CBO Health Care Numbers; Unhappy Reunion in Haiti; President to Sign Jobs Bill
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We heard from our reporting from our Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill there. According to our Democratic sources that the cost of this reform plan is estimated to be at $940 billion over the next 10 years and already we're starting to hear from various congressional leaders as we await the official word on those numbers. Meantime, we have new developments this hour on the road to health care reform. Let's give you the latest on all that we know right now. Democrats are telling us details of that CBO, that Congressional Budget Office report. On the cost, the CBO price tag, as I just mentioned, $940 billion. The full report is due to be published today, starting a 72-hour clock for studying it and that would set up a vote on the bill perhaps by Sunday. CNN congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar has been working her sources to get more on this report. Brianna joining us live now. Democrats are feeling rather energized as a result of learning more details about this CBO report. Why?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Fred, what we've been waiting for really for days now is this price tag which is what the estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is and Democrats have been waiting for this and what we heard today was them getting out ahead of the CBO, which is a non-partisan group, making their announcement and telling us that the price tag is going to be $940 billion over 10 years, that it would reduce the deficit over the first 10 years by $130 billion and that it would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second 10 years. So here's how this breakdown. I know those are a whole lot of numbers, but President Obama has said all along that he wants the goal to be $900 billion or less. So the overall price tag which Democrats say is out here 940 is obviously over that, but what they're pointing to is the deficit reduction numbers, that this is not deficit spending. In fact, it's going to reduce the deficit and it's going to reduce it more than, say, the Senate passed bill did, more than the House passed bill. But what you need to keep in mind of the numbers is we're getting them from Democrats. We haven't seen the official numbers from the Congressional Budget Office. Do we expect those numbers to be very different when they do come out presumably here in the next couple of hours? Not necessarily. But what we do expect the Democrats will be highlighting all of the positives right now without talking about the negatives. So keep that in mind as we tell you these numbers, but bottom line, they say that they are very giddy about these numbers because they're trying to win over some of those moderate Democrats who are deficit hawks, who have major concerns about deficit spending and they think that this is going to help win them over so you see democrats here putting a positive spin on what's going on.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much. We're highlighting the negatives of some of the Republican leadership. House Minority Leader John Boehner had this to say a short while ago.</s>REP. JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: It's not about the speaker. This is about the American people and the health care system that they want for our country. We've made clear that it's time to scrap this bill and then start over on common sense reforms to make our current health care system better, but no. They will continue to ram, ram, ram this bill through the Congress. Every kind of scheme known to man to try to get it through the Congress without a vote. We're going have an opportunity for the members today to vote on a straight up or down resolution about requiring a straight up or down vote this bill. It will be part of our previous question when we get a rule bill up, and members have a chance to vote on that, but I can tell you this, that Republicans in the House and Senate have worked closer together over the last year and we're going to continue to work closer together and to do everything that we can do to make sure that this bill never, ever, ever passes.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Strong words there from John Boehner. President Obama, by the way, has delayed his overseas trip and he's keeping watch on the Democratic House leaders as well as the Republican House and Senate leaders as they all talk about whether this health care reform plan will indeed pass. CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian is live for us now from the White House. Dan.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And he's not just keeping watch on what's going on up there on Capitol Hill but he's deeply involved according to White House aides in working on those undecided Democrats, some of whom have big concerns about the cost of this health care bill. No official reaction yet from the White House on those numbers that we've been reporting because, of course, those numbers have not been officially released yet by CBO, but the president does continue to work to try to get the votes from those Democrats in order to pass health care reform and we saw yesterday some progress on that front where Dennis Kucinich who had previously voted no on this House health care bill now saying he will vote yes. The White House very encouraged by that and hoping that this is sort of the beginning of a trend and that others will also be moving. I'm told by a White House aide that the president in talking to some of these Democratic members has been pushing them on what this health care bill will mean for the American people if passed and what will happen if they do nothing, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Dan Lothian, thanks so much. And so far as we understand, the president is still expected to depart perhaps Sunday?