Labels as reality check to americas expanding waistlines. Will enough consumers check out the labels to tipscale in the war against obesity . Here to weigh in, john fund, writer for the national review, and margo woten, director of nutrition policy at center for science in the Public Interest. Welcome to you both. Margo, i will talk to you first because this is something you study all the time. How will these labels be different . What is the big change here . I know your organization wants to go further but tell us about the changes were seeing and well show those labels as you speak. As you said this is the first time the labels have been updated in 20 years. 3 so we learned a lot over time about how people use labels and science of nutrition continues to evolve. One of the big things is that calories, are going to be in a bigger font. They will be easier to see, easier to read. That is the information that people are most interested in. There are some thingsscoming off the label that are not so necessary, that arent big problems in peoples diets like the percent of calories from fat. There will be important new Nutrition Information added like potassium and vitamind. Gerri we got a lot of stuff john, what do you make of the new labels. Is it an improvement . Well, Everyone Wants people to eat healthier and obviously some people do look at these labels and some people do derive good information from them but lets not think this is a panacea. Educational campaigns, people actually reaching out to talk to people are far more effective and remember, when it comes to Childhood Obesity we have to make sure parents read labels because children certainly arent. Gerri thats for sure. These labels will be open to Public Comment for about 90 days. They will take some time to write the rules. It is possible we wont even see these on products in our Grocery Store until 2017. Theyre a long time coming. Margo, the fda is selling this on the idea there will be 20 tt 30 billion in benefits to the consumer. What do they mean by that . Well what people eat has a profound impact on their health. Eating too much saturated fat contributes to heart disease. Not eating enough whole grains can increase the risk of heart disease. Knowing what is in your food and tools in order to make healthier choices is really important for preventing cancer, heart disease, diabetes and the other big, costly diseases that are affecting americans health. Gerri i see your point, but, john, that sound like a whole lot of money, 20 to 30 billion over 20 years. These little labels are boeing to make that big of a difference . Really . We dont know. I think thaa is a very soft number. Thats a very soft number. Let me tell you what is a hard number though. Obviously there are benefits to better labeling but lets not pretend there arent costs. Of the costs is over 2 billion. 2 billion doesnt sound like a lot of money. That is more than americans spend on every purchase for entire year. Companies will do this, Big Companies will be ail to absorb the costs. Small companies, kraft beer that sells a thousand bottles a year, woman who sells cookies. 20 or 30,000 how small a batch you make. There are Small Business exemptions. Gerri let john finish. I think he did. Margo, your response. There are Small Business exemptions. And the costs, for those folks already labeling, they will just change the format. It will still be the same size on the package. They use their computer to change the design a little bit for Nutrition Information they already have. The cost is really quite modest for most companies. Gerri john, you disagree with that. Grocery Retailers Association which knows the business says it is over 2 billion a year. Are they wrong . Well the last time around there were lot of estimates how much labeling would cost and ended up not really having big effect on businesses. That was 20 years ago. This is going to be, still, things have you know changed over time. Health benefits. 20 years. Benefits are so much greater than the cost to industry. People really come to expect to have these labels and they want to make sure that the information is on it is most uptodate and easiest to use. Gerri here is my question about these labels. So as you know, nutrition and Nutrition Information seems to me to be a lot about fashion. One week were antiwheat. The next week were prowheat. We think cholesterol is important. We dont think cholesterol is important. So the labeling that we see right now is sort of what is in fashion now but in another five years, all these companies will have to rewrite these labels yet again. Margo, you first, then john. It has been 20 years and we havent asked for any updates. I think it has been a very long time. There are changes what the headlines say about nutrition but the Core Nutrition advice from usda and department of health and Human Services has changed very little since 1980. Still same basic thing. at plenty of fruits, vegetables. Whole grains. Not too much saturated fat and salt. Those are the same since 1980. Gerri john, what about the pyrammd and all that . Didnt we turn everything on its head about what oure supposed to eat . Didnt the federal government, we remember the pyramid but we dont want you to do that anymore. Same thing, just a circle instead after triangle. Gerri give, john a chance. Labeling is good in general but lets not forget this is one of several new costs that are going to be added on to business. We have food safety regs come on. Ban on trans fat. We have restaurant menu labeling. Center for the science in Public Interest supports all of these things and many of them are fine but if you do too much of them, and do them too quickly costs do add up. This is not just labeling. There are a whole bunch of food regulations that will increase