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Obama Talks High Gas Prices, Energy; Impact of Obama's Energy Proposal; Smart Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund; Obama, Romney Fights for Female Vote; Discovery's Breathtaking Flyover

Aired April 17, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We have all been watching it and it's been fascinating.

Yes. I think it was perfectly said that by that former astronaut was that this is iconic. "Discovery" is iconic in the shuttle fleet.

John Zarrella, are you still there in Florida?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm here with you. Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: This has been your beat for many, many years. As you watch this, as you're kind of going over in your head how many times you have you have interviewed the crews there of "Discovery," what's going through your mind? What are you thinking about as we start to watch the craft land?

ZARRELLA: Well, you know, I think like so many people here think and, of course, you know, my opinion is certainly somewhat skewed that, you know, it had a lot of flights left in them.

All of these vehicles could have flown more except for planning that didn't go perhaps the way it should have. You know, NASA deciding to go away from the space shuttles and go to the "Constellation" program which was then killed by the current administration and another program brought in.

And so meanwhile there's now this gap and shuttles still could be flying if it wasn't for some political decisions made that a lot of people probably wish and I know they wish could be taken back today.

So that's the sad point. A lot of people out of work and a lot of people are even at this very happy, very bittersweet moment, as Bill Reedy (ph) put it, you know, watching this.

There's still a lot of anger and a lot of people upset that the shuttle program perhaps ended prematurely and, with a little more forethought, the United States wouldn't be caught in this gap to wait another perhaps four or five years before we have our own way and it would be commercial companies to put astronauts up to the international space station.

So the United States is out of the space flying business right now, which is -- that in itself is a pretty hard statement for a lot of people to swallow.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: And if you're just tuning in, you are looking at live pictures now coming to us via our affiliate, WJLA, Space Shuttle "Discovery" taking its last flight from Florida's Kennedy Space Center where we were just talking to our John Zarrella. This has been his beat for decades, fair to say.

It's coming down in Washington where its final destination will be the Smithsonian.

That takes me over to Lizzie O'Leary who's there at Dulles. Lizzie, every fighter pilot that dreams of being an astronaut, they love to do a fly-by and this crew did get a chance to do that over the National Mall before it came down.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was sort of the mother of all fly-bys, Kyra. It came past here, Dulles Airport, and then did a very slow one over the National Mall and then did one more bonus one here.

We were all waiting for it too land and noticed it was too high and the gear was up.

But right now, the landing gear on the 747 carrying "Discovery" is down. You can see it's got the landing lights on and I can see it over my left shoulder. It is starting to come in on its final approach.

There are a couple hundred people up here and then down in the parking lot below me you have people who were basically tailgating here since about 6:00 in the morning, a big crowd of people. You have got little kids out there watching it land.

It is flying in and you can hear it on the air traffic control. The call sign for the 747, you'll hear them refer to it as "Pluto 9- 5." That's NASA 905, the 747 that's configured to carry a space shuttle like "Discovery" on its back.

PHILLIPS: Lizzie, as the landing gear is down and we ready to see the space shuttle, "Discovery," make its final landing, this won't be the last time that you can see this. Right? You are going to be able to visit it.

O'LEARY: Right.

PHILLIPS: OK. Tell us about that.

O'LEARY: Well, there's a cheer going up, by the way, from the crowd behind me ...

PHILLIPS: Oh, here it comes.

O'LEARY: ... in the parking lot and here it comes. People will be able see it as soon as Friday in the museum out here which is part of the Smithsonian complex. They'll be able to come in and see it in person and this thing is coming in on its final approach with the shuttle piggybacked on top of that 747.

There's a big cheer going up from the crowd behind me.

PHILLIPS: The spacecraft, the oldest of the three orbiters and has clocked more than 148 million miles on its missions. Coming down for its final landing. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pluto 9-8, when you do break off, just maintain at or below 1,500 and have a right downwind on runway 1- center. We're going to have you clear to land on 1-center as soon as you tell me you can break out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I just want to let you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number 5 -- Echo Tango. As soon as the T-38 and the 747 clear, cross the runway to clear room for the T-38 to enter downwind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and cross right now if you would then head right at my tower, please, and then hold - you can hold right in front of -- to the north of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the tower, holding north.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) center.

PHILLIPS: And it's down. The space shuttle, "Discovery," ending its final flight. It left Florida's Kennedy Space Center headed here to Washington, its final destination now, the Smithsonian.

Our Lizzie O'Leary there on the ground at Dulles and we can't hear the energy, I guess, Lizzie, but I know you can.

O'LEARY: I could and there was a lot of applause and a lot of cheering and you had two astronauts here who flew in "Discovery." Indeed, one of them, Joe Allen, who was also in the control room for several of the Apollo missions, so people with a very long history with the space shuttle program which has come to an end in the air.

