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Gas Explosion, Fire Destroys Neighborhood; Obama Talks Economy, Mideast in Press Conference; Angry Mob Burns Down Crocodile Sanctuary; Presidential Fact-Check; 9/11 First Responder's Cancer Battle; CNN Equals Politics Update; Food for Thought in the Fuel Debate
Aired September 10, 2010 - 12:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much and a great weekend.
I'm Ali Velshi. I'll be your news guide for the next couple of hours. We're mapping out important information for you to know about today and tomorrow. We'll break down some ideas. We'll seek out some innovation. We're going to give you some access and some understanding about what is going on in this world, and boy, there's way too much going on in this world for a Friday.
Here's what I've got on the rundown. We are just coming off President Obama's first full-fledged news conference in nearly four months. The economy, religion, war, peace, health care, he covered it all. We are in fact-checking mode now. We'll be talking to you about that in just a couple of minutes.
Plus, missing children, a psychic, an angry mob and a whole bunch of crocodiles. We've got a bizarre story for you that combines all of the above. Wait until you hear about this.
Also, I'll talk to an energy expert who says she has a sure-fire way to make America kick its addiction to oil. You are not going to want to hear about it, but I have to tell you about it anyway.
From a neighborhood to nothing. Let me tell you about the big story that we're following right now. A gas explosion, natural gas explosion in the San Bruno, California, just next door to San Francisco. So far, at least four people are dead. More than 50 are injured. Dozens of homes are gone.
The fire is about 75 percent contained right now. It's been burning for more than 12 hours.
San Bruno is just north of San Francisco, only a few miles away from the San Francisco International Airport. The explosion happened about 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening, local time. The heat was so intense, it melted car tail lights. It sent chunks of concrete flying.
Pacific Gas and Electric says a gas transmission line -- that's not the kind that goes to your house. This is the one that -- it's a bigger line. It ruptured. It caused the fire. They're investigating. Residents of this neighborhood say they've been smelling natural gas in the area for the past three weeks. We're hearing that the blast and the fire happened so suddenly, that people didn't have a chance to react. So what went wrong here? CNN's Ted Rowlands joins me now from San Bruno. He's got the latest on this.
And Ted, this has just been developing, obviously, overnight, as the sun came up. What do we have now? What do we know about what happened?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, that's the big question. How did this happen? Because these gas lines are in every major city in the country. Why did this gas line erupt and cause this massive explosion, which you articulated, just in an instant, changed this neighborhood just over the hill behind me, into an inferno. In fact, people thought it was a 747 or some sort of large plane crash in this neighborhood, because it was so intense and it erupted so quickly.
PG&E, the gas company, says they haven't been able to get close enough to ground zero, if you will, to analyze the pipes so they don't know. They are confident that they're going to get to the bottom of this.
Newest numbers, four dead, fifty plus injured, some of those critically burned folks. Four firefighters were injured, because this was such an intense firefight. They have all been treated and released from a hospital. We just talked to a young woman here who says that her 19-year-old friend is one of the missing people, and that's one of the things we do expect in the coming hours and days, is that there will be a possibly more fatalities. Right now there are dog teams at the area where the explosion took place. And they are looking for potential other victims.
But the big question, too, on the -- is this investigation, how did it happen? Well, you mentioned it earlier. There is one neighbor here that says that a few weeks ago, about a week and a half ago, he smelled gas. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM GUTIERREZ, SAN BRUNO RESIDENT: It started around three weeks ago in my neighborhood. PG&E came out, I was working in my garage. He had told me to shut the door, shut the garage, go inside that there was real heavy, strong gases.
After being in the neighborhood for a little bit, they packed up and left. But the real heavy smell was right down the street at the next stop sign. Every day after work, I would smell the heavy smell coming from the gutter and sewer right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And from what you know, what did PG&E do about this? How long was the smell going on? What did they tell you to do?
GUTIERREZ: They told us nothing. I mean, I don't know how anybody cannot repair a smell like that. And not find that smell. Especially going to neighborhoods -- there's other neighborhoods that have smelled the same smell, really strong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And for how long have you smelled this?
GUTIERREZ: For a good three weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did they tell you to do?
GUTIERREZ: When the head came out, they said shut the door and go inside the house, and that was it. And you can see, as what had happened. It's just ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Now, this morning PG&E did acknowledge that they're aware of this gentleman's accusations, and they say they're poring over their records to see if, indeed, they were in this neighborhood.
But again, Ali, still there is a search going on for potential victims here. And until that work is done, PG&E says they can't get close enough to the pipe to really analyze it.
VELSHI: Natural gas is infused with a smell. So the idea is that people should be able to smell it. It's not the natural smell of the gas. They put that in there so when there is a leak and people describe it, the gas company should know where it is.
