American Morning
First lady's ancestry traced back to slave girl
A new investigation by the New York Times has traced First Lady Michelle Obama's family roots, uncovering a direct link from America's ugly legacy of slavery all the way to the White House.
Rachel Swarns is one of the Times reporters who co-wrote the story. She spoke to John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Thursday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
John Roberts: You worked together with a genealogist to uncover Michelle Obama's roots. You traced them back to the 1840s. A young woman in South Carolina named Melvinia Shields. Tell us a little bit of the story. Who was Melvinia? How did she have children? How did this whole legacy get going?
Rachel Swarns: Well, Melvinia was a slave girl and she was Michelle Obama's great-great-great grandmother. And she first appears in the public records that we were able to find in 1850 when her owner, a farmer in South Carolina, a man by the name of David Patterson, mentions her in his will. And he basically says that he's leaving her, bequeathing her – a six-year-old girl – to his heirs. And she's valued a couple of years later at $475 and shipped off to his daughter in Georgia.
Health care bill could cost $829B, analysts say
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A compromise health care proposal widely seen as having the best chance to win Democratic and Republican support would cost $829 billion over the next 10 years, nonpartisan budget analysts concluded Wednesday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/10/07/health.care/art.gop.senators.gi.jpg caption="From left: Sens. Michael Crapo, Jim Bunning, Jim DeMint and David Vitter discuss their resolution Wednesday."]
It also would reduce the federal deficit by more than $80 billion, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The review of the Senate Finance Committee's amended bill sets the stage for the next step in the politically charged debate over health care reform. Committee members have been waiting for the Budget Office's cost analysis before voting on their version of the bill.
The Finance Committee is the last of five congressional panels to consider health care legislation before debate begins in the full House and Senate.
The Budget Office's analysis differs slightly from Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' estimate. Baucus, a Montana Democrat, had said the revised bill would cost roughly $900 billion.
Grier: Not everyone against Obama is a racist
During last year's election, comedian David Alan Grier had a lot to say about the possibility of America electing its first African-American president. Grier has written about the historic election in a new book called, “Barack Like Me.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/07/david.alan.grier.art.jpg caption="Comedian David Alan Grier is the author of "Barack Like Me.""]
He joined John Roberts and Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday to talk about President Obama’s first nine months in office. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Kiran Chetry: There were a lot of questions whether Barack Obama would actually win and whether or not there would be voting irregularities. Here we are nine months out. What do you think?
David Alan Grier: Well first of all, it seems like it was five years ago. I mean, you know, nine months ago mostly what I talk about in the book is that period leading up to his election and I was addicted to the election coverage. I watched it day and night. Everybody did. It was so exciting.
"Is this country ready? What happens if we do elect a black president? What happens if we don't? What happens if we don't know?" All this possibility was there. And that's really what I talk about in the book. In a humorous way leading up to his election and the inauguration, going to the inauguration and my experience there, which was my political Woodstock, as I call it.
John Roberts: He came in with such high approval ratings and they started dropping down throughout the summer. They just recently, in this latest Associated Press poll, started coming back up to 56%. What do you make of the drop and now what appears to be a rebound?
Grier: You know what? I don't pay a lot of attention to that, like a long term stock investment. Because we all know the challenges that he inherited are monumental. And to expect him to solve, cure all those things in nine months is impossible. So I continue to support him, but I kind of am waiting to look in the long run.
Frist supports Snowe's health care 'trigger' plan
War strategy in Afghanistan and President Obama's failed Olympic bid may have stolen the headlines last week, but beneath the surface the health care debate rages on.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joined John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Tuesday to talk about health care reform and his new book, “A Heart to Serve.”
Dr. Frist, who is a heart and lung transplant surgeon, says he strongly supports the bipartisan efforts of the Senate Finance Committee and Olympia Snowe’s “trigger” plan. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
John Roberts: You said, not too long ago, if you were still in the Senate you would probably vote for a health care overhaul.
Bill Frist: A transformation of the health care system today.
Roberts: What exactly is it that you would feel comfortable voting for? Any of the plans that are out there now?
Frist: Two things. And again, these next two or three weeks are critical. We have to bring people together to get it done. It’s a great moment in time if it can be done. Number one, we’ve got to get the uninsured into the market itself. There’s too much cherry picking going on. There’s too much adverse selection.
Roberts: How many? All of them? Half of them?
Frist: The 46 million out there. There are 20 million, who are hardcore uninsured, who just can't get it because they can't afford it. So I would start there, but eventually we need to get them all into the insurance market. We just don't have enough money to do it right now, but 20 million hardcore. Number two, it’s the cost in health care. And basically, health care costs went up three times faster than inflation. Your typical person out there simply can’t afford it any longer. $15,000 policies being the average for a family of four is too much, but it's going up too fast.
So the health care reform we need is something that brings in as many as we can – I’d say 20 million now; that addresses issues – the spending – by putting benefits out there with competition on the marketplace, eliminating the about 30% waste in health care, and that can be done through information technology and transparency and accountability. And if we can do that, we can both afford it today and bring people into the market itself.
Dr. Bill Frist on health care reform
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/06/frist.bill.gi.art.jpg caption="Bill Frist is the author of the new book "A Heart to Serve.""]
War strategy in Afghanistan and President Obama's failed Olympic bid may have stolen the headlines last week, but beneath the surface the health care debate rages on.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has some strong opinions on the plan. He is also the author of a new book called, "A Heart to Serve."
Dr. Frist will be a guest on CNN's "American Morning" Tuesday.
Don't threaten Iran, Carter says
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — The United States and other nations should take a diplomatic approach toward Iran in negotiations over that nation's nuclear program, former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday.
Iran's nuclear chief and representatives from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as Germany, are scheduled to start talks Thursday in Switzerland over a recently revealed nuclear facility in Iran.
Tehran says it is developing its nuclear program for energy purposes, but many nations believe Iran wants to make nuclear weapons and will be able to do so in the near future.
A deliberate approach will work best, Carter said.
"I hope and pray that Iran will be induced to permit international inspectors to come in and observe their entire nuclear program, because what they're doing so far is completely illegal under the nonproliferation treaty," the former president said in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley.
"They have a right to purify uranium and plutonium to use for nuclear power. If Iran is on the borderline, the constant threats that we or the Israelis are going to attack Iran is the best thing to force them to say, 'Let's defend ourselves.' I don't think Iran has made up their mind what to do, and I think the best thing we can do is engage them and stop making these idle threats."
Iran said Tuesday it will allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the new facility, but it did not offer a timetable for those visits.
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