Money & Politics --- Mike (fast)
NYSE --- Deb (fast)
i’m michael mckee. welcome back to “money & politics.” apple computer today unveiled software that may take a bite out of microsoft’s personal computer dominance. apple will let its newest p.c.’s run on windows x.p., bridging a historic gap between the companies. after interestg some of the earliest p.c.’s, apple holds just 4% of the u.s. market now. the software, called boot camp, will work on apple computers with intel chips and can be downloaded from the internet and will be added to apple’s next operating system. is it worth it? j.p. morgan analyst says apple adds $2 billion in revenue and more than 30 cents in earnings for every point of market share the company gains. apple stock gaining the most in a year and a half today. cash-rich companies and xurms cheered by brighter job prospects helped american service companies increase in march. the institute for supply management index of nonmanufacturing businesses rose to 60.5 from 60.1 in february. crude oil rose after the department of energy reported a loss of four million barrels of gasoline, double what was expected. gasoline up, naturally, as was heating oil and natural gas. we have headlines crossing on the latest from merck and vioxx, the latest trial, this one in atlantic city, new jersey. the jury says merck failed to warn of vioxx dangers in the case there, vioxx, however, was not a substantial factor in the victim’s heart attack. we will have more details as they are available. wall street today focused on apple and the i.s.m. rather than higher oil prices. stocks ending the day higher. the dow jones industrials up by 36. the s&p 500 by six and the nasdaq by 14. so, make that 3-0 for the markets . the dow and s&p have risen every day this week. here’s deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange with more on what drove today’s action. deb?
>> thanks a lot, mike. we have the s&p closing at its highest level in five years as we closed out today and the markets are rallying on all this good economic news we got. the i.s.m. rose to 60.5. anything above 50 indicates expansion. a lot of traders saying what’s driving the market is all this evidence that the economy is stronger than expected. helping things out, as well, earnings. because now we have expectations that first-quarter earnings will grow more than 10% for the first quarter. alcoa kicking off the earnings season next monday. it was also the biggest gainer in the dow jones industrial average today. that after credit suisse analyst saying that alcoa will earn more than expected for the year, helping out alcoa as well as a lot of metal and copper stocks all doing well today. phelps dodge at a record high today after copper and zinc rose to a record. and also, that led a rally in aluminum, nickel and tin. the big otherrn is declining supplies, that certainly helping out most of the melts stocks today. • metal stocks today. crude oil closing at the highest level of the day and what we did see, energy shares performing quite well in today’s session i.we also saw with oil service stocks, like transocean and weatherford, hitting records in today’s session. mike, back to you in the studio.
>> deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange. president bush’s approval ratings continue to slide. former house majority leader, tom delay, resigns from congress. is it time for democrats to step up and show voters they can lead? we’ll talk with house minority whip steny hoyer on “money & politics” after this.
点击播报
Listen Interview: Maryland Representative
>> the latest verdict in a merck vioxx trial, this one from atlantic city where jurors deliberating a case involving thomas cona and mcdarby. the jury deciding that while merck did not properly warn of vioxx dangers in the cona case, it was not a substantial factor in his heart attack. however, the jury did find that it was a contributor in the mcdarby heart attack and awarded $5.5 million to mr. mcdasheb. they will deliberate punitive damages later. president bush traveled to connecticut to push health savings accounts. the bigger healthcare news comes from massachusetts. tastate’s governor says he will sign legislation making it the first state in the nation to provide nearly universal healthcare coverage. peter cook has more from our washington bureau.
>> the plan worked out by democratic state lawmakers and massachusetts governor mitt romney requires that residents there carry health insurance in much the same way they are required to have car insurance, an effort with imp[p]lections for the business community watched closely around the country, especially here in washington.
>> my governor and my state reps can have state healthcare, why shouldn’t i?
>> under the new plan, everyone in the state would be required to have insurance by next year. the state would provide subsidies. to help pay the bill, businesses would pay $295 a year per employee to the state. residents who can afford insurance and don’t buy it would face income tax penalties.
>> no new taxes, no government takeover and yet healthcare for all our citizens. it’s an answer that’s been waiting to happen for a long time. i think this legislation may well ba be a model that other states will look to and ultimately what the federal government will consider.
>> some critics question whether the plan prized enough -- provides enough money while some business owners are balking at the prospect of the $295. per-employee fee.
>> you want me to pick up people’s insurance? i think it’s out of this world. i think it’s crazy.
>> the state is also count being on private insurers to owrve a range of plans to those currently uninsured but it’s not clear what those plans will look like.
