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What to Spend, Where to Cut; Toyota Gas Pedal Fix is Ready; Tracking Stimulus Money

Aired February 01, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, it's time now for the reset at the top of the hour.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining us.

I'm Betty Nguyen in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It is noon in Washington, where budget wonks are going over President Obama's spending plan for 2011 line by line.

It's 9:00 a.m. in California, where the state is cutting thousands of inmates loose after cutting the budget for prisons.

And it's 12:00 in Atlanta, where a young entrepreneur's jewelry business thrives despite these hard economic times.

Let's get started.

What to spend and where to cut. President Obama lays out his budget for 2011. The $3.8 trillion spending plan tries to balance more government spending to generate job growth with controlling the deficit.

White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins me now live.

And Suzanne, as they say, the devil's in the details. So give us those details.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Betty, I guess I'm one of those budget wonks now.

We have been combing through the budget here, obviously, over the last hour or so. I got a chance to talk to the director of OMB, Peter Orszag, who said, look, they're just trying not to make things worse than they were before, obviously trying to lower expectations.

But at the same time, we've heard the president talking about how he says that his number one priority is still creating jobs for the American people. He wants to try to reflect that in the budget.

We heard very similar language from President Obama than we've heard from President Bush, saying these are tough decisions, they're tough cuts, but he is trying to take a look at the budget line by line and eliminate waste, things that either duplicate or inefficient kind of programs. And that is how he came to the conclusion that he did to make certain necessary cut and to also, at the same time, try to increase spending to also create new jobs.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've proposed a freeze in government spending for three years. This won't apply to the benefits folks get through Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare, and it won't apply to our national security, including benefits for veterans. But it will apply to all other discretionary government programs. And we're not simply photocopying last year's budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: It's not just last year's budget. Obviously, there are some cuts, some serious cuts that we're looking at, Betty. I want you to take a look at this.

The first one, eliminating subsidies for oil and gas production., obviously trying to promote clean energy substitutes. It's estimated to save $2.6 billion for 2011.

You've got discontinuing the military cargo plane, the C-17. I talked with Orszag about that earlier today. They said to save about $2.5 billion for this year, and next year it will be completely discontinued.

And then terminating NASA's -- what they call the constellation systems program. We know that better, Betty, as the moon mission. This is an estimated savings of $2.5 billion to $5 billion per year. They're going to actually rely on private contractors to go ahead and provide the funds for any potential moon missions.

And then, in terms of spending itself, we heard from the president talking about jobs is number one. So, what are we looking at here? A hundred billion dollar investment in what they say is going to create new jobs.

We'll see how that goes, investing in infrastructure and tax credits for business; $20 billion for elementary and secondary school education. That's a six percent increase, big increase in education funding. And $61.6 billion for research and development, once again for new industries to promote creating those jobs.

The president obviously, Betty, selling this package to the American people. But it goes up to Congress. It's Congress, ultimately, that's going to cut that check.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. And there's a lot in it. You know, $3 trillion.

And all of this, is he confident, is the White House confident this is going to reduce the national debt? You know, that's a big initiative there. Can they do it with this budget?

MALVEAUX: Well, you know, that's the big question, whether or not they can do that. They're certainly trying.

The goal is to reduce the national deficit. But it's far from certain how quickly they're going to be able to do that.

Their goal, obviously, is for it to be three percent of the gross domestic product. They get it down to about 4.5 percent of the gross domestic product, but not down to the three percent over a number of years. And so, they still have a ways to go. And that is going to be requiring Congress to get involved to actually make further cuts, further necessary cuts -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Oh, it's about to get interesting. OK.

Suzanne Malveaux, one of our wonks, as we say around here.

Thank you.

MALVEAUX: I'm a wonk. I am. I admit it.

NGUYEN: Yes. That's OK. That's all right. We're all geeked up about this. That's not a problem.

All right. So, checking some other big stories for you now.

A mixed bag of new economic numbers out today. On the positive side, personal income rose more than expected in December. And the Commerce Department says incomes rose .4 percent.

But construction spending fell sharply in December. Spending on new homes, office buildings and highways dropped 1.2 percent. That is worse than analysts expected. The drop in new home building was the steepest in seven months.

