surtax on the richest americans to pay for health care reform. he's right in a sense, there has been a lot of progress on health care reform but there's a long way to go. he himself said the hardest part of any race is the end of the race, not the beginning. >> he's meeting with some of these blue dog conservative democrats today. if you have to twist arms even with members of your own party then how do you expect to get republicans on board and doesn't that indicate a bigger problem with the bill itself? >> reporter: well, you know what? the democratic party is not monolithic and there's a host of issues, whether it be energy or the stimulus package. there's hay little bit of arm twisting that goes on within the democrats' own party. we have conservative members of the party especially on the senate said, senator conrad would be one, senator bachus trying to do the same deal. it underscores why this is so hard. it's not just republican/democrat. there are a whole host of issues, everybody has their special interests that they

bring to the table so there's a lot of compromise that needs to be done. >> savannah guthrie, thanks so much. >> reporter: sure. i have big questions, number one will lawmakers adress the underlying problem of skyrocketing costs. number two, will requirements for people to get health insurance work? you have laws that require drivers to get health insurance and i have to carry uninsured motorist. >> can i make fun of what's on the screen? you look serious but you have giant question marks around your head. >> these are my questions. >> but it -- >> number three, what is the impact on small businesses and -- >> they're going to pay more. >> we're going to get answers later on. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke -- >> she teases. >> it's too early to type up policy. >> bernanke is on capitol hill today and tomorrow to give an update on the recession. he told the house financial

services committee interest rates will probably stay around zero for awhile and the problems remain through 2011. >> the unemployment rate has continued its steep rise. the job insecurity together with declines in home values and tight credit is likely to limit gains and consumer spending. >> bernanke also said he expected inflation to be somewhat lower this year than in recent years. let's look at how the markets are reacting to bernanke's assessment of the economy. it's also down actually because cat pillar came out with earnings earlier this morning, seemed like they did well, the market was rallying, talked about what to expect in the future, wasn't that good and the market sank a little bit. >> all of the stimulus money with new construction projects, housing starts up? >> 10% or 11%, not sure where it's going to be spent. >> melissa has got questions, too. >> people have been up in arms about paying $1 trillion plus for health care reform but how about this figure?

$23 trillion for all the bailouts and programs put into place to aid the economy. >> that number comes from neil barofsky. eamon javers wrote about this story from politico. this is not a worst case scenario, this is the apocalyptic scenario. >> if everything goes to hell basically in the economy, and all of the promises the fed has made and all of the other government agencies have made actually have to be lived up to, then it could be $23.7 trillion that's the total cost of all the bailou bailout to all of the different pieces of the economy. it's an astonishing number, headline-grabbing number, more than all of the wars fought together. world war ii cost about $2 trillion in today's dollars. it's a huge headline-driving number. the treasury department shades

that number, pushing back hard saying it's wildly unrealistic and likely never ever to actually amount to that much money. >> eamon, he's the inspector general of the t.a.r.p. funds. it's supposed to be a nonpolitical group that is assessing what's going on with all of the potential axe to grind? >> actually i talked to neil barofsky the special inspector general last night and asked him exactly that. he said look, we're trying to make the point that his job is just about t.a.r.p., one of the many bailout programs and he was trying to add up the cost of all of the bailout programs. there's a lot of stuff beyond t.a.r.p., what the fed is doing, fdic, what treasury is doing outside of t.a.r.p., all of the other pieces. he was trying to get a catch-all number to capture all of the obligations that the federal government potentially has as a result of this and add it all up. in order to make the point that this is bigger than t.a.r.p. which is the one thing we hear

about in the media and most people are familiar with. >> he's not looking forover seeing fannie and freddie may. he comes up with the number -- >> fed up with the spending bailouts. >> he's actually saying if fannie and freddie never made back all of the money that they have loaned out first every single person who has a fannie or freddie mortgage defaults on that mortgage, then it contributes to the $23 trillion so why would he even look at that? >> what he's saying is that the reason that number is important to put out there is because it gives you a sense of what all the potential obligations are of the federal government. >> the total liability. >> somebody needs to add all that up because he says although his job is just to look within t.a.r.p. >> that's my point. >> you can't understand t.a.r.p. unless you understand the full context of everything the government is doing throughout the economy. it's just a very compelling figure. obviously a lot of us in the press jumped on it yesterday when we saw it, it let off of the page to me, oh, this is a huge number, but of course as

