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Clock Ticks Toward Default; Final Shuttle Mission Completed; Child Actor Lobbying Congress for Health Care; Congress Reportedly No Closer to Debt Ceiling Deal; Girlfriend of Millionaire Found Dead; Kim Kardashian Suing Old Navy For Using Lookalike

Aired July 21, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Brooke is off today.

And a busy day in the news for you. Here are some of the stories we're working on right now. The heat is on. I'm sure a lot of you know about it, and if you're not feeling it now, chances are you will be very soon, nearly half the country right now under an extreme heat warning, and the triple digits are a triple threat, roads, power grids, people all in the danger zone, but first we're going to get you to Washington because here's where we are on the scrambling taking place in our nation's capital to keep the government from defaulting.

Early this afternoon, bulletins went out via "The New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner were close to an agreement on debt reduction, on a deal there, but the White House is shooting those stories down. Listen up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The breaking news report that you all probably received is incorrect. There is no deal. We are not close to a deal. The fact is that there is no progress to report, but we continue to work on getting the most significant deficit reduction package possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, you can see that is a flat-out denial from the White House, but keep in mind we had two major news operations reporting pretty much the same thing, that a deal was in reach.

Let's go now to Kate Bolduan. She is joining us live from Capitol Hill.

Kate, what are your sources saying up there about this?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A couple of things on this. You heard there from the president's spokesman, Jay Carney. We have, of course, been asking about this. We're hearing from House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman saying pretty much the same thing, no progress to report. They are keeping the lines of communication open. But I will tell you it is significant that we're reporting today that the president and Speaker Boehner, they appear to still be working to try to reach a bigger deal. As we have been talking about the stalemate for so long now, and we're learning this afternoon from some great reporting by my colleague Ted Barrett up here on Capitol Hill that while we should caution that we're not hearing that they are not necessarily close to a deal, we're getting an idea of some of the numbers and some of the ideas that are being -- tossed around is probably too light, but that are being exchanged in terms of maybe working out some sort of a deal.

Some of them, I will just tick off for you real quick, Don, talking in the area -- this is according to congressional sources -- $3 trillion in deficit reduction over the time period of 10 years. That seems to be an idea they are talking about, again, tax spending cuts in the area of some $1 trillion, entitlement reform that could include something calling for a raise in the age of eligibility for Medicare.

And also on the issue of new revenue, on tax revenue, there's some discussion about permanently extending the Bush era tax cuts for people making under $250,000 a year, but allowing the tax cut for people making over $250,000 a year to expire at the end of 2012, this coming with a commitment to real tax reform kind of in the future.

Now, again -- yes, Don.

LEMON: Let me just jump in because I have a question about that. A leading conservative appeared to give ground on what you're talking about, on taxes, which is the thing preventing the House Republicans from signing on to the debt reduction deal that has a chance -- anything that really has a chance of being signed into law.

And what you are talking about when you are talking about those tax cuts, those Bush era tax cuts, here's what conservative Grover Norquist was talking about. He was allowing -- talking about allowing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Norquist heads a conservative group. It's called Americans For Tax Reform, and he is really a kingmaker of sorts among Republicans.

Here's what he had to say about the Bush tax cuts. He said: "Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase."

OK. You know Democrats jumped all over that idea. I want you to listen and then we will talk to Kate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: Let all the Bush tax cuts expire. That's $4 trillion. It's not too complicated. It would take us back to those bad old Clinton years, when rich people paid taxes, the job creators, they call them. They paid taxes. You can't make the job creators pay taxes. It will ruin the economy. That's what they said when Clinton raised the taxes back in the '90s.

Guess what? We ended up with 3.8 percent unemployment and we actually balanced the budget and paid down debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Kate, that is a Democrat speaking. Was there any reaction to what Norquist said from House Republicans, and are the Bush tax cuts moving to center stage in this debate?

BOLDUAN: It seems a little unclear. I guess we should also tell our viewers where exactly Grover Norquist is standing on this because it appears in a statement that he's possibly trying to walk that back or clarify it a little, a little unclear at this point, but I asked House Speaker John Boehner about that in his weekly briefing today as well as another reporter asked him about it.

