money," it is a step by step understanding of the language of money with everything you need to kno head to amazon.com right now. stay connected to us 24/7 on twitter. have a great weekend. hello, everyone. thank you for joining us. i'm fredricka whitfield. we're letting you hear from the 2012 republican contenders. they're speaking, unedited, uninterrupted and at length. we'll start that in 60 seconds. but first, a look at some of the top stories of the day. a banking crisis is unfolding in europe. the leaders of france and germany today agreed to work out a plan to recapitalize several banks, hard hit by debt crisis in greece and other european countries.

the announcement comes on the same day france, belgium, and luxembourg agreed to rescue dexia, a major franco belgian bank. a couple of hours ago, i spoke with cnn's senior international business correspondent, richard quest. he tells me that what is going on in europe is very similar to what happened in america back in 2008. >> you really don't want the investment bank to fail. why? because a big investment bank failing of this particular time would cause a ripple of crisis of confidence and that's what happened with lehman in 2008. we're going to see more banks over the coming weeks that -- whether they fail or not, they're going to need more money. what the authorities are going to have to judge is when is it right to rescue and when is it time to let go? >> finance ministers from the g-20 nations are scheduled to meet later on this week to discuss the growing crisis. and now to economic concerns here in the u.s. this week, the senate will vote

on president obama's jobs bill, a measure he says will prevent another economic downturn and put americans back to work. the $447 billion package will be paid for by a millionaire's tax which would raise revenues by $453 billion over ten years. the bill includes funding for infrastructure projects and job training. republican opponents call the plan a rehash of the president's failed stimulus policies. american fugitive george wright is fighting extradition. he was arrested in portugal last month after 40 year on the run. his lawyer says wright has heart and blood pressure problems. wright is accused of hijacking a plane back in 1972, along with four other members of the black liberation army. all right, turning now to the republican presidential contenders, we're going to focus on the contenders now in the next hour.

ron paul gets another straw poll win in his race for the republican presidential nomination. he was the top vote getter in the values voter summit in washington. paul got 37% of the vote. herman cain second with 23%. and rick santorum with third with 16%. by the way, rick perry came in fourth and mitt romney was sixth, both in single digits. now to the continuing fallout over a perry supporter's remarks about mitt romney's religion. reverend robert jeffries said mormonism is a cult and romney is not a christian. later, cnn political correspondent jim acosta asked the pastor how he responds to voters who insist romney's religion should not be an issue. here's what he said. >> if you don't mind me saying, pastor jeffries, you created a bit of a stir coming out of that speech, because in talking to reporters, you said in pretty strong plain language what you

think of mormonism. you described it as a cult. and you said that if republican votes for mitt romney, they're giving some credibility to a cult. do you stand by that comment? >> absolutely. that's not some fanatical comment. that's the historical position of the southern baptist convention, they have officially labeled mormonism as a cult. i think mitt romney is a good moral man, but those of who are born again followers of christ should elect christian. >> what do you say to the voters out there who say that religion, his mormonism shouldn't be an issue in this campaign, he's just as american as everybody else. >> i agree he is just as american as anyone else and article 6 of the constitution -- >> and mormons say they are christians. they say that. they believe in jesus christ. >> a lot of people say they're christians and they're not. but they do not embrace

historical christianity and i, again, believe that as christians we have the duty to prefer and select christians as our leaders. that's what john j., first chief justice of the supreme court, said. i think when we have a choice as evangelic evangelicals, between rick perry and mitt romney, i believe evangelicals need to go with rick per. >> i as for rick perry, he was back in iowa this weekend. shannon travis joins us now from des moines. what has perry been saying about the pastor's comments? is he at all distancing himself or is he in large part agreeing? >> reporter: well, fred, while everybody else it seems has a lot to say about this controversy, the governor himself has very little to say about it. i've been covering him, as you mentioned, for past two days. he's been campaigning here in iowa. his response to the controversy basically boils down to six words. take a listen here, fred. he was asked on friday if he

thought that mormonism is a cult. take a listen. >> wanted to know if you associated yourself with the comments of the -- >> i answered your question, no, i don't think it is. thank you, all. >> reporter: no, i don't think it is. it is those six words and only those six words we have pretty much heard from the governor so far, fred. i was with him yesterday. that sound bite was from friday. i was with him yesterday again, and he was pressed yet again by reporters on this controversy. reporters said to the governor, governor, do you denounce these comments, do you stand by these words, do you have anything more to say and the governor did not want to go there, fred. >> all right. shannon travis, thanks so much. we're going to talk more now on this. we'll be checking back with you momentarily, shannon, by the way. meantime, let's talk a little bit more now about how a religious controversy is affecting the republican presidential race.