you see, fresh i have pushing back aggressively because they recognize there's a political danger in having a number like that floating out in the conversation. >> eanmon thank you. we still don't know where the t.a.r.p. money is going in terms of transparency there. big question. >> she's got a lot of questions. >> i do. a one-week delay for the senate judiciary committee's vote on sonia sotomayor for the supreme court. senior republican jeff sessions requested more time to review the record. the full senate is scheduled to vote later this month. al franken introduced his first bill. he wants the government to buy and train service dogs for wounded iraq and afghanistan veterans. senator franken says he got the idea when he met iraq war vet louis carlos montelbahn and his golden retriever at an inauguration event last week. sponsor a bill, do one you think you can get passed.

the defense authorization bill stopping additional production of f-22 planes. a number of doctors under investigation in the michael jackson case tripled. we'll get the latest on the criminal investigation coming up. and fallen superstar chris brown gives a full apology for the first time on youtube. hear what the r&b crooner had to say about the assault on his ex-girlfriend, after the break. today there's a way to save more for retirement, with annuities from fidelity. turn your savings into income -- guaranteed,

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the president is thanking the senate for voting the stop production of the f-22 fighter planes. >> that vote strips almost $2 billion out of the defense bill and also could mean job losses. let's go now to cnbc -- let's go to jim miklaszewski. good to see you today. >> okay, contessa.

>> why did the president want to see the funding cut in. >> it's because the pentagon, the u.s. military has decided that the addition of 17 more of these f-22 raptors was unnecessary. secretary gates for about a year and a half, i would guess, has been complaining about the way congress and some of the military have next waritis, spending war to fight the next war when the u.s. military is involved in two critical wars in iraq and afghanistan, and secretary gates was afraid that money was being sucked away from the war efforts in both iraq and afghanistan for programs that are not needed now. so this vote today to end the production of the f-22s and cut $2 billion from next year budget is considered a pretty big victory to try to turn that kind of, well, tradition around. you know, this program, for

example, had -- it was spread across 44 states, which meant that this had an impact on a lot of districts for congressmen and senators, so they could always count on getting a lot of votes to continue the spending on this program, and john mccain and secretary gates both indicate today that perhaps this is going to break that tradition, that in some cases, if you listen to gates, could have broken the budget. >> all right, jim miklaszewski, thanks so much for joining us. >> okay. a har -- >> you can do it. >> a harvard professor says the police who arrested him were racist. henry louis jr. was trying to fix a broken door in his home when officers responded to a report of a break-in. he initially refused to show them his i.d. yelling "why, because i'm a black man in america?" he showed police his i.d. but

was arrested for disorderly conduct and cambridge police now have dropped the charges. they said in their report that he was loud and the word wasn't boisterous, it was, oh, tumultuous, he was being loud and tumultuous when they arrested him and that's why they charged him with disorderly conduct. again, charges dropped. r&b singer chris brown issued online a full public apology for assaulting former girlfriend rihanna. >> he pled guilty for the assault, the attack that occurred in february. he posted it on his website and youtube apologizing to fans. >> i am very sad and ashamed what i've done. my mother and spiritual teachers have taught me way better than that. pi toldry hanna countless times and telling you today that i am truly sorry and i wasn't able to handle the situation differently and bet per >> brown says he's begging his mother andry ma in a for

forgiveness. he faces five years' probation when he's sentenced early next month. new developments in the michael jackson investigation. detectives are spreading a bigger dragnet for doctors. >> we learned five doctors were under scrutiny a week after he died. as of this morning the number skyrocketed. nbc's jeff rossen has more details from our burbank bureau. how many doctors are we talking about now? >> reporter: our source who has familiarity with inside knowledge of this investigation now says aboutit is at least 19 doctors spread across the country. we know of two of them, dr. arnold klein, jackson's dermatologist, police have actually subpoenaed his medical records and he is said to be cooperating with authorities. important to note his lawyer says he did nothing wrong. he was very close to the jackson family and spent many holidays together. the other doctor is dr. conrad murray, that's jackson's cardiologist, he was with michael jackson at the time of his death. there is his picture on your

screen right now. police have interviewed him twice, once at length for three hours, they impounded his car. they've also taken his medical records as well, and so all of this is sort of coming together now as police wait for the final toxicology reports, which really could come later this week or maybe next week and they want to see if the coroner checked that om side box, the entire case determines on that. murder charge sun likely. high threshold to prove murder in court. they say involuntary manslaughter is much more possible and it could take months, even years to get to any or all of these doctors. >> so jeff, we're hearing from michael's family now, i know that joe jackson was on another cable station, was he talking about what went wrong? >> he did. he talked about everything from custody. he talked about the kids and i want to play you a sound bite where he's actually talking about these doctors.

