[Kiran Chetry, Cnn Anchor:] Begging for 34 billion. The big three come back to Capitol Hill today as the union bends so the car industry won't break.
[Unidentified Female:] Anything that happens to General Motors, Chrysler or Ford can have a
[Chetry:] But are they making suckers out of you? Plus, troubled waters.
[Unidentified Female:] It was a surprise attack.
[Unidentified Male:] Yes.
[Unidentified Female:] And they did fire shots.
[Chetry:] Pirates fire on a floating city. A desperate situation on land sends terrorists out to sea. Whether your cruise ship could become the next 30,000 ton target on this AMERICAN MORNING. And welcome. Thanks for being with us on this Thursday, December 4th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
[John Roberts, Cnn Anchor:] Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Probably something that not everybody who takes a cruise thinks about, whether or not they'll be attacked by pirates.
[Chetry:] Yes. Exactly.
[Roberts:] But it's happening.
[Chetry:] Yes. And we saw yesterday that one of the ships took evasive measures, actually speeding up. But there are a lot of real concerns out there. Can you go on a cruise and feel safe?
[Roberts:] Yes. That's one of the stories we'll be covering for you today. Meantime, our top stories today. Pakistan's president says he will "take strong action against the terrorists behind last week's deadly attacks in Mumbai. His promise came during talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is right now on an emergency mission to cool rising tensions between nuclear Pakistan and India. Following her meeting in Islamabad, Rice said Pakistan understands the need to act against extremists in its country. This morning Wal-Mart says it plans to beef up security in the wake of last week's deadly stampede at one of its stores in New York. The new safety measures come as relatives of the man trampled to death have sued the retailer blaming it for whipping customers into a fatal frenzy. The man who orchestrated Barack Obama's election victory is writing a book about the historic campaign. David Plouffe was Obama's campaign manager. His book is an inside look at Obama's victory run and a guide for running an organization. The tentative title of the book, "The Audacity to Win."
[Chetry:] Well, we begin with breaking news and what could be much needed relief for homeowners struggling with mortgage payments. How about a 30-year fixed mortgage with a rate of 4.5 percent. How does that sound? Well, right now, the Treasury Department is batting around a plan that could do just that. It's all aimed at breathing life back into the battered real estate market. The story is brand new this morning, and CNN's Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" with more details on really what could be a lifeline for many people. Hi, Christine.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] It could be a lifeline, but keep in mind this is just a plan at this point and the Treasury Department but none of the government officials are talking publicly about what this looks like. This is according to people familiar with the matter, and this is what they're telling us. They're telling us that the treasury is actively considering a plan that would drive down mortgage rates perhaps 4.5 percent. This will be the treasury buying up securities backed by 30-year mortgages. The idea here you take those off the market, you buy up those. You have demand for those that drives down the underlying mortgage rate and that would help the housing market. That would help people who are looking to buy a home and people who are refinancing. Industry lobbyists are very keen about this because they would like to revitalize the housing sector. We know that last week we told you right her on this program that the Fed was buying mortgaged-backed securities, a lot of them. And after that happened, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to just under 5.5 percent on a 30-year fixed. When that mortgage rate declined to 5.5 percent, we saw refinancing skyrocket in the last week. Even on a holiday week, people went out at that lower interest rate and refinanced their mortgage. That puts more money in their pockets and that's good for the economy overall. So who does this help? This would help if this is something that comes to fruition. This would help people who are out there looking for a home to buy. This would help people who have good credit and can refinance and have their job and want to refinance. This does not help someone who just lost their job. This does not help anybody who is already in default because it's very hard to refinance a mortgage if you are already in default. So for the people who are struggling on the verge of losing their home, not a lifeline. For the people who want to lower their cost of their home, it could be it could be a lifeline and it could be good for people who want to get in the market. It could stimulate the market. So, we are expecting maybe some kind of announcement maybe next week. Again, this is preliminary. It's still a plan. We're not hearing publicly from the agencies about this. This is still people familiar with the matter saying look, they're talking a lot about this. And they're trying to do something, especially after last week when the Fed said it was going to buy a bunch of mortgaged-backed securities and interest rates and those mortgage rates went down. And it did spark a lot of refinancing activity.
[Roberts:] Yes. It certainly could help a lot of people if they went ahead and do that. Hey, stick around because we want to get your thoughts on the bailout.
[Romans:] Absolutely.
[Roberts:] Coming back to you in just a couple of minutes. So much for that.
[Romans:] OK.
[Roberts:] In just a few hours, the top men of Detroit's big three automakers will again go before lawmakers with an urgent cry for taxpayer dollars. But this morning, a bailout is not looking like a likely prospect. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggesting that the votes just aren't there. Not enough lawmakers support it and apparently, neither does the public. A new CNNOpinion Research Corporation poll shows 61 percent of Americans are against the bailout, but President-elect Barack Obama says Detroit must show that it is serious about changing its ways.
