[John Roberts, Cnn Anchor:] And a very good Wednesday morning to you. It's the 19th of August. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
[Kiran Chetry, Cnn Anchor:] And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We're following several developing stories. We're going to be breaking them down for you in the next 15 minutes. First, the White House is on the verge of perhaps taking a drastic step in the fight for health care reform. CNN is learning the Obama administration may stop trying to win Republican support and go it alone, pushing their plan through the Senate with just 51 votes. We're live at the White House with brand new developments.
[Roberts:] Town hall heat, Congressman Barney Frank faces off the critics at a health care event in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. And the Massachusetts Democrat not known for backing down from a confrontation remained true to form.
[Unidentified Female:] Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy as Obama had expressly supported this policy? Why are you supporting it?
[Rep. Barney Frank , Massachusetts:] Let me I will...
[Unidentified Female:] A real solution.
[Frank:] When you ask me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and add to your question with a question on what planet do you spend most of your time?
[Roberts:] CNN's Jim Acosta had a front row seat for the combat here. He reports on that just ahead.
[Chetry:] And the Atlantic season's first hurricane, now a category four storm, Bill growing bigger and stronger. We could see heavy surf up and down the Eastern seaboard as the storm comes to the northwest. Our Rob Marciano is tracking it for us. He'll tell us where it's headed. Well, we begin with a move that could shatter the impasse on health care reform and possibly shutter hopes of bipartisanship after trying to negotiate with Republicans getting an earful at town halls across the country. CNN's Ed Henry broke the news late last night. The Democrats close to the White House are actively considering going it alone, bypassing procedural roadblocks and ramming health care through the Senate with no Republican assistance. The so-called nuclear option is no sure thing. In a moment, we'll get reaction from CNN political contributor Bill Bennett. First, though, CNN's Elaine Quijano at the White House. And, Elaine, what are you hearing about this?
[Elaine Quijano, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Well, first of all, important to note here, Kiran, no final decisions have been made. But officials are actively considering this option. It's a budget move known as reconciliation. And as you noted, what it would mean, is that instead of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to push through any legislation, this would only require 51 votes. Now this is something that's always been on the table, an option that's always been available. What's different now though, Kiran, is the context of all of this. Not only is this White House facing reluctant Republicans when it comes to health care reform, but also some skepticism from conservative Democrats as well. So, again, no final decisions made but officials are "actively considering" this option, Kiran.
[Chetry:] So if the White House isn't pulling the trigger right now as you said, when might a decision be made on this?
[Quijano:] Right. Well, we're in a critical period right now. But really mid September is when things are going to heat up. It's going to be decision time for this White House. At this moment, we're very much still in let's make a deal time and so if some Republicans do come onboard, obviously that would change the equation. But, again, look, we're just weeks away before Congress gets back into town. Once they do get back to town mid September, that is going to be the time when the White House is going to have to decide whether or not they're going to pull the trigger Kiran.
[Chetry:] All right. Elaine Quijano live for us this morning. Thanks.
[Roberts:] Joining us on the telephone now to talk more about this, CNN political contributor Bill Bennett. He's also the author of the "American Patriots' Almanac." And, Bill, there's some 12 town hall meetings scheduled for today on health care. What do you expect the reaction at those town halls to this news and it's the lead story in "The New York Times" today is going to be?
[Bill Bennett, Radio Host, "morning In America":] Right. I hope CNN covers all 12 of them. I think it's going to be great great coverage out there. Look, this debate is not been between Democrats and Republicans to this point. Really the debate over the last couple of months has been Barack Obama and the American people. You've not got polls showing 24 percent of Americans think this will improve their insurance, their health care. Forty percent of Americans think their health care will get worse. So they can do this. That is they can do this without Republican support. But then they're going to be held responsible and faulted for everything that goes wrong.
[Roberts:] If they do make a decision or even the news that they may make the decision to go it alone, how do you think people are going to respond in those meetings that are scheduled for today?
[Bennett:] Well, again, I don't think they've had so much Republican coloration as just opposition. As you know, a lot of the people at these town hall meetings are not obviously R or D. I mean, a few are. But a lot of them are elderly and this has been the brunt of the opposition to Obama's health care plan. So I'm not sure this changes anything. But politically, it changes things big time. He still has to persuade some of his some of his Senate Democrats, unless as Elaine just said, they decide, you know, to go with reconciliation. They've, you know, John, they've got 60 senators but they don't think they can produce 60 senators.
[Roberts:] Right.
[Bennett:] That's the amazing thing right now.
[Roberts:] Which is why they're thinking of turning it into a reconciliation measure.
[Bennett:] Yes.
[Roberts:] The Democrats say that the Republicans had a "purposely strident tone against health care reform" or at least the Democrats' version of it. Does this mean I mean, does this signal the death of any sort of bipartisanship, even Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican who is on the negotiating committee in the Senate, tried to get some sort of a bipartisan bill had said that even if he got everything he was looking for, he was still going to vote against that bill?
[Bennett:] Yes, I don't think it's been strident. I think it's been tough, but I don't think it's been strident. But notice, you know, George Bush got education reform with Democrats signing on. He got tax cuts. He got Iraq. He got Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan got Democrats for his tax cuts. If you got this big signature issue, I just mentioned the signature issues for Republicans, you need to get other people people on the other side, otherwise, you are really dividing. I mean, they are just starting fires, putting out fires, starting fires, putting out fires. It is a mess right now. Too soon to tell the outcome of this one.