cnn political contributor will cane and emily rossen joining us now. will, is joining us from new york, hillary is in washington. good to see both of you. okay, so the pastor is a rick perry supporter. how does his calling mormonism a cult affect perry? hillary, you first? >> well, perry is going to have to talk about this, so it is silly for him not to address it right now. >> he has to say more than i don't think it is, meaning is mormonism a cult? >> people will keep asking him. on the other hand, mitt romney is lucky it is being dealt with early on in this primary. the issue is going to come up. there is a historical divide among the evangelical christian community, a good portion of the voter and romney in some aspects will benefit from this conversation being up and out early in the process. >> okay. well, will, doesn't it seem for a moment that perhaps this

discussion about romney being mormon actually wouldn't come up since it hadn't already? it seemed like very few -- no one really wanted to touch it, make it an issue? >> yeah, it hasn't. and, you know, at this point, i can't say that romney's religion won't play a part in this election. i have to say, fred, i think it is a little bit like arguing about the icing on a cake that nobody is very fond of. mitt romney's problem in the primaries will be about principles much more than religion. mitt romney is seen as someone untrustworthy in his principles, in his conservative principles. he's flip-flopped on abortion, flip-flopped on climate change, flip-flopped on regulation. i think this issue of religion may play a role in the primaries, but not a heavy role. and beyond that, in the general, i don't think it will play a role in the general election either. >> go ahead. >> what i was going to say, the first rule in politics is when your opponents are taking each

other apart, never get in the middle. as a practical matter, i think democrats will stay out of this and let perry and romney go at it for a while. >> some of the other republican candidates were asked about this. this is what herman cain had to say about this comparison between the mormon religion and the cult, as well as michele bachmann. take a listen. >> he's a mormon. that much i know. i am not going to do an analysis of mormonism versus christianity for the sake of answering that. i'm not getting into that. >> i think what the real focus is here, again, is -- on religious tolerance. that's really what this is about and i think, again, to make this a big issue is just ridiculous right now because every day i'm on the street talking to people. this is not what people are talking about. i was very open about my faith, very clear about my faith. it is very important. >> so, will, will this eventually become an issue that

even the candidates kind of sink their teethes into? their teeth into? >> eventually it may become -- it may become more of an issue eventually. what we're seeing here is these kaentds a candidate are going to have trouble attacking romney or catching romney in pointing out his palau flaws and principles. everyone has their spikes and valleys. herman cain is having his right now. i guess as we see this go forward and mitt romney, it becomes inevitable he will become the nominee, this comes up more and more from the candidates. but i don't think it is a big issue among the electorate. >> go ahead. >> the general prospect of what michele bachmann said, my god, i can't believe i agree with michele bachmann, the mormon church should not get an entire pass here. they're of the most politically active religious denominations ever, actively politicizing homosexuality, fights against women, the mormon church really

puts themselves into politics aggressively in a way that a lot of other religions don't. >> wie'll talk to you again momentarily. we'll talk more later on in this hour. thanks so much. there was a decisive winner of the values voter summit in washington. we'll hear from that winner after the break. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security

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learn more at usps.com/mail. all right, another quick look at the results from the conservative values voter summit straw poll. republican presidential candidate ron paul won the contest with 37% of the vote. herman cain finished second with 23%. and rick santorum was third with 16%.

