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Political Risks of Debt Cuts; Erasing the Nation's Debt; Pawlenty's Plan for Presidency; Mubarak and Sons Investigated; Search for Serial Killer Widens; Search for Serial Killer Widens; California Tsunami Victim Washes Up in Oregon; L.A. Mayor Slapped With $21,000 Fine; National Mall Goes Dark; Justin Bieber Makes Waves in Israel; Nails Possibly Tied to Crucifixion; Czech President Lifts Pen; Stocks Bounce Back; Gas Topping $4 in More States; Pastor Leading Prayer Vigil for Cheaper Gas; Social Security: A Budget Lightning Rod
Aired April 13, 2011 - 08:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Did she really ask you that, Kiran? Would you do --
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": I mean there are other things I guess I'd do first but I would definitely -- I mean I would try to --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": Well, how many six figures? Low six figures? High six figures? It's just two days. Make a salmon.
CHETRY: I'd go without food, but I don't know if I could be stuck in the elevator.
COSTELLO: Totally get it. Have a great day and it won't happen, Kiran. Don't worry.
It is 9:00 a.m. on the East -- 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. on the West. I'm Carol Costello sitting in for Kyra Phillips.
In Egypt, authorities have detained former President Hosni Mubarak and two of his sons. They're being questioned about the killing of protesters and the uprising that toppled the Mubarak government. Egypt's state television says Mubarak suffered a heart attack during the questioning. Minutes ago he was reported in unstable condition.
There is a grim update to the California man who was swept out to sea when the Japanese tsunami struck the West Coast. The body of Dustin Webber was found yesterday along the Oregon coast. It was one month after the disastrous wave struck in nearly 400 miles from where he stood to videotape the tsunami's arrival on the coast of the United States.
In New York, a woman drives her van into the Hudson River, killing herself and her three young children. Police say they're not sure if it was intentional, but there was a domestic argument shortly before the tragedy. The national debt, it's your debt and your children's future. And in Washington, this is the day when the tough choices take the debate to a whole new level.
As you can see from the countdown clock on your TV screen, we're now four and a half hours away from President Obama revealing how he wants to balance the nation's budget. His goals, keep domestic spending low, find new ways to trim the defense budget, reduce health care spending and reform the tax code especially for the wealthiest Americans.
But the president's plan for entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and his expected call for a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans will resonate, loudly.
Dan Lothian is at the White House.
And Dan, it's widely believed the president will call for an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, as we know. The president has been down that road before. So what will be different now?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And first of all, I should tell you that I have confirmed with a senior administration official that in fact the president will call for an end to those Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans, those making over $250,000 a year.
Why? Again, as you know, the president did wage this battle last year and finally compromised with Republicans, but now the White House believes that in order to cut into the deficit, that there needs to be this push for some revenue generators and so, he believes, the president believes that this is one way to do that and that is to boost the taxes on those who are making over $250,000 a year.
COSTELLO: But --
LOTHIAN: Now -- go ahead.
COSTELLO: Dan, I was just going to ask you, this is going to be a tough sell because we just heard --
LOTHIAN: It is going to be a tough sell.
COSTELLO: We just heard Congressman Eric Cantor on "AMERICAN MORNING" talking about tax cuts, and this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), MINORITY LEADER: It's very ironic that a few days before tax day in this country that the president would be coming out asking people to pay more taxes. I don't think many Americans believe that that's the answer to how do we want to fix this economy and grow jobs.
You know, and that's really the question. You can't fix the problem that we're facing by cuts alone. We know that.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Dan, can the president change minds like Eric Cantor? He's going to meet with the president before the big speech today, right?
LOTHIAN: You're right. And this -- it will be a very tough sell because, as you point out, you know Republicans are saying that it's a nonstarter. This is simply unacceptable. There's a lot of concern out there that at a time like this, yes, the economy is starting to turn around, yes, there are more positive job numbers, but that this is not the economic climate to start raising taxes.
That that could set back some of the gains that the country has seen in terms of turning the economy around. So that's why there's that big concern. And it's unclear whether the president will be able to get Republicans to compromise on this issue because they -- they really seem to be digging in their heels. They're willing to compromise elsewhere, but not on this.
COSTELLO: Dan Lothian, live at the White House. Thank you.
President Obama has long pondered the idea of doing away with the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but put politics aside there's another harsh reality to that idea. All that fresh cash and tax coffers would not even come close to erasing the nation's debt.
Jeanne Sahadi is a senior writer at CNNMoney.com. She joins us now from our New York bureau.
