Abu Dhabi Makes bid for Chrysler Building
DOBBS: Well, foreign investors buying up, apparently with a good shopping list, some of New York City's landmark buildings. An Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund reportedly negotiating a deal to buy a 75 percent stake in the famous Chrysler building. Under the deal, the Abu Dhabi Investment Counsel would pay $800 million for three-quarters interest in the building. And a strong euro and a weak dollar making it all possible for an Italian real estate investor to buy up a huge chunk of the historic flatiron building in Manhattan. The Sorgents (ph) Group now owns 53 percent of the famous flatiron building. And now, you're going get really upset. Another American icon may soon have a foreign owner. This is no minor item. Anheuser- Busch, the brewer of Budweiser, today saying Belgium based InBev making an offer to buy the company, an unsolicited offer. InBev offer $48 billion for Budweiser, the maker of Budweiser and other brands controlling about 50 percent of the country's beer market. Anheuser- Busch said it will evaluate the bid but did not give a timetable for making any kind of decision. Another piece of this country's infrastructure may be up for sale as well. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell wants to lease out the Pennsylvania turnpike to a U.S. Spanish consortium. Joining me now for this brilliant idea, two Pennsylvania state senators; Dwight Evans, he's a co-sponsor of the proposal to do that and Joseph Markosek who opposes that deal. They both are in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania tonight. Gentlemen, good to have you with us.</s>REP. JOSEPH MARKPSEK (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you.</s>DWIGHT EVANS (D), PENNSYLVANIA STATE HOUSE: Thank you. Good to have you too, Lou.</s>DOBBS: Senator Evans, let me ask you. I mean Ed Rendell is usually a pragmatic fellow but I don't see how the state comes off selling what are taxpayer assets, government owned assets and doing a private deal? What's going on here?</s>EVANS: We have an infrastructure problem, Lou. We have over 6,000 bridges with potential problems. We need to come up with some money. And the reality of it is, if we had to fix that problem through the gas tax, you would be talking about 25, 30 cents more a gallon. We can't afford to raise the gas tax. I think the governor's idea deserves to be explored. We should have public ears and have the discussion. You're talking about maybe $13 billion would potentially be available. And we're talking about leasing it, not selling it.</s>DOBBS: For how long?</s>EVANS: Seventy-five years we're talking about leasing it.</s>DOBBS: Well you know a lot of people would look at that as that's a pretty long rent. But the reality is, Senator, I mean, where does the state get off doing this? Where do you find the authority to do it?</s>EVANS: Well you know obviously, we have to go through a process and basically the process would be public hearings allowing the public to have input to this process but the governor is taking a bold move. He's trying to realize to do something about the roads. We're supposed to protect the public. That's what I hear you talking about. And protecting the public, we have to fix those roads and we have to fix the bridges.</s>DOBBS: How in the world did Pennsylvania get by over the last half century with all those roads and all those bridges? You haven't been building a lot of things. What's the problem?</s>EVANS: We've gotten by because every governor had raised the gas tax. With gas at $4.50 a gallon, at $139 a barrel, you know for yourself, you can't raise the gas tax, nor can you raise enough money.</s>DOBBS: There's no toll on the Pennsylvania turnpike?</s>EVANS: There's a toll on the Pennsylvania turnpike but one of the ideas that the governor has is to toll I-80. We're waiting for the federal government to give us permission to toll I-80.</s>DOBBS: Why do you oppose this? Senator Evans thinks the way to do this is to go ahead with it.</s>MARKOSEK: Well Lou, it's a bad deal financially for the commonwealth. It's a bad policy decision. We've done a study that shows that the turn spike over well worth $26 billion. The bid is about half of that. And you would have to scrape off the top some of the obligations we already have. We have about $7 billion left to invest that has to last for 75 years. In the new world order where it's hard to know who is your friend and who is your foe, I think leasing the turnpike for 75 years to a foreign consortium is a bad, bad idea for the united states and for Pennsylvania. It's a bad deal for the commonwealth.</s>DOBBS: Let me ask you both this last question. If you can't support a toll road with tolls, what is the heck is wrong in Pennsylvania?</s>MARKOSEK: We have Act 44 that we both worked to get passed last year, we want to toll Interstate 80. We found that Act 44 will get us about two-thirds of the way there. We don't have to raise taxes or license fees at all. I think Act 44 needs to be allowed to continue. That will solve a big part of the problem.</s>DOBBS: You get the last word Senator Evans.</s>EVANS: The bottom line is safety for the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 6,000 bridges need to be fixed, many miles of road. The time has come. We need a discussion about this.</s>DOBBS: All right. Look forward to more of them. Thank you both for being here. Up at the top of the hour, the "ELECTION CENTER" Campbell Brown. Campbell, what are you working on?</s>CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Just ahead in the "ELECTION CENTER," it's another day, another broken record for gas prices. Another day of Washington's Democrats and Republicans blaming one another over it. Tonight we're going try to get beyond blame game and see if somebody can do something to lower gas prices. Also tonight, we have got embarrassments for both the McCain and Obama campaigns we're going to talk about. And then the story of a governor, his wife, and his girlfriend. We're not talking about the ones you might think. All of that ahead in the Election Center, Lou.</s>DOBBS: You got it. I love politics. Campbell Brown up at the top of the hour. Up here next, more of your thoughts and the results of our poll. Stay with us. We're coming right back.