macneil/lehrer productions >> president obama appeals to congress to stop what he termed a "political circus" in washington and pass a $450 billion jobs creation package. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey

brown. on the newshour tonight, an excerpt of the president's remarks. >> woodruff: and we get the latest on the rising floodwaters and evacuations inç the northeo and mid atlantic states. >> brown: ray suarez reports on the verbal jousting among g.o.p. presidential hopefuls at last night's debate. >> woodruff: tom bearden continues our coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with a look at how life has changed for air travelers since the terror attack. >> a lot of americans don't feel that they should be patted down. it's not necessary to be patted down. but when you try to take things on the plane that don't belong, then it is necessary. >> brown: and we close with a conversation with author amy waldman. her new novel imagines a 9/11 memorial designed by a muslimçç american. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> auto companies make huge profits. >> last year, chevron made a lot of money. >> where does it go? >> every penny and more wentç world. >> the economy is tough right now, everywhere. >> we pumped $21 billion into local economies, into small businesses, communities, equipment, materials. >> that money could make a big difference to a lot of people. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation.

dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was madeçç possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the president went before congress and the nation this evening with a much-awaited plan to create jobs. he called for roughly $250 billion in new payroll tax cuts and more than $100 billion in new public works spending. he also said the plan will be paid for, and he challenged republicans to meet the moment. the president spoke before a joint session of the house and senate. here is some of his address.çç

>> tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country. we continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless and political crisis that's made things worse. the people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities. the question tonight is whether we'll meet ours. the question is whether in the face of an ongoing national crisis we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy. [applause]çç the question is whether we can restore some of the fairness and security that has defined this nation since our beginning. those of us here tonight can't solve all our nation's woes.

ultimately our recovery will be driven not by washington but by our businesses and our workers. but we can help. we can make a difference. there are steps we can take right now to improve people's lives. i am sending this congress a plan that you should pass right away.3 it'cç called the "american jobs act." there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both democrats and republicans, include manage who sit here tonight -- many who sit here tonight. and everything in this bill will be paid for, everything. [applause] the purpose of the american jobs act is simple: to put more

people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. it will create more jobs for veterans and more jobs for long-term unemployed. it will provide... [applause] it will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working american and every small business. [applause] it will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled and give companies confidence that if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and services. you should pass this jobs plan right away. i realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy. some of youç that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.

[applause] well, i agree that we can't afford wasteful spending. an i'll work with you, with congress to root it out. and i agree that there are some rules and regulations that do put an unnecessary burden on businesses at a time when they can least afford it. [applause]çç that's why i ordered a review of all government regulations. so far we've identified over 500 reforms which will save billions of dollars over the next few years. we should have no more regulation than the health, safety and security of the american people requires. every rule should meet that common-sense test. [applause] but what we can't do, what i

will not do is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that americans have countedç oç for decades. [applause] in fact, this larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody's money and let everyone write their own rules and tell everyone they're on their own, that's not who we are. that's not the story of america. no single individual built america on their own. we built it together. we have been and always will be one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all, a nation with toç ourselves and with responsibilities to one another.

and members of congress, it is time for us to meet our responsibilities. [applause] but know this: the next election is 14 months away. and the people who sent us here, the people who hired us to work for them,uheyç don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months. [applause] some of them are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, even day to day. they need help, and they need it now. these are difficult years for

our country, but we are americans. we are tougher than the times we live in, and we are bigger than our politics have been, so let's meet the moment. let's get to work. and let's show the world once again why the united states of america remains the greatest nation on earth. thank you very much. god bless you. and god bless the united states of america.çç >> woodruff: we get reaction to the president's speech now from pair of economists who are steeped in both the policy and politics of washington. douglas holtz-aiken holtz-eakin is the president of the conservative american action forum, and heather boucher is a senior economist with the liberal-leaning center for american progress. her research focuses on employment and economic well being. good to have you both back with us again. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: heather boucher,

i'm going the start with you, first. what did you hear that you think can be effectiveç jobs, which is all the president was focused on tonight? >> so setting aside politics and whether or not he'll be able to get this passed through congress, i think the most effective piece, the pieces that earn the biggest bang for their buck are the investments in infrastructure and the extensions of the unemployment insurance program for the long-term unemployed. we know that over the great recession the extensions that we have done so far for benefits have kept about 1.6 million people in jobs each quarter because when you give money to people out of work, they spend that money in their communities and they keep other peoplejeñç jobs. so it not only helps those families, but it helps their communities and it helps job creation. that's what the president is trying to do. those monies spent on infrastructure and school rebuilding, those also have what economists call big multipliers, a big bang for your buck. you go out and start hiring folks, and they'll spend that money in their communities and there will be feedback loops. those are the things that will create the most jobs.

