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CNN Saturday Morning News

Payroll Tax Vote Today; Storm Kills at Least 180 in Philippines; Sigma Phi Epsilon Chapter at University of Vermont Closed; GOP Contenders Playing Up the Marriage Angle

Aired December 17, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We are just crossing the top of the hour, 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia.

And coming up, at least 180 are dead in the Philippines after a tropical storm slammed that country and a desperate rescue effort is under way right now.

Also, Congress reaching a deal to stop the government from taking more out of your paycheck. However, this is only a temporary fix. We are headed live to D.C.

Also, a showdown this morning between two of our CNN contributors. We asked them what people should and shouldn't buy. Would you believe their lists are the same? So, they are going to justify here what you should buy this holiday season. And the other one is going to tell you why you should not buy those same items.

Yes, the confusion. Let it start here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

We're just, again, past the top of the hour.

We start with Saturday session for the Senate. They got a vote on a couple of big bills today. First off, the payroll tax holiday extension, that's one of them. This one could mean, well, if they don't pass it, that you would see a roughly $1,000 increase on your paycheck starting at the beginning of the year.

But it appears a compromise deal has been put in place, but it's only going to keep things going for two months. That means we'll have to do all this again two months down the road. But still, temporarily, this could be a fix.

The other one big they're going to be voting on today, that big spending bill. This one funds the government through September. The government was supposed to run out of money at midnight last night but they passed a one-day extension so they could vote today.

Athena Jones in Washington for us at the White House trying to make sense of it all.

OK. Which one do you want to start with?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just talk briefly about this omnibus spending bill that is expected to be passed today. Of course, the White House is pleased that this is not something that they are going to have to return to every few months over the course of next year. You know that last year, there were all these continuing resolutions, just funding the government for a few more months, a few more weeks. So, at least this one bill if it passes today as it's expected to do, will fund the government all the way through next year. So, that's one thing we can set aside.

Then, you have, of course, the payroll tax cut issue, which we know is only being extended for two months, for 60 days this vote. There's been a lot of discussion over this bill, mainly over how to pay for it. That's generally the thing that both of the parties argue about when it comes to bills like this.

You have Republicans arguing for a long time, some of them that these kinds of tax cuts putting another $1,000 in the average family's pocket doesn't do that much to stimulate the economy. But you have economists who say, no, no, that's wrong. This is a largely consumer- driven U.S. economy here. And so, giving people that extra money does give them a chance to boost that consumer spending and help the economy overall.

The White House now says -- they issued a statement last night indicating that the bill that's being voted on today means a test. We have a little bit of it from White House communication director Dan Pfeiffer.

He said, "The president said that congress cannot go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million hardworking families and the deal announced tonight meets that test. This is an important step towards enacting a key provision of the president's American Jobs Act and a significant victory for the American people and the economy." So, that's just part of what was said.

Now, at issue here, T.J., was this whole idea that the Keystone pipeline. It's a pipeline that's going to run from Canada all the way down to Texas. And you have a lot of Republicans who support this, who say that it's going to create thousands upon thousands of jobs. There's a lot of debate over how many jobs exactly it will create.

But the Obama administration wanted to delay a final decision on that until after 2013, after the election this. This bill, the one being voted on today has a provision in it that requires them to act within 60 days. And so, ultimately, the decision will still come down to the president. In the end, the State Department has to decide whether to issue, the president can say it goes forward or doesn't go forward.

But this is the decision that Democrats have been hoping to avoid. So, you're going to see both sides trying to say that they have a victory here -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Always somebody wants to declare a victory.

Athena Jones, we'll see you again here shortly.

You heard she just talked about that pipeline provision. It's drawing protesters to the House speaker's front door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Stop your dirty pipeline bill! Speaker Boehner --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You heard some of the protesters there chanting, "Stop your dirty pipeline bill." They showed up outside House Speaker John Boehner's Cincinnati office. We pointed out legislation was added to the bill extending Social Security payroll tax cut. The protesters opposed allowing that Keystone oil pipeline built through sensitive environmental areas.

