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tv   Glenn Beck  FOX News  July 25, 2009 5:00pm-6:00pm EDT

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what authorities think they know about the suspect. >> and president obama calling the gap between what small business and big companies pay for employee health care, unacceptable. the president is citing a new white house study that says small businesses pay up to 18% more to provide health insurance for their employees and the president says that must change. the health care debate in cash cane with more on that from molly. >> president obama is trying to refute his republican critics who say this health care reform proposal is going to raise taxes on small businesses and cost jobs. today the president cited that new report from the white house council of economic advisors showing that the disparity we know who large and small businesses pay for health insurance. he said the democrats plan in congress will set up an insurance exchange where small businesses can shop around for an insurance plan that's the
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best fit for their employees. >> small businesses will receive a tax credit to help them pay for it. if a small business chooses not to provide coverage, its employees can purchase high quality affordable coverage throughout insurance exchange on their own. >> but republicans point out that a house version of health care reform hits small businesses with a tax up to 8% if they don't provide health insurance. and the senate plan would require mom and pop shops who don't offer health insurance to pay a tax of $750 a year for each worker. and the gop says the democrats plan is, quote, a prescription for disaster. >> the democrats plan is bank banked -- rolled bay tax, most jobs will evaporate. americans have every right to ask where are the jobs? >> representative rogers says republicans want to allow small
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businesses to come together and buy health insurance as a group to help lower costs. gregg? >> molly, live in washington. >> remember the lakawana6? in 2002, they were a group of young americans living in suburban buffalo, rounded up in an f.b.i. agent raid. and charged with being members of an al-qaeda sleeper cell. the six later convicted for supplying support fort terror organization. a new report finds the bush white house in the month after 9-11 considered an unprecedented use of military might to nab these terrorists. now more from washington. >> in the wake of 9-11 with heightened security concerns in this country, the bush administration was reportedly considering the idea of sending the u.s. military into a major american city to arrest terror suspects. the "new york times" reports administration officials in 2002 debated the idea of sending troops into buffalo, new york to
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apprehend men suspected of plotting with al-qaeda. that group was the lakapana6. president bush ordered them arrested by the f.b.i. which had been monitoring that group of yemeni americans. five were arrested near buffalo in sent of 2002. another was picked up in bahrain. they all pleaded guilty to terrorism related charges. sending the military would have raised legal questions since the constitution bans unreasonable search and seizure and 1878 law prohibits the military from acting in a law enforcement capacity. military man, i was asked, i would have so no, i don't believe you need to do it because we'reh@ trained. it's very important to us and we're not trained to be law enforcement. we're good at other things. so my recommendation to him would be don't do it. >> have dick cheney or thedly urged him to consider sending the military, urging the wake of
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security warranted a move. he relied on a justice department memo saying the president, quote, has amp constitutional and statutory authority to make such a move. at least one top level meeting was held to discuss the idea and at the meeting, there was strong opposition from national security advisor condoleeza rice and f.b.i. chief robert muller. >> thank you so much. >> and now to the political crisis in honduras. the ousted president trying to get back to his homeland ever so briefly. the former leader stood on the edge of his country and called on his fellow hondurans to resist the coup installed government and quickly went back to nicaragua, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed and give negotiations another try. now more in honduras. steve, talk to us about the situation on the streets there. is it dangerous, chaotic? are there protests?
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>> certainly did seem chaotic yesterday along that border area when you had a former president or ousted president trying to get back into his own countries with news cameras and soldiers 25 yards away. that certainly could have gotten dangerous in a hurry. it did not. but the scene on the streets here in the capital is quite different than that. stores are open, traffic is owing. it would be hard pressed to understand by going around the capital to know this is a country whose president was ousted by the military less than one month ago. >> we were watching it simultaneously yesterday as we had the cameras on nicaragua and hon dura border as he was straddling. when he crossed the border, why did he go back? >> the move was geared to try and draw attention to his plight. every country in the hemisphere condemned this coup and yet a month on, it's still going on.