>> woodruff: doug holtz-eakin, do you think those as most effective if passed? >> i think i prefer to focus on the payroll tax cuts which also put money in the hands of american consumers to the extent they spend it, and i think there is an open question about whether the confidence and the debt levels will permit them to spend it, but if they dork you get the same thingser talked about, but you also getç goodç hiring incentives for employers, so they're more powerful by having two effects. >> woodruff: when you say confidence about debt level, what are you referring to? >> confidence and debt levels. americans have big debt levels. they have little confidence. it's by no means automatic they'll go out and spend the money. i think of it as the teenage sun theory of economics. they only think about today and if you give them sweets they eat it. americans aren't like that. there is no guarantee we get the second round of multiplier effects. if we do, that would be great. that's how it works in the textbooks. we didn't see a lot of that in the past. infrastructure is important, as well, because we know we need good infrastructure that is

bipartisan in nature.ç theç knock has been historically ranging from ronald reagan's public works program to the recovery act that they don't happen quickly, that they're misdirected for political reasons, we have hundreds, in fact, 100 transportation programs with silos that don't talk to each other. i'd much rather see that kind of spending done as congress should do, do its job, pass the transportation bill, pass the federal aviation bill. don't do it in this ad hoc fashion where we're more likely to waste... >> don't they take more time in >> they will take more time, that's why i think it's a poor vehicle for a jumpstart approach to the economy? >> woodruff: how do you respond? >> we have a big problem that's been with us far long time. i reject the notion we can't get m upç and running fast enough. we've put a lot of money out there. a lot of those projects have been started. there's been one on my street, sideways and in front of me for the past six months. it's been great, replacing water pipe, which is exactly what you want those dollars to, do and putting people to work. we can do it. we have been doing it.

i'll note that on u.i. piece... >> woodruff: unemployment insurance. >> those folks out of work a year or two, they'll spend that money. that's what we need them to do. >> woodruff: what about that piece of it, giving this additional assurance, insurance to people who are unemployed? >> unemployment insurance has a mixed recordçç in the contextf economic policy. we know people who are out of work need some help to look for jobs, particularly at the current time. we also know that if unemployment insurance becomes too generous, people stay out of the labor force too long. they lose their skills and it guess harder to reemploy them and turns out to be a disservice. so there's this jump between the textbook version of what goes on and what we've seen in the u.s. economy, and my concern about the construct of the president's policies is there's not enough new pieces. if you look around the globe at the strategies for economies

that grow slowly and have huge debt levels, the successful strategies have been keep taxes lower, reform them, no tax reform here, and reduce governmentçç spending. >> woodruff: i want to come back to that in a moment, but i want heather boucher to respond on the mixed record of unemployment. giving long-term unemployed extra insurance. >> right now you're looking at labor market that is the worst in generations for most workers who are unemployed. those folks out of work are out of work for record lengths of time and there are not enough job openings. while that may be true, the literature shows certainly in good times, in good times you don't want to be giving people a lot of unemployment benefits for a long period of time. you want them to go out and find a job. those are not these times and that research doesn't apply. many authors have come out and said, that's not what this labor market is. those people need those benefits. it's good for the economyç andç important for families. >> woodruff: we only have a couple minutes. >> that says ignore the evidence, this is different. the big problem is we meade the jobs. that's not going to create the

jobs. >> woodruff: it's sounding like from the reporting we're getting tonight that more than half of this $450 million going to payroll tax, which is what you cited. >> that's the strongest piece. >> woodruff: that's the bipartisan bit. so there is some togetherness on this. what about the president, at one point... i want to quote very quickly, he talked about this is going to provide a jolt to the economy, give companies confidence that if they invest and hire, there will be customers for their products anç services. is that... does that come across from what the president said tonight? >> i think there's no guarantee of that. one would hope. we see abysmally low levels of consumer and business confidence. there's no doubt we need greater faith in the future for us to be successful, but the notion that a jolt generates confidence is not a guarantee. if it was a guarantee, we'd have gotten it out of the 2009 stimulus bill and we didn't. >> i certainly think that we've seen over the summer, as congress pushed the economy over the debt limit debate that happened here, which was a

crisis of choice, you saw economic forecasters lowering their forecast for the economy. i think that what this president's trying to do right now is say, hey, we know howç ç solve these problems. we made a down payment on that over the past couple years. we've taken the right steps and we can increase spending out there, and that can create customers for businesses. >> woodruff: does what the president said tonight, doug holtz-eakin, get the conversation going about jobs? >> one certainly hopes some it's the number-one priority from whatever political perspective or economic perspective you might bring. so we do need for there to be a conversation like this. i think there's no question that on the ground the american public is sceptsd cal of the ability of the president of the united states, the congress, whether it'sç republicanror democrat, to be successful. so there's something to be proved. >> they made... the american public may be wary about whether or not this congress and this president can work together to make this happen, but polls show that people think that these are the right kinds of policies, that we shouldn't be getting tax cuts to the wealthy, we should be putting money on the street