And Jeanne, Republicans say this is a deal breaker politically, but it's also kind of a nonstarter mathematically, right?
JEANNE SAHADI, CNNMONEY.COM SENIOR WRITER: Well, it's a starter mathematically to increase taxes eventually. We can debate about the timing of it. I don't know if President Obama is going to say we need to end those Bush tax cuts today.
Chances are, he may say we need to end them in 2013 after they are set to expire. But Republicans and Democrats both have untenable positions with respect to deficit reduction when it comes to taxes. Republicans say no taxes, no way, no how. Democrats say, tax the rich. Both positions will not really help us reduce the debt with any significant -- in any significant manner.
COSTELLO: And Jeanne, is there --
SAHADI: Yes.
COSTELLO: Is the reason for that is because you need to tax to raise the taxes on more than just the wealthiest Americans in this country to generate enough revenue to really make a difference?
SAHADI: That's correct. There are two reasons you don't want to just rely on the wealthy to reduce the debt. One is their income tends to be more volatile because they have a lot of investments, so when the economy goes south, so do their incomes.
And two, there just aren't enough of them. Fortunately, you know, unfortunately we're not -- we're not among them. But the ranks are not going to grow so much that we can just keep pulling from that small group of people.
Here's a good example. The CBO estimates, if you raised income taxes one percentage point on everybody, you'd raise close to $500 billion over 10 years. If you raised it just 1 percentage point on the top 2 percent, you'd only raise about $120 billion.
So that gives you a sense of a disparity. But here's what deficit hawks say. We need to reform the tax code. Get rid of -- get rid of the system the way we have it. Make it a fairer, simpler and more economically efficient one. That will raise more money but it will also lower everybody's rates.
COSTELLO: Yes.
SAHADI: And that is something Republicans can get on board with.
COSTELLO: Unfortunately, that will take much longer to fix.
SAHADI: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: And we seem to need a fix right now.
Jeanne Sahadi, many thanks.
SAHADI: Thank you.
COSTELLO: You can see the president's speech on national debt live right here on CNN. It's scheduled to get underway at 1:35 Eastern, 10:35 Pacific Time.
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty tells CNN he's planning to run for president, but he's not officially announcing it yet.
CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is here to explain what exactly he said on "PIERS MORGAN."
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Some semantics, Carol. Yes. And everybody is talking about this interview, so instead of me talking about it, let's get right to the interview last night on "PIERS MORGAN." Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST, PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT: In a hypothetical scenario, Governor, if someone like Donald Trump was to emerge as the Republican nominee and asked you to be vice president, would you accept that honor?
(LAUGHTER)
TIM PAWLENTY (R), FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I'm running for president. I'm not -- wouldn't put my head in the ring rhetorically or ultimately for vice president, thus, so I'm focused on running for president.
And as to Donald Trump, I don't even know if he's going to run. But you know like I said I hope he does in one sense. He's funny. I think he brings a lot to the debate, but I just hope that the country will take the full measure of all the candidates and make an informed decision. I believe they will.
MORGAN: And Governor, unless I was mistaken, you just said you were running for president. Can we take that as a formal announcement?
(LAUGHTER)
PAWLENTY: Well, I've got an exploratory committee I've been running and we'll have a final of full announcement on that in the coming weeks. It won't be too much longer. But everything is headed in that direction, Piers.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: So you can see, Carol, how everybody is talking about this interview. He said I'm running for president in a hypothetical question about whether you'd serve as the running mate to Donald Trump if Trump won. But then he goes on to say no, the formal announcement, a few weeks away -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, why doesn't he just come out and say he's running for president?
STEINHAUSER: You know here's the funny thing. This is like a dirty secret. He's already formed an exploratory committee, that's the first step. But when you do that, you really are already running for president because you have to file with the Federal Election Commission, either two things -- you file a Statement of Candidacy and a Statement of Organization, which allows you to set up shop and start raising money.
So technically, if you do an exploratory, you already are the candidate. But candidates, Carol, they like to do a second thing. They like to have an event down the road, the big pomp and circumstance that I'm running for president. So I guess that's what they're waiting for, a big more formal event with a lot of cameras around, I would assume.
COSTELLO: Exactly. They want us all to come to their party.
STEINHAUSER: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: Paul Steinhauser, thank you.
STEINHAUSER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: We'll have your next political update in one hour and a reminder for all the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com.
Let's head overseas now. We are getting reports that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is being detained for questioning as authorities investigate the killing of protesters and claims of corruption.
Two of Mubarak's sons are also in custody.
Let's head live now to CNN's Ivan Watson. He's in Cairo.