Well, New York Governor David Paterson is looking at possible 9/11 trial sites today with the U.S. Marshal Service. Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others are scheduled for trial in lower Manhattan, but the Obama administration is reconsidering.

New York's mayor raising some concerns about security and costs. The mayor of Newburgh, New York, wants the trial. He says the town would get an economic boost and worldwide attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR NICK VALENTINE, NEWBURGH, NEW YORK: The security concerns would have to be borne again by the federal government. No matter where this trial is going to happen, that security has to be taken care of.

We haven't looked at the total picture of this. What we've looked at was the fact that some municipality is going to be chosen within the continental United States, and $200 million is going to go to that municipality. I'm not saying that Newburgh is going to be the choice, but to say no early on in this stage just takes us out of the mix. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Well, Newburgh is about 60 miles north of Manhattan.

Ten Americans in Haiti are accused of child trafficking and waiting to hear if they will face a trial. The five men, five women were arrested Saturday at the border of the Dominican Republic. They had 33 children aboard their bus, and the kids ranged in age from 2 months to 12 years. Haitian officials say many of them were not orphans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-MAX BELLERIVE, HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: Some of the children were asking for their parents. And it was in their minds that they believed that there was some illegal activities because some of the children clearly were not orphans because they were asking for the children -- for their parents. So it's what the police and the prosecutor find very strange.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The Americans say they are Baptist missionaries trying to save abandoned kids. A minister in Idaho backs that up claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. CLINT HENRY, CENTRAL VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH: They are going to be in front of a judge today, sometime, I think, around 1:00 or later in -- down there in Port-au-Prince. So our prayers are with the team that things will be cleared up.

It certainly is not our intent to traffic children. Those would not be charges that would indicate anything at all about what was going on. We simply were trying to help an orphanage that needed our assistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Well, let's get you some other news out of Haiti right now, because the U.S. military says flights bringing critically injured earthquake victims into the U.S. have resumed. The medical evacuation flights were halted five days ago due to issues over space and health costs at American public hospitals.

Many public schools in Haiti though reopened today for the first time since the earthquake hit. Others may reopen next Monday. But government officials warn schoolchildren will likely be on the streets for months.

Parts to fix Toyota's gas pedal problem are being shipped to dealerships right now.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick is in our New York bureau with the latest on this.

What is Toyota saying today, now that those parts are finally being shipped?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's interesting, Betty. As a matter of fact, I just got off of a conference call where there were some key Toyota personnel, including the head of Toyota sales, U.S.

Toyota says that it's confident that, in fact, there is no problem with the electronics system as had been alleged in certain newspaper articles. That, in fact, they believe the fix will work, that it's easy enough to do, that bioengineers from Japan were working on it 24 hours a day in order to come up with a solution.

The parts will begin arriving late Tuesday, early Wednesday. It takes about 30 minutes to fix, but they believe that once the process is streamlined at various dealerships, that, in fact, they'll be able to do it a lot more quickly.

Remember, you're looking at 2.3 million vehicles, and so that would require about a million labor hours. Again, this is spread across the country, and there are about 170,000 dealerships across the country.

Now, Toyota knows it has a very big problem on its hands. As a matter of fact, Jim Lentz, the chief operating officer, spoke on "AMERICAN MORNING" this morning, and he says that they're going to be at dealerships to gauge the customers' temperature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM LENTZ, PRESIDENT & COO, TOYOTA: We put all of our efforts against making sure that we knew exactly what the situation was, developing the fix, and then developing the solution that we could fix our -- fix the cars at our dealerships as rapidly as possible. So, I know many have criticized us, but I think it's most important that customers understand that we understand the problem, we have the fix. And our dealers are ready to take care of customers later on this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Now, just so you can understand the problem, Toyota says that what is happening is that the problem stems from a friction device in the gas pedal. Essentially, that's what gives you a steady drive. And some cars over time, Toyota says materials used, wear and tear and environmental conditions, are causing this pedal to stick rather than release smoothly.

Now, you can see that graphic. And if you look down by the corner, right by the CNN logo, you'll see there's a little red bar. OK? And that is the bar they're going to be inserting in order to make sure that the friction is lessened so that the pedal returns more quickly, so that it doesn't stick. Because when it does, what happens is that the car doesn't slow down and it accelerates unexpectedly.

