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Congress Addresses Executive Order on Abortion; Senate Begins Debate on Changes to House Health Care Measure; Health Care Desk: Rep. Steve Kagen Answers Viewer Questions on Health Care Reform
Aired March 24, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And expanding smoke-free zones inside cars. That's what a British doctor's group is calling for and they say that the secondhand smoke inside a car can cause severe health problems for children and adults. A smoker's group says that this could be the first step in banning smoking in homes.
Health care reform the day after. The ink is barely dry from yesterday's signing, but President Obama goes behind closed doors for the next signing. He'll re-affirm the existing ban on the federal funding of abortions. We'll have more on that in just a moment.
Meanwhile, 14 states have filed lawsuits challenging the new law. They say it's unconstitutional because Congress is mandating that people buy health insurance. And as the Senate begins debate over possible changes to the House measure, Republicans are licking their chops.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Under a reconciliation procedure there are multiple amendments. We'll be able to get more amendments on this bill than we got on the one that passed back in December. The American people expect us to try to change this if we can, and if we can get a simple majority under the procedures that are laid out on this particular measure, we can change it and send it back to the House and continue the debate and the debate, by the way, will not be over today. This is just the beginning of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, let's take a closer look at today's executive order on abortion. It was that very issue that stirred so much rage that a Congressman shouted baby killer in the House chambers during Sunday's historic vote.
CNN's Jill Dougherty at the White House. So what's the deal with this executive order being signed behind closed doors and what does it mean, exactly, Jill?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, you know, in order to get, especially the Democrats onboard, obviously the Democrats on board with the general bill and now law on health care reform, they had to get over that hurdle of what was going to be done about abortion, and would it be more liberal than the existing rules?
So the president is actually signing an executive order, one of the key people who wanted him to do that is Congressman Bart Stupak who led the charge on all of this, he will be here along with 13 other members of Congress and one member of the Senate as the president signs this executive order and what does it do? Essentially it says that the restrictions that already are in place will remain in place, and here's how it actually is put in this executive order.
"It establishes policies and procedures to ensure that federal funds are not used for abortion services except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the woman would be endangered" and that, the president would say, is consistent with existing restrictions that are known as the Hyde Amendment. So it's really going the extra mile, Kyra, to make sure that these legislators are comfortable with what is now the law.
PHILLIPS: And the president hits the road tomorrow. What's his next move?
DOUGHERTY: He does. He goes on Iowa City, Iowa, and that is where he back in 2007 during the campaign launched his push for health care reform. So it's kind of coming full circle on that and he does want to go out and convince people that this law will work the way he wants it to work and begin to make the case for it.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jill Dougherty from the White House, and we'll be following it and also taking it live tomorrow as well.
We received hundreds of e-mails, by the way, from people asking what the health care reform will mean to them. So in less than 10 minutes we're going to be joined by a doctor and a lawyer about those changes that you can expect to see. They're actually going to answer your questions.
First our vice president was just in Israel and then Israel's prime minister got the snub here. It's pretty clear, the U.S. and its key ally in the Middle East are fighting like never before and in a word, here's why, Jerusalem. It's in the eastern part of the holy city where mainly Palestinian Arabs lived and where they had hoped to create their future state capital. But Israel which governs all of Jerusalem insists on building more apartments there for its Jewish residents.
Well, last night the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the White House for a good talking to by President Obama, but unlike most visits by Israeli leaders there wasn't a photo-op, no chit-chat with reporters, afterward nothing. Why so critical? Americans lead the peace effort there.
Let's now take a look at the racial divide. This hour the National Urban League is releasing its annual report on the state of black America, and a big focus is jobs. A few highlights from the report finds African-Americans are almost twice as likely to be unemployed, they lack health insurance and lag in homeownership rates. The report says that the landmark health care law is not enough. Urban League says now is the time for a strong jobs bill and is calling for $150 billion for direct job creation in local communities and get this, unemployment among African-Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year.
A group of Chicago high school students is trying to get a leg up on the job market, though. They run a coffee shop in their school, getting work experience now hoping that that will help them later.