he is talking about dr. conrad murray specifically and what happened in the moments after michael jackson's death. take a listen. >> well, i'm thinking that there's foul play, you know, that's what i'm thinking. >> are you implying then the doctor committed foul play? >> something went wrong, larry, because when they tried to bring michael back, he was dead. something went wrong. >> of course, it's important to note, no charges have been filed in this case, and really what's going to take police and authorities a lot of time here is that, you know, to you and i we say he had all of the prescriptions in different people's names. you have charges but it doesn't work like that because they have to go and find each prescription bottle. there are actually i'm told looking at each lot number, literally looking at the serial numbers of the prescription bottles going back to the pharmaceutical company, where was it manufactured, what doctor got it, what pharmacy prescribed it. you know so there's a lot to do especially to get a conviction in court. so it's going to take some time.

>> jeff, thank you for that update. appreciate that. up next, take advantage of the bargain air fares going on right now because the price of a ticket is going up. we'll tell you why, coming up. and if you're looking to score some marijuana legally, there's an app for that, really. >> how do you find that? >> i did the story earlier. we'll tell you about it after a quick break. >> excellent.

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great news for penny pinchers at the pump. gasoline prices have plunged to their lowest level in eight weeks. >> according to the energy department the average price drivers paid $2.46 a gallon, $17 60 down from a year ago. pretty good. >> murphy's law, one price goes down, another goes up, in this case the cost of flying. on united. >> at least flying united

because the airline is not going to accept any more of the travel agencies credit card processing fees. in other words, united says to the travel agencies, you have to pay your own processing fees. so that's usually about 2% or 3% of the cost of the ticket, now travel agents will have to fork it over and that could end up being passed on to -- >> of course it will. it's going to go out to customers. >> tom parsons, ceo of bestfares.com. you're essentially a travel agent, aren't you? >> sure. i mean we sell millions of dollars' worth of tickets but you know, here's the problem with travel agent ad and i've got some answers for them right now. about probably ten years ago i had about 500, probably about 500,000 to $1 million in credits with twa, when they filed bankruptcy. luckily, american took over, but the consumer could have been stuck with a lot of debt, a lot of bad credit. if you can't use a credit card without those processing fees,

there's different ways to get around that. if you're a travel agent and you're one of those 20 or 25 people who got those letters, you can do a couple of things. united has a code share with u.s. airways so if it is united try book it on u.s. airways and still use the credit card. if you want to go to germany, use lufthansa and fly 100% on united, the same thing, canada, if united flies there, air canada has a coach there, book it on air canada and let united sit out there and if all else fails use their website. that's all what it comes down to. >> tom, these are great tips. it seems to me the airlines are just kind of trying to nickel and dime their way back to profitability. is that a strategy that's going to work? does it alienate customers or do they have to do it because they're going out of business? maybe they have to do it. >> i think the problem is united doesn't like competition. it's not the travel agents running them out of business.

'the low-cost airlines, they can fly american and maybe make a profit. it's not unusual for me to have a contract that says i must do something but i usually have it to where i can use the credit card. there are some deals, we have an unbelievable deal with one airline if i can sell florida, chicago, pittsburgh, $68 through december but i must use their website. you know what? i'll use their website because i'm saving my customer an average of $50 or $60 more round trip. >> all right, good ideas. thanks, tom. we appreciate it. >> all right, thank you. you've seen those commercials for iphone, you know, we've got an app for that. who knew they were talking about pot? i.e., marijuana. >> the cannabis takes ymedical only $299. only for medical reasons. >> the pot isn't $2.99.

the app is $2.99. in other words you can find out where it is for $2.99. >> we already lost everyone who is watching the show. they're running to their iphone. >> it's only available for states where you can buy marijuana legally. >> and it includes a database of lawyers who specialize in marijuana cases in case you ignore what contessa just said. when we return the broken health care system, should the president and lawmakers do more to fix the system instead of add more people to the coverage? an alternative to burying loved ones at a cemetery that could save you a bundle, really? we'll tell you about the growing trend coming up. you're watching msnbc. where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these are tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney. here to rethink wealth management. here to answer... your questions.

