Transcripts For WMAR This Week 20100117 : vimarsana.com

the suffering. everything was like tearing apart. you know, the ceiling was collapsing. and the race against time. we need more people down here. this morning, the crisis in haiti. how frustrating for you that supplies are not getting to the people in need? our guests, president bush and president clinton, leading a public appeal for one of the biggest relief efforts in american history. and from the front lines of the recovery, the commander in charge, lieutenant general tim keane. and dr. rajiv shaw. then i barack hussein obama, do solemnly swear. one year later. and are democrats about to lose teddy s seat? that and the rest of politics on our roundtable. announcer: this week, with abc senior white house correspondent, jake tapper, live from the newseum, on pennsylvania avenue. good morning. by tomorrow morning, 12,000 military personnel will be helping in a massive relief effort in haiti. aid is pouring in. but getting food and water to the haitian people remains a huge challenge. and desperation has begun to lead to violence. tens of thousands are confirmed dead. but even five days after the quake, rescue workers are pulling people out of the rubble alive. yesterday, president obama stood by presidents bush and clinton, leading the charge for a relief effort. i want to read you an e-mail from a haitian friend of mine. he said the country is in total chaos. the government is no longer existent. law and order no longer exist. how frustrating is it for you, president clinton, that the response has been so overwhelming. and there is still supplies are not getting to the people in need. it s frustrating. but i think we re moving on it quickly. having the american military president preval, signed an agreement, worked out an agreement with hillary yesterday morning, to turn that airport over. the u.n. still has structure. we lost a lot of people. they re setting up distribution centers to safely distribute food and water. and they ll be able to have widespread availability of medical care. i think you ll see it get a lot better in a hurry now. there was also an extraordinary amount of time to dig through the buildings to find the people, living and dead. as that effort begins to wrap up, you ll see the addition of food, medicine, water and basic care, get better. i think the security situation will get better. but people have to understand. not only was the city leveled, and others, as well, west. the parliament building was wrecked. the presidential palace was wrecked. as of yesterday, still missing parliamentarians still missing. government ministers. the structure of the country was taken down. and i think the united states has done a good job. and i think the international community s done a good job. the u.n. structure was taken down. biggest loss of life in single day in history. within two or three days, they will be in much better order. mr. president, this is an unusual partnership. how did it come about? actually, i used to talk to president clinton during my presidency. and i then, of course, called upon, he and president 41, my dad, to work together on the tsunami. and then, katrina. then, when you re both retired, you kind of hang around the retirement center together. so, he and i have become friends. and i look forward to working with him. one of my concerns is that these crises cause people to say, i want to help. and then, they start pouring money into sometimes organizations that aren t real or dishonest. so, for people that want to help, here s an avenue for them. they can look it up on clintonbushhaitifund.org. and we ll make sure there s transparency and the accounting is good. and more importantly, that the money goes to help haiti rebuild. president clinton, you talked about this effort could take years. before the earthquake, you had convened donor conferences, to raise money for haiti. at one donor s conference, $500 million was pledged. more than that. before the earthquake, you were about to get on some of the donors because about 10%, 12% of that money had been disbursed. most of it had not. how do you keep focused of the international community, of the donors, on a situation like this? obviously, in the next month, there will be a lot of focus. but how do you make sure in a year? two years? there s still focus? the reason i took this job sort of to be the u.n. s outside person. it s my job to work with the donor nation, the international organizations, potential investors and nongovernment organizations. and the philanthropists. i talked to the major donor nations on the phone two days ago. they all said they would speed up their commitment and stay involved. i had a meeting with 55 nongovernment organizations. they say they will do more. if we keep doing this, needle and nudge people, and the haitians do what they were doing before this happened, keep proving that they want to modernize the country, i think we get the long-term commitment. i think it s important for the haitian government, once the initial stage of the crisis passes, explain a clear strategy, that means the money will be well-spent. it s one thing to save lives. it s going to be another thing to make sure that the long-term development project has a reasonable plan. the president has been very much involved in that. and today me they had developed a regional strategy. following up on that. there s been prominent conservative voices that have expressed a concern that the u.s. has done so much for haiti already. and throwing money at haiti isn t going