replacing bush administration plans for a large-scale missile defense system in eastern europe with his own, drawing criticism from republicans. >> to put it simply, our new missile defense architecture in europe will provide stronger, smarter and swifter defenses of american forces and america's allies. don't forget about health care. in 40 minutes, president obama will host a big health care rally, this one at the university of maryland. back in washington, senate finance chairman max baucus making his own hard sell to convince republicans and even his fellow democrats that his health care reform proposal is the way to go. good morning. i am monica novotny. >> and i'm alex witt. good morning to all of you. 24-year-old raymond clark being arraigned at a new haven courthouse. he was arrested early this morning at a hotel for the strangling death of yale grad student annie le. ron allen is in new haven for us. good morning to you. any word yet on the charges against clark? >> reporter: the charge is going

to be some type of charge that relates to murder. we don't know exactly what it's going to be. the court process is going on right now. another issue being debated is bail. prosecutors were asking for bail of some $3 million, which gives you some sense of the severity of the crime, as they see it. the court process is under way. we should have tape of that f r fairly soon. as you reported, clark was arrested this morning at a motel not far from where he live, about half hour drive from campus where he was staying the night after being released by police after submitting dna samples. it's those dna samples, hair, nail, other material, that they used to connect him to the case and made a quick arrest. they said once they had a match they would move in and make an arrest. clark has been the only suspect, only person under surveillance. it would appear police have moved quickly to solve this case. he is in court now. we expect him to be here. we don't expect him to make bail of any kind.

we also expect to hear from the president of yale university in a half hour's time or so. one message that the community is going to try -- university community is going to try to make is reassure people here that the crime was apparently confined to this lab, to this work environment. police describe it as a workplace crime, not a crime of passion or anything else. apparently some kind of dispute, something happened between annie le and ray clark. we don't know exactly what that was, of course. we don't know what the motive was. they worked in the same environment. she was a grad student doing research. he was a lab technician, essentially a title for someone who is a custodian or janitor, who worked with the animals, cleaning their cages, cleaning up the area. wi again, we don't know much about their relationship. there was not a romantic relationship of any kind. police are moving quickly to solve this crime and put this guy away for some time. >> one question. strangulation is on record as the means of death. and yet there was the discovery of ploody clothing, reportedly blood on the floor.

has there been any inferences as to what that is all about, where that came from, how that might have played a role? >> no, not at all. the only thing i've heard reported and confirmed is that her body was found somewhere, stuffed inside the wall or wall area of the lab itself. what condition the body was in is unclear. we do know that the cause of death was choking or strangulation. we don't know if there was an instrument or some type of object involved, forced against her neck of some sort. we don't know the details of that. although i've heard reports of bloody clothing being found, i'm not even sure if that, in fact, is the case. there will be more details as police reveal more information about the investigation. at this point, that's all we know about those issues regarding how she died. >> all right. we also expect the yale president to speak at 11:30 and take a statement, reportedly, though, not taking any questions. ron allen, thank you very much. california investigators at this hour found more bone

fragments in a search of phillip and nancy garrido's home and property next door. they're not sure if the fragments are human or animal. they're accused of kidnapping, rape and imprisonment of jaycee dugard. at least 16 people are dead and dozens more injured in a suicide car bombing in afghanistan. the bomber slammed his car, filled with explosives into two italian military vehicles. this happened in kabul. six italian soldiers and 10 afghan civilians were killed. former vice president dick cheney was admitted in the hospital in washington, undergoing elective surgery to deal with a spinal condition. on the president's agenda this morning, everything from health care to this country's missile defense. in just the past hour, the president announced he is taking a new approach to missile defense, now scrapping the bush administration's plans in favor of one that will provide swifter, smarter protection against a threat from iran. joining us now live, john

decker, washington correspondent from routers at the white house. good morning. >> good morning to you, alex. >> let's talk about how this change is about russia and russia's reaction, which reportedly is none too pleased with this new plan. >> reporter: it is all about russia. it's about appealing to some of the concerns that they had about the missile defense plan that the president, president bush put in in the first place. what the white house is betting on or certainly hoping is that russia changes its attitude to be more hardline as it relates to iran. and missile plan that is they have, nuclear weapons' program they're try iing to put togethe right now, they want russia to crack down on iran. that's the hope that russia follows through as a result of the actions that the president announced today. >> okay. let's move from there to health care, because so far the white house has only said that the balk us plan is an important building block. it gets us closer to comprehensive health care reform. what do you expect to hear from the president when he takes the university of maryland, comcast