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so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. robert shapiro: we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. right now, they're not where they need to be, but i promise you, i just met with the congressional budget office today so i know exactly what they're saying and what they're saying is that the cost savings that are in those bills right now, some of them may actually work, but they're not enough to

offset the additional costs of bringing in $46 million new people to provide it. >> so it won't work essentially in terms of reform? >> what they won't do is offset the fact that if you are adding additional people to the system, that's going to cost more, and we've got to figure out a way to pay for that. now, i am actually optimistic that if you look at both the progress that's been made in the house and in the senate, that at the end of the day, we will have a bill that assures that we're driving down costs over the long-term, and in the short term, people have more security, and we have serious insurance reform. >> all right, that was the president with meredith vieira earlier this morning. it got us wondering how do you really cut costs by giving more people insurance? are lawmakers really addressing the underlying problem, the skyrocketing cost of health care? >> after all if medical care were affordable then you can go to the doctor and pay for your own visits. let's get real. dr. greg mcwilliams is a cardiologist in tulsa, oklahoma.

look at the camera now, uncle greg. >> uncle greg? >> this is my uncle greg. >> yes, ma'am. >> we had a nice long conversation last night about health care reform. so how do you make -- because you're in an expensive line of work. the heart procedures cost a fortune. from your perspective who needs to happen to make health care affordable? >> well, we practice a very defensive kind of medicine i think that if we were not so litigious, we could do a little better job and find a diagnosis easier and treatment would be better and not so defensive and in a way we think, malpractice has tripled for me in the last ten years, and i think that if we could somehow alleviate those problems, we would be able to do a better job for a lot less money. >> yeah, you, in fact, told me that your compensation has dropped. what did you tell me, 49% since

1999? >> that's right, tessa. that's why you don't get those big christmas presents anymore >> that explains that. >> either that or because she's grown up. let's bring in ezra klein of "the washington post." thank you so much for joining us, ezra. i think what uncle greg was saying was that one of the major problems here is tort reform and the insurance that you have to car troy guard against being sued. is that one of the biggest problems n your estimation and are weigh dressing that? >> i'm very loath to disagree with your uncle here but i don't think that's one of the biggest problems. the numbers we have suggest that all the costs dealing with medical malpractice, so the insurance your uncle carries, the cost of settlements, the cost of lawyers, everything, is .46 of 1% health care spending in this country. .46 of 1% so that's just about nothing. now the question of broader defense of medicine has a lot of component parts to it. it's very hard to measure. there are things going on doctrine -- >> wait, ezraf that's less than

1% what's the biggest component then? >> the biggest component is technological change. the fact of the matter is, is that your uncle can do things this my heart he could have not done 25 years ago and they cost $150,000. >> let me bring him in. greg, when you're talking about a procedure that costs $150,000, how do you make that cheaper? >> well, it's who gets that $150,000 procedure, probably what needs to be evaluated. right now, again, i think because grandma is 09 years old, does she need that $150,000 procedure because she's getting it, and because the kids want it and they don't understand, and we're off to the races and then when they present that case to us, i don't want to hear from the attorney, because that's what's going to happen, if i don't do it. >> and ezra, we are tea ta're tt

a 90 years old, there's consternation whether we mandate no more life extenders no, more of this spending -- the biggest chunk of change on the last two months of someone's life. >> it's very expensive and this gets to a hard question, right, which is how do we say no? we have in our health care system what i call sort of an ignorance premium. we pay a lot of money in order to not make hard decisions. so we don't say no to anybody under just about any circumstance. we not in medicare, not in private insurance and the late '90s, hmos brought costs down quite a bit, slowed cost growth to 3%, 4% of gdp, something we could manage but people hated them for it, felt they were getting their care overly managed, denied things they wanted. people became unhappy and we rolled that back. the hard problem here is that people don't want to be told no but they also don't want to be unable to afford health care and those point in different