Ivan, didn't Hosni Mubarak just suffer a heart attack?
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's not entirely clear and according to the prosecutor's office here, nothing of the sort took place.
This is an incredible fall from grace, Carol. A little more than two months ago, Hosni Mubarak was the president of the most populous Arab country in the Middle East and now he was taken -- according to prosecutor's office -- last night to the hospital in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he's been living since he was pushed out of power two months ago by street protests. Taken there and under the care of a medical team, questioned by lawyers from the general prosecutor's office.
And we have since learned as well that his two sons, one of whom was being groomed to be a possible successor to Mubarak and who is believed to be an incredibly wealthy business man, Gamal Mubarak, the eldest son, and the youngest son, Alaa, have been transferred to the Cairo's notorious Torah prison which we visited just a few days ago where the former -- prime minister of Mubarak's government is currently being held as well as a number of the former president's men.
All being detained in link -- in connection with corruption charges and in connection with the deaths of an investigation into the deaths of hundreds of protesters during those historic demonstrations, street demonstrations, of January and February -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ivan Watson reporting live from Cairo.
A skull and remains found on Long Island confirmed to be human. And authorities will now try to link them to eight other sets of human remains. The search for a serial killer goes on. We'll have a live report for you, next.
And appealing to a higher power for lower prices at the pump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I really believe God to drop down to $1.50, hey, I'm glad for that, too.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I'm sure everybody would be. Meet the Georgia pastor who wants his flock down at the local gas station praying for cheaper fuel. We're going to talk with him live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Police on Long Island are stepping up their search for a possible serial killer by bringing in dive teams and canine units.
CNN's Alan Chernoff is following this case. He has been. He joins us now from Jones Beach, New York on Long Island.
Alan, is there anything new that you can tell us?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, the Suffolk County police have been planning to get their dive team into the water right on the other side of Ocean Parkway behind me. The small area called Hemlock Cove, but given the weather, they're not sure that they're actually going to go in today. It is a very raw, windy, freezing day out here on Long Island right by the beach.
They haven't made the determination just yet. As you mentioned, the police had been using canine units. They've been able to identify human remains. The latest I.D. came on Monday. They found human skull and a separate group of bones about a mile and a half away over in Suffolk County.
And we're standing in Nassau right now, but over in Suffolk County, eight separate sets of human remains had been found over the past two weeks and back in December. Four of those have been identified as the bodies of women who had been working as prostitutes, who had been advertising online.
So the theory was among the police, and it still is pretty much, that this is a serial killer or killers that they are searching for who targets prostitutes.
However, one of the local newspapers around here, "Newsday," has reported that one of the sets of remains is that of a child, and that changes the equation, certainly for people who live around here.
Now, the police have not confirmed that report, but nonetheless, the level of anxiety has risen around here because residents, and there are not all that many here, but the few residents here now are thinking, what exactly is the story, who might this person or persons actually be targeting?
COSTELLO: As far as --
CHERNOFF: Carol, a lot of anxiety here. Press conference scheduled for 1:00. Maybe we'll get a little more clarification then.
COSTELLO: I know, I was just going to ask you, they're finding all of these human remains. Is there any -- is there anything on those human remains that might lead them to a suspect?
CHERNOFF: Well, the remains are at the medical examiner's office, both here in Nassau County and in Suffolk County. That is certainly the focus of the investigation, now, the forensics, trying to identify these persons using DNA records, using the teeth, whatever they can do to move this case forward. It's not just about searching on the beach and trying to find more bones.
COSTELLO: Allan Chernoff, live on Long Island. Thank you.
Some other stories making headlines Cross Country, the body of a California man who was swept out to sea while trying to take pictures of last month's tsunami has been found. Dustin Weber's body was found earlier this month on a beach in Oregon about 380 miles away.
(BEGIN VICEO CLIP)
BLAISE BUTCHER, DUSTIN WEBER'S FRIEND: To have the ocean bring him back to us is almost a godsend, in a way.
LORI DAVIS, DUSTIN WEBER'S MOTHER: I just felt the pain all over again. It was like reliving the minute I found out about the whole accident.
BONNY ELLIOTT, DUSTIN WEBER'S FRIEND: Just kind of having to accept that -- so I can have our best friends around, you know?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Elsewhere, the mayor of Los Angeles has been slapped with a fine for not reporting free tickets to sports and entertainment events, like the Emmys and the Oscars. The city ethics commission fined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa nearly $21,000. An investigation found the mayor's failure to report the gifts was unintentional. Four city council people were also fined.
Power's back on now, but for about six hours last night, the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial, in DC was dark. A power cable was severed nearby, knocking out electricity to the National Mall.
