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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Retirement at Risk; Health Care Showdown; Private Pain, Public Gain; Dropout Crisis; Miss California Controversy
Aired May 12, 2009 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Good evening everybody.
The finances of Medicare and Social Security are worsening, running out of money far more quickly than expected. A new challenge for the president who says we can't afford to leave what he calls the hard choices for the next generation.
Hard choices are ahead for this country's educational system. Almost a third of the nation's public high school students are failing to graduate. Many say the country is failing an entire generation of students.
And Donald Trump says Miss California, Carrie Prejean, has not failed and will not be fired. Trump saying Prejean can keep her title, despite the controversy raging over those photos. We'll examine the controversy, what it means in our "Face-Off" tonight.
And we begin with the worsening financial crisis facing Medicare and Social Security. Trustees of those programs, today, declared that the recession has lead to a sharp deterioration in finances. They say Medicare is already paying out more money than it receives and will be insolvent in just eight years.
Social Security will run out of money later, 2037. To maintain the current level of benefits for older Americans, the federal government will now have to raise taxes, borrow more money, or both. Suzanne Malveaux has our report from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brace yourself, more bad news.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: The longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be.
MALVEAUX: Another casualty from the worst recession in decades, your Social Security.
GEITHNER: These reports underscore the urgency of action.
MALVEAUX: A report released by the trustees reveals the country's Social Security and Medicare trust funds will run out of money even sooner than expected -- Social Security likely depleted by 2037, four years earlier than projected; Medicare out of cash by 2017, two years earlier.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Today's report should trouble anyone who is concerned about the future of Medicare and health care in America.
MALVEAUX: The government, partly blames the economic crisis, 5.7 million jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007 -- unemployment now at a record 25-year high of 8.9 percent. Fewer people working and less tax revenue means less money going into the trust funds for both entitlement programs. President Obama says Social Security can be fixed. Not by raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, but increasing taxes for the wealthy.
BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For wealthier people, why don't we raise the cap? Make them pay a little more payroll tax.
MALVEAUX: The president says as health care costs skyrocket and the population gets older the greater challenge will be funding Medicare and Medicaid.
OBAMA: Those are the things that are really breaking the bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: And, Lou, it's one of the reasons the Obama administration is pushing so hard this idea of health care reform to make it more cost effective. In the long term it's going to take hard-fought legislation to fix this problem when you talk about Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. In the short term there, are Democrats as well as some Republicans who say that they hope the economy turns around here, because at least in the short term, that will be more cash, more income, into that pot, that health care system, that is desperately needed. Lou?
DOBBS: Thank you, Suzanne -- Suzanne Malveaux from the White House.
Social Security and Medicare are the two biggest parts of this nation's massive unfunded liabilities and what some call the real national debt. In all the liabilities reach a staggering 56 -- $56 trillion. Medicare by far the biggest component of those liabilities now amounting to more than 36 trillion -- Social Security accounts for another almost $7 trillion. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation says the unfunded liabilities are growing by two to $3 trillion each year.
A powerful group of Democratic lawmakers tonight protesting the way in which the party's leadership has handled health care reform. The so-called Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats accusing the House leadership of an utter lack of transparency -- Ines Ferre with our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drama at the Senate health care reform hearings today. Nurses and doctors advocating a government-run system of universal health care protested that big industry players were invited to testify, but they weren't.
DEBORAH BURGER, CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOC.: Right now the only people that are at the table are the people that have caused the problem to begin with, the health insurance companies. There is no debate. It's about the ones that are in charge of the system right now.
FERRE: They are not the only ones complaining about a lack of transparency when it comes to health care reform talks. Forty-five of the House's moderate Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, say they're being shut out of the bill writing process.
In a letter to House Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel and George Miller, the Blue Dogs say the fact that their contributions have been limited is especially concerning and they call for a more bipartisan approach. Given the cost of the bill is expected to exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years the non profit budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense argues for more transparency.
RYAN ALEXANDER, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: Any time Congress thinks about spending that kind of money they really need to go the extra mile in terms of transparency, in terms of inclusiveness and in terms of accountability.