to solve the problem because it s a corrupt government. and it never goes to the right people. the first concern ought to be the one that everybody else is thinking about. that s to help save lives. i ve seen on the tv screens. you ve seen it on the tv screens. there s unbelievable destruction. you heard the e-mail report, that people are desperate. obviously, there needs to be a strategy that makes sense to people. and the president has said that prior to the devastation, there was such a strategy, that would be able to deal with haiti as it is, with a bright future. and the fundamental question for the country is do we care? beyond the storm of the earthquake, is do we care? i think we should. i think we should care from a humanitarian prospective. it makes sense to have a stable democracy in our neighborhood. when you were heading up tsunami relief, with president bush s father, one of the mottos you had was building back better. a lot of the construction in haiti was poorly constructioned. how do you focus the reconstruction? how do you focus the reconstruction that it is better? you have to have a system to work with in the haitian government. to complement what he said. before this happened, i watched the haiti government do things i never thought they would do. they dramatically speeded up the time, as they increased the foreign investment. the united states, for example, something the political powers were scared to do. they want to modernize the country. we ll get the donors together. we ll ask the donors to condition the release of their funds, based on construction meeting certain standards and being part of a certain plan. i think the nation government will welcome them that that will give them the support they need. you both have been presidents during times of huge natural disasters. what lessons can we learn to apply to the rescue and relief efforts here? i think the most obviously one that comes to my mind, there s going to be a lot of people that want to help. it s important to have an organization to funnel that compassion in a proper way. the other thing, the expectations are never met. your friend has heard, that americans want to help. then, he s saying, where is it? and the president will have to do his very best to set proper expectations. i thought he did so today. and funnel the most effective organizations he has in his control. that would be the military and u.s. ail. that e-mail turns to, what are you going to do in the long run? president clinton? right now, logistics matter. distribution channels have to be built. when there is no structure, you have to create a structure. and the metaphor, everybody has seen the pictures on television. the food truck being assaulted, and running off with food to be distributed. we had to be patient. to give the u.s. military and their forces, to build those. housing always takes too long. it s the thing that takes the longest. we need to start thinking sooner, like in the next few days, about how we re going to provide for a long-term living space for the people, in a city that looks like a nuclear bomb hit. the third thing is, keep them informed. keep radiation out there. get the cell phone systems working again. so they re not frightened. i find people are angrier and more destruct iive not because they re in trouble. but because they don t understand. the more people understand what s happening to them, the more they can endure the long-term process of rebuilding. president clinton, president bush, appreciate it. we d like to put up the website where you can donate. it s clintonbushhaitifund.org. that s all one word. as the president said, the needs are almost overwhelming. but is the relief getting to those that need it most? abc foreign affairs correspondent, martha raddatz, has been in haiti, tracking the relief effort. she joins me from port-au-prince. how about it, martha? is the relief getting to those that need it most? reporter: we went with a convoy. one truckload of supplies yesterday. we arrived really early in the morning, expecting to track this truck, go out and go with another truck. it took us 5 1/2 hours to get the supplies where they were needed. it s understandable it took that long. there was an aftershock. all the people loading the goods into the truck left. the haitian locals. they were volunteers. they just lived through an earthquake. when they felt the other one, there was fear that the warehouse could have collapsed. and it could have collapsed. got into the truck. hit the streets of haiti. hit a roadblock. it s impossible to drive on some of the roads. when we got there, there were also difficulties. they had to divide people up. they only wanted the women and children to line up. and you had a few younger males that were pushing forward. all in all, it went smoothly. lots coming to the airport. but a lot is still in the air houses because they re concerned about security. the one scene that i saw that i thought was incredible, was a helicopter flying very low, over masses of people. and they just dumped boxes out. that s very dangerous. i m quite certain that was not a u.s. helicopter. all the people just ran. there was real chaos. that s a real dangerous way to deliver supplies. speaking of chaos, martha. we keep hearing reports of sporadic violence. where is the u.s. military in all of this? are they making attempts to secure the island? absolutely not, jake. they re really not. i keep hearing these numbers. about 4,200 american military supporting this mission. you have the 82nd airborne. they re expected