price of groceries at the store. Gerri margo, i want you to weigh in something weve been talking about on this and revamping serving sizes. That is part of the labeling issue. Theyre going to, instead of saying that a pint of ice cream is two to four servings will say two which is more like reality. There is concern there will be downsizing of packaging along with this and increase in food prices. What do you say to that . I say the last time nutrition labeling went into effect there wasnt increase in costs passed on to the consumer even though a lot of people cried wolf and said that was going to happen. So im not expecting to see that. Customers want a certain size package, theyre used to that it will just mean that they will have more accurate Nutrition Information for what is in that package. Bag of chips was about the same size. Going to be more honest labeling of it. Well the food experts i talked to today, including around 20 years ago change was made, flatly disagree there were no extra costs and repackaging. Weve seen in europe when they have some of these costs imposed on businesses they do get passed on and consumer does have to pay more. Gerri well, you know, i wonder as we sit here and talk about how influential this will be o erics hits. Thi wil rll chae the yeopat. Rgo,ou fst ts isustiecef t puzzle. That having accurate Nutrition Information is the basis for people being able to make informed choices about what they want to eat, and what their kids eat but there still be other things that will play a role. For example, weve been working on getting healthier food into schools. And, healthier food into, you know, restaurants for childrens menus. Whso h incd o pol nobody is saying that changing food labels is cure to obesity. Just a piece of the puzzle. Im in favor of all those good things, just remember you have to be carefully considered. Usually have too many healthy food choices for children and take away things they like the kids wont eat the food. Weve seen over and over again children revolt at schools when th carrots and tofu rather than meals they are used to. We want all of these things. We have to think about them carefully. We have to weigh while there are benefits there are also costs involved. Gerri john and margo, great job both of you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Gerri now we want to know what you think. Here is our question tonight. Will the new nutrition labels will they make a difference, will people eat less . Log on to gerriwillis. Com. Vote on the righthand side of the screen. I will show the result at the end of tonights show. Saving calories, saving money, the recovering Housing Market is having omeowners eager cashing in on their home. Vera gibbons, personal finance expert joins me. Welcome to the. I like to save money and calories. Gerri home values rising. Home equity loans, lines of credit. Very much in style and very much back in vogue. Last year in terms of capturing lost home value, 1. 9 trillion is what we captured. Sop of these markets saw doubledigit growth, in excess of 20 . Los angeles, san diego, new york, did quite well. Now we have equity and lenders are more willing to lend because theyre feeling more confident. Theyre undermore pressure to get revenue boeing from investor standpoint. Theyre back in the gain. Very much back in style. Gerri people got in a lot of trouble last time around. What they were doing is using their home as a piggybank really, taking all kinds of money out of it. You know, i have a feeling that this time its different. Is it . This time it is very different. This is not the easy money when people actually borrowed against value of home and took elaborate vacations and other luxuries that didnt give them any return on investment. These days, you have to have income. You have to have substantial savings. You have to have equity. You have to have at least 20 equity in your home. Gerri vera, what is the right thing to invest in, use that money for if youre getting loan . Most use it for home improvements. A new roof for example, or that type of thing. Other people use it to consolidate their debt. Home improvement was big one. Last year we spent 130 billion on renovations and remodeling. A lot of people Going Forward will continue to use loans for that. Gerri can you do it for debt consolidation . You can use it for debt consodation. That is second biggest use. People that in markets that grew quickly, using home line of credit, to buy more real estate. People are doing all different things. Gerri that sound dicey. Talk about what you need to know and what the downsides might be. There are always fees. Always charges that people have to be on the lookout for. You need to Pay Attention to the details. Fees, annual fees. You need to know about the repayment terms. You really do need to read the fine print a lot proves that come with the territory. There are negatives. Biggest negatives using your home as collateral. If you dont make repayments there goes your home. There is a risk that definitely comes with this territory. If they are used properly they can be used quite effectively. Gerri now is the first time that door is open. Numbers from last yearrare impressive. Do you expect this years numbers to be as good . Interest rates frankly are not as good as they were last year . Home values, high as last year, went up like gangbusters. Expected to go up albeit slower space. Still tapering off but still going up. Home values continue to rise well see out more people taking out home equity lines and lines of credit. Gerri vera, thanks for coming on the show. Nice to see. We have more this hour why hosts of cities across the country are taking down their red light cameras. Take a look at that. Next im joined by congressman Jeb Hensarling to the lead to the