♪ >> on this edition for saturday september 21st, europe's most powerful country choosing a new government and fuel efficient ca car could be good for the environment, but what about business? >> and going past the rhetoric surrounding food stamps. next on pbs news hour weekend. >> pbs news hour weekend is made possible by --

>> additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions for your pbs station and by viewers like you. from the tisch wnet studios. this is news hour weekend. >> tonight, we begin in europe, more specifically in that continent's mightiest economic power, germany. it's a key player in the european union. tomorrow, german voters will elect a new government. the outcome of the election will have important implications for the rest of the world, i-tv yams reports from germany. >> reporter: the most powerful

on the continent and a woman that even when campaigning finds time for shopping. germans like the combination. but do they like it enough to give her the clear majority she will need to make tough decision. >> translator: we must show solid a arity. >> even among her hardened supporters there's skepticism, they feel they have shown enough solidarity in rebuilding the old east germany. and much still needs to be done there. shining new industries like this rolls-royce and others are taking root, but others have benefitted for the greeks. it all may explain a new thing in german politics, a anti-euro

party. who have just enough support to win them seats in parliament. >> the euro is a political decision, not any other decision. we are hoping that this message will be mainstream. >> this is merkel's main challenge. steinbrook. nobody expects steinbrook to win, but he could force his way in to government as part of the grand coalition. that would leave her still in office but greatly weakened and less able to make the tough the decisions needed to sort out the euro zone. it will be a coalition result t two main parts of right and left may join each other in government. the great fear in southern europe is that of the end of it all berlin's policy of austerity without end is not going to change. >> always a budget deal is reached a government shut down

will be approaching. in the weekly radio address the president said that the bill passed yesterday, tying the budget to the defunding of the affordable care act would not stand. >> they will plunge this country back in to recession to deny the basic skoort of health care to millions americans. that's not happening. and they know it's not happening. >> in the republican response nevada governor said that the president needed to do a better job of reaching out to the republican opposition. >> good executives, like all good leaders expect opposition when making decisions or when making or enforcing the law. but executives must engage those that disagree with them. >> there's been more gun violence in chicago, four people killed and four other wounded in a series of shootings that began last evening. just the night before, 13 people were shot in a chicago park in what police described as a gang

related incident. among the wounded was a 3-year-old boy. gun voins in chicago is down 20% in the past year. from colorado updated figures about the damage caused by the massive flooding the there, authorities now say that 1900 homes were destroyed in the understoods that left at least 7 people confirmed dead and another three missing and presumed dead and dozens are still unaccounted for. the flooding that spanned 17 counties and nearly 2,000 square miles, damaged power lines and swept away roads and bridges and caused oil spills. more rain is expected in the state tomorrow. back overseas, there's been a terrorist attack in the east african nation of kenya. dozens of shoppers raced for safety after armed men said to be part of the militant group attacked a up scale shopping mall, one witness said that the militants told shoppers that muslims were safe and would be

allowed to leave and nonmuslims would be targeted, the mall is frequented by foreigners. a children's day was going on when they struck. and the united states barely averted a nuclear disaster in 1951 when a b-52 bomber broke up over north carolina and released two hydrogen bombs. they never detonated. the report was based on a secret document obtained under the freedom of information act. scientists say that each of the bombs was 260 times more powerful than the device dropped over hiroshima. ♪ world leaders will be arriving here in new york for the start

of next week's u.n. general aassembly meeting. speculation is rampant that president obama will meet with the new president of iran. yesterday, a deputy national security adviser told reporters, "we do believe there's time and space for diplomacy," something the israeli government is skeptical about. david, my first question is, what is the state of iran's nuclear program today? >> iran's program is quite advanced. i mean, if they decided today to make a nuclear weapon, it could probably do so. it would take many months and -- and then probably run in to problems. now that effort would be detected by the inspectors they would first have to make weapon grade uranium and then it would

take long enough that that production would be detected long before it goes. and in fact, it's the key thing right now, is that we believe that, that iran could make a nuclear weapon, it's deterred now because it's fear of the military strikes from the united states or israel, or both if they took steps to make a bomb. >> if they can make a bomb, can they deliver it? >> that is trickier. there's not a lot of information. the international atomic agency inspectors have published information suggesting that iran knows how to make a crude nuclear explosive, and it may not have learned enough to make a weapon that was delivered by missile and they may need considerable amount of time, a year, two years more to master the process. if iran did decide to make a bomb, then it could do so, or it do deliver that by truck, or

plane. but unlikely to be deliverable by missile unless it takes that additional year or so to master the warhead technology. >> in an op-ed the iranian president said in the washington post, they said theis pursuit fr nuclear is only for energy, is that something that is true? >> they can produce it for energy. but the question is, why do they need all the other facilities that enrich uranium, a reactor that looks more designed to mike -- to make plutonium. there's a lot of questions and a lot of evidence that iran did seek nuclear weapons. the u.s. intelligence community, was judged with high confidence that prior to 2004, that iran had a nuclear weapons program.