center in about half an hour, if he's on time? >> reporter: i think they'll hear from the president what we've heard at other pep rallies, recently in minnesota over the past weekend, the push for the need for comprehensive health care reform. if the white house, though, is expecting that the balk us bill would be some sort of magic bullet, i think some cold water was thrown on that idea yesterday. not only were republicans opposed to it, that was to be expected, but we also heard cool words coming from moveon.org, from the house speaker, nancy pelosi and even the majority leader, harry reid. this bill that max baucus put out needs a lot of work that still needs to be done to have republican support coming out of the committee and certainly in the full senate. >> let's look at what karl rove had to say in a wall street journal op-ed today. he says part of the president's problem is his language. president obama's tone was unpresidential. instead of binding americans to his cause, he called legitimate concerns misinformation, false,

demagoguery, distortion or tall tales, earlier in the week declared them lies. this was like calling people with concerns stupid, and it's not the way to win them over. so, when you look at today, having another rally, is this the kind of thing that will help the president's quest for reform? might it hurt it? you'll have people that certainly are opposed to his views. >> reporter: that's an interesting point of view presented by karl rove, but also a view being expressed by some democrats i've spoken to that also would like to see comprehensive health care come forward. the rally is a good idea and certainly goes a long way to rallying the base. the president needs to get some republican support if he wants, indeed, a bipartisan bill to come before his desk. for that, the president needs to roll up his sleeves, meet with these people that may have issues, senators like owe olympia snowe from maine. that's something that the president and white house is certainly considering over the next week or so. >> jon decker as always, many

thanks. >> reporter: thanks, alex. raiding the home of a colorado man who may have possible ties to al qaeda and now the agency is searching for a possible bomb-making material. agents and sheriff's deputies raided the home in suburban denver. he denies he's a central figure in a terrorism investigation that fed fears of a possible bomb plot. checking with home depot stores, they want to know if it sold any large quantities of chemicals that can be used to make explosives. straight ahead, could the worst of the job cuts finally be behind us? new numbers out from wall street. plus inside the economic meltdown. bipartisan panel is meeting right now in washington to hash out what went wrong and what needs to happen to make sure it never happens again. don't forget -- well, do forget for now "dancing with the stars." how about supreme court justice? sewna sotomayor is showing off

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welcome back. we continue to follow the story of annie le's murder. this is the man, raymond clark, chan charged with her murder. apparently he kept his head bowed during the three-minute court appearance. he did not enter a plea. he said yes, your honor, when asked if he understood his rights. the judge set bail at $3 million. this, of course, is a first look at his mug shot. raymond clark, we'll continue to follow the story as more details come in this morning. top economic headlines we're following for you right now. number of unamericans claiming unemployment fell last week to the lowest level since early

july. according to the labor department, initial claims dropped to 545,000. new home construction rose 1.5% in august to its highest level in months, surge in apartment building set off a decline in single-family home construction. the white house is considering extending an $8,000 tax credit for first home buyers. the administration has not yet decided to extend the offer past the end of november. congressional panel is taking a closer look at what cause caused last year's collapse. rick newman, chief business correspondent with u.s. news & world report joins us now. rick, they're modeling this panel after the 9/11 commission, but don't have to report back to lawmakers until december of 2010. it's expected congress will already get stuff on the books in terms of regulation by then. what's the point? >> as if we don't already know

what's happened. the analogies to 9/11 commission are bogus in this case. they were facing real profound confusion about what happened, and we needed a commission to get into, really, like 20 year's worth of secret intelligence and things like this, to figure out what happened. we know what has happened in the financial crisis. >> and the timing is -- really se seems late. here we are one year later. >> absolutely. >> and you have a lot of critics who, as you're saying, say we know what happened. >> blue ribbon panel to say here is what you need to do to fix it. obama has put forth the reforms he wants and wants them done this year. the commission isn't set out to come out with their report until december 2010. nobody is going to be interested in this panel's report in 2010. i am asking the same question, what's the point of this panel? >> i did read one report and they pointed out that the 9/11 commission initially was thought not to be very useful in the beginning, that there wouldn't