So my question to you is, who's investigating this, obviously? Obviously, PG&E has to be involved in it. But if there's a possibility that they didn't do that, is it fire marshals? Is it the state? Who's investigating this?
ROWLANDS: Well, actually, the NTSB is the lead on this, interestingly enough. They've sent a team out here. They'll lead it, but they're obviously relying heavily on PG&E. And PG&E is saying that they will be completely transparent throughout this, and that they're helping through the entire process. But it is the NTSB that will be the lead on this.
VELSHI: Ted, I want to just show our viewers, the picture that you see on the right side of screen here. These are live pictures coming to us from the site.
It's quite remarkable, Ted. Because where you're standing, you can't really sort of get a perspective of it from our shot, what we're seeing. Just give us a sense of the scope. It's like there's a crater in the ground there. And it's houses -- house after house after house, gone.
ROWLANDS: Yes. And imagine gone almost immediately, because of the intensity of this explosion. People thought it was an earthquake. People -- talked to one woman who was at her son's elementary back-to- school night, and she said the entire school -- and this is a number of blocks away -- shook like it was an earthquake, and they were convinced it was an earthquake, until they saw the fire ball.
So just imagine being that -- right where that crater is or anywhere near that, what those people went through, the ones that did survive and are now suffering from horrible burns, and then, of course, the ones that were lost.
VELSHI: What a story. All right, Ted, you'll stay on top of it for us. Thanks very much. Ted Rowlands in San Bruno, California, just north of San Francisco.
All right. In his first solo press conference in four months, President Obama talked about the economy, Republicans, war and peace, faith and reason. And, by the way, midterm elections. Ed Henry was there in that conversation. We'll hear from him on the other side of this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. It was President Obama's first formal news conference in almost four months. What I mean by that is where he does it in front of reporters and then he takes questions from those reporters.
He talked about a lot of stuff, because, boy, this has been a busy week. Largely, he was talking about the economy. We're less than two months to midterm elections, and he was talking about his economy. He was talking about help that he's announced for small businesses; a research-and-development tax credit that he's called for an expansion of, and a middle tax -- middle-class tax cut, or actually, allowing those Bush tax cuts not to expire at the end of the year for middle-class earners.
He also talked about his infrastructure proposals. He had committed about $200 billion to -- $300 billion to infrastructure in this past week.
There was a question, though, about this -- these millions of dollars -- the billions of dollars that the president has committed, because the White House, as you know from our conversations this week, has gone out of its way to say, do not call this a stimulus. So one of the reporters there from CBS asked the president, "It's a lot of money. Is it a stimulus?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: So this is a second stimulus?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, the -- here's how I would -- there is no doubt that everything we've been trying to do, everything we've been trying to do, is designed to stimulate growth and additional jobs in the economy. I mean, that's our entire agenda.
So -- so I have no problem with people saying the president is trying to stimulate growth and hiring. Isn't that what I should be doing? I would assume that's what the Republicans think we should do: to stimulate growth and jobs. And I will keep on trying to stimulate growth and jobs for as long as I'm president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. President getting himself involved in that semantics discussion. He also talked to Ed Henry.
I'm surprised even he took a question from you, Ed, because I recall recently at one of these a few months ago you were really needling the president. You sort of set his whole tone off at one point.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Is that what you think?
VELSHI: Apparently, you guys are on good terms. Listen, before I talk about what you are talking to the president about, obviously, the other thing that's been on the agenda this week is this Koran burning issue. He talked about that, as well.
Listen in with me on this conversation for a second. Let's just listen in to what the president said about whether he magnified -- whether the White House has magnified this Koran burning issue. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We've got an obligation to send a very clear message that this kind of behavior or threats of action put our young men and women in harm's way. And it's also the best imaginable recruiting tool for al Qaeda.
And although this may be one individual in Florida, part of my concern is to make sure that we don't start having a whole bunch of folks all across the country think this is the way to get attention.
This is a way of endangering our troops: our sons and daughters; fathers and mothers, husbands and wives who are sacrificing for us to keep us safe. You don't play games with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: And you don't play games with that. Ed, you have talked to us all week about both these issues: the president's stimulus -- not stimulus and the Koran issue. Take your pick. What do you think of what the president said?
HENRY: Well, I'll start on the back half of it. I was fascinated by how the real passion from this president was on the Koran issue. It was when my colleague asked about the mosque in New York City. The president seemed to give his most full-throated defense yet of allowing that mosque to be built in New York city. Might stir up some more controversy.