and getting people to work. so i think that there's a lot of evidence that this can work, and it's great that we're focusing on this again rather than, you know, distractions. >> well, we're going the leave it there. we heard the president and we'll watch the reaction unfold tomorrow. and beyond. douwç holtz-eakin, heather boucher, we thank you both. >> brown: across the region, some 100,000 people were forced to evacuate due to flooding caused by remnants of tropical storm lee, already blamed for nine deaths across the gulf coast last weekend. this morning downpours in by this morning, downpours in northeastern pennsylvania turned even peaceful waterways into torrents.çç loyalsock creek raged through montoursville, 30 miles outside wilkes-barre, and fast-rising

water threatened the region with the kind of flooding not seen since hurricane agnes almost four decades ago. >> well, i lived here all my life, 56 years now, and it's the worst i've ever seen. i went through the '72 flood, and this actually is probably going to end up beating that. >> brown: in all, 70,000 people along the susquehanna river and its tributaries in pennsylvania were told to evacuate by late this afternoon. the orders stretched south to harrisburg, the state capital, where crews sandbagged the governor's mansion. governor tom corbett said someç >> some flood gauges can't give reliable data because they're so far underwater. we face a clear public health emergency, because sewage treatment plants, such as the one near hershey, are underwater and no longer working. as you know, flood water is toxic. and is polluted. if you don't have to be in the

water, stay out of the water. >> brown: the susquehanna was headed toward a crest this evening in wilkes-barre at 41 feet. elsewhere in the state, flooding in dover township engulfed a mobile home community.ç to god that it soon stops and it recedes. i'm hoping people don't lose a lot of their belongings, but it looks like there's going to be a lot of water damage. >> brown: and near silver spring, pennsylvania, the conodoguinet creek was flowing out of its banks, leaving nervous homeowners to decide whether to go or stay. >> i've never had it... this much fear going into this as i do right now of what the potential damage could be. it's scary, it really is. >> brown: to the north, some 20,000 people had already been evacuated wednesday around binghamton, new york, and there, the susquehanna broke

records and kept rising, and some people resorted to air boats to get around. across the city, it was hard to tell where roads used to be or to find this school's football field. only the scoreboard and goalposts still rose above the huge pool of water. shopping centers, cars, homes were all submerged. >> some of them have been so bad that we can hardly control the water coming in. as fast as we're pumping it out, it's coming right back in. other residents, they've only got an inch or two in the basement. we're still trying to get everybody out to a safe spot.ç concerned. >> it's a little scary, but i do know that the emergency crews have been taking good care of everybody, and at least where we're at, they're ready to evacuate and take care of everybody. >> brown: flooding in new york also closed a 100-mile stretch of interstate 90 along the mohawk river. to the south, paterson, new

jersey-- pummeled by hurricane irene-- faced new trouble as this new round of rain sent the passaic river rising again. >> it's still raining now, so what are we going to do? you're still concerned how muchç more it's going to come up. >> brown: in baltimore and suburban washington, d.c., water pooled when it had nowhere else to go. the rain was expected to subside over the next few days. late today, two towns in eastern maryland ordered well over a thousand people to move out of low-lying areas. i spoke with mayor thomas leighton of wilkes-berry, pennsylvania, where a mandatory evacuation order is already in effect. mayor leighton, thanks for joining us. so you are still expecting the crest this evening. what's the situation right now? >> right now, we're waiting for the river to crest at 41 feet. i believe we're at 38 feet. if you can see the bridge behinr me, you will see how close it is

from going over. but we're very confident in the dike system, that it will hold and we will be back in our homes on sunday. >> brown: that dike system is a levee system that i guess is relatively new. has it been tested at these kinds of heights? >> not at this kind of height, no. this will be a new record for this dike, the levee system. but you know, we're very confident that we're going to be okay. >> brown: now, how is the evacuation going so far? >> the evacuation, the city of wilkes-berry went very smooth. we put our emergency operation in effect starting yesterday. we knew we were going to have to evacuate people in the low lyinç areas and we have done that. we have he's great cooperation from all level of government-- the state government, county, local school district with the evacuation centers and residents. the business community cooperated when i asked them this morning to close their business to eliminate 15,000 people in our downtown so we could avoid a traffic congestion. so, things have run smoothly so