so ron paul opposes the idea of a millionaires tax, even though polls show most americans support it. cnn's wolf blitzer asked the texas republican his thoughts on why the tax is so popular. >> well, because pure democracy sometimes leads to these ill advised positions. you know, when there is a war propaganda going on, and they drumbeat the war drums and everybody says 75% of the people want us to go to war and after ten years, they're sick and tired of it, doesn't mean it was right when 75% said something. this is the danger of pure democracy when you demagogue and attack somebody and say that we have to attack the wealthy. i don't mind criticizing, you know, the wealthy at times, and i criticize the bankers and the bailouts and the corporate people who got all the benefits, both when the financial bubble was being built, but then when it burst, they got bailed out and the people suffered. so -- but this doesn't mean we

should attack wealth for the sake of wealth. we should stop all the subsidies to the wealthy. anybody is getting wealthy because they get contracts from the government or because they're on the inside of the program where they get the bailouts, that's quite a big difference. we should stop that, but not blanketly penalize people who make wealth and who have created wealth and provided great services for the consumer. >> that seems to be a line you hear from a lot of the demonstrators, the occupy wall street demonstrators in lower manhattan right now. what do you make of the demonstrations? >> it is hard to tell because we don't know where they're coming from. i think it is going to be a mixed bag this is something i predicted for many years because i said that what would happen is eventually we would destroy our economy, jobs would go overseas, we would have inflation and we would encourage people to be independent, both the wealthy and the entitlement system means people believe they have rights to certain things from their neighbor or their government. but when the pie shrinks, there

will be a lot of anger. my guess would be there is a lot of people out there, some complaining about paying the bills and some who are scared to death and aren't going to get it. this is, you know, a symptomatic thing we're seeing and doesn't address the problem why do we have business booms and why do we have recessions and depressions and why do we have inflation. so unfortunately, this doesn't give us the answer, but i think it tells you something about the depth of the concern about the people in this country, something that i've tried to talk about for quite a few decades. >> i asked -- i spoke with a whole bunch of people about this issue, this occupy wall street demonstrations. i want you to listen to what one of your presidential advisers herman cain told the wall street journal about what is going on with these demonstrators in new york. listen to this. >> i don't have facts to back this up. but i happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the

obama administration. don't blame wall street. don't blame the big banks. if you don't have a job, and you are not rich, blame yourself. >> blame yourself, he said. what do you think about that? >> i imagine that applies to a few people in the country, but, no, i don't quite come at it that way because the system has been biased against the middle class and the poor. when you destroy a currency, you transfer wealth from the middle class to the wealthy because they have access to the capital and they have a lot of benefits and they get the bailouts. so the poor and the people losing their jobs, wasn't their fault that we followed a very deeply flawed economic system, so i am not so anxious to say, yeah, it is all your fault, if you want to be rich, you can be rich. people are begging and pleading for jobs, but there are no jobs as a consequence of bad economic policy. it is the fact that we still accepted the notion that central economic planning and central banking under the keynesian model can provide prosperity.

that's where the flaw is. to blame that on the average person that wants a job, i don't agree with that. >> other republican presidential candidates are weighing in on the occupy wall street protests. we'll hear what herman cain and newt gingrich are saying about it.

the voices of protesters are filling the streets again today in cities across america.

the occupy wall street protests are in their 23rd day. the movement started in new york and has spread coast to coast. one of our i reporters sent us this video from a rally in st. louis, protesters have gathered in washington this weekend, and one of them was arrested outside of the white house today after throwing a shoe at a police officer. and yesterday authorities used pepper spray on a graoup of protesters trying to enter the national air and space museum in washington. the museum shut down about two hours early. protests are also taking place on the west coast. this march in sacramento, california, was peaceful with no arrests reported. among other things demonstrators are angry over social and financial inequalities and what they say is corporate greed. our i-reporters have been turning out for some of the protest and caught some of the anger that is in the streets.