directions. >> when we talk about what the president proposed, greg the president keeps saying over and over again if we kept our medical records electronically it would save the system a ton of money so for you, as a small business owner, what would it mean to you if they came in suddenly and said let's modernize and make all of your records electronic? >> just doubles my workload basically. some people have switched totally to their electronic medical records system, and they have to take the patient records home now so they can fill it out at home so they know what they're talking about. it doubles the workload. you have to have someone in the office that can do it. again, if you add 27 million uninsured patients to our health care system at the present time, all we get is worse health care, the lowest common denominator. why would we burden our children and grandchildren with the trillion-dollar debt when there's some guy out in oregon who says give us a tax credit

and make everybody buy it, and i don't think the small business owner or all the employers in the world should be responsible for people's health care. >> go ahead, ezra. >> i agree with that. one thing should be said. there's no trillion-dollar debt here. the president's own proclamation, everything is neutral. >> that's the hope, ezra, but that's not in actuality. >> sorry, having trouble hearing you guys. say that again? >> that's the hope, but we're going to have to create new taxes in order to pay for it. >> so we will create new taxes but that won't be debt. that's my point. you're completely right in order for it not to be debt there will be new taxes but you shouldn't hit them on both things. either they get hit for raising taxes on folks or debt but not both. >> thank you, ezra. uncle greg, i appreciate it. we talked about how interesting it is to talk to real people, family members about the big issues. i wanted to have him on, as a

cardiologist and small business owner that my uncle greg has a lot to say. appreciate it guys, thanks. >> thanks, tessa. >> that's what the people who love me call me. california's budget crisis may be finally coming to an end. >> governor arnold schwarzenegger and lawmakers have reached a deal. have you finally solved this problem? we've been waiting for you to do this forever, thank god. tell us what you did, jane. >> reporter: i hate to throw water on the whole thing but whatever solution may be reached if they pass it is only buying time. we had a $26 billion hole that needs to be covered, about 55% of that is being covered with cuts. the rest is through borrowing from cities which has to be repaid three years down the road, pushing off some of the costs into the next fiscal year and hoping for better times ahead. here was the announcement made last night about the deal.

>> this is a budget that will have no tax increases, budget that is cutting spending. we have made -- we deal with a $26 billion deficit, around $15 billion in cuts that we are making. >> frankly, we may not be done yet. we pray and we will work for better economic news sooner rather than later. >> there is some assumptions about the economy improving in here, which may not pan out, and all the assumptions made by the state so far, revenue expectations have missed the mark by oh, about $1 billion here or there. again, they have to vote on it thursday to make it official. this will force most of the state workers to take three days off a month unpaid through next june, and guys, on top of all this, some of those worker unions are now seeking the authorization to take a strike vote, so while we may have a

solution in the near term, and can stop printing ious and may be able to get short term loans at not such a high interest rate, people could return to sacramento in another crisis mode in the next six months. >> i thought you solved a problem. sounds like you didn't quite get it done, jane. go back to work. see you soon. >> reporter: i'm working for you! >> yeah! jane, thank you. here's a different and some say creepy way to say money. i would not say that. >> you wouldn't say it's creepy? you like this? you live on a huge farm. i'm scared. i'm going to go dig up your farm and see what's there. >> let me explain. when you go to pay for a funeral, they're very expensive. regular funeral service costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,000. >> very serious. >> fending on how much you spend on a casket, and it doesn't include burial or cremation. the "new york times" has written about a family in maine that opted to take care of the final plans at home, including the viewing and a pine box burial on

the family farm. >> like in the living room? >> if you live in new england, for instance, new hampshire, "live free or die," maybe that works but a lot of states have strict laws about where you can bury someone, but no, like they do the funeral at home, wash the body, have the viewing right there, and if you have a farm or whatever -- >> you're talking like you've done this. >> i haven't but i actually like the idea of it, much more natural than being buried next to a bunch of strangers that you never knew in life. call me crazy. >> you're going to stay in the living room over time? >> no, you get buried outside. >> the porch, the backyard? >> crazy. >> coffins made for home funerals can actually double as bookcases. you can reuse them and that's good for the environment. >> i don't know, i've got nothing to say. still ahead, you may have heard about all of the tax krets for energy efficiency or burial efficiency, i don't know. we'll tell you if these could be right for you. and a baboon gone wild at a