Initially, the pipeline we have skirted those areas. Supporters say the pipeline will create thousands of jobs.

Turn back to a big weather story going on right now. This is happening in the Philippines. And as we speak, there's a desperate search and rescue effort going on. The country was slammed by a major tropical storm.

The estimates now are confirmed we're getting from the government there at least 200 or nearly 200 people dead. You've got another 400 still missing. Twenty thousand soldiers being mobilized to help in the search and rescue efforts.

It's nighttime there right now. It's going to make things a little more difficult. I talked to a journalist who was covering this, Maria Ressa, just a short time ago, talking about the challenge right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA RESSA, JOURNALIST IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES (via telephone): The storm is supposed to exit this evening. But it's no longer really the storm itself but it's aftermath. We're turning to aid and rescue workers looking for the hundreds missing. They are trying to supply drinking water. They are asking for volunteers to try to get food and clothes. Friday night, the flood waters rose alarmingly fast, reaching roof level while residents were sleeping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: As I bring in Reynolds Wolf now.

Reynolds, we see this time and time again. We always talk about winds and hurricanes and whatnot, but you got to watch that rain, 10 hours, they say it drops rain on.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Well, you know, when it comes to tropical systems, that's the number one killer. It's always flooding. Flooding in terms of the heavy rainfall, flooding in terms of storm surge.

When you have a tropical system, that is the biggest danger. And certainly, there's a danger in the Philippines. Come on over and let me show you what we have here. What's interesting about this particular scenario, is that the center of the storm is really not close to Manila. In fact, the center of the storm is right about here. You see some deep convection well to the south of Manila.

But something else is interesting is that you've got some of the outer bands that are moving right through that region. And when it interacts with the higher elevation you have near Manila, we have a process that we refer to as orographic lift that causes that moisture to go into higher elevation. And when it does so, it causes that moisture to really -- to be enhanced so to speak. So, some place could have a foot of rainfall.

I don't care where you happen to live, if you have that kind of rainfall, you're going to have some flooding. When you have really deep hillsides and you have soil absorbs some of it. Eventually, the soil becomes, well, saturated and then gravity takes its toll. You have the mudslides and of course, you get the widespread damage and fatalities.

So, a nightmare scenario in parts of the Philippines.

You know, with these tropical storms, one thing you also have is a lot of wind. In southern California, we've got wind of an entirely different variety. Not a flooding situation, no. But we've got the Santa Ana winds that are going to be back up today, some gusts approaching 45 to 60 miles per hour, could see some downed trees, some power line issues, and also some delays expected there.

And speaking of delays, look for flight delays in spots like Chicago. Where you have snow, as we wrap things up, parts of central and southern Florida, you're going to see some rain there. Much the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the central plains, it's going to be pure bliss today in terms of conditions just beautiful. Forty-nine degrees in Kansas City, 58 in Dallas, 52 in Memphis, 49 degrees in Billings, Denver 44 degrees.

And speaking of Denver, is tomorrow night Denver and the Patriots?

HOLMES: Yes.

WOLF: Wow. Tebow --

HOLMES: Tebow versus Brady.

WOLF: Wow, clash of the titans.

HOLMES: I'm going to tell you right now, Tebow is going to win that game.

WOLF: You really think so?

HOLMES: I'm not betting against him ever, in anything.

WOLF: I don't think he's betting against him ever. HOLMES: Ever. OK?

WOLF: OK.

HOLMES: Ever.

I believe in Tebow. All right. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid right here, right now.

WOLF: It should be fun to watch.

HOLMES: It will be.

All right. Reynolds, thank you, buddy.

We'll see him plenty throughout the morning.

First, it was Mila Kunis, and Justin Timberlake. And now, first lady Michelle Obama being asked out by a U.S. service member.