be anything of consequences. after the fact as they got closer to the deadline and then once we saw all the results they're finding, that they did -- it was a raise in profile for them. >> i suppose something like that could happen, but the financial crisis has been documented since 2006, there's a couple dozen books on what happened and a few of them are scholarly and thorough. one round of reform this year and repetitive reforms in the next few years seems unrealistic. that's not the way washington works. you get one chance usually to make big reforms with such an entrenched industry. okay, maybe something monumental will happen when the report comes out in 18 months. >> they'll get $5 million to do it. >> at least it's $5 million and not billion. >> this is true. let me ask you, since we've got you here. >> sure. >> let's talk about the recovery. where do you think we are right now? we heard, perhaps, some good news by bernanke, talking about the fact that the worst could be over now. you still have these fears of

this jobless recovery. >> right. we are in a stutter step recovery that's going to take a long time before it actually returns to a prosperous economy. there's a big difference between recession has ended and bernanke and all these economists. in technical terms, the economy has stopped shrinking and probably is growing again, largely thanks to literally trillions in government intervention. big difference between that and an economy that feels process perrous, where companies are hiring. we may face a year, maybe longer, of economic pergtory where we're nursing our wounds. >> it reminds me of the time -- alex, you remember, when we're constantly reporting, are we in a recession yet, are we in a recession yet? and it got to the point where every expert said it doesn't matter. we'll find out soon enough but emotionally americans already feel like we're in a recession. so whether we're out of it technically or not it's about the mind-set. >> what's the real takeaway for

people? when you're making life plans or investments, use very conservative presumptions. assume you might get a 2% instead of 5% raise or no raise. if you have your job, chances are pretty good you're not going to lose it. if you want to get another job, if you're looking for a big boost forward in your career, it's going to be hard to find. >> rick newman, always a pleasure. >> my pleasure. thanks. we'll go now to jim miklaszewski, who has just come out of a briefing where we understand the discussion was all about the president's plan to scrap a missile defense shield plan. what was said in that meeting? >> reporter: secretary of defense robert gates wanted to make sure that the u.s., the obama administration is not scrapping missile defense in europe altogether. they are scrapping the bush plan, which was to put permanent missile intercepters in poland and a permanent, large radar in the czech republic for one they say is more versatile. it would be portable, in fact,

that these missile intercepters could be moved around on the ground. but they would also be sea-based intercepters on cruisers that are more adaptable, they say, to the emerging threat, particularly out of iran. it's been determined by intelligence officials within the past three years since secretary gates himself recommended a permanent missile defense system in europe that the long-range ballistic missile threat from iran has diminished somewhat and the short-range, medium-range threat has grown. so, what the secretary was stressing was the adaptability and, quite frnkly, the affordability. in fact, this will be -- this missile defense system could be fielded at a fraction of the cost as the original system and could be fielded, in part, some six to seven years earlier than that other system. and i want to add one other

thing, that gates also stressed that it may be a system that would be more acceptable to the russians, who were adamantly opposed to the permanent missile defense system that had been originally proposed and, in fact, approved by the bush administration. >> right. and that was a missile intercepter system in poland, a radar system in the czech republic. those two countries were good with it. it was russia that opposed that at the outset. how much, if you read between the lines, is it about appeasing russia? >> it's a little bit. secretary gates said it was almost exclusively about the change in the threat and the improved technology that makes this portable, more deployable system land and sea-based more viable in terms of dealing with the potential threat. and they say it's almost more adaptable, that as the threat chan changes, as it always does, when you're feeling with an enemy force, that the u.s. and its

nato allies could be more adaptable. it's a system that's going to be deployed not only in the mediterranean and in the gulf region, but it's also going to be deployed in the pacific. and one of the points he made is that many of the allies will be able to buy into this. in fact, japan has already contributed more than $1 billion in terms of the research and development of this newer missile system that will be fielded. >> okay. mick from the pentagon, thanks so much. >> reporter: okay. extra security around bernie madoff's montach home because someone stole a three-foot tall, $300 rusty steel sculpture. it had an fbi tag on it. that didn't stop someone from taking it. federal marshalls are overseeing the sale of all of madoff's merchandise, with the proceeds going to the victims of his crime. that home is on the market for $8.7 million. game show first.