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he was trying to draw attention. of course, he did think the people might rally to him, the soldiers who lay down their guns. that certainly did not happen. if he does cross, the interim government says he will be arrested and could face charges of treason and up to 45 years in jail. so he said he wanted to avoid bloodshed. the other fact weighing on his mind is he could face arrest and a long to him in jail if he did make that crossing. >> chavez is anti-american, is he play ago role in this? >> he certainly is a close ally and hugo chavez has been a figure for a lot of leaders, leftist leaders in this part of the world. chavez got elected with a lot of support from the very poor in venezuela, the accumulated power and changed the constitution to allow him to run for president for the rest of his life. he's got a lot of imitates and there was fears here that he was
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trying to become another hugo chavez. they didn't want to let that happen. >> steve, thank you. an emergency landing at logan international. the puerto rico bound flight returning when smoke was detected in the cabin. the 757 carrying 185 passengers and crew, everyone on board are okay. the plane grounded and travelers had to be rerouted on other flights. the origin of the smoke is still under investigation. world wide protests demanding the release of iranian detainees, demonstrators from around the globe calling for the release of opposition supporters. they've been detained since iran's controversial presidential election last month. hundreds of thousands of iranians taking to the streets following that election. the iranian government also barring journalists from covering the protest. at least 20 people killed in the violence.
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thunderstorms sweep across southwestern wisconsin dumping more than three inches of rain, even tennis ball-size hail. not golf ball. tennis ball. ripping off the sides of some businesses. the storm knocking down trees and power lines all across the area. winds up to 60 miles per hour. domenica davis has more. hi. >> really nothing like that today. but storms weakened considerably. we still have a few causes for concern. severe thunderstorms warning that arose pushing into parts of new york and then down to the ohio valley and the kentucky area. we have our watch bes up. central kentucky, and then western new york, central pennsylvania, both of these white boxes go until 9:00 o'clock local time. then the storms slide off to the east, weaken even further. as far as what we're looking at today with these severe thunderstorm warnings and even looks like we have a tornado warning now north of baltimore,
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is really it's not too bad. hail and a few strong wind gusts knocking tree limbs down might be some power outages. again, those storms have weakened significantly. we do have radar indicating rotations in one of the cells sitting to the north of buffalo. we'll check that out and bring you updates as needed. otherwise the storms slide off to the east after midnight and push along the coast. for sunday, from parts of boston, new york, and down even into the baltimore area, you may be looking at a few showers to start out sunday morning and that will slide away by the evening. to the south, looking at moisture that is bringing up some showers and even a few rumble the of thunder through the louisiana area and then off again to florida. that is the latest from here. >> all right. thank you very much. weigh heard a lot about the blue dog democrats. who are they? they are a group of 50 plus conservative and moderate democrats and where do they get the name? interesting name. it has roots in the south.
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taken from a long time prescription of party loyalists, one that holds democrats would vote for a yellow dog if it added d next to it on the ballot. they added the label in the 1990s becau they found their views had been, quote, choked blue by their party. >> that would be an sin ultimate to old yeller, wouldn't it? speaking of congressional politic, right now there is a good deal of disagreement on just how to deal with health cared> good to see you both. representative, let me start with you. you may have seen the study by the president's council of economic advisors. the president talking about it
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today. it shows that small businesses pay almost 20% more than big companies to provide workers with health insurance. does health reform need to remedy that tremendous disparity and don't the democratic proposals do precisely that? >> well, yes, we do need to have a reform for small businesses and for years, we've been working on this. but we don't need a revolution. what we need is associated health plans so that small businesses can band together and get the same discount and the same benefits that large companies, like the federal government, or microsoft or any of those big companies. >> yeah. greater exception. i never understood why there are borders where insurance companies can and cannot compete, makes no sense. congressman, republicans had
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their own study. that one determined that the democrat-written proposals would destroy a million more jobs than the economy has already lost. my goodness. can we really afford that at a time of rampant unemployment? >> we had a hearing earlier this year in the ways and means committee and the representatives was there sitting next to a small business person who was urging us to pass this bill and basically said you don't represent me. we all know you can get groups to say anything you want. that is one report out that came out this week. but by the economic institute that said our proposal, house proposal would save every small business $3,500 per employee. the numbers are all over the place. i think what judy -- judy is a great woman. we worked together on a number of things. what we all know the small businesses suffer. i was a small businessman.