FERRE: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the Blue Dogs are making a reasonable request. In a statement Chairman Waxman said beginning this week, we are beginning more intensive, formal discussions with different sectors of the Democratic Party, including all caucuses.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FERRE: And these complaints seem to be having some effect. We're now hearing that Waxman has a scheduled meeting with Democrats tomorrow to review his panel's approach to health care, Lou.
DOBBS: And it's not as if the House of Representatives is leading the charge on health care. It is really the White House itself, and that relationship to this process is what?
FERRE: Yeah, I mean, the White House has -- they are not really -- they haven't said anything about this in particular. I mean right now it's the Senate and it's the House and there's a lot of complaints that there's a lot of things being done in secrecy (INAUDIBLE).
DOBBS: And as one who covered the 1993 Health Security Act led by the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, now secretary of state, precisely the undoing in large measure of what President Clinton tried to do -- well, just about 16 years ago. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Ines Ferre.
Well with health care reform expected to cost somewhere around $2 trillion, lawmakers are looking for ways to pay for it. Tonight, the Senate Finance Committee is hearing a number of proposals, including a tax on soda. The proposed tax would add three cents on sodas, sports drinks and other sweetened drinks. The Congressional Budget Office says the tax would generate $24 billion over four years.
In Miami, Florida, a jury today convicted five of six men accused of plotting with al Qaeda to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago. A sixth suspect was cleared of all charges. The men were arrested three years ago after talking about that plot with an undercover FBI agent who they believed to be an al Qaeda terrorist. The men face prison terms of up to 70 years. They will be sentenced on the 27th of July.
Our troops in Afghanistan today fought a six-hour battle with Taliban in the eastern city of Khost. U.S. and Afghan forces killed three Taliban suicide bombers. Seven other suicide bombers were killed when they detonated their explosives. Nine Afghan soldiers and civilians were killed in those explosions.
In Pakistan, the military there is pushing deeper into Taliban controlled territory in the Swat Valley to the northwest. The Army says it has killed more than 750 terrorists over the past week. Well you can still find good-paying jobs of guaranteed pay raises and great benefits, despite our recession.
And Donald Trump decides whether or not Miss California should be fired or not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, I would just like to thank...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Well, gasoline prices have surged 20 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. AAA says the national average is now $2.25 a gallon. That's partly because -- well, we're heading into the peak driving season. But analysts are also saying it's a response to an increase in the price of crude oil, now just under $60 a barrel. So far this year gasoline prices have risen 40 percent in a recession. But those prices are still lower than last year when we reached highs of more than $4 a gallon.
The Senate this week could pass legislation to protect Americans from excessively high interest rates and excessive fees on credit cards. Senate Democrats and Republicans reaching agreement on credit card reform yesterday. If the Senate passes that legislation, senators would have to reconcile their legislation with reforms proposed in the House. President Obama wants to sign credit card legislation by Memorial Day.
Rising anger tonight over what many consider to be exorbitant fees charged by airlines for so-called excess baggage -- this after the federal government said airlines made more than $1 billion from those baggage fees last year. American Airlines doing the best making $278 million. U.S. Airways coming in at number two with a lousy 187 million. The airlines justified those fees as a way to offset their soaring fuel prices which have declined sharply over the past year. While the nation suffers through its highest unemployment rate in decades, there is one sector of our workforce that is doing very well indeed. That sector is our federal government. Employment numbers, pay rates and benefits all booming. Bill Tucker has our report.
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BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The pay gap between federal and private workers is exploding. From 2000 through 2007, the difference in total compensation, wages and benefits, between federal and private workers grew from 68 percent to 102 percent according to the analysis of government data by the libertarian Washington think tank, the CATO Institute.
In dollars, that's an average of 116,450 for federal workers versus 57,615 for the average private sector employee. How could it be that federal workers are being compensated more than twice as well as private sector workers?
CHRIS EDWARDS, CATO INSTITUTE: Increasingly, federal, state and local government workers have enormously generous pension benefits and retiree health benefits that the private sector simply does not get anymore.
TUCKER: Out of 36 agencies, only two have projected payroll declines according to President Obama's budget request. The Public Service Research Foundation, which follows government employee union, says this underscores one of the biggest differences between government and business.
DAVID DENHOLM, PUBLIC SERVICE RESEARCH FDN.: In politics, the bottom line is votes. And our representatives, whether they're in Congress or in the city council, can make the most financially irresponsible decisions imaginable, but if they get votes, they win re-election.