And he said pretty clearly that he thinks that that would equate to a tax increase, and he would not vote for a tax increase, but I want to caution real quick on what we were talking about a little earlier, Don, on that point about some of the new ideas that are being tossed around. We want to make sure -- obviously some of our viewers might be thinking what does this mean, but we have to caution that all of these ideas that we're talking about, this speaks exactly to this issue of the Bush era tax cuts.

Any of these components of this deal, of this kind of conversation that we're now talking about could torpedo a grand deal because these are issues and ideas that have been tossed out there before, but it's what kind of combination of these proposals, of these ideas will allow them to thread the needle enough to get a compromise and to get it through both houses.

That remains a big question this afternoon, and it doesn't seem like we have got a clear answer on really where that goes yet.

LEMON: All right. Let's get out of the Beltway for a second here, Kate, because we have got a poll today showing 62 percent of Americans now favor raising the debt ceiling one way or another, either with or without debt reduction.

We have got a bloc of Senate Republicans now accepting higher revenues, i.e. taxes, as part of tax reduction. Are these holdout House Republicans becoming more isolated, and are they beginning to feel the heat to compromise here?

BOLDUAN: It's hard to say. We have talked to some very conservative Republicans about that, and they stand very firmly in their belief that they do not think that a tax increase should be part of any debt deal because they don't think that it's good for the economy, and they say many of them were elected in 2010 really basically on this point, that they need to get the country's fiscal house in order and not continue spending, spending, spending, that they should be reducing the size of government.

But Speaker Boehner again was asked really about that earlier today, and he said that he believes that people who are holding out, if you will, saying don't raise the debt ceiling because we don't need to or it's not a good idea or that we should not be compromise, he thinks that that group is probably not in the majority was how he put it today.

So we will interest to see the conversations that he's having with his members of his party.

LEMON: Kate Bolduan on Capitol Hill for us, stand by. We appreciate it.

Let's talk about the other big story happening right now. Sure, it is July, but the sweltering heat that's gripping much of the country right now is really nothing to brush off. I know you heard the word dangerous a lot, but know this. This heat wave has already killed as many as 22 people, 13 of them in Kansas City, Missouri, alone, and as of today excessive heat warnings stretch from Nebraska all the way to Maine.

In Boston, people are changing their routines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm always running in the morning, but this week particularly because it's so hot, I'm here at 4:30.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. To Sioux Falls, South Dakota, now. The heat isn't just causing streets just to buckle. They are bursting. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing several areas across town where this concrete is blowing up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, this is how hot it is in New Haven, Connecticut. A bridge is swollen shot. Crews are out there trying to shave about an inch off the bridge to get it to open up before the weekend.

The heat is putting pressure on the power grid, too. Chicago's heat index has been well above 100 for days now. Thousands are without air conditioning. Imagine that.

I want you to take a look at these pictures, though, from the Chicago Zoological Society. When the Brookfield Zoo responded to the heat wave by giving animals giant ice blocks, the animals' reaction, well, they prompted plenty of giggles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Here we go!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Look at this now, Columbus, Ohio, where the city opened four fire hydrants in what they are calling operation cool down. Even parts of Canada are sinfully hot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little, a little warmer up here than where I'm used to, but hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER UPDATE)

LEMON: Coming up next here on CNN: a dire situation unfolding in Africa, millions in danger of starving to death. Children are dying. Parents are grieving and many are asking, where's the help? That's ahead.

Plus, this:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CAPT. CHRIS FERGUSON, SHUTTLE COMMANDER: There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing is indisputable. America is not going to stop exploring.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LEMON: Atlantis ends its mission and the space shuttle program ends an era.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Stories of human crisis are flooding out of Horn of Africa. Right now, 11 million people there are in desperate need of food, water and a safe place to sleep. Well, this woman is up of them. She's a herder, but lost all of her livestock months ago to the drought.