>> -- the crisis of america, something's wrong with our students going to college, get educated, and can't find a job. something's wrong in america! >> that's basically we're all here to do, express the frustration, we're not here to solve the problems, we're here to make people deal with the problems that are supposed to be dealing with them. and the more people that rise up, the more they'll be forced to deal with the problems. >> so what do the gop presidential hopefuls have to say about the occupy wall street protests? newt gingrich says he understands where the anger is coming from. but herman cain says he isn't even sure what the protesters want. >> i'm not sure what they're protesting. if all they're doing is trying to heighten the class warfare fight that is being stroked by

this president, i think that is a waste of time. secondly, if they're frustrated because they don't have jobs or because the economy is moving, they should protest the white house because of failed policies. thirdly, i happen to believe this is an intentional distraction to create in the media and in the minds of the american people so they won't focus on the failed policies of this administration? i think when you have over 9% unemployment, a failing presidency, you know, the truth is, with this level of failure, geithner should be fired as secretary of the treasurer, bernanke should be fired as chairman of the federal reserve, the dod frank bill should be repealed this week. we ought to have decisive action. if you're somebody out there and you've been looking around and you're beginning to figure out how come the big boys get all the billions of dollars, the big banks get all the billions of dollars, somehow the federal reserve and the treasury collude together on behalf of people that are already rich and nobody else gets a break. >> president obama is weighing

in on the occupy wall street protests. he said he knows protesters are frustrated with the country's financial problems, but he's also defending the need for a strong financial sector. >> the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works. now, keep in mind, i have said before and i will continue to repeat, we have to have a strong, effective financial sector in order for us to grow. and i used up a lot of political capital and i've got the dings and bruises to prove it in order to make sure that we prevented a financial meltdown. and that banks stayed afloat. and that was the right thing to do. because had we seen a financial collapse, then the damage to the american economy would have been even worse. but what i also said is that for

us to have a healthy financial system, that requires that banks and other financial institutions compete on the basis of the best service and the best products and the best price and it can't be competing on the basis of hidden fees, deceptive practices. >> republican presidential candidates are facing a much earlier primary schedule than expected. so what does that mean for their campaigns? we'll tell you straight ahead.

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all right, back to presidential politics in a moment. but first, as nascar winds down its season, you may think the checkered flag is the finale. well, driver tony stewart tells us how racing is impacting children in need. >> i'm tony stewart. we can make an impact on children in need. the prelude started seven years ago, just wanting to come up with a fun night of racing for everybody and we thought, well, while we're here, we can raise some money for charity. last year we introduced the team concept, took the entire field and split them up so they each represent one of the children's hospital. the winning team gets 30% of the proceeds. the higher the team finishes, the bigger the percentages of the proceeds. it doesn't just stop because the

checkered flag drops here. there is still a ways to go and be part of the charity and donate time. >> join the movement, go to cnn.com/impact. >> you can help nascar reach its finish line by going to impactyourworld.com. only superpages®. wherever you are, wherever you're going, you'll find the super business you need. so next time, let the good guys save the day. get the superguarantee®, only at superpages®. in the book ... on your phone or online. ♪ a couple years of up all night ♪ ♪ and a few thousand diapers later ♪ ♪ oh, yeah ♪ he loves that little girl [ male announcer ] all her life, she's been coming toward you. now that she's driving, she's going the other way.

♪ there goes my life [ male announcer ] thanks to state farm's steer clear program, teens learn safer driving and parents gain peace of mind. all right. you can tell it is political season because saturday night live is doing more political humor. last night, the popular comedy show featured a skit that poked fun of the prospects of another republican candidate joining the race for the white house. take a listen. >> the deadline for candidates to file to be primary eligible is october 31st. >> mm-hmm, that's right. >> would you be in favor of pushing that deadline back to give the party more time to find a viable candidate? >> well, obviously i think i'm a viable candidate. i mean, i'm not just a guy who

runs for president because i can afford to. >> oh. okay. yes, you. >> this tuesday govern chris christie announced he would not seek the republican nomination. have you considered calling him and trying to convince him to run? >> why would i do that? >> he's a great candidate. we were all going to vote for him, right? >> okay. >> how do write-in votes work, seriously, if we all wrote in chris christie and he won, he would have to be president, right? >> heck it all, heck it all to fudge, i tell you -- >> easy, everybody. [ applause ] >> oh, look at this. i didn't realize it was a meatball convention in town. >> i get that. >> okay. now listen up. you have to start showing governor romney some respect. i mean, how do you think he fails watching you like everybody more than him. >> governor christie, we don't