Pop star Justin Bieber is making news abroad, but not for his singing. We'll tell you what happened when the teen sensation visited Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROWD SCREAMING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A bumpy time for pop star Justin Bieber, who's on tour in Israel. He's become a political football. Really. I'm serious. The Bieb has ticked of the prime minister. CNN's Zain Verjee is covering that story from London. This is such a strange story, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is, and the Bieb finds himself right in the middle of this, being totally kicked around here.
Basically, he went -- he was really looking forward to this trip to Israel, and he's been going around to the holy sites, and he says the paparazzi have been following him everywhere, so he's not really having a great time. He says he is "super frustrated" on Twitter.
With the political stuff, what happened is, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, apparently refused to meet him because what's being reported is that Bieber did not want to meet with a bunch of kids in a particular area that had been attacked by rockets, presumably by Hamas.
And so, both -- now, the Bieber camp say, well, that's just not true, but the prime minister's camp says, "Look, we weren't planning a meeting, we just were discussing it." And they were trying to downplay it, but he certainly found himself caught up in a little bit of drama over in Israel.
COSTELLO: Yes, I guess he won't be meeting Benjamin Netanyahu anytime soon. And there are other factors --
VERJEE: Bieber's not going to meet BB.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: I love that. There's another fascinating story you're on today about the nails that might be the nails --
VERJEE: Yes.
COSTELLO: -- used in Jesus's crucifixion?
VERJEE: Yes, two pieces of metal -- these nails were found quite a few years ago, and were in a safe at the University of Tel Aviv. And apparently, they could be linked to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
One person said, "Hang on a minute, you have nails and it was from a tomb that was from 2000 years ago and you didn't think to go, hey, maybe we should look into to whether there was a link with Jesus?" So they're looking at that right now, but there are a lot of skeptics saying no, it's not possible.
COSTELLO: Yes, OK. And then, I don't know much about this third story, but I hear it's very strange. The Czech and the pen.
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: It is my favorite story of the whole day, Carol. Take a look at this video, OK? You need to check this guy's pocket.
This is the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus. Now, he's sitting there on the left, you can see. And he sees a pen in front of him, and he looks at it, and then he takes it, and he puts his hands under the table and he switches pockets and then his hands come up empty.
So, basically, he nicked the pen. There were semiprecious stones on it.
COSTELLO: Oh!
VERJEE: But it was caught on camera, and so this thing has gone totally viral. It's on YouTube, it's got millions of hits. And actually, over in the Czech Republic, they've got this Facebook page dedicated to him, and they're asking people to make contributions, since he really needs pens. And so, on May the 2nd, they want everyone in the country to send pens to his office. So, it's embarrassing --
COSTELLO: Presumably not with semiprecious stones.
VERJEE: Right, right. Well, exactly. If you saw that, in events, you just kind of take that good stuff, right? Even at the White House, people like taking the tissue paper that has the emblem on it.
COSTELLO: The presidential seal on it, right.
VERJEE: But this guy -- right, the seal. And so, this guy figured, "I'll just take the pen," but he did it in full view of everyone, and he looks kind of dodgy, like he's doing something criminal.
So, this has gone viral. President Vaclav Klaus insists that he does this all the time. He says, "I take stuff all the time." And he said, "This wasn't a pen anyway. It was a stylus."
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: It was a stylus? That's really funny. He was sneaky about it, though.
VERJEE: I know.
COSTELLO: Not sneaky enough, though. Zain Verjee --
VERJEE: He was. He was.
COSTELLO: He was.
VERJEE: Yes.
COSTELLO: Always a lot of fun talking with you. Thank you, Zain.
VERJEE: Yes, you too. Thanks.
COSTELLO: We're about four hours from President Obama's big speech on the national debt and his plan to deal with it. As soon as the speech is done, the battle on Capitol Hill begins. Again. Actually, as you know, the battle has already begun in some corners before the president has even said a word. We'll talk about that coming up. And a mother drives her minivan and her three young children into a river. A possible murder-suicide? Police believe she spared her oldest child, told him to get out before she drove into the water. More details on this later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Wall Street took a hit yesterday, the Dow industrials falling by more than 100 points. But today, upbeat earnings could boost the mood a bit. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. So, Alison, give us a rebound.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And that's what it looks like we're going to have once the opening bell rings. Sure, Dow futures are up, Carol, 80 points.
Corporate report cards, those earnings, are really going to be what guides trading here on Wall Street for the next few weeks. Yesterday, we heard from aluminum giant Alcoa, yes, that took the market down.
