Good evening, everyone. President obama taking a strong stand today on an open and free internet. He called for strict new rules that would regulate the internet and web access as if it were a public utility like electricity or water. Specifically the president is asking the federal Communications Commission to reclassify web access to prevent cable and Telephone Companies from providing special access to some content providers. Cable Company Stocks sold off sharply on news of president obamas proposal. Time warner cable tumbling 5 . Comcast the parent of cnbc, which produces this broadcast, down 4 . Charter communications was the hardest hit, off more than 6 . And cablevision lost about 1 1 2 . Eamon jaggers has more on the president s call for neutrali neutrality. The president has gone farther today than he has before in the Net Neutrality debate. Whether or not Internet Service providers can charge different speeds or speed up or slow down service to particular websites based on who is paying them money. The president saying he doesnt want those Internet Service providers to be allowed to do that, weighing in today by calling for the fcc to use its socalled title ii Regulatory Authority to oversee this entire process. The president was in china today, but the white house released this web video. Take a listen to the president in this video which was released earlier this morning. The fcc is an independent agency and ultimately this decision is theirs alone, but the public has already commented nearly 4 million times asking the fcc to make sure that consumers, not the Cable Company, gets to decide which sites they use. The Communications Industry doesnt necessarily like this, though. We talked to michael powell, the former chairman of the fcc, now active in the industry. We asked him what he made of the president s decision today. He said it was surprising. Take a listen. By radically asking for this kind of tectonic shift in national policy, youre talking about dumping Public Utilities regulation over the most vibrant infrastructure in the history of the world. With i think unforeseeable and unintended consequences that will hurt consumers and i think hurt the u. S. Economy. Interestingly what powell said, those unintended consequences might be, including Foreign Policy complications for the Obama Administration which has been arguing overseas that other countries like china and russia should not try to regulate the internet, and he also said that the implications for Silicon Valley firms which have been innovating so aggressively over the past decade or so on the internet, those could be unforeseen as well, guys. A very complicated issue, the president weighing in today big time. What have you heard today from some of the companies that would be affected here both the Silicon Valley companies are the content creators or deliverers and the companies that carry their signals . Look, tyler, it really depends on whose ox is being gored here. You talk to comcast, they say they dont like this decision. They dont think the government should have any role here. But if you talk to netflix, which stands to benefit, they say they like it very much. Its a very appropriate decision by the president. All in where you sit depends on where you stand in all this. Any news or any reaction from the congressional leadership on this issue . Yeah, we saw some really interesting Politics Around this today. Senator ted cruz, republican from texas, who might be a 2016 president ial candidate for the republicans, tweeted out that he thinks that this regulation here could be the new obama care, and we saw john boehner, the republican speaker of the house come out and say he doesnt think that federal bureaucrats should be in charge of regulating the internet at all. Thats certainly going to heat up things in washington. Tyler . Absolutely. Thank you very much. Lets turn to our guests now who have very opposing views on this topic. Craig aaron is president and ceo with the Advocacy Group free press and he favors the president s position on regulating the internet as a utili utility. While scottcally land, a broad band consultant and president of his observe firm precursor disagrees saying it could break the internet. I know im not going to have to do much to get you guys talking here. But craig, with respect to the companies that have spent billions of dollars building this infrastructure, cable companies, Telephone Company ks a and the like, why shouldnt they be able to set whatever price they want to charge the socalled data hogs who want to send massive amounts of data through their system at higher speeds . Why shouldnt they be allowed to do that . Who im really concerned about is the end user and the end user is paying their 70, 80, 100 a month to those big Internet Service providers in order to have them send whatever they ask for, whether thats netflix, the blog, the video of this program, the end user should be in control of their internet experience. They shouldnt have to seek permission from the phone or Cable Company, and that phone or Cable Company shouldnt be able to decide which websites are going to work and which wont based on who pays them the most. These companies are going to make plenty of money from the 100 or month that each of us are paying a month. They dont need to have an extra set of controls and more gatekeeper power over what we can watch, see, read, hear and do online. Lets get scott involved in this conversation. What do you think about what craig just said . I know you are opposed to any kind of regulation here. Lets talk about the consumer. Right