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Congress Begins Hearing On Toyota Recalls; Pedophile Pediatrician Faces 471 Felony Counts; Health Insurance Options For Consumers; Breaking Down the Broken Government: How to Begin Fixing It?

Aired February 23, 2010 - 11:01   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You can't top it. Wait and tee it up. How do I follow that? Have a great day, Kyra, good stuff.

Good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, February 23rd and here are the faces of the stories driving today's headlines.

Community banker Edward Merritt, why he thinks the Obama plan to spur small business lending won't work. He will explain in our series "Broken Government,"

Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley charged in a shocking grand jury indictment with sexually abusing more than 100 children.

And Republican Senator Scott Brown voting with Democrats on a jobs bill and keeping a pledge to Massachusetts voters.

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

OK, let's see some live pictures here. It starts now, the first congressional hearing into Toyota's deadly defects. Here we go, live pictures from Capitol Hill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee gearing up to focus on sudden acceleration. CNN congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar is on the Hill for us.

And Brianna, we want to know when did Toyota know about these problems? What did they do when they knew about the problems and is this the right fix?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, those are going to be some of the big questions, Tony, but I have to tell you having spoken with some of the lawmakers who are part of this hearing today, one of the big concerns and they say some of their expert witnesses will bolster this concern, is that maybe it isn't just the accelerator, that it isn't just the floor mats causing these problems, that it's actually the computers in these Toyota vehicles.

Now, we did obtain some of the testimony from James Lentz. He is the head of Toyota U.S. and he said we are confident --

HARRIS: Brianna, I apologize, we can't hear a word you're saying. We literally cannot hear a word you're saying. I'm sure your microphone is on, but we can hear all of the ambient noise around you in that busy hallway, but we literally can't hear what you're saying.

KEILAR: Can you hear me now, Tony?

HARRIS: That's a little better. I don't think it's broadcast quality. How about we do this? How about we get you a tweet, get you a fix, and we'll get back to you.

KEILAR: OK. We'll do that.

HARRIS: All right. Let's listen in now to the chairman of the committee Bart Stupak in his opening statement. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. BART STUPAK (D-MI), CHAIRMAN, ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: -- which was intended to provide enhanced authority for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to gather and analyze data from automobile manufacturers and provide an early warning system for catastrophic defects.

Now a decade later, we face a serious auto safety problem that calls into question whether the (INAUDIBLE) act is achieving the purposes we intended. Today's hearing will examine whether Toyota Motor Corporation and NHTSA acted in a timely fashion to address countless complaints of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Sudden unintended acceleration describes a broad range of events in which a vehicle accelerates rapidly and a driver is unable to immediately slow down or stop the vehicle.

Over the past several months, Toyota Motor Corporation has issued two major recalls for defects associated with accelerator problems in eight popular models. The first recall announced in October of 2009 addressed floor mats that can jam against the gas pedal, causing it to become entrapped in a full throttle position. Toyota eventually opened this floor mat recall to 4.26 million vehicles and just last month, Toyota announced another recall of gas pedals that can stick or return slowly. Toyota's leadership has been ambiguous about whether these two recalls fully account for and address the problem of sudden unintended acceleration. Thousands of Toyota owners whose cars were not subject to either recall have reported to the company that their vehicles --

HARRIS: All right, let's do this. You've been listening to Bart Stupak. He is the subcommittee chairman convening this hearing today on Toyota, Toyota. the hearing under way now. Let's get back to Brianna Keilar, I think we've got a fix and that we can hear Brianna on Capitol Hill for us.

Brianna, the focus of the hearing is what did Toyota know, when did it know it and are we looking at the right and proper fix for the problem right now?

KEILAR: And I think that last question that you talked about there, Tony, is really the big one for some of these law makers, is this the right fix? Because I spoke with Congressman Bart Stupak before this hearing and he said that having listened to some of the experts that we will be hearing today during this panel, that there is concern it's not just the accelerators.