far, and under some real adverse conditions. >> brown: and what are you telling people about how long they might away for, what to bring, what to prepare for? >> we told the people, you know, plan on being out of their home for 72 hours.çç this was not going to be a 12 or 24 hour evacuation. we have to make sure once the river starts to recede that it's going to stay within the banks. and the city of wilkes-berry we have four creeks that run through the city. the one in south wilkes-berry is the one we're really concerned about, the salomon crook and this will be the third time in the last two weeks that we've had to evacuate the people from south wilkes-berry. so we want to make sure that before we put the people back in the comfort of their home that they are out of harm away. >> brown: so are there place for the people to go? are they going to shelters, do you know? and how are they handling it so far? >> they're handling it very well. the shelters are full right now. the shelters in the city of wilkes-berry are full. we opened one in hanover township at the hanover high school, and we have one opened up in plains township outside the city limits.çç

and it's been very... a very smooth operation so far. >> brown: people make the comparison to 1972, hurricane agnes, the big flood you had. but that's a long time ago. is this something that the city and its people prepare for in some way? >> well, we have prepared for it. this will be my seventh flood incident since i became the mayor in 2004. we have experienced this in 2004, september of 2004. we experienced it in 2006. so we have an operation, an emergency operation plan that we follow. and you know, we've been following it so far. and, knock on wood, everything we have asked has been done. the residents have been veryçç cooperative. the red cross has been out, you know, all night. our police, our fire personnel. everybody's really working hand- in-hand. it's been a solid cooperation. >> you mentioned the help you are getting from other parts of government. what kind of-- what kind of emergency help is coming in?

>> well, we have pema and fema officials coming in, i have a meeting... i have senator casey coming in, i have spoke when the governor last night and first thing this morning, made him aware of the situation. we've also spoke tone other officials it in the governor's office. i spoke with the senator and state representative. they are all concerned. they're all here to help. and you know, once the riverçç goes down and we have time to digest what we just went through, we're still going to have millions of dollars worth of damage. we have creek walls that have pulled away from the ground. we have some infrastructure problems that we're aware of. we'll be sitting down-- i think i heard a number in the city of wilkes-berry close to $3 million estimated damage right now. >> brown: what is your sense of how long this goes on, when are talking about when the river starts to go down? >> the river should start going down based on the prediction, and we'll get an update in the next couple of hours. but it should start going down sometime in the middle of the night. that's when we'll start-- we won't be relaxed until we get the people back in the comfort of their home.çç

but it should start receding this evening. >> all right, mayor thomas -- >> or early this morning. >> brown: mayor thomas leighton, thanks so much for joining us. and good luck. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: another in our series of stories about the tenth anniversary of the september 11 attacks. tonight, tom bearden looks at the decade of change for air travelers. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the cost of those texas wildfires rose sharply higher today. state officials raised the count of destroyed homes to nearly 1,400, all of them in bastrop county, just east of austin. as of today, the bastrop fire was about 30% contained. at least 5,000 people have beenç forced to flee that area, but some could be allowed back in tomorrow. two more nato troops have been killed in a roadside bombing in southern afghanistan. there was no immediate word today on their nationalities or the precise location of the attack. meanwhile, the afghan defense ministry said five afghan soldiers were killed yesterday in the east. in economic news, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke

said today the fed will consider a number of stimulus steps at a meeting later this month, but he gave no specifics. that disappointed wall street, and stocks fell in the closing hours of the session. the dow jones industrial average lost 119 points to finish at 11,295.çç the nasdaq was down more than 19 points to close at 2,529. the watchword was "compromise" as a congressional super- committee on the deficit met for the first time today. the panel was created as part of a deal struck in august to raise the nation's debt ceiling. the six republicans and six democrats have until thanksgiving to find at least $1.3 trillion in budget savings over the next decade. members pledged today to put aside partisan differences. >> a successful final product from this committee will not be one that any one of us would have written on our own if it... wi have to include compromises on all sides. >> i do not believe this committee alone will solve our nation's debt crisis. but a bipartisan negotiatedçç

reduction in the growth of our nation's debt would be a wonderful, needed, hopeful step in the right direction. >> sreenivasan: a failure to reach consensus would trigger automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion dollars over the next ten years in both defense and domestic spending. but republican senator jon kyl of arizona said today he would quit the committee if it considers additional defense cuts. the committee resumes its meetings next week. a federal appeals court in virginia has thrown out two lawsuits that challenged the president's health care overhaul.çç the suits, including one by virginia state attorney general ken cuccinelli, charged the federal government has no power to make people buy insurance. the court did not rule on the merits of the case. instead, it said the plaintiffs have no legal standing to sue, in the first place. similar challenges are working their way toward the u.s. supreme court. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy.