newlywed game will feature its very first same-sex couple. despite playing it straight all these years, the newlywed game on the game show network on cable will feature a gay couple. george takai and his partner, brad altman, you see them there, will appear on a celebrity edition this season. the men just celebrated their first anniversary as a married couple. "dancing with the stars" or dancing with the supreme court justice? ♪ there you see justice sonia sotomayor taking to the dance floor. the first latino justice on the dance floor for a little salsa number. she drew cheers from the crowd for her steps and turns. you go, girl. >> she looks great. >> looks fun, right? flying the friendly skies, what you're really paying for with the tickets and added taxes and fees. plus the effects of sugary

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pay for it? a look at where those money are going. i don't think we're benefiting from these fees at all. it's a bit annoying. >> some of these fees maintain the airports and the infrastructure and the tower and lights and everything else. some go to the tsa security ap rat us. a usa today/msnbc poll found that they're actually going to pay for the upgrades and new facilities at airports you and i will never use. 2,000 small airports across the country that offer absolutely zero commercial flights. these are only for private airplanes. 2,000 of them. in fact, so many that virtually every member of congress has one or more in his or her backyard. but the trouble is the airline passengers are being taxed on their tickets. for example, typical airline ticket comes away with 30% more in airline fees and taxes. so, the question is, should

airline passengers, commercial passengers have to pay for upgrading and investing in airports that are strictly for private airports? should airline passengers be stuck with that bill? that's really the thrust of it. the airlines say no, it's not fair to their passengers to have to bill them for airport that is they will probably never use. the other side of it says, listen, we need to maintain an entire infrastructure of airports nationwide, not just commercial, but general aviation. so then should all of us have to pay for it in some sort of a tax or attach it to some sort of appropriations? guess what, no member of congress, of course, wants to be accused of raising taxes and every member of congress has a vested interest in having these small airports open in his or her backyard even though they may only get two dozen, three, four dozen flights a day and none of them for commercial passengers. all of them private aviation. back to you. >> sounds like something that's going to be hard to reconcile. tom costello, thanks for

bringing it up. >> okay. acorn is dealing with the fallout of this hidden camera video. have you seen it? it shows a couple posing as a pump and prostitute, asking how to -- investigate acorn's activities, federal senate has voteded to block funds to acorn. acorn has ordered a review of all of its systems and procedures. straight ahead, new developments out of connecticut where a lab technician has just been arraigned in the murder of yale grad student annie le. we're expecting a statement from yale university's president. president obama takes higs health care push on the road at the university of maryland in a town hall meeting. we'll have live coverage for you here on msnbc. [ glass clatters ] what are you two doing? he's trying to beat my record. 61 dishes, and a garlic press.

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at half past, live pictures of the comcast center at the university of maryland. the crowd is already gathered and the president will be arriving any moment now. we'll bring that to you live when it gets under way. the white house is streaming the event live on facebook, hoping students will watch the event and discuss it in real time. the arrest of lab technician raymond clark for the murder of yale grad student annie le. he was arraigned moments ago. he didn't enter a plea. the judge did set bail at $3 million. we're joined live on the phone by managing editor of the yale daily news. barat, what's reaction been on campus to clark's arrest? >> monica, i think everyone is really relieved to see at least some sort of closure start to emerge in this case. of course, i think students have been, you know, very concerned and obviously very saddeneded by this tragic news, to lose a student like -- so promising like annie. i think we're starting to see a

little bit of a relief here on campus. >> and we expect to hear from the president of yale, also going to be talking about -- he put out a statement and talked about in a sense there's some relief in that this is one person and that he said it speaks more about the darker side of the human soul. >> absolutely. you know, i think there's a lot of solace in the fact that this was a targeted incident and not just some random killer on the loose. there's not a whole lot that we could do about it, but it's good to know that this person is now being handled by authorities. >> he didn't enter a plea, raymond clark. we know the bond is set for $3 million. his next court date is set for october 6th. what happens next? >> now i think we just wait. you know, it's -- the authorities have sealed both the search and arrest warrant, so we're not going to get any more information out of that. so, it's a wait and see game

now. >> and in terms of -- i do want to mention, the yale president is set to speak in a few moments and you see the live picture there. when he speaks we'll bring that to you. we also heard, bahrat, police speaking about the tremendous amount of dna evidence, evidence they have to go through. do we know any more about what they were taking from this man's apartment and his car? >> no, we don't. the police were not giving out a lot of details this morning, mostly because those moments i mentioned earlier are sealed and they aren't giving out any more deta details about the investigation because of that. >> bahrat, any official reaction yet from the family today? >> we have not heard any, no. >> bahrat ayyar, thank you for sharing your reporting with us. >> thank you. top headlines we're following for you. president obama says he will chevy the bush administration's pl plans for a defense missile system in eastern europe. that is in part because iran is

