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Obama Campaigns In New Hampshire; Mitt Romney Campaigns In Iowa; Breaking Down Recent Jobs Report; Hurricane Isaac Could Become More Dangerous; Teachers in Chicago Plan Strike; Medicare Debate Heats Up

Aired September 07, 2012 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A gorgeous day like today and I actually -- we walked and we came right down here. And there was a theater. An improv thing going on. And I sat there and I think I might have bought some ice cream. Now, which reminds me, by the way, Malia and Sasha love New Hampshire, not only because this is where they go to camp, but it's also where they first campaigned with us. And I think the first day of campaigning, they got ice cream four times in a row. So they turned to Michelle and me and they said, "I love -- we love this campaigning thing. We want to campaign with you all the time."

Now, I just come from Charlotte, where we had a great convention. Folks down there could not have been more welcoming. Michelle was amazing. President Clinton made the case in the way only he can. You know, somebody -- somebody e-mailed me after his speech. That said, you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff. That was pretty good. I like that. Secretary of explaining stuff. Explaining.

Joe Biden was fired up. And I meant what I said at the convention, I could not have a better vice president. But, as importantly, I could not ask for a better and more loyal friend than Joe Biden. He is -- he is a wonderful, wonderful man.

And last night I did my best to lay out the stakes in this election. You see, now that both sides have made their argument, there's a big choice the make. And I honestly believe this is the biggest choice, the clearest choice, of any time in our generation, because it's not just a choice between two candidates or two political parties, it is a choice between two different paths for America. Two fundamentally different visions for how we move forward.

You see, ours is a fight for that basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. The promise that hard work will pay off, that responsibilities will be reward, that everyone gets a fair shot, everybody's doing their fair share, everybody's playing by the same rules, from Wall Street to main street to Washington, D.C. That basic bargain work will pay off, their responsibilities will be rewarded, that everyone gets a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, everybody is playing by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street to Washington, D.C. That basic bargain is why I ran for president, and that's why I'm running again. That's what this election's about. That is what this election is about.

I mentioned last night, I got my start in service, because I worked with folks who had been laid off from the steel plants that had closed when the jobs started getting shipped overseas. And over the last 10 years we have seen that happen more and more and too many families struggling with costs that keep rising, even when paychecks don't. So, people are having to use their credit cards or home equity loans just to try to make the mortgage or pay the tuition or put gas in the car or food on the table. And that debt is why this house of cards collapsed in the great recession. Millions of innocent Americans losing their jobs and their homes, folks losing their life savings. And we are fighting to recover from that, and it's a long tough journey.

But our friends at the Republican convention, they talked a lot about what they thought was wrong with America. They didn't tell you what was right. They didn't tell you what they'd do to make it right. They want your vote, but they don't want to show you their plan. And that's because they know that their plan won't sell. That's because all they've got to offer is the same prescriptions that they have had for the last 30 years. Tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations, oh, and more tax cuts. Tax cuts when times are good. Tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds. Tax cuts to improve your love life. It'll cure anything according to them.

Now, let me tell you something. Listen, I've cut taxes for people who need it. Middle class families, small business owners. In 2008, I promised I would cut the middle-class taxes for the typical family's tax burden is -- federal level is $3,600 less since I took office, so I've kept that promise. I have kept that promise. We've cut taxes for small businesses 18 times. But I do not believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires is what's going to bring good jobs back to our shores or pay down our deficit. I don't believe firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid is going to grow our economy, not when China is producing more engineers and more scientists and we've got to compete with them.

After we were on the brink of financial meltdown, because of irresponsible decisions made on Wall Street, I don't believe that rolling back regulations there is somehow going to help small businesswomen or businessmen expand or laid off construction workers get back to work. We have been there. We have tried what they are selling. It didn't work then, it's not going to work now. We are not going back. We are moving forward. That's why all of you are here today.

And I'm not going to pretend that this path is quick or easy. And, by the way, I never have. As Bill Clinton reminded us on Wednesday night, it's going to take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that were building up over decades, we know that. Today, we learned that after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, business once again added jobs for 30th month in a row, a total of more than 4.6 million jobs. But that's not -- that's not good enough. We know it's not good enough. We need to create more jobs faster. We need to fill the hole left by the recession faster. We need to come out of the crisis stronger than when we went in. And there is a lot more that we can do.