>> woodruff: the economy was also a big topic in last night's republican debate. there were eight candidates onstage at the reagan presidential library in simi valley, california, but most attention was focused on the two leading contenders for the nomination. ray suarez has our recap. >> as a matter of fact, weçç created more jobs... >> suarez: from the outset, the new republican front-runner texas governor rick perry and his top rivals former massachusetts governor mitt romney clashed sharply over who had the best record of job creation. perry slammed romney's record during his time as governor of massachusetts. >> governor romney left the private sector. he did a great job of creating jobs in the private sector, all around the world. but the fact is, when he moved that experience to government, he had one of the lowest job creation rates in the country. >> the states are different. texas is a great state. texas has zero income tax. texas has a right-to-work state, a republican legislature, a republican supreme court. texas has a lot of oil & gas in the ground. those are wonderful things. but governor perry doesn't

believe that he created thoseçç things. if he tried to say that, why, it would be like al gore saying he invented the internet. >> michael dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, mitt. ( laughter ) >> well, as a matter of fact, george bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, governor. (laughter) >> that's not correct. >> suarez: former utah governor jon huntsman is far down in the polls, but he tried to inject himself into the jobs debate by pointing to his own record. >> we're going to find solutions. and i have an offer for the two great governors over here. and i hate to rain on the parade of the great lone star governor, but as governor of utah, we were the number one job creator in this country during my years of service.çç that was 5.9% when you were creating jobs at 4.9%. and to my good friend mitt, 47 just ain't going to cut it, my friend, not when you can be first. we've got to remember, that to beat president obama, we have to have somebody who has been in the private sector, understands

the fragility of the free market system, has been a successful governor as it relates to job creation, and knows something about this world. i've lived overseas four times. i've been an ambassador for my country three times. i think i understand that. >> suarez: but the focus remained on perry and romney, who also slugged it out over social security. debate co-moderator john harris of politico@mnted to know about a passage in perry's book "fed up" which said the program was illconceived from the outset. >> i think any of us that want to go back and change 70 years of what's been going on in this country is probably going to have a difficult time. and rather than spending a lot of time talking about what those folks were doing back in the '30s and the '40s is a nice intellectual conversation. but the fact is, we've got to be focused on how we're going to change this program. and it is a monstrous lie, a ponzi scheme to tell our kidsçç

that are 25 or 30 years old today, are you paying into a program that is going to be there. anybody that is for the status quo with social security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids. and it's not right. >> our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing social security but is committed to saving social security. we have always had, at the heart of our party a recognition, that we want to care for those in need. and our seniors have the need of social security. i will make sure that we keep the program, and we make it financially secure. we save social security and under no circumstances would i ever say by any measure it's a failure. >> suarez: perry has skyrocketed to the head of the pack less than a month after joining the r@se.ç and he drew fire from others on the stage, as well. >> i am offended... >> suarez: former pennsylvania senator rick santorum took issue with an executive order issued by perry in 2007. it required that school girls be vaccinated against hpv, a sexually transmitted virus that cause cervical cancer.

>> if governor perry is out there claiming about states' rights and state's rights. how about parental rights being more important than states's rights? how about having, instead of an opt out, an opt-in? >> suarez: the texas governor in turn appeared to take the criticism in stride. >> i kind of feel like the pinata here at the party so -- >> welcome. >> suarez: former house speakerç newt gingrich said the candidates should be taking their shots at president obama, not each other. >> i, for one, and i hope all of my friends up here, are going to repudiate every effort of the news media to get republicans to fight each other, to protect barack obama who deserves to be defeated. and all of us are committed as a team, whoever the nominee-- we are all for defeating barack obama. >> (cheers and applause) >> suarez: minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann endorsed that sentiment but appealed for voters attention, after perry's surge eclipsed her win in last month's iowa straw poll.

bachmann argued that her leadership on pushing for repeal of the president's health care law has been unmatched.çç >> and with all due respect to the governors, issuing an executive order will not overturn this massive law. this will take a very strong, bold leader in the presidency who will lead that effort. none of us should ever have ourselves think that the repeal bill will just come to our desk. it will take a very strong leader. >> suarez: texas congressman ron paul also had his moment in the spotlight defending his limited government view, especially when it comes to disaster funding. >> the question is federal aid, something like fema-- if youçç object to what it's become and how it's run, your position is to remove it, take it away, abolish it. what happens in its absence? >> well, what happened before 1979? we didn't have fema. and fema just conditioned people to build where they shouldn't be building. we lose the market effect of that. but yeah, my position is we

should have never had it. there's a much better way of doing it. i mean this whole idea that the federal government can deal with weather and anything in the world, just go to the federal government. fema is broke, they are $20 billion in debt. >> suarez: and from back in the pack, former godfather's pizza chief executive herman kane touted his business background and own jobs plan. >> let's cut to the chase. this is what businesspeople do and politicians eón't do.ç here is how i would fix this economy. first, eliminate the current tax code. it is a drain on entrepreneurs. it is the biggest barrier that is holding this economy back. what i would do is to propose a bold plan which i've already released. i call it my 9-9-9 economic growth plan. throw out the current tax code. 9% tax on corporate income. a 9% tax on personal income and a 9% national sales tax. if 10% is good enough for god, 9% ought to be good enough for the federal government. >> suarez: the republican contenders are scheduled to meet for two more debates this month. the first coming next monday in florida.