But he was very passionate about saying, look, as commander in chief, I'm sending Muslims into harm's way, American Muslims who are going in and fighting in Afghanistan, and they're just as much an American as anyone else. Also, my colleague Anne Kornblut from "Washington Post," she asked about 9/11 anniversary tomorrow and asked about why the president believes, you know, there seems to be sort of this anger directed at Islam right now. The president very again very passionate and was saying -- the thing - surprising answer, "The thing I was -- I most admired," I think he said, "about former President Bush, was how after 9/11, he made clear we're not at war with Islam."
And the president went on to say, if you notice, very interesting, "As president, I really rely on my Christian faith, after those polls suggesting a lot -- or maybe at least some Americans think he's Muslim. That he slipped that in, his Christian faith, used it and wove it into the answer.
VELSHI: Right.
HENRY: He was very careful to do that. He was very passionate about all of those subjects. On what this was supposed to be about, the economy, not passionate. On the issue this press conference was supposed to be about, the economy, not quite as passionate. I mean, he was certainly passionate about defending his policies, as you heard when he talked to Chip Reid about the first stimulus and now these new policies he's laid out this week, infrastructure spending, tax cuts, et cetera.
But the fact of the matter is, these new proposals are going nowhere fast. His fellow Democrats, like Henry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, they haven't gotten behind him in a passionate way. Republicans are not ready to cut a deal with him before the election.
He was not signaling a willingness to compromise on extending the tax cuts for the rich from the Bush administration. So there really was nothing new; not a whole lot of passion on the economy, which is what he wanted to talk about. All the real kind of news and passion was when I asked him about Osama bin Laden, when Wendell asked him about the mosque in New York. And when Anne Kornblut asked about New York City.
VELSHI: Let's talk to you about Osama bin Laden for a second, because we have a CNN/Opinion Research poll, as you know, that has come out which indicates that -- the question was asked, will we ever catch Osama bin Laden -- with the U.S. be able to capture or kill Osama bin Laden? Thirty percent said likely, 67 percent said not likely. That's a new low or a new high, depending on the way you want to look at it. You asked the president about that. Interesting answer. Tell us a bit about that.
HENRY: Well, the reason why I asked it is because tomorrow is the ninth anniversary, and there are some real serious terrorism experts who are saying, look, Osama bin Laden really is not that big of a deal any more. He's a symbol. But if we captured or killed him, it wouldn't matter. There's going to be -- al Qaeda leaders will replicate. And so it's not that big of a deal.
But as president elect, Barack Obama said it is a big deal and that it is critical to our mission to wiping out al Qaeda and wiping out the terrorists. So that's why I asked him, do you still stand behind what you said? And I thought it was interesting that he said yes. He said this is a critical part of winning the war on terror, essentially.
And he said, look, it's going to take a long time. May take many years that -- between catching him and dealing with this broader terror threat -- terror threat. But he said in the end, we're going to stamp it out.
So, again, he was pretty strong, pretty passionate on all of those answers related to the war on terror, related to Islam and what's going on with the Koran -- potential Koran burning, et cetera, the potential New York City mosque. But on the economy, he seemed a little flatter, and that's the one he wanted to hit out of the park today.
VELSHI: All right, Ed. We'll catch up with you a little later on in the show. Ed Henry at the White House after the press conference, first one in four months.
But as Ed said, the economy remains the No. 1 issue on your mind these days. We know; our polling shows that. The president covered it in depth at his news conference today. We're going to go a little more in depth now with the presidential fact check on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. Time now to go globe trekking. First, a terrifying and tragic story in the Central-American country of Belize. Two young children were reported missing. A village psychic says the kids were fed to crocodiles. So that triggers a mob, and an American couple's dreams go up in smoke.
CNN's Rafael Romo picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): It all started with the disappearance of these two children, 11-year-old Benjamin Rash and his 9-year-old sister, Onela (ph), from a small community in the Punta Gorda region of Belize. The children's father says he hasn't seen them since he took them to a bus station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I left them, and then I continued going from there then caught the bus.
ROMO: The children's disappearance took a dramatic turn, when according to local reports, a psychic told villagers the children had been fed to crocodiles. That's when a throng of angry villagers decided to burn to the ground a crocodile sanctuary ten miles away from the village owned by an American couple.
Vince Rose says his whole life is ruined.
VINCE ROSE, SANCTUARY OWNER: My community should be very ashamed of themselves. They burned the wrong man's house down and destroyed a future entity for their own Toledo district.
ROMO: Vince Rose and his wife, Sherry (ph), moved to Belize in 2004 with the dream of building a sanctuary for two species of endangered crocodiles. The place they built, little by little, over the last six years, is now in ruins.
The Punta Gorda police and fire departments are investigating the incident, but details are sketchy.