Photojournalist Kevin Myers brings us their story from Austin Polytechnical High School.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kids they do it on their own. They get here at 6:00.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Let's put enough lids, and cups and stuff here just in case you stay down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They start brewing the coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, that's fine. You already have it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okey-dokey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they get the hot chocolate machine together and they start selling.
KADEDRA MURPHY, MARKETING MANAGER: I'm the marketing manager. So, for example, if we need some advertising, that would be my job to get posters posted around the school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I can.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My role is general manager and bookkeeper.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five, six, seven, eight. Oh, it's perfect.
JOSELYN BROADWAY, GENERAL MANAGER: it teaches me how to manage money and work in a team environment and like actually work ethic, like coming in and doing the work and feeling the reward from the work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each day we keep a tally of how much we sold. Like how many cups of coffee, how much tea, how much hot chocolate and everything and at the end we count up the money and hopefully the tally and the money will count, like match up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god, you guys. (INAUDIBLE) High five!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning, Stephen. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's easy to balance it with school because it's like school always comes first, and it was made in a school so like when you have to go to do a test instead of being at coffee shop they understand because school is the number one priority. It's all about learning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In five minutes, I would like to go solo for five.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to have a lot of responsibility for it because if you indulge too much in your school work then you forget the responsibilities of being an employee or if you're too self-indulged in doing what you do for the business you might slip on grades and grades are a huge factor for us for the coffee shop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually teaches them to be altruistic, to care about each other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's great. Because we only work an hour and we get paid pretty good. High five. Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a wonderful day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Putting Americans back to work. We'll have a closer look at the Urban League report in our noon hour including a panel discussion on solutions to the employment gap between African- Americans and whites.
When it comes to health care questions our inbox runneth over. You've been hitting us big time with hundreds of e-mails. Well, we've got the experts here with answers, hopefully. A doctor who is also a lawmaker, two for the price of three, and a lawyer who goes everywhere to talk about health care. So get ready, you two.
Also ahead, our special investigation, so green, so lush and so toxic. What is it about this scenic California farming town that's making babies sick?
And nice haircuts? Now go home. Yes. This do got twin boys suspended from school.
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REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm meteorologist Reynolds Wolf, and you are watching CNN, and this is your forecast for the day. And the big weather story. This area of low pressure that continues to march its way right through the central plains bringing some possibly rough weather through places like Kansas City, southward to Oklahoma City and maybe even to Dallas before the day is over and then in the back half of this area of low pressure, we see snow picking up and we could see up to a foot of snowfall in parts of the Rockies.
Here's the big troublemaker. Nice and dry for you though along the eastern seaboard and breezy in the northeast and relatively dry if the northeast until the northwest until you get north of San Francisco and look for delays very quickly in places like Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York, about a 25-minute delay at JFK. That is the latest on your forecast. Stay tuned for more right here on CNN.
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PHILLIPS: All right. We've been getting so many questions on the health care reform that we're unveiling the Health Care Desk right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, and we've got two guests to kick it off. Steve Kagen is both a congressman and a physician, and Kathy McClure is an attorney and the president of votehealthcare.org. She's traveling the country actually to help educate people about health care.
I appreciate you both being here. And we thought, I mean, this covers, you know, all three aspects. We got the congressman who is involved with policy, he's also involved in the medical field.
We've got you, that has been reading this, I'm sure, many times over and you know all of the details about it. And seriously, we have not received so many e-mails about a subject matter in such a long time.
We've just been flooded on the blog. Have you seen more questions about this subject matter, do you think, Kathy than a lot of other things since you've been on the job?
KATHY MCCLURE, PRESIDENT, VOTEHEALTHCARE.ORG: Definitely. I think that the American public really knew very little about this bill, still knows very little about the bill. I think they're learning more and more about it every day and that's good news. I think that it's reassuring to the American public to see that there are provisions in here that will really protect people from runaway premiums and will ensure that we'll all have access to affordable health care.
PHILLIPS: And, Congressman, what do you think? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta said he had read this twice, 2,700-plus pages twice. Fess up, I want to know. How do you feel that, were you when it came to figuring out what this all means and have you been receiving lots of responses from your constituents?