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the rates are very unpredictable and part of the problem is there isn't competition. just letting them join in a group, particularly if they can compete across the nation -- >> then let them compete. both of you would agree, let the insurance companies compete across state lines. >> well, that's a whole other issue. but -- >> it's a great issue. it's a great solution, isn't it? >> our plan does that. it sets autopsy competitive environment through the insurance of exchanges and forces them to compete also. not just with each other, but with a public option and the vast majority of american people appreciate. we do use exception. >> representative, when the president argues that this very expensive health care bill is not going to add a single penny to the deficit, do your constituents believe that? >> no. my constituents don't believe it and they think that, again, the
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taxpayers are going to be hit and it's been said that this plan is going to cost over a trillion dollars -- a trillion six dollars and what are we going to do? even the congressional budget authority came in and said, this plan is going to increase costs. it is not going to make any dent in the cost. that's one of the things we all want is what everybody wants is a reform that is cost containment and it's not happening. >> congressman, a trillion dollar health care bill that's going to save money, i mean, i got it tell you, some of the e-mails i get say i may be dumb, but i'm not stupid. nobody is going to buy that argument, are they? >> i mean, i understand it sounds counter intuitive, but you have right now a situation and we've tried to talk to the cbo and say what if we do nothing and don't reform the
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system and everyone agrees we're headed for a disaster? $37 trillion in more debt in medicare alone. >> do you need to spend 1.6 trillion? >> it's not that. it's absolutely -- slightly over $1 million a year for ten years. >> when does the government plan done anything but commit a cost overrun? >> we're working on some of those. >> i've never seen one that comes in on budget or underbudget. >> the problem is -- they operate more efficiently than the insurance. >> medicare operates because it's subsidized by the other plans. this is the problem. we're going to end up with not just a public option, but a government-run program that is going to be funded by 8% surtax on people, 8 on businesses, on small businesses, all of that is
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going to cost a lot more because we won't have those insurance plans anymore. >> congressman, i want to bring in the last question to you because you brought tup of the house ways and means committee and their actions and last week as you know, every single democrat on the ways and means committee voted down an amendment that would prevent illegal aliens from getting government health care. are you with them or are you in favor of giving public health care to illegals? >> first of all, the law doesn't allow any immigrant to receive benefits under this plan. the amendment, what it does and -- this is one of the in the weed things, it gave private companies access to social security data in order to verify. if that's against the law, that's why we had to vote against it. >> so you are not in favor of public health care for illegals. correct? you're on record? >> i am not in favor of public funds to finance health care for illegal immigrants. >> thank you very much for being with us.
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julie? >> some frightening moments from a deployment ceremony in washington state. take a look at this. a toddler was almost hit by an armored vehicle at fort lewis. the sergeant saw the little boy, ran after him, scooped him up and grabbed him before the vehicle actually hit the boy. the crowd cheered and the sergeant scooped up the boy in his arms. the ceremony did continue after the mishap. this is the third iraq tour for this brigade. they leave in the next few weeks. a young father protecting our border gunned down in cold blood and now the search is on for his killer or killers. we'll have an update on the investigation next.
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it's time for a look at the latest headlines. the hunt is on for the suspects accused of killing an american border patrol agent shot and killed on thursday. federal investigators combing the hospitals for at least two suspects who may have been injured in the gun fire with the agent. what's next for soon to be ex alaska governor sarah palin? the former republican vice presidential candidate leaves her post tomorrow. many are wondering what her next move might be. >> harvard professor henry lieu questions gates junior says he will accept president obama's invitation to attend the white house with the officer who arrested him. >> the federal agents on the hunt for a killer, now combing hospitals searching for anyone who may have been injured in a gun fight that left a patrol agent dead.