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i'll take a box, but you probably already knew that. (announcer) fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. a new survey finds about 60% of americans believe there will be a major outbreak of swine flu later this year. parents are more concerned about a potential outbreak than people without children, and with good reason. most cases have been in young people, and some schools closed for up to two weeks before the summer break. all right, stock market has turned positive over there, up about ten points. part of this is due to cat p caterpill caterpillar's earnings this

morning. ben bernanke out earlier today. we go to cnbc's mary thompson with the latest on what's going on in the markets. >> reporter: there are four reasons why we have a mixed market right now. we did have a stronger market earlier in the morning and the s&p and nasdaq pulled back. the dow positive now. the bernanke comments were cautious, weren't euphoric so that caused the market to pull back. he expects unemployment to remain at elevated levels through 2011, something that will affect consumer spending. second of all, weakness in the financials, some of the regional banks reporting results and they continue to be hampered by bad loans through the residential or commercial side. add to that cat pillar which reported stronger than expected results, came out and said the third quarter will be very, very tough and going to have rolling shutdowns of some of the factories so when he came out and said that, we saw a dip in the market, it's recovered since then and keep in mind we've had a strong run on wall street, the dow has been up for six straight session, the nasdaq nine stre straight and at one point you

need a breather. >> mary thompson, thanks so much. >> sure. anyone who watches on a regular basis knows i'm trying to go green in my life. >> that's true. >> compost bin, energy-efficient house. >> there are a lot of home improvements you can make to save energy. tess is trying all of them. the best part, you might be able to get a federal tax credit for it. >> we got to know what we can get tax credits for. >> you're trying to save money, building a house -- >> i'm going through it, maybe you're going through it as well. steve thomas is the host of "renovation nation" on planet green network. if you're thinking about turning your house into a more energy-efficient house what can you think about getting cash back? >> first of all people say going green is too expensive because they immediately think about solar panels or geothermal or any of the exotic renewable energy sources but you got to think in terms of a pyramid. so the big base of the pyramid is straight conservation, just use less, turn the thermostat

down in the winter. >> easy to do. >> it's easy, change of habits. that gives you the fastest payback for the least investment. next one up on the pyramid is efficiency. so if you're putting a new boiler, hvac equipment, more efficient energy star rated stuff. >> does it pay to replace them before they're broken? >> yes, it does. it's like your car. if you're driving a 1940s clunker getting two miles to the gallon it pays to replace it. >> right. >> the same deal with hvac equipment. so that's where the tax credits start to come in. the top of the pyramid is renewable, wind, solar, geothermal and so on. i'm not a tax guy. >> right. >> i can't file my taxes. >> you're a green renovation guy. >> my wife does it all, balances the checkbook. you've got two brackets of tax credits, one is for efficiency, so insulation, new windows,

energy star rated roofs, biomass stoves, which are those pellet stoves. for that you get a 30% tax credit capped at $1,500. >> 30% of the cost of putting it in. >> of the total cost. >> it pays to do one big project, you put the windows in or replace the insulation in your ceilings, in your roofs, right? because it's expensive. >> it pays anyway because you are saving the energy from the moment you do that downstream, and the biggest payback is insulation. it's the least glamorous, the most boring and the biggest payback. >> if you're going to do one thing what would that be? >> do it's called home performance with energy star, you can go to the government website, energystar.gov, basically you'd seal up your house, it's as simple as that. >> if you're going to renovate your home in any way, shape or form it pays to think about this stuff and to investigate the ways where the government might be willing to give credit. >> sure. >> good to see you.

>> thank you. when baboons attack you might end up losing your luggage. >> these baboons are at a safari park in the uk. they managed to open up a rooftop luggage carrier. >> aren't they cute? >> i guess and get what's inside, they were destroying everything. the park staged the attack. >> the park staged the attack. this isn't even real. >> to show visitors how easily the primates can wreak half acon your belongings. >> but it's staplinged. >> the biggest bounces on the carrier until the lock breaks. the park decided to ban rooftop carriers. >> quick break and we'll be right back. free credit report d! tell your friends, tell your dad, tell your mom! never mind, they've been singing our songs since we first showed up with our pirate hats on! if you're not into fake sword fights pointy slippers and green wool tights take a tip from a knight who knows free credit report dot com, let's go! vo: offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage.