to be here next week. the marines are not yet here. 2,200 marines. what they will do is secure the sites where they re delivering aid. that s what they re going to do. and they re securing the airport. and in a sense, they re prote protecting the workers already here. and the other workers already here. i don t think you will see anyone roaming the streets, securing the island. just the aid. martha raddatz, thank you so much for joining us. you bet, jake. now, to the two men in charge of the relief effort. general ken keen, in charge of operation unified response. and here in washington, dr dr. rajiv shaw. and i want to go to you, general keen. some of the violence we heard horrific. we heard a report, that a policeman handed over a suspected looter to an angry crowd. they stripped him, beat him and set him on fire. and some medical personnel are clearing the area because they don t feel secure. why aren t u.s. troops helping to secure haiti? we re here, for our humanitarian situation. but security is a critical component of that. and having a safe and secure environment is going to be very important. and we are working alongside the united nations forces which have been here, obviously, for years. and their mission is to provide stability and security. and we re going to have to address the situation of security. as you ve said, we had incidence of a violence that impede our ability to support the government of haiti. and answer the challenges that this country faces. and suffering the tragedy of epic proportions. general keen, one more question for you. we re told that by tomorrow, more than 12,000 u.s. troops will be in the region. will that be enough for you? and low long do you anticipate those troops staying? today, i have approximately 1,000 troops in haiti. and another 3,000 in the area working off of ships. we re going to increase that footprint in haiti as we go forward. we ll have to address how many troops we need to do all of the missions we have in hand. our principle mission being humanitarian assistance. but security component will be an increasing part of that. we have to address that along with the united nations. and we re going to have to do it quickly. any idea how long u.s. troops will need to be in haiti? well, we re going to be here as long as needed. i think the president has made it very clear that we are here to support the government of haiti. and the survivors of this tragedy of epic proportions. dr. shaw, officials say 180 tons of relief have made it to the airport. how much has made its way to the haitian people? i first want to step back and say, immediately after this happened, on tuesday, just before sundown. this is an earthquake of tremendous proportions, as the general points out. the president asked us to release a swift, coordinated response. that s why we ve assembled a broad range of civilian and military capabilities. nearly every region of our government. our health and human services are all involved. immediately, we begin putting in place the capabilities and doing the work, to make sure we can get as much commodity flow and services to the people of haiti as softball. still, it s five days later. and a lot of the relief effort, the lot of the aid, has not gotten to the people who need it most. well, it is five days later. here s what we ve done. we were the first people on the ground with the disaster assistance response team. our urban search and rescue teams from fairfax, virginia, or california. they have saved dozens of lives. most of which are haitian. they koocoordinated efforts of other teams from around the world. we have thousands of people engaged in active search and rescue. nobody doubts the sincerity of the effort. or that they re doing everything they can to save lives. no one s saying, you re not working hard. but obviously, the supplies aren t getting to the people who need them most right now. what do you need? here s what we need. and here s how we re doing it. we started with an effort that focused on saving lives. in parallel, we put in place the conditions to allow for significant commodity and supply support to get to the people of haiti. doing that took initially, the airport was not functional. the u.s. military got in quickly. established a relationship with the government. i met with the president yesterday. and secured the airport. now operating the airport. we can through-put, which allows all countries, including ours, to get more supply in there. that s 180 tons. how much has gone out? and why hasn t more gone out? i don t know why there s not an xablt number. the challenge is, we re talking about 3.5 million people in need. we re talking about a significa significant degradation of supplies. we see the aircraft area that arrived this week. it has 19 helicopters. a lot of the transport of commodity and supplies is through the helicopters. we get more and more each day. we need do do exponentially more. and this coming week, we ll have more capabilitiecapabilities. we ll have more troops engaged in the humanitarian aid. we re working with the u.n., to establish a network of distribution sites, to allow for the flow of commodities to families and individuals in haiti. and two other access to bare. the uss comfort will get there on the 20th. the jack loo mis, will get sprys ashore. and we re working to create alternative and logistics paths around haiti to increase the supply flow. this is a complex, logistical challenge, with countries around the world providing support. and the president s been very clear. get in there, lean