TUCKER: Federal employees just received a 3.9 percent pay raise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And that increase brought the average paycheck for a federal worker up to a little more than $72,000 versus about $38,000 for the private sector. The top White House staff however are taking a pay freeze, Lou. Anyone earning more than $100,000 a year do now have their pay capped over in the White House.
DOBBS: That's extraordinary -- twice. In other words, the American taxpayer is paying for exorbitant benefits, compensation, and pay scale that are double their own average salaries.
TUCKER: Exactly.
DOBBS: That is utterly mad. That's the stuff of revolutions, I believe. Thank you very much, Bill Tucker. By the way, just out of curiosity, what are the two areas where those prices aren't going up... TUCKER: Well (INAUDIBLE) and they're actually letting people go in the Ag Department and Small Business Administration.
DOBBS: Well, you wouldn't want people helping in small businesses...
TUCKER: No, no, we don't want that.
DOBBS: ... and food -- my gosh who needs food? All right, Bill Tucker, thank you.
Well we'd like to know what you think about all of this. Our poll question tonight straightforwardly, do you think there would be more concern in Washington for the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs if those were public jobs lost rather than jobs in the private sector? We'd like to hear from you. Yes or no. Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. As always, we'll have the results upcoming.
A crisis, high schools experiencing a shocking number of dropouts, and the shuttle Atlantis now on a very risky mission to the Hubble telescope suffering damage at liftoff.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: As we've been reporting here literally for years, the education crisis in this country is still worsening. The number of high school dropouts has reached a staggering rate. Lawmakers are struggling to find new ways to find some solution. Lisa Sylvester has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life for New Yorker Michael Parker hasn't always been easy. He dropped out of high school in Harlem when he was in tenth grade.
MICHAEL PARKER, YOUTH ACTION PROGRAMS AND HOMES: I dropped out of high school when I was 17 years old because my mom was like you know she was addicted to crack cocaine, amongst other things, and my grandmother was raising me and my brother. So I really needed to spend more time at home to make sure that my brother wasn't in danger and to really help my mom -- my grandmother out with the family bills.
SYLVESTER: Family circumstances, poverty, apathy, lack of motivation, are all contributing factors to the nation's dropout rate. Three out of 10 students don't graduate on time, many of them attending so-called dropout factories. These are high schools where half of the student population ends up dropping out. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, there are some 2,000 dropout factories in the nation, but some school administrators are trying to turn things around.
SCOTT GORDON, MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS: As educators, our job is to educate young people as citizens who are productive participants in our economy. We are not even close. Our house truly is on fire. SYLVESTER: According to testimony at a House hearing, the problem is especially prevalent in minority communities. Only 55 percent of black students graduate on time, 52 percent of Hispanics, 78 percent of white students. That's a drag on U.S. competitiveness. The organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks the United States 18th in reading and 28th in Math in international education rankings.
MARGUERITE KONDRACKE, AMERICA'S PROMISE ALLIANCE: For a young person dropping out is a million dollar mistake. For our country, cutting in half the dropout rate would contribute over 45 billion to our economy. Mr. Chairman, the best stimulus package is a diploma.
SYLVESTER: Michael Parker once a dropout went on to earn his GED. He now counsels students to stay in school and earn that diploma and says it feels good to give back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The panel of educators and researchers say one of the key solutions is to focus on those 2,000 dropout factories. They make up about 12 percent of all of the U.S. high schools, but they produce close to half of all of the high school dropouts. Now there is a bill, the Graduation Promise Act that provides grant money to these schools and their feeder middle schools that if educators can identify the students early on enough that they can try to keep them on track. Lou?
DOBBS: It's simply inexcusable that this country has tolerated what we've been reporting here now, Lisa, as you know very well since you've been doing much of that reporting. For years now the fact that just about half of Hispanic students, just about half of black students in this country are dropping out of high school and yet this nation continues to tolerate administrators and teachers who cannot bring to bear the skill and the resources to improve those public schools. Our communities, our city, our city governments and school boards seemingly helpless in those areas to do something against the back drop of what is outright a national emergency.
SYLVESTER: Yeah, Lou, and this is something that we see again and again year after year after year that for minority students, it's a 50/50 proposition whether they are going to be able to graduate from high school and that has repercussions on our economy, on what it means in terms of competitiveness when we talk about globalization, so this is -- really is a problem that we have to get a fix on.