Now she is barely surviving. She feeds her infant son wild berries and dirty water that makes him sick. His twin sister died of hunger in may.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): "I'm doubly cursed," says Alice, "because I gave birth to twins during a drought, and Miriam (ph) died because of it. She died of hunger."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, this week, the United Nations declared hunger in the Horn of Africa has grown so severe, it constitutes a famine right now. That means food and water are in such short supply, people can no longer take care of themselves.

CNN's David McKenzie reports on this humanitarian crisis from a refugee camp in Kenya.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the edge of the Dadaab camp. It's where Somalia refugees are streaming into, in the thousands every week. And it's the children really who are the worst off. Many of them are malnourished. Most of them seem to have some kind of respiratory problem because of the dust and the wind that is blasting through here.

They're living in terrible conditions like this. They're in these huts which are basically constructed out of tarpaulins. They're cooked in this tiny little space with no shelter. And when they come here, they come expecting help. They come expecting food, water, the basic dignity that refugees should get when they move to another country, but here they even have to go out into the outer areas to defecate because there's no latrines for them.

And they say they are worried there could even be a disease outbreak in these areas. While people talk politics and Al-Shabab getting aid into Somalia to help the situation, it's here in Dadaab camp where the people are the worst off.

David McKenzie, CNN, Dadaab, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, want to find out how you can help victims of the famine in Africa, visit our Impact Your World page. That's at CNN.com/impact.

Up next: shuttle Atlantis is back from space after its final mission, but it's still got one more very special stop. We will tell you where next.

Plus, this. Remember this, the cute little mini Darth Vader kid in the Super Bowl ad? Well, he's taking on another big role now, this one in Washington. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his inspiring story coming up. You don't want to miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

FERGUSON: There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing is indisputable. America is not going to stop exploring.

Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour, and our ship, Atlantis. Thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end.

God bless all of you. God bless the United States of America.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LEMON: Well put. Atlantis is back from the final space mission ever, ever for that type of spacecraft. It landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Center just before 6:00 a.m., and thousands came to say goodbye.

But captain Chris Ferguson says it's not the end of America's mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERGUSON: Given everything that I know today, I think that we will be traversing back and forth to low Earth orbit with one of the four or five vehicles that are being considered right now. I think that that's going to be a well-traveled path.

I think that we're going to have people spending either short or perhaps long periods of time in orbit who have, you know, paid for a trip there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We're joined right now by NASA administrator Charlie Bolden from Cape Canaveral, Florida, a very warm Cape Canaveral, I'm sure.

Listen, it's an emotional day for everyone involved with the space program and for Americans as well. What are your thoughts now, sir?

CHARLES BOLDEN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, I think the mood down here is incredible.

We just came from a celebration with all the workers here, with Atlantis in the background after we had brought it off the runway, and it's an emotional high right now. I think everybody is still riding on the -- probably one of the best flights we ever had.

LEMON: Yes. We had Beyonce wake up the astronauts one day. We had Kool & The Gang with "Celebration."

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: But I thought it was fitting that this morning, their last one, their last wakeup call was "God Bless America."

BOLDEN: It is a very fitting wakeup call, because as I tell everybody all the time, this was America's program. That was not -- not a NASA program or anything. The space shuttle belongs to the taxpayers of America.

It was an investment that they made. And while people can debate about whether it was worth it, you can't put a dollar value on the discoveries that came from the shuttle program, the Hubble space telescope, the International Space Station.

When the space shuttle program started, there was no such thing as dark energy and dark matter. Ninety-eight percent of the universe, we now know a little bit more about because of Hubble. And that came from the shuttle.

LEMON: Well, Mr. Bolden, we're turning it over to business -- the business of commercial partners.

My question is, why not wait until that's at least ready to happen before we end America's access to space?

BOLDEN: Well, you know, commercial entities -- and we probably chose the wrong word. Industry has been dominantly in charge of the space program for many, many years.

If you go into the mission control center at Houston or the launch control center here down at the Kennedy Space Center and go on consoles, you wouldn't find many NASA engineers. In fact, you probably wouldn't find any NASA engineers. The programs are run right now by a company called United Space Alliances. They have been doing it for a number of years, so they do operate the shuttle. They just don't own it.

