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Obama Responds to High Gas Prices; Outrage Over $800,000 Conference; Shuttle Discovery Retires; Senate GOP Blocks "Buffett Rule"; Polls Give Obama Edge Over Romney; Six-Year-Old Girl Gets Handcuffed; Exiting Early From Afghanistan; FaceBook Snaps Up Instagram; Tax Freedom Day

Aired April 17, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, where it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. in the West Coast, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

I want to get you up to speed for this Tuesday, April 17th.

President Obama is blaming oil speculators for the soaring gas prices. Just a short time ago, he called for tougher measures to crackdown on those speculators. He wants to require traders to put up more of their own money and increase the penalties for manipulating the markets.

Well, Republicans -- they blame the president's policies for the rising prices but he says drilling alone is not going to solve the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Politicians are saying if we just drilled more, then gas prices would come down right away. What they don't say is that we have been drilling more. Under my administration, America is producing more oil than at any time in the last eight years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. Believe it or not there is a cease-fire in Syria. Well, that's how it looks. Opposition activists say that government forces have been pounding one besieged city violently trying to take over another. They say at least 47 people have been killed today. U.N. monitors, they are trying to observe the cease- fire that was supposed to have started last Thursday. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says President Bashar al-Assad's regime has now lost credibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: They lied to their international community, lied to their own people. And the biggest -- the biggest fabricator of the facts is Assad himself. His representatives are merely doing his bidding and under probably some -- not insignificant personal duress. But, no, words as we have said repeatedly are meaningless. The actions are what matter and the actions, thus far, have continued to disappoint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We are continuing to follow developments in the Secret Service scandal. Eleven members now have had their security clearances yanked pending an investigation that also includes several military personnel.

Now, they are accused of bringing prostitutes to their hotel in Colombia. The agents and officers involved range in experience from relative newcomers to veterans of almost 20 years.

Tax Day today. Yes. Chances that you got money on your mind, so do we. We are following several major stories involving your finances and your tax dollars.

We're going to go live to Capitol Hill for the outrage over lavish spending by the GSA. Now, lawmakers, they are looking into the $800,000 conference that was held in Vegas.

President Obama, he is responding to the rising gas prices and he's calling for steps to manage the price when you pay to fill up.

And the Buffett Rule, rebuffed. The political fight over taxes, how much should you pay, and how much should millionaires pay.

We're going to tart with the gas prices. The price we're paying just to fill our tanks, it is now near record levels. Republicans, they are blaming President Obama for the rising prices. But today, the president, he points the finger at Wall Street. Just a short time ago, he outlined new steps to limit the speculation on the oil markets.

Ali Velshi, he's joining us with some of the details.

So, Ali, first of all, tell us what was the president -- what was the crux of the president's plan here? How do you even manage to start regulating this kind of abuse?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that was, the crux of it was largely that he wanted more funding to hire more people at the community -- Commodities Future Trading Commission, that's the body like the Securities and Exchange Commission that deals with oil trading. He wanted a six-fold increase in staff that monitor oil trading, he wanted more technology, wanted them to be armed with better technology to deal with these oil traders who deal with very, very advanced technology.

He wants to increase the fines for anybody found to be manipulating the price of oil. He wanted them to be increased ten- fold.

And he wants, interesting thing he talks about, increasing the margin requirements.

So, as I was telling Kyra, if you want to buy stock of General Electric 100 shares, you've got to put up all the money for the 100 shares. If you want to buy oil futures, you don't. You put up a small portion of the money. So the feeling is that if there's all of these people who are in the market pushing it one way or the other trying to influence it, if they had to put more skin in the game, you might have less volatility.

All of what he said on the surface makes some sense.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

VELSHI: The problem is he was trying to make this connection between doing what he's doing, which we should be doing, and the price of gas going down. And I'm not -- I certainly can't come to the same conclusion.

MALVEAUX: Well, yes, I mean, I want to ask you about that. This is -- looks like what he's doing he's talking long-term solutions, broad brush stroke policies here. Does it really mean anything to us now? Or in the near future --

VELSHI: No.

MALVEAUX: -- when it comes to how much we're paying for the gas?