DOBBS: All right, thank you very much, Lisa -- Lisa Sylvester from Washington.
The high school dropout rate has of course enormous implications for our economy, but most certainly for the students themselves. According to the committee on education and labor, a high school drop's lifetime earnings potentially are $260,000 less than someone who graduates high school and $1 million less than a college graduate.
Some of the other stories we're following here tonight -- astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis have discovered troubling new damage to several thermal tiles. That damage could be caused by debris shed by the fuel tank. That debris loosened almost two minutes after liftoff, which struck the right side of the shuttle. NASA right now says it doesn't believe this damage is serious, but it's certainly performing far more analysis to know exactly what is going on.
In Los Angeles, a metal luggage container was sucked into the engine of a 747. The Japan airlines plane was preparing to depart Los Angeles when the accident occurred. There were 245 passengers onboard when it happened, no injuries.
In Missouri tonight, a freight train carrying coal jumped the tracks. Thirty-six cars of the Union Pacific train derailed, many of them spilling, as you see, coal. There were no injuries. No cars went into the nearby Missouri River either -- crews working tonight to remove those derailed cars and to fix the tracks.
Comedian Wanda Sykes still under fire for what she said at the White House Correspondent's Dinner and the ballyhoo over what Miss California said and over those photographs of her. Donald Trump is now having his say.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Here again, Mr. Independent, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Welcome back. Miss California will be allowed to keep her crown. Pageant owner Donald Trump announcing his decision; Trump not only defended Carrie Prejean at a news conference today, the Donald also praised her. A.J. Hammer, host of "Showbiz Tonight" on HLN has the full story for us -- A.J.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: Lou, Donald Trump was visibly giddy with delight at a press conference today where the big news was announced. Trump is naturally very pleased with all the publicity that his pageant has been receiving and now he says, yes, Miss California is going back to work and everybody is happy.
Well, those revealing photos, Trump says he examined them very carefully and he proclaimed no big deal. And as he announced that Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean would in fact get to keep her title Donald Trump reinforced his support for her in how she handled a difficult question at this pageant on April 19th when all of this began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, OWNER, MISS USA PAGEANT: We had a little bit of a dilemma with Carrie, who's here, who's lovely and who gave a very, very honest answer when asked a very tough question at the recent pageant. It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMER: For her part, an emotional Carrie Prejean said the backlash she received for speaking her mind was unacceptable and she clearly took it very personally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARRIE PREJEAN, MISS CALIFORNIA: On April 19th on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech, and I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMER: And there you have it, Lou. Miss California headed back to work -- for the Miss California Organization, not to speak out against same-sex marriage, that is until perhaps her reign is over later this year and at that time you know she can say whatever she wants about anything she wants and most importantly, Lou, continue to take a proud stand for our constitutional rights.
DOBBS: And we will support her in that, absolutely. I do have one question though, A.J.
HAMMER: Yes.
DOBBS: Who won the doggone contest anyway?
HAMMER: Isn't that a good question? For the record, it is Miss North Carolina. But as Donald Trump was quick to point out today, you know he feels now that the Miss America pageant, once the gold standard, I think they now get about as much attention as the winner of his pageant got this year.
DOBBS: Well one thing the Donald has to be pleased and I think this demonstrates all of this publicity, clearly, A.J., the Donald's still got game, right?
HAMMER: He loves it, every bit of it, Lou.
DOBBS: All right, thanks a lot A.J.
HAMMER: You got it.
DOBBS: For more now on -- well for more on Miss California -- watch "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" with A.J. Hammer each and every night at 11:00 p.m. Eastern on HLN.
Well same-sex marriage is the subject of our "Face-Off" tonight and joining me now, the former gay rights senior adviser to President Clinton, Richard Socarides -- good to have you with us, Richard -- who says nothing short of full equality is where we ought to be -- and the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, David Blankenhorn, who's also the author of "The Future of Marriage", who says children need both a mother and a father and same-sex marriage is bad for society -- good to have you with us.