We'll explain ahead on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour now on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Give you a look at some of the stories making news cross country.

We start with a college fraternity that's in some pretty big trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): The national Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity has decided that someone at its University of Vermont chapter went too far and it's ordering the chapter closed. The fraternity in Burlington is being investigated after a survey showed up online asking frat brothers who they would rape if they could.

ANNIE STEVENS, ASSOC. V.P., STUDENT & CAMPUS LIFE: It is technically free speech. And yet, it is deplorable and absolutely inappropriate and offensive.

TYLER BOGGESS, SIGMA PHIL EPSILON: It is not something that we stand for in terms of the values that our members pledge ourselves to, that our organization pledges itself to.

HOLMES: In Orangeville, California, lining up for a little buzz -- free marijuana. More than 100 people, all with medical marijuana cards, got in line for about $10 bucks worth of pot. The center is among several such dispensaries closing after California crack down on growing and selling medical marijuana. The dispensary also held a toy drive in its last day of operation.

CODY JACKSON: Thank you for protecting us.

U.S. SOLDIER: Oh, you're very welcome. HOLMES: That young man is Cody Jackson, the one-boy USO. Two to three times a month, he's at the Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta to thank returning service members.

CP. CURT TEMPLETON, U.S. ARMY: To see a little kid like this to come in here and do what he's doing, thanking us, you see a lot of people that don't. Somebody that small, they really tug at your heart a whole lot. It makes everything we're doing worth it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We're about 12 minutes past the hour.

This next story I need your help on because I clearly need perspective, because my team is telling me I'm not thinking about this story the right way. And the story is, would you ask your boss's wife out on a date, OK? But does it matter if your husband is the president of the United States?

See where I'm going? That's exactly what happened yesterday. It's a Toys for Tots event in Washington. Now, 20-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Aaron Leeks, brave man, he asked first lady Michelle Obama to accompany him to the Marine Corps Ball next November. Now, the first lady said she'd love to.

We'll see what happens here. He's actually scheduled to take a tour. He's going out to Afghanistan next month.

But some people just have a different perspective. I've been hearing from some of you on this. Is this OK, just kind of a cute gesture, to have the first lady accompany him? Should you be asking your boss, who's the president, should you be asking his wife out to a ball? Am I looking at that the wrong way? Y'all, send me some responses to this story.

Brave man, though.

Again, we're 13 minutes past the hour.

They play a huge part in any candidate's campaign, the spouse. Wives can do a lot to sell their husbands in a campaign. But sometimes it's a tougher sell. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seems like you have a --

NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How would you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheating on your wife.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: -- other than personal hostility?

END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Not exactly the marriage card Newt Gingrich has in his back pocket. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. We're about 15 minutes past the hour on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

And Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, they're battling it out for the GOP presidential nomination. They're also introducing us to their better halves. But one candidate may have more success playing up that marriage angle.

Our Joe Johns explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What usually doesn't work very well in a presidential campaign is for some guy to interrupt an event and start shouting embarrassing questions about a candidate's personal life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seems like you have a --

GINGRICH: How would you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheating on your wife.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: -- other than personal hostility?

JOHNS: But as the velvet glove approach that's harder to deal with, for example, the wife of contender, Mitt Romney, in a living room in Iowa with a few dozen supporters.

ANN ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S WIFE: I look back and I think of how my husband has been, the kind of guy you can count on. And that's the personal side of him that people don't know about.

JOHNS: How long has Mitt Romney been married to the same woman? By the time this is over, you might eventually have it memorized.

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been married to the same woman for 25 -- excuse me, I'll get in trouble -- for 42 years.

JOHNS: Presidential candidates love to think of their spouses as secret weapons. Ann Romney is on the trail now to humanize her husband to try to make him seem more appealing. But her appearances are also a bid for values voters, women voters, and voters for whom trust is a big issue.

ANN ROMNEY: And that he has a strong -- strong family values and that's what matters to him and that's where his world is.