less focusing on long-range missiles, making the defense system unnecessary. police say 47-year-old troy west yelled racial slurs as he punched and kicked an african-american woman in front of her daughter. west is charged with battery, disorderly conduct and cruelty to children. singer chris brown has officially started his court-ordered community service. the 20-year-old was filmed clearing weeds and debris at state horse stables in virginia, sentenced to 180 days of labor for attacking ex-girlfriend rihanna. set to deby the a bill naming patrick duvall to fill the vacant senate seat of ted kennedy. david axelrod has been making calls to the massachusetts legislature, urging them to give democrats that 60th vote in the senate as soon as possible. special election to fill the seat is set for january 19th.

republican lawmakers say they will fight the bill. any minute now, president obama could make his first public comments on the unveiling of senator baucus' long-awaited health care reform plan. it was supposed to be a compromise between democrats and republicans. on capitol hill the only thing everyone can seem to agree on is they don't like it. live on capitol hill with more on this, kelly o'donnell. it seems in attempting to please everyone, perhaps, he has pleased no one. what do you think? >> reporter: well, monica, life sometimes works that way, doesn't it? there was certainly such an effort to get bipartisan support because they believed that would be, in the words of chairman balk us, the greatest approach, greater appeal broadly across the country, greater political weight if it was not just a democrat plan, if you could, in fact, draw some republicans. so far the balk us plan has not done that. we know of no gop support so far. some in the democratic party,

largely on the liberal side, who are not happy because it does not have that public option. speaker nancy pelosi has concerns as well, still advocating for the public option. >> kelly, unfortunately, i think we don't have that sound from pelosi. i can read it to you, though. >> reporter: sure. >> it says security for our seniors, our bill is stronger for seniors than the senate bill. we hope we can persuade them to our point of view. i fully support a public option, a public option, a public option will be in the bill that passes the house of representatives. >> i'm glad you were able to mention the house of representatives part. it's always been an easier sell on the house side. for a period of time, speaker pelosi can keep that argument going. on the senate side, they say a public option cannot pass. that's the claim by democrats, as well as republicans. so, it will be some time before they have to reach that hurdle of merging the two bills, whatever they eventually look like. but on the issue of senior, the republican party has been

talking about concerns about what's in the balk us plan, saying it will not be as good for seniors as some of the other plans from other committees that have debuted earlier. we also heard about the donut hole where there's a gap for seni seniors, having to pay for some of their prescriptions and so forth. it does address some of that. again, it's an eye of the beholder moment. some people think medicare will be improved, there will be greater efficiencies. others say there will be some cuts because there are cuts planned, but not specified, which raises concerns among republicans who say seniors should be wary. lots more to talk about and understand in the days going forward. >> kelly, there is a point also being made that those in the insurance industry don't seem unhappy as of yet, that one thing they're getting out of this is potentially 30 million more customers. >> the insurance lobby is powerful. there are many forces that are spending money to try to influence the debate through the lobbying channels and also on television. i'm sure people have been noticing many ads across their

tv screens, arguing some of the points that have been in the debate. insurance be companies are watching this closely and, of course, part of that what they're saying is the intent of this legislation is to increase competition and, as you point out, there could be more private insurance customers. so, there will be a lot of scrambling to get the best share of whatever marketplace we end up with after this is all done. >> kelly o'donnell, thanks as always. >> thanks, monica. as we await the university of maryland rally to get under way with president obama, garnering the support of all 59 democrats and convincing at least one republican to get on board. democratic strategist keith boy boykin and republican strategist joins us. good morning to you. will they come on board and be a cohesive unit and you can convince owe olympia snowe to come on board as well? >> they will not be a cohesive unit. all democrats agree we need

health care reform. the issue is what is included in health care reform? we all agree on limiting pre-existing conditions, reducing cost and expanding coverage. the issue is how do you expand that coverage and if the public option is on the table -- >> keith, hang on to that thought right now. the yale university president is speaking on the death of grad student annie le. >> laura smith, standard spelling. she is the president of local 34 here, the union that represents yale university's clerical and technical staff. as we said, they're unable to take any questions after they give their brief statements. thank you very much. >> good morning. i wrote earlier this morning to the yale community, to inform everyone about the arrest of raymond clark. we're relieved and encouraged by this progress in the investigation, but it's

