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Rick's List

President Obama's Plans for NASA; The Politics Behind the New Space Program; Florida Governor Vetoes Bill Linking Teacher Pay to Student Grades

Aired April 15, 2010 - 15:21   ET

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

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The president of the United States taking care of some unfinished business, some of it having to do with the politics of space exploration and some of it have to do with the economics of space exploration, and still some just space exploration itself.

There's several issues to this.

I want to bring in, first of all, our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Also, I'm going to be bringing in from the Kennedy Space Center and in Washington CNN's contributor David Brody.

Suzanne, I want to begin with you. How did this become such a political issue?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, all you have to do is take a look where we are, Rick, I mean, obviously, Florida an incredibly important state for President Obama. If he is seeking national aspirations for a second term, he is going to need the swing state of Florida, the I-4 Corridor, basically going through the state of Florida.

And I have to tell you, it is not popular here, where we are, at the Kennedy Space Center, or, for that matter, in the rest of the state. Democrats, Republicans, the congressional delegation uniformly oppose the president's new space program. They took a look at the number of jobs that they believe are going to be lost.

We know -- we heard the president talking about that he's going to be able to make up some of those losses through training programs, some $40 million for those affected by the loss of the Constellation program.

But a lot of folks here are not necessarily buying that, and they want some more proof from this president that things are going to turn around. They're not necessarily convinced that the training is going to bring the kinds of jobs they need to secure these families.

And I had a chance, Rick, to talk with the families here who work at NASA. And they're worried. You know, they have got high school kids. They have got elementary schoolchildren. They got folks who are going to off to college, and now they're having conversations with their families, with their kids about relocating. That's the kind of fear, the kind of confusion that people are feeling here, not only at Kennedy Space Center, but you take a look at Texas and Alabama, some other places, the potential for tens of thousands of jobs lost. And that's why you heard the president today

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MALVEAUX: -- very clearly trying to explain, look, it's not going to be as bad as you think.

But there's a lot of nervousness about what is going to be looking forward in the space program and how people are going to suffer.

SANCHEZ: Let me bring in our CNN contributor David Brody, if we could.

David, there's an argument to be made, obviously, whenever you look at any one sector, that people are going to be upset if jobs are being lost or jeopardized or even just threatened. But at the same time a lot of Americans would look at the space program and say, you know, given what's going on in the country right now, given the tough times that we have been undergoing -- I know "The Wall Street Journal" is saying we're starting to get out of the recession and we might even be in a recovery and there are some good things going on, as we look at the president there, but given everything else going on, why should we, why should we continue to fund this specific program, when everybody else is hurting?

DAVID BRODY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, sure, I mean, Rick, that's going to be obviously a big contention here.

But, look, the president is going to -- you can clearly see the parameters of where he's going with this. He's basically going to say, look, we have to do things differently and, in essence, we're going to go ahead and because we're doing these things differently, we're going to be able to take a program, this Constellation program that is not being well-managed, if you will, and say we're going to put a little pressure here to say, in essence, let's get rid of some of this pork that we see here.

That could work fiscally actually to his advantage, so there is another side to this equation, Rick.

SANCHEZ: I want to bring in John Zarrella now. He covers this for us. And he's standing by as well.

How much damage do you believe that would -- look, Neil Armstrong is from a historic standpoint a U.S. icon. I mean, this is the guy who first set foot on the moon, who made the famous declaration when he did so. When he came out and criticized the president, how big an impact was that because of who he is?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, you know, you not only had him. You had -- you had Jim Lovell, Apollo 13, and you had Gene Cernan, who was the last man on the moon, all signing on to that statement.

(CROSSTALK)

ZARRELLA: And, you know, quite frankly, as you said, they are icons. They -- the administration could not come back and say, look, we don't care what they said.

Well, what did the administration do? They brought Buzz Aldrin down with them --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

ZARRELLA: -- who is clearly in favor of the president's plan and who has been a supporter of the president's plan. But it did put the administration pretty much behind the eight ball as to, you know, any kind of criticism of those icons. They just could not do it.

And it certainly carried a lot of weight, and it certainly is resounding right now, because they were saying, look, commercial space is not mature enough yet to be handling and tackling this job of putting astronauts into low Earth orbit.

Now, the commercial space industry, Elon Musk of SpaceX, who was here in the crowd today, clearly think that they are. And in a statement that Elon Musk released, Rick, just a little while ago, he equated Obama's speech today to President Kennedy's speech at Rice University when he said we're going to the moon.