People will be able to come and see the space shuttles, a number of them in different places. "Discovery" will be here, out at a special branch of the Smithsonian.

And basically, Kyra, what happens is it takes about two days to get it off the top of that 747 that it's on. Imagine a giant crane- like contraption that lifts the shuttle off and then moves it. That will take two days and then on Friday it will actually be in here and people can come and see it. They can't go inside, but they can get a pretty up close look at "Discovery" which flew 39 missions in space.

PHILLIPS: Well, you couldn't have three of more aviation geeks and that would be you, me and Ali Velshi because aviation always moves into space exploration and, Ali Velshi, are you up? Can you hear me OK?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can hear you. It's a sad, it's a bittersweet time for me. I grew up on these space shuttles and, you know, in 1994, a group that I'm involved in, the X Prize foundation, funded an effort to move in to commercial space exploration, right? They funded a prize, the Ansari X Prize, to come up with a rocket that would do the job that the shuttles have been doing.

So while NASA did the heavy lifting up front, now we have decided that the movement of people and cargo to the International Space Station and suborbital space should be the job of the commercial space industry.

That'll pick up in about a year-and-a-half to two and we'll see a lot more activity in space, but to see the kids that grew up thinking they wanted to be pilots and engineers because of this that you're looking at, they don't have that right now and that's kind of sad to me.

PHILLIPS: Yes and, in many ways, OK, we can look at the end of an era here, but you could also say that the past is meeting the future, right?

VELSHI: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Because if you think about just a few miles south of Cape Canaveral, you have Space X, right? It's in its final preparations to launch its "Dragon."

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: So, OK, let's be positive. Let's push forward here.

VELSHI: You are right.

PHILLIPS: I can see the American flag. Ali, can you see the American flag ...

VELSHI: I see that.

PHILLIPS: ... coming through the top of the cockpit? That's pretty awesome. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

VELSHI: Yes, you are absolutely right about that. Look, it is actually the past meeting the future. Without "Discovery," without the other space shuttles, without NASA doing what it did, we wouldn't have been able to evolve into this place where the commercial side of things can take the risk and spend the money now and we can redirect taxpayer dollars to other things.

I just hope that some of those other things will involve deep space exploration and the things that changed our lives and our society and technology because in tough economic times like this, support for these kinds of big spending, dreamer, visionary space programs does recede and we are in one of those times.

You have heard the presidential debates where they think that less money should be spent on this and it should just the private sector. The fact is, the private sector couldn't do what NASA did in this shuttle program.

You know, I make this comment sometimes. Maybe the smartphone you've got in your hand has more technology than the first space shuttle had going into space, but we have gained so much from these programs.

And, as you know, we are not fully competitive, Kyra, on the engineering and science fronts in the United States and it is programs like these, watching that thing take off and watching that thing land, that makes little kids want to be astronauts.

PHILLIPS: And, you know, you make such a good point on the note of smartphone. You can go and look at the list of everything that we can be thankful for due to space exploration.

It is not just about, you know, launching and getting in touch with the heavens. There have been so many things that you and I use on a regular basis due to that.

You know what? I need to try to find that list. I know that NASA has a list out there.

VELSHI: Yes. So many things.

PHILLIPS: I'll try to log on and find that list. It's remarkable.

VELSHI: What everybody talks about are non-stick pens. It's the one that's least important. The idea of Teflon and things like that, but it's really the technologies that enable us to do so many other things. It's not just the little things you have in the house.

It's the idea that transportation, fuel efficiency, the ability to conduct heat in an environment that's getting hotter. These are all things that we learned, but it takes those dreamers who just want to get to Mars and then want to meet Martians and want to speak to the heavens and want to see other, you know, galaxies to get us the innovations because we don't build programs like this just to get a non-stick frying pan.

We build them to reach the heavens and in the process we learn so much and we become so much smarter. So it's still there and there are still very exciting projects and, you're right. You mentioned Space X. That's one of them. There are rockets out there. There are lots of great things happening, but this is inspiration. This is America. This is not only just America, I mean, the world was involved in so much of this space shuttle and the International Space Station.

This was a symbol of when you think nothing holds you back and there are no bounds and that's what you're looking at right there.

And, by the way, right under it, that Boeing 747, unveiled in 1969 after more delays than any aircraft and all we talk about is delays and delays. That is one of the most successful aircraft in the world.

So you are looking at innovation, American innovation, sitting atop American innovation. Those two things, they don't make too many of the 747s anymore either. You are looking at the picture.

When somebody says, what's America all about? What's it good for? Take a look at this picture. A space shuttle on top of a 747.

PHILLIPS: And now to the moment there on the ground at Dulles. Our Lizzie O'Leary giving us the perspective from there.

You know, you listen to the coms, Lizzie, and the crew sounds, you know, mellow, business as usual, but you know the hearts are beating as shuttle "Discovery" coming to, you know, this iconic part of the shuttle fleet coming to an end.