in. get organized. and make this work. general keen, what casualty count is the u.s. military preparing for? we heard estimates ranging up to 150,000 haitians feared dead. what are you preparing for? i think it s too early to tell what the casual count is. but it s peer, it s of epic proportions. we re working with the united nations as we address it. and we re going to have to be prepared for the worst. by the worst, are you saying 120 to 200,000 to be the top end of it? or should we expect worse? i think the international community is look at those figures. that s a start point. but it s too early to tell exactly what the casualty count will be. and obviously, we have a lot of injured to take care of. and everyone is looking forward to the medical supplies and the hospitals that we re seeing. nations are showing up every day to put in operation. that s going to increase our capability. and i ve pointed out we ll have our hospital ship here this week. and we ll need all of that and more. dr. shah, we re running out of time. i want to get your thoughts on quotes from russel honore, who was brought on board to take care of hurricane katrina. he said, the next morning after the earthquake, as a military man of 37 years of service, i assumed there would be airports and underlying aid. every time i hear that. i was just rated to hear that usaid was the lead agency. i respect them. but they re not a rapidly deployment mission. let me say the quote. it s somewhat inaccurate. immediately after this happened, the president pulled everyone together. he said, i want you to work together. move quickly. and be aggressive. usaid sent a disaster resistance response team and search and rescue teams right away. we did that with a number of other partners to increase the scale of that effort. in parallel, and right away, we began securing commodities. daily rations for food. communities that produce liters of water a day. we have four in. and other things in medicine, and tarps and tents. that happened in parallel. we didn t wait. and in terms of engaging the military and the response. the reason we ll have all of our military assets there, is we acted to make that happen immediately after the disaster occurred. and the president was clear about his expectations. i was with general keen in haiti yesterday. and we spoke about what it s going to take to meet that. dr. shah, general keen, thanks for joining us. good luck to both of you on what looks like a very, very tough job. the roundtable is next. as we turn to politics. and a brand-new abc news/ washington post poll, on president obama one year into his term. and that senate race in massachusetts, it was supposed to be a shoo-in for the democrat. what if a republican replaces ten kennedy and is the a key vote against the health care program. i remember thinking, someday, i m going to host that show for seven months. to work forever. then we need to figure this out now. our nest egg took a real hit. what s that website your friend mentioned? retirementredzone.com? that s it, from prudential. she talked to her financial advisor about what she learned there. said it really helped her get back on track. i like that. 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(announcer) click retirementredzone.com. everyday we generate 8 times the information found in all u.s. libraries. where did it come from? store transactions, market movements. emails, photos. videos. blogs. what if technology could capture all this information. and turn it into intelligence. we could identify patterns faster. we could predict with greater confidence. convert data into action. smarter information means smarter decisions. smarter decisions build a smarter planet. that s what i m working on. i m an ibmer. i m an ibmer. i m an ibmer. let s build. a smarter planet. coming up next, the roundtable, and the sunday funnies. what s the best prank you ever pulled? i told a guy that five years from now, i m going to give him my show. then, when the five years came, i gave it to him. and i took it back almost instantly. ever order anything off the tv? like nbc ordered your show off the tv? no, no. is there anything you haven t hosted that you want to host? oh, this is a trick, right? you get me to host the tonight show, and take it back from me? no, no. that s abc s jimmy kimmel, giving jay leno a good what for there. we ll talk to our roundtable about that. george will. tucker carlson. katrina vanden heuvel. and donna brazile. it s the first lady s birthday. but she won t take the poll as a gift. job approval. majority disapproves of health care and the economy. 55% of how he handled the threat of terrorism. perhaps most concerning for president obama, 62% of those polled say the country is headed in the right direction. the key wrong track/right track numbers. what s going on here? to his credit, this is a serious president, who has decided not to horde his political capital. to govern is to choose. to choose is to make someone unhappy. and he s made a number of choices. almost all of them in my judgment, unfortunate. but he won the election. he gets to do that. furthermore, all of in time in a single bill. the fact that health care is unpopular, demonstrates how important it is to pass it. supervisory liberalism, say the american people don t know what s in their best interest. and it s our job to tell them. katrina, are you disinhearted by the poll numbers? no. i think there s so much expectations on the glorious day a year ago, on the inauguration, this is to be expected in many ways. he is a serious