KENYATTA GARNETT, PUNTA GORDA FIRE DEPARTMENT: Doing our best right now to try and find out exactly what caused the fire, and how the fire got started.
ROMO: The Roses say they will take legal action against those responsible for the destruction of their sanctuary.
ROSE: Arson, attempted murder, trespassing, all of the above, yes. I will be taking very strong measures.
ROMO: The children are still missing, and the Mayan community has been picketing at the Punta Gorda Police Station, demanding answers.
(on camera) When the crocodile sanctuary was destroyed, the Roses were rescuing three crocodiles on a distant island and for now are staying away from the site. The couple is trying to figure out their future now that their dreams have literally gone up in smoke.
Rafael Romo, CNN Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Let's go to Iran now, a story we've followed very closely for you: three young Americans who have been held in an Iranian prison for more than a year. You'll recall, they were hiking in Iraq last July, somewhere along the border -- You can see that in the red area -- the red area that's between Iraq and Iran, between the cities of Irbil and Kirkuk -- when they allegedly strayed into Iran. Iran accused them of spying, allegations strongly denied by their families and by the U.S. government.
At one point, Tehran hinted that it might release them in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners. But that never amounted to anything. Now Iran says it will release Sarah Shourd tomorrow. As is often the case with Iran, reports on the release have been sketchy. Iranian officials have never said which one of the three would go free, but a representative for the Iranian mission at the U.N. told us it would indeed be Shourd.
Be sure to stay with CNN for the latest investments.
Well, he was once called the Twitter king. Is that a good thing? Our buddy Rick Sanchez is up next, sharing his take on bailout fatigue and on CEOs stuck in the golden age. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: All right. I really have enjoyed this book. I'm not doing this because he's a buddy of mine or he's a co-worker. I read Rick Sanchez's book. I loved it. It's called "Conventional Idiocy: Why the New America is Sick of Old Politics." Rick -- Rick joins me again, as he has all week, to talk a little bit about it.
Because you wrote this from the heart, Rick. You wrote it in part from the heart, about your history. You wrote it with your viewers, which is kind of how you do your TV show.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. That's the whole idea. That what's going on today, which guys like you and I have hooked into, is it's not about us. It's not about Rick Sanchez or CNN having proprietary rights to the news.
VELSHI: Right.
SANCHEZ: It's about sharing the news with Americans. They should be just as involved as we are in the process.
And I know there's people out there thinking, "Well, but some of them aren't qualified, Rick. What are you talking about? What if they're full of it and they send you some material that doesn't make" -- well, you know what? From time to time we interview people who are that way. And if you walk on the streets of wherever it is you live, you're going to find people that way. You can't throw out the baby with the bath water, you know?
VELSHI: Right. Well, it gives us great access. It gives us great access to ideas. One of the things that it does, and it does mess up our structure a little bit. But it's two-way news. Right? You're giving people things, and they're telling you you're right or you're wrong, or they're telling you did you not know about this, or this has just happened or here is something that disproves what you said.
SANCHEZ: Let me create a concept for you. For those of you guys sitting at home still have no idea how this is going to work and when you hear people talk about Twitter or MySpace, or Facebook, you go, what in the world does that have to do with news? Here.
Many, many, many, many years ago, our great-grandparents, right, lived in a world where they had front porches in their houses. They didn't have air conditioning. They didn't have computers, and they didn't have TVs, and they didn't have radios. And they would sit around on their porches, and they'd have porch conversations. Neighbors from across the street would come over, and they'd discuss the issues of the day.
Then along came the newspaper, then the radio, then the TV, then the DVR, then the DVD, then the satellite, then -- the -- the Internet and the computer and the PC and the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I could go on and on forever, right?
And what that did is, it focused us on something other than us and ourselves. VELSHI: Right.
SANCHEZ: It's like we're receiving that message, but we're not partaking. We're not sharing it amongst ourselves. For the first time, we have a tool now that allows us to have what I call the cyber porch.
VELSHI: Right.
SANCHEZ: And it's the word that I kind of coined, and I talk about it in my book. The cyber porch is essentially an opportunity for us to now, all of a sudden, engage once again. We can have those front porch conversations. And in the process of those conversations, we can engage with an Ali Velshi on his show or Rick Sanchez during his show and say, "Hey, we just had a meeting over here, and we decided that what you just did was really good, Ali, or you know what, Ali? It sucked. It was horrible. So I mean, either way, it makes you and I better.
VELSHI: How does that -- other than you and me and the shows that we do because of it-- look, it's tough. You and I discuss this. Sometimes people say nasty things. Sometimes it will be nasty things about how you look or what you dressed, but sometimes about what you're thinking.
