American Morning
Spitzer: Administration 'wrong' on bailouts, bonuses
With elections less than two weeks away, President Obama is busy helping raise millions of dollars for Democrats. He was in New York last night headlining a $30,000 a couple fundraiser and is scheduled to attend four more next week.
With a lot of Wall Street executives in the audience last night, the president made a pitch for regulating financial firms, saying “If there are members of the financial industry in the audience today, I would ask that you join us in passing what are necessary reforms. Don't fight them. Join us on it. This is important for our country.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/21/spitzer.eliot.art.jpg caption="Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer says Tim Geihtner has not negotiated effectively with the financial industry on behalf of taxpayers."]
Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, once known as the sheriff of Wall Street, has strong views on the Obama administration's financial reforms. He says the administration has “not gone anywhere close to far enough to reform the banking sector.”
Spitzer joined Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday. Below is an edited transcript of that interview.
Kiran Chetry: It seems a little bit strange that at the same time you're commanding $15,000 a plate from people who can afford it – a lot of big business – you're asking them to reign themselves in. So is there a contradiction there?
Eliot Spitzer: There is, but it's worse than that because the moment to impose the reform was when we gave the industry trillions of dollars. Trillions with a “T.” We gave them all the money and yet have not imposed upon the industry anything close to the necessary reforms that were appropriate. Paul Volcker, you can read it in today's papers, is saying this administration is not going anywhere far enough.
I've been saying – many others, even Alan Greenspan – that we have to restructure banking because they're making millions and millions of dollars, billions of dollars, using our tax dollars to play with it in the marketplace and then taking those profits out in bonuses instead of lending it to the businesses that need the cash and capital to expand. The industry is opposing the fundamental reforms that are necessary. Tim Geithner had all the negotiating power in the world. He didn't use it. Tim Geithner continues to be the voice of Wall Street, not Main Street. This administration has not gone anywhere close to far enough to reform the banking sector.
CBO finds Dem bill with public option reduces deficit
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office projects that the House Democrats' health care plan that includes a public option would cost $871 billion over 10 years, according to two Democratic sources.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/10/21/health.care.cbo/art.pelosi.afp.gi.jpg.jpg caption="Nancy Pelosi, right, here with Harry Reid, proposes a "more robust" public option. The CBO analyzed the plan."]
CBO also found that the Democrats' bill reduces the deficit in the first 10 years.
This new CBO estimate, which aides caution is not final, is significantly less than the $1.1 trillion price tag of the original House bill that passed out of three committees this summer. More importantly, it comes under the $900 billion cap set by President Obama in his joint address to Congress last month.
CBO analyzed what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls a "more robust" public option - one that ties reimbursement rates for doctors to current Medicare rates, plus a 5 percent increase.
At a meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday night, Pelosi did not release CBO's preliminary numbers, but told members that CBO told leaders the House bill would cost well below $900 billion. Aides say final CBO numbers could be released on Wednesday.
Insurer under fire for cutting coverage
Ian Pearl suffers from muscular dystrophy. He uses a wheelchair and a ventilator, and in less than a month and a half he’s scheduled to lose his health insurance.
His insurance company, Guardian, decided to cancel a series of old policies in three states, leaving Ian without coverage. His family sued, and their lawyers discovered an internal company e-mail that referred to high cost policies like Ian’s as “dogs.”
The company has apologized, but for now, they’re going forward with their policy cancellations. The Pearl family is appealing to the Obama administration for help – adding their voices to calls for health care reform.
Ian has a new battle cry: "I am not a dog."
Health care reform talks too secret?
This week, Senate Democratic leaders are expected to be back behind closed doors, putting together a compromise bill on health care reform.
That process has raised a key question: Why is the debate over the public option not open to the public?
Talk Radio: Who is listening?
A few days ago, we stopped by Graber Supplies on Highway 41 in south central Pennsylvania. Inside we found Ira Wagler, a general manager at the building, listening to the "Rush Limbaugh Show" as he worked.
Wagler is a huge fan of conservative talk radio. Five days a week he heads to work in his blue truck with the dial set to WHP 580 in Harrisburg. During the 30-minute drive he listens to local conservative talker RJ Harris. At work Glen Beck takes him to the noon hour, followed by the king of conservative radio, Rush Limbaugh.
Then it's back in the truck on the way home with another local talker, Bob Durgan. Wagler ends the day at home with the San Francisco-based conservative Michael Savage.
Talkers Magazine says that Ira is not unusual. More than 15 million people listen to Rush Limbaugh every week, and all but one of the top ten most listened to talk radio hosts are conservative.
We wanted to know why conservative talk radio is so popular.
"I started listening to Rush in '92," says Wagler, a self-described Libertarian who voted for Ron Paul for president. "I just really connected with his philosophy, his thinking, and quite a bit with his humor."
He also told Carol Costello that he listens to Limbaugh "for the serious things. He just cuts through the crap. He tells it. This is what's going on, and 90% of the time that is what's going on. He's not always right. Usually he is."
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