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the hotel that gave its name to the scandal that brought down a president went on the auction block but it looks like nobody wants it. >> the watergate hotel was the

site of the 1972 burglary that led to president richard nix on's resignation. >> these days it looks like this, this morning up for bid, didn't get a single one, not one. >> look at that. >> cnbc's diana olick is at watergate. why not? who doesn't want this awesome hotel? >> reporter: awesome to a point. you have to understand why is might not be so awesome to some bidders. they held a $40 million on this historic property that monument realty brought for $45 million in 2004. they couldn't pay and couldn't rehabilitate the hotel which some estimate would cost $100 million. it was up for auction and despite worldwide interest not one bidder raised their hand so the bank got the property for $25 million which was the opening bid. they say they will market it and try to sell it but again given the commercial real estate landscape and the way commercial lending is going which is pretty much nonexistent nobody will be

able to get the money to renovate this place and that's why no bidders. >> will they tear it down if nobody buys? >> reporter: they're not going to tear it down. they will market it and try to sell it. some investors will get together and get the money. it's a great property, on the banks of the potomac river. it is an historic property, next to 1600 pencence, the address in washington. so you need the money, you need the investors and get the groups together. they'll get at a discount price. if nobody wanted it for $25 million somebody will get it for less. they'll put a group of investors together and they'll ren renovate it to open it again. i don't think anybody will tear it down. there are condos in the hotel as well. this is the hotel part of the building. >> interesting story, thanks much. first lady michelle obama is a fashion maven but when he's not on official duty her husband according to some people where i don't know what business they have judging fashion, according to them the president's not making the cut because of these

jeans that he wore when he threw out the first pitch. >> they're pretty bad. they're kind of mom jeans. >> they are so cool, i think he looks so good. okay, anyway, meredith vieira asked him about the hubbub he caused with his choice of denim. >> i heard they were crashinging on my jeans. >> dad jeans, nerd jeans. you are married to one of the most fashionable women in the world. >> right. >> you want to defend the pants? >> no. here's my attitude. michelle, she looks fabulous. i'm a little frumpy. i hate to shop. these jeans are comfortable, and for those of you who, you know, want your president to, you know, look great in his tight jeans, i'm sorry, i'm not the guy. >> tight jeans! >> i mean, joe scarborough wants to make fun of jeans? these are more modern levis jeans. >> for a guy to take on wide-legged jeans and i'm not

just saying this now, but he actually when he walked out i looked at my husband and i said, "wow, the president looks good." mr. president, i'm here to say i like your jeans and i say let everybody else be haters. don't pay attention to them. >> that's a nice thing to say in-to-your husband. >> the president looks good in a bathing suit. >> tight jeans, whatever. . >> next the latest on health care reform and whether health care giveaways are costing too much. come on in. you're invited to the chevy open house. where getting a new vehicle is easy. because the price on the tag is the price you pay on remaining '08 and '09 models. you'll find low, straightforward pricing. it's simple.

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the deadline's not being set by me. it's being set by the american people. >> president obama mott giving in to critics saying he's rushing health care reform.

he says 50 years of wait something long enough? what will be on the table by august recess and why are owe bee ma's poll numbers slipping when it comes to health care reform? michael steele sticks to the script word for word from republican talking points. the latest on the soldier held captive by the taliban, prayers from his home and comments from the commander in chief. >> we are hopeful that it will have a good ending. plus at least 19 doctors now part of michael jackson's death investigation as officials consider involuntary manslaughter charges, but who are they focusing on? and a young man addicted to alcohol since he was 11 is denied a liver transplant, why his family says he should not be punished for a decision he was too young to understand. in today's "crossing the line." good afternoon, everybody. good afternoon, tamron. i'm david shuster here in new york. >> i'm tom ran hall, live, side by side. up first the big picture eight

of the last nine days president obama hammered congress to pass health care legislation before the break next month. the president is facing cold feet from those in his own party in congress. a growing number of moderate and conservative democrats known as blue dogs are urging the white house to slow down. they want a plan that won't cost as much as predicted which could be around the trillion-dollar mark and today the president acknowledging the leading plans need more work but he is still urging lawmakers to get a bill on his desk in a couple of weeks. the president saying the american people want it. >> the american people understand the status quo is unacceptable. they don't care who's up or who's down politically in washington. they care about what's going on in their own lives. they don't care about the latest line of political attack. they care about whether their families will be crushed by rising premiums, whether the businesses they work for will have