Now, they're calling it a precision cut steel reinforcement bar that's going to be installed in the gas pedal assembly, and they say that it's going to reduce the surface tension and thereby make the pedal work the way it is supposed to. Again, they say it's not an electronics problem. They say that these devices have been rigorously tested, and they believe that they're going to be able to get these parts into the dealerships by late tomorrow -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. And just a 30-minute fix. But the question is, how long will that line be for that quick fix?

All right. Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much for that.

All last week and this, CNN's focus is the president's biggest economic initiative so far, and that, of course, being the $862 billion stimulus plan. "The Stimulus Project" digs into how the money is being spent, who is it helping, and who is abusing the program?

It's just a few of the things we'll be delving into. And, in fact, in a few minutes, we'll check in with Josh Levs at The Stimulus Desk to find out what they're working on this hour.

First, though, ,our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. You ready for this, the "Random Moment of the Day"?

Actor Rip Torn, accused of being armed and loaded inside a bank. Get this, Connecticut police responding to an alarm on Friday night say they found Torn in a drunk haze and packing heat.

He's accused of breaking in through a back window. It's also a deja vu moment. That's video from the last time Torn was arrested on a drunk driving charge.

He's being held on burglary and firearms charges. And we -- and he will in fact see a judge today. But we will continue to follow this for you, our "Random Moment."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, with the economy issue number one, we want to know this: Where is $862 billion going? That is the price tag for the stimulus plan that passed a year ago.

Josh Levs is following the numbers at the CNN Stimulus Desk.

And Josh, I understand you're starting with a project about cocaine?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, isn't this interesting?

You know, as we go through the 57,000 projects that there are out there represented in these binders, information about all of them, we stumble on some really interesting projects. And one of them is about cocaine dependency. And I can tell you a little bit about it. We have a screen that shows you how much money. Basically, what it does is it's a study at the University -- Medical University of South Carolina, $567,000 put into this. And they say two or three jobs are being created from this as they study the problem of cocaine dependence, what can be done about it. They're trying some new treatments to help people get relieved of that.

And this is an example of something that the White House in general has been talking to us about. They say there are actually a lot of science projects -- and there are, we've seen them -- that are funded by this.

And I have a quote for you here that we got from the NIH. I want to share part of this with you, because they're saying that this is funding a lot of important projects.

"Recovery Act dollars will help fuel an astonishing array of research advances in medicine and health. This research will help unravel the clues behind many of our most daunting and debilitating disease. The Recovery Act investment in research will provide a substantial boost to the economy in every state, with estimates of 50,000 jobs created or preserved."

So, you know, Betty, it's up to everyone what should or should not get stimulus funding. But these are some of the science projects that through a Peer Review system did get funding from the stimulus to continue their science work -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, a whole lot of funding, $567,000. It created though just two or three jobs.

LEVS: Yes.

NGUYEN: That's interesting.

All right. Let's move on to this. Some of the stimulus money is going to efforts to help the unemployed. Correct?

LEVS: Yes, exactly. And that's part of what's interesting here.

First of all, when you look at that giant stimulus bill, a lot of it actually went to unemployment benefits. But some of it, as in the case we're going to tell you about now in Utah, is actually going to a project to hire people to help the unemployed.

This is out of Salt Lake City, based in Salt Lake City, but it's for statewide inside Utah -- $4.3 million, Betty, were put into this project in Utah basically to hire people to work at these unemployment centers, to help people find work. Also, to help people get food stamps.

So, not only is a lot of that money going to unemployment benefits, but some of it is also going to hire people to work at these unemployment centers. Just a couple of the latest examples that we are looking at here at The Stimulus Desk.

And we're going to do something new for you now. We're going to zoom in on the big screen behind me, which has the total that we've looked at so far.

So, of the massive $862 billion project, we have now looked at $8.4 billion -- no it's up, $9.7 billion. Look at that. It just jumped, $9.7 billion under review by CNN.

And betty, we've got a lot more to go. We're going to keep going all week long.

NGUYEN: Yes. You're going to be busy for quite a few days.

LEVS: One percent of the way there.

NGUYEN: OK. Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: Thank you.

