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What's trending for Sept. 11th, 2012
Emma Watson tops list of dangerous web searches & Calif. lifeguards fired for making music video spoof.
No deal yet for striking Chicago teachers – Casey Wian on the two issues holding up a deal
The Chicago Teachers Union has yet to make a deal with public school officials today. Teachers have entered a second day of their first labor strike in 25 years, once again forcing parents to make other arrangements for their children. CNN’s Casey Wian is at Manuel Junior Elementary School in Chicago with the latest on the negotiations from last night.
The school board and teachers are still at an impasse. “For now, both sides seem unwilling to budge,” Wian reports. “The issue of teacher evaluations and the procedure for recalling laid-off teachers and who should control that” were not “even discussed last night at the bargaining table,” he says. “So, that is not a hopeful sign.” According to the union, however, negotiations are scheduled to resume at 9:30 this morning, he says.
The other issue at hand is families dealing with this unscheduled day off for their kids. “Right now, a lot of parents [are] struggling to find alternative arrangements,” Wian says. Parents have expressed fear of possible gang violence. Wian says, “That’s something that we’ve heard a lot from parents, very concerned about children roaming the streets with no place to go, given the fact that Chicago’s murder rate up more than 30% over last year.”
What the election means for your money – Christine Romans breaks down what would happen under Romney & Obama's plans
What would happen to your money under Mitt Romney and President Obama's taxes and investment plans? Christine Romans dives 'in depth' into both of their platforms to break it down for us.
In short: Obama wants to tax the rich more.
"I'm not proposing anything radical here," President Obama says. "I just believe that anybody making over $250,000 dollars a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under Bill Clinton."
Romney wants to cut income taxes for everyone but hasn't revealed almost any details about how he plans to pay for those cuts. "I will not raise taxes on the American people, on middle income Americans," he says. "We're going to make sure Americans have the money to pay their bills"
Here's what we do know: what would happen to income taxes. Romney wants to cut income taxes by 20% for every income level and Obama wants to split up the higher tax brackets and tax the rich more.
The big question is, what would happen to some big deductions like carried interest, child tax credit and mortgage interest deduction? We just don't know what Romney has planned for those and they're important to the middle class.
When it comes to investments, the differences in the plans comes again with taxes on the rich. High income earners making $200,000 a year or more – their capital gains and dividends are currently taxed at 15%. Romney wants to keep it that way but President Obama wants to increase taxes on capital gains to 20%, and dividends as high as 39.6%.
We don't know how this will be paid for.
Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan addressed this over the weekend, saying they'll be looking at closing loopholes, but "not necessarily what loopholes go, but who gets them. High income earners use most of the loopholes. That means they can shelter their income from taxation. But if you take those loopholes, those tax shelters away from high income earners, more of their income is subject to taxation. And that allows us to lower tax rates on everybody - small businesses, families, economic growth."
But again, no more details about which loopholes would be closed.
We wanted to do a comparison of what would happen to the median income family making $50,000 a year. But you just can't do it given the information available for Romney's plan for taxes.
We actually asked the Romney campaign if they have done an analysis of what would happen to the average family and they said they have not done that.
The official we spoke to, who is involved in setting economic policy but did not want to be named, says anyone who says Romney wants to get rid of the child tax credit is incorrect. But this official would not explain what Romney would do with that or any other credits for that matter.
What's trending for Sept. 10th, 2012
President Obama gets a special lift on the campaign trail from an enthusiastic pizza shop owner in Florida. While, Actor Morgan Freeman becomes the victim of yet another internet death hoax.
Actor Clint Eastwood breaks silence on his speech at the Republican National Convention
In the wake of both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention are memories of great political fervor, plenty of one-liners and of course, empty chair references. Clint Eastwood’s unscripted speech addressed to an empty chair was one of the biggest headlines from the conventions and one of them finally includes the Hollywood star’s own comments. The actor and director spoke about the controversy to Paul Miller, the publisher of Eastwood’s hometown paper, The Carmel Pine Cone. Miller joins John Berman on “Early Start” this morning regarding his exclusive interview.
Clint Eastwood told Miller that his speech was “mission accomplished”. That meant, “He irritated the people, I believe, he intended to irritate, and pleased the people he intended to please,” Miller says.