fight to rein in on the Consumer FinanceProtection Bureau. The latest on his fight coming up. Predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. But, mufacturing in the United States means vanced technology. We learned that technology allo us to be craft oriented. No ones losing their j. Theres no beer bot that has suddenly chased them out. Tsiemens designed anduilty cthe right tools and resources to get the job done. But with less ergy, moodiness, i had to do something. I saw mdoctor. A blood test swed it was low testosterone, not age. We talked about axiron the onlynderarm low t treaent that can restore t vels to normal in aut two weeks in most men. Iron is not r use in women or anyone younger than 18 m with ostate or breast cancer. Women, especlly those who are or who may become pregnt, and children should avoidt where axironapplied as unexpected signs of puber in children or changes in body hair or incased acne in women may occur. Report these symptoms to your doctor. Tell your doctorbout all medical conditionsand medic. Serious side effects could include increased sk of prostate cancer, worsening prostate symoms, decreased spm count, ank, feet or body swelling, enlarged or painful breasts, and blood clot the legs. Problems bathing while sleeping common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, incread red blood cell count, common side effects include skin redness headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. Ask your doctor about axiron. I have a great fit with my dentures. I love kiwis. Ive always had that issue with the sds getting under my denture. Super poligrip free it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. Even wellfitting dentures let in food particles. Super poligrip is zinc free. Its clinically proven to seal out more food particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. Super poligrip free made the kiwi an enjoyable experience. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. Gerri the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau has the power to control virtually every financial transaction in the u. S. And our next guest is pushing to bring greater accountability and transparency to this new bought entity. Joining me fresh off the house floor is chairman of the Financial Services committee, republican congressman Jeb Hensarling of texas. Congressman, thanks for coming on the show tonight. I know you have not been a fan of this organization. You have Big Questions about it. This law that youre introducing, would really, in some ways i think defang it. Why do you think it is so important to control this agency . Well, the cftb is arguably the single mostful and least Accountable Government agency in washington. It is a uniquely unaccountable to the president because the director can only be removed for cause. It is uniquely unaccountable to congress because they dont have their Funding Source through congress. We lose that check and balance. Theyre uniquely unaccountable to the courts because under something called the chevron doctrine, the cfpbs rulings on Consumer Financial issues have to be given deference. Kind of like putttng your thumb on the scale. The cfpb is uniquely unaccountable to themselves because there is not a them. There is just a he. One unelected, unaccountable director, who really has discretionary power to declare any mortgage, any credit card, any pay day loan as abuse sieve and essentially take it off the market. That is abuse of power. Gerri congressman, let me interrupt you there, because they are powerful but i dont think theyre the most powerful entity in the country, not by a long shot. Here is what i find confusing about them, concerning, didnt we have a federal trade commission . Dont we have a Consumer ProductsSafety Commission . Dont we have attorney generals in almost every state . Isnt this just redundant if anything else . Partially it is redundant, all new powers is given to the agency, uniquely theecombination of how powerful it is and at the same time how unaccountable it is what makes it so unique. So true Consumer Protection has everything you do with the fostering transparent, innovate ive competitive market, vigorously policed for fraud and mislead advertising. What this agency does it takes away the economic freedoms of the american citizenry to choose their own mortgages and their own credit cards. Gerri to your point, to your point, i understand the point youre making but, heres the question, so this, the idea for this agency and its ability to roll through congress and get approved by democrats was because of the mortgage meltdown. Lets face it. That was the one product, one issue that convinceddmost of congress we needed more controls. Congress could have stopped that. Congress could have stopped the mortgage meltdown. Congress could have gotten involved and gotten in the way and put the brakes on but it didnt. So, i mean at the end of the day, doesnt congress have itself to blame for some of these problems . Well, washington, in general has to be blamed. Lets face it. The great Public Policy crisis of the of our Public Policy lament of the financial crisis was not that washington failed to prevent the crisis. In many ways washington led us into the crisis. Gerri right. It was rules like the Affordable Housing goals of the government sponsored enterprises, the Community Reinvestment act, that incented, cajoled, mandated Financial Institutions to loan money to people to buy homes that ultimately they couldnt afford. It was the total erosion of traditional prudent underwriting standard that ultimately broke down the financial system. So you cant say that there was a lack of regulatory authority. What is so unique again about this cfpb bureau is, one individual, we now have a National Consumer product czar or nanny