that is shared by britain, france and germany and israel, the international atomic agency has additional evidence suggesting that iran's work on the weapons continued after 2000 and three, so, there's evidence that iran has worked a great deal on nuclear weapons and that it -- when it says it never did, it is simply not telling the truth. there's a lot of suspicion that they will try to do it again in the future. >> is this the window of time for them? >> i think there's time for diplomacy, but, iran has to stop increasing its capabilities, particularly the number of gas centrifuges, it's installing them at a rapid rate and at some point next year, at issis is, we have assessed that by mid 2014, they would reach appear capability, if not stopped, they could break out and make enough weapon-grade uranium for a bomb

and it likely would not be detected by the inspectors or western intelligence agencies. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> and now to our signature segment, in depth reports from under reported stories from around the nation and around the world. it's no secret that america's infrastructure is aging and money to fix it is in short supply. what you may not know is that america's new fascination with fuel efficient, hybrid and electric cars means there is less to spend for road repairs. tonight we examine an experimental program in oregon that reports to pave the way for a solution. >> portland, oregon is at the vanguard at the war to reduce gasoline conassuming. you can find evidence all over the downtown area and in the car

dealerships. >> we are looking at hybrids, plug in hybrids, electric cars, there's some hyper efficient dies diesel engines in the works. they have been more enthusiastic about green cars than anywhere else in the country, but the rest of the country is catching up and over the next ten years every car will be more fuel efficient, thanks to a deal that was struck with by the president with the car companies. >> they will increase the mileage on the cars and instructions over the next ten years. >> the mileage will increase 2/3, to nearly 55 mpg, meaning that americans will be cutting back on purchases at the pump. that is where the bad news

starts. by definition, more efficient cars use less gas and that means less gas taxes for state and local governments. those gas taxes. a federal levy of $.18 a gallon. they pay to maintain the highways and bridges across the country. and that is already a huge problem. >> we begin tonight with that terrifying bridge collapse. >> take the example of the news that broke in may, when an interstate-5 bridge collapsed a couple hundred miles north of portland. by next year, the fell highway trust fund, the source of all of the funding for bridges and roads that comes from from washington will go bust. >> the bottom line is we are in a downward spiral. what it mean is the federal government is not going to be able to help states and locality maintain what they have got. it means that people will pay with less safe driving

conditions. >> does the gas generate enough revenue to maintain the roads? >> no. just plain no. >> vicki burger is a republican member of the oregon house. she said that as the states residents buy more efficient cars and less gas, the budget crunch is only going get worse. but she thinks there may be a solution. instead of having oregon motorists pay a $.30 tax on every gallon, have them pay a fee, a penny or two on every mile they drive. it's called a vmt fee. oregon was the first state in the union to impose a gas tax a century ago and it set up an experiment to see if it can lead the nation again. >> 300 volunteers let the state hook up transmitters and computers to their car, so the mileage in oregon could be tracked with a gps. >> the technology worked just fine, but civil liberty and

privacy advocates felt it would give big brother an opportunity to snoop on private citizens. so it faded out of view. until the oregon department of transportation ran a new experiment late last year. this time, participants had a range of choices. they could let smartphones track their movements or have gps that sent data to affirm instead of the government or had a device that recorded how many miles they drove, not where they drove. that is what vicki burger decided to have. >> from a tax policy point of view, this was really interesting to me, because when i go to the pump, i'm filling my car with gas, i'm not thinking of the taxes i'm paying, i'm paying federal and state. when you get a bill in the mail,

you think of the taxes you pay and that sort of awakens this sense of oh, i'm paying a tax here for the privilege of using the roads. which, i don't think people think about when they just fill their tank. >> but skeptics think that administering a program like that could be a mess and taxing fuel efficient cars sends an anti-green message. taxing hybrids more than hummers. >> we are reducing the incentive to shift to green cars. >> he is a political consultant. >> this is a tax that hits plug ins and hybrid cars, and we are reducing that incentive. >> the highway trust fund is nearly broke and the amount gathered from the taxes is going

down. what is the alternative? >> first thing i would do is raise the gas tax and index it to inflation over time. >> in other words, the gas tax would automatically rise at the rate of inflation. supporters of mileage fees argue that legislators electric the political will to raise gas taxes so they say state and federal governments need another plan to pay for critical repairs to roads and bridges. last month, oregon passed a law expanding the mileage fee in 2015, this time to 5,000 vehicles. meanwhile, the u.s. representative is looking for a republican co-sponsor that could test the fees nationally. i want to take that oregon experience and move it to the national level. where states can apply to test it in their own location.

