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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Urges Senate to Approve Hayden Nomination; McCain Gives Commencement Address at Falwell's Stomping Grounds

Aired May 13, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: And good morning, everyone. Now in the news, military might along the borders. President Bush reportedly is considering a plan to deploy thousands of National Guard troop to the U.S. border with Mexico. Mr. Bush could announce the plan in his address to the nation on immigration reform Monday night.
Our in-depth coverage of the president's speech gets started with a special edition of "The Situation Room" Monday night at 7:00 Eastern. After the speech, join us for a special "Lou Dobbs Tonight" followed by "Larry King Live" and a special edition of "Anderson Cooper 360", airs at 10:00 Eastern. It is all right here on CNN.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Massive floodgates designed to better protect New Orleans from storm surges may not be installed until July according to the Army Corps of Engineers. That is a month after hurricane season starts.

And in New Orleans, the first post-Katrina graduation is underway at Tulane University. Here is a live picture of it. The first President Bush and former President Clinton are commencement speakers. The Bush/Clinton Katrina fund has raised more than $100 million to help with the Gulf coast relief effort including damage to Tulane.

Well, President Bush is standing behind his choice for the CIA's top spot. General Michael Hayden has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill hoping to win support, but some senators say they've got questions about reports of a government database that includes the phone records of millions of Americans. CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano joins us with the latest on this. Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Betty. President Bush is urging the Senate to move quickly to confirm his nominee, Air Force General Michael Hayden to be the next director the Central Intelligence Agency. In his weekly radio address, President Bush called Hayden, quote, supremely qualified to lead the organization. Now General Hayden, of course, once headed the National Security Agency which began carrying out that warrantless wiretap program authorized by President Bush after 9/11. This week, a report in "USA Today" has sparked renewed questions about the NSA's activities. The report said that the Federal government is collecting the phone record of tens of millions of American citizens. Well, today President Bush tried to address that report while being careful not to confirm or deny details in it.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This week new claims have been made about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America. It is important for Americans to understand that our activities strictly target al Qaeda and its known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy and we want to know their plans.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

QUIJANO: The president says the U.S. intelligence activities are being carried out lawfully. He says the appropriate members of Congress have been briefed and that Americans' privacy rights are being respected. He also says that the government is not listening in on domestic phone calls without court approval. Nevertheless, critics of the program continue to question its legality. They say it will greatly complicate the confirmation process for General Hayden. They plan to pose some difficult questions to the Air Force general when his confirmation hearings get underway on Wednesday. Betty.

NGUYEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thank you, Elaine

And you'll want to stay tuned to CNN both day and night for the most reliable information about your safety and your security.

HARRIS: Well, the calendar may say 2006, but serious politicians are already looking to 2008. Inside the hour, Senator John McCain of Arizona gave a commencement address at Liberty University. As you know, Liberty is the home turf of the Reverend Jerry Falwell and McCain's appearance there could be politically significant. CNN's Kyung Lah is covering that story for us this morning. Kyung, it sounded like pretty standard fare commencement stuff. You're young, intelligent. Go forth and conquer. Was there any more to it than that?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh certainly much more to it than that because we're talking about politics. 2008, Senator McCain just finished his commencement speech, as you said, a standard commencement speech, but very political when you read between the lines. What you're looking at there is a remarkable picture. Falwell and Senator McCain standing side by side. You'll remember McCain of 2000, called Reverend Falwell the agent of intolerance and he's certainly singing a different tune now as he gave the commencement speech there at Liberty University at Lynchburg, Virginia. The university headed by Reverend Falwell.

The reverend said he extended an invitation to the Arizona senator because when they sat down, he says, that comment, the agent of intolerance comment it was as if they had never been said. Well, McCain of 2000 was poorly funded, a political outsider at the time. Now McCain of 2008 looking toward the White House is a political insider. He wants a conservative base. Here's a little about what happened at the commencement ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REV. JERRY FALWELL, CHANCELLOR, LIBERTY UNIV: The (INAUDIBLE) John McCain is very scarce, very small and so we today pay tribute to a great American, a man who young people, has made your great future in the 21st century a continuing reality. Welcome, commencement speaker for the class of 2006, Senator John McCain.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R) ARIZONA: I had opinions on everything and I was always right. I loved to argue and I could become, understandably, belligerent with people who lacked the grace and intelligence to agree with me. But my superior quality was so obvious it was an intolerable hardship to have to suffer fools gladly. So I rarely did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: You can hear some of the laughter in the background from the crowd there. Senator McCain said the McCain -- the younger McCain was rash, someone who lived a, quote perpetual spring time certainly making light of the bitterness of the past trying to mend fences and certainly hoping those mended fences will lead right to the White House, the conservative base will. Tony.

