government.

And this just came out, but we always knew it would go higher, because the $787 billion is huge, but keep in mind we are paying debt on all of this money too. So even right there you've got compounding interest that ultimately costs more. So maybe it will go past a trillion eventually, but what we have now is the CBO's new 10-year prediction saying that -- projection -- saying it'll be 862 instead of 787. So what we're seeing is a huge in the government expenditures according to CBO.

VELSHI: Well, that's a 10 percent jump.

LEVS: It is.

VELSHI: I mean, we went from 787 to 862.

OK, Josh, we're going to stay on this and of course, your team is going to continue to make phone calls about where the money is going and whether jobs are being created with it.

All right, when we come back, we're going to talk about national security. A new report says that our danger of exposure to bioterrorism in the United States is actually up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right, I want to tell you about the U.S. getting a failing grade for bioterrorism protection. This is from the 911 Commission, it's headed by former Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent.

Nearly a decade after September 11th -- let me show you what this report has said -- this is a month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, as you recall, a commission set up to assess national security measures has given the U.S. a failing grade for improving its response time to a bioterror attack.

Now the report is called "A World At Risk." Let me tell you about this. It's a follow-up on a report that was first issued in December 2008 that predicted that terrorists could use a weapon of mass destruction like a biological weapon by 2013.

Now, some of the comments out of this report are very interesting. They are something we should think about. The delayed response to the H1N1 outbreak demonstrated, in the commission's words, that the U.S. was woefully behind in its ability to produce needed vaccinations and treatment rapidly.

But here is the interesting thing, H1N1 came with months of warning. Everybody was talking about it. I remember getting criticism saying you guys at CNN are scaring people about this. We all knew it was coming and they are saying that a bioterrorism attack won't come with any warning. So if it took us that long to get ready for a virus that we knew about, what happens to those we don't know about?

The U.S. also got failing grades on congressional oversight and in producing the next generation of security experts.

Now, let me tell you what they got good grades for, A grades. These are the failing grades -- congressional oversight. Now here's the good grades -- national and homeland security integration. National and Homeland Security Council integration, great grade for that, an A. Designation of a senior adviser for weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, and the development of a national strategy for bioforensics -- these are all things that the government got good grades on.

But still overall, the idea that the U.S. is not prepared, adequately prepared for a bioterrorism attack that could come as soon as 2013.

OK, when we come from the break, we're going to come back talk a little more about Haiti. We've talked so much and so many of you have been curious about the situation with respect to kids, orphans in Haiti and schoolchildren. We'll come back and talk about that when CNN returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We are committed to continuing coverage of the effects of the earthquake on Haiti. A little earlier we gave you the numbers of the number of people who were killed. Let's talk about the kids. We have talked a lot here at CNN about the children. There are children in need of nutritional support, children in need of food. Three hundred thousand children younger than two need nutritional support in Haiti.

Now, what I don't know is if the figures include the number of children who need nutritional support before the earthquake. Obviously, we know Haiti was a very, very poor country. But right now 300,000 children younger than two need nutritional support. Ninety percent of the schools in Port-au-Prince have been destroyed. Christiane Amanpour was just talking to us about this. Ninety percent of school have been destroyed and 263 orphans from Haiti have been evacuated to other countries.

Anderson Cooper has been on this story of Haiti's and the threat of human trafficking by people picking those orphans up or fast adoptions. Let's listen to what Anderson has got to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a rare sound in Haiti these days; kids being kids. These are children orphaned by the earthquake, now under the care of UNICEF. They have food and shelter and people watching over them.

But thousands of other new orphans and children separated from their families are still living on the streets in makeshift camps or overcrowded hospitals. Increasingly, doctors and nurses we've talked to are concerned not just about their medical condition but also about their physical safety.

Dr. Laura Asher works in a hospital camp on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

(on camera): How worried are you about the security of the kids here now?

DR. LAURA ASHER, MEDICAL VOLUNTEER IN HAITI: We are extremely worried. We spent all day yesterday and the last four days going down to the U.N., going up the chain of command. We talked to the U.S. Army. We've spoken to the U.S. Air Force. We've done everything -- everything has been documented about our attempts to try to get somebody on base to take care of this camp for all of us.

COOPER (voice-over): She says there was a suspicious man on hospital grounds removed several days ago. She's convinced he was trying to steal a child and feels that no one is listening to her.