REP. STEVE KAGEN (D), WISCONSIN: Absolutely, yes. As a practicing physician for many years, I took care of my patient's problems and I had to read a lot of materials to get there, and this health care bill is not only a monster, but it's great for the American people. No longer will a family go broke just because their child has an accident or becomes ill.
This bill essentially applies inalienable (ph) civil rights that protect each American citizen against discrimination to the health care industry. So you now have civil rights to protect you against discrimination. If your child is born with a defect, no longer will the insurance company be allowed discriminate against you and your children.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get right to it, shall we, Congressman. I'll go ahead and start with you, I thought I'd direct this question from Dan to you -- "My daughter is 25. Is she covered under my plan starting now until her 26th birthday? She does not have any other health insurance."
KAGEN: Well, Dan, your daughter will be covered shortly in a matter of about 60 to 90 days for the regulations to kick in. Your daughter would then be covered until her 26th birthday and thereafter, she'd be available to purchase insurance on her own.
Essentially, what this very significant piece of legislation does, it provides subsidies for people to purchase private health care. So there's really no change in our health care delivery system and your daughter would be in that private health care system.
PHILLIPS: All right, Kathy, this one comes from Liz -- "I've been working as a substitute teacher for almost a year now, while applying for several jobs last week. I've had to move back in with my parents because I make less than $500 a month. Am I going to be fined now if I can't afford health insurance?"
MCCLURE: Well, Liz, I have some good news for you. First of all, no fines will be imposed on anyone until the individual mandate kicks in in 2014, but even when it does, you won't be subject to any fines because you, in fact, earn less than the filing requirement for individual income tax return which is $9,350.
So you're - she will be - Liz, you will be protected from any fine, in fact, be exempt from it. The other good news is that you're actually eligible for Medicaid. So you will have the opportunity to get care through the Medicaid program.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. And maybe I can follow up with you, if you don't mind. This came from CW -- "How much will the fines be for those that don't buy health insurance?
MCCLURE: Well, CW, the fines, again like the mandate, don't kick in until 2014. So no one's going to be paying any fines or being required to purchase any insurance until 2014, and when the mandate does kick in, it will ease in.
For example, in 2014, an individual that fails to purchase an insurance policy would pay a fine of only $95. That would graduate to $695 in 2016 or 2.5 percent of household income, and in the case of families the fine would be up to 20,000 - let's see, $85 or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater. Of course, that creates the situation where sometimes the fine is cheaper than the premium -
PHILLIPS: Right. MCCLURE: Particularly in the case of families. So -
PHILLIPS: Some would rather pay the fine than deal with the high premiums.
MCCLURE: Yes, so I think that will be happening because the fines are not unreasonable for families.
PHILLIPS: Interesting.
Congressman Kagen, you sort of touched on this, but this is coming from Diana -- "My daughter is 32 years old and was denied health insurance last week due to a pre-existing condition. Is there anything we can do before 2014?
KAGEN: Absolutely, yes. First of all, immediately this year no child will be discriminated against because of their prior illness or pre-existing condition, and for the rest of us by 2014, there will be no discrimination against any citizen due to pre-existing conditions and simply said if you're a citizen you're going to be in the risk pool. You'll be able to purchase health insurance in a very competitive and openly competitive medical marketplace.
PHILLIPS: Let me follow up with you then one more time, congressman. Jeanie wants to know "I'm currently retired, so what will happen to the cost of my Medicare and my supplemental health care coverage, up or down?"
KAGEN: Well, there will be no changes to the Medicare rules but there will be benefits to Medicare beneficiaries, particularly if you're in Medicare Part D. In Medicare part D, many people fell into what we call the doughnut hole which is the gap in coverage and immediately this year there will be $250 to help you in Medicare Part D to get through the coverage gap and later in time we're going to close that doughnut hole completely.
The other advantages in Medicare will be that you'll have no co- payments and no deductibles for prevention health care services. So for women, a mammogram will be covered already within Medicare and also within standard insurance policies sold privately.
PHILLIPS: Got it.