Now, I don't know that a lot of people are going to agree with Elon Musk on that. Only time will tell. But clearly commercial space is going -- if Obama's plan sticks -- is going to be the way of the future for low Earth orbit, clearly will be, no matter what those guys say, no matter what the former Apollo astronauts say.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: So, it's interesting, because I think what we're hearing the president say is, look, we're not maybe going to the moon, but that doesn't mean space exploration is off the table. In fact, we are going to be going to other parts of space.

I know it's a big -- it's a big nut to talk about just space in general.

So, let me just get a little bit more specific. Let me bring in someone who actually knows a lot about this, because this is their business.

NASA Goddard -- Goddard is one of the companies that often is involved with NASA industry. This is the flight center. It sends this question, and I will ask it to the group, but I guess I will start with you, John.

'Is it disturbing that there isn't an ISS rescue vehicle already?"

What's he getting at here? Can you explain this to us?

ZARRELLA: Well, you know, there really is. The Russians have -- provided the ISS with the rescue vehicle, and the president made it clear, look, we don't want to rely on other countries, that being Russia, as the rescue vehicle.

So, you take Orion, which was supposed to be the capsule that was going to carry astronauts to the moon and on to Mars.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

ZARRELLA: And you turn that into a scaled-down rescue vehicle.

Right now, the onus to get astronauts out of there is on the rescue vehicle provided by the Russians.

SANCHEZ: Well, David, then let me bring you back into this, because this really gets to the crux of the matter, really, and that's the argument that this president, this administration, may be taking a step back from ownership of space exploration and allowing the Chinese and the Indians and the Russians to do what we have always been heralded as number one at.

Is that part of the argument?

BRODY: Well, I think, actually, that could be part of the problem here, Rick, for the administration. I mean, they have to be very careful that indeed Russia and China will start to get all of these headlines as being the leaders now obviously in space exploration, and here's America taking a step backwards.

That's not the headline they want as this goes on.

SANCHEZ: Right.

BRODY: Now, here's the other part of this.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Is it true, though? Is that -- I mean, I will just stop you there. I'm hearing that a lot, and I think Americans have been reading that. Is it true that those countries have passed us or are about to pass us?

BRODY: Well, I think, Rick, you can -- there are going to be those that will make the argument. There's no doubt about it.

But I think the problem for this administration here is that look at health care. You have millions of folks that feel that this health care bill that's high health care, by the way, to NASA, that this health care bill --

SANCHEZ: Right.

BRODY: -- is bad for America. And now you have another theme here, you know, is what the president doing here bad for America in terms of space exploration? And you're going to weave these two things in there, or at least his opponents are going to weave these two things in here, and you start to have a theme here, and that could be problematic for this administration.

SANCHEZ: Well, my thanks to both of you for this discussion.

And I guess one final question for you, since you were there, following this for us, John. When Buzz Aldrin showed up on behalf of the president, was he wearing his dancing shoes?

(LAUGHTER)

ZARRELLA: You know, he may have -- he may have to do a lot of dancing yet on this issue, Rick. I'll tell you that. More than he did on "Dancing with the Stars."

SANCHEZ: I'm glad you watch those shows, John, I figured you did. I appreciate it, David, John, my best to both of you.

All right, I want to show you something. This volcano is stopping air traffic across the world. Where is this thing? Where is it? Including some here in the U.S., by the way. We're going to tell you what's going on and where that is.

Also, it is tax-filing deadline day, and tea parties all across America are having hundreds of rallies, one of the biggest in Washington, D.C. And guess who is there? Guess who's paying them a visit?

By golly, it's Jessica Yellin. She's going to be joining us in just a little bit as well.

Stay there. This is your list, RICK'S LIST.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is RICK'S LIST.

Let me give you some facts about your income taxes. For 2010, this year, the federal government has cut taxes on individual payers, cut individual taxes by $173 billion. Have you heard the president talking about making work pay? Well, that's the name of the federal tax credit. It's $400 per individual, $800 per couple. You'll get that back from the fed.

And you've also got credits for buying a new home, for making your current home energy efficient, for buying a new car, and for paying for college tuition. Total, again, $173 billion -- much of that coming from the stimulus package that caused such an uproar.

Speaking of uproars, time now for the "Yellin's List," with national political correspondent, Jessica Yellin.