Let me turn first to the issue, David, of marriage. You don't support the idea of same-sex marriage; civil unions are all right, just to be clear, in your view? DAVID BLANKENHORN, AUTHOR: I think civil unions may be something to think about. My main point is that marriage is an institution that humans everywhere have devised, basically to protect children. To kind of ensure that the male and female whose union makes the child are there legally and there to raise the child some of my opposition to gay marriage is not opposition to homosexuality, not opposition to gay rights, it's opposition to tampering with the meaning of this pro child institution.
DOBBS: Richard, that's very persuasive.
RICHARD SOCARIDES, FMR. W.H. GAY RIGHTS SR. ADVISER: Well, I think there's no evidence that children fare any better or any worse with two or even one gay couple, so I -- I think it -- that's sort of a very sort of old-fashioned traditional notion. But certainly kids are better off with -- with any one parent, and I think that most of the research and most of the literature suggests now that kids to just fine with same-sex parents.
DOBBS: Is that true?
BLANKENHORN: The literature on same sex parent is such a recent thing for scholars to start studying, there isn't much out there. But where I think you may be wrong, Richard there, is a huge body of literature, going back many decades, saying the optimal environment for a child is to be cared for by the -- by the mother and the father, in that mother/father child raising unit. There is a lot of science in back of that proposition, and when you break that model, either with one parent home, no parent home, or parents that are brought together outside of this marital arrangement, children don't do as well.
SOCARIDES: Well, you know, I think that we could debate this research, and I'm sure there's been a lot of that. What we're really talking about today and what the Donald once again captures what's on everything's mind, is where we -- where are we headed as a country in terms of this being a basic fairness issue? And I think you see the almost dizzying daily drum beat of talk and your own issues about that. We saw the Iowa marriage decision. States all along the northeast are legalizing same-sex marriage, and there are -- there's significant pressure building on our elected officials to really lead people rather than following public opinion. I think what you saw Mr. Trump doing was saying, look this is -- this is an opinion shared by a lot of people, but it's really not where we're headed as a country.
DOBBS: David, Richard basically says that you are old fashioned in your views. You have to catch up to 2009, is that correct?
SOCARIDES: Very.
BLANKENHORN: Well, most children are old fashioned too. They like having the mother and father around in the old fashioned way. Maybe I'm old fashioned in that way too.
We do agree on one thing, however. I think this thing about Miss California, you know, she said exactly, verbatim, what the president of the United States said when he was running for the presidency. She said exactly what Hillary Clinton said on many occasions. She said what most members of congress said.
DOBBS: Joe Biden.
BLANKENHORN: She said what 70 percent of American people believe. She said what almost all scholars who had ever studied marriage have defined today. Completely consistently. And, yet, here is where I think maybe we could maybe find something to think about together. The dynamic of our elite conversation have shifted so rapidly, that when she said something that about three minutes ago, everybody was saying it, including the president of the United States. She's now called out and everybody wants to fuss at her and call her ugly names.
DOBBS: And did.
SOCARIDES: I think she's getting a little bit of a hard time because people enjoy talking about beauty pageants and it's popular culture.
DOBBS: Well Paris Hilton, for example, the comments she made, I think the popular word is renounced or whatever.
SOCARIDES: Everybody -- Lou, everybody is entitled to their opinion.
DOBBS: You were renouncing those comments?
SOCARIDES: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes for good pageant television.
BLANKENHORN: Why call her out in a public way like this, when she --
DOBBS: Because somebody is going to call somebody out. Let me follow up with what David is saying. Why in the world if the gay community feels this way, why pick on a 21 year old? Why not go after the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States, the secretary of state?
BLANKENHORN: Or go on a national tour.
DOBBS: Pick on somebody your own size I guess.
SOCARIDES: I don't think she's been unfairly picked on. I think she puts herself out in this very public way.
DOBBS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. She has a right to speak her mind. This 21-year-old woman, perhaps I have a different perspective, because my daughters happen to be 21, but I wouldn't tolerate this kind of conduct toward them in a minute and the way in which the national media has behaved, some elements of the gay community have behaved here I think is absolutely shameful.
You talk about leading the American people there, is also the possibility there is some overreaching here on the part of those who would go beyond 70 percent of the American people's viewpoint, the comments, the values, the statements of the presidential leadership, the president, the vice president? What say you?