man. and he s summoned the country to address challenges. he s no longer barack the outsider. partly, change doesn t come with one election. change doesn t come easy with the lobbies and the wall of money. i think if he does pass the health bill, with all of the flaws, it is a monumental achievement. it brings government into a new role. the main problem in my view is the economy. he assembled a team that paid more attention to wall street than to the herding communities in this. job creation, do what is needed to reinvest in this country. does he need more populism. is he not perceived as the outsider? if you look at the numbers, he is personally popular. and i think even in the dead of the midterms, when his party gets hurt. and i think it will. he will still be popular because he is an appealing person. he has charisma and people like him. you look at the health care spread, 44 are approving of the health care plan. 52 against. a spread of eight. you look at who strongly approve and disapproves, a spread of 19. in other words, if you re against this health care plan, you re really against it. and same goes true for the numbers on the economy. how can the majority be disapproving on the president on two, key domestic issues? to be honest with you, barack obama s not only a serious president. he s also a president who must constantly multitask. in addition to having the focus of the economy on the brink. and most americans i believe will give him credit, if they believe that the changes that he has made will help them make ends meet. but he s had to inherit two wars. he s had to work with a congress that often tries to take the lead, in terms of making the policy prescriptions. and of course, he s worked against a republican party that was united against him and against his policies. despite all that, there s some good stuff in here. i think he should open this up to the first lady and say, happy birthday. not only is his job approval up. but most americans consider him a strong leader. there s some good stuff in here. oprah winfrey asked president obama how he would grade his first term. and this is the response he gave. what grade would you give yourself for this year? good, solid, b-plus. b-plus. what could you have done better? b-plus, because of the things that are undone. health care is not yet signed. if i get health care passed, we tip into a-minus. all right. b-plus. you didn t give him that big of a grade. i gave him a b. i grade on a curve. but i would like to see health care pass. i agree with him. i would like to see our troops come home from iraq. i would like to see the plan in afghanistan work so our troops can come home. i would like the president to use a little more of his political capital to really force congress to do something about jobs. and to spend lest time worrying about his approval ratings and worrying about what republicans think about him. katrina, what grade do you give him for his first year? i did a b. i think he brought into our politics an energy and activism that he needs to retrieve. we re talking about intensity. the intensity of that election. and, yes, you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. why should the republicans, the t.e.a. party baggers, reform community, about a responsive, strong government. president obama needs to retrieve that. i think on afghanistan, the escalation in afghanistan, he didn t break with the national security consensus, that so many believed he could have had the courage to do. and again, banks. the bank bailout. this is confused by so many americans with the stimulus, which was the largest investment of anti-poverty programs in this country. he must take on the greed in this country. he must say i m on the side of the working people. and the white house is beginning to. george is moving. but the levee on banks is critical. and a windfall on bonuses. then, real financial reform. take on the army of lobbyists and show you are on the side of people. with all these things you want him to do, i m amazed you gave him a b. i believe there is the potential. i believe it because i think he is open to pressure from below. and that s where great social changes come in this country. donna and were talking earlier. if martin luther king jr. were alive, he would march on this white house. he would say, don t escalate the war in afghanistan. get on the side of the working american people. we need from below. mr. will, i sense you have something you want to say. he s hired an army of lobbyists. donna said you graded him on the curve. i take that you graded him crester author foreign policy, for him, is a b-minus. that s a high grade for you. not because ease doing what i wanted him to do. but to be the president, with the mandate as i construe it, in foreign policy, he demonstrated that the problem is not george w. bush. he showed you can be immensely popular. and that has no cash value with the israelis, the palestinians, the north koreans, et cetera. and his anti-terrorism policy has extended the bush policies. in domestic policy, he has done in one year, what it took lyndon johnson to do in two years. that s revitalize the republican party. tucker, i feel like i m going to the russian judge in the olympics. i gave him a d. and that s because he answered oprah s question. any seasoned politician would say, far be it to grade myself. i thought there was a level of political ineptitude. i don t agree with his policies. from day one, from the first piece of legislation, the stimulus, he has shown less cleverness than his campaign