I'd love to know what's going through their minds right now as they're slowly taxiing up.

O'LEARY: Well, absolutely. And John Zarrella down in Florida was telling us that there's a six-person crew inside that 747 cockpit.

Maybe the best analogy to draw is something that one of the producers pointed out to me. When you were listening to the air traffic controller, you heard the call sign of that plane, "Pluto 9- 5."

Pluto, once identified as a planet, now no longer a planet. A little bit of an ironic analogy there for this, the final flight of a space shuttle and a space shuttle program that was once an emblem of American space exploration is no longer.

So you have that call sign that sort of goes along with part of the narrative of the space shuttle program.

Certainly some of the astronauts who flew on "Discovery" have described this moment. We've used the word bittersweet a million times on the air this morning, but one of them, Joe Allen, said he was watching this with a tear in his eye when he saw the first fly-by and probably would again when he saw the final landing, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So what are we going to see next? Will the crew come out, give a press conference? Can you kind of give us a run of events? O'LEARY: Yes. What comes next is a bit more technical, frankly, and what happens is what they call -- the phrase for this is -- the de-mating of those two aircraft.

Essentially, it is a great big crane that will do in reverse what was done to actually get that shuttle up on top of the 747. They'll lift it off and it will be moved into the hangar here at the Smithsonian which is sort of an extension of part of Dulles airport.

Right now, the "Enterprise" is here. That shuttle which never flew in space will go up to New York, eventually, as there's sort of a merry-go-round of shuttles going to different places across the country, one in New York, one in California.

PHILLIPS: There you go. Hit the "Intrepid." Hit the Smithsonian.

O'LEARY: Exactly. Exactly. You can go hit them all, but use of the shuttles will end here.

PHILLIPS: I was just -- as you were naming all the places to go, if you really want to go old school, Lizzie, and you've probably been there, McMinnville, Oregon ,where the "Spruce Goose" is. You can go and tour that aircraft, as well.

So, heck, we could even, you know, put together a whole tour of these famous vehicles of sorts.

But so all right. So it's -- it's a technical break-off, I guess we could say. Are we going to be able to watch that, Lizzie? Or is that all something that will happen within the hangar?

O'LEARY: It will happen slowly over the course of the next two days and we'll be able see some of that, but one of the most amazing things is people will be able to see "Discovery" itself inside the museum hangar here on Friday.

So it takes a while to move the thing off, but visitors will be able to come and look and look at a shuttle that I think one of the folks described as lived in and loved.

This thing has flown a lot. It spent, essentially, a year in space when you total up all of its different missions and the kids who are out here in the parking lot today watching this will be able to come into the museum and look at it come Friday.

PHILLIPS: All right. I don't know -- I try to think that any question is an OK question, but I'm curious and you tell me if this is impossible.

Do journalists, reporters like you that cover this beat, have you ever been able to go inside of the shuttle? If so, can you describe it? Have you been able to do that in your many years of covering this?

O'LEARY: I haven't, but John Zarrella has. He has been inside, I believe, two shuttles and one of the things that astronauts will tell you, despite the fact that shuttles themselves are very large, the quarters inside are extremely small.

So the cargo bays are large, but the part where human beings go is very little and astronauts have to squeeze in and out of the little parts of this, but Zarrella is the one I'm jealous of because he's actually been inside.

PHILLIPS: And, of course, he had to detach and is no longer with us for our live coverage but that's OK. I'm sure he'll be turning a number of pieces on this.

Ali Velshi, you still with me?

VELSHI: Absolutely, I am. I can't get my eyes off of this.

PHILLIPS: Of course. All right. And, as we are sort of at a standstill here, Lizzie's giving us the perspective from there on the ground at Dulles, you and I were talking about the past meeting the future here and talking a little bit about Space X.

So what can you tell us about as we kind of wait to see what unfolds here with shuttle "Discovery"? Space X starts by basically taking cargo to the station, right? And then maybe ...

VELSHI: Cargo and people.

PHILLIPS: When will the people - when will astronauts actually be able to head there, what, within five years?

VELSHI: Yes, well, probably -- as you know, astronauts that need to get to the station now have to go up on a Russian vehicle. And, by the way, many of the astronauts complain, as Lizzie said, inside the space shuttle, it's pretty tight quarters.

When you're on the Russian vehicle, it is much tighter quarters. It is like flying economy versus business class.

That's how they'll get there for the few years and then Space X will start picking up cargo and sending it up.

And then you've also got Virgin Galactic which is an offshoot of the aircraft that won the Ansari X Prize all those years ago in that contest. They won a prize and it became Virgin Galactic. They're going to start at about $250,000 a pop. That's sub orbital. That doesn't get you to the space station. That just gets you within orbit into space on a spaceship.