>> what will the policies cost, what will individuals get as assistance if they have low incomes and how will that scale be there and i think the devil is in the details.
>> the massachusetts plan is promising and could be a model for other states. governor romney told me today he will sign the legislation but is considering making changes before he does that.
>> peter cook, thank you.
>> -- president bush’s approval ratings are at their lowest. former house majority leader tom delay is resigning from congress. is it time for democrats to step up and show voters they can lead? maryland representative steny hoyer is the party’s whip, the number two democrat in the house. he joins me now. thank you very much, congressman, for joining us. up until this point, democratic strategy has been to oppose the president but not put forth a lot of proposals on their own. is it time to change that now? we saw bob rubin leading some moderate democrats in releasing a domestic policy agenda today.
>> certainly we are going to offer some ideas and you speak about the president’s budget. the contract with america said that the republicans’ first plank was fiscal responsibility. however, we’ve been following what i believe to be one of the most fiscally irresponsible policies perhaps in the horrificry of the country in the last six years. over the last few years, democrats have offered, every time the budget’s been considered, an alternative budget and we will do so this year, as soon as it comes up, whether it’s tomorrow or the next day or whatever the republicans deem they have the votes to bring it up. our alternative will do a number of things. first of all, it will maintain investments in education and healthcare. it will balance the budget, which the republican budget does not do and in fact has deficits as far as the eye can see. but we will balance the budget by 2012. in addition, we will provide for $150 billion paid for, tax cuts alternatives. we don’t mandate what those tax cuts will be. but child tax credits would be one, investment tax credits would be another that we would certainly want to consider. and we also provide, in our budget, the pay-go provision that from 1990 to 2001 was in place and which led to, as you know, surpluses in the budget in the 1990’s but which the republicans rejected and did not reauthorize because they could not work their tax cuts into it. so, mike, we’re going to offer a responsible alternative. we expect most democrats to vote for it and we know that every democrat will vote against the republican budget, which we believe is fiscally irresponsible and will cause our economy great difficulty in the years ahead.
>> what about two other bills people are watching clever -- pension reform and extension of the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends?
>> as you know, both of those are tied up in conference committees. and it’s our understanding, the democrats really haven’t been included in these conference committees because, as we understand it, the republicans in the senate and the house and maybe republicans in the house or republicans in the senate have deep disagreements on exactly what ought to be in the legislation. so, frankly, we have not been playing much of a role. we believe that pension legislation clearly needs to pass. we need to let corporations know what their responsibilities are. and we also need to act on ensuring that people’s pensions are made secure. but those are tied up in conferences. as a result of deep divisions within the republican leadership.
>> would you anticipate any change in the way the house operates with tom delay leaving congress?
>> we would certainly hope so, but it’s too early to say that we would anticipate that. the republicans have operated over the last six years consistent with speaker hastert’s admonition that we will not pass anything that the majority of the majority are not for. which is to say that even if we have a majority of both the democrats and the republicans agreeing on something, and we have a perfect example of that in the patient’s bill of rights where charlie norwood, a conservative republican from georgia, and john dingell, a democrat from michigan, the dean of the house, the longest-serving member, got together on a patients’ bill of rights. we had about 250 members of the house, well over the 218 majority, vote for it. republicans and democrats. but it wasn’t the majority of the republicans voting for it. it went to conference. the majority of the senators were for it but it did not come out of conference because mr. hastert did not have the majority of his party for it. as long as we operate in that partisan concept, it’s difficult to see how we’re going to come together and talk about solving some very serious problems that confront our country. you just talked about massachusetts trying to fund healthcare for awful its people, about half a million of whom had no health insurance. obviously, 46 million americans have no health insurance. we ought to be working on issues of that type in a bipartisan way. unfortunately, even with tom delay’s leaving, i don’t see that happening.
>> only about 30 second left. does he leave and take a campaign issue away with him?
>> no, i don’t think so. the issue is the culture of corruption, the manner in which the republican party has gotten in bed, frankly, with the special interests and fashioned their legislation, not consistent with public policy, but consistent with special interest policy. and that we don’t think will go away simply by pretending that because tom delay is off the stage that the modus operandi, or the way they operate, has changed. we think it’s an issue of great concern of the american public. 2/3 of them think america is on the wrong track. we think that’s going to be the campaign issue and we think that’s why democrats will take back the leadership of the house in this election.
>> if we do, we’ll have you back and ask you if you’ll be majority leader.
>> thank you, mike.
>> maryland representative, steny hoyer, thanks for joining us. stay with us on “money & politics.” we’ll be right back with much more.
