middle class tax cut that has been given to us for -- by name, to reduce the amount that we're paying into social security. what we should be talking about the real tax reform, what it's going to take to increase our revenues by broadening our economic base, by growing our economy. we aren't doing that. we need to be talking about what the american people want to hear. that's where the jobs are going to come from. >> that would be congressman dennis ross speaking there. christine romans is in atlanta this morning breaking down the details on this. >> i think, soledad, in an election year this is a no brainer for republicans and democrats. you've got 160 million people who are getting a tax benefit e6 ry paycheck they get. it's $1,000 over the course of a year. $40 per paycheck, that's if you make $50,000 a year or so. so this was something in an election year you just, you know, the feeling in washington you just can't be raising taxes on people, on working people in an election year. there's a couple of other components to this. it's the jobless benefits extension. and that so-called dock fix. they're going to try to find a way to pay for that, we're told. those two things, doctors getting reimbursed for their medicare patients and how they're being reimbursed and the extension of jobless benefits, those have to be paid for. the fighting that's still happening right now is how you're going to pay for that. some people in the gop quite frankly want drug testing maybe or other kinds of testing for eligibility for jobless benefits going forward here. and i think we know for sure that those days of 99 weeks of jobless benefits, those days are over. you're not going to be able to find agreement on that at this point, soledad. >> political hot potato in an election year, $40 per paycheck, which is basically what it works out to be, you say you advocate for taking that away. you might be on the losing side of that battle. appreciate it. new details to get to this morning into the the investigation into whitney houston's death. the l.a. times is reporting that doctors who prescribed her drugs could be slapped with subpoenas over the next few days. not a surprise there really because investigators want to question doctors in the pharmacies as well as medications found in the singer's hotel room. meanwhile, a private funeral will take place on saturday at houston's childhood church, new hope baptist church. erin burnett spoke to the pas r churches pastor last night. >> she's hurting. she's grieving, of course. but cissy houston is a woman of strong faith. she's actual ly testifying abou how god had been so good to her, to this point, and how she said he's not going to leave her now. i was there to lift her spirits, and she ended uplifting mine. it's just an amazing testimony of the grace of god. >> we know that the eulogy will be given by gospel singer and pastor marvin winans. he's proviesided over whitney houston's wedding to bobby brown. cyst christi is ordering flags to be flown at half staff on saturday. danielle smith is an editor at billboard magazine. you interviewed whitney houston in 19 -- >> ' 95, i did. >> are you surprised this funeral is private. we heard thursday and then friday and then 12,000 people would be at the prudential center and all of a sudden it was like, no, what happened? >> i'm not surprised. it's just -- it's such a tragedy. i'm sure her family wants some intimacy so they can grieve comfortably. >> at the same time, you know, a lot of people gave a lot of flack to clive davis for going on with his grammy party. nancy giles is like -- >> my god, she was -- her body was still in the hotel. i -- i just think that's tasteless. i'm sure everybody was in shock. i don't know how i would have reacted. but have it somewhere else if you have to have it. you know what i mean? >> there are people who today say, you know, how could you possibly go on with a party when a massive tragedy has just happened and the death was a whitney houston who was the mentee of the person throwing the party. >> awkward situation. my mother always says people don't know how to act when people die. but i wasn't near the hotel but it was awkward to be in los angeles period. i was at a different party that same night and i felt like the deejay was playing all this music and no one knew whether to dance or not or no one knew how to act. >> we heard from the pastor joe carter about what's going to happen. i want to play a little chunk because it's sort of the same thing. it's like you have entertainers perform or do you have a memorial service and people mourn or is it a combination of the two. here's what he said. >> we're hearing a lot of entertainers are going to be here. and we're excited. the family really has put together a program that's going to be musical, be happy, be joyful, and really give the kind of feel to the congregation and those there that, i think, whitney would want to be remembered by. >> that's a tough spot to be? >> you know, i first met whitney in 1994, after president clinton's first year in office. he had a presidential dinner and whitney performed. she had just given birth to her daughter and there were allegations of rumors then of drug use and her taking medication to lose weight. and she gave a great performance. but even back then she was a bit troubled. then i remember the last time i saw her was at the b.e.t. honors two years ago when she got a wonderful award and, again, she was on her way to a comeback. i would think just from the personality that i saw that i think she would want people to remember her in an upbeat, positive way. >> people have been talking about the drug use. as you say, right, everyone says, oh, my god, what an amazing voice and what a struggle she had. a lot of people connected that struggle to her husband, to bobby brown. then people say it really predated their marriage. >> i think people who abuse drugs generally have, you know, many instances it's within. i think we all have to be accountable for our own problems and i think that sometimes we connect up with people who have similar personalities or similar issues with us. but i think she certainly, you know, battled through some difficult times and was immensely successful and talented and giving throughout her life. >> and coming back and coming back and coming back. >> i think she was on her way back, that's the sad part about it. i think with this movie "sparkle" released in august. the idea of her singing gospel music which is going directly back to her roots, it seems like it was going to be a rebirth. >> some people say it was finally a real opportunity to turn the kosher as a maturing artist and do something else. we're going to take a short break and back and keep talking about whitney houston today and some of the plans that will happen with her funeral and her memorial as well. first though, let's get to other head inloose. christine has that for us. