[Harris:] Hard times on both sides of the U.S.Mexican border.
[Unidentified Male:] I've seen the recession back in the '90s, but this is worse as far as I can tell. This is really bad.
[Harris:] How the U.S. economic slowdown is hitting Mexico. That is coming up in about three minutes.
[Whitfield:] Ranging battles in Baghdad. U.S. forces report killing 18 fighters in the past 24 hours. All in the heavily popular Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Militants there have been fighting U.S. and Iraqi troops for weeks. More than 900 civilians and militants have died in the battle since late March. U.S. military officials say troops are taking all precautions to avoid civilian casualties. The officials say elsewhere in the country American soldiers killed six people in raids targeting al Qaeda in Iraq. Well, it's been five years since President Bush declared victory in what he called the Battle of Iraq.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended in the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
[Whitfield:] The White House says President Bush has paid the price for the mission accomplished banner that was flown overhead. It became a symbol of U.S. misjudgment and mistakes in the Iraq war. The president's press secretary said the banner was intended to celebrate the mission of the U.S. navy ship. Not the overall war effort.
[Harris:] Gushing oil revenue for Iraq. So why is the U.S. still paying for Iraq's reconstruction? Here's CNN's Brian Todd.
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] The Iraqi government is still so corrupt, that the U.S. inspector general for reconstruction calls it a second insurgency. Now that government is flush with cash, thanks to skyrocketing oil prices. How flush?
[Stuart Bowen, Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction:] Iraq could reach $70 billion in oil income this year, which is twice what they anticipated.
[Todd:] The eye-popping figure is part of Inspector General Stuart Bowen's latest report to Congress on Iraqi reconstruction. We asked Bowen, how will Iraqis spend the money?
[Bowen:] On more relief and reconstruction projects. But the challenge in the Iraqi government is executing their budget. Last year, it was only able to execute about 50 percent of its ministry capital budgets and 30 percent of its local capital budgets.
[Todd:] Bowen says that's because of inefficiency and complicated contract laws. The U.S. government has spent $31 billion so far on Iraq's reconstruction. And even before the latest numbers on Iraq's oil profits came out, members of Congress were steaming about the inequity for Americans getting socked at the pumps.
[Sen. Carl Levin , Armed Services Committee Chairman:] It is unconscionable that American taxpayers, paying a fortune for gasoline, some of which comes from Iraq, building up a huge surplus for Iraq, which the Iraqis are not spending, that the American taxpayers continue to spend billions of dollars on the reconstruction of Iraq.
[Todd:] Outrage that has built almost from the outset of the war, when U.S. officials made bold predictions about Iraqi oil revenues.
[Paul Wolfowitz, Former Assistant Defense Secretary:] We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.
[Todd:] Five years later, now that the Iraqi government could start to do more of that, we asked Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. about the charges of corruption and inefficiency.
[Samir Sumaidaie, Iraqi Ambassador To The U.s:] These concerns are real and we understand them. We are addressing them. Remember, we have inherited a situation which was not our own making. These are decades of misrule decades of a culture of corruption.
[Todd:] The ambassador and the U.S. inspector general say Americans should actually be pleased about Iraq's new oil revenue because it means the Iraqi government will be far less dependent on American money for reconstruction. The Inspector General says in fact some U.S. funding has just been trimmed for reconstruction projects. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
[Harris:] Let's get you to one of my favorite towns. Cleveland, Ohio, right now. And John McCain pushing his prescription for health care reform. He is taking questions at a town hall meeting at the Cleveland clinic.
[Mccain:] Between jobs. But as we seek in economic conditions worsen in America, more than 250,000 Americans recently and suddenly lost their jobs that that number is going to increase. And the other half are people that are children. There's 8 million children that are not signed up for the S-chip. There are other people who simply have chosen not to take insurance but the fact is that there's also a large group of Americans who are in a category where they simply can't get insurance. That's why I talked about this guaranteed access plan. Where we are going to have to work with the states and the governors and there's 20 states now that have enacted some laws that restrict the size of premiums and do other things. And there's proposals on the tables, on the table in states to have risk pools to provide the proper funding and it's going to require a federal contribution to care for the chronic disease pre-existing condition group of Americans who simply under any circumstances could not afford. And frankly, some of those people are the people that you see at the community health centers as well. And we see at the emergency rooms all over America because they can't get health care anyplace else. And you know better than I do that emergency room care is the most expensive form of health care in America. And I'm insulting your intelligence by telling you these things. But it brings me to my point that I don't believe bigger you said you don't think it should be further privatized. I think that's probably true. But I also don't think we should have greater government control over health care system in America. I think if you go to Canada, or you go to some other countries where we have government health-run health care run systems, I don't think you would find the quality of health care in those countries at a level that we Americans have grown to expect. So one of the fundamentals of the proposal that I have is every family in America have a $5,000 refundable tax credit. And they would be able to grow across state lines and shop online or anywhere in America and purchase a health insurance policy that suits them in their best. Right now, when you have employer provided health insurance, you don't have a choice. You take the policy that your employer gives you. Or in the case of small businesses, that employer can't provide it. So we have no money now to purchase a health insurance policy. At least, you got $5,000 in refundable tax credit where you can go online, if you choose the insurance company of your choice and since you not confined to the state of Ohio, you can go anyplace in America, then these insurance companies will have to compete more effectively against each other. It's competition. Whenever there's a company or corporation in any line of business in America in this world that corner, the market and squeeze out competition, then costs to the consumer go up. So I think that one of the key elements is for us to give every American family this refundable tax credit so that they can choose the policy that best suits their family's needs. And I don't believe that employer-based if somebody wants to keep their health insurance policy that their employer is providing, fine. That's fine with me. But I also want to give them the choice. Now, we need walk-in clinics. We need to have community health centers. We need to have outcome, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, outcome-based treatment. My friends, if a person has one of these five diseases that I was talking about and you pay for every procedure and every test and every visit to a doctor, obviously that the costs go up and up and up. I want to tell a health care provider, here is a patient with a chronic disease. Treat him for a year. And here is a certain amount of money and if if that patient is in good shape after that period of time, we will reward you. But give them their car. Number two, there is a program called Cash in Counseling where seniors are given the money, they're given the money by the federal government to take care of their own health care needs. And they choose, they choose which doctor or which health care provider that they need. And you know what we find out? The obvious. When they are making the decisions, that they're far wiser. They're far wiser than they were. And finally, we need to put the choices into the hands of the patient. And that's the whole theory behind that. There's many other steps that we need to take. One of them is malpractice reform. I think it is pretty clear.