showed in 2008. letting the congress write that legislation was a rookie mistake. leaving aside my policy differences, that has been stunning. i think the level of cynicism, totally unexpected. the carve out that unions got, on so-called cadillac plans, so over the top. i wouldn t have expected that from bill clinton, actually. i gave a d. and i m stunned. later today, president obama will go to massachusetts, where he will put some of his political capital on the lines to campaign for the democratic senator there, martha coakley. she s had a bad couple of weeks. she was talking about rudy giuliani campaigning with the republican candidate, scott brown. if it wasn t so close rudy giuliani probably wasn t a to come. he s a yankee fan. yeah. but scott brown has curt schilling, okay. another yankee fan. schilling? curt schilling a yankee fan? the red sox great pitcher of the bloody sock. he s not there anymore. curt schilling responded. i ve been called a lot of things. but never could anyone make the mistake of calling me a yankee fan. well, check that. if you didn t know what the hell is going on in your own state, maybe you could. are democrats going to lose the seat because of rookie mistakes like that? that is a rookie mistake. if obama can go to copenhagen to try to get the olympics to chicago, clearly he can go to boston to rally a demoralized base and make sure that democrats turn out. if democrats turn out, democrats will win. those are not two popular he did not get the olympics for chicago. and he did not get the climate change deal. but doing nothing is not an option. his domestic agenda hangs in the balance. it s important to go up there today to rally people. to get the obama voters who came out in 2008, to go to the polls. and explain the difference between voting for miss coaxially. i wish we had more time. we could go down and call the row, from the economy, to the health care, to the serious troubles that this country faced. and demonstrate, how this president has led by example. but he s going up there. it s the right thing to do. i think it s a wake-up call. i know everybody says she s run a lackluster campaign. it s massachusetts. but it s a wake-up call that democrats cannot run as a managerial party moving forward. that s partly what the campaign was because democrats haven t be been. if the republicans were in power, we would have a barter economy and 25% unemployment. but he opened the door to the t.e.a. bag intensity, which has real force. no question about it. and could undermind the generation of progressive work. i think democrats need to retrieve that intensity and take back i hate to quote william butler yates with george will at the table. but the worst should not have the passionate conviction. the best must retrieve its convictions. democrats are trying to gain some steam in massachusetts with the bank fee, that president obama has proposed. going after bank bonuses purportedly, with the new bank fee. do you think that will have traction? this is late-stage alcoholism. this is denial. john kerry keeps getting re-elected to massachusetts. it s not about martha coakley. it s about the president s policies. his health care plan is polling at 36 in massachusetts right now. nationally, it s 44. it s lower in the most liberal state. it s explicit if you watch what scott brown is saying on the stump. it s a reference dumb on obama s policies. that s all it s about. and democrats need to figure that out and respond to it. but they re really going to get creamed in the midterm. it s largely health care. but there s something else involved. between christmas and new year s, the scott brown took off with an ad by jack kennedy saying, cutting taxes is good for the economy and good for democrats and good for americans. but on health care, scott brown says, this is a referendum on the president s signature issue. elect me and i will be the 41st vote to stop this thing. the fact that the president is flying to massachusetts indicates this is, a referendum on him. and that he s lost the referendum. scott brown wouldn t give health care to his own employees. this is a campaign that scott brown has largely defined in the closing days of the election, because martha coakley did not go out and campaign. she took time off. you never do that. you give the opposition the ability to organize. but his campaigning is basically, i am running for ted kennedy s seat. coakley is going to put brown on the spot. it s late maybe, saying are you going to be on the side of the people or the banks? it s sunday, karina. but seriously, the message out of the white house is kicking into gear. the responsibility tax on the banks that have cost people jobs, homes, i think it s for the t.e.a. baggers moving forward. are they on the side of the people, as they claim? what is a t.e.a. bagger. when do the tax on banks stimulate bank lending. if it s to receive t.a.r.p. funds, most of the t.a.r.p. funds not coming back to the government, are in detroit. there s an excellent point to be made about the fact if scott brown wins, health care is really in trouble. i agree. i think we should abolish the filibuster. but on a reality check issue, that s a real question. why would president obama s signature issue, thaao he s been working so hard, that ted kennedy would have been behind, why is it so unpopular in massachusetts? several reasons. nationally. some of it is the way i think president obama managed it. it took too long. and part of the reason it took too long, is this is an enormous piece of association legislation. but