You know, when Congress gets back to town next week, you need to send them a message, go ahead and give middle class families and small businesses the confidence of knowing that their taxes, your taxes will not go up next year. Everybody agrees we shouldn't raise taxes on the middle class, let's go ahead and get that done. Let's get it done now. And, by the way, if the Republicans are serious about being concerned about joblessness, we could create a million new jobs right now if Congress would pass the jobs plan that I had sent to them a year ago. Jobs for teachers. Jobs for construction workers, jobs for folks who have been looking out -- looking for working for a long time. We can do that. But I need your help, New Hampshire. I need your voices. You see --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got it!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're with you, man!

OBAMA: I appreciate that. Then I need you to get your cousins and your friends, your coworkers. Look, I am not just asking for your vote, I'm asking the entire country to rally around a set of goals for our country. Goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security and the deficit. And these -- this is a real achievable plan that will lead to new jobs and more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That's what we can do in the next four years. That's why I'm running for a second term as president, to finish the job, to keep moving forward, to build up the progress that we have made.

So, let me be a little more specific. First, I've got a plan to export more products, not out-source jobs. After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years. We have reinvented a dying auto industry that's back on top of the world. And so now, Americans, we have a choice. We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas or we can start rewarding companies that are investing right here in New Hampshire putting Americans back to work selling products around the world. We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports. We can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years. You can make it happen, but I'm going to need your help.

Second, I've got a plan to control more of our own energy. You know, after 30 years of I inaction, we finally raised fuel standards so that by the middle of next decade your cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. That will save you money. That will save you money. We've doubled our use of renewable energy, solar, wind, bio- fuels. And tens of thousands of Americans have jobs today, because they are building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries.

You know, the other side likes to talk about energy, but they don't mention that the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in nearly two decades. The other side wants the reverse that progress. I want to build on it. I'm not going to let the oil companies dictate the country's energy plan, and I don't want them to keep collecting $4 billion a year in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. We've got a better path. We want to keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal technology. We want to see farmers and scientists harness new bio-fuels to power our cars and our trucks. I want construction workers who are sitting at home right now, I want them building homes and factories that waste less energy and retrofitting those that are already built to save energy. And we can develop 100-year supply of natural gas right beneath our feet. If we choose this path, we can cut oil imports in half by 2020. We can support 600,000 new jobs in natural gas developmental alone. That's how we move forward.

Third, let's do it. Let's do it. We can do this. We can do this. Look, third, third, third, I've got even more. I've got a plan to give more Americans the chance to gain the skills that they need to compete. You know, education -- I would not be standing here if I hadn't gotten a great education. Michelle would not be where she is without the opportunities that were given, and as she told you on Tuesday night, we didn't come from wealth or fame or power. But in this country, we've always made a commitment that if you've got talent and you're willing to work hard, somebody is going to give you the opportunity to get a great education. And then you can go as far as your dreams can take you. It is -- it is the gateway to a middle- class life in the 21st century.

So, what have we already done? Nearly every state has answered our call to raise standards for teaching and learning. Some of the worst schools in the country have already seen real gains in math and reading. Millions of students are paying less for college today, because we took on a system where $60 billion was going to banks and lenders, as middlemen for the student loan program, we said, let's cut out the middleman and give the money directly to students so they get a better deal. So now, you've got a choice.

We can gut our commitment to education like the other side's budget would end up doing or can decide here in America no child should give up her dreams because a classroom is overcrowded or a school is crumbling. No family should set aside that college acceptance letter, because they figure they just cannot afford it. And no company should be looking for the workers they need overseas because they can't find them here at home. So, New Hampshire, I need you to help me to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers and improve early childhood education. And give two million workers the skills they need at community colleges and help colleges and universities cut tuition growth in half over the next 10 years. We can meet these goals together. That's the America that we want for our kids. Forward. Forward. I need four more years, and we are going to move forward.

Fourth, fourth, my plan would reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle-class. Now, the debt and the deficit are real medium and long-term problem problems, and we are going to have to address it. And I want to get working. Independent analysis shows that my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion, that's with a T, and I have worked with the Republicans in Congress already to cut $1 trillion in spending, and I'm prepared to do more. I want to reform the tax code so that it is simple and fair and so it asks the wealthiest households in America to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000. So, even well-to-do folks would still keep their tax break up to $250,000, but after that, we want to go back to the same rates we had when Bill Clinton was president. Our economy created 23 million new jobs then. We had the biggest surplus in history. We created a whole lot millionaires...