But today's a new day. JPMorgan Chase is giving it a boost. It is the first bank to report its results. We got mostly good news, but some bad as well.
Overall, it shows that the banking sector is healing. Now, in the first three months of this year, JPMorgan made nearly $6 billion. That's up almost 70 percent from the same time last year. Revenue fell, but not as much as expected, and get this. Credit card unit there, that is making money and the bank is seeing fewer late payments. OK, so that's all the good.
The bad? The mortgage market is still struggling. JPMorgan says extraordinarily high mortgage losses will continue for a while. Shares in the premarket for JPMorgan are up over one percent.
We also got a retail sales report. It just missed expectations, but not rocking the boat too much. We'll see if we can carry through the green arrows to the close today. Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Oh, I hope so. Alison Kosik, many thanks.
Congratulations, Illinois. You are now the home of $4 gas. The AAA Motor Club says the average price for a gallon of gas in Illinois is $4.04, the land of Lincoln joining the likes of California, Alaska, and Hawaii to top the $4 at the pump price.
There's only one thing left to do. Pray. That's what parishioners at the Beacon of Light Christian Center in Dublin, Georgia will do Saturday. Their pastor is Marshall Mabry. He will lead the prayer vigil, and he joins me, now, live from Macon. Welcome, Pastor.
MARSHALL MABRY, PASTOR, BEACON OF LIGHT CHRISTIAN CENTER: Thank you for having me this morning.
COSTELLO: We're glad you're here. So, lay this out for us. Where will you guys pray?
MABRY: Well, we're going to be praying at the Hillcrest Dublin Kroger fill up station, and I'm so excited about it because this will be our third time doing -- doing this event at that particular location.
COSTELLO: And what in particular will you ask of God?
MABRY: Well, we're petitioning God -- most have been saying we're praying for God to drop down the gas price. That's not necessarily so. That's only a small piece of the prayer, actually.
Initially, we're going to be praying that God does one of three things, actually. The first is, stabilize the economy. Two, bring peace to the Middle East. And three, bring down gas prices.
COSTELLO: Wow, those are tall orders. Does this give people like -- comfort because I don't know, they're such big things to ask and not much really is changing in the country, it seems? So what do you hope people gain from this?
MABRY: Well, you know, as a budding theologian myself, I really believe when I read the Bible, a lot of times, God does things in the midst of unbelievers. But most times, he does things for those who are believers as well. Because you never know who's watching.
I really want to see people come together and understand that as a country, we have to go always back to our foundation, which is prayer. If gas drops down ten cents, that's great, but I believe we can start a movement where everybody is praying for one common goal.
COSTELLO: What about those people who says God has nothing to do with gas prices, come on?
MABRY: Well, you know, over the last 24 hours, honestly I'll admit to you, since this story broke, it's been an emotional roller coaster. I have been called everything in the media from a sinner to a saint, but I will say this. I don't understand how anyone can stay God doesn't have anything to do with the gas prices. God has everything to do with the country. I'm not really concerned about who's in the White House, who even wins the next 2012 elections.
My honest concern is as a believer that my prayer is always my foundation, and I can always go back to God in prayer. I believe in my heart of hearts that faith should always be our answer.
COSTELLO: I think a lot of people are with you on that one. Pastor Mabry, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
MABRY: Thank you so much. I appreciate you as well.
COSTELLO: It is just past 9:30. Time to check some of our top stories.
The death toll climbing in Libya's war-torn city of Misrata. A doctor there says at least 10 people have died in heavy shelling and more than 30 have been wounded. Rebels say the shelling began after their forces killed several government snipers.
In Egypt, state TV is reporting that former president Hosni Mubarak has suffered a nervous breakdown. The report comes after authorities detained him and two of his sons. They are being questioned about the killing of protesters in the uprising that toppled his government.
In Pennsylvania, police have charged a doctor with sexually assaulting at least six patients at a weight loss center. According to "The Philadelphia Daily News," Ari Oren fondled, grabbed and kissed patients. They ranged in age from 24 to 59. Oren has been in trouble before. He served prison time for insurance fraud.
We are just four hours now from President Obama revealing how he wants to balance the nation's budget and deal with your children's future. His goal is to keep domestic spending low, find new ways to trim the defense budget, reduce health care spending and he will call for an end to those Bush-era tax cuts for Americans making more than $250,000 a year. That's guaranteed to rile up Republicans, who've said they will not support raising taxes.
Senator Kent Conrad will join us in about 45 minutes. He is the Budget Committee chairman, and he's working on a deficit slashing plan that both sides can live with - at least we think. But it seems his bipartisan group, the Gang of Six, has also hit a wall. We'll ask him about that in the next hour.