What we want to do differently, because it's incredibly expensive to own and operate, we want to let the commercial providers, we want to let American industry now own the vehicles, and we will -- we will pay them for the service. So that's really the only difference in where we are today and where we're going.

When you look at science missions today, we buy the -- we lease the vehicles from commercial entities, from commercial companies, one of them being Orbital Sciences Corporation that launches satellites for us. We don't build a rocket. We don't build anything. We go to Orbital Sciences and says, we have got a satellite we want to get to orbit. How much would you charge me?

And that's been happening for many, many years. So there's not really anything new that we will be doing. It's just the concept. It's difficult for people to understand.

LEMON: Museum time for Atlantis?

BOLDEN: You know, Atlantis is going to be on display here forever at the Kennedy Space Center. I think it's a fitting place for it to be. It was the first vehicle that I commanded, you know, when I moved into the left seat, and so I think this is an appropriate place for it to be.

The people in Florida really fought for it. They have millions of people who come through here each year from around the world, and it will be a very fitting place for Atlantis to be displayed and shared with people not just from America, but from around the world.

LEMON: Well, we're going to miss it, but we're excited to see what's on the horizon.

Major General Charles Bolden, thank you so much.

BOLDEN: Thank you very much. And it's a great day for America. I hope everybody is as euphoric as we are down here at the Kennedy Space Center right now.

LEMON: All right, thanks again, sir. Up next here on CNN, he is already in big legal trouble. Now former presidential candidate John Edwards is set to take a big financial hit. That's next.

Plus, will there be an NFL season this year? The fate of America's most popular sport, well, it depends on a deal that could happen today, maybe.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Want to get you caught up on stories unfolding right now, starting with the latest setback for former presidential candidate John Edwards.

The Federal Election Commission ruled today that he must pay back to the government nearly $2.3 million given to his presidential campaign in 2008. That's because an FEC audit shows Edwards campaigned received more matching funds than it was entitled to get. The decision is not final, and Edwards has the right to appeal. This comes on the heels of a criminal conspiracy case against Edwards that he pleaded not guilty to back in June.

The NFL lockout may be on the verge of ending as early as today. The league's 32 owners are expected to vote on a new collective bargaining deal that could save the 2011 season -- fingers crossed. The big dispute that is keeping the league locked out is how to divide billions of dollars in revenue. Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith spoke a short time ago saying there are some issues outstanding that are left to resolve. Any agreement would put the NFL back on the field. We will keep you updated on this.

Now I want you to watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The overwhelming majority of Americans are saying fix this. And if it take a little compromise from both...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're against tax increases. We know that's going to hurt the economy. We know that's going to hurt job creation. We know that's bad for small business. We're against tax increases. We're not going to go for this type of plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A whole lot of talking in Washington, but there's not much teamwork there. With time running out, can Democrats and Republicans strike a deal? My next guest says it is their duty to do it.

Plus, the California mansion of mystery, two sudden deaths in just a matter of days. What happened inside? We're getting new information for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, here's where we are on the debt reduction standoff that has brought the government to the brink of default. Can you believe it, 12 days before the deadline the White House is denying reports that came via the "New York Times" and the "Wall Street Journal" that President Obama is close to some sort of agreement with House Speaker John Boehner? Listen again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The breaking news report that you all have probably received is incorrect. There is no deal. We are not close to a deal. The fact is that there is no progress to report. But we continue to work on getting the most significant deficit reduction package possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Joining us now from Washington, A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of "The Hill." Listen, that denial aside, there is an awful lot of smoke around this story. A.B., let's just talk here. What is going on? What the heck is going on?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": Well, there were reports in my paper included that last night Democrats on Capitol Hill learned that the president was ready to cut a deal that would include spending cuts and entitlement reforms but not definitely new revenues, just a promise of tax reform later in the year or next year. And that caused some reaction by Democrats who said revenues, new taxes, some new money would have to be included in any deal. They want a balanced deal, which is what the president has been talking about all along.

Republicans today say no, there is no deal. There's still a problem. So we really don't know where it is at this hour.