(END LIVE FEED)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Here is Obama out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I want to go to Mitt Romney, he's also holding a campaign event. This is in Orange City, Iowa. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...people around the world. And if we restore those principles, you're going to see our economy come roaring back. And with the strong economy, we can maintain the strongest military in the world. The world depends on a strong America. I was in Poland some weeks ago and met with Lech Walesa. I came in the -- his meeting area there and he said, Mr. Romney, you must be tired from coming across the ocean. He said, why don't you sit down and I'll talk. And I sat down and he began to speak. And he -- what he said for about 15 minutes was -- boiled down to this. He said, where is America's leadership? We need America's leadership. America must lead. There's no question but the personal of freedom and personal responsibility and dignity that have always formed the basis of America, those principles need to be spoken loud and clear and demonstrated on the world stage, and I will do it again.

Now yesterday, yesterday, you had the chance, if you wanted to, to watch the President of the United States address the people of America in his acceptance speech. And I read that this morning. You haven't perhaps got a chance to do that. But if you -- if you did, perhaps, like me, you found it extraordinarily disappointing. Surprisingly disappointing. Because his speech four years ago, he laid out a whole series of lofty goals. And, unfortunately, he was unable to meet them.

As a matter of fact, I can think of very few of the promises he made four years ago that he's kept. He said he'd raise incomes for people. In fact, they've gone down by $5,000 a family. He said he'd create more new businesses. People who wanted to start a business would be encouraged to do so. But, in fact, we're at a 30-year low in new business start-ups.

He was going to get people back to work. You remember with his stimulus plan, the stimulus said that if we let him borrow $787 billion, he would hold unemployment below 8 percent. It's been 43 straight months above 8 percent. There are, today, 23 million Americans that are out of work or stopped looking for work or under- employed. It's a national tragedy.

He also said he'd cut the deficit in half. He doubled it. One promise he kept, though. He said if his energy policies got put in place, the cost of energy would skyrocket. And that's happened. This is time for a new President with a different vision for America.

Now, I was surprised by his address, because I expected him to confront the major challenge of the last four years, which is an economy which has not produced the jobs that the America people need. I expected him to talk about 23 million people, or at least to talk about the unemployed in America. I expected him to talk about the number of families having a hard time making ends meet. The number of middle income families who've seen the cost of health insurance go up, the cost of food go up, the cost of gasoline go up, even as our incomes have gone down. I expected him to talk about those thing, but he did not.

Instead, it was a whole series of new promises which he also won't be able to keep, because the policies he believes in and the direction he's pulling will not make America stronger. If President Obama were re-elected, we would have four more years of the last four years and the American people are going to say no to that.

Now, there's something else that you've watched in the President's campaign over the past several months, and that is an increasingly divisive and dismissive approach to the American people. It's been a campaign of pitting one American against another. And it's so contrary to our national history and our national spirit. The story of America has been one of the many becoming one. The store of America is a united people coming to build the strongest economy in the history of the world. The story of America has a united people that has confronted unspeakable darkness and stopped it from spreading across the earth in the second World War. And fighting it again time and again when evil rears its head around the world. As Lech Walesa indicated, America's leadership has been needed and is needed today. That's been the story of America, people coming together. And one thing I can assure of is, that if I'm President of the United States, I will stop this divisiveness and I will do everything in my power to unite the American people.

Now you might have expected the President of the United States to lay out a plan for what he'd do to get the economy going again and get people working again. And he didn't do that last night. Again, that was surprising to me. I laid out the things I'm going to do to get this economy going. And let me tell you what they are, one by one, five things.

You've heard me talk about them before. I want to talk about them some more. Because I want you to know I'm not just talking about 12 million new jobs. I know how to get the private sector the create 12 million new jobs. I know what it's going to take to do that. Let me tell you what they are.

Number one, I'm going to take full advantage of our energy resources. Our coal, our oil, our gas, our nuclear, our renewables. And by doing that, we become energy independent, North America does, by 2020.