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now the story. >> reporter: u.s. border patrol agent robert rosas a seeking justice. he was gunned down during duty and now his fellow agents are pledging to capture the people who did it. >> everybody is disgusted that a criminal can do this. violence against the agent. >> this video captured shows the scene where he was. investigators say -- others responding heard the gun shots and then had no luck reaching him. they found agent rosas in a mountainous area near the borrowed and found his body outside of his vehicle, shot several times. agents are unable to confirm whether or not he was able to fire back, but say they do have one lead. they believe one of the suspect the involved was seriously injured during the attacks.
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>> a gunshot wound, we do believe it was a wound significant enough to cause a bleed and would have or could have required treatment, which is why we're asking for assistance. >> reporter: investigators are asking for help from both sides of the border, from anyone who has information or may have given treatment to someone with a suspicious injury. they're now offering a a $100,000 reward. in the meantime, rosas leaves behind a wife and two children. he was 30 years old. >> it's a harsh reminder of how dangerous our job is. so we have to remind you that this is a dangerous job. we have to all be alert and vigilant and be ready for anything. >> the f.b.i. is asking anyone, anyone at all with any kind of tip or information that could lead to an arrest, please call. 858-565-1255.
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unacceptable situation for an american border patrol agent to be killed like that. feel like you're being treated differently when you go to your doctor's office? there is a new study and it says you might be right. patients, many doctors admit, having a bias against.
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welcome back. it's the bottom of the hour. the search for a killer, authorities trying to track down who ever shot a border patrol agent to death. an american border patrol agent. the f.b.i. is offering a a $100,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. >> police under attack in eastern afghanistan. taliban fighters wearing suicide vests carrying ak47s, storming the station, some of the terrorists have been killed. >> and a final farewell, britain's last world war one veteran has died.
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he was 111 years old. right now on the beautiful sight from the international space station where shuttle endeavor astronauts are orbiting earth. look at that. that's happening right this minute. 40 years ago this weekend, our astronauts had just gone from taking one small step for man to a successful splash down in the pacific. today the uss hornet is celebrating 40 years since the apollo astronauts safely returned to earth from the moon. julyly wasn't there, i don't think, because she wasn't born of the but that's where we find our own casey spiegel who is live in almeda, california. you weren't even born yet, were you? >> why are you putting me on the spot like that? >> he's putting himself on the spot 'cause he's older than us. >> that's right. i agree with you. we'll go with that option. celebration really on a
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beautiful day here in the san francisco bay area and whether you are a history buff or not, you don't have to be one to appreciate the beauty of what we've got back here behind me. i want to step out of the way and let you take a live look for yourself. this is the uss hornet and it docked here in the san francisco bay, it was built during world war ii and fought battle the in that war and then did tours of vietnam. she was perhaps best known for her mission 40 years ago, july of 1969, that is when the massive aircraft carrier was responsible for pulling the apollo 11 astronauts and space capan capsule. president nixon landed there to meet neil arc strong and his crew. buzz aldrin is here. we talked to him. he's among many who are out here for the splash down 40th anniversary aboard the famed ship. the uss hornet has been turned into a floating museum of sorts
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and folks can come to see replicas of the apollo 11 capsule and the helicopter used to pluck the astronauts out of the water. you can even walk in the very spot where neil armstrong first placed his feet on the ship after walking on the moon. of course, a big weekend full of events because it is the 40th anniversary, but this thing is open year round. if you make your way up to the san francisco bay area, you should really check it out. it is incredible. also adds i mentioned, we just interviewed buzz aldrin and we'll hear from him coming up on the fox report. gregg and julie, back to you. >> that's big. wow. huge. casey. >> when you toss back to gregg -- >> say granddad? >> i'll file that away. i wasn't going to go there. >> his mother is here in the studio, i'm going to ask her what year you were born. closely guarded secret.