What we do know is the Democratic leadership, the president, and the Republican leadership say we can't default. That is clear that they are unified in agreeing that we cannot default. It's the rank and file of the Republican Party where you find default denial and getting them to vote for something that is called compromise that could include tax increases or new revenues is not possible today.

LEMON: You bring up a very good point, A.B. A lot of the people, freshmen sent there to vote and to bring down spending. So for them, I don't know, do they understand what's at stake here, because there's some different elements and different layers on top of this. Number one, the economy is in bad shape, jobs are in terrible shape, and then you have no people who are coming to Washington just to fight spending.

STODDARD: Well, and that's what I think the leadership is trying to argue. That you could get $4 trillion in cuts, you could get this grand bargain and reform Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid, the big drivers of debt in a big compromise, but to do that the president so far has been -- has been insistent that there has to be some kind of new revenue, some kind of new taxes, sort of a 75/25 percentage. And those freshmen that you mentioned who won in 2010, they think they have a mandate to cut spending only don't want any kind of raising taxes, even if it involves closing corporate loopholes for companies that are fat and happy and get good giveaways from the federal government. So that's very, very tough standoff. That's where we've been for weeks.

And unless the president really agrees to go for a package without new revenues, it's hard to see the Republicans budging in the next 24 hours or four days.

LEMON: Listen, hold on to that thought, because I want to talk to you about compromise and what the American people are considering and what's on their minds. Listen, can you talk to me, because there is also talk of, you know, the Bush tax cuts, about getting rid of them and saying, OK, well, maybe we'll let that go. What are you hearing on that? Is that true?

STODDARD: Right, there is some talk -- the Democrats would like to make permanent the lower brackets while allowing the upper bracket tax cut to expire at the end of 2012. Republicans say no. They are not going to give on that and not agree to that. There's no amount of tax reform. To do that, they would want something major. I mean, the tax reform would have to be so deep that they would agree to something like that. They would have to repeal Obamacare and get something huge in return, and they are not going to give on that.

Those are set to expire in 2012. They say that they are going to battle that battle again when they do, but they know it's likely they will expire. But they want to give on decoupling the Bush tax cuts, making them permanent for the middle class and letting those top brackets expire. They do not want to do that, and they still insist at this hour that that's not on the table.

LEMON: Listen, the polls are showing the American people really want a compromise, but the folks there in Washington aren't seeing that apparently.

STODDARD: Well, you know, in fairness to Republicans, all year long you've seen large majorities in the polling saying that they oppose an increase in the debt ceiling. Americans tuned in late to this argument, decided now they are getting very frightened about what default could mean, and new polls are out this week, NBC/"Wall Street Journal" and ABC/"Washington Post," polling that shows Americans are concerned and looking for a compromise, very afraid of default, and they want some kind of balanced package. And they think Republicans are not working hard enough. They give Obama more credit for compromising than the Republicans, and they want something done by August 2.

LEMON: Real talk. A.B. Stoddard, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

STODDARD: Thank you.

LEMON: Now a brand new development in a bizarre mystery -- a woman and a little boy dead within days of each other at a California millionaire's mansion. She was found hanging naked and bound from a balcony. Now her family is speaking out. Here's CNN's Sandra Endo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It started last Monday when police say six-year-old Max Shacknai fell down the stairs of this 27- room mansion near San Diego and was rushed to the hospital. Two days later 32-year-old Rebecca Zahou was found naked, hanging from a second story balcony in the home, her hands and feet tied together.

(on camera) What strikes you as most unusual about this case?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case is suspicious, there's no question about it. And any time you have a female that is found in a backyard unclothed and her feet and hands are bound, that becomes concerning.

ENDO (voice-over): Pharmaceutical company CEO Jonah Shacknai is Max's father and Zahou's millionaire boyfriend. His son later died from the injuries. Shacknai says he wasn't there when Zahou died and what happened to her is still a mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this case suicide and homicide at times can look very, very similar. And it's important to really take your time, process that evidence, and usually that evidence will solve the mystery.

