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Markets Open at Record Highs; House to Vote on Obamacare; The Fix Help or Hurt Obamacare; Does "Fix" Help our Hurt Obamacare?; Toronto Council Votes for Mayor to Resign; China to Ease One-Child Policy

Aired November 15, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Wall Street rings in the morning at a record high. In fact, the bell just rang. There it goes. The Dow Jones is just one good rally away from hitting that 16,000 mark, which is good news for anyone keeping an eye on their retirement accounts. So, can we do it and what does it really mean anyway? Let's bring in chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, you're within, you know, a day or two of pretty decent gains and you could see 16,000. And it's not just the Dow Jones Industrial average. You have the S&P 500 within shouting distance of 1,800 and the Nasdaq about 1 percent away from 4,000. That's a level on the Nasdaq we haven't seen since the year 2000. Remember that was right before, oh, a little thing called the dot com bubble bursting. So when you look at some of these levels, it's pretty amazing what this stock market has done this year.

And in your 401(k), you are feeling it. I mean the Dow is up more than 20 percent this year. The Nasdaq up more than 30 percent this year. The S&P 500, that's the part of your -- the S&P 500 is 500 stocks. So if you have S&P mimicking funds in your 401(k), it's probably more likely what the stocks look like in your 401(k), up 26 percent. A really, really good year.

So, Carol, now the big question is, you know, everyone's talking about when will it hit 16,000, but a lot of smart money is saying, at what point does this thing have to come down and correct? It has not had a big, big correction yet. And when will that happen?

For now, at least, Janet Yellen, the nominee for the Fed, suggesting that the Fed has more work to do. She said that yesterday in her Senate Banking Committee hearing. That's one reason why stocks are partying still because the punch bowl's still out. You know, they're having a fine time. The champagne tastes good. But there will be a hangover at some point. We just don't know when, Carol. COSTELLO: Yes, but, the question is, is - I mean how much of a headache will it cause us? Will it be like a - I mean a lot of people say this is a bubble and it's really going to tank. And, of course, we have those budget talks coming up and we all worry about that. So what should we do? You're probably going to say, we should hang tight, and we should because we're making lots of money now if you have money invested in the stock market.

ROMANS: Well, you should make sure that you're balanced for your age and for your goals. I mean I say that whether the stock market is up or down. You know, you should make sure -- and you're right about the budget talks being a real risk factor for the market. That's no -- there's no question about that. But right now you're seeing an improving jobs market, an improving housing market, you're seeing stability in the American economy, 2.8 percent was the gross domestic product. So unless Washington really mucks it up, you know, you do have an economy that is moving forward, but a Fed that still thinks it's not time to take the training wheels off, so you still have the support from the Fed. All of these things together are why the stock market keeps going up.

When you look at these milestones, people always often ask me, what does 15,000 mean or what does it -- these are psychological levels, no question, these round numbers. Remember when we got to Dow 9,000, Dow 10,000, remember all that, the baseball caps on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange? They are round numbers, but they show - they show that your 401(k) has improved. It has been an amazing year in your 401(k). Everyone should look at it and rebalance, make sure it's the appropriate stocks, bonds, cash, because you've had a good run here.

COSTELLO: We'll do that. Christine Romans, thanks so much for the advice.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: To Toronto now, and a live look inside the meeting where city council members are hashing out what to do about their embattled mayor, Rob Ford, after a string of serious allegations and bizarre behavior and crude comments. The mayor still refusing to go and councilors are fed up. They are talking now about stripping the mayor of his power. We are watching this meeting. We'll let you know what comes out of the meeting a little later.

Also happening now, live to the House floor where, in a few hours, Republicans and Democrats in the House will vote on a Republican plan that could end up gutting Obamacare. Today's vote comes on the heels of the president's vow to help people keep the health care plan they have if they like it. Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash live on Capitol Hill to talk about the bill, though.