important to resist the temptation to rush to judgment until a full and fair prosecution of this case brings a just resolution. as with every development in this tragic story, we think first of annie le's family, her fiance and his family and her friends, and our hearts go out to them. mr. clark has been a lab technician at yale since december 2004. his supervisor reports that nothing in the history of his employment here gave any indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible. it is very disturbing to think that a university employee might have committed this terrible crime. but as i reminded our community, we must not let this incident

shatter our trust in one another. the work of the university requires us to engage with each other in the classroom, to collaborate in the laboratory and to trust one another in the workplace all across our campus. i want to emphasize that our campus and our city are safe places. both are thriving communities, made more so by the strong partnership between the city of new haven and the university. what happened here could have happened anywhere. it says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about anything else. we're all deeply indebted to the men and women of the fbi, the connecticut state police, the new haven police, the yale police and yale security. they have truly worked

tirelessly and cooperatively since annie le's disappearance last tuesday. we are a very close community with deeply shared values. monday night's candlelight vigil gave moving testimony to the caring and compassion of this place. we will continue to offer comfort and consolation to annie's family and friends, to all the people who work here. and we will honor annie's memory by rededicating ourselves to the highest and best values of this institution. thank you. now i would like to ask my colleague, laura smith, who is the president of local 34 of unite here to come to the podium. she, of course, represents yale's 3,400 clerical and technical workers, of which raymond clark was one.

laura? >> good morning. i've worked at yale for 29 years, and as -- >> we will continue to listen to this and we want you to know that was yale university's president richard c.levin, trying to show some compassion there to annie le's family and also bring some sense of calm to the very disoriented yale community. now a lot of fear and concerns in that community. new haven has been a city riddled with crime throughout the years. yale has done its best to clean it up. there, he has addressed that issue of concern for so many students and parents across this country who want to make sure their loved ones are safe. richard c. levin, yale university president there. let's go back. keith, i asked you the first question. alex, you're up with this. a poll done by usa today and

gallop, which finds many americans doubt the cost and benefit of the health care reform. will the president's plan expand health care without raising t k tacks and lower quality? an overwhelming majority say, nope, not going to do that. 60%. in other words, they're going to have a tax, perhaps, raising, but it's not going to improve the quality. how much of a hurdle is this for the democrats as they try to find some cohesive way to put this plan together in the senate and get 60 on board? >> that's a big hurdle. a lot we've heard about is how much this is going to cost. if you're a middle class person in this country and you've got health insurance, you're probably trying to figure out what is in it for you to get on board with this proposal. and i think that's the reality here. and all you're looking at is the daily number of billions of dollars this is going to cost. at the end of the day, how are things better off for you. i think this is a tremendous hurdle, the president and congress have to try to get it over at this point. >> okay. keith, let's take a listen with

you to nancy pelosi, speaking earlier today. a huge proponent by public option that is not in max baucus' senate health care reform plan. let's take a listen to what she had to say earlier. >> security for our seniors, our bill is stronger for seniors than the senate bill. we hope we can persuade them to our point of view. i fully support a public option, a public option will be in the bill attached to the house of representatives. >> as nancy pelosi addresses the senior element, seniors are loyal voters, keith. how much do you think this depends on bringing seniors into the conversation, making sure they are appeased? >> the issue is getting the real information, the accurate information out there instead of the misinformation that's been out there. alex is exactly right about his concerns about people who are getting too much information that's not accurate, i think. that's the reason why some people are concerned about their protection not improving. the reality is their protection

will increase, it would be more security and stability, not having to worry about pre-existing conditions or being cut from their insurers. seniors will be protected, too, under this plan. the problem the president has faced is there's been such a deluge of misinformation and hype and this august nonsense that made it impossible for him to get the message out there. he will start to do that today with his speech and again this weekend with the sunday appearance. >> real quick, alex. >> to be fair, the president has not unified behind any one plan. you're talking about misinformation, there's a million different plans, ideas about what's going on and what it's going to cost. he's sort of a victim of his own lack of leadership on this issue. >> we'll see what the president has to say and maybe questions will be cleared up in the minds of many, as he approaches the podium, coming up shortly at university of maryland. keith and alex, appreciate it. >> thank you, alex. today we know the president is drawing fire from republicans with plans to scrap bush administration plans for a missile defense system in