JOHNS: Contrasting Romney with Gingrich who's had a much more complicated personal life.

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: The Romney campaign is almost certainly putting Ann Romney out there to highlight the couple's 42- year marriage and her children and Romney is a family man as opposed to Newt Gingrich who is, right now, on his third marriage.

JOHNS: Not only married three times, but Gingrich has admitted adultery, asked God for forgiveness, and converted to Catholicism, which is the faith of his wife, Callista. She, too, has been seen on the campaign trail but not heard nearly as much.

CALLISTA GINGRICH, NEWT GINGRICH'S WIFE: Newt and I are determined to run a positive, issue-oriented, and solutions-based campaign.

JOHNS: Republican political veteran, Mary Matalin, says some values voters might want to know more about the Gingrich personal story. But for many, it's news that's a decade old.

MARY MATALIN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR & REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: People have discounted it. They already knew about Newt's marriage history, and they've -- they discarded that as a concern about him.

JOHNS (on-camera): For her part, Ann Romney says she's not trying to compare and contrast her husband's personal life with Newt Gingrich. But campaign insiders have said, they think the former speaker's past personal life is one of his liabilities.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Seventeen minutes past the hour.

You need to stick around after the break because two of our contributors are going to duke it out. You see, every week, we ask our financial analyst to say, hey, what do you want to talk about on this week on the show? And Clyde Anderson said, I'm going to tell you the things you do not need to buy for Christmas. Mario comes back and says, I'm going to tell you things you need to buy. And they are the same items.

We're going to try to work this out after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Twenty minutes past the hour now. You need to hear this next segment. A lot of people getting ready for the holidays.

Our financial analyst Clyde Anderson is here with me now. Got a list of items that may be on your wish list that he says you do not need to buy right now. Not before Christmas.

But hold on. Our tech guru you hear every Saturday as well, Mario Armstrong, he heard about this and said hold up, those same items he's telling you not to buy, you do need to buy them right now. So, Mario is joining us via satellite here.

So, let me start with you. Let's start with computers here, Mario. You're saying --

MARIO ARMSTRONG, TECH GURU: OK.

HOLMES: -- go ahead and buy it right now. Why?

ARMSTRONG: Yes, because these financial analysts have no idea what they are talking about in technology. That's like me trying to explain an annuity. It's not going to happen.

HOLMES: Good point.

ARMSTRONG: But no, computers right now are a good deal. Now, I will tell you that you'll start to see that the prices won't drop because we're about a week away from Christmas.

So Clive is right. I think he normally says, hey, we should wait a little while until maybe August for the school year. And that's a good point.

But if you see a good deal right now, you should pick it up. And if money is tight, buy refurbished.

HOLMES: OK. Wait a minute here. It sounds like you're already conceding on the first point. You're telling Clyde, he's right, Clyde?

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: I got him on the ropes.

HOLMES: You got him on the ropes.

ANDERSON: I got him on the ropes already.

The whole thing is, why rush it right now. If you're going to buy a computer, that's a big ticket item. You don't need to rush it and buy right before Christmas. You got a week before Christmas.

Of course, they are going to want to get rid of inventory right after the holiday. So, they got these things that they're going to go ahead to discount, really just taking off the markup anyway. So go ahead and wait, wait for the New Year sale. Wait for the first of the year. That's when they will be great.

HOLMES: Round one to Clyde Anderson.

All right. Let's move to television here. Again, everybody likes big items around holidays, the guys, wives buy big TVs.

You're saying wait, Clyde.

ANDERSON: Wait, there's no hurry. Again, you're playing the game. Consumers, you're playing, you're feeding into what these advertisers and these manufacturers want you to do. They are going to have these TVs that's going to like a deal. It's not a great deal. And TV is not going to change. They have to make room for the new inventory and the new models coming up at the beginning of the year.