It's not just the floor mats. They're worried that it is the actual computer, the electronic throttle control system in these Toyota vehicles. Actually take a listen to what -- is it OK Tony if we listen to a little sound? Take a listen to what Congressman Stupak said to me really just minutes before this hearing started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STUPAK: We still feel there's an electronic problem here that has not been addressed. As someone said, there's a gremlin in this electronic system which are making these cars accelerate unexpectedly and unfortunately it's resulted in some serious accidents and deaths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And what you're hearing actually, in testimony that we have obtained from the head of Toyota U.S., James Lentz, he is going to tell this committee, Tony, we are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles.

You see some of these folks behind me here. These aren't just your normal members of the public. They are actually Toyota team members as they call themselves. They come from all states over the U.S. that have some of these plants. In fact we're going to talk with one of them right here. This is Katherine (ph), you're from Missouri where you do what for Toyota?

KATHERINE, TOYOTA TEAM MEMBER, MISSOURI: I work in the (INAUDIBLE) Missouri plant loading aluminum and I'm in corporate affairs and I support our team members here who work on the plant floor with manufacturing the aluminum cylinder heads and cylinder blocks.

KEILAR: So what is the message here? A lot of support from a few dozen of you. Why are you here?

KATHERINE: There's more than a few dozen. We've got quite a few people here. We want to represent our face so that, you know, folks know that we're talking about quite a few American jobs. Manufacturing side is over 31,000 jobs. And these folks are, you know, we're all impacted. We have families and we're very comfortable and very confident that we have a safe product.

KEILAR: Katherine, thank you very much.

KEILAR: And Tony, there's so much interest in this. I have to tell you, I've covered so many hearings. The bankers have come up here. We've heard from AIG, auto makers, domestic auto makers and this is really, I think, more interest than I've seen in any hearing that I've covered on Capitol Hill.

HARRIS: Well, Brianna, I think that sound bite that you were able to get from Bart Stupak is really important because as you know we've been doing some -- and it's really the work of the special investigations unit here, taking on this question of whether or not there could be an electromagnetic interference problem with the computer and it sounds like Bart Stupak is at least going to do some questioning in that area.

It sounds like some other committee members will as well, and we will continue to follow that. Maybe we can actually grab Drew Griffin's piece on that to get at some of the issues that may be a part of this hearing.

Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us. Brianna, appreciate it, thank you.

Safety problems have forced, as you know, some six million Toyotas to be recalled in the United States for these quick fixes. How big is the Toyota story? Well, a couple of numbers to consider for you. The Japanese auto giant has more than 320,000 employees worldwide, 35,000 of them here in the United States, plus another 115,000 employed at U.S. dealerships.

For an in-depth look into the Toyota recall, go to cnn.com/Toyota. There you can find out if your car has been recalled and what to do about it. It all comes to you from the worldwide leader in news.

Other big stories that we are following for you this morning, a rare flash of, wow, cooperation between Democrats and a few Republicans. The Senate looks set to approve a scaled-down $15 billion bill to encourage job creation. A vote could come tomorrow. Five republicans, including new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown joined Democrats and agreed to move the bill to a final vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BENJAMIN CARDIN (D), MARYLAND: The ultimate goal of this legislation is to create jobs -- not Democratic jobs, not Republican jobs, but American jobs. It helps small businesses. We know that most new jobs will be created through small business. About two- thirds of new jobs are created through smaller companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Dick Cheney is in the hospital for chest pain. A source close to the former vice president says he is feeling good after spending the night. Doctors are running a battery of tests. We should know more about his condition later today. Cheney has had four heart attacks since his 37th birthday.

Another earthquake rattles Haiti, this one striking about 20 miles outside Port-au-Prince. The 4.7 magnitude quake hit in the middle of the night and was followed by a second smaller quake. No immediate report of damage.

Broken government -- all week long we are breaking down the gridlock in Washington, today looking out for some small businesses by providing community banks with the cash to fund them. Carol Costello took a trip across the country to check on the president's $30 billion plan. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jimmie Hughes is itching to grow a small supply business but he needs a little help in the color green. So he asked six of his friendly community bankers for a loan.

JIMMIE HUGHES, OWNER, GRAND AMERICA: This is all the paperwork that I had to generate. It weighs four and a half pounds.

COSTELLO: Despite his pristine credit, all six turned him down.