want to stay with him, we want you to run. >> it is not going to happen. i know you want me to run, but this, this can't go national. >> all right, "saturday night live" just getting started. all jokes aside, many republicans are not enthusiastic about the current gop playing field. here to weigh in on the reasons on that hilary rosen and in new york, cnn contributor will cane. good to see you both. hillary, you first. what is with the lack of enthusiasm? what's the problem? >> well, you know, you've got sort of more moderate or economically or yeients republis enthusiastic about romney, you got some excited about perry, the twain have not yet met yet. they may meet in iowa, new hampshire, you know, michele bachmann was hoping to slide up the middle. it looks like that lane will be taken by herman cain. it is pretty exciting. the most interesting thing,

though, is that new hampshire now has to compete with iowa for the date. iowa moved their date back to the beginning of january. if new hampshire wants to beat that, they're going to have to, you know, have their primary at christmas time. i think there is no more room for anybody else in this field. and now the issue is how quickly are rick perry and mitt romney going to end up getting rid of the rest of the field so that they can fight it out themselves for a couple of months. >> interesting. will, let's bring up the calendar one more time. you see how everything is being movedwonder if the candidates have to change their strategies because these caucuses and primaries will begin early. and they have got to do something. each candidate has to do something pretty significant to get out in front. >> i think that calendar has got to make herman cain or michele bachmann or rick santorum pretty happy, actually. if you look at this -- >> why? >> because what we have seen over the last couple of weeks is

we have seen two to three-week booms for various candidates. michele bachmann has a month long boom. herman cain is in the midst of his two-week long boom. we have five events in four weeks, five different states holding primaries in the month of january. that means one could catch lightning in the bottle, get momentum regardless of fund-raising or money or infrastructure and that plays to mitt romney's detriment. that's where he holds an advantage, in all of those categories. who knows who could catch lightning in a bottle and catch that moment in many one month's span. >> so catch some lightning in a bottle or deadly flu, so to speak. an early year set of primary caucuses could mean weeding out candidates earlier than anticipated. >> i think that's right. will raises a good point, potentially it is anybody's ball game, but i just don't think that republican voters really see michele bachmann or herman cain as, you know, ready for primetime. and i think that calendar is not

going to help them. all of the money right now is going to romney and perry. they're the ones who are going to be able to compete in a big state like florida. let's say they end up splitting iowa or iowa does what iowa has always done, which is they nominate somebody who ends up not moving much farther than that state. florida is going to be expensive to compete in. they have to go into south carolina. this is going to take a lot of money and so far all of the money split between perry and romney. >> wow, all right. will -- >> real quick, uh-huh. >> i want to say, hillary is right. michele bachmann, herman cain, these are not competent alternatives. where hilary was wrong, the economic conservatives are excited about mitt romney. let me explain something, nobody is excited about mitt romney. they just failed to find a competent alternative. they failed over and over. that's why chris christie in the "saturday night live" skit held so much power. >> we'll talk again, but, money,

money, money makes the difference no matter what. you may talk about romney -- people not being excited about him, but if his pockets are the deepest, he has the most money, he has the advantage, right? >> support is begrudgingly shuffling their feet over to his side and will end up over there, yes. >> will cain, hilary rosen, thanks so much. appreciate it. let's talk about a name that is not being mentioned a whole lot, especially when it pertains to the straw polls, jon huntsman. he's focusing on new hampshire. we'll hear what his strategy is next.

republican presidential candidate jon huntsman is in new hampshire today for a town hall meeting. he's focusing on the state as he struggles nationally. cnn political producer rachel strifeld is there. what is his strategy now in that state? >> reporter: we have seen him fail to gain traction in national polls. so he's really moving the whole campaign up here to new hampshire and several recent state polls he's gotten more support than he has gotten national. he gets about 8% or 10% in state wide polls of

he's moving his headquarters to new hampshire. this is a state that awards quirky candidates. there are a lot of independent voters here. it is a small state, which means a candidate doesn't have to put out a lot of money to get his message across. he has to shake a lot of hands and host a lost tot of town hal. one person asked him how as a republican he could have taken a job under barack obama as u.s. ambassador to china. let's listen. >> i understand that there is probably a percentage of people in my party who will say no way, no how, are we going to vote for huntsman because you work for a democrat. that's okay. i'm willing to live with that. but i am who i am. i'm not going to pander. i'm not going to sign silly pledges. i'm not going to make a trip to do new york and meet with don trump. i'm going to tell people the way