Also, you can see the president's speech on the national debt live right here on CNN. It's scheduled to get underway at 1:35 Eastern, 10:35 Pacific time.
Tennis star Serena Williams is literally in the pink after some health problems. Jeff Fischel from HLN Sports is here. So, she's back on the court?
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: Serena Williams is looking good, Carol, and it's great to see her back on the court. We're not just talking about how she's looking good with her ground strokes. Check her out! Williams tweeted this picture of her from practice. Hot pink body suit!
It is good to see her back on the court for the first time since she was hospitalized with a blood clot in her lungs. If you like that, wait til you see what else we have coming up in sports. A basketball player so popular, he cannot show his face in public.
Plus, Canada's national election is coming up, but it's not more important than a hockey game. I'll have more coming up in 20 minutes.
COSTELLO: I can't wait. That was a great picture. Thanks, Jeff.
On a serious note now, what could have made a mother drive her minivan and her three young children into a river to their deaths? Police in Upstate New York are asking that this morning. Police believe she told her oldest child to get out of the car before she drove the car into the water. More details on this coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All eyes are on President Obama this afternoon as he tells the nation how he wants to balance the budget and deal with your children's future. But we are keeping an eye on other stories for you, too.
Later this morning, in Arizona, the judge overseeing the so- called sweat lodge manslaughter trial is expected to hold a hearing for a mistrial. James Arthur Ray's defense team says the state suppressed evidence that shows their client is not guilty.
At 1:00 Eastern in Washington, a House Appropriations subcommittee looks at the problems plaguing Arlington National Cemetery, including mismanaged records and mislabeled graves.
And in the following hour, a House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism convenes for a relatively rare open hearing. The topic? The Muslim Brotherhood.
A mother in Upstate New York and three of her children drowned after the mother drove her minivan into the Hudson River. Police say she let her 10-year-old son out of the minivan before she drove off the docks.
CNN's Deb Feyerick is following the story. And this is so sad, Deb. What are police saying?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's tragic and we're going to get more in about 20 minutes when police and firefighters have a press conference up in Newburgh. We're on our way there momentarily.
What we do know is that that 10-year-old boy may have stood and watched as his mom drove that van into the water, killing her three young children ages five, two, and 11 months old. Apparently at about 7:45 last night, police did get a call of a domestic dispute at the home of this family, and we are told when they arrived, no one was there. But that minutes after, a 10-year-old boy showed up at the fire station telling them his mother had apparently driven a van into the water.
When police arrived, all of them were dead, according to the Newburgh police chief, Michael Ferrera. Quote, "It's a horrible sight, all of them in the car." We're going to get a lot more details within the half hour, really, when that press conference is scheduled to get underway. But you can imagine the horror of the 10-year-old boy, not only perhaps watching and knowing what was about to happen, but also trying to save his family from that drowning vehicle.
COSTELLO: That's just so horrible to think about. I have heard there was some sort of domestic incident before this woman drove her car into the water. Do you know more much more about that?
FEYERICK: Well, according to preliminary information that we're getting is that police did seem to respond to some sort of a domestic dispute about 7:45 last night. But when they arrived at the apartment, apparently, there was nobody inside.
According to some of the local reports, looking at the timeline that moments later, that 10-year-old boy showed up at the fire station near where the car had apparently been driven into the water, that his mom, his brothers and sisters were in trouble. So, divers were sent into the water. And when they found them, they had all perished, Carol.
COSTELLO: Deb Feyerick, we'll let you get going. We appreciate it.
We're about four hours away from the president's big speech on the national debt and his plan to deal with it. The battle over that plan has already begun before the president's even said a word. One of the most powerful groups in the country getting ready for battle. We're talking about the AARP. We're going to talk to them, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Police in California charge a 77-year-old Nevada man with the murders of four women dating back to the late 1970s. The arrest of Joseph Nassau tops our look "Cross Country" this morning. He's said to be arraigned later today on the charges. All the victims hailed from northern California, and all had alliterative first and last names.
The rain may be over in Lexington, Kentucky, but will be a while before the blue grass dries. Strong storms and powerful winds whipped things up around the commonwealth yesterday, leading to plenty of downed trees and smashed cars.
And a mysterious boating accident in Stewart, Florida. Authorities say a man and woman were thrown from a boat when it hit a bridge. They found her, but not him. Neither was apparently wearing a lifejacket.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with more right after this.