But that aside, it sharpens your skill, right? When you have to face that criticism in real-time, it sharpens your skill. And your book argues that CEOs in America would do well to pick up on that kind of feedback for their companies.
SANCHEZ: No question. This is not just about guys who do news. This is about anybody. Whether you have a grocery store chain, or you own a gas station somewhere, or you have a small job at a newspaper somewhere, or a radio station. Whoever you are, as we move forward in this society that has all these new tools that we can use, if you're not connected, you fail.
Best example I can give you. I write about this in my book. It's called beggars in private planes. The three guys who run the biggest auto companies in the United States all decided one time they were going to go to Washington. I described them as beggars. They were going to ask for money to save their companies. Well, I know, and you know, because this whole Twitter thing had exploded just about that same time --
VELSHI: Right.
SANCHEZ: -- that the country was telling us -- telling me every day, "I'm sick of these rich guys who screwed up their companies, wanting me to save their butts." So there was this huge manifestation of bailout fatigue --
VELSHI: Right.
SANCHEZ: -- out there in the country. I knew it, you knew it. Most people knew it. But because they weren't connected, they didn't know it. So they arrive in their $3,000 suits, in their $90,000 and gas jets into Washington, D.C., with their hands out. And they embarrassed themselves, and they embarrassed their industry.
Why? Because as powerful and as knowledgeable and as wealthy as they were, they weren't smart enough --
VELSHI: Yes.
SANCHEZ: -- to connect to what was going on out there. Pitfall, mistake and it could happen to anybody.
VELSHI: Right, right. But if you're more in touch with stuff, the less likely to make -- the more you can correct them very fast.
Rick, great read. Thanks very much for joining me to talk about it. "Conventional Idiocy" available now. And Rick, we miss you down here, but look forward to seeing you again soon.
SANCHEZ: I'll be back next week my friend. Thanks so much. You're a good pal.
VELSHI: All right, Rick.
Listen, as Rick knows, we all know, the economy continues to be the No. 1 issue on your mind these days. The president covered it in depth at his news conference today. We're going to go even more in depth with a presidential fact check right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: You know, the president gave his first press conference sort of back and forth in four months. And they're important, because reporters get to ask him questions. But you know, we're kind of in campaign mode, and it's unclear what the president said that sort of campaigny versus what's fact. So we always like to check things out, cause that's kind of what we do.
And for matters to do with tax and the economy, we often turn to our good friend, Jeanne Sahadi whose a senior writer with Money.com, a good friend of mine in New York.
And we wanted to run what the president said by you, Jeanne, because you follow so closely. So I first want to start with comments that the president made, which we've been hearing a lot about, about extending or not extending the Bush tax cut to people making over $250,000 a year.
Let's listen to the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: As I said, we could, this month, give every American certainty and tax relief up to $250,000 a year. Every single American would benefit from that. Now, people who make $250,000 a year or less, they benefit on all their income. People who make $1 million would benefit on a quarter of their income.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. So start with the president has not given an inch on the idea that those tax cuts will probably be extended for people who make less than $250,000 a year, not for those who make more than $250,000 a year.
Give me your insights into this.
JEANNE SAHADI, CNNMONEY.COM: Well, what he said is true. If we just extend the middle-class tax cuts, people in the upper income brackets will, in fact, benefit, because the only thing that would expire for them are the top two income tax rates, but they're still paying their taxes on the lower income brackets, which were expanded by the Bush tax cuts.
There was a new 10 percent bracket put in so more of your money is taxed at a lower rate. In addition, there were marriage penalties that were reduced that upper income folks would benefit from.
So he's right, up to $250,000, they would enjoy the same portion on that portion of their income.
VELSHI: OK, let's talk a little bit about -- I just want to ask you about the number of people this affects, cause we often talk about the top 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent. What are we talking about with people who earn more than $250,000 a year?
SAHADI: Who earn more than, you said?
VELSHI: Yes. Who earn more than that. How many people is that?
SAHADI: Yes, it's between 2 and 3 percent of tax filers. I actually asked the Tax Policy Center this. I said, everybody says between 2 and 3 percent, can anybody say 2 or 3 percent and just sit with that? And the answer is kind of no, because they have to wait until the data comes in, and so they're estimating in terms of tax returns that are filed.
VELSHI: The other thing is, you know, we discuss whether it's worth it to extend these tax cuts to the highest earners in America, what will that do for the economy versus what will it cost us.
The president commented on that. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We can have a further conversation about how they want to spend an additional $700 billion to give an average of $100,000 to millionaires. That, I think, is a bad idea. If you were going to spend that money, there are a lot better ways of spending it. But more to the point, these are the same folks who say they're concerned about the deficits. Why would we borrow money on policies that won't help the economy and help people who don't need help?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Help people who don't need help. What he basically says is $100,000, if you extend that tax cut, it will give an average of $100,000 to those high end -- he calls them millionaires, but it'll cost us an additional $700 billion.
