Presidential Cabinet Meeting; Capitol Hill Changing of the Guard
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's easy. All right, we're going to talk sports in just a second. That big Giants parade and number of other issues as well. But I'm being told that President Obama actually hosted his first White House cabinet meeting today, and we just got the tape in.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, Tuesday was a big election. I've congratulated the Republicans and consoled some of our Democratic friends about the results. And I think it's clear that the voters sent a message, which is, they want us to focus on the economy and jobs and moving this country forward. They're concerned about making sure that taxpayer money is not wasted, and they want to change the tone here in Washington where the two parties are coming together and focusing on the people's business as opposed to scoring political points. I just had a meeting with my cabinet and key staff to let them know that we have to take that message to heart. And make a sincere and consistent effort to try to change how Washington operates. The folks around this table have done extraordinary work in their agencies. They have cooperated consistently with congress. I think they are interested in bipartisan ideas, and so they are going to be integral with helping me to root out waste in government, make our agencies more efficient, and generate more ideas so that we can put the American people back to work. Now, at the same time, obviously, what's going to be critically important over the coming months is creating a better working relationship between this White House and the congressional leadership that's coming in as well the congressional leadership that carries over from the previous congress. And so I want everybody to know that I have already called Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to invite them to a meeting here at the White House in the first week of the "lame duck" on November 18th. This is going to be a meeting in which I want us to talk substantively about how we can move the American people's agenda forward. It's not just going to be a photo op. Hopefully it may spill over into dinner, and the immediate focus is going to be what we need to get done during the "lame duck" session. I mentioned yesterday, we have to act in order to assure that middle class families don't see a big tax spike because of how the Bush tax cuts have been structured. It is very important that we extend those middle-class tax provisions to hold middle-class families harmless. But there are a whole range of other economic issues that have to be addressed; unemployment insurance for folks who are still out there looking for work; business extenders, which are essentially provisions to encourage businesses to invest here in the United States. And if we don't have those, we're losing a very important tool for us to be able to increase business investment and increase job growth over the coming year. We've got to provide businesses some certainty about what their tax landscape is going to look like and we have to provide families certainty. That's critical to maintain our recovery. I should mention that in addition to those economic issues, there's some things during the "lame duck" that relate to foreign policy that are going to be very important for us to deal with, and I'll make mention of one in particular, and that's the START Treaty. We have negotiated with the Russians significant reductions in our nuclear arms. This is something that traditionally has received strong bipartisan support. We have people like George Schulz who helped to organize arms control treaties with the Russians back when it was the Soviet Union who have come out forcefully in favor of this. This is not a traditionally Democratic or Republican issue, but, rather an issue of American National Security and I am hopeful that we can get that done before we leave and send a strong signal to Russia that we are serious about reducing nuclear arsenals, but also send a signal to the world that we are serious about nonproliferation. We've made great progress when it comes to sending a message to Iran that they are isolated internationally in part because people have seen that we are serious about taking our responsibilities when it comes to nonproliferation, and that has to continue. So there's going to be a whole range of work that needs to get done in a relatively short period of time, and I'm looking forward to having a conversation about leadership that has some agenda items that they may be concerned about. The last point I'll make is that I've also invited the newly elected Democratic and Republican governors here to the White House on December 2nd, because I think it's a terrific opportunity to hear from them, folks who are working at the state and local levels, about what they're seeing, what ideas they think Washington needs to be paying more attention to. A lot of times, things are a little less ideological when, you know, you get governors together because they've got very practical problems that they've got to solve in terms of how they make sure that roads and bridges are funded and how do they make sure that schools stay open and teachers stay on the job. You know, that kind of nuts and bolts stuff, I think, are oftentimes yields the kind of common sense approach that the American people, I think, are looking for right now. So in sum, we got a lot of work to do. People are still catching their breath from the election. The dust is still settling, but the one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that the American people don't want us just standing still. They don't want us engaged in gridlock. They want us to do the people's business, and partly because they understand that the world is not standing still. I'm going to be leaving tomorrow for India, and the primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia and some of the fastest-growing markets in the world and we can create jobs here in the United States of America. And my hope is that we got some specific announcements that show the connection between what we're doing overseas and what happens here at home when it comes to job growth and economic growth, but the bottom line is that all around the world, countries are moving. They are serious about competing. They are serious about competing with us not just on manufacturing but on services. They're competing with us when it comes to educational attainment, when it comes to scientific discovery, and so we can't afford two years of just squabbling. We need to make sure that everybody's pulling together, Democrats and Republicans and independents, folks at the federal level and the state levels, private sector with the public sector to make sure that America retains its competitiveness, retains its leadership in the world and that's something that I'm very much looking forward to helping to be a part of. So, thank you very much, everybody.