>> brown: next, our continuing look at the impact of 9/11 a decade later. tonight, we focus on how it's affected air travel. newshour correspondent tom bearden reports. >> reporter: this is where the greatest number of americans have been affected in the post- 9/11 world-- the nation's commercial airports. passengers have been walking through metal detectors and had their carry-on bags x-rayed since the late '60s, but aviation security changed dramatically after september 2001. prior to the attacks, passenger screening was done by private companies who were supervised by the federal aviation administration. after 9/11, the government created the transportation security administration, which was the largest single federal startup since world war ii.çç terry crosby went to work for the tsa almost from the beginning. he signed up eight years ago because the attacks made him

want to serve his country. he rotates through several different jobs during his shift, from running the x-ray machine for carry-on baggage... >> guy left his liquids in there. >> reporter: ....to hand- searching for suspect items... to physically searching passengers. >> okay, i'm going to go inside your collar. >> reporter: it's not his favorite job, but a job he says needs to be done. >> a lot of americans don't feel that they should be patted down, that it's not necessary to be patted down.ç but when you have things that come in that don't belong, or try to take things on the plane that don't belong, then it is necessary. >> reporter: some americans believe those "enhanced pat- downs," which started within the last year, violate their constitutional rights. they're just one part of a raging debate over how far the tsa should be allowed to go. since 9/11, security procedures have steadily escalated after a series of failed terrorist attacks.

after 2001, passengers had to walk through security in their stocking feet after richard reid tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes. in 2006, people started havingç to carry liquids in small containers inside a plastic bag after a plot to detonate liquid explosives was uncovered. and when umar abdul mutallab tried to set off plastic explosives hidden in his underwear in 2009, the government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to speed up deployment of advanced imaging technology machines that can peer beneath clothing. some accuse the agency of simply going too far. take the case of nick george. in august of 2009, he went through security in philadelphia on his way back to college in california. he was taking an arabic language course and was carrying a stack of homemade flash cards. >> there were about 200 of them, and most of them... the vast majority of them, are just vocaç words from a text book, things like "to graduate," "to smile,"

the color "purple"; these sorts of, you know, things that anyone learning any kind of foreign language would be learning. there were about ten of the flashcards that said things like "bomb" or "terrorist". i'd been recently trying to read more of arabic news media and these are words that, you know, come up. >> reporter: george says he was detained for more than four hours, half of it in handcuffs, and intensively questioned by the tsa and the fbi. the american civil liberties union has filed suit on george's behalf, claiming his constitutional rights were violated. >> if you open the door and say evidence of committing terrorism is that i'm learning arabic, that's really, really dangerous grounds. >> reportertben wizner is thp litigation director of the aclu's national security project. he represents george. >> we've seen abusive and intrusive searches that go far beyond any legitimate security rationale. we've seen extreme individual cases where travelers have been

arrested for reasons that have nothing to do with legitimate security. >> reporter: wizner is particularly troubled about another post-9/11 aviation security measure-- the government's "no fly" list. the list is a subset of the terrorist screening database maintained by the fbi. its purpose is to keep terrorists off commercial aircraft. >> american citizens can find themselves on a no-fly list with no meaningful opportunity to get reason for why they can't be able to fly, without having a chance to have a hearing to get themselves removed. i think what we've seen, over the last ten years, is a massive overreaction to the last threat in a way that has violated rights without making us much more secure. >> reporter: abe mashal is apparently on that list. masal is a muslim, a marine corps veteran, and is now a professional dog trainer. >> sit! >> reporter: he lives in a chicago suburb. his troubles started last year when he tried to fly out of chicago's midway airport. >> when i attempted to check in,

the lady took my license and went in the backroom, and several minutes later, she came out. when i turned around,wasç surrounded by tsa agents who notified me that the fbi was on their way to the building to talk to me as, apparently, i was on the no fly list. >> reporter: mashal tried using the online redress process. seven months later, he got a letter from homeland security saying there was no change in his status. but he says they won't tell him what his status actually is. the fbi web site says the agency cannot reveal whether a particular person is in the database because terrorists could circumvent the list by knowing which of their members might be detained. >> i think there is a logical hole right at the center of it. if the government really believed that these people were terrorists, it shouldn't be turning them away from airportsç it should be arresting them and putting them on trial. >> reporter: mashal suspects, but cannot prove, that he was put on the list for a reason. after he was turned away from the airport, he was invited to meet with two fbi agents in a