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. iran flaunting its nuclear advancements this morning. president mahmoud ahmadinejad claiming iran has made advances in the nuclear program building homemade nuclear rods. they are on high alert. israeli securities say hiring embassy officials are at the highest level in five years. so far no specific intelligence of any threat to israeli interests in the u.s. meanwhile, israel this morning is vowing to settle the score with iran after a bombing attempt in bangkok. israeli defense minister barak says the tuesday's blast that wounded four civilians was an attempted terrorist attack by the . china's vice president xi jinping will meet with congressional leaders on capitol hill today and then give a speech at the chamber of commerce. it's part of his five-day tour in u.s. in it meetings. yesterday president obama told xi that xin that has a responsibility to ensure trade and balance approximately after that, xi goes to iowa. a fake version of a popular cancer drug circulating in the u.s. the company that makes avastin is warning hospitals, doctors and patients about this counterfeit product. it's not clear how much of the fake stuff is out there or whether anyone has been harmed. the food and drug administration is investigating. minding your business this morning. stock futures for the dow, nasdaq, s&p 500 are all trading higher after gains in european markets on strong economic reports from france and germany. also, china pledging support for the eu and its debt problems. all right. the top dog announced at the westminster dog show. >> best in show at the 136th annual westminster kennel club, america's dog show is the pekingese. >> that best in show pekingese is named malachi. beat out a dalmation, german shepherd, doberman pincher and wild haired dachound. >> i need to watch that movie again. >> i can't watch the westminster dog show without thinking of that movie of what's going on backstage. >> of course. of course. now i'm r we're going to talk about my favorite topic, lin-sanity. you know it's a big deal when it's on the front page of "the post." thrill-lin. everyone is trying so hard. and it's on the back page, amasin. go back to work on that. put a little bit more work on that. in the "daily news," lin and a prayer. a little weak. "just lin time." it's all a surprise, right? >> "the post" has the headlines. they know how to do it. >> it remibds me of tom brady. tom brady was sitting on the bench for the new england patriots and the starting quarterback got injured. and tom brady came off the bench and he never sat down again and he's been one of the best quarterbacks in nfl history. >> and he -- >> this guy is an amazing point guard. >> last night, the new york knicks, star player now, now he's the star player. he wasn't the star player two weeks ago but now the star player. extended the team's winning streak. the knicks really needed it. beat toronto in a dramatic fashion. see that three-pointer that he hit. half a second? >> and he waited it out. >> love it. the score was, i think, 90-87. here's what he said. >> it's a miracle from god, is the way i would describe it, just because obviously i don't think anybody expected this to happen. >> why do i love it when athletes are like, i just want to send a shout yot to the lord. i love it. i really do. i do. it's like i've ray rapper who receives an award, i want to thank jesus christ. >> the songs are filled -- it's got's work. >> in this case, i love that. will, why is that? >> awesome. tv ratings. the knicks are up 70% since they started. >> and they have a team now. >> six-game winning streak. he scored 20 points in every one of these games. scored over 20 points. the difference between me and the tom brady story is lin literally came out of nowhere. not drafted. released by two teams and days from being released on the knicks. putting him on the floor to see if he can play. the answer is quite obviously yes. >> for a chinese journalist who are trying to figure out how to cover the story. hisself he's taiwanese. they keep saying, many will say he's ethnically chinese. no, he's actually taiwanese, which is problematic. >> there's something called ethnically chinese? >> they made it up. kind of sort of chinese because he's taiwanese. >> he's been doing this while the stars amare stoudemire and carmelo anthony are out. they come back very soon. we'll see if lin-sanity continues. >> awkward. >> number three of the big three. he didn't come out of nowhere. he was a top player in palo alto in high school. ivy league record. >> harvard. >> yeah. >> well, it wasn't nowhere. >> he plans to play tl. >> in the nba. we're going to be doing a story. what's his first name? >> don. >> don jr. >> don iii. we love it. ahead on "starting point," we're going to talk about china pouring money into the heartland of america. the man in line of becoming the leader is visiting a farm in iowa today. we're going to chat with one of his hosts up next. also, that's not his tray. have you seen this? this is a guy caught on tape through airport security. glances over, oh, look, there's a rolex that's been left in the bin next to mine. but you know what is interesting? look at the high quality of that videotape. they haven't caught him yet, but they will. also this morning, "get real," food police inspect a little girl's lunch her mom made for her and then they make her get a new lunch. needless to say, mom's a little angry this morning. we're going to talk about that straight ahead on "starting point." ♪ dave, i've downloaded a virus. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. 