Kathy, if you don't mind, I want to get in a question about our vets. Love our vets. Brian wrote in and said, "With this new bill will disabled vets that have health care via the VA have to get insurance, too?"
MCCLURE: Well, I have great news for Brian. The answer is an emphatic no. That's - veteran benefits will remain the same.
The good news is that any veteran enrolled in a program with the VA and currently receiving care through the VA will continue to receive that same care. Nothing will change about the care they receive. The same is true for TRICARE and TRICARE For Life which are programs that provide coverage for our vets' families and for vets after they retire. So their programs will remain the same, too, as well. Which you would imagine would be a top priority for our lawmakers in Washington.
Now the good news is, and this is a little-known fact, there are 16 million veterans who don't receive health care through the VA because they're not eligible.
PHILLIPS: Really?
MCCLURE: Sixteen million.
PHILLIPS: That many?
MCCLURE: Sixteen million. There are income requirements for eligibility for veterans' care. And also, whatever is being treated has to be in many cases service-related.
So the good news is that for those veterans and their families who are currently unable to afford health care which is quite a few. I believe over two million several years ago, a lot of vets and their families, they will be able to participate in the insurance exchanges like everyone else in America.
They'll be able to buy an affordable policy through the insurance exchanges.
PHILLIPS: Well, Congressman, there's your next policy fight. You have to make sure every vet gets health care. That's crazy.
KAGEN: Well, it's quite a battle, but every soldier who has served overseas and has defended our back, we have to be there and cover their backs when they come home.
PHILLIPS: Absolutely.
KAGEN: But also understand that our veterans get higher quality care today than when I began my practice in medicine in the 1970s. In the 1970s, the VA was not adequately funded and this Congress and the previous Congress I had the honor to serve in had increased the benefits tremendously to our veterans who qualify, but understand, that overall, our health care system in the end will have three-tiered system.
We'll have the VA system which is going to be available for our military veterans who qualify. We'll have government-sponsored programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, public health service, Indian health service and we're going to have a third-tier system which will be an openly competitive medical marketplace with transparent prices for everyone to see so we can finally go shopping.
The real goal here is to allow competition between insurance carriers to drive the prices down and the quality up. Everybody watching here today understands you want the highest quality care at the lowest possible price and that is the goal of Congress to be able to deliver that.
PHILLIPS: Congressman Steve Kagen, thanks so much. Kathy McClure and it's votehealthcare.org, correct?
MCCLURE: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Logon. Answer a lot of questions there. Thank you so much, Kathy.
MCCLURE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right. As always, we want to hear from you. If you have something to say on health care or any other topic, go to my blog, CNN.com/Kyra, post your thoughts. We appreciate all your questions this week.
There must be something about meeting Oprah in person, a face-to- face and a heart-to-heart put a lingering lawsuit behind her. She's not the queen of talk for nothing.
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PHILLIPS: The stimulus with pop rocks and your mouth will explode. Watch out for the huge stimulus swimming around Loch Ness and the Abominable (ph) stimulus up in the mountains. We're talking about myths about the stimulus and doing some debunking.
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PHILLIPS: Well, the hearing is under way in Cleveland right now. 50-year-old Anthony Sowell accused in the brutal murders of 11 women. Their remains were found last year in his home, now dubbed the "house of horrors." Sowell faces 85 charges which include murder, rape and kidnapping. He's pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
She won her legal battle, but lost her chance to dance. A federal judge agreed with the Mississippi teenager Constance McMillen. He ruled McMillen's First Amendment rights were violated when her high school refused to allow her to attend prom with a same-sex date. Plus the judge also refused to order the Itawamba County School system to hold the dance that was canceled due to the controversy.
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the former head mistress of her South African girls school. The lawyers say that a woman to woman talk between the two resolved the dispute. It started after allegations of abuse at the school came to light with the head mistress alleging Winfrey defamed her by implying she knew of the abuse and tried covering it up.
Kettleman, California -- some call it a Latino version of Mayberry, USA, but Opie and Auntie Mae had to deal with this.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (voice-over): How do we know if a birth defect is more than one mother's misery?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (through translator): It's such a small town and such a large problem. We want to give our children life, not death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you why some in Kettleman City fear a toxic turn for the worse.