ASHER: That is unacceptable! This is unacceptable and it's not about us! It's not about the physicians, alone, or the doctors and nurses! It's about these children! That is unacceptable!

COOPER: At another hospital, Doctor Elizabeth Bellino says security is tight but she worries constantly about someone taking a child.

DR. ELIZABETH BELLINO, MEDICAL VOLUNTEER IN HAITI: I mean we are on full-on lockdown here. I mean, we have security walking around at all times and my eye is constantly on at least 20 kids. And especially I keep an eye out for the orphans.

COOPER (on camera): But you really feel that it's a situation that the kids need actual protection?

BELLINO: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. COOPER (voice-over): UNICEF agrees. They're raising the alarm about the potential for children to be trafficked, stolen for illegal adoptions, sexually exploited or sold as domestic servants.

BO VIKTOR NYLUND, UNICEF: Well, we have reports coming in that children are being trafficked out of the country, both through the airports as well as across the borders through Santo Domingo. And this is, of course, something that we're very concerned about and want to be able to prevent the children of being exploited.

COOPER (on camera): Why would kids be trafficked? Who would be trafficking them?

NYLUND: Well, obviously when an emergency hits it's an opportunity for those who try to exploit children. And now they are particularly vulnerable, they don't have parents many of them and there's nobody to look after them.

COOPER (voice-over): At greatest risk are the newly orphaned kids or those separated from their families. No one knows how many thousands of them there are, but we've met many.

Several days ago we were introduced to Johnny. He was alone in a ward at General Hospital. He didn't remember his last name. Nurses believed his parents were dead, but no one knew for sure.

We found this group of kids being looked after by some adults in a small church. We were told they were orphans and shown a list of the children's names. We were told they were available for adoption. It wasn't clear if they wanted a local orphanage to take the kids or if they were trying to get them adopted internationally. After quizzing the kids, however, turned out some of them did have family members who still wanted to care for them.

(on camera): There are a lot of new orphans created by the earthquake and a lot of people around the world want to adopt them. And that's very understandable, but aid agencies like UNICEF say it's critical that there not be new adoptions just yet. There's got to be a system in place.

And right now, it's just simply too confusing. And it's not clear who's a real orphan, who may have one parent, who's just separated from their parents or who may have an extended family that can take care of them in the days and years ahead?

(voice-over): UNICEF has begun to identify and track unaccompanied children and that process will likely take a long time. For now, however, they're trying to find and protect as many kids as fast as they can.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Port-au-Prince.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Have you seen the movie "Avatar"? If so, you're not alone. I've seen it. It's coming under attack by a lot of people who are saying it is anti-religion and anti-military. Why? We'll tell you why when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The rich girl that we're talking about is James Cameron; not a girl, but he is rich. In fact, for 13 years he had the biggest grossing movie in history with "Titanic" $1.2 billion, 13 years it held the record. The record has been broken sadly, but it has been broken by James Cameron who is the director of "Avatar." Look at that -- $552.8 million U.S. take, $1.8 billion worldwide. And that is for a movie that has been criticized as being anti-military and anti- religious.

Here is Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Cameron's "Avatar" is billion dollar-grossing epic taking audiences all over the world to a new world, Pandora. There's something about these blue being that has some critics seeing red.

RICK GRENELL, COLUMNIST: If you are a rational environmentalist with a job or a hard-working, religious American, then you should be offended by "Avatar."

CARROLL: The Internet is buzzing with bloggers saying "Avatar" is a pro-environment, anti-religious film some says pushes a liberal agenda.

ROSS DOUTHAT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think the movie's left- wing politics are pretty transparent. I think that it's a movie in which where the bad guys are the American military.

CARROLL: The military on Pandora are mercenaries hired by a corporation bent on mining the planet's resources at the indigenous beings' expenses. A betrayal drawing angry reaction from the U.S. Marine public affairs director in a letter to the "Marine Corps Times" saying the film "takes sophomoric shots at our military culture.:

Cameron could not disagree more, his brother is a former Marine and he says he has tremendous respect for the military. He talked about "Avatar"'s meaning at his studio in November.

(on camera): What is it thematically that you are trying to accomplish here?

JAMES CAMERON, DIRECTOR, "AVATAR": I want to take people to another world and out of the daily lives on a fantasy journey. What's our place? What are we here for?