Tell me what you think.
SAHADI: In the ballpark, he's correct. The $700 billion is a Treasury estimate of the costs of extending the tax cuts for the upper income folks. The $100,000 actually underplays an estimate from the Tax Policy Center. They think next year people making $1 million or more could save $130,000 in taxes if it the tax cuts are extended, relative to their expiring for those folks. So he's correct in the numbers.
People differ on how that $700 billion should be spent. And I should also say that in the same way that we cannot afford the $700 billion, according to him, for the deficit, it -- you have to ask the question then, how come we can afford the $3 trillion it will cost for the middle class.
VELSHI: Interesting point. Very interesting point.
SAHADI: It's the vast majority of the population and some people say we should end up paying for those cuts at some point.
VELSHI: You're so smart, Jeanne, thank you for that. It's nice to have smart friends like you, people I can lean on when I actually need to know the answer.
Jeanne Sahadi, senior writer at CNNMoney.com. You really need to go to the site and see Jeanne's stuff. It really explains it all very, very well.
All right, sick and not able to work after working at Ground Zero. You're going to hear next from a 9/11 first responder who says his cancer is no coincidence. He even calls a settlement offer an insult.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Tomorrow, nine years from 9/11. Many first responders are still suffering from serious illnesses, many of them blame their grueling, round-the-clock recovery work at Ground Zero.
Elizabeth Cohen talked to one former first responder who has been offered a settlement that he calls an insult.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 12th, 2001. The remains of the Twin Towers, a twisted, smoky heap.
(on camera): When you got down there on September 12th, what was that scene like?
JEVON THOMAS, WORKED AT GROUND ZERO: It was like a horror movie. Everywhere you went, there was dust. It was in the air, it was on the ground, it was on, like, everything you touched. It was horrible.
COHEN: So you were inhaling all this dust.
THOMAS: All of it, every day, all day.
COHEN (voice-over): Jevon Thomas was one of thousands who descended on Ground Zero to help. He set up portable toilets for the emergency workers, ten hours a day, seven days a week. After a year at Ground Zero, he began to feel a stabbing pain.
THOMAS: And it was growing here. There was a lump. I went and I had a biopsy, and it came back that it was cancer.
COHEN: A rare cancer called epiphilioid sarcoma. He needed extensive reconstructive surgery and six months of chemotherapy. And then, with his scarred arm, he went right back to work at Ground Zero.
THOMAS: And another lump came.
(on camera): They found cancer here.
THOMAS: Right.
COHEN: Then they found cancer here.
THOMAS: Right.
COHEN (voice-over): Two tumors within two years. Thomas started to think the toxic dust had caused his cancer.
(on camera): So that's where you think your cancer started.
THOMAS: Yes, I'm 100 percent sure about that.
COHEN: How can you be so sure?
THOMAS: It's no coincidence that within a year of me working there every day that I started growing a lump in my hand and it turned out to be cancer.
COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Iris Udasin is taking care of Thomas and hundreds of other doctors from Ground Zero.
(on camera): He's convinced that he got it at Ground Zero. Are you convinced?
DR. IRIS UDASIN, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH EXPERT: It's really not possible to know whether this cancer was caused by 9/11.
COHEN (voice-over): She says more studies need to be done.
In the meantime --
(on camera: The cancer is back.
THOMAS: Yes, it's back.
COHEN: Where is it this time?
THOMAS: It's in my lungs. This is the third time, so it goes, it comes, you never get rid of it. It's a nightmare.
COHEN (voice-over): A cancerous lump, the size of a golf ball, is in his lungs. Now he'll need more surgeries, more chemotherapy.
Thomas says he's too sick to work, relying on charity to support himself, his wife and two children.
Then last month, hope arrived in the form of a letter, his share of the $712 million settlement for Ground Zero workers.
(on camera): So you received this letter, and how much money did it say you would get?
THOMAS: $83,400.
COHEN: And is that enough to compensate you?
THOMAS: No, not at all. With all the deductions, if I have 50,000 or 60,000. That's supposed going last me for the rest of my life? That's an insult.
I would rather not have anything to have that.
COHEN: On September 12th, when you were asked to go and help, you did.
THOMAS: Exactly, with pride.
COHEN: And do you feel like you've been forgotten now?
THOMAS: Yes. I know I've been forgotten. Instead of everyone uniting, coming together and figuring out a way to help you, they're figuring out a way of not helping you to save a dollar. And that's what it all boils down to, a dollar. And that's what I believe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Wow, what a story. What does the science say about this?