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[ male announcer ] with everything from new computers, to set-ups, to tune-ups. stapes. that was easy. ♪ that's u2, "beautiful day." don peeples choice. his son is going to be in the nba one day. no pressure, john iii. he is such a businessman, no i would like him to be a entrepreneur. china's vice president xi jinping is going to be in muscatine, iowa, part of the trip across united states. the top place of muscatine, 23,000. iowa is the biggest buyer of agricultural goods and iowa is the biggest grower of the top export which is soy beans. xi has been to iowa before. he visited back in 1985. it was part of a sister state program between iowa and the province where he was a regional official today. today he's going to meet with the same people he met 27 years ago including sarah landy. thanks for talking with us. i know you're going to be hosting a dinner. the pressure is on, of course, because the world will be watching and it's now 27 years later from the first time that you met him. tell me a little bit about that 27 years ago. what was that meeting like? >> well, it was a wonderful meeting. iowa had just signed a sister state relationship with habay province, one of the first engine changes was an agricultural exchange to eyeiow. so this dell gais investigatiegy mr. xi. and we invited him to our community of muscatine to have him see the august ral businesses that he wanted to fulfill his goals? >> he was 32 years old. what was he like then? at the time, he was kind of a relatively speaking, a low-level official. was he friendly, was he excited about being in the united states? >> you know, i think you just hit it right there. one, i think at that time in particular, not many people from china or delegations had come to our state and sort of from our side, our side had not seen many chinese people. so it was very -- it was exciting for all of us. we wanted to learn more about each other. mr. xi has headed the delegations. he was very organized. he knew what he wanted to learn. he said he wanted to learn more about our agricultural technology so he could feed his people better, growing population, and help their standard of living. and he was eager to see how we lived in the heartland of iowa. >> what's interesting now, when there are conversations certainly in this political year about china, often the tone is sometimes hostile, i think is a fairway to put it. let me play a little clip of what some of the candidates have been saying about china. >> i've indicated day one i will issue an executive order identifying china as a currency manipulator. we will bring action against them in front of the wto for manipulating the currency and go after them. >> i put forward a plan, mitt, i don't want to go to a trade war. i want to beat china. i don't want to go to war with china and make america the most attractive place in the world to do business. >> we hope that he means metaphme metaph metaphorical war, not actual war. how do you look at the meeting that's going to happen today and the dinner tonight? >> well, i'm looking forward to work on a very positive relationship with china. i do not think those comments reflect america and i do not think they reflect statesmanship and foreign policy. china is a growing country in the world and it's to our benefit and our possibilities to work with them, trade with them, have them buy our products. so i -- we are going to have a tone of friendship. we're going to have a tone of looking at how we can build on the bridges of the past, how we can have a line of communication, so we can find a way to sell our products, find a way to work with china. when there are difference, we'll talk and work them out. >> you are hosting the dinner tonight. what are you serving? >> it's a tea at my home. vice president xi is only going to be with us for an hour. so all of the old friends get to talk and present a memory and introduce themselves. then we are going to have some spring walls, a criminal crustini with filet of beef and a toast of friendship from our governor to vice president xi. he will get the key to our city, and we want to be an example, a positive ways to work for mutually beneficial relationships. >> sarah lande joining us this morning. that menu sounds awesome. we hope it's a big success. still ahead on "starting point," troops overseas, lots of questions about the deveer cuts to the defense budget that's been proposed. we're going to talk to key members about whether the pentagon is cutting too deep. a lunch room -- this is my favorite story of the day. inspects a little girl -- she's 4. inspects her lunch. turkey sandwich. decides that, in fact, it's inappropriate and makes her buy the school plan meal, which is chicken nuggets. >> what? >> america is in decline. all right. we're going to talk about that in our "get real" this morning. straight ahead. yes, what? 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"get real" this morning may be the favorite story of the day. back in the day when you would trade your lunch with somebody toels get a better lunch. one preschooler in north carolina. she's at the west hope elementary school. it comes by the carolina news journal. she was forced to eat a lunch provided by her school after an inspector looked at her lunch and deemed it not nutritious enough. she spent her 4-year-old daughter to cool with this. turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice. they said she needed a vegetable to comply with the agriculture guidelines. so along with her homemade lunch, chicken nugget, milk, fruit, and vegetable. the lunlg of the day. mom said the kid was freaked out. reference, of course, she's 4. she ate a couple of chicken nuggets. that's what they eat. nothing else. the mother then said she also had to pay the $1.25 for the lunch because they billed her for the lunch. >> that they forced her child to eat. >> the division of child development at the department of health and human services requires all lunch served in pre-k programs to meet usda guidelines. apparently -- first of all, her t. lunch her mother packed is so much better than anything i ever sent my kids to school with. >> i never had a piece of fruit, peanut butter and jelly, bologna. >> government regulations going too far. >> don't even have to say it. right? >> right here. >> the next time up with of these conversations comes up -- >> that's crazy. see? i think people hear that and they're like, no rational person thinks that that's go a. good thing to do. plus, a 4-year-old. now she has -- she's having chicken nuggets, that's victory? come on. of course, that's all my kids eat. but i'm speaking hypothetically. still ahead this morning on "starting point