now the way the system is set up is now the fcc has prevented payment for downstream traffic from the large silicon providers, Silicon Valley providers. So you talk about the consumer bill, the consumer bill could go down over time if you allowed a twosided market to develop. And so and also remember, users do pay for higher speeds. We all know you pay more as a user. And theyre now saying that we can have no fast lanes. So the big Silicon Valley providers, they want one price and that is a price of zero permanently. Thats, you know, an industrial policy, its corporate welfare. What about that, craig . As you were talking just a moment ago, i thought exactly what scott said. Right now i the consumer pay 100 of the costs and if i want a higher data speed, i pay a higher price for it. What if, on the other hand if companies were allowed to charge different prices to the content provider, might not that mean that the consumer would pay less because there would be a second revenue stream . Consupers benefit from competition and choice and they benefit fr control of their experience. So they want to pay for what they want to pay for, and that is to go online and go wherever they want. The cable and phone companies coming out and their representatives like scott claiming that prices are going to go down if theyre allowed to be gatekeepers seems pretty ridiculous to me because when we left them in charge, prices have only gone up and up and up some more. The beauty of the free and open internet is anybody with a good idea, a new product or service, can find an audience, can go build their company, and they dont need at t or comcasts permission to do it. Craig, on the whole issue of new ideas, one of the critics against this kind of regulation is that we would lose a lot of the breakthroughs and innovation if these Big Companies are strictly regulated. We certainly saw that in the telephone industry with ma bell. What do you say to that . Lets look at whos innovating in this economy, and i think well see that it is the startups, companies that, five years ago, we didnt know about and now theyre indispensable to our lives. Its independent content. Its usergenerated content. It might not be comcast, at t and verizon. And their answer is, lets put together the old ma bell or maybe replace it with pa cable, thats whos paying scotts bill, and theyre looking to control the future of all media. Those of us advocating for Net Neutrality are saying we want no discrimination. We want to leave users in charge of the User Experience and thats why weve been fighting so hard to make sure these rules are in place because we need a counterweight to the biggest phone and cable companies. Scott, what do you say to those who agree with craig who would say that, if we allow a buyer a content provider to have better access, more speed or to pay a Cable Company an isp, an Internet Service provider, to favor their site over someone else, then the big company like and im just making this up walmart could pay more to have their service favored over another provider who could not possibly compete at the same speed with the same amount of dollars . This is total a misdirection because, you know, we can have entrepreneurs what hes saying is startups wont be able to compete. But tell me where startups, do they get free electricity, free gas, free water, free transport . No. And they pay for their internet connection, too. Yes, they do, but they also dont want to pay for the costs that they cost. Two companies, google, youtube and netflex, are the ones that generate half of american downstream traffic. Really theres only about Ten Companies that really this is all about. Right. About whether or not they help pay for some of the infrastructure. The biggest cost causers could pay, and that would alleviate having the consumer to pay for the entire bill. Right. Gentlemen we have to leave it there, alas. Im sorry. We could go on and on. Im sure well have both of you back and revisit this topic because its a hot potato. Lets turn to what was happening on wall street today. A lot more records to tell you about with the dow and the s p 500 closing at new highs. Heres how things looked at the closing bell. Blue chip dow up 40 points and higher for a fifth straight session. The nasz dak rose by 19, the s p added 6 points. Far from wall street president obama and other World Leaders are in china attending the Asia Pacific Economic summit. Thats a mout l looking to improve Global Economic ties and just maybe, maybe secure some new trade agreements. Susan lee has more from beijing. In beijing we have the apec leader summit dinner taking place. U. S. President barack obama chinese president ially xin ping. And ill throw in shinzo abe. All in the representative garb of the host country. This year all four are looking good in their silk mao suits. First time he addresses the summit in three years and the most notable announcement he made was the extension of visas for chinese nationals. If youre a chinese passport holder and you have a business visa, that lasts now for ten years. If youre a student that lasts for five years. Speaking to apec and the u. S. President ended his speech saying as long as im in office which is still another two years, i will invest in you. Apec representing about 60 of the globes economy, gdp and 40 of the population. So that was a good sign out there from the u. S. President. But the most significant event of the day has got to be this meeting between the chinese president xi jinping and shinzo abe, theres a lot of questions about whether or not they would even shake hands