CARROLL (voice-over): A studio representative says critics who say the movie is pro-environment are right, but anti-religious? A Vatican newspaper says "Avatar" promotes the worship of nature over religion. The movie's creators say the being on Pandora are spiritual, but that doesn't mean they are anti-religion. DOUTHAT: If you are James Cameron and you have a movie that you are trying to sell to the widest audience possible, you're certainly not going to say, oh, yes, I've made a movie that's politically left wing. Maybe after it's made $10 billion, he will say, yes, OK, it is left wing, I admit it. But not till then.

CARROLL: For now, audiences keep coming with their own opinions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is anti-overbearing military, anti-imperialist military.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't really think there was much of an underlying message. I thought it was just a kind of a mind-blowing, visual experience more than anything.

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Checking the headlines, the FDA has just recalled some medical products used in hospitals, clinics and homes. These are things used to draw blood or administer liquids through ports and they are sold by Exel, sometimes called Exelint. Be looking for Huber needles, infusion sets and safety sets. You can find specific product codes at fda.gov.

Meantime, home prices are inching up. The closely watched index says price in November were up .02 of a percent from October on a seasonally-adjusted basis. Good news, but don't get too excited. The index was still down 5 percent compared to the previous year.

In France, some lawmakers are calling for a burqa ban. A parliamentary panel is recommending a resolution to keep women from wearing face-covering veils in public places like hospitals and schools. Burqas are worn by many Muslim women.

And when we come back, it's time for "The Ed Henry Segment." Plus, follow me on Twitter, because I'm losing to Ed Henry. So you can follow me at @AliVelshi. And when we come back, check out that tie that he's wearing. Going to talk about that amongst other very important political matters. "The Ed Henry Segment" when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Oh, it is time for "The Ed Henry Segment" with Ed Henry at the White House.

And I just -- I mean, do you tie that yourself, Ed, or is that a clip-on?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I do. I want to tell you that you went after my tie yesterday, so I thought I would bring out a doozy today. And last night I got an e-mail from no less than authority than Roland Martin, who I will take style advice from him before you any day of the week, Mr. Velshi. And he said it was right on, but he said I needed a pocket square.

VELSHI: Yes, he always says that, yes. Do you have one?

HENRY: Yes, I do have one today, it's kind of small.

But secondly, a camera of one of our photojournalists here in D.C. literally before this segment accosted me in the elevator and said, don't take anything from Ali. He was pointing out, as I did yesterday, that you had a pinstriped suit, you had a checkered shirt, you had a polka-dotted tie. As this cameraman told me, he will remain anonymous, "Velshi" -- and I'm quoting now -- "pick a pattern."

VELSHI: Pick a pattern. All right. If I get a segment on your show, we're going to call it "Pick a Pattern."

(LAUGHTER)

Ed, while we are talking about all things cool, the coolest thing to be in 2009, or at least the beginning of it, was a democrat.

HENRY: Absolutely. I mean, you had pressure on the way in here for the segment, and democrats are under a lot of pressure. In part, because of the retirement we are seeing in the House and the Senate. In fairness we have to point out, there have been several House and Senate republicans heading for the exits as well. And it's pretty natural for the first midterm election after a new president is elected that he or she will lose seats.

But I think that there is a special pressure building on democrats, and we saw this yesterday. When you had even the vice president's own son, Beau Biden, say he is not going to run for the Senate seat that his father gave up in Delaware. A year ago, as you noted, when the Obama/Biden team was sworn in, it was sort of a foregone conclusion that Joe would pass the seat on to his son. All of a sudden it's looking like a Republican pickup.

Just today, Congressman Bart Stupak, a democrat from Michigan, said he's not running for governor. And I think what you're seeing, basically, is that a lot of these folks are deciding they don't want to take a big risk. They see the climate is rough for democrats right now. If they thought President Obama had strong coattails, they might make some of these runs.

Now, you see Blanch Lincoln there. Very interesting story. Last night she put it on Twitter -- her account is @Blanche4senate, the number 4 instead of F-O-R -- and she tweeted last night, major campaign announcement coming on Tuesday. That has people not just on Twitter but here in Washington going crazy with the notion that maybe another democrat was going to retire.

She did not. She came out today and the big announcement was that she has several million dollars in the bank. She's saying she is going to push back hard against the republicans. That was good news for the democrats, but right now they have had a string of bad luck with candidates.

VELSHI: You might say it had all of Washington atwitter.

What's interesting is, again, because of the appeal that President Obama has to a young audience and his social networking, you might have the impression that the democrats lead the networking war in Washington, but apparently that is not the case.