So there's going to be growth on the commercial side of things, assuming the economy is such that it supports that. There's already a very long waiting list of humans who want to go on.

There have been humans who have gone up in space already. They've paid for their own -- meaning non-astronauts, publicly funded astronauts - there are people who have paid to go up. But cargo is the most important thing. Space X will take that over in the course of probably about two years from now and within five years you'll see the entire operation, commercial, astronaut and cargo going up in commercial spacecraft.

PHILLIPS: We are going to continue to monitor these live pictures. We have our Lizzie O'Leary there on the ground with us at Dulles. Lizzie, stay with us.

And the beauty of Ali Velshi, our Renaissance reporter, he can talking space, he can talk aviation. He's also going to be talking about President Obama under pressure to bring down the high price of gas.

We are looking at live pictures now of the Rose Garden where the president will speak in just a few moments outlining his plan to regulate those rising costs. We're going to talk about how it's going to impact you at the pump.

Ali is going to join me for that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures of the Rose Garden. We're waiting for the president of the United States to step up to that mike any moment now, under a lot of pressure to bring down the high price of the gas.

The president and the attorney general, Eric Holder, will be coming forward to outline a proposal to increase federal supervision of the oil markets in an effort to bring down gas prices and hold these oil companies accountable.

Now, my guess is that the president who was supposed to speak about ten minutes ago at that mike was holding off because of this live event that's happening.

What you are seeing there is space shuttle, "Discovery," the workhorse of the new defunct program. It has landed, its final destination, Dulles Airport in Virginia.

Our Lizzie O'Leary is there. Our Ali Velshi also standing by watching these live pictures because he is going to talk about the president and oil and high gases prices in a moment.

But first, Lizzie, why don't we go to you as the shuttle is now moving into final retirement. What a life, it's had.

O'LEARY: It's had a real life, about a year when you count up all the days it spent in space, about a year in space, 39 flights since 1984. It's carried hundreds of people up into orbit.

And one of the things to note, Kyra, is that "Discovery" came in on the back of that modified 747 and had a fly-by here out at Dulles and then all around the National Mall, all the green space in Washington, D.C., It did a low buzz of monuments and lots and lots of people, looking up. Barbara Starr was telling us that the folks at the Pentagon came outside to look up and get a glimpse of "Discovery" as it flew over and then it will over the next couple of days get taken off of that 747 and rest here.

This is part of the Smithsonian. They call it the Udvar-Hazy Museum. It's where they have a lot of the big parts of the air and space museum, so a lot of the stuff that doesn't fit in to the museum you may have visited on the National Mall comes out here.

Really the aviation geeks can spend some time looking at things like "Discovery" which will be on display starting on Friday, as a sort of a capstone of the 30-year shuttle program.

PHILLIPS: Yes, we're all, all of us geeks and non-geeks who have been watching the live pictures, will be pretty excited to make that visit once you're able to actually get inside look at the shuttle once it becomes a part of the Smithsonian.

Lizzie, thank you so much.

We'll continue to follow the live pictures, also live pictures from the Rose Garden. We're waiting for the president of the United States to step up and talk about what he plans to do to lower gas prices.

And while we wait on the president to speak, we'll bring you up to speed real quickly here on a few other things making news this hour.

Congressman Jeff Denham vowing that where crimes have been committed, quote, "people will go to jail." The spending scandal involving the General Services Administration is heating up on The Hill right now on the second day of an oversight hearing.

The Republican congressman says he is ready to rip apart the GSA over its Vegas junket that cost all of us, the taxpayers, $800,000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE JEFF DENHAM (R), CALIFORNIA: I'm here to tell you the buck stops here. We're not going to hold up any longer.

The American public demands to see the budget on the public buildings fund, the federal buildings fund and how that money's been spent.

This slush fund is no longer going to be used for personal uses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And that boondoggle bragged about right here in this video boasts of the exploits and even pokes fun at President Obama.

George Zimmerman's attorney is beginning to lay the groundwork for Zimmerman's defense. His biggest move yet involves the judge assigned to the case.

Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, wants a new judge to preside over the trial because the current judge's husband happens to be a law partner of Mark Nejame who has publicly commented about Zimmerman's case and has recently been hired by CNN as a legal analyst.

O'Mara says that he's confident that that judge will be replaced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK O'MARA, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: The court should grant it. She could have an inquiry if she wanted to. I don't think she will. I think she'll grant it and move the case on to another judge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And at the same time, several news organizations, including CNN, are fighting a judge's ruling to seal Zimmerman's court documents. Zimmerman will be back in court on Friday for his bail hearing.

And a key witness is expected to testify in the New York subway terror plot trial. Adis Medunjanin and three others are accused of planning to bomb the New York subway system in September of 2009.