NGUYEN: So, all last week, we profiled successful small businesses as part of our "Survival of the Fittest" series. Now, these are folks who are not only making ends meeting in this recession, but in some cases excelling.

Bakery owner Sonia Jones (ph) almost folded, but got the bright idea of downsizing her sweets. And she sent her son to some of the farmers' markets, as well. Organic baby food entrepreneur Agatha Achindu (ph) gave up her corporate job and cashed in her 401(k), but now she's selling in Whole Foods. And Dawn Dallaire, CEO of Clearly Fun Soaps, is getting a contract with a Fortune 500 company.

Way to go.

You know, it may sound counterintuitive, but some experts say now is the time to start your own business. Lots of available talent and low rent.

Ashley Logsdon is only 25 years old, but she's well on her way to building a pearl jewelry empire.

Tony Harris brings us her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASHLEY LOGSDON, ENTREPRENEUR: It's like something every girl wants.

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ashley Logdson glows like the very pearls she sells when she talks about her product.

LOGSDON: To me, they're all gorgeous, and the imperfections give them character. The different colors make them exciting and fresh and contemporary.

HARRIS: The 25-year-old runs a jewelry business out of her parents' basement. Her mother keeps the books and helps design the jewelry.

LOGSDON: An earring. You can see I started bringing this back. And I was like, why don't we just put them together?

SANDY LOGSDON, ASHLEY LOGSDON'S MOTHER: I'm her biggest fan and employee right now. She's -- I call her my boss.

HARRIS: But don't let this mom and daughter operation fool you. Two-and-a-half years after the company's founding, Ashley's Dolma Jewelry is carried in 40 boutiques around the country. She also sells them wholesale through a booth at a merchandise mart and sales reps at house parties.

Her parents were skeptical at first.

DAVID LOGSDON, ASHLEY LOGSDON'S FATHER: That was my advice to her, to work for somebody else for a while. And then, after maybe two, three, four years, then maybe strike out on her own.

S. LOGSDON: How could you do it? You're 22 years old.

A. LOGSDON: I kept saying, "Mom and dad, if I am 25 and broke, I'll be like everybody else."

HARRIS: But she is far from broke.

A. LOGSDON: No, I'm not broke. We did $135,000 in '09.

HARRIS: Ashley's secret, a connection, a flair for foreign languages and a keen eye for design. She travels directly to the source, Beijing, handpicking pearls before they're even strung, speaking in Mandarin to her choice vendors. She learned Mandarin as a young economics major on a semester abroad program.

A. LOGSDON: Well, that's where all the business was going, it seemed.

HARRIS: She went on a shopping trip to Beijing with a fellow student who had relatives there, and they introduced her to a pearl vendor.

A. LOGSDON: When I actually went to the markets and met the vendors, and saw, like, all the shapes and sizes and colors, I mean, I had no idea that pearls weren't just round and white.

HARRIS: Ashley found her passion and her original plans of working in corporate finance were long behind her.

S. LOGSDON: She had eight or nine reps set up to sell. She had her product, she had her vendors.

HARRIS: The finished product is mailed to Atlanta and Ashley packages it up herself. She follows up with phone call orders.

A. LOGSDON: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

HARRIS: Her jewelry averages between $50 and $150. Pretty cheap for pearls.

A. LOGSDON: Our product is, you know, way below retail. I knew how to bargain and how to handle business in China.

HARRIS: In the future, she has big plans.

A. LOGSDON: I would love to hire 100 people by June or July. I mean, I think I can do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: What great story. And that was Tony Harris reporting.

By the way, Ashley's father is no longer a critic. He jokingly told us that he hopes to retire off of her profits.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. So we're going to take you to California now, where it's preparing to release thousands of prisoners early because of the budget crisis. Now, that is troubling news for police in places like Indio, which has cut its violent crime rate in half over the past five years.

Here's CNN's Casey Wian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just a few years ago, simply walking down these streets with Indio, California's police chief would have been risky.

CHIEF BRAD RAMOS, INDIO, CALIFORNIA, POLICE: This particular neighborhood was very, very violent. We would have in one particular point in time, over an 18-month period, we had six homicides that all occurred within a four-block area.

WIAN (on camera): And this is an area where the police station is located. Right?

RAMOS: This is just a few blocks from our police station.