Now, you might think, well, how do you get there? Let me tell you some of the things you do. One, you take full advantage of what's known as tight oil. That's oil that's in tight formations and they pump in fluid to push it out, get more oil out. It also means taking advantage of that pipeline from Canada. Getting that oil coming down from Canada, the Keystone pipeline. It means turning the Gulf of Mexico back on so we get oil out of the Gulf. And, by the way, over the last four years, the President has cut the number of permits and licenses on federal land and in federal waters in half. I will double the number of licenses and permits so we get more oil and energy.

And natural gas is our big ace in the hole. We've got a lot of natural gas. That natural gas being brought to our transportation hubs, that natural gas being brought to places where now they don't have it, particularly in the manufacturing sector, is going to bring jobs back to America.

So, number one for me is taking advantage of the energy resources. And that will put millions of Americans back to work.

Number two -- I'm looking here at Steve King. This man needs to be your congressman again. I want him as my partner in Washington, D.C.

Number two, I want to make sure that our workers have the skills for the jobs of today and that you young people have the skills you need for the jobs of tomorrow. And that latter request and that latter demand suggests that we finally have to make sure that our schools are run for the benefit of the students. That we put the students and their parents and the teachers first. And the teachers' union, they're going to have to go behind. We've got to have our -- our kids run from our -- our schools run for our kids.

Let me mention a third. And that's -- and that's trade. The third thing I'm going to do is really take advantage of trade opportunities. You see America is the most productive nation on the planet of the major economic powers. That means we make more stuff per person than any other nation. And because we make more stuff per person, we're the most productive and, therefore, it's good for us to trade with other nations. As we do, we'll create more jobs. You know that here in Iowa. You ship products, whether agriculture or manufactured or services, around the world. It creates jobs here in Iowa to trade.

And this President is the first since Roosevelt, FDR, not to seek and receive trade promotion authority to be able to work out new trade deals with other nations. I'm going to fight for the capacity to create new trade opportunities. And because I spent my life in the private sector, 25 years, I understand what kind of deals are good for America and which aren't. So I'm going to make trade work for America.

And, by the way, if nations we trade with decide to take advantage of us unfairly and cheat, there will be consequences. I will finally do what needs to be done to make sure China doesn't cheat and take our jobs.

Number four -- number four, and this is one that is not just economic, it's also moral, as the governor said. And that is, it is simply wrong for us, morally wrong for us, to continue to spend massively more than we take in year in and year out knowing that my generation will never pay that back. It's all going to be passed on to your generation. We are killing the American dream for our children. It's wrong. It will stop if I'm President of the United States.

I've got one more. I've got one more. And that's this. I'm going to champion small business. You see, I happen to understand how it is that small businesses get going and how it is that they grow. As I was driving in to Orange City, I saw a Staples distribution facility there. A big sign said Staples. I hope you saw that. And as you know, I was one of those that helped finance the very first Staples store. I remember going to the store the night before it opened and talking to the various folks that were putting various products on the shelf. We wondered what would happen? Would people come to our store or not?

And I remember talking to one of the founders and I said, what do we do if no one comes? He said, that's easy, lower prices and advertise more. And I said, well, what happens if they still don't come?: He said, that's easy, lower prices some more and advertise some more. And so that little one store in a place called Brighton, Massachusetts, has now grown to be hundreds, thousands of stores worldwide with distribution centers here and all over the country.

It's a remarkable story. It's the story of America, how individuals pursuing their dreams in fact built it themselves and -- and by virtue of their dreams and a great nation that welcomes dreamers and the support of all the people who work in an enterprise like Staples, they were able to create a business which employs about 90,000 Americans today. So I know that to get Americans back to work and to create the 12 million jobs I'm dedicated to creating, I have to create the conditions and the environment that encourages entrepreneurs and innovators and small business people to start businesses and to grow them.

And for that to happen, there are a couple of things I got to do. One, I want them to know that if they're successful, if they're one of the very few of the start-ups that actually makes it, that they'll be able to keep a good deal of their own profits, their own earnings and be able to plow it into the business to grow. Because if you raise taxes on small business, a lot of them won't even start, and those that do won't be able to grow. So, for me, holding down taxes on small business is essential.

And, number two, I want regulators to know their job, yes, is to catch the bad guys. There will always be bad guys out there. You've got to catch them. But you also have to recognize that your job is to encourage the good guys. Regulators and regulations have to encourage small business, make it easier to grow, get behind our enterprises.

(END LIVE FEED)

MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney out of Orange City, Iowa.