One of his co-defendants, Najibullah Zazi, is expected to take the witness stand today. Prosecutors say that those men were trained by al Qaeda in Pakistan and described them as terrorists.

Medunjanin's lawyer says that he is not a terrorist and the government is wrong.

PHILLIPS: Let's get to our Ali Velshi standing by for us in New York City. We have a two-minute warning, it looks like, Ali Velshi, until the president -- actually, let's let the president take it away. Here we go.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: ... speaking a lot about our need for an all-of-the-above strategy for American energy, a strategy that produces more oil and gas here at home, but also, produces more biofuels and fuel-efficient cars, more solar power and wind power and other sources of clean, renewable energy.

Now, this strategy is not just the right thing to do for our long-term economic growth. It is also the right way for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil right now.

It's the right way for us to put people to work right now. And ultimately, it is the right way to stop spikes in gas prices that we put up every single year, the same kind of increases we have seen over the past couple of months.

Obviously, rising gas prices means a rough ride for a lot of families. When you're trying to get to school, trying to get to work, do some grocery shopping, you have to be able to fill you have that gas tank and there are families in certain parts of the country that have no choice but to drive 50 or 60 miles to get to the job.

So when gas prices go up, it's like an additional tax that comes right out of your pocket. That's one of the reasons we passed a payroll tax cut at the beginning of this year and made sure it extended all the way through this year so that the average American is getting average $40 in every paycheck right now.

But I think everybody understands that there are no quick fixes to this problem. There are politician who is say that if we just drilled more gas prices would come down right away.

What they don't say is that we have been drilling more. Under my administration, America is producing more oil than any time in eight years. We have opened areas for exploration. We've quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We've added enough new oil and gas pipelines to circle the earth and then some.

But as I've said repeatedly, the problem is we use more than 20 percent of the world's oil and we only have 2 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Even if we drilled every square inch of this country, right now, we'd still have to rely disproportionately on other countries for their oil. That means we pay more at the pump there's instability in the Middle East or growing demand in countries like China and India.

Now, that's what's happening right now. It is those global trends that are affecting gas prices. So, even as we're tackling issues of supply and demand, even as we're looking at the long-term, in terms of how we can structurally make ourselves less reliant on foreign oil, we still need to work extra hard to protect consumers from factors that should not affect the price of a barrel of oil.

And that includes doing everything we can to ensure that an irresponsible few aren't able to hurt consumers by illegally manipulating or rigging the energy markets for their own gain. We can't afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets buying up oil, creating a perception of a shortage driving prices higher and then flip it for a quick profit. We can't afford a situation where some spectators reap millions while millions of families get the short end of the stick. That's not the way the market should work. And for anyone who thinks this cannot happen, just think back to how Enron traders manipulated the price of electricity to reap huge profits at everybody else's expense.

Now the good news is my administration has already taken several actions to step up oversight of oil markets and close dangerous loopholes that were allowing some traders to operate in the shadows. We closed the so-called Enron loophole that let traders evade oversight with electronic or overseas trading platforms. In the Wall Street reform law, we said, for the first time, that federal regulators will make sure no single trader can buy such a large position in oil that they could easily manipulate the market on their own. So I'd point out that anybody who's pledging to roll back Wall Street reform, Dodd-Frank, would roll back this vital consumer protection along with it.

I've asked Attorney General Holder to work with Chairman Liebovitz, of the Federal Trade Commission, chairman Gensler, of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and other enforcement agencies to make sure that acts of manipulation, fraud or other illegal activity are not behind increases in the price that consumers pay at the pump.

So today, we're announcing new steps to strengthen oversight of energy markets. Things that we can do administratively, we are doing.

And I call on Congress to pass a package of measures to crack down on illegal activity and hold accountable those who manipulate the market for private gain at the expense of millions of working families. And be specific.

First, Congress should provide immediate funding to put more cops on the beat to monitor activity in energy markets. This funding would also upgrade technology so our surveillance and enforcement officers aren't hamstrung by older and less sophisticated tools than the one that is traders are using. We should strengthen protections for American consumers, not gut them. And these markets have expanded significantly. Chairman Gensler had a good analogy. He said, imagine if the NFL quadrupled the teams but didn't increase the number of refs. You would have havoc on the field and it would diminish the game. It wouldn't be fair. That's part of what's going on in a lot of these markets. So we have to properly resource enforcement.

Second, Congress should increase the civil and criminal penalties for illegal energy market manipulation and other illegal activities. So my plan would toughen key financial penalties tenfold and impose these penalties not just a violation, but for every day a violation occurs.

Third, Congress should give the agency responsible for overseeing markets new authority by making sure that traders post appropriate margins, which means that they have the money to make good on their trades. Congress should do all of this right away.