ENDO: But Zahou's sister is telling people she doesn't believe Rebecca would take her own life. She told CNN affiliate KFMB, "My sister did not commit a suicide. My sister was not depressed. My sister was not frantic. My sister was planning to call my parents the next day and was planning to keep me posted about Max the next day."

It's a sentiment other people who knew the victim also tells CNN. More than 15 detectives are working on the case, and officials say they are taking the accounts of people who knew her very seriously.

As for Max's death, police are preliminarily calling it an accident. But they say it's definitely part of the equation when considering Zahou.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any time there is a death such as in Rebecca's case, we always look at victimology, what happened days and weeks before and even months before. So Max's case would be of interest to us.

ENDO: Arizona police records show a rocky relationship between Jonah Shacknai and Max's mother Dina, with both filing domestic disturbance reports in 2008 and 2009. But the two issued a statement Monday downplaying those records, saying "While our marriage did not work out as either of us had hoped, it did produce a wonderful son, Max, who both of us loved very much. His loss is unimaginable."

(on camera) Local law enforcement officials say they are waiting for what could be the missing pieces to this puzzle, the forensic reports, and that could take a matter of weeks. Sandra Endo, CNN, Coronado, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Sandra, thank you.

Coming up, remember that cute little kid who played the mini- Darth Vader in this super bowl ad?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: His name is Max. Isn't he adorable? Well, he is headed to Capitol Hill, and we will tell you why coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Cuts to Medicaid and health care programs are some of the hottest issues in Washington debt talks right now, but behind the numbers are real people suffering real consequences. Remember this little fella? He's from that Super Bowl commercial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He is a little guy with a big mission. And Max Page is heading to D.C. next week lobbying for children's access to quality care, quality health care. Our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta met up with Max, and let's just say Capitol Hill is going to feel the force. Sanjay?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Next week Washington is going to feel the force, so to speak. He's a little guy with a big mission. Take a look at who I met when I was out in L.A.

MAX PAGE, BORN WITH CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT: Dr. Gupta.

GUPTA: Yes, sir.

PAGE: You're it.

GUPTA: I'm it.

PAGE: Yes.

GUPTA (voice-over): Max Page only knows one speed, full speed ahead.

(on camera) I don't know if I can keep up with this kid.

GUPTA (voice-over): You've probably seen Max before even though you might not know it. Remember this Volkswagen ad from super bowl XLV? Darth Vader -- no. Just Max.

PAGE: Yes, we have access.

GUPTA: Within mere seconds of meeting him, Max was asking about my daughters.

(on camera) Three girls.

PAGE: Let me guess -- four-year-old, two-year-old, six-year-old.

GUPTA: You got it. How did you know?

(voice-over) We're at the children's hospital of Los Angeles with Max and his brother Els to see Dr. Michael Silka.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to get a pacemaker check.

GUPTA: That's right, Max has a pacemaker. Actually it's his third, and he's only six-years-old. For parents Jennifer and Buck, the first sign of trouble came before Max was even born.

JENNIFER PAGE, MAX'S MOTHER: My 38-week appointment we found out that Max had structural damage to his heart. They couldn't get a good heartbeat. They took an emergency C-section, born in a whirlwind.

BUCK PAGE, MAX'S FATHER: The last feeling I remember is it's almost hopelessness because it's out of my hands as a dad, and as a dad that's not something you're used to.

JENNIFER PAGE: I just said, please, just save my son. That's all we're here for. I don't even know what you just said. I don't understand anything you're going to do. I just need you to save my son. I need to have a chance to know this kid.

GUPTA: It's hard to imagine, but for mom and dad it was all a blur. Max was born with a heart condition that's rare that includes four separate problems in the heart which leads to a lack of oxygen in the blood. Without a pacemaker and eight major operations so far Max probably wouldn't be here.

(on camera) Can you feel it, Max, can you feel the pacemaker?

PAGE: If you like touch it or like something hits, it it's kind of when I feel it.

DR. MICHAEL SILKA, CARDIOLOGIST, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES: It's like the movie "Cars," they show the pistons and engines going around. You want them working together. You don't want one going like this and others at a different rate. You need them working together.