Bad news for the economy, big news in a presidential race that is now deadlocked. We're going to break down the latest jobs report, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Jobs report for August was actually weaker than expected. We want to break down the numbers and what they mean.

Joining us is Georgia Tech economist, Danny Boston.

Great to see you as always.

THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON, ECONOMIST, GEORGIA TECH: Great to be here.

MALVEAUX: Give us a breakdown of the number numbers. What was expected and how many jobs were created? What does this say?

BOSTON: Well, the expectation was there would be between 120,000 jobs to 145,000 jobs. Actually, 103,000 jobs were created and then the government subtracted 7,000 from that. And so we ended up with about 96,000, far below what was expected particularly looking at what had happened last month, because there was going to be a little -- there was a blip last month but we thought that momentum would come forward.

MALVEAUX: Despite that though, the employment dipped from 8.3 to 8.1 percent. What happened?

BOSTON: Well, from 8.3 to 8.1 -- you're right. It happened because so many people drop out of the labor market. There were 386,000 fewer people in the labor market than the month before, so that was a challenge. It appears, in looking at the number, that slightly over 200,000 of those were people who were in part-time employment, and so that is a challenge. We'd much like to see the unemployment rate -- prefer to see the unemployment rate going up and people coming in than just the opposite which is --

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: What does that mean? Does that mean that people are essentially giving up in looking for work?

BOSTON: Yes, it does. Here is what is happening. Here is the big picture. You have a weak labor market report on the one hand, but on the other hand, if you look at what is going on in the economy, there is a lot of strength. In other words -- and investors are just sitting on the side. So we have record profits and you have a record amounts of cash that are not spending and investing, and if you look at some of the dynamics that are taking place, for example, auto sales increasing, home sales increasing and the retail sales increasing, but no jobs being created. And it's because the investors are sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see what happens with the election. And in addition to that, you have the fiscal cliff and the uncertainty in Europe. So if you are a rational business person, you won't make any major move until after you see what the landscape is going to look like.

MALVEAUX: So, to me, it would seem like after the election, then you would see something and you'd be more encouraged to see some better numbers?

BOSTON: I think you would. I think you would. And it doesn't -- whether it is Obama or Romney, the landscape from -- from the investment standpoint, the landscape will be fixed. So as an investor, that investor will know which way to go, and they will begin to invest. Because, again, the economy is not stalled, because they are not making profits. It is the opposite. It is stalled because they don't have the confidence to move ahead. MALVEAUX: Thank you, Danny Boston. Hopefully it will get better.

BOSTON: Yes.

MALVEAUX: We keep waiting for the good numbers.

BOSTON: Just on a slight hold.

MALVEAUX: Thank you. That's a good number.

BOSTON: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: And he made a stir in Vegas and now Prince Harry, back in uniform in Afghanistan. We will tell you why the palace did not keep it a secret this time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Four earthquakes rocked southwest China today. State media reporting at least 64 people are dead and more than 715 injured and more than 20,000 homes damaged. The Chinese government is sending tents and basic supplies for the victims.

From fun and partying to serious -- military duty in Afghanistan. Britain's Prince Harry now in Helmand Province, considered the Taliban heartland. Harry is an Apache helicopter pilot in the British army. His last four-month deployment was in Afghanistan, but the deployment was kept a secret. This time, since is base is at a more secure military complex, his location has been released.

And Hurricane Isaac made landfall last week in Louisiana. Why is some of the remnants of the storm still going? Chad Myers will explain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey, everyone. Today, on the "HELP DESK," we are talking about the best way to tackle your credit card debt. A lot of people have this issue.

Joining me this hour, Donna Rosato and Ryan Mack.

Donna, this woman told me, when I talked to her, that she has about $4,000 in debt, so take a listen to her question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have multiple credit cards, what is the best plan to work out a plan where you can pay it off?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: She is wondering, which do I pay off first?

DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR WRITER, MONEY MAGAZINE: That's right. Well, there are two schools of thought on this. And generally, it is better to focus on the highest rate card and pay it down as quickly as possible, because you will pay less in interest overtime. And, of course, you want to keep paying the minimum on the other ones. But a lot of people get a psychological boost by paying off the smallest balances first and getting rid of them. That is motivating. But the best plan is whatever plan you can stick to. The important thing is to pay the cards down.

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: This question is important, because I am amazed how few people write down the debts on paper so they can see what the debts are, what the interest rates are. Before you pay a cent, call each of those credit card companies and be aggressive. Call three or four times --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Try and negotiate.