You know, a few weeks ago, Congress had the chance to stand up for families already paying an extra premium at the pump. Congressional Republicans voted to keep spending billions of Americans' hard-earned tax dollars on more unnecessary subsidies for big oil companies. So here's a chance to make amends, a chance to actually do something that will protect consumers by increasing oversight of energy markets. That should be something that everybody, no matter their party, should agree with. And I hope Americans will ask their members of Congress to step up.

In the meantime, my administration will take new executive actions to better analyze and investigate trading activities in energy markets and more quickly implement the tough consumer protections under Wall Street reform.

Let me close by saying none of these steps by themselves will bring gas prices down overnight. But it will prevent market manipulation and make sure we're looking out for American consumers. And in the meantime, we are going to keep pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy for American energy to break the cycle of price spikes year after year. We'll keep producing more bio fuels and fuel-efficient cars, keep tapping in to every source of American-made energy. These steps have already helped put America on a path to greater energy independence. Our dependence on foreign oil has actually decreased each year I've been in office, even as the economy has grown. America now imports less than half of the oil we use for the first time in more than a decade. So we're less vulnerable than we were but we're still too vulnerable. We've got to continue the hard sustained work on this issue. And as long as I'm president we'll keep placing the bets on America's future, America's workers, America's technology and America's ingenuity and American-made energy. That's how we're going to solve this problem once and for all.

Thank you very much, everybody.

(CROSSTALK)

(END LIVE FEED))

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President of the United States there at the Rose Garden, laying out his proposal on how to deal with the high price of gas.

Ali Velshi, I think the first thing that everybody wanted to know, how immediately -- how immediate could this impact on gas prices be? Right there towards the end, the president basically said, it's not going to happen real quickly but I can tell you is that market manipulation, something will happen in that regard right away.

VELSHI: I wish he wouldn't say things like that. He finishes off by saying that's how we're going to solve the problem. I don't know what he's talking about, that's how we're going to solve the problem. If you were determine the price of $100 price barrel of oil right now, due to manipulative speculation, there are some people who say it's 10 bucks. Maybe it's 20 bucks.

There are three reasons oil prices are high. Number one, world demand continues to be high for oil. Not in America. Our demand is actually lower. We're 5 percent of the world's population and we still consume 20 percent to 25 percent of the world's oil but our demand is flattening out. It's China, India, places like that. World demand is growing. People that produce oil, countries and companies, manage their output so that oil prices stay high enough that people -- that they make a lot of money. Not so high that people say, I'll use less oil. So, you know, the OPEC and the Saudis have sort of decided that 100 bucks a barrel is about where that works.

We export a whole lot of our gasoline now in the United States because we get more money. Companies that make gasoline get more for selling it other places because it's more expensive almost everywhere else in the world than in the United States.

So while I applaud the idea that the president said that manipulators shouldn't have better tools than the regulators have, I get that. The oil trading market is much bigger than 10 or 15 years ago. We haven't kept up. That's a symbol of American lack of regulation. That I agree with.

He wants to increase the amount that you have to put down when you buy oil, the margin, increasing the margin. That might have some effect. Kyra, if you want to buy General Electric stock, you have to put down all the money it takes to buy it. So 100 shares or whatever you want to buy. For oil futures, you put down a percentage of it and it creates more volatility. In the end, that speculative part of the oil price is a very bumpy and somewhat disconnected line to what we pay at the bump.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: It's got nothing to do with it. But for the president to walk away, that's how we solve the problem --

PHILLIPS: But --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: -- I would have to say, if I were the political people, I would say, almost Pants on Fire.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, it's the spectators profiting off the volatility of what we're seeing, right?

VELSHI: Sure. Three kinds of people buy oil. There are producers of oil who would like to get a certain amount of money for their product, and they short oil. They bet that oil is going to go down in price so that, if it goes down in price and it doesn't make as much money selling it, they have hedged their bets by buy oil on the futures market.

And then there are consumers who worry that oil prices are going to go up, they buy oil long. Consumers meaning people who buy oil for something that they do. Those are the two sides of the equation that are normal. and then third party, investors. People who buy it. They never touch it. They never take deliver of it. They never make it. They buy it because it's like real estate or the stock market or something else. It's an investment. Within that group of investors are spectators. And, Kyra, we wouldn't have a housing market without speculators. We wouldn't have so many markets -- we would have a stock market if you didn't have some people betting it would go down and up. That is not illegal but it makes the market.

PHILLIPS: You are seeing this as more of a political move than anything else?

VELSHI: Yes. Yes, look, I won't discount the entire thing as political because making sure regulation keeps up with the market that it's trying to regulate, absolutely makes sense. There is some discussion about whether raising the margins or the amount to put down to trade oil will help the situation.