HENRY: That's right. Politifact.com, which goes through all of these fact checks and whatnot, actually has now done a survey and saying basically that the republicans are using Twitter and Facebook, doing a much better job with the social media.

And in fact, I checked just before we came on and John McCain has 1.75 million followers on Twitter. Far more than either one of us combined I should point out. And I remember a time when covering John McCain in 2008 campaign, I had just been covering President Bush, of course, and President Bush had famously said, "I have used 'the Google'" which made a lot of people wonder whether the republicans understood the Internet.

And then famously, one of John McCain's aides said, and I quote, "John McCain is aware of the Internet." And that was picked up a lot because of the notion that he was sort of aware of it sort of like you are aware of world hunger or something like that, but you really had not touched it. And so that made a lot of people think maybe the republicans are out of touch

But you know what? John McCain now has 1.75 million followers on Twitter, more republicans on Capitol Hill using the social media than democrats. Another area where the democrats have to catch up now.

VELSHI: All right, and you just mentioned you have a Twitter account, @edhenry -- he is little ahead of me.

HENRY: Well, it is kind of embarrassing for you because you have your own show. I mean, I have a segment, but I don't have a whole show.

VELSHI: But you have a segment named after you.

HENRY: I do.

And you know, I do want to tell you one last thing, which is that I feel a little bit like Conan O'Brien because -- here's why. When management told me I was going to get a segment named after me, I was really excited. And they said, well here's the catch, it's going to be on our fastest growing new show. And I said, that's great, I'm going to be on "RICK'S LIST." And then they said, no, actually it is about a half hour, not 3:00 p.m. Eastern, it's about a half hour, we are going to call it "Ed Henry" just like we're going to call it the "Tonight Show," but it is not going to be at that timeslot, it's going to be at 2:40.

VELSHI: We are moving it around.

HENRY: Yes. You know, look, I all in favor of this show. I am just teasing you, Ali. Good luck with the new show. VELSHI: Well, Ed, but that is one crazy tie. Ed, we look forward to seeing lots of you.

And by the way, Ed is going to be here with us for coverage of the State of the Union Wednesday at 8:00.

And we're of course teasing -- we're covering the stimulus bill. I need to talk to you about this, because things have changed. We have been talking about a $787 billion stimulus bill, it might be worth $75 billion more.

We want you to call us if you have a stimulus project around you that you want to talk about, 1-800-CNN-NEWS. We will follow-up with that desk that you're looking at right now. That is the CNN Stimulus Desk. When we come back, I'm going to give you an update on where we stand with that.

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VELSHI: All right. We are here back at the Stimulus Desk, things are changing very rapidly today. This is, of course, something we have committed to doing, but now we are finding out that the stimulus is a lot more expensive than it is. But our core job here is making phone calls to the projects and finding out where the money went and what it created. You found a very interesting one.

LEVS: Really interesting one that the White House says was not appropriate. And I'll just set the scene here -- these binders, in case you don't know, are filled with tens of thousands of projects, about 57,000 projects that are funded with billions of taxpayer dollars in that original stimulus that passed last year.

We found one that's interesting, and this is about picnic tables. We have an image on the computer behind me. Our control room can actually take this full for you. This is from a website called pilotrock.com. These types of picnic tables were set up at lots of national parks, a handful of national parks all over the country. Seems, you now, fine to add picnic tables to parks, but in this case it was done with stimulus funding. And what happened was, there's a company in Iowa that was given more than to get these picnic tables and some other things up at national parks, but no jobs were created as a result of it at all.

We have a graphic here for you that summarizes that, where it was and the amount. I believe it's $110,000, we can go to that.

So what's happened now is the White House took a look at this and they said, you know what, $110,000, picnic tables and some other things at national parks not an appropriate expenditure in the White House's view. So they have now given us a statement that I'll read that to you here, and you guys have that. This is from a White House spokeswoman and she says, "This purchase, however small, was not in line with the high standards the Administration has set for the Recovery Act -- and the Army Corps has been informed that similar purchases should not be made going forward with Recovery dollars." Because it was a few of the Army Corps of Engineers around the country that watch out for these parks. The White House now saying this $110,000 should not have been used this way at these parks.

So one example of one of the many expenditures along here where the White House is not happy either.