WIAN: What used to go on here? What types of crime?

RAMOS: We would have drive-by shootings. We would have shots fired calls. We would have gang violence and gang fights.

WIAN: So where are all the bad guys?

RAMOS: In prison.

WIAN (voice-over): Perhaps not for long. This year, California is reducing the number of inmates in its notoriously overcrowded and violent prisons by more than 6,000 to save $1 billion.

MATTHEW CATE, SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: We were just flat-out of room, and the state's out of money. And so we've had to take these steps.

WIAN: Cate says the only inmates with get out of jail free cards will be ones the state considers low-risk offenders and parolees who won't be returned to prison because of minor violations. The Corrections Department is also offering early release to inmates who obtained high school equivalency certificates and job training.

RAMOS: When they come home, based on budget cuts we're seeing statewide at the county and at the local level, there's not going to be a support mechanism. My concern is the state is saying yes, we are going to provide this and this. But how am I assured as the chief of police that has the responsibility for over 90,000 people that I can ensure that the state is going to follow up on their word?

WIAN: At risk, a community that's been transformed, where parks have replaced gang turf and new mothers feel safe to walk the streets.

RAMOS: How do I tell a crime victim of a violent crime that the reason why you're a victim is somebody was out and wasn't being supervised?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, joining me now, CNN's Casey Wian from Los Angeles.

All right, Casey. So, if the state says it's only going to release parolees and people convicted of relatively minor crimes, why are local police so concerned about this?

WIAN: Well, what local police say, Betty, is that many of those inmates who have been convicted maybe of a burglary or a relatively minor violation of their parole, a lot of those folks are bad guys who have been habitual gang-bangers, sometimes drug dealers, armed robbery suspects. But what the police actually put them in prison for was relatively minor.

They're worried that if these folks get out into their neighborhoods again, especially in large numbers, and the state of California is facing a federal court order that's on hold for now to release 40,000 inmates over three years, you can imagine of these people getting into these old neighborhoods, that in cities like Indio they have managed to clean up and reduce the crime rate, local law enforcement officials are very worried because their budgets are under pressure and they're going to have more responsibility to keep an eye on these former inmates.

NGUYEN: All right. Casey Wian bringing it to us.

Thank you so much, Casey.

You know, the president's balancing act with his very unbalanced budget. Spending to spur the economy without aggravating the deficit. What do members of Congress have to say?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NGUYEN: Well, President Obama outlines his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011. And the president is trying to balance more spending to encourage job creation with getting the deficit under control. Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins me now live from Capitol Hill, where the plan is getting a once-over.

In fact, Dana, they are going line by line.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They are going line by line, at least the lawmakers who are in town. It's kind of interesting that the budget landed in Congress on February 1st, this year, that is, of course, a Monday. And at least in the House, where we are, members of Congress are mostly back in their districts. We have found a couple, though, that we have talked to.

But I want to just first tell you where I am. I am in the committee room of the House Budget Committee. And right here is where the president's budget director tomorrow will sit. And he is going to be facing these empty chairs, they will not be empty tomorrow, members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who will be questioning him on the specifics of this very big $3.8 trillion budget.

You mentioned the fact that they are -- people are going through it line by line. Last hour, Betty, we showed you a conversation that I had with a Democrat, Frank Pallone, who is not thrilled with the concept of spending cuts. Well, in between the last time we spoke and now, I went and talked to a Republican. Actually a Republican member of this committee, John Campbell. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN CAMPBELL (R), CALIFORNIA: Hi. How are you?

BASH: You OK if we come on in?

CAMPBELL: Absolutely.

BASH: I just wanted to get a sense of what you're doing here.

CAMPBELL: Well, we're trying, at this point, to figure out, you know, the broad numbers are here. I mean the overall numbers, I mean here is the overall budget totals, for example, and then the other thing I always look at are the economic assumptions. BASH: Now, big picture, what is your overall sense of what you've seen so far? Better in terms of deficit reduction?

CAMPBELL: No. I mean this budget increases taxes, spending, debt, and deficit. Basically almost every year going out. That is unsustainable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the congressman conceded that, you know, things got bad during the Republican rule. Republican rule here in Congress and there was a Republican at the White House. He admitted, we Republicans did not do a good job. We were pretty bad when it came to spending.