so that, road users can understand how it works, what the advantages are and make it less of a mystery. the idea is to be able to encourage other tates to innovate. -- other states to innovate. don't forget to join us online for anchor hours where we with take your questions before the broadcast. this week, a few of you asked whether participants in oregon's pilot program to charge drivers for every mile driven, if they were double taxed. at the end of the month, the drivers are getting a credit for the gas tax they paid at the pump. thanks to your questions, we have an explainer online about how the oregon department of transportation does the math. ♪

this week, the house of representatives narrowly passed the bill that would cut the federal food stamp program by roughly $40 million. right now, a record 47 million morns received food stamps as these numbers have grown, so too has the cost of the program. it now exceeds $78 billion a year to help us understand what the current clash about food stamps is all about is damian from the "wall street journal" joining us from washington, d.c. democrats say that the fact that 1 in 7 americans qualifies for the program is proof that it should not be cut. what would the gop like to see changed? >> the republicans are raising the question, if the stock market is at record highs and the unemployment rate is coming down, why are we seeing more and more people signing up for the food stamp program and it's true in the past decade, the number

of people in the program has doubled. they are asking why that that is taken place and they are putting controls in place that say, will help move people out of the program in to well paying jobs or move people out of the program that they feel should not have qualified in the first place. >> what are the controls that they want to put in place? >> work requirements for people that are receiving food stamps, they don't have kids and they want to roll back rules, the states, many states in the past deckades have made it easier to qualify or wave income and asset tests. you know, you could have $10,000 in the bank that you are saving for your kid's college education and still qualify for food stamps. republicans want to roll that back saying if you have money saved you should use that money for food and things like now. >> critics repeatedly highlighted an unemployed surfer

in california using food stamps to buy sushi and lobster. >> i have the rainbow roll. mahi, eel, they had lobster on special. >> it proves that benefits, they say, that it goes to those that did not need them. >> my experience is, and i have talked to a lot of people that receive food stamps. the vast majority of people that receive food stamps are in tough situations. some of them are generational poverty. they received food stamps when they were children and they have them now and there are others that lost their jobs and and are stunned they are in this situation. there's going to be fraud and abuse and select examples that make people scratch their heads and wonder why, there's a lot of people, for example, for the really poor, it's a type of currency. and you can see people, they

will go, maybe buy, they will go buy the store, with their food stamps, something for somebody else in exchange for cash. it's hard to police. that does happen. >> the government said there's a 1% fraud rate in the food stamp program, but even that is $750 million a year. how significant a problem is fraud? >> it's a significant problem. and quite frankly, 1%, it's tough to tell how much exists. it happens one, the recipients could be abusing and big and small businesses could be abusing the program as well. the department of agriculture that runs the program is trying to stay on top of this but the resources and department is so large, that they are not able to do as much as they would like to do. >> thank you so much. >> my pleasure.

>> this is pbs news hour weekend saturday. >> finally the connection. politicians and foreign leaders campaigning for hearts and minds in other countries. this week, senator mccain took vladimir putin op-ed after vladimir was questioning american exceptional imp in the new york times. why? >> these things are carefully crafted. sometimes, i guess, by the heads of state themselves but also by their aids and then by their pr companies that they retain for enormous amounts of money. >> of course, they say, the rare expressions sell papers. >> i think it attracts a lot of attention to the publications and they all like it.

>> if a picture is worth a thousand words than big time broadcasts and news interviews are priceless. foreign leaders choose the person interviewing them carefully. >> after conducting with ta che attack sat down with charlie rose and then showed up on fox news. >> in every house, you have pain today. in every house, you have sadness. >> this past weekend, the iranian president sat down with ann curry. >> we have clearly stated that we are not in pursuit of nuclear weapons and will not be. >> does this style of retail diplomacy assume that mass audiences are bright enough to figure it out for themselves or dim enough to be fooled.

join us tomorrow on air and online. the number of people living alone in the u.s. has increased dramatically. we will show you how micro apartments create liveable spaces for some of them. >> we are standing in every room. we are standing in my kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom and my bathroom is just around the corner. >> recapping today's top story, voters in germany are preparing to elect a new government. that is it for this edition of pbs news hour weekend. thank you for watching.

pbs news hour weekend is brought to you by judy and josh -- the millstein family. corporate funded is provided by mutual of america. that is why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions from viewers like you, thank you.

>> tonight from the south lawn of the white house in our nation's capital, the president and the first lady welcome marc anthony, shealy e -- sheila e >> gloria estefan, eva longoria-parker, george lopez, jimmy smits, thalia for a musical celebration in performance at the white house. fiesta latina. corporate funding for in performance at the white house was provided by pepsi cola,