VELSHI: Yes, we were actually looking into a story last night when I was on the late shift again with Army Corps expenditures. They had asked for some soil, some contaminated soil to be removed, and they've gave that contract for $15 million to another company. Again, zero jobs created. I'm wondering whether this is an accounting problem? How we're putting money out there -- there are some instances where we've seen projects where jobs are not created, but there might be some other economic benefit, but we're not understanding how that works for picnic tables.

LEVS: Right, and you can decide that maybe more people are going to go to a park. I mean, honestly, the subjective stuff about where stimulus dollars should go and not go is for all of you to decide. You know, what we are looking at here are simply the facts -- no jobs were created from this, this is how much was expended. Maybe some people think, you know, when you are bailing out banks, why not get more picnic tables. Others might be against it.

But the idea here is, as we dig into these, we are looking at more and more projects. And this one was striking cause the White House said they're not interested, they don't want to see this particular expenditure again. And in this case, zero jobs resulted from that.

VELSHI: We also got more information on the $75 billion dollar increase...

LEVS: The jump.

VELSHI: ... the jump in the value of the stimulus from $787 billion to -- what are we looking at now?

LEVS: Eight sixty-two.

VELSHI: Big 10 percent jump, more than 10 percent jump in the value of the bill. We're going to be breaking that down through the course of today and the evening. A lot of it is an increase in unemployment benefits, food stamps, things like that.

Now, we're going to take a break, but when we come back, we are going to talk about a school that has banned a book. I will tell you about that book when we come back.

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VELSHI: All right. That is the Stimulus Desk working hard to find that money.

Rick Sanchez up next with "RICK'S LIST." Let's talk to him about what is coming up in his show -- Rick.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you have been doing this stimulus thing, how do you think it's working out so far? Let me interview you, Ali.

VELSHI: I'm glad we're doing it. We're finding things we didn't know about. Listen -- some of it's good, Rick, some of it a little questionable. But bottom line, people want to know how their money is being spent.

SANCHEZ: You know something I've been looking into for quite awhile? Have you seen what's going on seeing what is going on with this Senator John Ensign out there in Nevada? John Ensign is in a bit of a pickle, and he recently came on and did an interview with me. And we were talking about a lot of things, but most of all we were talking -- look, the guy cheated on his wife, the guy has a mistress, right? It happens. And that's not really -- although noteworthy, not necessarily newsworthy. The thing is, it seems like he was trying to get both the mistress and the mistress' husband, who was his chief of staff, out of the way.

Came on my show, did he think I wasn't going to be asked about this?

VELSHI: I don't think anybody who comes on your show should expect not to be asked the tough questions.

SANCHEZ: Well, guess what. He is now about to be asked some tough questions again.

VELSHI: He is coming on again?

SANCHEZ: No, the FBI is now going to investigate it and ask the very same things that I was asking him that day about his relationship with Doug Hampton, about whether or not he was perhaps involved in some illegalities. And now the Senate Ethics Committee is going to also continue its investigation with him.

So when I told you at the begin of the investigation, he was in a bit of a pickle, I was not kidding.

VELSHI: That's a real pickle. OK, Rick, we are going to be watching.

"RICK'S LIST" starting at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Now to the x-y-z of it. It has been a while since a schoolbook ban has made headlines. The same few titles always seem to pop up though, "Catcher in the Rye," "Heather Has Two Mommies" -- you get the picture. Well, a California school district has dared to be a little bit different. The book that it has just pulled from its fourth and fifth-grade classrooms -- the dictionary. It seems that a parent called and complained about some entries that describe oral sex.

Stop looking, it's not here on the page.

School officials scrambled. They grabbed up every "Merriam- Webster 10th Collegiate Edition Dictionary" that they could find. A panel of parents, teachers, and administrators now leafing through -- hint, hint, it's under "O" -- looking for other wicked words. They'll decide what to do with the dictionaries -- keep them, sell them. I don't know what they're going to do with it.

I saw a quote from a school spokeswoman that says there dictionaries have not been banned. Maybe she needs to crack one open and look up that word. Ban is a verb, "to prohibit the use, performance, distribution of, (as in) to ban a book." That's what we got from the "Merriam-Webster Dictionary."

Our NEWSROOM dictionary, is exactly that. It's a Merriam- Webster, it doesn't have the said entry for oral sex. But you know what does, the website -- mw.com. No word if the school district is going to ban the Internet as well. I will leave that up to you.

Rick's up next with "RICK'S LIST."

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