</s>QUESTION: Mr. President -</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take it straight to Brianna Keilar, joining us live from Capitol Hill this morning. So you hear the president right there meeting, well, actually holding his first White House cabinet meeting and we're getting word right now that one thing he decided is November 18th, he's going to meet with Republican leaders. What are you hearing on the Hill?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's going to be meeting not just with Republican leaders but this will be a bipartisan meeting two weeks from today. He's invited the minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the soon to be speaker, John Boehner, the current speaker Nancy Pelosi and majority leader of the Senate, Harry Reid. And so this is going to be a bipartisan meeting. And he says this isn't just going to be a photo opportunity. This could go into dinner, talking about how this is going to be a substantive meeting, and talking about the lame-duck Congress. What's going to happen between now, which is basically, the election and when the new Congress comes in in January. So what he really hit on the Bush era tax cuts that need to be dealt with. These are going to be expiring at the end of the year, and Democrats and Republicans generally disagree on exactly how to handle this. Republicans want to extend these tax cuts for all Americans. Democrats want to extend these tax cuts for most Americans, the vast majority of Americans but not for those making a quarter of a million dollars or more. There are some Democrats who agree with Republicans on this and there is a point that the Republicans will make, some small businesses that fall into that upper category, and so this is something that's really the big priority that's going to need to be dealt with, Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Nancy Pelosi wondering what her next career move will be. She actually sat down for an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer. Diane Sawyer hit her hard on that and couldn't seem to get an answer out of her though. Your sources telling you anything?</s>KEILAR: You know, at this point, and aides are telling us that there is no timetable. Sources close to Nancy Pelosi saying they don't have a timetable on when she's going to make this announcement. Kyra, what everyone wants to know is is she going to stay as the leader of Democrats but take the role of minority leader? Is she going to get out of the Democratic leadership? Is she going to step aside from Congress in general? At this point, we just don't know. We have been following her around the Hill. Actually, she's been kind of taking some pretty elaborate measures to avoid us because clearly she is not ready to tell us what her decision is, and even sources close to her say that she hasn't made this decision yet. So what's going on? You've also got Democrats like Steny Hoyer, who is the number two Democrat. He's just kind of waiting. He made it clear yesterday basically saying that if Speaker Pelosi doesn't want to be the leader of Democrats, you know, he would be interested but he's not going to do it if she wants to remain in that role. So you've got a lot of Democrats as Republicans jockeying of throwing their hats in the ring to be in the leadership. You have a lot of Democrats who are just kind of playing this waiting game, waiting to see what her move is, and we are just waiting until she makes that clear.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Brianna, thanks. So the first ever Speaker of the House gone. But 2010 marked several other firsts for women in politics. Republican women that is. And that is one topic we'll talk about in just about 25 minutes. We're also talking about the big problem for the biggest passenger plane in the world. Singapore Airlines has joined Qantas in grounding its fleet of Airbus 380 jets. And here's why. An engine on a giant Qantas A380 blew out, just a few minutes after takeoff from Singapore and showered debris into the ground. The plane was headed to Sydney, Australia, turned around and then landed safely in Singapore. Here's how a passenger described the experience.</s>VOICE OF ULF WASCHBUSCH, QANTAS PASSENGER: I heard a long bang and I was sitting on the side where the engine is. I heard a bang and saw a little bit of flares for a short time and the engine was shut off immediately from the flight deck. The flight deck analyzed the situation.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, parts of the engine debris fell to the ground in Indonesia. 466 passengers and crew were on the flight. They're all OK. Potential disaster averted. CNN's Zain Verjee has more now from Singapore.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Every passenger dreads being on a plane and hearing a big bang. One passenger I spoke to told me exactly that. He said "I heard a loud bang, a jolt and then a flash. It was as if lightning struck us," he said. He saw four holes in the wing, there was one big one and three small ones. He said that the situation on the plane at that moment was pretty calm although he did hear a few people crying. Let's move to the investigation now. What they're going to do is look at the parameters of the engine, things like the speed at the time, the temperature, also take a look at the black box to see what some of the last communications were before the engine had trouble. Now, Qantas has grounded six of its A380 airbuses, and what we're hearing now is that Singapore Airlines is doing the same. They are temporarily holding their fleet of 11. Zain Verjee, CNN, Singapore.</s>PHILLIPS: And the end of an era. We'll have to wait another day. The weather in Florida still lousy that NASA scrubbed today's shuttle launch. It was going to be "Discovery's" 39th and final voyage. "Discovery" has a long proud history, as you know, including the first female shuttle pilot, the first African-American space walker. And it took the first sitting member of Congress into space. That was Jake Garn of Utah, way back in 1985. A Disney star checks out of the Jonas Brothers tour and into a treatment center. Now, we're learning more about the moment that may have been Demi Lovato's tipping point.