VELSHI: Let me put it to you this way -- let's -- we know that there were things that went wrong in the housing mortgage market, right? We knew that house valuations were done incorrectly. People's backgrounds weren't checked properly. All sorts -- people didn't have full disclosures.

We should fix that. If you fix all that, doesn't necessarily have any impact on t the price of houses whatsoever. You're just fixing broken rules.

That's what the issue is here. We're fixing things in oil trading that probably need to be fixed. That's what he's asking for. We should have better enforcement, we should have better regulators, and those computers and technology should be as good as the people's that they are regulating.

I have no sense of whether this is going to decrease the price of gasoline. And, unfortunately, he did say in his speech at the Rose Garden that it would have that effect. I mean, ultimately, Suzanne, oil prices are high because there's a lot of world demand, because those countries and companies that produce oil manage around that demand, and here in the United States we've taken to exporting fully refined gasoline because we can get more for it elsewhere than we can in the United States.

None of what the president is saying today would have any impact on those three fundamental matters.

MALVEAUX: All right. Breaking it down for us. Ali, thank you. Appreciate it.

VELSHI: OK.

MALVEAUX: I also want to hear from you. How is the high price of gas actually impacting you? Have you made changes in your lifestyle or are things still the same for you?

Watch me here on CNN for more on the story. Next hour, we're going to have an oil expert breaking it all down for you. Tweet me at -- we want your feedback -- @SuzanneMalveaux. Like me at Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN.

So this -- a pretty outrageous story. Government agency spends more than $100,000 on these lavish expenses at Vegas conference, right? Today, it's really hitting home. A lot of us rushing to pay our taxes, meet this filing deadline.

So, the thought of money being spent on clowns, mind readers, music videos, commemorative coins, especially frustrating and, of course, we all want answers. Law makers to do, too.

Dana Bash, she is covering the hearings on Capitol Hill.

Dana, first of all, what do they want to hear from those in the hot seat today?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They want to hear how this happened, Suzanne.

I got to tell you, you covered Washington a long time. I have, too. Watching this hearing which right now has been going on for over three hours, 3 1/2 hours, it is just flabbergasting to hear the kind of excess that has been going on -- beyond what we heard.

In fact, I want to you listen to the man chairing this hearing, talk about what he called culture of waste, fraud, corruption, hidden budgets, no oversight and accountability, and intimidation internally, and what he may want to do about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JEFF DENHAM (R), CALIFORNIA: So, we continue to see that you're not giving us the information on a bipartisan level to show us how these expenditures are happening, I am prepared to systematically pull apart GSA to the point where we will make it a question to the American public whether GSA is needed at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And let me just give you one example of something that they are talking about. You remember that lavish 2010 conference in Las Vegas, which is really the heart of this discussion -- you remember that we first showed videos of an award ceremony, you see it right there.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

BASH: Well, it turns out that the reason why awards were given at this conference and so many other meetings is because that was the way they got around a ban on serving food at conferences. So, I want you to listen to what the inspector general who is testifying today said about how they tried to work the system so to speak in order to have these big meetings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN MILLER, GSA INSPECTOR GENERAL: According to witnesses that we've interviewed, it was a running joke in Region 9 that in order to get food, you had to give out awards. And many of these awards were silly awards. One of our witnesses characterized them as I guess fake awards and jackass awards and things of that nature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So there you heard just some of what we've been listening to exactly over the course of the entire morning. And this hearing is not over, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: It sounds crazy, I mean, really. What are some of the details that we're also learning behind the scenes here besides these big parties? It sounds like there's just an incredible amount of detail that's coming out of these hearings.

BASH: That's right. Of course, again, we had been talking about this one conference back in 2010. But we're learning about more trips that are just really just blow your mind -- particularly organized by this one man who took the Fifth Amendment today.

Look on the screen. He arranged 17-day trip to the South Pacific, 17 days. Which apparently one of the whistle-blowers who is testifying now, she said that she made people aware and it still happened. This is just a couple months ago.

There was a conference for interns in Palm Springs which cost you and me, and all the rest of the taxpayers $150,000.

And just last month, Napa Valley, pretty nice place to go, but unclear why it was necessary -- $40,000 for that conference primarily on food.

And we're just keep learning more about this spending.