Good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, if you take a look at the specifics of what Republicans are offering, you might scratch your head and say, wait a minute, this is almost looks like what the president offered yesterday. They are offering in this bill to allow people, not mandate, but allow people who have insurance policies they like to keep them, at least say insurers can do that. But it doesn't mean that people can keep their insurance, because it is something that is voluntary with regard to the insurance companies.

But the key difference and the key reason why Democrats were scrambling to come up with a plan of their own, and frankly the reason why the president did what he did yesterday is because what this plan would also do is say that the -- any health policy, whether it is people who had them before or in the future that doesn't comply with the basic benefit minimum standards of the new Obamacare law, that would be OK, too. So that's the reason why, as you said, Democrats argue that this would completely undermine the whole Obamacare system, the whole paradigm, because the premise is that people have to move out of the old plans, many of them who are, you know, flimsy and don't have a lot of coverage, and that gets a lot of new people, particularly young, healthy people, into the system.

COSTELLO: OK. So I know it's so very complicated, but the basic premise is, Republicans are trying to keep people from applying for Obamacare. And the less people who apply for Obamacare, that means the less money there will be for Obamacare to be up and running and to lower everyone's premium who is involved.

BASH: Precisely. Bingo. You got it.

COSTELLO: Got it. Thank you, Dana Bash. I know you'll keep watching for us. We'll check back with you in about a half hour.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the fixes to Obamacare may not really be fixing anything but a political promise. We'll talk about why the president's fix may end up costing people more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Right now it's not clear if the president's fix to Obamacare will actually help or hurt the law, but critics are already calling the disastrous rollout of the law Obama's Katrina moment, as the president continues to apologize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We fumbled the rollout on this health care law, and that's on me. And the American people, those who got cancellation notices, do deserve and have received an apology from me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now, Ana Navarro, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, and Donna Brazile, a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist.

Welcome to both of you.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hello.

Ana, I'm going to start with you. This was an extraordinary mea culpa from a sitting president. He admitted we fumbled. He also admitted he didn't know the rollout would be this bad. Americans are forgiving, but you've got to wonder if they'll forgive the president any time soon. Will they, Ana?

NAVARRO: Well, look, I think - I think what you saw there was an administration that's been shaken, that's been caught off guard, that's been caught flat footed with a very bad rollout. And also I think it's been shaken by particularly the recent numbers showing the lack of trustworthiness and that they've lost the trust of the American people. That's something that shakes any politician, but particularly a president because it affects his ability to do anything, to lead, to get legacy items passed. I think that's what you saw yesterday from the president, him trying to address those issues and acknowledge that that's going on, showing a little humility, and accepting that there have been mistakes made. It's taken a while for them to get there.

COSTELLO: Yes. And on the note that Ana mentioned, that the president will find it very difficult to get anything done, the president said that he wanted to talk about immigration. House Speaker John Boehner has already come out and said, we're not talking about immigration. So, Donna, is Ana right, will it be impossible for the president to get anything done?

BRAZILE: Well, Carol, three points. First of all, I take a little bit of a - I guess difference in strategy in terms of comparing it to Katrina. Katrina, not only over 1,400 people were killed, you know, tens of thousands displaced. So I understand the political metaphor of using, you know, the president's poll numbers to compare it to George Bush being underwater, but seriously this is no Katrina.

Let's -- two things. One, I think the president is trying to --

COSTELLO: What is it then, Donna?

BRAZILE: It is - it is clearly an embarrassment to put forward the notion that this thing would roll out and there would no glitches, knowing that Social Security had glitches, the Medicare rollout had glitches. And this was before, you know, my former boss helped to create the Internet. And, of course, Medicare Part D in 2005 had glitches. So any big program, Carol, that involve a cooperation with federal agencies, partnership with state governments, and, of course, working with the private insurance marketplace would cause some problems. And not acknowledging those problems until 10, 15 days later, clearly that's why the president came before the American people. Now, look, I've been in the private individual market for 12 years. The health insurance companies have to be part of this equation. They have to work, not just with Congress and the administration, but work with individuals in the marketplace to ensure that they don't lose the coverage they need.