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COSTELLO: President Obama will not unveil his plan to get our country out of debt until 1:35 Eastern this afternoon. No matter, the fight has already begun. It's widely expected the President will talk about entitlements as in Medicare and Social Security and already the AARP, the powerful lobbying group, is gearing up for a battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, he's not thinking about his future. He can't say Social Security much less tell you what it means.
COSTELLO: As Medicare goes under the knife, can Social Security be far behind?
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: You're going to have the raise the retirement age for Social Security. I just said it and I'm still standing here.
COSTELLO: And that's one reason why the AARP is running this ad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't know that his parents are counting on the money they pay in.
COSTELLO: With a lobbying budget last year of $22 million, the AARP wants to make sure current and future seniors get that check from Social Security.
DAVID CERTNER, AARP LEGISLATIVE POLICY DIRECTOR: We are concerned that Social Security may be dragged into this budget debate and there will be unnecessary cuts made to Social Security that will hurt our current and future generations.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The truth is, Social Security's not a huge contributor to the deficit that the other two entitlements are.
COSTELLO: Although, President Obama does not believe Social Security is adding to the deficit, he is open to change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to thank my colleagues in the House Budget Committee.
COSTELLO: But Republicans want bigger changes including Medicare. Starting in 2022, they want the federal government to stop paying Medicare bills directly and instead, give seniors vouchers for private health insurance.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: Because it gives consumers, seniors choice. It has insurers competing against each other for their business. We want to harness the power of patient choice.
COSTELLO: And those are fighting words to AARP's David Certner.
CERTNER: Particularly troubling is that the money that's allocated to buy these private insurance plans is not going to be enough and it's going to be even lesser amount over time.
COSTELLO: But here is the ugly math, 47 million people are enrolled in Medicare today. By 2040, Medicare will cover nearly double the people it does now and cost three times as much. Medicare, it would seem, is unsustainable.
Democrats are jumping on the change Medicare band wagon. President Obama plans to unveil his plan tonight with one distinct difference from the GOP, says his top adviser.
DAVID PLOUFE, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Seniors, the poor, the middle class in the congressional Republican plan are asked to bear most of the burden. If you weren't giving enormous tax cuts to millionaires, you wouldn't have to do that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So, the AARP is worried Social Security could be a casualty in this budget debate. David Certner is AARP's legislative policy director, he's the guy who talks to lawmakers on Capitol Hill about policy the matters.
David, welcome.
CERTNER: Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: What do you think the President will say about Social Security this afternoon?
CERTNER: Well, of course, it's hard to predict, what we hope he says is what he said in the past which is that Social Security is not a big contributor to the budget deficit. In fact, Social Security is in surplus right now. And so we shouldn't be cutting Social Security to deal with our current deficit problems.
COSTELLO: But there are -- but there are plenty of people out there that say Social Security has to remain solvent. And to do that we have to make changes. So what would be so bad to talk about this issue?
CERTNER: Well, absolutely. We need to talk about making sure we have Social Security for the long term, so that it's adequate and solvent for not just the current generation but for future generations. But we think we should be having that conversation in the context of how do we improve the retirement security of this country not how to we solve today's current budget deficit problems. That's a very different problem.
(CROSS TALK)
COSTELLO: So what tweaks -- what tweaks would you say Social Security needs? I mean, there's a lot of ideas being thrown around out there raising the retirement age is one. Paying more into social security, you know with -- you know, each individual taxpayer is another idea. What would the AARP be comfortable with?
CERTNER: Well, as you know, there has been a lot of these ideas on the table a long time. In the past, we had balanced approaches, where we've had people contribute some more, we made some adjustments to benefits. We think we'll probably do something like that again.
We are right now beginning a conversation with our members and all Americans, quite frankly, on what they think we should do to help Social Security in the long term. What we do hear over and over again from people is that they want to make sure that Social Security is strong. They know they will need it. We know that pensions are down, savings are down, home values are down. People are living longer, health care costs are up.
So we know that people are saying to us over and over again, we're willing to pay a little bit more now to protect our Social Security benefits.
(CROSS TALK)
COSTELLO: So the AARP would be for paying more into social security, right?
CERTNER: From what we're hearing from our members and most Americans, is that they're willing to pay in a little bit more to protect their Social Security benefits.
COSTELLO: But not to raise the retirement age?
CERTNER: Well, the retirement age is already going up. And what we hear from a lot of people, particularly today is, it's fine to say we need to work longer, but where are the jobs? We have one of the largest levels of unemployment for all the workers that we've seen in our history.
So simply raising the retirement age without there being jobs isn't exactly the right thing to do right now.