at this event. The fact that they had informal sideline summit was quite a relief for those watching apec thinking the two large economiest economies in the asia pack and the two leaders who have a message at least theyre friends once again or trying to be friends and trying to find some sort of resolution. We did have the russian president Vladimir Putin also in attendance and given that china and russia really show a united front here, we have that 400 billion gas deal, ten years already signed, but then they might open an Eastern Front as well. Does that mean more gas supply and more Energy Supply coming from russia . And does china, i guess, write the checks for some of this gas supply . All in all a very busy day here at apec and we still do have the u. S. President s state visit continuing in beijing. At apec 2014, im susan lee. A real setback for president obamas signature legislation, the Affordable Care act. The government has slashed its forecast for the number of americans expected to sign up for a Health Care Plan by a staggering 30 next year. That means fewer than 10 million enrollees in 2015, thats much less than the 13 million previously expected. One day before the nation commemorates veterans day, a group of wounded vets and the families of soldiers killed in iraq are suing five european banks. The suit charges that barclays, credit suisse, hbc, Standard Charter and the royal bank of scotland all processed iranian money. That helped pay for the terrorist shootings and roadside bombs in iraq that caused their injuries and deaths. The department of Veterans Affairs has come under unprecedented scrutiny in the past year from allegations of substandard health care to mismanagement to even cooking the book, but the new guy in charge of the v. A. Bob mcdonnell says he has what it takes to clean up the Beleaguered Agency and the second largest in the federal government. We have more. The v. A. , we have lots of customers. Reporter not too many people are envious of the secretary of the department of veterans affair, bob mcdonald. Why . Took you one year to get an appointment . Actually, a little over a year. Reporter because the former Procter Gamble ceo has to figure out how to tackle issues like this. But he says he viewed the problems as opportunities. The v. A. Can accomplish more things now than it could ever have accomplished before. Reporter he calls this the road to veterans day plan, the biggest reorganization in the departments history. We set our sights on three nonnegotiable goals. First is to rebuild trust. Reporter referring to those that use the v. A. As stakeholders and customers, mcdonalds private sector background comes through in more ways than one. His second and third nonnegotiable goals are setting the standard for excellence and reform. But excellence comes at a steep price. From the veterans choice and accountability act alone passed in the summer, 5 billion were allocated towards hiring more medical staff, another 10 billion to Fund Additional purchase care. The v. A. s 2015 budget exceeds 163 billion. Critics say instead of getting rid of bad employees, some of who are still on paid leave or getting severance, the department is just throwing money at the problem. But those that will be most affected by the changes hope that whatever new rules are implemented the sacrifices and compromises they made when they went into battle will end when our veterans come home. For nightly Business Report dina g sarks sovski. From laundry deterrent to product safety stories from two very well known companies. Thats next. Two disturbing reports tonight involving two well known Consumer Product makers. First up the wall street journal says that General Motors ordered half a million replacement ignition switches to fix defective cars two months before alerting u. S. Safety officials about the problem. Shares of the automaker down about 1 1 2 today. Phil lebeau has the details. Reporter there are new questions tonight about whether or not General Motors knew it had defective ignition switches for several models and actually ordered replacement switches well ahead of when it announced the recall for almost 800,000 vehicles due to those switches which have been linked with dozens of deaths. An email has come out between a gm executive and Delphi Automotive from december 19th of 2013. In that email, the gm executive says i would need to start seeing shipments asap. Please put together an aggressive plan and i can adjust the schedule accordingly. This email highlights the question of when gm knew about faulty ignition switches and actually started ordering replacement issues and then issued a recall. Remember, on december 17th, gm executives, Senior Executives discussed the chevy cobalt and other models that may have faulty ignition switches, but at that time gm did not issue a recall. In fact, a recall was not issued until february 7th of this year when gm made an initial recall of 800,000 vehicles. General motors reacting to this email coming to light says these e mails are further confirmation that our system needed reform and we have done so. So far General Motors has fixed 1. 29 million with ignition switches and some still need repaired. And General Motors has not heard from about 700,000 owners of vehicles that need new switches put in, theyre now issuing gift cards or an offer for a gift card for those people to bring their vehicle in to have the ignition switches replaced. Phil lebeau, nightly Business Report chicago. The other story involves a pop loor and convenient laundry product thats become a serious and all too Common Threa