But he also insisted, you heard him there saying that it is unsustainable. The point that he is making and the point that we will hear probably all day today and certainly tomorrow in this hearing room from Republicans is the concern that the United States of America owes so much money. The fact that this year alone, there is an unbelievable debt -- deficit, I should say, $1.56 trillion. That is unprecedented. And that that really hurts the United States' standing because it owes so much to its creditors, both other countries and other organizations -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, there's a huge balancing act in this budget. And we'll see how it plays out.

All right, Dana Bash joining us live. Thank you, Dana.

We (INAUDIBLE) this story because if you own one of the millions of Toyota cars being recalled, there is some good news for you today. Toyota says it has a fix to the gas pedal problem and has already started shipping replacement parts to dealers. Now the parts include a steel reinforcement bar to keep the pedal from sticking. Toyota's president says he's sorry and is working to rebuild customers' trust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM LENTZ, TOYOTA PRESIDENT & CEO: For 50 years of selling vehicles in the U.S., we've built our reputation on quality, dependability, reliability, but most importantly on trust. And we want to be able to rebuild that trust with our customers by effectively taking care of this issue and working through our dealers to provide a great experience to our customers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: OK. So the replacement parts for those problem gas pedals are on the way, but what about the damage to Toyota's reputation? Well, the company's image could be in need of a major repair, too. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow joins me now live from New York.

Poppy, Toyota's actually launching a public relations offensive in light of all of this.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes. I mean that's exactly right. What we saw, really starting yesterday, Betty, was major full-page ads in about 20 newspapers across the country. The president of Toyota U.S. coming out and talking to a lot of the big networks today.

And it's interesting because just a few weeks ago I sat down with him for an interview in Detroit and all things Toyota looked pretty good. But what a difference a few weeks can make. They're facing a lot of criticism that they waited too long to address this issue. It's been 12 days since these recalls. We really hadn't heard much from the company until this morning when they went on that offensive, as you say, and the head of U.S. sales is saying, listen, what we were doing was focusing all our efforts on understanding the problem, coming up with a fix.

But the real impact and the real question is, how long until they get their image back. It's certainly tarnished now. They've had a stellar reputation for quality. That has now changed. That's just how it stands. The head of U.S. sales, though, he said this morning he's pretty optimistic. He says, yes, of course, we're going to lose some customers. Overall, though, we've built up a loyalty in this country for the 50 years that we've been here.

But the competitors, they're trying to take a bite out of Toyota. This is a chart of all of U.S. auto sales in 2009. As you see, GM near 20 percent at the top there. Toyota, though, second with 17 percent. And Ford below it. So what we're seeing is that GM, Chrysler, Ford and Hyundai are all offering these incentives to lure customers away from Toyota to buy their brands.

And we talked to an auto analyst today who said, listen, you're probably not going to see a huge exodus of customers from Toyota to those U.S. brands. But if you see Honda offer an incentive like this, then you probably will. We know Honda came out this week, though, Betty, and said we're not going to do that.

To the bottom line here from that analyst, customers are concerned now, but they're saying their memories tend to be short- lived. So it's yet to really be determined how huge of an impact this is on Toyota -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, Poppy Harlow joining us live. Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: You got it.

NGUYEN: You know we have an update from the people monitoring the TARP program and the question that we're asking is, is it working? We're going to tell you what they have to say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: A quick check of top stories for you right now.

President Obama, this morning, gave Congress a proposed budget for 2011 to boost employment and solidify the economy. The $3.8 trillion spending plan calls for $53 billion in tax cuts and $50 billion in job creating measures.

Also being released today, a major review of Pentagon programs. Among other things, it's expected to focus on rebalancing the armed forces and how they respond to conflicts. It may also increase the military's reliance on unmanned drones.

Dozens of people are dead and wounded in northern Baghdad today following a suicide bombing. Iraqi authorities say it was a female bomber who targeted pilgrims in a Shiite neighborhood. The casualties include women and children.

Well, the government's massive bank bailout program is coming under harsh criticism once again. The bailout watchdog says TARP just isn't working. CNN's Stephanie Elam is in New York now with the details.