COSTELLO: Well, the good news is the president is meeting with members of the insurance industry later today. So we'll see what comes out of that.

But going back to the president's trustworthiness, because it's really important to the American people because, frankly, they don't have much trust in government anyway. The president's approval rating is at 39 percent, Congress' approval rating is at 9 percent. That's pathetic.

But going back to just focusing on the president, Ana. He was such a likeable guy when he first took office. He was beloved by many Americans. I don't know that you can say that anymore. It's sort of like this squandering of likability, which does lend power to the office, whether you like it or not. Doesn't it, Ana?

NAVARRO: Well, you see, I think that's part of it. I think he came in riding a wave of hope and change and he was going to be the uniter, he was going to do things differently, this was going to be one America. And so I think people are disillusioned. I think they are broken- hearted. I think they expected different things from this president. And we are seeing him go through a very, very hard time.

I also think there was a high degree of political stubbornness by this White House and this administration in not admitting these mistakes and continuing on and just trudging on for, you know, like if nothing was happening for almost 40 days before anybody started issuing any apologies. They just tried to cover it up, cover - you know, play shell games.

We now have to see a very important date, frankly, is this November 30th date. If by November 30th these glitches that Donna calls it, I call it debacle of a rollout, are not fixed, it's going to be a very difficult moment for the White House because a lot is riding on them getting this fixed by November 30th.

BRAZILE: You know, I'm not worried about November 30th. I'm worried about, you know, all of those Americans who are sick, who are trying to get the health care they desperately need. I mean 40 million, 50 million Americans in one of the world's richest countries without access to health care so that they can live productive lives. That's what we should be or worried about.

We should be worried about those states who are not giving poor people an opportunity to get Medicaid. That's what we should be worried about. We're worried about somebody's poll numbers, when there are parents out there, when there are children out there.

Ana people forget that if you have acne or asthma or were pregnant these insurance companies could kick you off. And you know I can -- I can tell you so many stories about the insurance companies and how they've treated people, but the truth is, I hope Congress can help fix it. I hope the administration remedy will work, because I would like to see every American healthy and prosperous in the New Year.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: All right we got to end it there. We do -- we have to end it there.

NAVARRO: Donna you're absolutely right.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm so sorry we must end it there. Donna Brazile and Ana Navarro thanks so much. Sorry, ladies.

So President Obama now says it's ok with him for people to keep their individual health plans for another year but as we've been talking about making the fix is not so simple. One big factor is will the states embrace the change. And even if they do how will they make it happen? And we'll be talking with the Californian insurance commissioner Dave Jones, about that very thing, that's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right there's been some activity on the floor of the Toronto City Council. One of the councilors just introduced a motion for the -- for the mayor, Mayor Rob Ford to resign. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The petition reads as follows. It said a petition for Mayor Rob Ford's immediate resignation. "We the undersigned demand the immediate resignation of Rob Ford due to his repeated disrespect towards the citizens of Toronto, his lies, criminal acts and refusal to take responsibility for his actions are unacceptable. And we demand that he resign from the position of Mayor of Toronto immediately.

Speaker, there are 1,116 signatures to this particular document. And I understand from the group that this was collected at a rally here at city hall on November 13th. And these signatures were collected in a span of time of one hour and 15 minutes. And I'd like to submit this for the public record on behalf of the group SaveToronto.ca. And the spokesperson who actually handed me this petition this morning is Nikki Thomas who is actually here with us this morning. May I?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ok so they're adding that into the record. But that doesn't mean the Mayor will have to step down and resign although all of the councilors approve this motion. What they're really trying to do is they're trying to strip the Mayor of all of his powers and take away his budget. That is something the council can do.

Our Nic Robertson is in the city council meeting right now and he's able to you know go outside and explain to us a little more. We'll get to Nic Robertson but that's the latest from Toronto for you.