HUGHES: I could double the size of my company right now if I wanted to, but what I need in order to do that is to have operating capital.

COSTELLO: Whatever happened to bankers, bankers like Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey and "It's a Wonderful Life." He lent money to people in a bad economy at the expense of his own savings and loan.

"IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE," PARAMOUNT: They have to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what?

COSTELLO: Wait, didn't bankers like Bailey spark the sub-prime mortgage crisis by loaning money to too many people who couldn't pay it back?

(on camera): You're not Jimmy Stewart from "It's a Wonderful Life."

EDWARD MERRITT, PRES., MT. WASHINGTON BANK: No, no, I'm not.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Edward Merritt runs a community bank in Boston. He may not be George Bailey, but he's not his nemesis, the evil Mr. Potter either. Merritt's bank doles out between $7 and $10 million a month in commercial loans, mostly to mom and pop businesses in Boston. He'd like to lend more, but good credit isn't enough these days.

(on camera): What if I came to you and I said I need this loan to meet my payroll because I can't do it this month because people aren't paying me on time. That means I can't meet my payroll on time. Can I have a loan?

MERRITT: That would potentially be a challenging situation, because the first question that I would have to ask you is why can't you meet your payroll?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Would that persuade Merritt? MERRITT: I'm not really looking for any more money to lend, quite frankly. I'm looking for more qualified borrowers to lend to. And that is as big a problem as I see it today as it is the bank's willingness to lend money.

COSTELLO: So what is the answer? What should government be doing?

BART NARTER, CELENT: What we really want from small business is more employment. So perhaps it would be a good idea to create a program that reduces taxes on new hires, for example.

COSTELLO: Jimmie Hughes is open to that, but it doesn't solve his problem. He still doesn't have the money to hire.

HUGHES: I'd like to have President Obama or any of his financial advisers just take a nice, long walk down Main Street and then maybe they could come up with some answers. Because if they don't have the answers, we certainly don't have the answers, but we can tell them what's wrong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The president has proposed reducing taxes on new hires. It's actually in the jobs bill that drew a tiny bit of bipartisan support and made it through the first hurdle in the Senate.

But, Tony, the root of the problem remains. Small business owners have a problem with cash flow and with falling real estate prices. They have less collateral. That makes it difficult for small banks to loan them money. As Mr. Merritt in Boston told me, he cannot lend a small businessperson a million bucks, but he could lend him $800,000. It's just that many small business owners can't come up with enough collateral to back that $200,000 up.

HARRIS: Trying to get the gears moving again. It's going to be tough, Carol, appreciate it, thank you.

Coming up in just a couple of minutes, we will talk more about broken government with a financial planner and a top economist. How much did the financial sector contribute to the economic meltdown? We will hear from Ryan Mack, president of Optimum Capital Management and Thomas (INAUDIBLE) Voss, a member of the Black Enterprise board of economists.

The other big story that we are obviously following, the Toyota hearings right now on Capitol Hill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Just a couple of minutes ago we heard from the chairman of the subcommittee, Bart Stupak. Speaking now is Joe Barden, he is the ranking member of the full committee.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. JOE BARTON (R), RANKING MEMBER, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I hope Congress will come down on Toyota very forcefully. But if they haven't, you know, the people that I talk to have worked in the automotive industry for 30 years or more and they have got absolutely no interest in covering up a problem that kills people, that hurts people, that endangers peoples' lives.

But it appears to be that unless there's some electronic problem, it's possible that it could just be too many people putting too many floor mats in their cars. I know that sounds silly and it would seem incredulous to stipulate that that might be the problem. But based on the observation of the 16 million vehicles I believe that Toyota has investigated or have the records on, they have had a handful, maybe a dozen that have had some problem. So we need to find the facts and I know, Mr. Chairman, you and Mr. Waxman are great at finding the facts and myself and the Republicans on the committee are going to help you find the facts.

With that, I would yield back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Barton. It's been a cooperative effort and we look forward to continuing to work with you on this matter.

HARRIS: We'll checking back in with this committee hearing obviously throughout the morning here.

