Health Care Overhaul Begins to Take Shape
If something seems too good to be true, it usually turns out not to be true. Not this time, we're told. The Senate Finance Committee has come up with a health care overhaul plan that does seem too good to be true, but is true according to Chairman Max Baucus ... And he told reporters the Congressional Budget Office has run the numbers ... 829 billion dollars over 10 years.
Senator Max Baucus, Chair Finance Committee says, "The numbers that we received from CBO are frankly, are even, exceeded my expectations ... And so, we're very pleased and plan to move ahead."
Up to now, Health care reform plans that looked good to Democrats looked bad to Republicans and vice versa. But not this one, according to Senator Max Baucus, "Ours is a balanced plan that should pass the Senate. Our bill should win the support of Republicans and Democrats alike ... And now the choice is up to Senators. "
Amazing, no? But wait, there's more. This bill, according to Senator Baucus will give almost everybody more.
"Our bill would raise the share of Americans with insurance coverage from about 83 percent currently to 94 percent ... And our bill would deliver coverage to millions through insurance exchanges and millions more through Medicaid," says Baucus.
And cost almost everybody less.
Baucus says, "Some say that our bill will raise taxes. That's false. In fact, our bill is a tax cut. Our bill will cut taxes for millions of Americans. When fully phased in, our bill will cut taxes by tens of billions of dollars every year."
Nice trick if you can pull it off Senator Baucus.
"I'm proud of our work," he says.
Some reporters seemed a little skeptical. You know how they are. But Senator Baucus assured them his Finance committee is ready to pass it.
"This will be passed and approved by the Finance committee. There's not much doubt about that," he said.
As chairman, he should know. "I think so.. hope so ... and I think so."
Violence and Our Nation's Children
There's an epidemic of violence afflicting the nations children, according to a new Justice Department study which says that three out of five children nationwide have been exposed to violence ...not in the movies or on TV... but real violence in their own lives. David Finklehor directed the study.
"10 percent of the kids in the sample had five or more different kinds of confrontation in the single year, like sexual assault, physical assault, being exposed to violence in their families, those kinds of things," says Fincklehor.
In the city of Chicago in the first six weeks of this school year, five school kids were killed, most recently 16-year-old Darrion Albert ... beaten to death by other kids in an after school melee.
Diane Latiker, Anti-Violence Advocate & Founder, Kids Off the Block says, "What happened to Darrion is barbaric, it was barbaric! By young people."
A videotape of the beating went on the internet. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston says, "It's opened the nation's eyes to Chicago's youth murders. In each of the last 3 years, a classroom of children has been killed ... from 27 in 2006 to a record 37 in 2008 ... and there were 500 children injured by gunshot last year alone."
Two members of President Obama's cabinet held a press conference in Chicago yesterday. One was Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education who says, "Chicago's not unique. Four students have been shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma already this year. Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami, New Orleans ... And many rural communities have also lost children to violence in recent weeks."
The other, Attorney General Eric Holder who says, "We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth and of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which too many of these victims become tomorrow's criminals."
The Justice Department is pledging 16 million dollars to boost school security around the country...half a million for Chicago. But as Randall Pinkston learned from kids there... it's going to take more than that.
Randall Pinkston, with student:
Pinkston: "Do you think police or school officials can do anything to make your school safer?
Student: Not really."
Celebrating 400 Years of Galileo
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first observations of Jupiter and its moons through a telescope ... and it's been designated the International Year of the Telescope. Last night on the South lawn of the White House, 20 telescopes were set up ... and an inflatable dome with a three dimensional video tour of the Universe...and displays of moon rocks and meteorites ... all part of a star party for 150 middle school kids. Four astronauts were there and two science teachers dressed up as Galileo and Isaac Newton. Also, there was their host President Obama with his family.
So here was President Obama looking through an 8 inch telescope at twin stars nicknamed double double in the constellation Lyra ...that's 160 light years away. Each light year is almost 6 trillion miles. "Outstanding' said the President. That's really far away." But what he really wanted the kids to know was this...
President Barack Obama: "Now Galileo changed the world when he pointed his telescope to the sky ... and now it's your turn. We need you to study, do well in school, explore everything from the infinite reaches from space to the microscopic smallness of the atom."
There's a lot yet to be discovered, he told them.
"Are you going to find a new star or a cure for a disease? Will you invent the next iPhone or a brand new industry that no one's even dreamed of yet. What will your great discovery be?' " says Obama.
Imagine how it was for those 150 middle schoolers to be there and to hear that from him. It's something they'll never forget.
President Barack Obama: "We need you to think bigger, and to dig deeper and to reach higher. We need your restless curiosity and your boundless hope and imagination. Our future depends on it."
Illiteracy in America
Last week on "Sunday Morning," we had a story about illiteracy reported by Byron Pitts, CBS News chief national correspondent who said, "According to a Federal survey, 30 million Americans --- one in 7 adults --- are functionally illiterate. That means they cannot read well enough to function effectively."
We met several people in Byron Pitts's piece about functional illiteracy.
Meet Walter Long. He's 59-years-old, and lives in the town he grew up in, just outside of Pittsburgh. He's got a good job, with the county water board --- a nice house, where he's raised four kids --- and a wife who loves him. And for years, Walter Long also had a secret. He could not read
Pitts: You were faking it?
Long: I was faking it."
Pitts knows something about this subject. In elementary school, he was diagnosed a functionally illiterate. He could not read. There were no programs such kids then and was placed in the basement with the slow learners. Mind you this is a man who is now CBS News Chief National Correspondent.
Pitts: "My journey from St. Katherine's in Baltimore to CBS News is one I've spent time thinking about, and now, writing about. It's a journey I could not have made without the unshakable help and support of my mother, Clarice Pitts --- who when a therapist suggested I might be mentally retarded, absolutely refused give up. And there were others along the way --- teachers and mentors --- who helped me retrace and relearn what I somehow missed in my early years --- and who believed in me, even when I doubted myself."
Byron Pitts story has a happy ending.
Pitts: "And now you can read to your grandchild?
Long: Yes.
Pitts: Those same books you couldn't read to your own children?
Long, chokes up: It can't be true. (cries) Now I can read."
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