he wasn t bold enough at various points. he took too much from the clinton administration. but let s not forget. we are living in a period when bipartisan has to go out the window. you have a republican party that wants to cripple this administration. and part of that is bringing down health care reform. we re living in a period, and tucker and george may disagree. i would argue, of unrhetorical savagery. an illegitimate president that wasn t born in america. people believe it. democrats have a 60-seat majority in the senate. they have overwhelmingly majority in the house. the debate is not with republicans and democrats. it s between democrats they run everything. that s not a criticism. that s an observation of fact. come on. health care is as diverse as the party. that s the real vote. it s not between the t.e.a. baggers, whoever they are. it s between democrats. health care reform is coming close to final negotiations. and one of the big points in this has been some concessions that labor unions exacted for support for the health care reform bill. specifically in terms of a delay before those who have cadillac plans are taxed on that plan. until 2018. they have time to renegotiate with management. a lot of them negotiated better health care in lieu of higher wages. this type of negotiation behind the scenes is not what president obama promised when he was campaigning. he promised it would be an open negotiation. the fact is, we ve had so many we ve had congressional hearings. congressional markups. we had town hall meetings. we re at the finish line. and what democrats are trying to do is now, pull all of these various pieces together and present one, final bill, that can go to cbo, get scored. and take it to the floor for a final vote. that s what 24 is about. and if republicans want to campaign against was all of the good items in this bill, then bring it on. they have a problem. they re trying to pass a bill that is huge. radical. unpopular. and therefore, they have no choice but to resort to serial corruption. beginning with the medical advantage for people primarily in florida. followed by the $300 million describe to get senator landrieu s vote in louisiana. followed by the $1 billion over a decade, purchase of senator nelson s vote from nebraska. followed by the payoff to the unions, which is the least they could get, considering they have given $400 million to democrats. first of all, radical republicans do, too, when they re in charge. pharmaceutical industry was last seen in this town, rallying around a special fund-raiser for mrs. coakley in massachusetts. i wish the health care negotiations would be on c-span. the idea that this bill is radical, is laughable. medicare for all, is what should be on the table. instead, this has been diluted. mostly by lobbyists and by obstructionist democrats, too. the deal that labor got is good for all middle-class americans. middle-class americans who have been shafted in the last eight years under bush and cheney. not in unions. it cuts across. and the clean, simple thing, george, which would raise your hair on end, is if there was a surcharge on the wealthy. i believe the wealthy in this country could afford to pay a little more. and it shouldn t be a burden on the middle class. these aren t cadillac benefits. these are chevy, if that. you get the boldness award for defending the indefensible. there s many part of the bill that can defend. but to defend the car bout for the obama key campaign contributors. i admire boldness. i support the middle-class. there s one more deal that i wanted to talk about. we re not going to have time. you have to talk about it in the green room. that s the contentious deal between nbc, jay leno, and conan o brien. you can get political updates all week long, by signing up for our newsletter. also on abcnews.com. coming up, the sunday also on abcnews.com. coming up, the sunday funnies. enough is enough. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it s time investors got what they deserve. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 real help that s there when you need it. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 pricing that leaves you with something to actually invest. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we offer a lot more help for a lot less money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because at schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 investors rule. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 are you ready to rule? now, in memoriam. get closer and closer this week, the pentagon released the names of 12 soldiers and marines killed in iraq and afghanistan. we ll be right back. equipped lexus es, to a well-equipped buick lacrosse. get inside each. and see what you find. if perfection is what you pursue, this just might change your course. meet the new class of world class. the twenty-ten ! lacrosse, from buick. may the best car win. and now, the sunday funnies. it s a great day for sarah palin. she s been hired as a commentator on fox news. she signed a multiyear contract. a man in oregon was arrested after police searched his car and found a half pound of marijuana, mushrooms, hashish, a ma chetty and a sword. or as tsa officials call it, nothing suspicious. now burbank. look at this. two nbc taiwan. that s our taiwan affiliate. look at our taiwan affiliate. things are getting tense between me and nbc. just coming to work, in the morning now, has gotten really uncomfortable. 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