We're also following some weather developments. Snow again in Dallas this morning. My goodness, Rob Marciano is watching a few weather systems bringing some rain, some frozen precipitation. We'll check in with Rob in just a couple of minutes. Hi, Rob. Hi. Good to see you.

First, here's the latest on the Dow. I guess we're down here in the early going. We're down over 80 points, 81 points. We're following these numbers, the Dow, the NASDAQ as well throughout the morning right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's do this, let's get you caught up on our top stories right now, live pictures from the capitol. A Toyota executive is about to defend his company's massive safety recall to a skeptical House committee. Lawmakers say Toyota was too quick to dismiss a software glitch as a possible cause of sudden acceleration. They called Toyota's statements on the recall misleading.

Eighties sitcom sidekick Andrew Koenig is missing. His father Walter Koenig of "Star Trek" fame, says his son has been battling depression. The younger Koenig played Boner, the friend of Kirk Cameron's character on "Growing Pains." The father was "Star Trek's" Mr. Chekov.

A former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole is battling pneumonia. He was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington where he had knee surgery. Dole, now 86, says he is making great strides on his recovery. So President Obama is making a fresh push on healthcare reform. His new blueprint would give Washington the power to say no to extreme insurance rate hikes. Personal finance editor Gerri Willis is with us.

Good to see you, Gerri. I think we all know premiums are going up. The question is how often?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: How often and what can you do about it? Tony, rate hikes occur in every state and carriers raise rates at least once every one to two years. Rate hikes might be a few percentage points or they can be huge leaps.

Blue Cross of California raised rates on its customers as much as 39 percent. There can be periodic rate hikes that affect a large number of customers because of inflation or a rise in health care costs and you may be hit with a rate hike if you recently turned 40, 55 or 60 years of age. Now, because of your age and the medical risks in that group. so any reason -- well, it's not fair to say no reason but there are lots of reasons your rates go up.

HARRIS: I'm curious, can you lock in a rate? I know you can do that in some cases with your utility bills.

WILLIS: Well, yes. The answer is yes, but it may not be worth the money. Many carriers will lock your rate during the first year of the policy for free, but others may offer it as a rider when you first take out the policy so you may pay an extra $12 to $15 for a two-year locked rate but do the match, because the cost of the rider may equal the same amount as the projected rate increase Tony.

HARRIS: Anything you can do Gerri if you get hit with sort of an outsized big rate increase?

WILLIS: Well, there are a few things. Look for alternative options within your carrier. Usually when you get a rate increase on an existing plan, they'll also offer you other options, usually without additional medical underwriting. Keep in mind your benefits won't be as generous.

You can also just shop around but keep in mind that when you do switch to another carrier, you're going to have to go through medical underwriting all over again. And if you developed a pre-existing condition, hey, you're better off staying within your plan.

Also, take a look at public programs. If you can't afford individual health insurance coverage, you may qualify for a certain state health insurance program or two. Contact the Foundation for Health Coverage Education at educationcoverageforall.org to determine what free and low-cost, healthcare options are available in your area.

Of course, if you have any questions, send them to me at gerri@cnn.com.

HARRIS: Gerri, appreciate it, thank you.

A pediatrician accused of doing the absolute unspeakable.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I've got to tell you, this is a really disturbing story out of Delaware. An ultimate betrayal of the trust by a pediatrician accused of molesting children brought in to see him by unsuspecting parents. And the sheer number of charges here is absolutely staggering.

Ines Ferre has been following this story for us. Innes, what have you been finding?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, Dr. Earl Bradley faces 471 felony counts. He's accused of victimizing 103 children, all but one were girls. Most of the evidence comes from video recordings, 13 hours of it. Many victims were reportedly assaulted repeatedly, some on consecutive days. Now, the charges include rape and sexual exploitation of a child. Here's what Delaware's attorney general had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEAU BIDEN, DELAWARE ATTORNEY GENERAL: These are crimes committed against the most vulnerable among us, those without voices. And there were crimes committed by someone with whom an entire community and parents had had placed their trust.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FERRE: Now Bradley had been practicing in the Lewes, Delaware area for more than 10 years and prosecutors say he videotaped these children as far back as 1998, Tony.