COSTELLO: So if -- if lawmakers talk about cuts, the AARP does not like, how vigorously will you fight them?
CERTNER: Well, we're going to the look at the entire package. We don't want to say, well, don't do this and don't do this, we want to look at the whole package. See what the impact is on individuals and see what the impact is on long-term retirement security. And for all this is really about trying to make sure people have a secure retirement. That's really the goal here.
COSTELLO: David Certner from the AARP, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
CERTNER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: We're following lots of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Ivan Watson live in the Egyptian capital -- Ivan.
IVAN WATSON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For nearly 30 years Hosni Mubarak was the president of Egypt. Now he's been detained for 15 days in connection with the deaths of hundreds of protesters during Egypt's revolution. I'll have more for you at the top of the hour.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It all started when this woman disappeared nearly a year ago. I'm Allan Chernoff in Jones Beach, New York. I'll have the latest in the search for her body.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian at the White House. Bush era tax cuts back in the spotlight as President Obama delivers his deficit speech. I'll have more details at the top of the hour.
COSTELLO: Thanks to all of you. Also, Senator Kent Conrad will join us in about ten minutes. He's the budget committee chairman and he is working on a deficit slashing plan that both sides can live with, but it seems like his bipartisan group, the Gang of Six, has hit a wall too. We'll ask him about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Time for my favorite part of the show, sports. In Canada, hockey's first; it even beats out politics.
Jeff Fischel from HLN is here.
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: It's huge, Carol. You know, there's even a Facebook page; hockey's a religion in Canada. The national election debate has been moved from tomorrow night to tonight because of playoff hockey. Organizers didn't want it to conflict with game one of the Montreal Canadians playoff series against the Boston Bruins.
Which do you think would get better ratings, right? In hockey- mad Canada, of course, no contest. But sorry, Canadians' fans, an American computer doesn't think Montreal has much of a shot in the playoffs. Whatifsports.com computer predicts the Boston Bruins will raise (ph) Lord Stanley's Cup come June.
NBA, the Lakers saw their hopes of a third straight NBA title flash before their eyes; down goes 7-foot big man Andrew Bynum. He's an up and coming star. He's great. He's 23, but he gets injured a lot, especially that chronically injured right knee. And that's what he went down on last night.
After the game, he was walking without a crutch; that's a good sign. We could find out more about the injury today. As for his teammates, they were able to finish off the San Antonio Spurs thanks to, yes, Mr. Kobe Bryant. Last night, the team trying to go for a third straight NBA championship.
If there's one team that looks like it is playing -- it's best right now heading into the playoffs -- it's got to be the Chicago bulls and their superstar there is Derek Rose. It helps to have the best player in the league, doesn't it? He's the odds-on favorite to be the league MVP. 26 points last night including -- that was great too. Chicago enters the playoffs as the number one team in the Eastern conference.
College basketball star, Jimmer Fredette, has gotten to be such a big man on campus at BYU, school officials have told him to stay off campus. They say having him in class has become too disruptive, so he's taking all his classes online.
Fredette's father told one paper it's gotten so crazy, Jimmer walks around with a hoodie on and tries not make eye contact with anybody. Just nuts.
Finally, ok, check out these amazing shots from soccer superstar David Beckham on the beach. He's about 70 yards away from these trash cans. Not once, not twice, but three times --
COSTELLO: Is that real?
FISCHEL: Well, that's the question, right? He was out there on the beach shooting a commercial for Diet Pepsi. We would assume that -- that's not ever going to happen. But some fantastic editing. Looks really good.
COSTELLO: And so does he.
FISCHEL: I'll trust you on that.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Oh, you know, I was watching the Detroit Tigers game playing the Texas Rangers. Josh Hamilton breaks his arm?
FISCHEL: I know. Last year's AL MVP goes down and he calls it stupid. He said he knows he shouldn't have done it, right, and he goes down diving into home plate.
COSTELLO: Head-first, like a Pete Rose.
FISCHEL: They tell you when you're eight years old playing Little League, dive feet first, don't dive head first. He dives in head first into home plate and he broke his arm.
COSTELLO: Oh, that's just so sad. Didn't he blame it on his third base coach, too.
FISCHEL: He did. He said he knew he shouldn't have done it. The third base coach telling him to go.
But you know, the play was right -- you know, I think he'll be back in about six, eight weeks. Plenty of time for the Rangers, who have the best record in baseball, to start the season.
COSTELLO: Right. Just in time for the playoffs. But I'm glad my Detroit Tigers won.
FISCHEL: Thanks to the injury.
COSTELLO: I know. That's sad.
Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it.