And part of the big discussion in this hearing is that the director for this western region, Jeff Neely, he was able to spend this money without anybody really knowing at higher levels here in Washington or elsewhere what he's spending on, how he's spending. And in terms of the bottom up, people underneath him we're hearing discussions about serious intimidation, people were afraid that they would get, quote/unquote, "squashed" if they spoke up about this excess spending.

MALVEAUX: Unbelievable, Dana. I mean, just looking at the destination of those trips and everything, you know. Our internships, good grief. That's unbelievable.

All right. Dana, thanks. We're going to be following this very closely.

We're talking about your money throughout the hour. You heard what the president said about gas prices, you know the GSA. It's in the hot seat for spending your tax dollars on all of those crazy items during the conferences.

Well, still to come, our political roundtable, I want to hear what Republicans have to say about the Buffett Rule. How much should the rich pay in taxes?

But, first, we are live in Virginia. That is where America's last space shuttle is on its final mission.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's the rundown of some of the stories that we are covering.

First, check out this amazing moment. This is the final flight of space shuttle Discovery. It takes place on the back of a 747 jet. That's right. Dramatic end to the shuttle as it's ferried to the Smithsonian Museum.

We're going to have a live report on the future of the space program and private flights. In the next hour, a famous astronaut.

Then police lead a kindergartener away from her school in handcuffs for bad behavior after her principal called the cops on her.

And Republicans blocking the Buffett Rule bill in the Senate, but Democrats, they are vowing -- they are going to bring it back. So, is it a political move, election season, or a serious proposal for taxing the richest Americans more?

We're going to mix it up with the political panel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right. You probably remember when space travel truly was exciting. It wasn't just for fun, but the images like these were iconic, part of American history. Maybe even dreamt as a kid of going into space or taking a trip to the moon.

Well, today, that era is coming to an end, at least for now. The Discovery shuttle just made its final trip to the Smithsonian Museum, carried on the back of a jetliner, after traveling 148 million miles.

John Zarrella, he's at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lizzie O'Leary, she is at the final destination of Discovery, and that is in Chantilly, Virginia.

John, pretty amazing stuff. I mean, you covered 75 shuttle launches since back in '84 and you and I were together in Florida to see the final launch, pretty incredible.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Pretty incredible, when you look at those pictures and you see that, the ground shaking, everything is moving.

I mean, this seems to be really an emotional experience for a lot of folks, too.

ZARRELLA: Yes, there is no question about that. Very emotional. Particularly here at the Kennedy Space Center where so many people, thousands of people, 5,000, 6,000 space shuttle workers have lost their jobs here.

You know, in fact, we were talking to one longtime shuttle worker who worked just over there in the shuttle processing facility for almost 30 years, since the beginning of the shuttle program. Terry White, he was the one famous for a white handlebar mustache.

And he was telling us, if I want to get a job in my industry, I've got to leave Florida now. I'll have to go to California. You know, I'll have to go to Washington state -- other places where start- up companies and the new companies are doing this stuff.

So, it's very difficult pill for a lot of people here to swallow watching Discovery and soon you know, both Atlantis and Endeavour to be retired, you know, by the end of the year. So, it's a pretty tough times here at the Kennedy Space Center. A lot of people not happy with the thought that it is over and believing rightfully so that these shuttles could have flown for several years to come if there had been proper planning in the past.

MALVEAUX: And John, now you've got commercial companies that are trying to fill the shoes. Explain what that is about.

ZARRELLA: Yes. You know, huge. This is the big thing. We sit here and two miles from me, a couple miles from me to the south at Cape Canaveral, Elon Musk, SpaceX, his company, is getting prepared in the next two weeks, the end of this month, on the 30th, to launch his Falcon rocket with a Dragon spacecraft on top. He's going to attempt to rendezvous and birth with the International Space Station.

It would be the first time in history that a commercial company has accomplished such a feat. And that would lead then to flying of goods and cargo up to the space station, and eventually humans to the space station.

He's one of many commercial companies vying for those opportunities. He seems to be in the lead now in doing that. That's the change, that's where it's going.

Commercial companies, the low earth orbit, then NASA using its money to do what it does best -- explore the heavens, building a rocket to take humans hopefully to an asteroid and on to mars.

MALVEAUX: All right. John, sounds great.

I want to go to Lizzie there at the final destination of Discovery.