local hotel. >> they told me that they would get me off of the no fly list if i became an undercover informant for them, and went undercover at various mosques and told them about certain people that they wanted me to find out information for. >> reporter: mashal is part of a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the no- fly list. an fbi spokesman told the newshour the agency could not comment on mashal's allegations because of that pending litigation. tsa administrator john pistole says americans should look at these kinds of incidents in a broader context. >> each day, tsa screens approximately 1.8 million people, 12.5 million a week, over 625,000 million a year. so it's a significant challenge to make sure that each and every person doesn't pose a threat to aviation security. >> reporter: but the internet is full of anger and frustration over other cases involving physical searches of people who fail the scan or refuse to take it, from the six-year-old patted down, despite her mother's

objections, to the 96-year-old woman who allegedly was forced to remove her adult diaper because it was wet and couldn't be checked. a japanese comedy show was inspired to satire. ( laughter ) even president obama joked abouç it while promoting high speed railroads. >> for some trips, it'll be faster than flying, without the pat-down. >> reporter: but for yukari miyame, this is no laughing matter. she's a professional translator and an independent community radio host who was commuting from her home in northern colorado to a job in phoenix. on the way home in july, she says she asked to go through a metal detection portal rather than a body scanner because she is afraid the radiation emitted by the machine would harm her health. she also says she has an uncontrollable aversion to being touched because she was briefly abducted as a child. she says she was told she wouldç pat-down if she wouldn't go through the scanner.

>> i thought i'm going to get that horrible pat-down again and... so anyway, she said, "let me show you how its going to be done." and so i just was like this with my... so, and then, accidentally, that was her breast. >> reporter: the tsa agent told a different story.çç she claimed miyame twisted her breast. miyame was arrested for sexual abuse and spent the night in jail. a maricopa county court released her the next morning, saying there was no evidence of a sexual crime. she could still face a misdemeanor charge. her case has become something of a cause celebre. the "acquit yukari miyame" page on facebook has been "liked" by nearly 5,000 people. tsa administrator pistole told

us the agency investigates these cases thoroughly. >> the first thing we want to do is get all the facts that we can, and that may include the closed circuit tv coverage of the checkpoint if there is... if that's available.çç obviously, interviewing the passenger that is making the allegations, interviewing the security officers who were around that situation. so part of it is just trying to get the facts. i will say it seems like at least, in my slightly over a year as head of tsa, much of the time when there is an allegation of something that that first instance is reported, is not actually what happened as we get the facts all fleshed out. >> reporter: the aclu's ben wizner. >> americans have a lot of experience, in times of threat, educing civil riohus and civil liberties, but then coming to our senses when the threat has passed. the danger, this time, is that we've defined a war against

terrorism which literally takes place everywhere and may last forever. >> reporter: tsa management frequently points to several public opinion polls that indicate an overwhelming percentage of americans don't object to the scanners, although a fairly large percentage do object to the pat-downs. >> woodruff: and reports emerged this evening of a possible new threat tied to the 9/11 anniversary. the homeland security department said the information was specific and credible but unconfirmed.ç ews said it could involve three people and a car bomb plot aimed at washington, d.c., or new york city. white house officials said the president was briefed this morning and had ordered counter-terrorism efforts redoubled. tomorrow night our 9/11 series continues from cairo. margaret warner traces the egyptian roots of the radical islamic movement. >> brown: and finally tonight, another 9/11 story, but this one is fiction.

what if a jury selected a design for the new 9/11 memorial, and then discovered that its architect was a muslim? ten years after the terror attack, the actual memorial is just about to open. but an alternative history is imagined in a new novel.çç its author is amy waldman, a former reporter for "the new york times." "the submission" is her first novel. i talked with amy waldman recently. here's that conversation. welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: you were in new york during 9/11, you wrote about it as a journalist afterwards. how and why did you decide that there was a good fictional story to tell? >> i didn't think about it for a few years, and then having a conversation with a friend that led us to talking about maya lin and the veterans memorial and the controversy which everyoneç remembers around that.

and one small piece of that was asian american and it got me thinking what would the equivalent be for 9/11 and out of that came the seed for this. and it had to be fiction, because it hasn't happened, and was a fictional scenario, but it also, i was drawn to doing it because i felt like it was a great way into a lot of these questions and multiple perspectives around them that we've all wrestled with. >> brown: so in your case, the process to pick an architect-- all goes well until it turns ouç his name is mohammed gan. but he's a muslim american, grew up in suburban washington d.c., fictionally, university of virginia. >> right. >> brown: in many ways, your average ambitious young architect who was trying to get ahead. >> it's not a central part of his identity at all. but when this attack happens, it's thrust to the center of his identity, and of course, after he wins the competition, that's even more true. >> brown: and once you open up the story, the layers of

