Senator Comes Out With Stimulus Waste List
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." President Obama is promising the nearly $800 billion stimulus bill will put more Americans back to work and help kick-start the economy. But some Republicans argue that the giant spending plan is wasting your tax dollars. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is with us this morning, and she's looking into all of this. I particularly am a fan of the turtle cross.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's the turtle tunnel as they call it. And, you know, it's really interesting because the Republican who put out a report recently, he's actually considered a friend of the president. Senator Tom Coburn warning the government could waste as much as $55 billion over five year if these projects aren't monitored closely.</s>FEYERICK (voice-over): Retiree Antoinetta Santopadre got a stimulus check in the mail worth $250. Actually, the check was for her dad. The problem is, he's been dead for 35 years.</s>ANTOINETTA SANTOPADRE, RETIREE: I was really, yes, upset when I got the check because what are they doing with our money? Where is it going? Who's in charge?</s>FEYERICK: You hear those questions a lot lately. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn coming out with a report slamming the nearly $800 billion stimulus package which he voted against saying too many millions are being spent on projects that are either wasteful or create too few jobs.</s>SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: The fact is for every good project, there's one that's not. And that's the problem with rushing a bill through the way we did and not doing our job to make sure that money gets spent appropriately.</s>FEYERICK: Among the projects the senator criticized is a $1 billion to build a coal-based power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy rejected as outdated. Millions spent to rebuild little used bridges which Coburn calls not high priority. And $3 million to build a wildlife tunnel underneath the Florida highway where over 60 species have been killed by cars. Tom Schatz is with the taxpayer watchdog group that tracks government spending.</s>TOM SCHATZ, CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: The way the stimulus is written is that only certain projects qualify. It doesn't mean they're the most important or the best. It's just written in a way that shoves the money out the door just to get something done.</s>FEYERICK: The White House dismissed Coburn's report saying out of 20,000 approved projects, it has shut down those revealed to be wasteful.</s>ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are a number of entries throughout this report that are just simply wrong. This president has taken historic steps to ensure that there is adequate transparency and that this money is spent the way it's intended to be used.</s>FEYERICK: As for Santopadre's unexpected $250 windfall?</s>SANTOPADRE: I want a frame it. And I want my kids to have that. Just in case this happens again, if they want it, they've got to come and get it. And then they got to give me some kind of explanation other than that.</s>FEYERICK: Now, how did it happen? Well, the White House did just that, offering some sort of an explanation, releasing a detailed analysis of where projects stand, including that proposed coal plant. The stimulus may have to be used for construction only if it passes a number of reviews. And as for that so-called turtle tunnel, well, still under consideration.</s>ROBERTS: All right. Deb Feyerick for us this morning. Deb, thanks so much for that. Here's a check of our top stories now. Thirty minutes after the hour. A clampdown in Iran. Supporters of the opposition leader stayed put on the street, demanding a new election. But the government now banning reporters from covering the demonstrations. Also, as part of the crackdown, troops are going door to door removing or destroying satellite dishes. They are also jamming radio transmissions. Also as part of the crackdown, troops are going door- to-door removing or destroying satellite dishes. They are also jamming radio transmissions. And this morning, growing concerns in Congress about the National Security Agency's ability to intercept private e-mails and phone calls of Americans. "The New York Times" reporting the agency went beyond the legal limits established by Congress last year. Under the surveillance program, the NSA has the power to collect private communications from Americans as long as it's a by-product of an investigation of the people believed to be overseas. And what's the first city that comes to mind when you think of road rage? The city with drivers most likely to yell, honk or give you that one-finger salute? Well, if you said New York, you'd be right. The "Big Apple" back on top in a new study as the city with the angriest drivers. Miami has been number one for the past five years, but New York reclaimed the top spot this year. Other cities with angry motorists -- Dallas Fort Worth and Detroit. The cities with the friendliest drivers -- Portland, Cleveland and Baltimore.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: How about that? Well, you live in both Miami and New York. Which one is worse?</s>ROBERTS: They are about the same actually. Except you're not likely to get shot in New York. You just might in Miami.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, in my town, the second the light turns from red to green, people behind you honk. I mean, they don't even give you a second to hit the gas.</s>ROBERTS: Well, New York, they don't even wait for it to turn green.</s>CHETRY: That's true.