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maybe i'll even rub the nose before i leave. we've got a number of extraordinary elected officials who are here. i want to introduce them real quick. to introduce them quick. your governor o'malley is in the house. the two outstanding senators from maryland, barbara mcckullsy and ben cardin are in the house. one of the finest leaders that we have in congress, steny hoyer is in the house. lieutenant governor anthony brandt is here, prince george's

county executive jack johnson is here, mayor steven braman is here. state senate majority leader tom miller is in the house. congresswoman donna edwards is here. congressman elijah cummings. congressman chris van hollen. congressman sarbanes is here. congressman butch roads is here. and president of the university of maryland, thank you so much. you know, who?

you know, the last time i was here, it was in the heat of a very long and a very tough campaign. and in that campaign, i promised to be a president who -- you guys can sit down, by the way. in that campaign, i promised to be a president who didn't just clean up yesterday's crises. i didn't want to be a president that was just content with standing still. i promised to be a president who would build a better future, who would move this nation forward, who would ensure that this generation, your generation had the same chances and the same

opportunities that our parents gave us. that's what i'm here to do. that's why i ran for president of the united states of america. i ran for president because the people like rachel. did she not do an outstanding job in the introduction? part of that promise is an economy that leads the world in science and technology and innovation. part of that promise is a clean energy revolution that protects our planet, protects our security, creates jobs of the future right here in the united states of america. part of it is giving every citizen the skills and the education they need to compete with any worker in the world, just like you're getting right here at the university of maryland.

and today we are on the cusp of taking another big step forward towards fulfilling that promise. a few miles from here, the house of representatives will soon be voting on a plan that would finally make the student loan process simpler and more affordable for millions. this plan would end the billions upon billions of dollars in unwarranted subsidies that we hand out to banks and financial institutions, money that doesn't do anything to make your loans any cheaper. instead, we're going to use that money to guarantee access to low-cost loans, no matter what the economy looks like. we'll use it to strengthen pell grants and perkins loans to make college more affordable. we'll shore up our system of

community colleges. and we will simplify the complicated, convoluted financial aid forms so it's easier for you to apply for help. get the finances you need. now, these are reforms that have been talked about for years, but they're always blocked by special interests and their lobbyists. well, because you voted for change in november, we're going to bring change in the house of representatives today. and then we will take this battle for america's students and america's working families to the senate, and then i intend to sign this bill into law, because that's the change you worked for, that's the change you voted for, that's the change we're going to deliver. but, terps, we can't stop there.

there are still those in washington who are resistant to change, who are more willing to defend the status quo than address the real concerns of the american people. [ booing ] what can i tell you? they're still out there. we're facing the same kind of resistance on another defining struggle of this generation, and that's the issue of health insurance reform. now, let me say, you know, when you're young, i know this isn't always an issue that you have at the top of your mind. you think you're invulnerable. that's what i thought. i love you back. i'm sure some of you wonder why

this college requires that all new students have health insurance this semester. well, here's why. here's why. every day, one in three adults -- one in three young adults who don't have health insurance live one accident or one illness away from bankruptcy. think about what would have happened with rachel if she hadn't had health insurance. nearly half of these young people have trouble paying their medical bills. nearly 40% are in debt because of it. i mean, think about adding the debt you already have for college on top of that another $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 or $50,000 worth of debt because you get sick. some of these americans don't get insurance because they feel young and healthy. but some work part time or for small businesses where you

aren't offered health insurance, and it's too expensive to buy coverage on your own. and even if you have coverage, insurance companies today, they can drop it or water it down when you're sick and you need it the most. or they can decide that they won't pay the full cost of your care, make you pay the rest of it out of pocket, even if it's thousands upon thousands of dollars. that's why more than one-third of all young adults, including those with insurance, have had trouble paying their medical bills. that's why one-fourth of all young adults are paying off medical debt. we've heard some horror stories during the course of this debate. there's a young father i met in colorado. his child was diagnosed with severe hemophilia the day after he was born, and they had insurance, but because there was a cap on their coverage, as one child's medical bills piled up, this father was left franticly to search for another option or face tens of thousands of dollars of debt. another woman from texas was about to get a double