And just describe for us what that was like while everybody was looking up in the sky over the monuments -- actually being able to see this thing fly over and land.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Suzanne.

So, it came over where we are out here at what is part of the Smithsonian, the museum out here where Discovery will be housed. It gave a low fly by over our heads, and then took really an extended victory lap if you will, all around Washington, D.C. you lived in D.C. It went near the White House. It over all the monuments, around the Mall, near the National Monument, near the Capitol, and it kind of cruised all over those, and then buzzed us one more time here, then came in for its final landing.

And you know, John was talking about the emotions surrounding sending Discovery here. There were a number of people including two Discovery astronaut who is talked about seeing it come in for that final landing on top of the 747, one of them Joe Allen who is well known in the NASA community, said he was watching this with tears in his eyes -- watching this experience and really this sort of punctuation mark on the shuttle program.

MALVEAUX: And, Lizzie, folks are actually going to get a chance to see it, right, at the Smithsonian?

O'LEARY: Absolutely. So, you and I think of the Smithsonian as that building that looks like a castle in downtown D.C. It's actually out here by the airport. This is what's called the Udvar-Hazy Museum, and it's part of the Smithsonian. It's where the really big stuff lives.

So they have a great big hangar. Right now, the Enterprise which is a shuttle that will never flew in space is here. Over the next couple of days, the Discovery is going to be taken of the top of that 747, and they are going to bring it into this museum here, in the hangar here, and people will be able to see it and come and visit it as soon as Friday.

MALVEAUX: Love to see all the big stuff there and also that building that looks like a castle.

Lizzie, thank you so much. It really is a fascinating to watch.

John, thank you as well. Obviously, a new era in the space program.

Next, the Buffett Rule, to tax the wealthiest Americans more shot down in the Senate. But Democrats are saying it's not going to go away. Talk to our political panel about it next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for the "Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Gary Schatsky. He's a financial planner and president of objectiveadvice.com. Carmen Wong Ulrich is the president of Alta Wealth Management.

Thank you both for coming in. Sure.

Gary, first question for you. John and Georgia wrote in that he wants to start a college saving plan for his grandson and he wants to know what his options are.

GARY SCHATSKY, FINANCIAL ADVISER: Great. Well, first of all, I'd add my son to that list so that we can set of two of each.

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, ALTA WEALTH MANAGEMENT: And my daughter.

SCHATSKY: So, you got a lot of choices. First of all, the simple one you can set it up as a (INAUDIBLE) gift to minors type of account. Of course, the downside to that is the child has access to it at either 18 or 21 in most states.

HARLOW: Whether they go to college or not.

SCHATSKY: Precisely right. But the interesting thing about that is the first set of interest, dividends and capital gains will be tax free, close to $1,000. So you can have each and every year have the money grow on the tax-free basis which could be attractive but you don't have control.

The other fantastic choice is a 529 college savings plan. Now, each state has these 529 plans. The beauty of them is the money grows tax deferred. If it's used for college, there is no tax on the growth. And some states give you an extra tax incentive to participate.

HARLOW: All right. And, Carmen, your question from Beverly in California. Beverly wrote in, "We're going to a short sale. How can we prevent our credit score from imploding?"

ULRICH: Oh, my dear, that may not be preventable. However, on your credit report, it will be noted that this is a settled debt. So, there will be a difference.

You'll be able to show lenders in the future that this was not something you walked away from. You didn't foreclose on the house. You didn't walk away from your debt. You actually got it settled.

So that's very important to understand because when it comes to buying a new home or a new loan you're about five years more likely -- let's put it this way, two years to get a new home if you short sale. Probably five to seven maybe if you walk away.

So, it looks better on your credit report, your credit score will need to recover. But, you know, the sooner you do it, the sooner you recover.

HARLOW: All right. Great advice, guys. Thank you.

If you've got a question you want answered, send us an e-mail anytime to the CNNHelpDesk@CNN.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here is a rundown of some of the stories that we're working on next.

The Buffett Rule to tax the wealthiest Americans more shot down in the Senate. But Democrats, they vow the proposal is not going to go away. I'll talk to my political panel about the possible fallout.

And then you've just got a few more hours left to file your taxes. When you're done, you actually should check out these tax freebies, deals on dinner, working out, you name it, anything.