And, Stephanie, this is a $700 billion program. To say it's not working, that's a huge statement.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's really going to upset a lot of people, Betty. And this is the program's harshest criticism, one of them, to date. And it's coming from the bailout cop, Neal Barofsky. He released a quarterly report about TARP. It came out over the weekend here. And he basically said that TARP has not boosted bank lending or stopped foreclosures.

Now a recent report shows the 22 banks that got the most TARP money cut their small business loan balances by $12 billion since April and also foreclosures hit a record 3 million last year. So he's pointing out that there are a lot of problems with this program overall, Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, Stephanie Elam joining us love.

Stephanie, thank you for that.

I want to get to this story. A lot of people interested in it. It's a new take on a woman's biological clock. Researchers come up with a precise mathematical approach to pregnancy. You have to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right, ladies, let's talk. As a woman ages, the body produces fewer eggs. We know this. And that makes pregnancy more difficult. Well a new study uses mathematical models to pinpoint the problem. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now and she's going to get the latest on exactly how difficult this may become to become pregnant when you're in your 30s.

And I almost don't want to hear the numbers, but go ahead, tell us.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's sort of a bad news, good news thing here, so don't become too concerned.

NGUYEN: OK. All right. All right.

COHEN: But what these researchers did is they wanted to actually quantify how many fewer eggs a woman has as she ages. And what they figured out is women are born with about -- well, more than a million eggs and that you are down to about 12 percent of that number by the time you're 30. And then you're down to about 3 percent of that number by the time you're 40.

Or, to look at it a different way, let's pick three ages and see how many eggs you have at those ages. At age 13, you have 180,000 eggs. At age 25, you have 65,000. At age 35, you have 16,000 eggs. Now that's I guess what some would consider the bad news. Good news here is, is you don't need 16,000 eggs to conceive if want to have a baby. You need one egg. So, you know, the chances go down, but the chances are still there.

NGUYEN: Right.

COHEN: Plenty of women, I included myself in this group, conceived quite easily in their late 30s and early 40s.

NGUYEN: Oh, that is so good to hear. So how can a woman assess her fertility chances, if you will?

COHEN: Right. If you're concerned about it, you can go to your doctor. And there are blood tests that a doctor can do. There are some ultrasounds that they can do to help figure out what are the chances that you are going to have a baby when you start trying. But having said that, the only way you really know for sure how fertile you are is to actually try and get pregnant.

NGUYEN: Try, try and try again, as doctors suggest.

COHEN: Exactly. And some people -- well, in some people's case. But, you know, I know people who were -- a friend of mine who got married at 40 who was so worried she wouldn't be able to conceive and she conceived on her wedding night. I mean like right away. It took her no time at all. So I know other people who had trouble conceiving at age 27. So you just never know.

NGUYEN: You never know. But you say the best time, and this almost knocked me off of my chair, the best time is, what, in your teens?

COHEN: Yes, biologically speaking, just biologically speaking, the best time to try to get pregnant is in your teens. That's when you're the most fertile. That's when you have the most eggs. But, of course, we don't want to be encouraging 15-year-olds to have babies because there are social and psychological reasons why we don't want that.

NGUYEN: No doubt. Yes.

COHEN: However, biologically speaking, that is the quickest time to get pregnant.

NGUYEN: All right. So you're breaking down the numbers for us. The reality of the situation.

COHEN: That's right.

NGUYEN: Thank you, Elizabeth. Appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

NGUYEN: Even provided us with a little bit of hope despite the numbers. OK. So we were told millions of jobs would be created or saved by the economic stimulus plan. Is it really happening though? We're going to run the numbers on the very first project to receive funding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: So when the billions in stimulus dollars were being passed out in Washington, we were promised that it would save or create jobs and jump-start local economies. CNN's special investigations correspondent Drew Griffin traveled to Missouri to find out whether a project to fix a crumbling bridge is delivering on that promise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Show me where we're going now. We're here, right?

(voice-over): It took us hours of driving just to find it.

(on camera): So that way.

(voice-over): Three hours out of St. Louis, 40 miles south of Jefferson City, then another 10 miles on a two-lane rural road. And there it was, and under way. We are in Missouri and this was the first project in the nation to receive stimulus money. Announced the very day President Obama signed the stimulus bill. A project to replace this old, literally crumbling bridge over the Osage River.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the stuff that will come down.