</s>ROBERTS: It's</s>CHETRY: That's optional. Red is optional stuff. All right. Well, in just a few hours, President Obama is going to be spelling out new rules of the road -- different road, for banks and other financial institutions. And they include some new powers for the Federal Reserve and also a new agency to protect consumers against industry abuses. The devil's in the detail, as you like to say. Joining us now to break it down from Washington -- Eamon Javers, he's a financial correspondent for the "Politico," and also investment advisor Ryan Mack, the president of Optimum Capital Management. Thanks to both of you for being with us. We just love for you guys to help us break some of this down. First, of course, as we know the government stepped in to save AIG and GM. And the second part of the goal was to ensure that we don't find ourselves in these situations again with these emergency bailouts. So, they want to change some of the rules. What do you think is the most important aspect of this plan? And I'll start with you, Eamon.</s>EAMON JAVERS, FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Yes. Well, the biggest thing here is that the Federal Reserve is getting new powers to wind down firms that they think are systemically dangerous. That is, firms that are on the verge of collapse that could take the whole economy with them if they fail. That's a big new shift of authority to the government. But what the president has been saying here is that the bailout that we've seen, all that money going to private companies, that's what he had to do to stop this emergency. In many ways, this financial regulatory reform, it's coming up today, is what he wants to do. This is designed to set the rules of the road for the coming generation, really, to try to prevent what happened last fall from ever happening again.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, one of the things that it doesn't do is ban any financial products. That was something that most likely would face a lot of trouble and probably wouldn't be worth the political capital with the calculation that was made. But it does put some new restrictions on risky investments. Ryan, what are we talking about here?</s>RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, essentially, I think the financial services industry, which is why I'm a strong supporter of the financial services consumer protection agency. You know, as someone who is in the financial services business and makes a living off of it, the question is, do we need someone else looking over our shoulder? And when you hear the stats from the First American Loan -- First American Loan performance, say that 55 percent of all subprime mortgages could have been conventional terms or had better terms in 2005, 2006. 61 percent of all subprime mortgages could have been had better terms. We're not giving out products that are suitable for our clients. We're not making sure that at the end of the day, this individual is suitable to have this sort of an investment.</s>CHETRY: And Ryan, will this -- you mentioned this subprime issue and it's a very, very upsetting subject for many to talk about. Would these new rules cover that? Meaning, if you qualify for something better, will the federal government make sure that the bank or the lender is giving you the right deal?</s>MACK: Yes, it's going to be another watchdog. Somebody over there going to make sure that it is suitable. Again, you know, it's going to mitigate some risks. We're not going to sit here and say that the banks are going to be taking as much risk as they used to. They're not going to be able to push these products on these consumers as we want would be able to. So, some risks are going to be mitigated. But you know what? That 2004 to 2007 rally was only real on paper. And that was largely in part because we were giving away products and selling products and making tons of money and had nothing to cover it. So I think that this is a great step in the right direction. But the next step I think is, now let's stop pushing additional education for the consumers to make sure that when somebody sees a Hello Kitty credit card, that's not necessarily the credit card that's fit for them. Because, you know, that should be in there as well.</s>CHETRY: And Eamon, you have been posting some articles for the "Politico" on this. And what do you think the administration will bump into or run up against as they try to get some of these in place in Congress? In terms of politically speaking, what's going to be a challenge?</s>JAVERS: Yes. Well, there's a couple of challenges. I mean, obviously, this is a huge and sweeping plan. It's not quite as sweeping as we thought it might be just a couple of weeks ago. But one thing they're going to run into is that just about every member of Congress has his or her own ideas about how this should go. And so there's going to be a lot of cooks in the kitchen here as they get this done. The other thing they're going to run into is a lot of complaints from folks that this is too much government intervention in the private sector. This is simply government overreach here. And Barack Obama talked about that a little bit yesterday in some television interviews. And he said, hey, wait a second, I feel like the Wall Street guys forgot how close to the brink we actually got last year. And he's basically sending a warning shot across their bow, saying we need this kind of government financial regulation because you guys, the capitalists on Wall Street, are the ones who ran the system into the ground and we now have to set up these new rules of the road to keep that from happening again. But that's going to be an ongoing fight throughout this debate as whether this is just simply big government -- too much government will hurt the economy in the long run. You're going to hear that from some quarters, definitely.</s>CHETRY: All right. Eamon Javers as well as Ryan Mack, great to talk to both of you this morning. Thanks for being with us. And one programming note, coming up at 7:15, we're going to be speaking to Christina Romer. She the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and she's going to talk more about this plan as well with us. Right now, it's 37 minutes past the hour.