SOCARIDES: I basically would agree with everything you've said. I think you're right that she's entitled to her view. She should not be made fun of. It's a legitimate view. It's a view held by many of our elected officials, and if people have a beef about it, they ought to go to our leaders and our leaders ought to be leading public opinion and not following it. And I think that some people who --
DOBBS: I would love to see some representation of the majority rule in this country from time to time. But that's a different matter.
SOCARIDES: I think some people who are caught in this I support civil unions, I support full rights for gays and lesbians, but I don't support marriage, are sort of caught in a trap here around -- on --
DOBBS: In fairness, though, much of the gay community disagrees on the issue of gay marriage and seeks civil unions. That's not a, if you will, monolithic view on the part of the gay community either.
SOCARIDES: I think within the last three to five years, that the gay community pretty much is universal in its support for gay marriage, rather than civil unions.
DOBBS: My goodness. Universality. My goodness. Heterosexuals, gays, to find that anywhere is amazing. Going back to Richard's point, David. Being a bit of an old fashioned here, why is -- why is gay marriage such a threat to heterosexual marriage? When you talk about the institution of marriage, the importance of family here, the greatest threats, if you gentlemen are going to read the literature, I look at the threats, economically, societally, the threats are far more financial, economic, media. We can go through a list of threats to heterosexual marriage and the family unit that has nothing to do with gay marriage.
BLANKENHORN: Let's go even further. We heterosexuals over the last three decades have treated marriage in a pretty poor way. We have high levels of divorce.
DOBBS: That's what I'm saying to you.
BLANKENHORN: Yeah.
DOBBS: And the physics of gay marriage affecting heterosexual marriage or the family unit are not exactly what I would call obvious.
BLANKENHORN: Well, when you change in law the ideal that the mother/father -- that there's something special about the male and the female making the child and being there to raise the child when you change that --
DOBBS: My god, what I'm saying to you is we're watching one in every two marriages in this country end in divorce. We're watching 2/3 of children being born out of wedlock. Higher amongst certain groups in this country. To worry about gay marriage seems to be -- well, focusing on the truly marginal and almost irrelevant of looking at threats to heterosexual marriage.
BLANKENHORN: Listen, I, and plenty of other people out there, have sent a lot of years working to strengthen marriage and gay marriage is one more thing that's coming along here.
DOBBS: And I have bad news for you. You're going to work a lot harder and find some help, all right? David, thank you for being here. Richard, thank you.
SOCARIDES: Thank you.
DOBBS: Angry seniors decided to set out on the biggest day of their university experience because of the president.
And red storm rising. A cyber arms race, the United States and communist China. We'll tell you who's winning, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Well, we've been reporting for literally years on communist China's aggressive efforts to hack into U.S. computers. Now, evidence that Beijing is building up defenses against any possible cyber attack from the United States. Some are saying the United States and China are now engaged in a cyber arms race. Kitty Pilgrim has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Most computers in this country are vulnerable to attack; government computers, computerized infrastructure systems, transportation, communications, even things like water supply and ATMs. The worry is hostile attack, what Dale Meyerrose, former chief information officer and top information officer calls cyber crime. He says most U.S. computer systems are just not secure.
DALE MEYERROSE, FMR. CIO FOR U.S. INTEL. COMMUNITY: We're always at risk. And every system is at risk to some degree. 85 percent of the critical infrastructure in the United States is in private hands. And oftentimes, the business cases is made based on buying the least expensive, most available software.
PILGRIM: For its own defense, China has developed new operating software, disclosed during a recent hearing in congress. This software is being installed in China's government and military system to harden its key military servers against the attack. The Pentagon says China is making steady progress in efforts to hack information from U.S. government and industrial computer systems. China denies cyber spying, but Pentagon officials say they have millions of hacks a day, many suspected from China.
James Carafano of the conservative Heritage Foundation says the new Chinese defenses are to be expected and our government must get up to speed.
JAMES CARAFANO, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Everybody's doing this to everybody, and everybody knows everybody is doing this to everybody, so governments are out there not only looking at how to protect their own systems, but they are looking at how to exploit information from other governments.
PILGRIM: The Pentagon is requesting a budget for increasing the staff from 80 cyber experts to 250 by 2011.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, the Obama administration has just completed a 60- day review of cyber security and many security experts want the Obama administration to harden up the U.S. defense system. An announcement on cyber defense is expected early next week. Lou.