GRIFFIN (on camera): That?

(voice-over): Our visit was in March and there was no doubt the bridge needed to be replaced. It's why Missouri had it on its list for years, just never spent the money because, well, the Osage River Bridge, near the remote and tiny town of Tuscumbia, on this two-lane road, is not exactly high priority. It become a high priority when Missouri found out it could get someone else to pay for it. Minutes after President Obama signed the stimulus bill, Missouri officials ordered the earth movers into action. A project that would create or save the administration said around 30 jobs.

(on camera): According to the administration, that number turned out to be pretty close. About 25 jobs. But were any of those jobs actually created? Or even saved? Construction officials say, in effect, not so much. Most of the workers at the bridge site already had jobs and were just transferred over to do that work. As for jobs saved, a construction manager tells CNN, only a few were saved.

(voice-over): Keeping them honest, we went back last week. Ten months after our first visit to check in. Turns out the claims about so-called indirect jobs are a real question. The head of Missouri's Department of Transportation told us by his calculations, those indirect jobs, he calls them multipliers, were the big thing here and around the region. They added up to 240. PETE RAHN, DIR., MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: It ripples out. These people all receive a paycheck. They buy from grocery stores and restaurants and they buy gasoline. And so it ripples throughout the economy.

GRIFFIN: That's not what we found at the very closest restaurant to the Osage River Bridge. Wes Horton runs the Red Oak Inn. He's glad the bridge is being built. He has served a few more meals, but an economy booster? Hardly.

WES HORTON, OWNER, RED OAK INN: Precious little of it rubbed off on us, but no great amount. I mean, you know, any time -- any time you got people around, they always spend just a little bit of money with somebody. And they -- I mean, they sure as hell ain't no land boom or nothing like that.

MICHAEL SYKUTA, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: Based on what I've seen of estimates of construction projects in similar regions and even Missouri Department of Transportation estimates on projects in the St. Louis area, the multipliers that are -- apply in those settings would generate nowhere near the numbers that they're suggesting for Tuscumbia.

GRIFFIN: There's no question that the bridge over the river needed replacing. As for this project being able to jump-start the local economy with lots of jobs in the region? Well, that appears to be a bridge too far.

Drew Griffin, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, from that to this now. Relief workers in Haiti put order in the disorder. No men allowed at food distribution sites.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: In Haiti, getting food to earthquake survivors has been chaotic. But now, authorities think they've stopped the pushing and the shoving. CNN's John Vause shows us the solution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this food line in Port-au-Prince, no chaos, no pushing, no shoving, and no men. After almost three weeks of increasingly unruly confrontations, aid groups on Sunday came up with a new plan, that almost a dozen distribution points across the city, women only. U.S. soldiers provided security here, checking coupons which had been given out a day earlier, entitling each woman to a bag of rice. Enough to feed a family for two weeks. A moment to rejoice. Not only for these women, but also for Master Sergeant Ranny Lewis, originally from the Caribbean island of Antigua.

MASTER SERGEANT RANNY LEWIS, U.S. ARMY: It was difficult to control (INAUDIBLE). You know, tears was coming about how to control it and it just -- it brings me back home, brings me back to my roots and back to a particular time. I was one with the people of Haiti.

VAUSE: What a difference to this. Just a few days ago when scuffles broke out. Food distribution became a desperate grab with young men often overpowering everyone else. And this new arrangement didn't sit well with some men.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I saw them. I saw them. So get (ph) rice it's just, damn, it's very bad.

VAUSE (on camera): Aid groups hope that as word spreads that a coupon means food, it will instill a sense of calm and order. But the women only program is just temporary, aiming to feed 2 million people over the next two weeks. It seems there's still no long-term plan beyond that.

John Vause, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And we are going to stay on top of that story for you. Meantime, though, CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with T.J. Holmes, who is in for Ali Velshi.

Hey there, T.J.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Betty, didn't we announce not long ago that Ali was getting this show?

NGUYEN: Right.

HOLMES: How's he taking time off already?

NGUYEN: And now you're doing it.

HOLMES: Hope you're having a good vacation already there, Ali. Our good friend Ali Velshi is off today. He deserves the time off. I'm T.J. Holmes.