That's for people smarter than me to discuss. It's not entirely political. But the way the president -- by the way, the president's critics draw these lines between oil supply and speculation and the price you pay at the pump. It shows a remarkable lack of sophistication and understanding of how the oil markets work. And it is a sophistication that you know the president has and you know his critics have. The whole conversation of energy prices and gas prices has been dumbed down into bumper stickers so that people get mad about it and don't understand it. And speeches like this don't help.

PHILLIPS: One more question before you go. I made note of one of the points the president made. He's wanting to boost spending on technology to improve better oversight and surveillance of energy markets. What type of technology?

VELSHI: One of the biggest problems we have in the world today, including in stock markets, is high-frequency trading, where traders have gone so far as to get these super servers and even physically move them closer to the server which does the trading to get like a one or a half a second advantage in trading. There's such great sophistication in trading. When you saw that flash crash and things like that, it has nothing to do with what they believe the price will be. It's this highly manipulative instant trading. It's a lot of the way the market is going. Regulators probably don't have the servers and computers and this type of software. I think that's absolutely right. If you're going to regulate something, be as smart and well equipped as the people to try to regulate.

PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi Thanks so much for talking space and talking gas prices and everything in between, Ali. Great to see you.

VELSHI: Sure. My pleasure.

PHILLIPS: All right.

It's D-Day for taxes. If you're one of the lucky ones, only one thing left to do, spend that refund. But there's a smart way to do that. Straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: You think tax day, you probably think of stress or dread.

Alison Kosik says, for those getting refunds, this is like Christmas. So what are people doing with the extra cash?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. If they get a refund. Here's what a Capital One survey found they'll do with it. 33 percent said they plan to spend at least part of the refund. One in four say they plan to save at least part of their refund. 17 percent say they'll use the refund to pay down some debt. And a whopping 5 percent plan to invest the money -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Considering where we are in the economy right now, what's the smartest way to spend this money at this point?

KOSIK: Good question. We spoke to Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, the founder of the financial advice blog ask themoneycoach.com, and she told us, you don't need to take the fun out of a large refund but she does recommend saving some of the money, at least 10 percent or 20 percent. It you plan to spend your refund, Lynnette says there are smart ways to spend. For example, advance your career by taking a class or prepay our annual car insurance premiums. Lynnette also told us that refund time is a great time to plan for next year's taxes. Checking in with an accountant or a tax preparer early in the year can help you cut next year's bill -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: What do you think? Is it better to overpay in the year to get a refund or get the money before, have that money prior to that, don't overpay?

KOSIK: OK. So we ask Lynnette this and she says refunds may feel good getting them, the check, but what it really does mean, Kyra, is that you have had too much taken out of the paycheck in the first place. So instead of waiting for a refund, she says fill out a W-4 form to adjust your with holdings. The IRS says the average refund is almost $3,000. And by adjusting the withholdings, boost the take-home pay by $250 every month. That's what I would like more of. The money up-front every month, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: You can invest it and make money off that money. Right?

KOSIK: Yes. Exactly.

PHILLIPS: There you go. Everyone's got their different opinion on that.

KOSIK: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

KOSIK: You got it.

PHILLIPS: President Obama and Mitt Romney are fighting it out for the female vote. Who's winning and who's losing? It's "Fair Game," next.

But first, the "Political Junkie" question of the day. President Obama getting a $400,000 salary. How much does First Lady Michelle Obama make? Tweet me the answer @KyraCNN. I'll give a shout out to the right answer.

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PHILLIPS: Before the break I asked you how much Michelle Obama makes per year as first lady? The answer? Zippo. So basically she does a lot of volunteer work. She does get a pretty good place to live, rent free. Congrats to Darren in Los Angeles for tweeting me the answer.

Today is Equal Pay Day. It symbolizes the extra four months women have to work to earn as much as their male counterparts. That plays right into our discussion of women in the 2012 election. Democrats and Republicans, working hard to get women on board but only one side seems to be succeeding.

Republican strategist, Cheri Jacobus, and Keith Boykin, Democratic analyst join me.

Let's start with the numbers, give me your take.

Our CNN/ORC poll asks registered voters about their choice for president. Among women only, President Obama leads Mitt Romney by 16 points. When asked, who is more in touch with women, the president doubles up on Romney, 55-27.

Cheri, I know where you're going to go. To the Gallup poll, showing Romney leading by two points overall --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: 6 points with the critical Independent vote. Does he need worry about women?

CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think any candidate running for anything should worry about women, Independents.

I want to make a couple of points. A week or so ago, we found out that Barack Obama is paying women in the White House 18 percent less than men for the same job, so if you want to talk about pay equality, why don't we start with the president. But his numbers are still high so maybe he doesn't have to.

(LAUGHTER)

But I'd like to point out, a couple of months ago, Mitt Romney was beating Barack Obama in the polls with women. Obama beat McCain in 2008. Romney is ahead without doing anything special so the White House panicked and that's why they launched this thing about the faux GOP war on women. That's helped their numbers.