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>> all right. from the space celebration on earth to outer space, the hubbell space telescope capturing dramatic picture of a new star on jupiter. it's believed a comet or asteroid collided on july 19. this is the first observation following its repair and upgrade in may. nasa decided to pull it out of test to go tate image, believing the magnitude of this is very rare. >> a bunch of astronomers astroe saying jupiter saved us many, many times. all right. travel in leisure magazine out with their list of airports most likely to leave you grounded. don't say we didn't tell you. topping the list, newark, liberty international airport. 30% of its flights delayed over a one year period beginning in april of 2008, making the list of the worst airports. i could have told you.
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this chicago o'hare coming at number two. i love you folks in chicago, but your airport needs to be fixed. 27% of its flights delayed. they have bad weather. miami, number three, with 26%. dallas and jfk and la guardia. the number four at 24%. san francisco, rounding out the top five. travel and leisure did see a glimmer of good news. they improved overall departure time. even newark improved by 3%. >> that's always good news. i'm still afraid to fly. >> you are. you have no idea how afraid she gets. >> i have the worst aerophobia. it's worst than a lady bug crawling on my arm. i'm afraid of bugs. moving on. what a time for a federal reserve chairman bernanke? he's had to lead during the biggest economic crisis since the great depression and some
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areeady for him to go. lawmakers are raise -- bernanke testified in defense to police big companies. what brought this on and what will happen with ben bernanke? let's ask the president of private wealth strategies. thank you so much for talking to us. bernanke term is up in january. was it something he said in his testimony on capitol hill this week that brought this on? >> i don't think it's that. i think what you've got here is you -- let's remember that the fed chairman is a holdover from the previous administration. the bush administration, and since the democrats came into power, he may very well have a bull's eye on his back since that time. i think the issue here is trying to separate whether or not there is a better, more qualified man or woman for that position or if this is a great deal of
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political posturing to take the spotlight off other people or other issues and put it on the fed chairman. >> some lawmakers are raising red flags against expanding the fed's power, but there is a big difference between expanding power and kicking him out and it's not bernanke, then who? >> there sure is a big difference between expanding the power and kicking him out. the question of who, i think if you look at the idea of expanding the fed's power, that's not unprecedented during times of price and i think nor is it unwarranted. let's face it, whatever we had in place for regulatory oversight certainly failed us and did a great deal to put us in the current economic crisis. the old saying, the golden rule, he who rules the gold makes the rule. the federal reserve has the gold, maybe they should be enforcing the rule. >> bernanke said he wanted to ban the fed regulatory powers. what kind of regulating a financial firm is needed and who should do it if not bernanke?
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>> well, i think that what you're going to see, like you do in the result of anything where a system breaks down, it's the people that were responsible, whether it be -- that played a part or could have done more, whether it be the firms themselves and internal risk management departments, whether it be former nasd and fdc, whether it be the ncse, whether it be state regulators, et cetera, everybody is going to step up their game as a result of this and do a better job. i firmly believe that they will. but again, i think you need the more oversight the better right now. we can't have this happen again and whatever oversight is put into place, i think it's got to get out there. the american people got to know that this is being taken very seriously and not going to happen again. >> i want to point out something interesting that you said. you think wall street firms or if you think wall street firms and banks, anyone out there, are
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ever going to place regulations above profits, you are sadly mistaken. >> i've been on wall street, 15 years. i will tell you this, from what i have seen, the pendulum does swing back and forth, but my experience has been is that at the end of the day, money and profits rule wall street, rule banking and rule the finance services world. i have never seen anything that tells me firms will ever learn how to go and sin no more. i'm sorry, but i just think that we haven't seen any reason to think otherwise and that's why we've got to get some stiffer regulation in place. >> all right. michael, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. master's champ and all around great guy and terrific golfer, phil mickleson looking to cash in off the course. he's among the group of businessmen that are bidding on the national based waffle house
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franchise, the golfers corporation offering 20 million bucks to buy over 100 waffle houses out of bankruptcy. the court appointed cfo calling it an exciting development. waffle house getting itself in trouble nearly a year ago, accused of not paying more than $2 million in payroll taxes. i love waffle houses. spend a lot of time there. maybe we could call them lefty's waffle house. >> when i was in virginia working for market 180 or something, abc affiliate, i used to go to waffle house at 1:00 in the morning. >> after you finished 11:00 o'clock. >> there wasn't much to do, so we used to go to waffle house. >> lots of memories at the old waffle house. if they could talk. >> yeah. but they are not low in fat. i just want to say that. this next story, add a new twist to tacking america's battle with the waistline. study finding many doctors have
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a negative reaction to obese patients and most physicians feel that treating obese patients is very frustrating. 30% of patients are obese. at least there may be a silver lining to the study. newer physicians expect more positive outcome when is it comes to treating weight gain. >> the blue dog democrats, julie gave you the definition, by the way. a pop quiz coming up. they're enjoying the spotlight with the president health care plan, but many groups are not too happy. they're keeping the bill from moving forward faster. why is that? we're going to tell you coming up.