HARRIS: Oh, wow. So some of the children, Ines, appear on these tapes but they haven't been identified yet, is that correct?

FERRE: Exactly. Prosecutors wouldn't say how many of the children were identified, but part of their ongoing process is to outreach to the victims and former patients. They're in fact asking parents to come forward if they think that their children have been victimized.

HARRIS: Why did it take so long for this guy to get arrested, do we know?

FERRE: There were colleagues and parents who suspected this for years. He was investigated in 2005 but back then, prosecutors didn't think that they had enough evidence. A search warrant was sought in 2008 and that was denied. Prosecutors now are investigating who had a responsibility to report the misconduct and whether or not that happened. Tony.

HARRIS: Boy, OK. Do we know anything about his licenses, anything there?

FERRE: Well, he had licenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Florida and Delaware officials are now, they're reaching out to officials in those states to make sure that, you know, they're aware of this.

HARRIS: Absolutely. All right, Ines Ferre for us, appreciate it, thank you.

The suspect in a New York subway terror plot pleads guilty. A stunning admission, laying out in detail what was supposed to happen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So we're going to get to Rob in just a second, but what happened to the video. Let's see that again. There we go, the sea lions docking at San Francisco's pier 39. They have been hanging out there for what, some 20 years or so? But all 1700 took off in November lured by anchovies off the Oregon coast. Sixty three have returned so far. When that number hits 200, officials plan a 20th anniversary celebration for the sea lions. Good stuff.

Snow in Texas and Louisiana again. What is the deal here, Rob Marciano?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: We are monitoring the Congressional hearings on Toyota. We expect to hear from a Tennessee couple who reportedly had a serious incident with their Lexus more than three years ago, but first our Deb Feyerick has really the horrifying story of a family whose rental car led to their death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So a Congressional panel is demanding answers about Toyota's acceleration problem. We are closely monitoring the hearing underway right now on Capitol Hill and bringing you the most compelling statements live.

Right now, though, let's look back at the tragedy that sparked Toyota's worldwide recall. Our Deborah Feyerick reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 911 call lasted just 17 seconds.

CHRIS LASTRELLA, TOYOTA CRASH VICTIM: We're going north on 125.

911 OPERATOR: Mm-hmm.

LASTRELLA: Our accelerator is stuck.

FEYERICK: August 28th, 2009 -- California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor was driving his 13-year-old daughter Mahala to a soccer match in San Diego County. His wife, Cleofe, a genetic researcher, was next to him in the passenger seat. Her brother, behind Chris Lastrella, behind Mark, was talking to a 911 operator, describing what would be the family's final moments.

LASTRELLA: We're going 120, Mission Gorge. We're in trouble. We can't -- there's no brakes.

911 OPERATOR: OK.

LASTRELLA: Mission Gorge, end freeway half file.

911 OPERATOR: OK. And you don't have the ability to, like, turn the vehicle off or anything?

LASTRELLA: We're approaching the intersection. Hold on. Pray. Pray.

FEYERICK (on camera): Witnesses say the car appeared to be having problems. It had pulled over to the side of the road and seemed to be surging, almost as if it had run out of gas. Moments later, witnesses say it shot past at over 100 miles an hour. By the time it reached the end of this freeway, investigators say Mark Saylor had run out of time and options.

The car slammed into the back of another vehicle, continuing straight through the intersection and hitting this embankment. Witnesses say the car went airborne, rolling over several times, before landing in this dry river bed and bursting into flames.

(voice-over): The family died instantly, leaving behind relatives like cousin Joe Audal asking why.

JOSEPH AUDAL, VICTIMS' COUSIN: It's absolutely devastating for everybody. It's hard for my aunt to really even go on with her life.

FEYERICK: Mark Saylor knew these roads. He had been a highway patrol officer for 20 years. Colleagues say, if anyone could have stopped a runaway car, it was their friend.

OFC. JOHN CONCEPCION, MARK SAYOR'S FRIEND: He was great on the brake and on the accelerator. He knew how to control a car very well. And I'm sure he did everything in his power to bring the car under control.