The good news for Mitt Romney and for Republicans is that these numbers are fluid and soft because they are changing and, at some point, women were definitely more for Romney than Obama without any special targeting or condescending talking down to them. They preferred Romney. I think they need to dig into the members and find out why that was and go back to that message.

PHILLIPS: Keith, I knew this would get Cheri fired up. I'll let you address the numbers. This is your job.

KEITH BOYKIN, DEMOCRATIC ANALYST: First, I feel comfortable on a panel and I'm the only guy, and we're talking about women's issues.

(LAUGHTER)

I feel like the Republican panel they put on earlier this year, when they were talking about choice issues, but had no men on the panel.

I think that the problem here for Mitt Romney is that people just don't like him. The women don't like him. The majority of voters don't like him. The poll numbers from CNN are stunning. Not just the gender gap, because that gender gap has been there for practically every presidential election. Women are the majority of the population and we see that in terms of their reflection what if the vote is going to be.

But if you look at the numbers across the board Mitt Romney is not likable. The only group he is winning is senior citizens, and I'm not sure that's going to hold up into the general election. I think he's got real troubles. Last week, they tried to push book on the Ann Romney controversy. But then you have this comment that comes out with Mitt Romney, he's talking about, it's OK, or he wants poor women to go and make them work. He thinks it makes them more dignified if they do so. But he is --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: What's -- of course. Work is dignified. Poor people would want to work. I have no problem with that.

(CROSSTALK)

BOYKIN: The inconsistencies, Cheri, you can't say on the one hand, we love mothers and it's a wonderful thing if people can stay at home, and on the other hand, say, but we insist poor women must go to work, even if you have a child as young as 2 years old. That --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: That's what helps you stop being poor.

BOYKIN: That's talking out of both sides of your mouth and people are sick of it.

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: You're wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: Keith, Keith. That's a whole point of not being poor. If you get a job, you have a much less chance of being poor. If you are a single parent, if you find yourself -- it's greet to stay home if you can. Some people make sacrifices to do so. But at this point, remember, the 1996, Bill Clinton signed welfare reform which limited welfare to two years and then a five-year lifetime, but two years continuously. And there's this thing about limiting the number of children if you are on welfare. And this helps people take personal responsibility and helps them get back in the work force so they aren't poor. So there's really nothing wrong with that. It's very pro woman.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you guys a question.

BOYKIN: I love the way you spin this.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'm going to spin you guys in a different direction. Just before the break we asked our viewers, how much does the first lady make? She doesn't make anything. She doesn't get a paycheck.

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: No first lady has.

PHILLIPS: But, Cheri, Cheri, here's my question. You made a point of what the women are paid in the White House.

Let me ask you guys this. It's Equal Pay Day today. OK? Should the first lady get a paycheck? Keith?

(LAUGHTER)

BOYKIN: That's a great question. Why did you ask me that first?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Because Cheri has been dominating this conversation. You need to get something in here. She's going to get you again.

(CROSSTALK)

BOYKIN: I don't have an answer whether the first lady should be paid. I think the work that the first lady does is substantial. I worked in the White House in the Clinton administration and the work that Hillary Clinton did. She not only worked as the first lady but was helping to push health care reform and legislative issues. I think she does a lot of volunteer work and people should be appreciative of that. Regardless of whether it's Hillary Clinton or Nancy Reagan or Laura Bush or anybody else.

The one thing I will say about this issue is that I really think it's important for Republicans to stop this sort of attacking the Democrats for saying -- using the word "war on women." The Republicans accuse everyone of a war on everything. Whether a war on Christmas or democracy, you name it Republicans are the kings and queens of making wars. So I think -- let's be realistic. Let's stop the war language and talk about what's going on.

(CROSSTALK)

BOYKIN: Women don't -- women are not happy with Mitt Romney.

PHILLIPS: I got 20, 25 seconds.

Cheri, what do you think, Equal Pay Day? Should the first lady -- we're talking about women and this war on women and pay and equal pay. What do you think?

JACOBUS: If it's not an elected position, it's going to be hard to justify. They have budgets for the work they do and I think people are fine with that. But when you talk about elected officials, they get paid, it's not an elected position or appointed position so it's probably not going to fly.

On Equal Pay Day, maybe the women who work in the White House, the Obama White House should have an opportunity to be paid what the men are. I think that would be great.

I'm all for Keith. You guys want to call off this big lie about the GOP war on women, we're all for it.

As for Romney and his numbers with women, I think they are fluid. He was ahead in January. He can get ahead again.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Guys, got to leave it there.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I've got to let Suzanne Malveaux come in. I promise -- I know we'll be talking more about this.

That's "Fair Game."

Thanks for watching. Continue the conversation with me on Twitter @KyraCNN or on Facebook.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right after a break with Suzanne Malveaux.

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