DOBBS: What kind of idiots must we have in Washington who have to be told to "harden up cyber defenses." I think that's amazing.
PILGRIM: Yeah, they are pretty uncoordinated at this point at this point and they are trying to get it under one agency.
DOBBS: Did I hear you correctly, 250 cyber experts? That's all we've got?
PILGRIM: The numbers are not -- there really has to be a lot more cyber security.
DOBBS: It's as if we're going to float in paper boats toward communist China. We look absurd. .
PILGRIM: When you start to push on this, it's very disturbing we're not more up to speed on this.
DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much. Kitty Pilgrim.
Coming up on the top of the hour, "NO BIAS, NO BULL." Roland Martin in for Campbell Brown.
Roland, tell us all about it.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey Lou. Tonight, new details about the U.S. soldier accused in the murders of five fellow troops at a stress center in Iraq. His father and his son are speaking out. You will hear what they have to say.
And the final moments inside the cockpit in the commuter plane that crashed in Buffalo in February. The transcript of those moments raises disturbing questions about safety and pilot training.
Plus, bullying is on the rise, not just in schools, Lou, but in the workplace and it seems a lot of the bullies are women picking on other women. We'll get into that.
The top of the hour and folks already commenting on Facebook and Twitter. Hot conversation.
DOBBS: Already on Facebook and Twitter both?
MARTIN: I can't wait to get the Lou Dobbs updates on Twitter.
DOBBS: You know what? We're going to do that. I'm going to start tweeting in the next day or so just to teach you a lesson.
MARTIN: I'm ready. I have two blackberries, I'm ready.
DOBBS: You'll only need one, partner. Roland, thanks a lot.
MARTIN: Thanks Lou.
DOBBS: Wanda Sykes hears presidential laughs by wishing Rush Limbaugh's kidneys to fail. Donald Trump says to Miss California you're not fired. All of that with our panel of the country's leading radio talk show hosts.
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DOBBS: Joining me now, three of the best radio talk show hosts in the country. In Los Angeles, KABC's Doug McIntyre, Doug, good to see you, in Cincinnati from WBBZ Lincoln Ware, Lincoln good to see you, and here in New York, WOR's John Gambling. Good to see you.
Let's go out to California. Doug, straighten us out on this thing. Donald Trump making a highly unexpected decision, and that is to preserve the career of a woman who's giving him more publicity for his beauty pageant business than any 20 others. What do you think?
DOUG MCINTYRE, KABC IN LOS ANGELES: Well, I'd tell you, I've got to tell you, that Donald Trump, he has a heart of gold, how he manages to find a soft shoulder for 22-year-old babes to cry on year after year, I don't know how he finds the Christian compassion in his soul to do so, Lou, to find this forgiveness. Look, we all --
DOBBS: You've overcome your surprise?
MCINTYRE: He puts Perez Hilton on the panel to create controversy, he got controversy, and now he two weeks of extra publicity. That's the plot, the narrative of the Miss USA pageant since Donald Trump bought the show.
JOHN GAMBLING, WOR IN NEW YORK: I couldn't agree more. This whole thing, I believe, was, to use a bad pun, was trumped up.
DOBBS: You couldn't resist, could you?
GAMBLING: No. Right from the very beginning, the pageant knew what Carrie's position was, they got Hilton to ask the question and hoped for some smoke and fire and they got it.
LINCOLN WARE, WBBZ IN CINCINNATI: America has an obsession with boobs, anyway.
DOBBS: Who has?
WARE: America.
DOBBS: Are you an American?
WARE: Of course I am.
DOBBS: Got the connection.
WARE: Once you get that intrigue into the mix. I mean, Donald Trump played it perfectly. What she said at the pageant, I mean, no big deal. So he played it, the media bit. He threw it out there, reeled it in, and look where he stands today.
DOBBS: Since you've got that American obsession with boobs, here's what I couldn't figure out. All those people so upset about her having posed in very nice ways, revealing ways, but the pageant paid for her boob job. What's going on here?
WARE: There's that obsession again.
DOBBS: You're on that obsession, aren't you? Let's turn to --
MCINTYRE: I think we can look at it this way, Lou. If we just look at it a stimulus package as opposed to a boob job.