FEYERICK: The car didn't even belong to the Saylors. It was a loaner they had received that morning while their own car was being serviced. According to the sheriff's report, the man who had driven the same loaner had told the dealership about a serious problem with the car.

Family attorney Tim Pestotnik.

TIM PESTOTNIK, FAMILY ATTORNEY: The consumer brought it back to the dealership and told them that the accelerator was stuck and the car was still used three days later with our clients who were all killed, unfortunately, in the same car.

FEYERICK: Detectives later discovered the rubber floor mat in the Lexus sedan was the wrong size, meant for an SUV. A vice president at the dealership told investigators they, quote, "Do not mix and match the all-weather mats." The dealership declined to talk to us, pending its own investigation.

Even so, lawyers for the Saylor and Lastrella families believes the floor mat is only partially to blame.

JOHN GOMEZ, FAMILY ATTORNEY: We know there was evidence of heavy application of braking. In the beginning he was fighting the car lurching, kind of like a bull. And finally those brakes fail entirely, that throttle is wide open, that car takes off like a rocket.

FEYERICK: Friend John Concepcion gave a eulogy at the funeral describing Saylor as a religious man of great faith and strong opinion who fell in love with his wife at first sight.

CONCEPCION: He was very persistent, he knew what he wanted and he knew that at that time this was the woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

FEYERICK: The couple doted on daughter Mahala, Mark coaching her soccer team.

OFC. MIKE MAY, MARK SAYLOR'S FRIEND: His main focus was obviously on his daughter who was growing up. A real good kid, real loving, real curious, you know, wanted to know about everything.

FEYERICK: The head of Toyota expressed sympathy for the deaths. Now the family hopes the millions of recalls prompted by this tragedy will help save others.

AUDAL: They're in a good place right now.

FEYERICK (on camera): Do you believe that?

AUDAL: Absolutely. They're heroes and angels.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Deborah Feyerick, CNN, San Diego.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Just awful.

OK, for more in-depth information, a look into the Toyota recall. Just go to CNN.com/Toyota. There you can find out if your car has been recalled and what to do.

You know, this week we're focusing on the stalemate in Washington. So many of you are upset that nothing is getting done or very little. We've got two smart men who say they know how to fix a few things, doggone it. We're going to talk to them next and we're going to start with the economy.

We're back in a moment. We're going to fix some things.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

Happening right now, Toyota on Capitol Hill trying to explain what led to the massive recalls that have left a huge dent on the company image. We will continue to follow this through our next hour.

And a pyro stunt gone wrong almost takes out the Undertaker. It happens just before his big Pay-Per-View match on Sunday. Check this out, the wrestler was walking casually through a ring of fire and then -- double time this thing, double time, got to go, got to go. He clearly picked up the pace there. Suffered some minor burns but got in the ring and continued the fight.

So angry voices across America, a lot of folks think the government is broken, but who do you blame and now do you fix it? All week here at the CNN NEWSROOM we're asking those questions and looking for answers. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll looks at trust and Uncle Sam doesn't fare very well -- 26 percent say they trust the federal government always or most of the time, 33 percent say that about their state government, and 52 percent their local government.

When asked if they trust their state government to do what is right, 3 percent say always, 30 percent most of the time, 62 percent some of the time and 5 percent never. Eight percent always trust their local government to do what's right, 44 percent most of the time, 46 percent some of the time and 3 percent never.

The country's financial problems certainly play a huge role in this feeling that government is broken. Joining me, Professor Thomas "Danny" Boston with Georgia Tech's Department of Economics and in Washington, Ryan Mack, he is the president of Optimum Capital Management.

Ryan, let me start with you. Doctor, are you clear on what broke the financial system, because I mean what is it? Was it too much credit extended to too many people who couldn't afford it?

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: First of all, there are a lot of bubbles that burst all at one time.

HARRIS: A lot of bubbles?

MACK: A lot of bubbles. We had the real estate bubble, obviously the housing bubble crashed and that triggered the stock market to crash. That also triggered the private debt bubble to crash. Individuals borrowing additional money, now banks are starting to get a little bit tighter so they're not able to borrow as much money as possible.