COHEN: Well, we asked the doctor who you saw in there. We said, you know, is there a link here. And what she basically said, as you heard in the piece, is that it's really impossible to say whether his particular cancer was caused by the work that he did at Ground Zero.
Now, the lawyers who are responsible for negotiating these settlements, they say that their studies show that the kind of cancer he has takes about 10 to 15 years to grow. And so, they say how could this possibly be then from Ground Zero, since he got it after only a year there.
Then, there are other folks who say, look, this gentleman and others were breathing in an unprecedented mix of carcinogens, so we don't really know what that unprecedented mix would cause.
So unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of gray here.
VELSHI: Where do they come up with that number, the 83-some-odd thousand that they're offering?
COHEN: There was a pot of money and they divided it up and you got more if there was more scientific evidence that your illness was linked to what you did at Ground Zero.
So, for example, there are some folks who had asthma who maybe would get like, let's say, around $1.5 million, not because their illness is more serious than his, but because there is more of a causal link.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I see.
COHEN: Exactly.
VELSHI: Wow, what a story. All right, Elizabeth, thanks very much.
Elizabeth Cohen.
All right, poking fun at Sarah Palin, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gets in the act. Your "CNN Equals Politics" update is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Time now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update. CNN's senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, at Capitol Hill. Dana, what is crossing the political ticker right now?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ali. First, one of the headlines out of the president's press conference that certainly has a lot of impact on the building behind me, and the Democrats' quest to keep the majority in both the House and the Senate there. And that is the question of the tax cuts that are expiring at the end of the year. Specifically the most controversial tax cuts, those for the wealthiest Americans, families making $250,000 or more.
The president in his press conference said that those tax cuts hold the middle class hostage. But then later, he opened the door to compromise on keeping those tax cuts in place. And this is a very tricky issue, politically, on the campaign trail for a lot of Democrats. Some say absolutely, that is the right way to go. In the words of one Democrat I talked to, "Paris Hilton doesn't deserve a tax cut." But there are four Democrats -- excuse me, three Democrats, one independent -- in the Senate, already who have said that they do not think that is the right way to go. That those tax cuts should be extended.
Second, if you want to get a sense of one of hottest debates out there, one of the hottest races out there, tune into CNN.com as we speak, Ali. There is a debate going on in the Arkansas Senate race. Blanche Lincoln, a two-term Democratic incumbent is fighting for her political life. John Bozman, her Republican challenger is debating her right now. Again, that's on live on CNN.com. Republicans want any chance - it's a long shot, but any chance at getting back the Senate. They have to beat Blanche Lincoln. She is behind in the polls.
Lastly, we've got to tell you this story. It is from the Governornator, Ali. Arnold Schwarzenegger set to tweet earlier today. As he's flying over Alaska took a shot at former governor Sarah Palin saying, "Looking everywhere, but can't see Russia from here."
And it was something -- something that he certainly wanted to get out there. Definitely has a sense of humor. The governor, we should point out, that was from Tina Fey, specifically on "Saturday Night Live," saying she could see Russia her house.
But to be fair, to be fair - Tina Fey actually said "They're our next door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," from an island in Alaska. We just wanted to get the facts out there, but it was pretty funny.
VELSHI: Has Sarah Palin tweeted back? Because she is quite active on Twitter
BASH: She is quite active on twitter. We haven't seen it, but I can't imagine she is not going to respond there. Can't imagine it.
VELSHI: She definitely likes that vehicle for doing that. Dana, thanks very much. Good to see you.
BASH: Thanks, Ali, you too.
VELSHI: Dash Bash, our senior congressional correspondent.
Be sure to stay with CNN for complete coverage of the key races and key issues heading into the critical midterm elections. Your next "CNN Equals Politics" update is just an hour away.
All right. Breaking the grip of oil. There's no easy solution here. One energy analyst wants to raise taxes to make you use less gas. You've got to meet her. Right ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: I want to talk to you a little bit about oil consumption. We've heard for years how dependent we are on oil, how oil has a chokehold on our economy and on our lives. The U.S. is the world's top consumer of oil. I want to tell you about this.
The U.S. -- maybe we're 5 percent of the world's population? Probably a little less than 5 percent. We consume a quarter of the world's oil.
Take a look at this. Oil consumption. The United States consumes 19.5 million barrels of oil. China, not even close. China's growing faster than the United States in its oil consumption, but not even close. Japan, 4.8 million. India, 3 million. India is growing as well.
But bottom line is, we are now competing with the rest of the world for oil. And oil is priced the same everywhere around the world. I want to talk to Lisa Margonelli. She's the director of the New America Foundation for Energy - it's Foundation Energy Policy Initiative. I'm sorry for messing that up, Lisa. Thank you for joining us.