Jessica, you're at the Tea Party in the nation capital, in the nation's capital, I should say. What's the -- what is the prevailing message from that particular event, as you've been hearing people? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is a big event, a rally, that ended just a few minutes ago, and I've been talking to people all morning, Rick, and what they say is that the rage that got them out here is over the spending -- the spending in the Obama administration. They're upset about taxes. They're upset about the size of government, but it's the spending that makes them most outraged.

And I asked, why is it now? Were you enraged when President Bush started the spending? And a lot of them said they weren't aware of it until President Obama took office.

The other big message, Rick, is they think they're not being heard. They insist they're just not being heard.

SANCHEZ: But, that seems to beg the question somewhat. I mean, how can you say you're not being heard? They're probably the most talked-about organization in the country. They're covered by all of the media, left, right, the middle, in between, everything.

YELLIN: Right.

SANCHEZ: They -- it would seem to the average observer that they are being heard. Aren't they? Well, how can they say that?

YELLIN: I know. I wish -- I wish I could show you all the media that's gathered here. They do attract a lot of attention. The sense that I get from folks is that they think that the members of Congress are simply not reflecting their will.

So, it's not that the media isn't paying attention to their message. It's that as one person said, "Everyone I talk to at my organizations' meetings says they didn't want the health care bill, but still, Congress passed health care." "Therefore, Congress is acting like a dictator and Congress is acting like divine royalty," one person said, "and they're not listening to the people." And they're here to raise their voices and get Congress to listen to them.

You know, the big question is: is it going to pan out in November? Will they make a difference in the ballot box?

SANCHEZ: Well, yes, that is an interesting question. But we're looking at polls that show -- and you know this, correct me if I'm wrong.

YELLIN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Most of these folks are over 50 years old. They're 80 percent Republican. And you don't even need a poll to notice that for the most part, they only fit into one demographic group or predominantly one demographic group, because you don't see a lot of diversity out there.

Is there -- and I'm just wondering now -- is there any indication that they're reaching beyond their limited demographic that you're seeing different kinds of people out there? YELLIN: Well, based on what I've seen today, the vast majority of people I have seen are, you know, over 50, white, men and women. There are individuals who are Latino or African-American. That's absolutely not the predominant presence here.

And they are, while I'll say almost everyone I talked to is either Republican or independent, many of them have been not engaged. They'll say I haven't voted for years, because they've been so distrustful of government, and they're only now reentering.

So, that's the one distinction that I'd make. While they identify more predominantly Republican, they're not necessarily passionate activists until now.

SANCHEZ: Good description.

YELLIN: And it's gotten them going.

SANCHEZ: That's good. And I'm glad you're there and I'm glad we had a chance to cover it.

Jessica, thanks so much for the report. Appreciate it. Always good to see you.

YELLIN: Good to see you.

SANCHEZ: Look at that. This is a huge fireball that you're going to be looking at right here, followed by a sonic boom. It really just freaked some people out from at least five different Midwest states last night. What is it? Well, the FAA got flooded with phone calls. And we're going to be letting you know in just a little bit.

Also, he says his father would have helped the man who flew his plane into the IRS building. There's an irony here, folks, into who is the most intriguing person in the news today. You're going to like this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. Time to check the list for the "Most Intriguing Person in the News" today.

(MUSIC)

SANCHEZ: Standing up for your dad -- you're damn right that's intriguing. This guy's speaking out on behalf of his father and addressing what people are saying about the man who killed him.

OK. Remember the Texas man, it happened during our show in many ways, and we covered it as it happened -- the man who crashed his small plane into the government building in Austin, Texas. All right, his suicide note said that he was tired and ticked off at the IRS.

Well, the only other person killed that day was Vernon Hunter, who worked for the IRS. Vernon Hunter's son can't believe that some people call that suicide pilot a patriot and a hero.

He says this, quote, "What's he a patriot for? He hasn't served the country. My dad did. Two tours in Vietnam, and this guy's going to be a patriot? And no one's going to say that about my dad?"

Let's see him, Rog.

That's Ken Hunter. He's the proud son of a combat veteran who died at work because of a suicidal man who had a beef with the government.

Ken Hunter says that dad's a hero, not the other guy -- and that, on this day, makes him one of the most intriguing people in the news.

(MUSIC)

SANCHEZ: Staying on the subject of for a minute.

CNN Special Investigations Unit did an amazing jock looking in to every part of that horrible day back in February when Ken Hunter's dad died inside the IRS building in Austin. They also looked closely at the guy who crashed the plane. What possibly made him tick and what possibly made him snap. They produced a one-hour special, and you're going to see it this weekend, right here on CNN.