MACK: -- lower those interest rates so you can get something a little bit less money, more money in your pocket.

HARLOW: A lot of people don't want to look at it, but it is not going to get away. It will get worse and worse every month.

MACK: I keep on saying that it works.

HARLOW: Absolutely.

Guys, thank you.

If you have a question that you want the experts to tackle, upload a 30-second video with your question to ireport.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Hurricane Isaac could become dangerous. Forecasters say it could revive and become a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico.

I want to bring in Chad to talk about this.

What does that mean exactly?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we went through this in the break. It is not the remnant of Isaac, because the central moved through the Ohio valley. But this little thing was a big thunderstorm complex that moved across Arkansas and Louisiana and then the Gulf of Mexico, and so it was a cluster of storms generated by Isaac, but not part of the center, that got all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico. And now, all of the sudden, it could regenerate into something. Now, it won't be Isaac, it would be Nadine. Because we have Leslie and we have Michael.

Yes, so let's get right to it, very quickly. This is the tropical outlook. Still only a 20 percent chance of being anything at this point in time. But there is the cloud cover and the junk that we have been walking around and looking at for the last couple of days. Came down across -- and like they need more rain in Louisiana anyway. So happy that it is not turning out to be too much.

Here is Leslie. It was a big scare for Bermuda for a while. I have friends out there e-mailing me saying, is this a 2 or 3? And now it is a T.S., tropical storm, and 65 miles per hour. And in fact, the track is going to continue to move on up to away from Bermuda.

Big time storm here. Hurricane Michael, category 2, 105 miles per hour. And wind gusts, 125, moving northwest at three miles per hour. But look at the beautiful eye out there in the middle of the Atlantic. And I will call it beautiful, because it is not near anybody and it is not going to be near anybody -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Any sense of where Leslie is headed?

MYERS: Yes, I think Leslie tracks 300 to 400 miles to the east there of Bermuda. And that now takes Bermuda completely out of the cone. So, here we go. We have the track right here.

And my producer is talking in my ear and I can't concentrate on what I am doing.

There we go. Bermuda. Here, across parts of their eastern sections here, a Cat 1 still regenerating, but well east of Bermuda. Just making some nice waves on the east side -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. I know what that is like sometimes, producer in your ear.

MALVEAUX: Appreciate it.

MYERS: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Yes, thanks.

MALVEAUX: It has not happened for 25 years. Now, the city of Chicago is bracing for a teacher's strike that could impact hundreds of thousands of students.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Chicago is the third-largest school district in the country, but the 400,000 students who go there may be kept out of school Monday morning if the teachers go through what they say is going to be a strike.

Ted Rowlands is in Chicago right now where the negotiations are taking place.

Ted, first of all, the Chicago teachers have not gene on strike in past 25 years. Tell us what is behind this.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a couple of issues that are yet to be resolved, Suzanne. First, as you might guess, pay and benefits. Another is job security for veteran teachers where there are school consolidations. They want to protect the teachers. And another one is that Chicago has a longer school day, starting this year, and the teachers want it, in ink, exactly what it means for them, lunch breaks, prep time, et cetera. Those are sticking points.

The other thing going on here, according to the union, is this anti- union sentiment we've seen percolate over the last year or so. You can look to Wisconsin and Ohio and other states. They say it is playing a part in this as well, believe it or not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON JOHNSON, CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION: It is playing a part. And I think what is most disconcerting is that you have Democratic mayors all over the country leading the charge on attempting to destroy the public sector, particularly, you know, public school teachers unions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And, of course, the Democratic mayor in this city is Rahm Emanuel. We asked him for an interview to talk about that specific issue, but he declined. They did issue a statement, his office did, talking about the kids and school, basically saying, "Everyday they are not there is a day taken away from them, that they just cannot afford, "leaders on both sides need to stay at the negotiating table and finish their job," and find a solution here.

The bottom line here is that midnight Sunday is the deadline. Parents, as you can imagine, Suzanne, are starting to work on plan B because, at this point, they still have not been able to come to an agreement.

MALVEAUX: Wow. I cannot imagine the nervousness that those parents feel right now, because, Ted, as you know -- I mean, Chicago is facing this crime situation, extreme crime that is happening in some of the neighborhoods. And some of those neighborhoods, you are going to have kids out in the streets and not in schools. Is the major responding to that or is anybody addressing those concerns?