GUPTA: Something like this for Max or any child like Max should be cared for in a children's hospital? Could any hospital --

SILKA: No, no. This is a fairly sophisticated, fairly subspecialized area of medicine. I'm with -- I'm a pediatric electro- physiologist. There's probably slightly over 100 of us in the country. So there aren't that many people who really do what we do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And it's that kind of skill that Max needs. Don, there are only 56 of these specialized children's hospitals in the whole country, and as Washington talks about budget cuts, the programs that train these types of doctors are on the chopping block. So little Max is headed to Capitol Hill next week to lobby for that program and also to argue against cuts to Medicaid, which helps tens of millions of other kids. We'll see how it goes. Don?

LEMON: Thanks, Sanjay, we will. He's definitely a little cutie. And you can see the rest of his report on mini-Darth Vader, Max Page, this week on "Sanjay Gupta MD." Make sure you tune in.

Coming up next. Have you heard? Kim Kardashian doesn't like it when you steal her look and, in fact, she'll sue your butt. That's straight ahead.

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POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for the help desk where we get answers for your financial questions. Joining me this hour Jack Otter, the executive editor of CBSMoneyWatch.com, and Ryan Mack the president of Optimum Capital Management. Thank you for being here, guys.

JACK OTTER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CBSMONEYWATCH.COM: Great to be here.

HARLOW: First question comes from Anand in Mountain View, California. They write, "I have a couple of 401(k) accounts from previous employers that I haven't paid attention to over the last few years. Would consolidating these into a rollover IRA make sense? Where can I find the best rollover IRA's?" Jack?

OTTER: Well, first of all, this is probably great news because people who did pay attention to their 401(k) freaked out and a lot of them made bad decisions, sold stocks at the bottom and so forth. So he may be pleasantly surprised when he opens these statements finally.

Generally I recommend rolling over into an IRA the one down side is the 401(k) you have a little bit more protection from creditors. So if there's something dangerous on the horizon, leave it in the 401(k). Otherwise roll it over. I'm a big advocate of index funds, as Ryan was saying, diversify. So maybe, depending on the age, 60 percent in foreign and domestic stocks, 40 percent in bonds, leave it alone. You'll be in great shape for retirement.

HARLOW: Don't get to over involved. Let the market work itself out.

For you Ryan, a question from Rich in California. Rich writes "My mother's in an assisted living facility. I want her money to be protected and generate income. My financial adviser suggests moving some of her investments into a preferred stock. Are these right for us?" What do you think? Is it risky at that age?

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: The ideal is some. At the end of the day stocks were getting over 10 percent return, preferred stock about 7.4 percent, and then bonds maybe about six percent. So with more return you're going to have additional risk. Preferred stock does have advantages. They have additional advantage over common stocks in terms of the dividends and whatnot and liquidation of the benefits. But bonds have advantages over preferred stock in that as well.

HARLOW: Safety.

MACK: Exactly. You'll have a little bit of fluctuation with the capital still with preferred stock. Not as much with common stock, but with bonds, I mean look, right now I'm a huge advocate of municipal bonds. Get a good, qualified financial adviser who can navigate the marks. It's not that difficult to navigate a multi- trillion dollar market with more defaults than normal, but not as much that would cause me a lot of concern. You can get revenue that will give you good conservation of capital and security as well.

HARLOW: You don't just have to look at stocks to make decent money.

MACK: Exactly.

HARLOW: Thank you guys so much, appreciate it. Well, if you have a question you want answered just send us an e-mail anytime to CNN Help Desk at CNN.com.

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LEMON: Will do. Thanks, Poppy.

Coming up in 70 seconds, Kim Kardashian is headed to court over the woman who stole her look. Wait until you hear this.

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LEMON: Kim Kardashian is suing Old Navy for, well, take a look at this.

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(SINGING)

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LEMON: You see the resemblance between Kim K. and the woman in the ad? Her name is Melissa Molinaro. Kardashian apparently does, and she wants $20 million. It's trending right now. Alison Kosik, who is Angelina Jolie's lookalike, joining me with more --

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: I saw that commercial on a Saturday morning, and I said, is that Kim Kardashian? Oh, somebody's going to sue. And look what happened?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Kim's saying this girl looks too much like her, and she's suing Old Navy for unspecified damages, also known as a lot of money. She wants the company, Don, to stop using the ad with this look alike model.