Here's a preview --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): A clear morning. A rogue pilot. A building billowing smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the windows were blown. There's fire coming out.

BOUDREAU: And an angry manifesto left behind. Here, in Austin, Texas, 53-year-old Joe Stack made a missile of his small plane, slamming it into an IRS office -- a final expression of a simmering rage.

On the surface, Joe Stack seemed like a good guy, sound and perfectly sane. So, what led this regular Joe to become what some would call a domestic terrorist? What drove him to kill on February 18th?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The special is called "Death and Taxes." It's about anger and revenge and needless death. And who missed the signs? It's this coming Saturday and Sunday, both evenings, at 8:00 Eastern. It is a CNN special investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN COULTER, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: What mode of transportation? Take a camel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: She told that Muslim student to take a camel, as you just heard right there, instead of flying, on a plane. The comments caused a bit of a firestorm in Canada.

Ann Coulter contacted me and said that she was being, in many ways by that video right there, misrepresented. She wants to set the record straight. Well, I've invited her on, and she will be here to do just that -- Ann Coulter live.

Also, tax deadline day and tea parties. Some protesters are saying the party stands for "taxed enough already." People are busing in, car caravans are coming from all over the south of Georgia's capital, Atlanta, one of the biggest rallies in the state is -- in the United States, pardon me, is right here.

Brooke Baldwin is there. There she is, as a matter of fact. Ad we're going to be joining Brooke in just a little bit. She's left the set. She's in the field, folks, for this special report.

Stay with us. We're going to be right back.

Also, by the way, if you want to join us here on the set, as Brooke always does, all you got to do's call this number, 1-877-4CNN- TOUR. 1-877-4CNN-TOUR.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: You know how much fun we like -- we have saying. So, it's time for the "Brooke Block."

We've sent our Brooke Baldwin out today. She's out in the field, getting some good Georgia sun, as a matter of fact, because it's beautiful out there, as far as I've seen. In fact, we haven't had rain here in quite some time, in Georgia, or near Atlanta. She is just near the state capitol, the Golden Dome as we call it. No, not Notre Dame.

Why do we want to take there you? Well, let me show you something -- because tea partiers are gathering there right now. Tax deadline day. The end of the line for the three-week cross-country tour bus by the Tea Party Express, and there's Brooke.

And I see that you're touching your little IFB, which means you may not be hearing what I'm saying. So, here, you can hear this, take it away, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rick. Yes, it's a beautiful day here in Georgia. I'm just a couple of blocks from you here at CNN or from CNN Center, at the Georgia capitol. Forgive me, my IFB keeps coming in and out, and it's loud here, off and on. So, bear with me.

But you got it. We're here because the theme is pretty pervasive across the country as it is Tax Day and these Tea Party rallies are happening across the nation, including here at Georgia's capital, in Atlanta.

And, you know, I've talked to -- people are just beginning to trickle in here in Atlanta, I'd say, just a couple hundred people so far, but they're anticipating, I was talking to some of the organizers and some of the police officers, because you can imagine the police presence is huge. They are expecting some 15,000 to 20,000 Tea Party activists.

What's the message? Well, you heard it from Jessica Yellin. I'll just reiterate -- they are anti-big government, and they talk a lot about the intrusion of government currently, and they talk a lot about taxes, and they're sick of all this government spending.

And so, I really, Rick, wanted to drill down with some of these folks on what kind of solutions they offer. If you're going to cut something, what would you cut? Here is one woman's solution --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN FORRISTER, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST: I would start cutting some of the administrative salaries, meaning the senators and the congressmen and the president of the United States. Let's cut some moneys out of these salaries. Let's show the people that you're serious about this. That you want to cut this deficit in half, then you take a lower salary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, that was her suggestion. I have a couple other solutions I'll bring to you next hour. But, Rick, if I may, you know, CNN and the Opinion Research Poll put out a pretty interesting poll today talking specifically about taxes and how America feels when it comes to taxes, and I just want to run through some of these numbers for you.

OK, take a look with me. Forty percent of Americans polled, they say they are, quote-unquote, "angry" about the amount of federal income taxes they or their family paid last year. That is up from a poll about 20 years ago, that "The L.A. Times" did back in 1985.

Now, another number for you: 49 percent are going with fair, 50 percent unfair.

So, fairly split on this, regarding the opinion of the current U.S. tax system.

Next number for you -- here's the question we posed. How much of your taxes does the government waste? Look at this number. This is seven out of 10 Americans. This is 74 percent. They say, a lot.