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welcome back. it's being called the largest pot bust in the history of washington state. check this out. this is a literal forest of marijuana packing a street value of over $200 million. the county's deputies found about 25,000 plants there this
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week, reaching up to six feet tall. the sheriffs there believe the bust could have direct ties to the mexican drug cartel. wow. >> back to those blue dog democrats, the group of fiscally conservative and moderate democrats walking at the president's health care plan. the bill probably won't get passed in time. and that's not sitting well with most advocacy groups passed much sooner than later. let's bring in geoff blum, co-chair of health care for america now. thank you for talking to us. blue dogs and affordable health care. how much are they making this thing not happen? how much are they actually, i suppose, backing up against the president and keeping him from passing the bill that he wanted passed come august? >> julie, it's a democracy and we think what the president is doing is great. the legislative process has to work.
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we're worried about fixing the health care system for this country this year and we believe it's going to happen and blue dogs are raising important questions about cost, but they've also got to face up to other questions. some of their proposals would actually add significantly to the cost to the system. we're sure it will get whipped out and we are going to fight like hell to make sure that happens. >> when i go shopping, i like to read the fine print before i pay for it. we're shopping for a trillion dollar health care reform bill and none of us get to read it. the president doesn't even. i mean, you say that the out of pocket costs, talk about the out of pocket costs that would be involved in this health care bill. >> well, when you say the out of pocket costs, you mean the new costs that would come in? >> the new costs that would come in. >> look, to fix our health insurance system, we've got to figure out a way to bring costs down. there are only two big ways to bring them down. one is to squeeze away doubt and
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there is a lot of proposals to do that and the other is to invest in a system that works better like electronic medical records, coordinating care where we're learning what works best so we can have efficient high quality care. today what we've got for most people is some of them can get good care. nobody gets the cost efficient care, and the system is killing the family, it's killing the business, it's killing the government. we've got to change it and change it now and that's what advocates are saying and that's what the president got elected on and we think it's going to happen. but there is going to be a lot of back and forth before we make it to the final stage. >> the president wants to it -- it to happen now before the end of the year. if it does happen, what does one do? do you keep your current private insurance plan or do you join a new public health insurance plan? >> that's a really great, important question. here is the deal, this is america. we work on having people get choices.
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that's the essence of our system. what we believe is that today most people are stuck with one insurer, often because they have a job and they can't afford to change their job for fear they will lose insurance. what we want is choice and there are three choices under the president's plan that we support. you like what you've got now, you keep it. you want to get another private insurance company, you go into an exchange and there are other companies that are in play and then if none of that works for you, you have the option of a public plan and the public plan, because it's big and run by the government, so the people are controlling it, will put pressure on the private ones to bring their costs down. three choices. today we only have one. we think that's a pretty good thing. >> geoff blum, thank you very much. >> you have heard a lot about the controversy over the arrest of a black scholar by a white police officer. what's the back story here is the officer overreacted, the
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professor cross a line? a hazard of gates is going to be joining us, filling in the gaps. >> there was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you're there investigating, let alone the arrest of a professor. 