particularly new york-- but nationally as well-- open up, right? you've got politics, you've got the media, you've got class. what was that like to try to explore that large a picture? >> it was challenging, but i felt like that's this decade that we've lived through, all oç those elements are very present in the debates around islam, the war on terror, how we react to 9/11, all of it. even looking at the family members from 9/11, there's such a diverse group. and we talk about them as a monolith, but in terms of class, politics, everything, they are so diverse, so i wanted to capture that. >> brown: did you explore it as a journalist? >> brown: i think you were still writing when the whole ground zero mosque happened? >> i was. >> brown: what was your thought there, was it uh-oh, or i'm onto something? >> i definitely thought i'm onto something. i had finished a full draft of the novel before that. you know, it definitely made me rethink small pieces of theçç novel, because i didn't want it to read exactly like the newspapers.

and it was amazing how much so much of what people were saying was aping what i had already written. but it did confirm for me that i was on the right track and that there was something powerful that needed exploring through fiction. >> brown: and you say something powerful that needed exploring, what exactly is that? because there are so many elements to this, right? >> yes. >> brown: what was it for you that needed exploring? >> the novel has a lot of different themes, but one is, in the wake of 9/11, who do we trust?çç how do we decide who to trust? you know, american muslims, how do we think about them? how do we understand islam when there's still so much fear and confusion around it? and i think the ambivalence of many liberals have felt since 9/11 about how to feel about these things. >> brown: you mean wanting to be open, but still very much afraid? >> exactly, exactly. and i think the conflict almost between principle and emotion i think is a powerful theme in the novel, and was very interesting to me. >> brown: we're not going to walk through the whole story here and we're not going to give

anything away. but it resolves itself after many twists and turns here and episodes.çç but was it important in... beyond the story telling of course, it has to resolve itself, right? but given these themes that you wanted to explore, was it somehow important for you to find a way to resolve this story and the dilemmas involved? >> it was. it was tricky to figure out how to end it, because i think even now, we're in sort of a precarious moment where we don't know exactly where the country is going and what direction, and i wanted to be true to that and yet also achieve some resolution. so i hope i've pulled that off in the ending, but i don't want to spoil that. >> brown: i'm curious, because this is your first novel. >> yes.çç >> brown: did you have models? a lot of people looked at tom wolfe and "bonfire of the vanities", that kind of big

social novel, and that's essentially what you've got here because you really look, as i said, at many of the institutions of the city at street level. were you aware of those kind of models in starting out? >> i was and i wasn't. i think "bonfire of the vanities" is kind of an archetype of a social novel, but i read it i think when it came out in maybe '87, so it wasn't a conscious model that i wanted to try to replicate.çç you know, richard price, jonathan franzen, writers who are working very deeply with character, but the intersection of that with politics and social issues and all of that. and i think those of some of my models, just how do you give very intimate portraits of people, but also how are they changed and are they their personalities and histories changing these public grand events. >> brown: and here we are at the 10th anniversary of 9/11. is it your sense now both working as a journalist and now as a novelist that we're only at the beginning of learning aboutç 9/11? or is it something that writers

will explore for a long time do you think? >> i think it's something writers will explore for a long time, partly everybody will come at it exploring a different piece of it and also i think how we look at it changes through time and the writing will reflect that. there were books and novels that came out very early on, responding almost on a primal level on what had happened. and then i think mine and others will come later, maybe taking a longer view, sort of stepping back a little bit and looking at what happened to the country in the intervening years. >> brown: did you enjoy this experience enough to work on a next novel?ç >> oh, definitely. yes, i love fiction now, i'm totally hooked on it. >> brown: all right/. "the submission" is the new novel by amy waldman. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: president obama laid out a jobs plan totalling nearly $450 billion in tax cuts and public works spending. a major power outage this evening hit southern california.

arizona and part ofçç mexico, affecting millions of people. and u.s. officials confirmed receiving a credible but unconfirmed threat tied to the 9/11 anniversary. abc news said it could involve a car bomb plot in washington or new york. homeland security secretary janet napolitano told new york mayor michael bloomberg that security has been tightened at bridges, tunnels and subways. there's more about the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on our america remembers 9/11 page. hari spe9ivasan explegs. hari. >> sreenivasan: tom bearden has a blog post about changes to air travel, and our video quilt features the views of americans from across the country on what's changed since the attacks. the "morning line" has more reaction to last night's g.o.p. debate. also there, find a link to the newshour politics calendar, your day-by-day guide to what's happening on the campaign trail plus, ray previews a u.n. conference on diseases. it examines the burdens

diabetes, cancer and lung disease place on rich and poor countries alike. that's on our "global health" page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brownç >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see your online again tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: chevron. we may have more in common than you think. >> and by bnsf railway. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.

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