Last number, 60 percent, six in 10 Americans say the tax cuts passed back in 2001, you know under President George W. Bush that, by the way, are set to expire next year, should be made permanent.

So, that's a look at some of the numbers.

Next hour, I have a pretty interesting breakdown about really who these people are. Who are these activists in terms of the demographics? Are they educated?

Are they black, white? Do they go to church? Do they align themselves more with the Republican, independent, Democrats?

And also, there's a word we keep hearing out here, and I don't know if you've heard this in our coverage, Rick, but this word is "infiltrator." I want to explain what that word means and what all these activists, how they are prepared for the infiltrators coming up at the top of the next hour.

Back in to you.

SANCHEZ: All right. I think I've got a pretty good sense of what you might be talking about with infiltrator, but I'm going to leave it alone and let you use that as a tease to that segment.

Brooke, thanks for hanging out there for us on this day, on a nice day, by the way. You draw a good straw on that one.

BALDWIN: Beautiful.

SANCHEZ: All right, thanks so much, Brooke Baldwin.

Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: All right. What is the future of NASA?

President Obama just announced his plan, and we're going to tell you what he said, after all the criticism that has been leveled his way. That's ahead.

Also, hundreds of teachers were on the sick list in Miami because of a bill linking teacher pay to students' test scores. Well, guess what? The governor has just decided to veto that bill. So, is the issue over? There's some politics involved in this as well. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

At the very top of our follow-up list is what's going on in Florida. Governor Crist has vetoed the controversial and unpopular bill, SB6, we had told you about. Let me take you back to the very beginning of this story though. Crist's term as governor ends in January and he is running for the U.S. Senate. On the Republican side, a poll shows Crist 23 points now behind his opponent Marco Rubio of Miami, who today won a rousing endorsement from the Tea Party. Into this mix, a bill titled SB6 landed on the governor's desk -- remember he's still governor -- linking teacher's pay to students' performance on tests.

This led many south Florida teachers to stage a sickout as way to show their displeasure on Monday. We learned here on RICK'S LIST, the teachers were joined by others, including, by the way, students.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOAH GRAY, FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: A lot of the young people that I've been speaking with really don't like this SB6 mainly because their teachers will get paid based on how they do on a test. And that's just one day. You know, they feel that that's just not right, that teachers shouldn't get paid like that. And that's what's really motivating all these young people to have these walkouts and sit-ins, and join their teachers here in protest against it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So, Rubio, the Tea Party and other conservatives have supported the bill. And many teachers, students, moderates and liberals basically were against it. And Governor Crist vetoed it.

Now there's renewed speculation Crist may drop out of the GOP primary and run as an independent. But a poll shows that Crist narrowly would win in a three-way race as an independent. Now, we've seen this work for Joe Lieberman. Could it work for Charlie Crist? We're going to stay all over this story for you right here on RICK'S LIST.

Another big hit for Toyota. Screech! It has suspended sales of a Lexus SUV because of a possible rollover risk. That story is coming up.

A suspension of another type. Many flights around the world are canceled because of this Iceland volcano. How bad is this thing? We're going to tell you. No, we're going to show you. It's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

On the growing list of Toyota's troubles, the car company says it's going to test all Toyota and Lexus SUVs because of that screech that you hear right there -- the rollover warning from "Consumer Reports." It's also stopped selling the 2010 Lexus GX 460 worldwide. That's right. "Consumer Reports" made the GX's rear end slide after a fast turn. And it says that the electronic stability control took too long to correct the situation which would cause the SUV to tip over.

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars all over the world since October for a variety of issues, as you know, including gas pedals that stick.

If your house was shaking and you heard a sonic boom last night, maybe it was because of this. This, my friends, is a fire ball. A fire ball is the brightest meteor that you can see. And if you were in certain parts of the Midwest last night, this fire ball was visible for 15 minutes streaking across the sky. It is still unknown if any of this fire ball actually managed to hit the ground.

And in Iceland, a volcano is still pouring out massive amounts of ash. The ash is sweeping toward mainland Europe where it's causing major problems. This ash has glasslike particles inside.

See right there in those pictures? It can actually get sucked into airplane engines. And when that happens, it could cause engine failure.

These are amazing photos, aren't they?

That's why a lot of countries have now had to close their airports around the world. And it's also impacting flights here in the United States.

Chad Myers is going to join me in the next hour, and he's going to break this down. He's going to talk about what this ash is, what the likelihood of this has affecting air travel, and he's going to take us through the story. And we'll hear more about fire balls.