it is. >> that's huntsman sort of summarizing his policy there. we'll hear him talk more about his experience as u.s. ambassador to china tomorrow when he unveils his foreign policy speech. this is an area where huntsman feels he has a leg up on his gop competitors. since he has been u.s. ambassador to china and singapore, also deputy u.s. trade rep. we'll see how that colors his speech tomorrow when he outline his plan for the u.s. foreign policy. >> what is the reception been like? does he score any additional points for the people there in new hampshire because he's setting up his headquarters there? >> you know, we do see a lot of interest in huntsman here. this town hall, there are people standing on the sides. but he appeals to a lot of moderates. there are people who said i voted for democrats before, but i'm interested in you, tell me about your thoughts on health care, the economy, so he's definitely getting a fair shake here. people like to hear a lot from their candidates in new hampshire so we're far away from anybody making up their mind. >> rachel, thanks so much in new london, new hampshire.

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♪ republican front-runner mitt romney is laying out his vision on foreign policy. the former massachusetts governor spelled out his strategy this week during a speech to cadet at the citadel

in charleston, south carolina. >> first, american foreign policy must be prosecuted with clarity and resolve. our frends and allies must have no doubts about where we stand. and neither should our rivals. if the world knows we're resolute, our allies will be comforted and those who wish us harm will be far less tempted to test that resolve. second, america must promote open markets, representative government and respect for human rights. the path from authoritarianism to freedom and representative golf is not always a straight line or an easy revolution, but history teaches us that nations that share our values will be reliable partners and stand with us in pursuit of common security and shared prosperity. third, the united states will apply the full spectrum of hard and soft power to influence

events before they erupt into conflict. resort to force is always the least desirable. and the costliest option. we must therefore employ all the tools of state craft to shape the outcome of threatening situations before they demand military action. the united states should always retain military supremacy to deter would be aggressors and to defend our allies and ourselves. [ applause ] >> and know this, if america is the undisputed leader of the world, it reduces our need to police a more chaotic world. fourth, the united states must exercise leadership and multilateral organizations and our alliances. american leadership lends credibility and breeds faith in

the ultimate success of any action and attracts full participation from other nations. american leadership will also focus multilateral institutions like the u.n. on achieving the substantive goals of democracy and human rights enshrined in their charters. too often those bodies, well, they prize the act of negotiating over the outcome to be reached. and shamefully they can become forms for the tantrums of tyrants and the airing of the world's most ancient of prejudices, anti-semitism. the united states must fight to return these bodies to their proper role, but know this, while america should work with other nations, we always reserve the right to act alone to protect our vital national interests. >> rival gop candidate herman cain is touting his tax reform plan. he insisted his 999 plan would

not cause lower income americans to pay more in taxes, than they do now. >> 999, you love to talk about this, so this would be your plan would be to have everybody pay 9% of their gross income and the only thing you can deduct is charitable contributions. >> correct. >> 9% corporate tax rate. >> yes. >> now at 35%, just for the purposes of comparison. and then 9% sales tax or consumption tax. >> yes. >> so the criticism of this has been, a, it won't raise enough money as much money as is needed and, b, it is really regressive because i would pay the same amount for a blouse in taxes as someone making $10,000 a year. and that's regressive. it is not fair. >> let me start with the first one about how much revenue it will raise. the people who are saying it will not be revenue neutral, they are absolutely wrong because they did a static

analysis. we had this done with the dynamic analysis, with an outside independent firm, so they are making an erroneous assumption, relative to regression, no, it is not. if you take a family of four and $50,000, $25,000, start with the fact that if they're getting the paycheck, they pay 15.3% in the payroll tax like you pointed out earlier. >> social security. >> social security, medicare. so that 15.3 becomes 9%. that's a 6 percentage point differential. let's take somebody making $50,000 a year. we can do it for 25, 50, doesn't matter. you now have -- they will pay in taxes based upon standard deductions, standard exemptions, making $50,000 a year, family of four, they pay over $10,000 in total taxes. go to the 999 plan. they're going to pay $4,500. they have a $5500 gap to apply