Miller says the speech was largely spur-of-the-moment. “The fact that he would participate wasn’t finalized until just a week before he showed up,” at the convention, Miller says. “The idea of using the empty chair as a stand-in for the president didn’t strike him until he was backstage and about to walk out to the lectern.”
One of the major points Miller says Eastwood told him he wanted to make in his speech and accomplished is getting across that, “politicians aren’t royalty or something. When they’re not doing the job, you gotta let em go.”
Considering the media firestorm that followed his RNC appearance, Miller describes Eastwood as a person who takes things as they come. Miller says, “I hope that we’ll be that way when we’re 82 and have his level of accomplishments."
MYB: Can 12 million jobs be created in four years?
Can 12 million jobs be created in four years? Christine Romans explores the possibilities with an in-depth look at President Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's job creation plans. Romans also looks at the number of jobs created in the past by former presidents Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
CNN's Athena Jones reports on Congress’ return to Capitol Hill and the loads of unfinished business
Congress is back in session today for an abbreviated, pre-election period. The issues at hand are taxes and spending cuts, but mostly preventing a government shutdown later this month. CNN’s Athena Jones talks to John Berman on “Early Start” this morning with the latest developments from Washington.
“We’re all expecting them to pass what’s called a continuing resolution,” Jones says. “It’s a short term measure to fund the government. They’ve got to pass that by the end of this month.” Jones says, “It’s got to get to the president’s desk in order to keep everything running and avoid a shut down.”
Jones says the House of Representatives is expected to vote on that on Thursday, the Senate by next week. “That’s about the only must pass bit of legislation,” she says. Other bills, “are things that they may do or could do.”
A according to the latest WSJ/NBC poll, 82% disapprove of Congress. “Part of that probably has to do with the fact that there’s been so much haggling and so much division and not a lot of getting things done,” Jones says.
As for the fiscal cliff issue, “It’s really anybody’s guess as to what’s going to happen,” Jones says, “because the divisions are still strong and still remain.”
CNN’s Peter Hamby on Obama's recent lead in the polls and fundraising
President Obama is officially running for reelection against GOP candidate Mitt Romney as of last week. New numbers this morning shows the president ahead of Romney in the polls and in fundraising. CNN’s Peter Hamby joins John Berman from Virginia this morning with the latest on the 2012 race.
President Obama raked in $144 million in campaign donations in the month of August compared to Romney’s $111 million. The latest Gallup Poll also shows 49% of registered voters support the president to 44% for Romney.
“These are August numbers that don’t include any money raised during the convention last week,” Hamby says. “But remember, the Romney campaign has basically been sitting on money for months and months that they couldn’t spend until Romney formally accepted the nomination in Tampa.” The expectations are that the Obama campaign will be outspent by the Romney campaign in TV ads in swing states.
The verbal competition is also heating up. “The campaign rhetoric has really sharpened just in the last couple days,” Hamby adds. Obama “really seems to have a bounce in his step after the convention."
CNN's Casey Wian on Chicago teachers strike: ‘a fair amount of anger and frustration'
Labor negotiations between the Chicago teachers union and school officials fell through late last night, affecting 400,000 students across nearly 700 schools in the nation’s third largest public school system. CNN’s Casey Wian talks to John Berman on “Early Start” this morning with the latest from outside the Altgeld Elementary school in Chicago.
The teacher’s strike will immediately impact parents this morning. “What we can expect is a lot of confusion,” Wian says. “Parents are going to be scrambling to try to figure out what they’re going to do with their children, especially working parents.” 144 schools throughout the city will be open for a few hours in the morning until 12:30 pm as temporary centers for parents to drop off their children.
Wian expects “a fair amount of anger and frustration” today while teachers are at the picket lines. Wian refers to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s latest comments calling the strike unnecessary and later adding, “the parties at hand should do what they need to do to right by our children.”
It’s uncertain whether new negotiations are on the table, but school districts say they’ve “offered about as much as they can” offer in terms of salary. Wian says teachers are more concerned with having more say in the school day and teacher evaluations.
Best Advice: Dwyane Wade
NBA Champion Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat gives us his best advice.
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