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PHILLIPS: Ben Roethlisberger, Super Bowl champ a couple times over. We've got new information about the sexual assault investigation.
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PHILLIPS: California is the most environmentally friendly state in the U.S., but one small farming town may be wondering where their friends are. I'm talking about Kettleman City. You may never have heard of it, but when you see what's happening to the children there, you can't help but want to know more.
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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): (AUDIO GAP) -- a birth defect is more than one mother's misery?
MARIA SALCEDO, KETTLEMAN CITY RESIDENT (through translator): It's such a small town and such a large problem. We want to give our children life, not death.
PHILLIPS: How do we know if Maria Salcedo's misery is part of a pattern? Maria is not alone in the farming community of Kettleman City, California. Her misery has company.
(on camera): When you're driving through the San Joaquin Valley here in California, it's beautiful. It's green, it's lush, and there's rolling hills. But just a few feet off this busy highway, something else that grabs your attention -- the largest toxic waste dump west of the Mississippi.
(voice-over): Last year, 400,000 tons of hazardous waste, including lead and cancer-linked PCBs found in plastics was dumped here. Less than four miles away is Kettleman City. A small, poor community with no grocery store, no high school, and few sidewalks.
The town of 1,500 is also plagued with poor air quality, unsafe drinking water and exposure to pesticides. It also has a startling number of birth defects that some residents believe could be linked to this toxic dump.
In the past three years, 10 babies have been born with birth defects. Three of those children have died. Small town, troubling numbers. Troubling for mothers like Maria Salcedo and Daria Hernandez. Daria's son Joel was born with a cleft pallet.
(on camera): When you look at these pictures as a mom, how does it make you feel?
DARIA HERNANDEZ, KETTLEMAN CITY RESIDENT (through translator): It makes me sad because I look at them, and I remember what we had to go through. It was difficult for him to eat.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Maria's daughter Ashley also had a cleft pallet. She died.
(on camera): When you knew she didn't have a strong immune system and that you were losing her, what did you say to her?
SALCEDO (through translator): I apologized for not taking her earlier to the hospital. But the doctors told me it wasn't my fault, that with babies like this, this is what happens.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): And just this past February, another baby was born with a birth defect. This is baby Azul (ph). The tenth known case in Kettleman City. Yet in December, local officials voted in favor of expanding this waste site, sparking protests across this small town.
Our investigation led us to a shocking document. Take a look at this 1984 report commissioned by the state of California. It actually identifies communities that are least likely to resist a waste site in their area. And some key characteristics? Low income and Catholic.
INGRID BROSTROM, ATTORNEY WITH THE CENTER ON RACE, POVERTY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Those describe farm worker Latino communities to a T.
PHILLIPS: In a statement to CNN, Waste Management says its facility operates safely and is fully protective of human health. In addition, four government entities have concluded that Waste Management operates safely. However, we discovered past EPA violations, including failure to perform monthly monitoring for fluids at its PCB landfill. Ingrid Brostrom is an attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
BROSTROM: If there is any potential that these birth defects are caused by environmental contaminants, then we shouldn't be introducing any new contaminants. There should not be an expansion of the existing hazardous waste dump.
PHILLIPS: Waste Management has paid $3 million in taxes to the county.
BROSTROM: It's essential that the county knows what is causing these birth defects before the hazardous waste dump can be expanded. And, I mean, it really appears like this is really a case about the money.
PHILLIPS: So now, residents and activists have filed a lawsuit against Kings County.
RICHARD VALLE, CHAIRMAN OF THE KINGS COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: For any discussion of an item on the consent calendar -- PHILLIPS: Richard Valle, the chairman of the Kings County Board of Supervisors, agreed to an interview with CNN. But when we came to town, he didn't show up.
(on camera): Supervisor Valle?
VALLE: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Hi, I'm Kyra Phillips of CNN.
VALLE: Hi.
PHILLIPS: Hi, you canceled our interview last week. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions, most importantly why you voted to expand the toxic waste site, even without a thorough health investigation.