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welcome back. let's talk about the fire storm over professor gates' arrest. this is a controversy that president obama hopes that he is putting behind him. the president backing off after saying the police in cam bridge, massachusetts, quote, unquote, acted stupidly had they arrested
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him. while not exactly apologizing, he does see that perhaps emotions got the best of everyone. take a listen. >> i continue to believe based on what i have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling professor gates out of his home to the station. i also continue to believe based on what i heard, that professor gates probably -- >> you get the point there. joining us now from cambridge is a colleague of professor gates, orlando patterson a professor of sociology. thank you for being with us. as most of our viewers know, we do a preinterview to get your point of view and figure out where you're coming from. you told our booker, steven, the following and i'll quote you. if you're asking me if racial bias was involved, i would say yes. end of quote.
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and yet, professor patterson, a black sergeant and a latina patrolman were present during the entire confrontation said race played no role in the arrest. what makes you think that race did? >> the fact that a black policeman is supporting his fellow officer doesn't mean anything one way or the other. what i did say earlier was that it's a mixture of racial and class. there is a real tension in this city, a historic one, tension between working class whites and traditionally anglo whites who run harvard. there is a real problem between working class whites and
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especially police and upper middle class blacks. so what i said was that this was an unfortunate blend of class and racial bias here. >> let me ask you about the class component. if i may, professor. let me stop you there. >> there are many upper middle class blacks, including myself, who can tell you we have such incidents with the police. >> let me ask you about the class component that you have identified. if it's true that professor gates said, quote, i'll speak with your mama outside or you don't know who you're messing with, do you know who i am, was it professor gates who was being the class elitist here? >> that's possible. that's possible. but professor gates o is usually a calm person and someone who goes out of his way to establish
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racial harmony, why was he so irate? that's an important question to ask. and it's quite clear that he's very offended by the behavior of the policeman who is very disrespectful towards him, as they are very often with blacks and especially upper middle class blacks. >> mr. obama has portrayed his presidency has transcending race and yet, professor, it was the president himself who on wednesday night with no real knowledge of what happened in cambridge, assumed, he assumed race played a role in the arrest. what does that tell you about the president's view of race relations, maybe the president doesn't transcend race in his own mind. >> no, i don't think so. i think the president is very mellow, he grew up with a white mother and a white community and
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his natural tendency is towards being sort of harmonious relations in terms of race. and i think what the president was reacting to, he's human, after all, and he needed to recognize the situation. it was a white policeman being disrespectful to bring down an upper middle class black person. he could have stayed out of it, but locally here in cambridge, we do have a problem. a problem with city hall. a problem with the city manager who explodes and just fined $4 million for discriminating against a black woman. >> i don't want to get off on a tangent here, but the president said that he chose his words poorly. that's what he said yesterday. he didn't mean to malign sergeant crowley. the president sounded regretful,
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but some of mr. obama's advisors were absolutely adamant that the president not apologize and indeed, as far as we know, the president didn't apologize. what's wrong with apologizing? is the president above saying i'm sorry, i was wrong? >> there is nothing wrong with apologizing, but i mean, i think he went as far as the situation merited. the person who should apologize is the policeman and -- >> why should he apologize? >> because -- let's not forget the fact. a man was hauled out of his home and arrested for giving lip to a policeman. 's not against the law to give lip to a policeman. >> i'm a lawyer and if a crowd is forming and you're creating a situation that can incite the crowd, you can't stand behind the first amendment and say i'm entitled to do that, no matter where you are.
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>> the man is in his house in an upper middle class neighborhood. there is no crowd forming. there are a couple curious onlookers. >> you should check the police report and it's confirmed by both the latino officers and the black officer who were there during the entire confrontation, they say race played no role and they claimed the arrest for disorderly conduct, mind you, was absolutely merited. that's what they say and they were there. i wasn't there and you weren't there. >> he asked the policeman for his identification. i think he lied on that report. >> all right, professor, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all right. interesting interview. as always. that's going to do it for us. >> governor sarah palin stepping down tomorrow a year and a half
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before her first term is up as governor. what's next for john mccain's former running mate? could she be planning a run at the top of the ticket in 2012? that's next. i'll see you on the fox report at 7:00 o'clock.
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hello to you. >> welcome to a new hour of america's news headquarters. topping the news right now, a look at

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