to the sales tax. if the person applies that to both new and used goods, they will come out just fine. >> is there any exception, as you see it, in this consumption tax? except for clothing perhaps, except for food? would food be a consumption -- >> no, you don't have to do that. >> no food. clothing? >> no. because that 6 percentage point difference makes up for a lot of the sales tax that people will have to pay. here is the thing that people don't -- >> i'm sorry, i think i might misunderstood you. you would make an exemption for food and clothing? >> no. you don't need those exemptions. >> so we're all paying the same amount for groceries. does that sound right to you, just in a vacuum? >> yes, if they are paying for hard goods which are used, they

pay no taxes. they have an opportunity for them to leverage their income. >> and we're heading back to iowa, where the texas governor has been shaking hands and seeking votes there. hear how he thinks the country should move forward. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet,

and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from.

all right, back to iowa now where officials are talking about moving their presidential caucuses up to january 3rd. our political reporter shannon travis is there again this weekend and so was rick perry. so how is the texas governor being perceived there, shannon? >> reporter: he's actually been well received, fred. i mean, at the few events i covered on friday and on saturday, a lot of people weren't talking about the controversy that we were talking about earlier. they wanted to know governor perry's position on illegal immigration. there is a little bit of controversy about the texas law that provides in state tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants. they also pressed -- some young people pressed them yesterday on social security what would happen to their social security. but take a listen at governor perry saying something yesterday at the stop i was at, talking about freedoms that will free the u.s. from the grip of the

bad economy. >> the answer to our crisis is not the expansion of more government in our lives, but it is the rebirth of freedom. that's what is going to be the answer for this country. bringing back prosperity by enlisting america's greatest economic advantage and that is freedom. we know freedom works. freedom -- freedom works and we got to have freedom from more government. we got to have freedom from more taxation, freedom from more regulation. just imagine a minute, if you will, an america where we set our people free, where employers are freed up from overregulation, where those job creators will once again be able to have the confidence that they can risk their capital, they can create the jobs that will in turn create the wealth. americans being able to get back to work, stop worrying about whether they're going to be able to meet the mortgage bank, whether they're going to be able

to put food on the table, whether they're going to be able to put gas in the tank, families be able to get ahead again. >> reporter: so governor perry repeating much of his stump speech there. to his criticism of the obama administration, that's what he's trying to focus on, his record on jobs in the state of texas. and as we mentioned earlier, he's not paying much attention or not speaking that much about the controversy over pastor jeffries remarks about mormonism. fred? >> shannon travis, thanks so much, appreciate that. what about the candidate michele bachmann. is her campaign imploding? we'll put that question directly to the republican presidential candidate next. that makes a chocolate so smooth and creamy, you don't just taste it, you feel it. ♪ do you believe in magic? ♪ ♪ it's magic ♪ [ male announcer ] it's a comfort that comes from the only caramel worthy of being wrapped in gold. ♪ do you believe in magic?

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straw poll voters at the values voters summit in washington may favor ron paul as their presidential candidate, but they want michele bachmann as their vice presidential nominee. herman cain came in second in the vp straw poll, followed by marco rubio from florida and rick santorum of pennsylvania. so bachmann isn't doing as well in the presidential poll.

cnn's candy crowley asked the minnesota congresswoman if her campaign is in trouble. >> it appears that your campaign is imploding. what has -- why has there been such downfall in the national polls and the state polls for you? >> well, your assessment is completely inaccurate. it is not true at all. we're just starting a kickoff today of four days here in new hampshire. and we have add had a wonderful experience in iowa and we have been in south carolina, florida. we worked very hard and we have very strong numbers in those states and we're looking forward to continuing that. i'll be doing several town halls today in new hampshire and we look forward to it. let me correct you. we did not participate in the florida straw poll. we didn't participate at all. so the ranking is completely inaccurate. >> let's take new hampshire, which they just put out a poll, your favorability there was 29% in july. it is now something like