And then we had the discretionary income bubble. Now because they can't borrow, they can't spend and we were an economy based and predicated on consumer spending. Almost 70 percent of GDP was predicated on spending. And all those things happening at the same time, it really just basically just destroyed the entire system and caused us to have a huge standstill currently. HARRIS: Well, Danny, let me come to you on this, how much of the problems that we face at the time, the financial system was really teetering on complete collapse, was due to sort of a lax regulatory structure?

PROF. THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH UNIVERSITY: You know, Tony, actually there's enough blame to go around.

(LAUGHTER)

Everybody has got a little blame in this game. There was lax financial regulation and it's clear that's come out in a number of the hearings and a number of the reports. There was also a banking system that was creating all kinds of derivatives to generate capital and wealth. And then you had consumers who were flipping houses.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

MACK: And then you had the honest people out there who were trying to do the right thing. So you've got all of that mixed together, you just get an explosive kind of situation that could not be sustained.

HARRIS: So, Ryan, we get to this place now where the system seizes up and credit just dries up and I'm wondering, are we still stuck?

MACK: Well, a lot of the problems that he was talking about are still existing right now. The derivatives are still unregulated. You know, back in 1998, Brooksley Borne, who was the head of the Commodities Federal Trade Commission, actually spoke out and -- but was met with a whole slew of lobbyists who were against her, Greenspan and Ruben and Larry Summers and a lot of individuals under the Clinton administration essentially who were for deregulation essentially said we're not going to try to regulate these derivative markets.

And we had a lot of things that transpired since then. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the a lot of these things that allowed a $50 billion market to turn into almost a $50 trillion in terms of credit default swaps. Still unregulated, they're still taking money out of the system and using Wall Street like an Atlantic City. Essentially, they're winning on the upside but if they lose, then the taxpayers are becoming the guarantor.

HARRIS: So then we get to the phase of this where we're talking about the fix, and I'm just sort of curious, is it, Danny, in your view, did TARP have to happen to save the system?

BOSTON: TARP had to happen. Not all of the aspects of the way in which it was implemented had to be implemented, but it certainly had to happen otherwise the system would have collapsed and we would have been out in the street panhandling. So yes, it had to happen. And there needs to be -- it needs to be regulated. As Ryan said, we have to regulate it. At the same time, we have to be careful how we regulate it. In other words, there needs to be a long-run strategy and a short-run strategy. And I would argue obviously in the long run we have to separate retail banking from just the brokerage houses.

HARRIS: So you can't be a retail bank and a hedge fund?

BOSTON: No, no, no. That doesn't work.

HARRIS: That doesn't make sense, does it?

BOSTON: That's a formula for catastrophe.

HARRIS: OK.

BOSTON: So, but the proposed regulation right now would do that. It would separate them. Either you be a retail banker or you have to get into investment, you can't do both.

HARRIS: Right.

BOSTON: But what we've done through TARP and the other financial rescues, we merged them. We encouraged them to merge. We encouraged retail banking, Bank of America to buy out Merrill Lynch and so now they're merged. So how do we create the divorce? So we need to be thoughtful about creating the divorce because we may end up with a worse situation than we've got.

HARRIS: Ryan, let me give you the last word on this because at some point the banks have to, look, accept that the system can't continue the way it has and has to be open to some kind of regulation, is that correct?

MACK: Bottom line is this is true. I mean, what's good for America is good for America. It might not necessarily be good for the bank's bottom line as they continue to get record amounts of bonuses, but we have to make sure that we have to do something that's good for the entire country. And this is what we're working towards.

If you look at -- the stats show, I mean, our debt is rising in insurmountable levels. The taxable base gets about 2.5 trillion, we've got about 11 or $12 trillion. So that means if we spent all of our taxes on nothing but just the debt, it would take us about six years, but we know there's a lot of other things. So I can't agree with your guest, we have to have a short and a long-term strategy to make sure we spend to invest in the country, but then we pull away before we have a hyperinflationary economy.

HARRIS: Terrific. Hope we can do it.

MACK: I think we can.

HARRIS: Hope we can fix the broken system. OK, I like your confidence.

Ryan Mack and Thomas Danny Boston, gentlemen, appreciate it. Thank you.