VALLE: Do you know that I'm the one who called for the health investigation?
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Valle did ask the state for an investigation into birth defects on December 15th. But just a week later, on December 22nd, he voted to expand the waste site.
VALLE: I separated the health concerns out of Kettleman City with the land use decision. The land use decision that I made as it relates to the permit of the Waste Management expansion.
PHILLIPS (on camera): The point is why vote to expand the toxic waste site when that investigation is not done. When the families haven't been talked to and the kids haven't been studied when the numbers haven't been looked at.
VALLE: But I answered that already. I answered that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That question is subject to litigation right now. That's what we're saying is talk to our attorney about those issues.
VALLE: I would be more than happy to talk about this. I have out in the chambers in public meetings. But right now, I have to stand with the county. Folks have filed a lawsuit against us as I thought I had delivered with the health investigation. To some people apparently, that's not good enough.
PHILLIPS: Would you live in Kettleman City? Would you feel comfortable if your wife was pregnant in Kettleman City right now?
VALLE: I can't answer that question. That's not -- I don't think that's a fair question.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Maria Salcedo echoes the mothers of Kettleman City.
SALCEDO (through translator): I want a response, and I want it quickly. Nobody has given us any answers. And children continue to be born sick.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has stepped in, demanding not only an investigation from the California Department of Public Health, but the EPA also. So far, waste management's toxic waste dump in Kettleman has still not been granted a permit to expand. We'll follow the story.
Grande health care reform. It's the newest flavor for Starbucks, and its CEO is pretty happy with the new law. Its effect on their bottom line, for sure.
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PHILLIPS: A parting of the ways for a set of Tennessee twins. They had to leave school over the part in their hair.
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PHILLIPS: Multiple published reports have Georgia police dropping their DNA requests of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The 20-year-old college student claims the NFL star assaulted her last month at a central Georgia nightclub. It's the second time in three years he's faced such an accusation.
In Texas, this dashboard cam gives a front-row view to a crash involving a police officer. He says he tried to avoid impact, but -- boom, no such luck. The officer says he was pursuing a speeder and had his lights on when another car pulled in in front of hum. The patrolman and the driver had to go to the hospital.
Businesses big and small are paying close attention to health care reform and what it means for their bottom line. Starbucks is one company that wants to see the system changed. The coffee giant says it spends more on health care than it does on coffee beans.
CNNmoney.com Poppy Harlow's in New York. So, Poppy, tell us more about Starbucks and health care and this connection.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: We all know the company. A lot of us drink the coffee. Some people say it's too expensive, but this is something that's pretty admirable about Starbucks. We went to Seattle last week to sit down with the CEO Howard Schulz, and, Kyra, what struck me most and you can see there is what the company spends and their dedication to health care. And it goes back 30-plus years to his childhood and what health care meant to him and his family. I want you to take a listen to part of our interview.
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HOWARD SCHULTZ, CEO, STARBUCKS: I grew up in Brooklyn, in the projects which was subsidized housing. My parents were great, working-class people. But at the same time, as we grew up, I think realized that we were not the privileged few. We were on the other side of the tracks, and I think what I -- what I felt as a kid and what -- and what stayed with me as I was trying to build Starbucks is to ensure the fact that any insecurity or lack of respect that someone would feel as a result of where they came from should somehow be refined by how the company would treat its employees. And I just felt very strongly that we couldn't bring the company to where it needed to go if we did it on the backs of our people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SCHULTZ: Given the fact that we're in the middle of the health care debate, what I feel really proud of is that we didn't turn our back on our people. We kept the benefit, and it will cost us almost $300 million.
HARLOW: So what do you think then, Howard, when you look at the debate going on in Washington right now over health care for more Americans?
SCHULTZ: The fact that between 40 and 50 million Americans don't have health insurance, in my view, is the -- is kind of the fracturing of humanity of our country. It doesn't feel right. There's no reason why we should be so far behind.
HARLOW: You spoke with the president?
