Japan Hit By 6.6 Aftershock; Budget Battle Part II
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The federal government opened for business this morning after the last-minute deal to avoid a shutdown on Friday. Now, congress is bracing for a new, much bigger budget fight still to come on this AMERICAN MORNING.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It's Monday, April 11th. Welcome to</s>AMERICAN MORNING. KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Glad you're with us this morning. We have a lot to talk about. First, unfortunately, gas prices up again, the cost for a gallon of regular nearing prices that we haven't seen in almost three years. We're going to tell you what it means for your family and the economy and whether they're going to head even higher as we enter summer.</s>VELSHI: A Florida first grader with a severe peanut allergy is the subject of protests over steps the school is taking to protect her. We first told you about this a couple weeks ago. Your reaction has been phenomenal to the story. We'll talk to the little girl's father later this hour.</s>ROMANS: And congratulations, you've been accepted, three words that can be a dream for high school seniors, that is until the reality of tuition sets in. So how can you and your family pay for college, save for college without breaking the bank? We'll show you how to save.</s>VELSHI: A big week ahead in Washington. A new budget battle looms over raising the nation's debt ceiling. It took $38.5 billion in cuts to avoid a shutdown last week. Now Democrats and Republicans in Congress have to deal with the next problem, a $14 trillion problem.</s>CHETRY: The national debt currently $14.21 trillion and growing. Next month it will hit $14.29 trillion. We could go on and on. But that is the limit set by Congress on how much they can go up to that, how much they can borrow. President Obama wants Congress to raise it and Republicans are now pushing back.</s>ROMANS: Kate Bolduan is live from the White House in a moment, but first up Brianna Keilar I son the new lines of the budget fight. She joins us from Washington.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, I guess that was a $38.5 billion appetizer, because the week ahead of us is going to be a pretty crazy week. Today we're going to be getting details on the $38.5 billion in spending cuts. We're going to figure out what is being cut. And then we're going to be spending Tuesday, or today and Tuesday and into Wednesday, having a chance to read the bill as will members of the American public, as will Democrats and Republicans in Congress who haven't seen the details. The House is going to be voting on the cuts, the 2011 budget on Wednesday. Expect the Senate to follow suit on Thursday. We will be seeing debate on already the 2012 budget. This is proposed by the chairman of the House budget committee, Paul Ryan. It's very controversial. It aims to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, and we're going to be seeing a lot of rhetoric on that, Christine.</s>ROMANS: Thanks, Brianna.</s>CHETRY: President Obama is set to unveil the details of his plan to try to reduce the national deficit and tackle the debt as well on Wednesday. CNN's Kate Bolduan is live at the White House this morning with more on this. Hi, Kate.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran. Of course we're done with one battle over the budget in the short term and now we're all looking at the long term problem. President Obama, as you mentioned, he's going to be making an announcement on Wednesday of his proposal of how to take on the country's long-term deficits and debt. No easy issue to take on as we know. His senior adviser, David Plouffe, made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows yesterday to kind of tee up and set the stage for the president's announcement this week. Listen here to a little bit of him.</s>DAVID PLOUFFE, CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA: We clearly have to do more. You have to look at savings you might get in Medicare and Medicaid. He said Social Security is not a contributor to the short-term deficit problem. But in the process of talking about our fiscal situation and government, we ought to look if there's a way to strengthen Social Security for the long term that doesn't endanger anybody who's a current beneficiary or slash benefits. Defense spending, domestic spending, revenues will have to be part of this.</s>BOLDUAN: You see there David Plouffe kind of laying out some of what we will be hearing about in the said announcement. It still remains unclear of how specific the president will be or more broad, setting more goals or principles in working with Congress on this. But obviously the battle ahead in this, of course, David Plouffe did mention, we should note, this will be a marked difference, sharp departure from the Paul Ryan plan that Brianna mentioned, and David Plouffe saying candidly the Ryan plan doesn't have a chance of becoming law. We'll see how this plays out when the president makes his announcement Wednesday. It's also set against the back drop of why the push now. You know this, Congress now needs to vote to raise the debt ceiling, and that, of course, is on top of the mind of this administration.</s>CHETRY: The larger issue, why that debate, why gear up for a fight now. There are some Republicans who say the president had to be dragged kicking and screaming to talk about reducing the deficit. It's an election year.</s>BOLDUAN: Exactly. And you know, the White House will say from the White House position, they'll say he hasn't been drug kicking and screaming. They say he set out a strong plan in his 2012 budget proposal, Republicans very quickly criticize any idea of taking on long-term deficits and debt was markedly, they say noticeably absent from the budget proposal. You will give the left, right, middle side, they're taking on this battle now and going to be a fierce one.</s>VELSHI: Kate, thanks very much. Another earthquake has rocked northern Japan. It was a 6.6 magnitude and forced workers at the severely damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima to evacuate. Police say there are landslides in the area, three homes have been buried, four people trapped inside. This latest quake hit exactly a month after the deadly earthquake and tsunami of March 11th. Today the Japanese people are holding somber ceremonies to mark the anniversary in Tokyo and Sendai -- Sendai was one of the hardest hit activities. All activity stopped as people held hands and bowed their head for a moment of silence. The death toll stands at 13,116 dead, 14,377 missing. And the situation is growing more tense at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Official are planning to widen the evacuation zone around the crippled plant as workers struggle to get control of six reactors to stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere. Right now the evacuation zone is 12 miles, but dangerous levels of radiation are being recorded more than 25 miles from the plant.</s>CHETRY: There's talk right now of a cease-fire in Libya. Whether that turns to action still remains to be seen, but Moammar Gadhafi is saying he's ready, at least the agreement with the African Union is calling a, quote, road map to peace that ends fighting, allows for humanitarian aid to be delivered, and also begins talks with rebel leaders. But it's still unclear, does that mean Gadhafi will step down? The rebel army has insisted on that. The long-time dictator has called for unilateral cease-fires before only to continue attacks against his own people. NATO strikes help the Libyan rebels regain control of a key city. Gadhafi's forces were pushed back when nearly a dozen tanks were destroyed in Ajdabiya, considered the gateway to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and home base for the rebels.</s>ROMANS: Parts of the upper Midwest are bracing for another day of violent weather. The town of Mapleton, Iowa, will have to be rebuilt after a tornado, a quarter mile wide tornado, leveled more than half of the town this weekend, the twister's nighttime furry captured on tape.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a pretty strong-looking nighttime tornado. Two of them, dual funnels, look at that.</s>ROMANS: Amazing, the lightning flashes, lighting up the width of those funnels there. Iowa's governor declared Mapleton a disaster area. No deaths have been reported.</s>ROMANS: Tiger roared briefly, as they say, but it was the son of a South African chicken farmer who got to wear the famous green jacket as 26-year-old Charl Schwartzel is your 2011 Masters champion. He birdied the final four holes in Augusta to win by two shots over a couple Australians, Adam Scott and Jason Day. For a brief moment it looked like Tiger Woods might take home his fifth green jacket. He started the final round seven shots back, but made a charge on the front nine and had a share of the lead for a moment.</s>VELSHI: That was the roar.</s>ROMANS: That was the roar. And then the whimper happened. He faded down the stretch. It's now 18 months since tiger's last victory.</s>VELSHI: Another battle -- one budget battle down, another big one to go. This time we're talking trillions instead of mere billions that almost brought us to the brink of a shutdown.</s>ROMANS: A plane carrying four people goes up in flames after it smashes into a building. Surprisingly all four people are safe. Details ahead.