</s>LOTHIAN: That's right. That's still the plan. He's still expected to depart on Sunday, and I did ask Robert Gibbs if there was any indication at all that perhaps the trip could be canceled. He said no, the trip's still on.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. He's feeling confident. Thanks so much. Dan Lothian, appreciate it, from the White House. All right. Well, this brings us to today's blog question. We asked for your thoughts on health care reform, the process, the package, all of that. This from Carmen, "As an RN, a registered nurse, I feel very disappointed at the lack of value being placed on a human life. Stop worrying about what costs for who. These are actual people dying every day for lack of health insurance! Stop putting a monetary value on life." And this from Richard saying "The current health care reform bill is an absolute fiscal horror. The bill should be thrown out in total, with the project started over." And this from Ann. "None of us hardworking Americans are going to be able to make it with all the new taxes. It will not be better health care." So remember, we want to hear from you. Just logon to CNN.com/Fredricka to share your comments and we'll get them on the air just as we have done. Haitian children reuniting with their parents that should be a happy occasion, right? With tears of joy? Well, there are tears, all right, but not of joy. Sara Sidner joins us now from Port-au-Prince. So, Sara, another heartbreaking story here. Why is it everyone is not happy to be reunited? OK. We'll try to work on that audio. Perhaps we can still at least see her piece.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daphnis Adrien waits to see his family after being separated for six weeks. It should be a happy moment, but it doesn't turn out the way you might think. Daphnis does not want to go home.</s>DAPHNIS ADRIEN, 12 YEARS OLD (through translator): I am leaving my mom, he says, but the mom he's talking about isn't his mom at all. It's the caretaker he's been with from a child protection group. He knows his biological mother gave him away after the earthquake and still today she makes no apologies.</s>ELVITA DORLIS, MOTHER (through translator): Life was so bad he was leaving with foreigners to go to Santo Domingo to look for a better life and things went wrong, she says.</s>SIDNER: Daphnis is one of the 33 children taken by American Baptist Missionary Laura Silsby and her crew who had claimed the children were all orphans in desperate need of help after Haiti's earthquake killed so many parents. It turns out none are orphans and under Haitian law they must now be reunited with their families. For little Jenny, the reunion is also a birthday present. She just turned one.</s>ROSE RAMPI, MOTHER (through translator): I am happy I have found her, her mother says.</s>SIDNER: But why did parents who say they loved their children deeply give them away?</s>LINA WOLF NIELSEN, SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGE: These families lost hope after the earthquake that they would ever be able to provide for these children in the way they wanted to. They saw this opportunity to give the children a better opportunity abroad, and took it, and now they've been sensitized and better informed about the risks that this might entail for the children.</s>SIDNER: As the children begin to leave, SOS house mother</s>DORLIS (through translator): He's crying right now because he knows we don't have a place to live.</s>SIDNER: No place to live or even transportation to take them from the children's village. More than two months after the earthquake, homes, families and an entire country still shaken to the core.</s>SIDNER: The Adrien family tells us that they are actually living on the street, but we should mention this, that the SOS Children's Village did give all of the parent some sort of training. They had them watch videos of what could happen to their children such things as having them go and for example, have their kidneys sold, some very scary things and the families seemed to respond to that. The police also told them that they could have been arrested for what they did, so a warning to the parents, which they seemed to respond to, but still the situation is very difficult here.</s>WHITFIELD: So terribly sad. So, Sara, there were 32 out of 33 children who actually went home. What happened to the last child?</s>SIDNER: Well, there was a little girl who is still there and is still at the SOS Children's Village that is because the parents have come forward, but they still have to verify, trying to verify, trying to make absolutely sure that the parents actually are who they say they are through some paperwork. So they have to get that sorted out, but they do believe she will also go home very soon. Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Sara Sidner, thanks so much. Appreciate that update. Sad story. And the American missionary that you saw in Sara Sidner's story, Laura Silsby, well she is still in jail accused of kidnapping and faces even more charges. Silsby and the other Americans deny they did anything wrong. Here in the U.S., a family hit by a powerful storm living without water or electricity.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had never been in a situation like this. I wouldn't want this on nobody. Sometimes you have to do what you've got to do if you don't get or receive the help that you're supposed to be receiving.</s>WHITFIELD: Falling through the cracks now tied up in red tape. Did FEMA forget this family?</s>WHITFIELD: And what in the world, push the lever, shock a stranger? At least that's what the players and the audience of this game show thought was happening.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Record-breaking high temperatures are expected in spots again today and tomorrow, a snowstorm. Winter is not over yet. Weather is coming up when the CNN NEWSROOM returns.