SCHULTZ: I have spoken with the president. This is a runaway train, and we're on a collision course with time if something doesn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And Kyra, what you heard there is that he's committed to giving their employees health care, even the part-time baristas. People that work 20 hours or more at the company all get health insurance, but it costs the company $300 million. And that's why he said something needs to change. Companies need help paying for this and then, just a few days after that interview, we saw health care reform pass. Really interesting, something I certainly didn't know about Starbucks, they give this despite the $300 million cost to the company. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And I've known people that work there and said they give pretty incredible benefits, too. When you start working there it covers things a lot of big companies don't. These are good businessmen, that's for sure. Thanks so much, Poppy.
HARLOW: You got it.
PHILLIPS: Let's check the numbers really quickly on Wall Street. We'll take you live to the New York Stock Exchange right now. The Dow Industrials are down about 24 points.
Two cute little boys, one problem. Haircut. What is it about this 'do that got this duo sent home from school?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The watchdog who looks out for fraud in the stimulus has come out swinging. He says some people are hyperventilating. I'm Josh Levs. I've got a reality check just seconds away.
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PHILLIPS: Earl Devaney, that name ring a bell? Maybe not, but he's got a really important job. He's chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. That's a fancy way of saying that he investigates waste, fraud and abuse in the stimulus program. He's kept a pretty low profile, but he went public this week to refute what he says are myths about the stimulus program.
Josh Levs in his natural habitat over there. So, what's Mr. Earl Devaney complaining about?
LEVS: You know what? He says he's going on the attack against some of these myths spreading like wild. And you're right. He's got an important job. The stimulus is $862 billion, borrowed dollars that we're paying interest on. He says there are all these myth, basically, lies flying around out there.
Let me show you a few of what he's complaining about. First of al, you may have heard this one, that billions of dollars from gone to phantom districts. There were early on a lot of reports that billions of stimulus dollars went to congressional districts that don't exist. And that's because he says there were just basically some typos and people filling out where they were using the money. He says no money ever went went into a black hole. He says critics should stop hyperventilating.
He also complains about this. He says a lot of people think that he and the board overseeing the stimulus are taking orders from Obama, President Obama and his administration. He says that's not true. We're totally independent.
And the most important one here, Kyra, that I want to take a look at, he's complaining about this. He's complaining about reports that look at how much money is in the stimulus and how many jobs have been created. He says the idea that $250,000 per job is what's happened so far from the stimulus. He says that's ridiculous.
I want to show you quickly on the computer what he writes in this blog where he's really going after critics. Look, what about the benefits of the highway project to motorists? What about the indirect jobs, the subcontractors and the suppliers that benefit? So, his position is don't just look at the jobs numbers.
But you know what, Kyra? The stimulus is a jobs program, so that's what we should be looking at there.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about how many jobs the stimulus has created. Is there any way to even put together a hard and fast number?
LEVS: The administration likes to say 2 million. I'm going to show you really quickly with this "Schoolhouse Rock" picture how they're doing. It. They're talking about three kinds of jobs: direct, indirect and induced. Here's how they total their jobs. Direct job, you hire a contractor to work on the street, he gets paid. Along with that, he needs to buy the concrete to do his work. The people who make the concrete get paid. That's an indirect job. Then he has money to go shopping at a grocery store. They call that an induced job.
A lot of that is guess work, guesstimation. They like to say million people are working who would aren't be working otherwise. The short version here is we'll never know for sure how many people are working because of the stimulus that wouldn't be working otherwise. We won't know.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: You got it. Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Two sisters once joined at the hip now facing off in court. At the center, a lottery ticket, a winning ticket worth a half a million dollars. One wants her half while the other doesn't want to share. What's a judge to do?
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PHILLIPS: Winds of change that can bring new life to a dying region. I'm talking about the once mighty Rust Belt and sorely needed jobs now being cultivated there by wind farming. CNN's Joe Johns has more in this latest installment of "Building Up America."
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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This used to be steel country U.S.A. with its towering pollution machines. But now, new jobs and the clean energy sector, putting people back to work, going green all at the same time.
The U.S. subsidiary of a company based in Spain, Gamesa U.S.A., is manufacturing enormous windmill blades at this Pennsylvania plant, shipping them all over the U.S.
Ron Sanders is the plant manager.