ARMSTRONG: No. No. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

ANDERSON: Think about it -- the best time to buy a television is going to be right before the Super Bowl. That's when they sell the most. That's when they are going to have the biggest deals. The sales are going to be better than they have today.

HOLMES: Mario, he makes a good point.

ARMSTRONG: No, he stole my point. The deals are going to great right before the Super Bowl for large screen TVs.

HOLMES: Yes.

ARMSTRONG: However, right now plasma and LCD televisions for secondary bedrooms or non-main rooms are great deals right now.

He's talking about inventory. Are you kidding me? There's tons of inventory in these stores right now they need to get rid of.

ANDERSON: Exactly. And there's going to be much more inventory coming up. That's the thing. There's going to be much more inventory they got to get rid of. So, what do they do to get rid of it? They drop the prices.

ARMSTRONG: One thing I can't beat him on round two, don't buy these HDMI cables at the big box retailers. Clyde doesn't know this. You can get this 70 percent at Newegg.com and at places at --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: I was going to call that round a draw. But that's like a low blow. You're going to introduce stuff not even talking about.

Let's go to cameras now. A lot of people like to buy also on holidays.

Mario, I'm going to let you have this first on cameras. You say go ahead and buy them right now. Why?

ARMSTRONG: Absolutely, because the point and shoot camera are going -- all single purpose technology is going out the window. This the first time you're really seeing cameras so inexpensive. I'm not talking about digital SLRs. I'm talking about every day point and shoot cameras. Prices are ridiculously low right now. You can find a lot of great deals and it's really competitive.

I know people could use their smart phones. But a lot of people want to have that dedicated item.

HOLMES: Clyde, ridiculously low. Why not buy it now? ANDERSON: The whole thing is we're not talking about professional photographers. We're talking about people that are taking pictures of recitals and family and things like that. I don't want you to miss precious moments, but I'm saying, 30 percent deal you wait until after the holiday. Again, you don't need the latest and greatest all the time.

ARMSTRONG: So, you're going to wait for the holiday to be over.

ANDERSON: I'm going to --

ARMSTRONG: All the family moments.

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: If you don't have a camera right now and you need to capture the family moments, get the camera. But again, right now, in this economy, every dollar is crucial. So, if I have a camera that works, I'm not going to wait for the one with more pixels, digital zoom. I'm going to go ahead and get something, or I'm going to wait and save that 30 percent.

ARMSTRONG: But see, that's what I'm saying. These cameras can't grow anymore where they are. You have cameras right now that are shooting 14 mega pixels, and 12 mega pixels, there's nowhere else for them to go.

If you see one under 100 bucks, it's a good deal. It's OK with your pocket, buy it. Take a picture of Clyde.

ANDERSON: Well, I understand you're the tech guy. But I want to get you something for Christmas and it's this right here. I want to make sure --

HOLMES: Ooh.

ANDERSON: This is a calendar. I want you to use this.

HOLMES: Mario, we have to leave it there. Mario, Clyde, good stuff. Let the viewers decide.

Quick break on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING and we're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're close to the bottom of the hour now, give you a look at stories making headlines.

Some headlines out of Washington, D.C. Today, the U.S. Senate in session today considering a couple of important bills, going to be in session about an hour and a half from now. One of them spending bill to fund the government through September.

The other is that payroll tax holiday extension, that one could mean that you won't see $1,000 missing from your paycheck at the beginning of the year. The compromise deal keeps the tax extension in place for just two months, though.

Also about 100,000 people displaced right now after a tropical storm hit the Philippines. At least 180 people are dead. The death toll expected to go higher. The Philippines press secretary, rather, defense secretary, says an entire village may have been wiped out.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HOLMES: That is Etta James and that signature song "At Last." The news we're getting from her manager is that she is in the last stages of a terminal illness. She was diagnosed with leukemia more than a year ago. She is 73 years old.

Just love that song, love that voice.

Well, I'll be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news as we continue with CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

But, right now, time for the good doctor.