ROWLANDS: Yes, the school district has a plan in place to accommodate that scenario. 144 schools will be open for the students to come, and they will feed them. But they won't be doing any learning. And then there are faith-based organizations that are opening up their churches as well. Hopefully, there will be enough in terms of the spots for the kids to go if there is a strike.

MALVEAUX: All right. Ted, keep us posted. Thank you.

Speeches at the Democratic National Convention are over, but it is time to check the facts. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be with us next to take a look at Medicare.

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MALVEAUX: Heated political debate over Medicare got even hotter at the Democratic National Convention. Both President Obama and Vice President Biden taking aim at Mitt Romney, saying that his reform proposals would run Medicare into the ground. Were those claims accurate?

I want to bring in our Dr. Sanjay Gupta to kind of work this all though.

And you were talking about it. It's rather a complicated situation. It's very nuanced.

Let's take a listen to what the President claimed, first, saying, under Romney's proposal seniors would pay more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I will never, I will never turn Medicare into a voucher. Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we'll do it by reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more.

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MALVEAUX: Romney counters he would provide vouchers to help seniors with private insurance. Which one is more expensive?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the answer -- and this is not what people want to hear -- is we don't know because they are trying to anticipate the future here a little bit. If you have a voucher system, they're putting a price tag on that, which we don't know how much health care plans are going to cost several years down the line.

The Secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius, said, based on her predictions, she said $6400 would be the cost under Romney's plan. But it's worth pointing out two things. One is either one of plans are reliably going to reduce costs, something else President Obama said in that speech. There's no evidence they will reduce cost. We don't have a specific plan from Governor Romney. We're basing it all on what Congressman Ryan has said of the plan he's going to put in the past with other Congressman. So we don't know the answer.

We ran this by factcheck.org as well --

MALVEAUX: Sure.

GUPTA: -- to specifically say, what do they say about that claim in terms of the costs. They said, "We simply don't have enough details yet to know how much that extra money is going to affect seniors and how much they will have to pay for traditional Medicare."

So there's no plan on the other side to compare to right now. If you go on the Ryan plan, there's a voucher system. It's a certain amount of money. Health care could be higher than that.

MALVEAUX: So it's very speculative.

Let's listen to what Biden claimed as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What they didn't tell you is the plan they are proposing would cause Medicare to go bankrupt by the 2016.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Do we know that for sure?

GUPTA: Former President Clinton said the same thing in his speech as well. What we know is that if you look at the plan as things stand right now, Medicare is expected to have enough money until 2023. That's with the Affordable Care Act provisions. If this plan, the Affordable Care Act is repealed then those are the projections, that Medicare would essentially run out of money in 2016.

But there's a couple of important points. One is that, if you look at, again, what the Ryan plan is, they say might they be spending more money, not taking in enough money and spending more.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

GUPTA: That could potentially affect that date as well.

But also this idea of going broke. That really makes it sound like we're gone. It's over. It's scrapped. We ran that by factcheck.org as well. And they said, specifically, which I think is a very important point, that Medicare will not go broke. But a part of it, the hospital insurance trust fund, would not be able to pay full benefits for hospital services.

We dug into that a little more, Suzanne. So let's say you have 100 percent coverage.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

GUPTA: You say, if the plan is repealed, it might be 87 percent, which is not insignificant by any means.

MALVEAUX: Right.

GUPTA: it will definitely affect people who are beneficiaries of Medicare, but it's different than going broke.

Also, this has happened in the past. You've covered politics for a long time. This idea of Medicare running out of money has come up. People -- Congress has re-authorized money and tried to give more money to Medicare in the past. Might that happen again? We don't know. Again, speculative trying to predict the future.

MALVEAUX: As many questions as answers. Perhaps more questions than answers.

GUPTA: And a moving target.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you.

GUPTA: You, too.

MALVEAUX: Here's a tip if you're headed to the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Yes, bring your dancing shoes. Be ready to break down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: They got out of the seats long before the speeches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

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MALVEAUX: So fun at the DNC. Singer Mary J. Blige, one of several celebrities performing last night at the DNC. The hip-Hop queen had the crowd jamming to her song "Family Affair." It was a family affair. A lot of people having a good time there. She told them to get crunk for President Obama.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brooke Baldwin.