Think about it, Kardashian already endorses several companies, her dad's old shoe line, Sketchers, she has a skin care line, and her claim is that she thinks consumers will be confused by this Old Navy ad that has this lookalike and what she actually endorses, because this woman as a striking resemblance to her, she does. If you ask me, you know, so what? I don't see any confusion, do you, Don?

LEMON: At first I thought -- then you go, it's not her. She doesn't seen sound like her. They do look alike.

KOSIK: She may even be mocking her in that.

LEMON: I don't know. She's not quite saying it. I mean, what are her chances of wanting -- she just looks like her. Does she have a chance here?

KOSIK: You know what, Kardashian does have a good shot at winning this, or at least getting a settlement from Old Navy, because what's at issue is a violation of what's known as a right of publicity. The translation is Kim Kardashian, she's got a right to make money off her own name and her own identity.

And you know what, there's a precedent to this. We looked this up. TV host Vanna White, she brought a case against Samsung. This happened back in 1992. Samsung had a commercial with robot turning letters on a game show dressed in a gown with a wig like Vanna's real hair. Well, Vanna sued them and she won because it violated her right of publicity. We'll see what happens in this case, but she's got a few legs to stand on at this point, Don.

LEMON: If Courtney Cox isn't suing you, I think she doesn't have a chance. Thank you, Alison Kosik, we appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSIK: Thanks.

LEMON: Wolf Blitzer is standing by with news fresh off the Political Ticker, including a major staff shakeup for one of the GOP presidential contenders.

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LEMON: Time now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update. Wolf Blitzer joins us now live with the latest from the CNN Political Ticker.

Wolf, it's hot in Washington in more ways than one.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": It's hot, politically always hot in Washington, especially hot right now. We're getting ready, and you've been reporting extensively on this debt ceiling showdown. Only a few days left. Let's hope they get a deal so all of us can continue on our ways.

Let's go through a little political stuff that we're moving along here at CNN.com/politics on our Political Ticker. One item, and I'm blogging about it. I haven't posted it yet, but I'll tell you about it because I know you'll be interested and our viewers will be interested.

I just taped an interview from "THE SITUATION ROOM" with the former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. And guess what -- we spoke about the Texas Governor Rick Perry, who may be running for president of the United States.

You won't be surprised to hear -- maybe you will be surprised to hear, they met in Austin last month. Pervez Musharraf and Rick Perry, and Pervez Musharraf tells me that he emerged from that meeting convinced that Rick Perry will in fact run for president. Rick Perry wanted to meet with him, talk about national security issues, get some national security background, if you will.

So we talked a bit about Rick Perry, and I think Rick Perry is going to run for president, too. I haven't met, though with Rick Perry. Pervez Musharraf has met with Rick Perry in Texas, and he thinks he's going to run.

I've also just taped an interview with Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary. We go in depth on the whole issue of getting ready for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I'm pretty worried about what Al Qaeda might want to do as far as retaliation for the killing of bin Laden, but I want to press her on what kind of capabilities the Al Qaeda network, some of the splitter groups might have, homegrown terrorism. This is an interview I think our viewers will want to see and hear. That's coming up in the "THE SITUATION ROOM" as well.

In some other politics, Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, the former U.S. ambassador to China, he's now running for president of the United States. There's been a make shakeup in his campaign. His campaign manager is no longer his campaign manager. Someone else has come in. Susie Wiles is gone, Matt David is in. Susie has served well and was vital in getting it off the ground in such a short timeframe, according to a campaign statement.

Now the campaign is moving into phase two, will be more aggressive from a messaging and tactical standpoint, and Matt is prepared to take that on.

So, another little reshuffle there in that campaign, earlier reshuffles in other campaigns. It comes with the territory. Some people come. People go. We're watching all of this obviously very closely.

Don, back to you.

LEMON: And we will be watching with you.

All right, Wolf, thank you very much.

The next update in about 30 minutes.