HARRIS: Kyung Lah for us. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you.

CNN is your campaign headquarters. Stay with us for the best political coverage on television.

NGUYEN: Well, it is a busy day online and on the phone for anyone seeking help with Medicare. Just two days left to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug program, still lots of confusion and lots of questions. The man in charge of Medicare and Medicaid is trying to ease some of those concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK McCLELLAN, MEDICARE ADMINISTRATOR: It's completely understandable that a lot of people will have a lot of questions. This is the most important new benefit in Medicare in 40 years, but there are three simple steps that can help people take advantage of the coverage. Number one, make a list of your drugs or put your pill bottles in front of you. Number two, have your Medicare card handy because it's got your Medicare number and we can use that to give you personalized help. And number three, call us at 1-800-Medicare and go to one of the more than a thousand events taking place all over the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And you can hear from Mark McClellan tonight on the 6:00 Eastern on "CNN Saturday." Stay tuned for that. But this morning, we have answers for you. We've been talking to pharmacist Jonathan Marquess, taking your e-mail questions and there have been a lot of them. And he's here because you've dealt one-on-one with people trying to sign up for this program. You know the questions. So maybe you can give us some answers, all right? Let's go.

Radell Walton (ph) says this program is one of the worst communicated programs we have ever seen. What will happen to those of us who have private coverage today that could be lost in the future if the company goes out of business? Will we have to pay the penalty for having to sign up later?

DR. JONATHAN MARQUESS, PHARMACIST: First, it is confusing, but I did tell Medicare I would support it because I do think it helps a lot of people. One, if their company goes out of business, no they won't have to pay the penalty. They will have two months to sign up for Medicare Part D. The critical piece today is they need to make sure they do have credible coverage and that company was required to send them that letter that says their coverage is equal to or better than Medicare.

NGUYEN: I got you. All right. Well, he has a follow up, saying what if we found out we picked the wrong program? Will we be able to switch? I, like many seniors, are afraid this program will turn out to like many programs which he is calling a disaster, but I guess the point here is if they pick a specific plan, can they switch it?

MARQUESS: Unfortunately, Betty, that is happening to people. That gets me back to I hope they will find a local pharmacist that they have a relationship that can help them with this. But let's say they sign up for a program today or last week. Unfortunately, they can't switch until the next November, when the next enrollment period is.

NGUYEN: So you're going to have to wait. You're going to be stuck with it for a little while, but you're not going to be penalized for switching or anything like that.

All right and then this person called Honey Pie has a question. This person says do disabled people under the age of 65 that receive Medicare need to sign up for Part D?

MARQUESS: Well, if they're disabled and have Medicare Part A or Part B, yes, they do. That's been a little confusing, but I tell patients if you have Medicare Part A or Part B, or if you're one of the disabled populations, you do need to sign or can sign up for Medicare Part D.

NGUYEN: These are some of the questions that our viewers have sent in. But you have spoken with many -- 50 percent of your clients or customers are on Medicare. So you know some of the main questions. What are they? What are some of the main problems people are facing?

MARQUESS: I think we've hit on the big ones this morning. I think as which plan should I sign up? Do my drugs that I take, are they on the formulary of the plan that I sign up for? That's been one of the biggest things.

NGUYEN: For the most part?

MARQUESS: Well, not necessarily. That's why, again, we sort of spend some time with them and sort of lay out all of the facts and try to get a plan that is fair to them that has some good co-pay prices, but also covers their drugs and allows them to go to their local community pharmacy.

NGUYEN: All right, so when a senior is trying to sign up today, what do they need to know before they sit down at their computer or pick up the phone?

MARQUESS: A couple of things. One, they need their Medicare card in front of them and a list of their medications. If they have that, any pharmacist could help them across the country. The websites can help them. The 1-800 numbers can help them.

NGUYEN: OK, but you need to sign up by Monday or you're going to get penalized and that's 1 percent per month which can be between $2 and $5.

MARQUESS: Yeah, depending on the plan and the monthly premium.

HARRIS: I have a question.

MARQUESS: Sure.

HARRIS: Something you just mentioned a moment ago. What if I sign up for a plan, say I get the standard plan and my health takes a turn. And I need another set of drugs. What are my options in terms -- am I stuck having to pay for those new medications because I can't change my plan to accommodate my new condition?

MARQUESS: Depending on the plan. Most plans will cover lots of medications. As a matter of fact, Medicare, one of the reasons I said I would support it is it has to cover at two drugs in every therapeutic area.

HARRIS: OK.