WARE: Vanessa Williams, I'm still upset about Vanessa Williams. Where was Donald Trump when she was in trouble?
DOBBS: It worked out pretty well for her, didn't it? I have a feeling we may be seeing a replay of the same thing.
Let's turn to the liberal media world. The Washington media establishment, conjoining with power, political elites in Washington at the white house correspondents' dinner Saturday. Wanda Sykes creating a firestorm of controversy.
GAMBLING: Well, Lou, come on. The outrage that you are expressing here with your expressions and your words and your tone, I'm a little surprised at. These guys in the tank for this group down in Washington, so they would think anything that rips up the conservatives is absolutely perfect.
WARE: To have a black lesbian slap Rush Limbaugh around like she did, it's perfect! I mean, she has talked about people his entire radio career. He used to be a shock jock. He called the Clinton the Clintonistas for eight year straight. I say hats off to her.
DOBBS: Before we start talking about how to cock that hat, let's go to Doug McIntyre and see what you think.
MCINTYRE: I'm not offended by what comics say. I understand that joke construction, Rush Limbaugh said, I hope Obama fails meaning the socialism, so she said, I hope his kidney fails. You may like or dislike the joke. I'm much more offended than what politicians do by law or bureaucracy than by what comics say. I'm past the point of being offended by comics. We have too many people who have actual power over our lives that I find offensive more than anything else Wanda or anyone else says.
WARE: They're just jokes.
GAMBLING: I think New Yorkers are slightly more to the 9/11, being the 20th hijacker, but again, it's only a joke.
MCINTYRE: I would agree with you on that. But it's still a joke.
DOBBS: There's too much agreement here. We'll be right back with our panel.
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DOBBS: We're back with our panel. Folks, President Obama blasting, as you recall, business leaders, bank executives for going to Vegas. Mayor Oscar Goodman blasting back, saying, you know, what's the deal? Come to Vegas, we've got a business to run here. Guess who's going to show up on May 26th? President Obama, Senator Harry Reid.
GAMBLING: And he's flying there on his private jet.
DOBBS: And it's a big private jet. What do you make of it?
GAMBLING: I think it's just another example of you kind of roll your eyes and says, this guy does one thing over here and does another over here. I think it's going to start to add up, I think. The strikes against him and the contradictions that the president throws out on --
MCINTYRE: I've lost audio.
DOBBS: Lincoln, what are your thoughts?
I think Doug's lost audio.
WARE: I don't think the strikes are going to add up. He's the president. He has to go to all these different places and Vegas just happens to be one of the stops.
DOBBS: Oh, man, come on, Lincoln.
WARE: There's a lot of cranes going up in Vegas.
DOBBS: You've got to be kidding me!
WARE: He's got to travel.
DOBBS: Go ahead, Doug.
MCINTYRE: What he can do is, maybe he can fly Air Force One really low over the strip and they can get a great picture of it.
GAMBLING: In front of the Bellagio. Perfect, I love that idea.
DOBBS: Here's a radical thought. Maybe it's time for everybody to understand. Let's do business here. Let's let companies go entertain their clients, try to drive some business, get this country moving. Enough with the politically correct nonsense emanating from, you know, the hypocrisy established now on the part of the white house. Now let's get it positive on another direction of this economy and business. What do you think?
WARE: I don't agree -- if you're getting money from the government, I don't think you should go party and have a great time.
DOBBS: Why not?
GAMBLING: I think he's flying down to put those stickers, those stimulus stickers he says he was going to put on everything.
DOBBS: Lincoln, thank you very much. Doug McIntyre, thank you. John Gambling, turn it off.
WARE: I'll see you in New York, Lou.
DOBBS: You've got it. We'll see you. You've got a deal.
Tonight's poll results, 88 percent of you say there would be more concern in Washington for the millions of Americans who lost their jobs if those were public jobs lost, not jobs in the private sector.
And a reminder for join me on the radio Mondays through Fridays for the Lou Dobbs show. That's 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on WOR 710 in New York City.
GAMBLING: Got that one right.
DOBBS: And what time does the gambling show start?
GAMBLING: 5:30 to 9:00 and you're on at 7:30.
DOBBS: Go to loudobbsradio.com to get the local listings.
"NO BIAS, NO BULL" starts right now. In for Campbell Brown, Roland Martin.