(on camera): How many of these do you guys make a week?
RON SANDERS, PLANT MANAGER, GAMESA, USA: We're moving back up to produce more at 11 blades per week.
JOHNS: And at your lowest point during the recession, how many were you putting out?
SANDERS: Just five per week.
JOHNS (voice-over): Sanders got a break from the recession by coming here to work. He used to work for an automotive supply plant that fell on hard times. SANDERS: I had been in automotive for almost 30 years. As the industry declined, I found myself having to leave the employer that I was working for at the time. So in December of '08, I left. And then in June 2009 I started here with Gamesa.
JOHNS (on camera): 230 people work at this plant, 24 hours a day, five days a week. And building just one of these blades is a huge job. They can weigh 15,000 pounds, 45 meters long. It takes almost 24 hours to build just one.
(voice-over): And there are other people here who might have been out of work but for the appearance of these green jobs.
Ed Burnat had jobs at three different steel plants before it all dried up. He's grateful to be working here.
(on camera): So what's better? Steel working or this?
ED BURNAT, WIND TURBINE BUILDER: I don't want to say.
JOHNS: You go where the work is?
BURNAT: Sure, you have a family. You have to feed your family. You do what you have to do.
JOHNS (voice-over): It took about three months to figure out the new job and less time to see one of the upsides.
BURNAT: Most of the guys that work here like the idea of it being green. We like the idea of this, cleaning our environment up. A lot of people here are, you know, like that idea.
JOHNS: Creating green jobs is something the president talks a lot about, but to tell the truth, the U.S. lags behind Western Europe in windmill production and use. So in the end, the real job may be standing up the windmill industry in the U.S. so it can create more jobs, more energy, and compete in the global market.
Joe Johns, CNN, Evansburg, Pennsylvania.
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PHILLIPS: Two cute little boys, one problem -- haircut. What is it about this 'do that got this duo sent home from school?
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PHILLIPS: New reports say African-Americans are almost twice as likely to be unemployed. They lack health insurance and lag in homeownership rates. Coming up at noon, right here on CNN, a panel looks for solutions for Black America. Tony Harris hosting that.
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PHILLIPS: This story brings new meaning to having a bad hair day. A set of very cute twins suspended from a Tennessee elementary school because of the way they parted their hair. Take a look at that. What's wrong with that?
Exactly, Tony Harris, I heard a big "What?" from Tony over there. The father --
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Nine-year-old Jordan and Jason Edwards, Tony, say that school officials thought the part in their hair was a gang symbol and it violated school dress code. Are you kidding me? Edwards says his sons have been wearing that same hairstyle since they were toddlers, and he's got the pictures to prove it right there. We're showing it. The district overturned the suspension, by the way, and the boys are back in school. Keep the part, wouldn't you say?
HARRIS: Yes! It looks good.
PHILLIPS: Yes! Rally to keep the part.
All right. Listen to this, Tony. This is classic. I want my share. That's what two elderly sisters are battling in court over a half million dollar lottery ticket.
This is what happened. One of them bought it and the other says "I deserve half, I'm your sister." Seems they used to have an agreement to split all those winnings apparently because at the casinos they would go together and gamble together and there the lottery was. It was even notarized.
But a few years ago, an argument put them at odds and they stopped talking. That was over $250, by the way, and this was a bit bigger. So what do you think? Does the earlier agreement still count? A judge will answer that $250,000 question.
HARRIS: Oh, split the money, come on!
PHILLIPS: Exactly. Come on!
HARRIS: Split the money, you're sisters! Whatever the riff is, it runs deep, right?
PHILLIPS: I think there are probably other issues there.
HARRIS: You know that's right. You know, I remember back in the day, if I had hair -
PHILLIPS: Did you part it?
HARRIS: Yes, back in the day. I did part it.
PHILLIPS: Oh, wait a minute. You told me you had the big afro going on, and you tried to part it and it would kind of blow in the wind.
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
PHILLIPS: Is that what you'd do? HARRIS: Those were the days, my friend.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: You're still a handsome devil. Part or not.
HARRIS: God love you. Have a great day, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: See you, Tony.