MARQUESS: So it might not cover the exact drug your doctor prescribes, but the pharmacist and doctor can work together to get you one.

NGUYEN: Good answers to some really tough questions and a lot of them coming in today from viewers.

HARRIS: (INAUDIBLE) for just a second because Jonathan, we need to hear this and I think you'll agree that this kind of represents a pretty good service. We've been running this experiment this hour, as you know. We called the Medicare 1-800 number, just to get a sense of how long it would take you, if you were trying to get this accomplished this weekend, to actually talk to someone, to go through all of the prompts and actually talk to someone. Now the first time we attempted this, our call was dropped after about five minutes. Is that right Betty?

NGUYEN: About five minutes.

HARRIS: About five and we learned that in a GAO report that was issued last week to Congress, a third of those calls are called. That's just happening. It's just what is happening right now as folks try to get in. NGUYEN: But we called back?

HARRIS: We called back and it took us how long was it?

NGUYEN: Six minutes.

HARRIS: Six minutes.

NGUYEN: To get to a person and that's key because a lot of times you want to speak with a person one-on-one. But let me ask you Doctor? Is that the case with many of the seniors that you've been speaking with? Has it only taken six to 11 minutes?

MARQUESS: No, that hasn't been the case and that's good to hear. I talked to one patient last week. They held for 45 minutes.

NGUYEN: Forty five and any answer at that point or was the call...

MARQUESS: No, at that point they didn't.

NGUYEN: Really?

HARRIS: So hopefully, what we're having is a situation where those phone banks are being manned by more people. Understanding that the deadline is here and perhaps that explains, we have to say that 11 minutes from start to finish with this kind of crunch? You would have to say that's pretty good, right?

NGUYEN: I would say so.

HARRIS: If (INAUDIBLE) we sort of take into account the fact that we have a lot of Hispanics in this country who are listening and they need help as well. So we want to show you an Hispanic website for Medicare and the number so that if you want your instructions and want to be prompted into the system in Spanish, here is the number. There is the website and you can go to that website and get the information you need if you are a Spanish speaker and want to access this system before the deadline on Monday.

Let's take a break and we'll come back with more of CNN SATURDAY MORNING right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Veronica de la Cruz at the .com desk. We continue now with our countdown of the most popular stories on cnn.com. We head to Asia for number six. The days of walking into any Japanese noodle shop and sitting down to eat with a pair of wooden chopsticks may be long gone. In a move that has cheered environmentalists, but worried restaurant owners, China has slapped a 5 percent tax on chopsticks over concerns of deforestation.

And number five now, there is fear of volcanic eruption that could happen any time in Indonesia. Authorities ordered thousands of people to evacuate the slopes of mount Merapi (ph). It rumbled into action weeks ago. Now red-hot lava is flowing from the crater. And number four, in a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of those polled say President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues.

And you can read the entire story online at cnn.com/most popular. We'll have the top three in the countdown when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. Here's a reality check. The added dollars you're spending for gas don't stop at the pump, oh no. We are paying more for transportation and just about everything that has to be shipped from one place to the other. But did you know, petroleum literally is part of almost everything we use? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: From home building to household product, petroleum is used to make many of the things we use in every day life. Think plastic and all of the ways we use it like PVC, those white plastic pipes used in plumbing and in ground sprinkler systems. The price has risen 35 percent in some areas in the past eight months. You're also paying more for plastic buckets and plastic drop cloths. Petroleum products are used in roofing tiles and take a trip down the grocery aisle. Plastic is in everything from milk containers, detergent bottles, disposable diaper liners, the bag your bread comes in. Polyester carpets are also petroleum-based and it's not just the gas that goes in your tank. Tires are made from petroleum, too. Bridgestone's tire prices, for instance, increase 5 percent May 1st, Goodyear hiked prices the first of April. In the past year, oil-based paints have gone up 10 to 15 percent. Petroleum is used to make Styrofoam cups and the people who ship their products to market are paying more for polystyrene foam. That's the plastic used in packaging.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: So can we live without things that are costing us more or cut back on things made from petroleum? There's really no simple answer. Leigh Gallagher is the senior editor of "Smart Money" magazine and joins us live from New York to help sort through all of this. Good morning to you.

LEIGH GALLAGER, "SMART MONEY" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

NGUYEN: All right. We know we're paying higher prices at the gas pump, but how does that translate into other things that we buy? Give us some examples of items that are going up in price.