On to other news now -- China announces major shifts to decades old policies. It is easing the rule that limits most families to one child. The system initially put into place to ease population growth. It also will end labor camps. Labor camps they've been used since the 1950s to deal with those who challenged authority.

David McKenzie, live in Beijing now to tell us more. Good morning David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Well good evening from here in Beijing. Two major announcements from the Chinese government about these policies: some of the most hated and controversial policies here amongst ordinary Chinese. The One-Child Policy which has been in place for decades as you say has really been the cause of many issues here in China say activists. There are forced abortions, sterilizations, corruptions -- all of this playing into a real sense of discontent about this over recent years.

Now it appears that the government is moving to relax the rules significantly. A person who is themselves a single child can have now two children across the country. This will make a huge difference to many families here in China -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm sure. David McKenzie reporting live from Beijing this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it is dangerous to use your head in football. So this may have gone a little too far last night in Nashville.

Andy Scholes with "Bleacher Report" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The comeback Colts did it again last night against the Tennessee Titans but it's a dirty play on the field that has everybody talking Andy Scholes -- that was nasty Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes Carol I don't know about you but I've never been head butted before. I bet it hurts.

COSTELLO: Yes.

SCHOLES: And I bet it hurts even more if the player doing it to you --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: My brother did it to me once, and if does hurt.

SCHOLES: Did he have a helmet on? COSTELLO: No.

SCHOLES: Check this out. Second quarter last night, the Colt's Erik Walden, he's going to rip off Delanie Walker's helmet. Now Walker then just looks at him what's that about. And then Walden head butts him right in the face. Shockingly, Walden was not ejected for this. He just got a penalty.

COSTELLO: No. You know if it was Ndamukong Suh and there was a little like tap, he would have been thrown out of the game.

SCHOLES: Thrown out of the game, fined, suspended and all of that. As for the game there Carol Andrew Luck led another comeback. Colts got the win in Tennessee, 30-27.

Back in October Indy Car racer Dario Franchitti was involve in this horrific crash during the Houston Grand Prix. He suffered two fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle and a concussion. Those injuries have sadly forced Franchitti to announce his retirement from the sport of racing. In a statement yesterday the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner said "Racing has been my life for over 30 years and it's really tough to think that the driving side is now over."

In the line-up section on BleacherReport.com today, you'll find a crazy finish from the Thunder/Warriors game last night. Thunder down 14 in the fourth quarter, they come all the way back and Russell Westbrook hits this three to give them the lead. But two seconds was enough for the Warriors Andre (inaudible). Crazy fade-away shot. That gave the Warriors the win, 116-115.

After suffering a gruesome injury on national TV, Louisville's Kevin Ware is back on the court which is where Rachel Nichols caught up with him. Ware's return means that Laker's star Kobe Bryant will need to make his way to Louisville after losing a bet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN WARE, COLLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER: You know Kobe is a competitive guy. The bet was basically whoever came back first, the other person has to come to their game. So I have a game, Kobe has to come to our game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: You can catch that full interview on "UNGUARDED WITH RACHEL NICHOLS", that's tonight at 10:30 Eastern on CNN.

COSTELLO: What a nice young man.

SCHOLES: I love Kevin Ware.

COSTELLO: That's really terrific.

Thank you Andy, you made our day.

Next hour of NEWSROOM starts now. Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

If you like it, you can keep it; maybe and only for a year. President Obama has a temporary fix to his health care blunder. But his fix it's not the only fix. This is a live look at the House of Representatives where it's all about Obamacare this morning. About 12:30 Eastern the House will vote on Republican Fred Upton's plan which would go two or three steps farther than the President's fix does and could actually gut Obamacare.

Also later this afternoon, the heads of some of the top insurance companies will come to the White House for a meeting with the President.

But let's go back to Mr. Obama and his extraordinary mea culpa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's on me. I mean we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. There are a whole bunch of things about it that are working really well, which people didn't notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)