[Barack Obama , President-elect:] We should also make sure that any government assistance that's provided is designed for a is based on realistic assessments of what the auto market is going to be, and a realistic plan for how we're going make these companies viable over the long term.
[Roberts:] CNN's Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill for us this morning. Brianna, the Senate majority leader says he doesn't have the votes to give automakers a lifeline. Is there any chance that he can get enough votes between now and the time that he put that on the floor to actually pass something?
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, John, no one here on Capitol Hill is going to tell you that automakers trying to plead their case today are not doing the uphill climb. But this really is their last chance or one of their last chances to try to sell these plans that they put out on Tuesday and also to try to redeem themselves in the eyes of Americans and lawmakers after that whole jet fiasco. You know, the White House is saying let's see what happens today at the hearings. President-elect Obama is saying let's see what happens at these hearings today and tomorrow before he puts his specific stamp on any sort of proposal. No doubt it's a tough road ahead. Democrats may have to throw their arms up in the air and say we're just going to have to wait until there's an increased Democratic majority until there's a Democratic president. But publicly at least, John, they're not to that point where they're saying that yet.
[Roberts:] You know, Brianna, in addition to the, you know, the main impact of one of these companies going under would have. There are about three million jobs tied broadly to the auto industry. Some 700 car dealers have already gone out of business. It's expected that as many as 900 will go out of business by the end of this year. If lawmakers don't bail out these car companies and they do go bankrupt, and they take an entire industry with them and maybe pull the economy into depression as some people are warning that it might, are they worried about payback at the polls?
[Keilar:] Well, sure. There's a tremendous amount of pressure that you're going to see just today. Not only is the president of the United Auto Workers going to be before Congress pleading his case as well, but there's also going to be a rally, representatives from auto suppliers who are going to be here on the Hill putting pressure. So this is not lost on Congress. This is not lost, of course, on Democrats who are, you know, really the party of unions. But we've heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi say look, bankruptcy is not an option saying the bottom line that the bottom line here, though, John, is there is disagreement on this, not just if there should be a bailout but also on where the money would come from.
[Roberts:] All right. Brianna Keilar for us on Capitol Hill this morning. Brianna, thanks so much.
[Chetry:] And Christine Romans once again with us with some reaction to this. And what do what are you hearing in business circles about this ripple effect that John alluded to these three million jobs tied in some way to the auto industry?
[Romans:] What I'm hearing most from people is that if we didn't have that $700 billion bailout, it might have been easier for the carmakers to go to Washington and get their own and we say bailout. Let's keep in mind these are low interest loans. These are loans as most bailouts are. They might have had a better time, but a lot of these people in Congress are being slammed at home by their constituents about the $700 billion bailout, where is that money going. And people are tired of lending a lifeline to some of these industries. So what I'm hearing a lot is that the timing is really tough right now on a lot of on a lot of levels for the automakers and where you pay for it. Brianna said, you know, where is the money going to come from? Is it going to come from that $700 billion bailout? They have to do some fancy footwork on things to get that, which is meant for the financial system to get that money for that. Would it be a separate, a separate kind of a legislation? They have to you know, where is that money going to come from? Ultimately it comes from us. And how do we get it? We borrow it from somebody else.
[Roberts:] Nobody likes the idea that two weeks ago it was $25 billion, now it's 34 billion.
[Romans:] Right.
[Roberts:] Where will it end up? Christine, thanks for that.
[Romans:] Sure.
[Chetry:] President-elect Barack Obama signing up another former rival to his new team of rivals at the White House. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is his choice for commerce secretary. Obama says that he's a perfect fit to be America's leading economic diplomat. And Richardson took some ribbing from his new boss for losing the beard.
[Barack Obama , President-elect:] I think it was a mistake for him to get rid of it. I thought that whole western rugged look was really working for him. For some reason
[Chetry:] There you go. You be the judge. There's the before and after. Although, that one, correct me if I'm wrong, John, he has a goatee there. For a while, didn't he have a full lawn or was it always a goat?
[Roberts:] No. It was always a goat as far as I know. But you know, this is much talk about beard or no beard as there is about tie or no tie. You know it's like, people focus on sometimes just the wrong things.
[Chetry:] That's right. Don't change your part. You'll really throw everyone for a loop.
[Roberts:] There you go.
[Chetry:] Well, he is the man who will drive the president-elect's agenda. Rahm Emanuel known as a tough political insider. But there is more to this guy than you may know, and we're uncovering the new chief of staff. Nine minutes after the hour. Cruise ship alarm.
[Will Geddes, Security Specialist, Icp Group:] That emits a very high, loud frequency that disrupts the pirates from coming close to the ship.
[Chetry:] Pirates taking on new targets. How passengers on vacation can still stay safe on the high seas. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."