And later, a Georgia mother, furious after police lead her 6- year-old kindergartener away in handcuffs.

The Buffett Rule gets rebuffed. Senate Republicans blocked the tax on the rich from moving forward. But it hasn't -- we haven't heard the last of this. Democrats plan to bring it back often they say on the campaign trail.

I want to bring in our political pane panel: Democratic strategist Estuardo Rodriguez, and Republican Matt Lewis, senior contributor at "The Daily Caller."

Thanks, guys. Good to see you.

First of all, let's talk about this. Isn't it effective strategy you think, Estuardo, to keep bringing this up, that this is something where most Americans get behind the president on the Buffett Rule and yet the Republicans blocked it?

ESTUARDO RODRIGUEZ, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I don't think of it so much as this strategy as if it's trying to convince the American public of something that isn't fact. You've got 1 percent of Americans that continue to receive these amazing tax rates, and in some cases don't pay taxes at all, while middle income families and low income families continue to suffer higher tax rates.

If we really have a conservative opponent on the other side, I would think they'd want to do some history searching of their own and reach out to their fabled Ronald Reagan who back in 1985 used the analogy of the bus driver paying a higher tax rate than the wealthy, and decided in 19 -- to move forward the 1986 tax act which tried to close the loopholes.

I mean, why are we hearing from the other side an eagerness to come and meet us halfway and support the Buffett Rule? Which I suggest we should have just changed the name to the Reagan rule.

MALVEAUX: Well, Matt, it's interesting that, Estuardo, is talking about Ronald Reagan, because he's doing what the White House and what the president has been doing for weeks now, and that is to try to use some of the Republicans and the examples from the Republican side to make their point.

MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "THE DAILY CALLER": Well, I think you're right. They are -- it is a Democratic talking point. This is political and it's part of a strategy.

And it's based on the premise that Mitt Romney is a rich guy and he's not like you. And so the "Buffett Rule" and the 99 percent versus the 1 percent and income equality is all part of this plan.

I actually call it the politics of envy. It is an attempt by the left to stoke I think envy and enmity in the political process.

MALVEAUX: Do you really think it's envy here when you have the majority of Americans saying they think that wealthy people should pay more, that they are paying less when it comes to percentage of their income? You think that's just, you know, envy or like hating on him?

LEWIS: I think -- I think there are two things. One in terms of the substance, look. I think the solution is to lower the tax rate for Warren Buffett's secretary, not to raise taxes on people who -- by the way, the reason that some of these rich folks are paying a lower rate is -- two reasons.

One, a lot of their income is derived from capital gains, which means that they are actually investing and the other thing is frankly, charitable contributions. That's the reason that president Obama, by the way, paid a lower rate than his secretary.

It was because of his charitable contributions. So if we were to impose this "Buffett Rule," you could actually have the impact of people investing less and giving less to charity. Now does it work politically, I think it does.

MALVEAUX: Estuardo, jump in there if you could.

RODRIGUEZ: It's great to hear the charitable side of this for the longest time. We've only heard from conservatives that it's all about job creation and now I'm hearing that the word charities are going to suffer.

That's a great talking point. I love to look at the numbers on it. What I do have are the numbers of job creation because of the eight years of the tax breaks that the wealthy got.

And we saw that was in the middle of the greatest decline of jobs in this nation. I'm not sure which to address. The wealthy aren't creating the jobs and I don't see the great charitable contributions. I'm happy to look into it.

MALVEAUX: Real quick, Matt. LEWIS: The reason this is being talked about is because President Obama can't talk about the economic turnaround that he has not brought. He can't talk about how the unemployment rate is coming down. He can't talk about gas prices so they have to talk about this.

MALVEAUX: But Matt, you know, here is something he can talk about. There's a new CNN poll out that shows Obama much more likable than Romney here by a wide margin.

We're talking 56 percent to 27 percent. That's a problem for Romney if he's you know -- you're talking about economics here. But that was something back in 2008. People were looking at who is more likable here. How does he make himself more appealing to the voters?

LEWIS: First of all I agree, I think that President Obama probably is more likable. Mitt Romney has a likability problem. I talked about this during the primary. I think it's authenticity.