You have a theory that a lot of people hold. That is, the best way to deal the consumption, if you go back a couple of years, it took place when oil hit $4 -- gasoline hit $4 a gallon. People started walking away from their vehicles. So, your point is, if you just make it more expensive for people to consume oil, people will back off?
LISA MARGONELLI, DIRECTOR, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION ENERGY POLICY INITIATIVE : Well, that's not exactly it. My point is that right now, we're all talking about how bad middle-class taxes are, but actually, middle-class families making $50,000 a year actually spend $8,000 bucks a year on their car and fuel alone, which is a huge chunk of their income. It's more than taxes.
So, what we need to do is give people more choices and more ways to get out of spending all of that money on fuel. 90 percent of Americans have no choice over how they commute. And what we want to do is create more choices.
VELSHI: When you say how they commute, you mean they have to drive?
MARGONELLI: yes. We have to drive. Ninety percent of us have to drive.
And in polls, everybody says that they'd like to have some more choices. So, what we'd like to do is create more choices. And one way to do that is to stop removing some of the incentives to use gas because we basically subsidize gasoline a lot. And we sort of subsidize highways. We subsidize parking spaces. We subsidize this whole system of gas-powered transit.
So the thing to do is to kind of start dialing that back. And the tax I have in mind -- no one likes a tax, but the idea is to start with a tax of three cents a gallon the first year. And the next year, go up another three cents, so it's 6 cents, and the next year, 9 cents, until after ten years you're up to 30 cents a gallon. So, it's graduated.
But at the same time that you're paying this extra three cents a gallon -- and we can pay an extra three cents. And the reason you know that. You'll have two gas station on two corners, one is three cents higher than the other --
VELSHI: And they've still got business. They're still selling gas.
MARGONELLI: Exactly. What we want to do is give a signal --
VELSHI: What are the other things - before we go too far on this - what are the other things you say that we subsidize when -- you're sort of implying that we subsidize a driving culture.
MARGONELLI: Yes. We subsidize our highways. We subsidize -- when you pay your insurance bill, you subsidize people who drive 20,000 miles a year even if you only drive 3,000 miles a year because everybody pays the same insurance rate. There's little adjustments, but basically, we have a one size fits all.
And then we have a whole system of subsidizing the oil industry itself. And in addition, we have all kinds of other -- we subsidize it in other ways that is we don't realize. The National Academy of Scientists says that every gallon of gas that we burn in a passenger car costs us 29 cents in health care and other pollution costs. That's kind of nuts.
VELSHI: So, tell me this then. Let's go back to my starting point. You're basically arguing -- I think we are actually in agreement on this -- I was saying what you're doing is you're doing -- you want to achieve what we achieved with higher prices of gas in that you're causing people to make other choices.
But what are the other choices coming from? So, if you're making gas more expensive, what happens to the people you talked about who earn $50,000 a year? Those families, what do they do instead of driving?
MARGONELLI: Well, they need to have some other choices. One thing is, most families making $50,000 a year don't have the choice over what car they're driving. You have to buy something you bought used, and it's probably going to be some sort of gas guzzler. So, what I'd like to do is take the $10 billion a year that we put for subsidies directly to the oil industry and turn them those into subsidies essentially for middle-class families to get really low income - low-interest loans, I mean -- on buying cars that are very fuel efficient so you can get rid of your clunker that gets 15 miles to the gallon. Get something that gets 40 miles to the gallon, and have a lower interest rate on that at the same time.
And at the same time, then, we're creating jobs in Detroit and rewarding Detroit for saving more fuel and we're kind of creating a circle of using less gas. At the same time, I think we need to create -- we need to put more subsidies or more tax incentives on creating new ways for people to get to work. One example is that there are a lot of companies like Wal-Mart, big-box stores like Home Depot, who could all create kind of mass van pools to bring their workers to work. That would relieve traffic and prevent them from having to pay for employee parking spaces. It would get everybody to work on time, even if they had different schedules.
And what we need to do is subsidize that instead of subsidizing drilling or things like traffic jams. I mean, traffic jams suck up billions of gallons of fuel a year.
VELSHI: Interesting discussion. All right. Thank you for the food for thought. We appreciate that.
Lisa Margonelli is the director of the New America Foundation Energy Policy Initiative, joining me from Berkeley, California. Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate it.
MARGONELLI: Thank you.
VELSHI: OK. The Florida pastor at the center of the firestorm over the Koran. Confusion reigns over whether he's going to carry out his threat to burn Islam's holy book or not. We're going to try and sort it out for you right after this.
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