extend jobless benefits. the same people who didn t have any problems spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest americans are now saying we shouldn t offer relief to middle class americans. let s get more from richard wolf who s at the white house. already, house minority leader john boehner has issued a response and in part he says the president knows that republican support extending unemployment insurance and doing it in a fiscally responsible way by cutting it elsewhere in the $3 trillion budget. the president session some are playing politics here, but who do you believe has the attention of most americans. what you have is the president coming out with regular americans and republicans trying to make this about a broader, kind of more abstract argument about the deficit, there is a real ideological difference, but at a time when people are suffering in a struggling economy, most of it really holds some sway. a majority of senators
doesn t add up, but where is he? today saturday, april 17, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday, i m lester holt. and i m amy robach. and those pictures are just incredible. and you can see, you can imagine why it s causing so much havoc in the air with that volcano and the ash everywhere. the numbers tell the story of how this is all falling out, the clouds and the volcano in iceland has forced the cancellation of 16,000 flights on friday, that s about 2/3 of the normal number that fly into europe each day, thousands of travelers have been affected. this morning the flight restrictions have been expanded even more, we re going to have the very latest and the science behind this volcano coming up. and we re going have the latest on this financial storm. rigging the game against invests. plus if you own a toyota, there is more important news this morning. yet another recall, this time it invo
captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday, i m lester holt. and i m amy robach. and those pictures are just incredible. and you can see, you can imagine why it s causing so much havoc in the air with that volcano and the ash everywhere. the numbers tell the story of how this is all falling out, the clouds and the volcano in iceland has forced the cancellation of 16,000 flights on friday, that s about 2/3 of the normal number that fly into europe each day, thousands of travelers have been affected. this morning the flight restrictions have been expanded even more, we re going to have the very latest and the science behind this volcano coming up. and we re going have the latest on this financial storm. rigging the game against invests. plus if you own a toyota, there is more important news this morning. yet another recall, this time it involves 600,000 sienna minivans and we ll also look into the consumer
an extremely powerful earthquake rocked chile last night. it struck while most people were asleep. details are just coming in. the northeast is trying to dig itself out from a massive winter storm, and this one is a record breaker. just days after a 7,000 pound orca killed a trainer at sea world, the crowd will get to see the killer whales perform again, but expect some changes. so glad you re with us. i m susan hendricks. we start with breaking news this morning. a massive earthquake at central chile. it happened early this morning. the magnitude 8.8 quake was centered off the coast near the city of concepcion. the earthquake triggered a tsunami, and witnesses say it lasted between three and five minutes. already there have been numerous aftershocks, including one that measured 6.9. many people were still in dead, so damage reports are still coming in. more than 50 people are known dead. rolando santos of headline news is now president of cnn chile. this morning he