[Harris:] And there you have it, John McCain. The GOP presumptive presidential nominee. We always have to say that in Cleveland, Ohio, talking about his ideas for health care reform at the Cleveland Clinic Complex. If you would like to watch more of this, happening live right now, just go to cnn.comlive.
[Whitfield:] All right, McCain talking health care. Let's hear what Senator Barack Obama is saying in Columbia City, Indiana as he crisscrosses that state now five days before the primary.
[Obama:] What I want to do is eliminate the income tax on social security. That is something that we weren't taxing up until 1993. And if we could eliminate that income tax, that would save the average social security recipient up to $1400 a year, which would help to pay for a lot of these rising costs. And we could pay for it just by getting those who are doing very well in this economy to go back to the same tax structure that we had back when back in the 1990s. So it's not something that we couldn't do. It's just something that we choose not to do. And by the way, if we eliminated income tax on social security, then there would be hundreds of thousands of seniors right here in Indiana who wouldn't have to even file income tax, which would save them a lot of money, in terms of having to get tax preparers and all that stuff. That's an example of what we should be doing to help ordinary folks. Another example. Prescription drugs. Many of you, obviously, are concerned about prescription drug costs. I'm glad we have a prescription drug plan under Medicare now. That's a good thing. What's not so good is the big doughnut hole right in the middle of it, which means that people are paying for their prescription drugs, precisely when they can least afford it. If they really have high expenses. Now, here is the reason that we have that doughnut hole. It's because when Congress designed to that prescription drug bill, they decided because of lobbying from the drug companies, that we would not be able to negotiate for the cheapest available price on drugs. The way the VA negotiates for the cheapest price on drugs. The way the Canadian government negotiates on behalf of their citizens to get the cheapest available price on drugs. So we are paying much more for prescription drugs than we should. Just because we are not negotiating for the best prices, and the only reason we are doing that is because the drug companies were able to lobby Congress to make themselves more profits instead of helping people who really needed help. I want to change that. And make sure we're negotiating to lower prescription drugs prices so that people who use prescription drugs would save about $10 billion a year across the country. The government, taxpayer would also save about $20 billion a year. That's money that we could save and we could be putting into making sure that everybody gets the health care that they need. The third thing that I want to talk about is gas prices. Everybody it's on everybody's mind. I don't know how many people are pumping gas here at this facility and taking long drives. Yes, you know, joy riding down Main Street. But gas is now at $3.65, $3.70 a gallon. It's the highest it's been. And even if you're not driving, it's affecting you because it affects what truckers have to pay. And so all of the goods and services that you use, prices are going up. Groceries are going up partly because of rising gas prices. So we need to do something about this. Now, John McCain decided that he would solve this problem after being in Congress for 25 years by suspending the gas tax for three months. The Federal Gas Tax, he wants to suspend for three months. And as Patty said, what that would do is save the average driver 30 cents a day. A nickel and a quarter, 30 cents a day. And would save you a total of about $28 for the entire year $28. Now, listen, these gas prices are brutal on people. And there are folks who I've met who can't go on a job search after losing a job because they can't fill up their gas tank. I've met people who are now paying an additional $100 a month for gas in their commute back and forth to the job. And if they're low income that's very hard to afford. So we've got to do something to help the people, which is why I proposed this middle-class tax cut and why I want to accelerate a stimulus, a tax rebate, to put more money into the pockets of people to solve problems. But for us to pretend like we're solving the problem by giving people 30 cents a day for a grand total of $28. And that's it that's our plan.
[Whitfield:] All right. Senator Obama is there stomping in Columbia city, Indianapolis. Touching on issues from the gas prices to prescriptive drugs to the income tax, and you can continue to hear his comments on cnn.comlivelive, where he is focusing on health care. Meantime, while you're paying a pretty penny at the pump, a big oil company announces near record profit this morning. You will be outraged.