GALLAGHER: Oil really seeps into our economy in ways that most people really don't think about and don't realize. You mentioned the price of petroleum. Petroleum is a refined oil product. So it's everything that as you said is made from plastic. It's also local services that you may not think about, everything from pizza delivery services to flower delivery services. Mother's Day's tomorrow and the flower delivery companies are charging $1 to $2 extra to sort of shoulder the cost of their higher gas prices and, of course airline tickets. It costs a lot to fuel a 747. A lot of airlines are charging anywhere from $20 to $87 on some international routes in a fuel surcharge.

NGUYEN: So these price hikes have already taken effect or should we see the bulk of it a little bit later down the road?

GALLAGHER: It's interesting. I mean companies really do everything they can to sort of shoulder the costs themselves because the last thing they want to do is risk alienating the consumer or turning off the consumer with higher prices. So they'll wait as long as possible, but we're really starting to see that start to happen just in the past few weeks and it's likely that we'll see it happen a little bit more.

NGUYEN: Is there any way really to offset the higher cost of these items whether it be the price of gas or flowers?

GALLAGHER: Well, there are things you can do. The best thing to do is sort of cut back in other places. If you have to send flowers, you really can't get around it, but you can maybe stop eating out less. You can sort of buy in bulk, frequent membership clubs like Costco, obviously, people are sort of curbing back their travel to deal with this. So you can sort of, you can pick and choose where you spend your money and you can kind of avoid --

NGUYEN: Basically, you got to penny pinch. There's no way around it. OK, speaking of driving, peak driving season. Kids are going to be out of school soon, summer vacation and what not. People are hitting the highways with the high price of gasoline, how high do you think it's going get, really?

GALLAGHER: Well, it's hard to tell. A lot of people think that we're going to go up to $4. Some people think it's going to go higher and the thing to remember here is that in countries outside the U.S. in Europe, gas 5, $6, $7 a gallon. It's a lot more. Obviously we're not used to these prices, but one thing that really caused gasoline to increase is an increase in demand and that's exactly what happens over the summer driving season. As much as we're worried about these gas prices, Americans are still buying and using SUVs. So demand has not really slowed down and it probably won't over the summer, so we'll probably see at least a 10 to 20 percent increase from here and maybe it will come back in the fall as it typically does.

NGUYEN: No one wants to pay more. There's a lot of belly aching going right now, but really, honestly, looking at it historically, it doesn't ever compare to the prices of the '07s, does it?

GALLAGHER: It doesn't, but we're getting kind of close to the point. So that was always our saving grace. It's still historically low, but we're coming up right against that benchmark and it doesn't look like -- I think that we're probably saying good bye to $1.50 a gallon gas.

NGUYEN: That was my next question. Are we ever going to see anything below $2 again?

GALLAGHER: Probably not. I mean demand from places like China and India is really only fueling global demand. Add to that that we're looking at a sort of shrunken refinery capacity because a lot of refineries got damaged from the hurricane season last year. So all of these factors are kind of combining to sort of make this sort of a sea change in gas price.

NGUYEN: All right, Leigh. Can you come back with some better news next time?

GALLAGHER: I wish I could.

NGUYEN: Leigh Gallagher, senior editor of "Smart Money" magazine. Thanks for your time today.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And coming up, high gas prices are putting the skids on so many guilty pleasures. We just talked about some of them, including this four-wheeled endangered species. The story in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DE LA CRUZ: Well, like we promised you. Our .com countdown continues with the top three stories at cnn.com. It is a bummer for Hummers, the number three. General Motors has announced that the 2006 model year will be the last for the Hummer H1. The hulking gas- guzzling vehicle gets, oh, about 10 miles to the gallon. Number, two the no-child left behind law, well it has fallen short. Not a single state will have a highly qualified teacher in every core class this school year which was promised by the president's education law. Nine states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico face tendencies.

And number one, drum roll please. On this Mother's Day, Sunday, what name did you give your baby? What would you guys guess? It's not Tony, Veronica or Betty. The most popular names for a girl, Emily and Jacob for a boy.

NGUYEN: I like those names.

DE LA CRUZ: Get this guys. Emily has topped that list for 10 years with Emma coming in second and for boys, the names on the list besides Jacob, Matthew, Michael and Joshua, so all biblical names. Of course, you can find all those stories online at cnn.com/mostpopular. There were never any Veronicas.

NGUYEN: There's always next year though.

HARRIS: It sets you apart and makes you unique.

DE LA CRUZ: Tonys, and Bettys. Did you guys encounter growing up?

NGUYEN: There are not many Bettys. I can tell you that right now. It's probable a good thing, though. All right, coming up in the next hour, the hot-button issue of the moment. We're talking of course, about immigration, Tony.

HARRIS: And what the president will have to stay about it on Monday. Americans looking for specifics may be disappointed. We will be back with an update of the day's top stories when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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