Get the latest stories on how the government is broken and not working. Just log on to CNN.com/brokengovernment. There you will find stories of frustrated lawmakers and Americans discovering problems with the way government is run.

We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So the Senate looks ready to sign off on a $15 billion jobs bill, maybe tomorrow. CNN's Christine Romans is here with us.

And, Christine, this measure was really scaled back, you'd have to say radically, to win passage.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARRIS: What's left in it? I'm thinking, maybe something for unemployment insurance, maybe the COBRA program as well?

ROMANS: No. That was left out of this, Tony.

HARRIS: Wow.

ROMANS: And democrats say they will try to pursue it separately. You're right, there are some progressive economists who are very concerned about that in particular.

What's in the $15 billion slimmed-down? You're right, the House version was $154 billion.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

ROMANS: The $15 billion, this is what it basically has -- it has a tax break for hiring jobless workers, Tony, an employer would be able to waive for a year its share of Social Security taxes for hiring the jobless, and if they keep the worker on for one full year, they get a $1,000 tax credit on top of that.

There's funding in there for new highway and transit programs through this year. Also some more funding and guarantees for the Build America bonds program, that's so local communities can borrow money to get some of the stuff done that they need to do.

But it excludes the extension of the jobless benefits, and that's something that's a concern here, because 1.2 million people are going to lose their unemployment check within a week if something isn't done. There are political machinations in process happening. You know, maybe democrats are going to try to push to a 15-day patch on this. But still, 15 days doesn't buy you much breathing space anyway.

And there are others who say, look, all of these measures, we don't have the money to pay for all of these measures. We're just kind of putting more money out there, taxpayer money out there and we're not creating job creation. Modest job creation is what the economists are telling me they're looking for.

Tony, I have a map for you, it's an animated map I wanted to show you. This is from a grad student named Latoya Edbeque (ph) at American University -- she got an "A" for this. This is looking county by county at the jobless rate from July 2007 to 2009. I want you to watch this. Where it's getting darker, that stain of purple and red --

HARRIS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- as it's spreading across the country, that's high unemployment. That yellow is where you want to be if you have a decent unemployment rate. That yellow is disappearing, and the stain of joblessness spreading across the country.

That, I think, that is a fantastic visual representation of the pain of unemployment county by county in this country. It goes up to December, 2009. And you can see there's only that sliver of yellow in the middle of the country, in the -- in the western Plains States. And wherever you see that black, I mean, that's still pain and suffering economically for the American people. And I think it's what's driving that whiff of bipartisanship in the Senate yesterday, five republicans crossed the aisle to vote to end the debate on this Senate bill.

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

ROMANS: Yes. I think when you're facing re-election this fall, and there are 36 Senate seats that are up for grabs this fall, when you're facing re-election, you're look at a map like that, suddenly issue number one for the American people becomes issue number one for your government, broken or not; right, Tony?

HARRIS: I can't add on a single note, well said, Christine Romans. Good stuff, thank you.

Well, boy, all right, so five republican senators, as Christine mentioned, are backing the president's jobs bill. Maybe we could start to get some things done? Maybe? All right, pump the brakes, Tony. Those senators -- Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Kit Bond -- Kit Bond of Missouri? -- and George Voinovich of Ohio.

OK, we are monitoring the Congressional hearing of Toyota. We expect to hear from a Tennessee couple who reported a serious incident with their Lexus more than three years ago.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, here's what we're working on for the next -- wow, that was loud -- for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. My apologies.

As part of our "Broken Government" series, we are looking at the nation's healthcare system. What's wrong with it and what should be fixed?

And then in our "Building Up America" segment, we will meet a woman who started her own business after getting laid off. Her new job? Selling other people's furniture. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: President Obama now has his own comprehensive healthcare reform plan, he is hoping the blueprint will bridge the gap between bills passed by the Senate and the House last year. The true test will be Thursday, when democrats and republicans come together for a televised healthcare summit. President Obama called the meeting in an effort to jumpstart the reform debate.

What do you think? We want your e-mails. We want your tweets. We want your iReports, your phone calls on this. Will anything be accomplished? Send us your thoughts to CNN.com/Tony.