[Roberts:] All right. Bill Bennett for us this morning. Bill, it's good to catch up with you. Thanks for joining us so early.
[Bennett:] Thank you, John. Love the early morning, don't you?
[Roberts:] Nothing like it, Bill. I'll tell you that. I don't know if you get used to the hours or you just get used to feeling screwed up. But...
[Bennettt:] You know what Howard Dean told me? He said you get up these hours, you're going to die.
[Roberts:] Well, I don't know about that, but you certainly will get ahead of the news curve. And, Bill, we thank you for being with us.
[Chetry:] That's right. And you accomplish more at 9:00 a.m. than most people do all day. A wonderful feeling.
[Roberts:] Absolutely. You know, your day is almost done by 11:00.
[Chetry:] Well, if Democrats do decide to go it alone, it's sure to set off political fireworks. The health care debate goes beyond politics. Americans across the country have been voicing their opinions as we've seen often quite loudly at congressional town hall meetings. And while the White House suggests the public is only seeing the rowdiest moments, at Barney Frank's Congressman Barney Frank's town hall meeting last night in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, there was almost nothing but rowdy moments. CNN's Jim Acosta was there.
[Unidentified Male:] Congressman Barney Frank.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Correspondent:] It didn't take long for the shouting to start.
[Rep. Barney Frank , Massachusetts:] Where's the line. Hey, hey, enough. Which one of you wants to yell first?
[Acosta:] And before the first question was asked, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank was swinging back at opponents of health care reform.
[Frank:] Disruption never helps your cause. It makes you look like you're afraid to have rational discussion. You just drive people away. I'm not here. This is the council on aging, not kindergarten.
[Acosta:] Frank tried to dispel some of the bogus claims about the bill in the House.
[Frank:] Illegal aliens are specifically excluded from getting any assistance in the bill. Second...
[Acosta:] To that, some in the crowd shouted, "Read the bill." So he did, and found the section where illegal immigrants are excluded.
[Frank:] Right in the bill. I will show you.
[Acosta:] But even that didn't satisfy everyone.
[Frank:] It is sort of odd to be accused of not having read the bill by people who object when they do.
[Acosta:] Several audience members insisted reform would bust the budget.
[Unidentified Male:] We're going to pay more taxes because of you, sir. This bill would practically bankrupt the economy of the United States government.
[Acosta:] Time and again, Frank took that grenade and threw it back.
[Frank:] And I do worry about the deficit. That's one of the reasons, not the only one that I voted against the single most wasteful expenditure in the history of America the Iraq war.
[Acosta:] The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee took only a few questions on reforming Wall Street. Instead, Frank talked at length about his support for the public option.
[Frank:] I am not voting for any bill that forces anybody into anything. It will have a public option.
[Acosta:] And tried to reassure seniors there were no death panels in the bill.
[Frank:] This notion that something in this bill would require people who are elderly or sick to be denied medical care and killed is the single stupidest argument I have ever heard in all my years in politics.
[Acosta:] It was that absurdity of the health care debate that retiree and Medicare recipient Mary Spacinto was happy to see put to rest. Can I tell you, though, that I know for a fact that they are not going to pull the plug on grandma. MARY SPACINTO,
[Attended Town Hall Meeting:] They're not going to pull it on me, I'll tell you, because I fight to the death.
[Chetry:] All right. There we go. That was CNN's Jim Acosta with a look at just how that meeting got quite contentious for Barney Frank. But, anyway, as always, we want to hear what you have to say about the health care debate. Should Democrats try to push health care reform through Congress without Republican support? Share your thoughts, CNN.comam
[Fix. Roberts:] Other stories new this morning to tell you about. A diplomatic overture from North Korea. Two senior diplomats are in Santa Fe, New Mexico this morning to meet Governor Bill Richardson. A State Department official tells CNN the North Korean delegation requested the meeting. Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, has traveled to Pyongyang several times in the past. The official says Richardson would be listening but not negotiating or representing the Obama administration.
[Chetry:] And former President Bill Clinton's mission to North Korea is on the agenda at the White House. Clinton briefed President Obama as well as Vice President Joe Biden on the trip, where he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and also secured the release of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that the information her husband brought back has been "extremely hopeful" providing a window into what is happening in that reclusive regime.
[Roberts:] The Powerball jackpot, now $250 million. Tonight's drawing will be the 15th since the last big winner at the beginning of July. It is the tenth largest Powerball jackpot ever. The record was $365 million. It was won by a group of workers at a ConAgra Foods plant in Lincoln, Nebraska. That was back in 2006. So get out there and get your ticket today.
[Chetry:] That's right. You know it's big when the people on our staff write in. Well, I didn't win the lottery, so here I am again. Anyway, we're talking about Hurricane Bill. And Rob was telling was just how quickly these storms can develop and how quickly they can come together and grow stronger. Well, now, Hurricane Bill is a category four, blew up into a category four overnight. Rob's tracking Bill's path. It's 10 12 minutes past the hour.