Don't put on jeans and try to be something you're not, Mitt Romney. You be you and talk about how your business experience can help turn around the economy, but fakeness and phoniness is a turn-off.

RODRIGUEZ: Right. I agree wholeheartedly there, but that's a challenge he's going to have throughout. I mean, forget reference to his love for cheesy grits. That was just completely a fail for him.

I agree. It's going to be an ongoing challenge for him, but more importantly besides his likability, it's the disingenuousness. People simply don't know what Romney stands for and that's going to be his biggest challenge.

MALVEAUX: We're going to learn more about who Romney is and what he stands for. We have to leave it there. Estuardo and Matt, thanks. Good to see you both.

LEWIS: Thank you.

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: A programming note. Wolf Blitzer is going to interview the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in THE SITUATION ROOM tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern.

They are talking about the ongoing tension in North Korea and the continued slaughter in Syria. That is tomorrow in THE SITUATION ROOM at 4:00 Eastern.

A 6-year-old handcuffed, hauled off to the police station, pretty shocking, but teachers say, they couldn't control her. Well, police say they did the right thing. Hear what the little girl's family has to say up next.

But first, we'd like to hear from you. How is the high price of gas impacting you? Does it change your life at all, making things the same?

Watch me here on CNN for more on the story about gas prices. Next hour, we're going to have an oil expert breaking it down for us. Tweet me @suzannemalveaux likely on facebook.com/suzannecnn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A 6-year-old girl gets handcuffed and hauled off to the police station. It happened in a city about 60 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Police tell us they were called to Creekside Elementary School last Friday, told that Salecia Johnson had assaulted her teacher and damaged property.

What the police chief says the child was so combative they had to restrain her with handcuffs for her own safety and for the safety of the officer involved.

He also says police tried to get in touch with both of Salecia's parents but could not. Police say the girl was never placed in a holding facility, but was in the squad room. Still Salecia's mom and aunt say it never should have happened that way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONSTANCE RUFF, SALECIA'S MOTHER: I guess they were one of her bad days that day.

CANDACE RUFF, SALECIA'S AUNT: She might have misbehaved, but I don't think to the point she should have been handcuffed and taken to the police department.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The police chief is standing by his officer's decision. He tells us, quote here, "People should understand when we transport detainees they are handcuffed for safety reasons, for the safety of the detainee and the officer. When a person is put in handcuffs it's for safety, it's not a punishment."

We've reached out to the school for comment, but the principal has not returned our phone calls. So, the story really got us talking this morning in the meeting. Sounds pretty extreme, right? Is there more to it?

We're going to find out. Shannon Flounnory is the principal at a school in Georgia, Stonewall, to tell us a little bit about what is going on here. At your school, students are doing well academically.

There is a high standard. There's a great deal of discipline. What do you make of this story about this 6-year-old and how she was handled?

SHANNON FLOUNNORY, PRINCIPAL, STONEWALL TELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Well, you know, to be totally honest quite often kids do come with undesirable behaviors. I think what we have to determine is what was the extent of the behaviors.

And did the extent of the behavior, was it a situation where the safety and well-being of the staff? I think one of the things we have to ask ourselves is was the student's behavior. Did it put the staff in jeopardy?

Did it create a situation or an environment for danger to the teacher, the staff members or any other students within the classrooms?

MALVEAUX: Is there ever a situation that is acceptable to handcuff a 6-year-old?

FLOUNNORY: Well, when you're talking about handcuff that's a law enforcement issue. Having worked in law enforcement prior to coming into the field of education, one of the things I will tell you.

Once an arrest has been made, many police districts or police jurisdictions or agencies do have policies that are in place. And once an offender, no longer a student if an arrest has been made.

This person becomes an offender, if an arrest has been made for the safety of the student and the safety of the officer. That is a normal practice for the most part from a humanistic standpoint it does not sound well.

I have a 6-year-old who is going to be arrested. But when students go into the custody of the officers, the officers are responsible for the safety of themselves and as well as the offenders.

MALVEAUX: So listening and seeing this case, is this something that sounds appropriate to you? Would do you this if it was a 6-year- old at your school, call the police and put her in handcuffs?

FLOUNNORY: Well, I would really question, again, I've seen quite a few situations of circumstances, but I ask the question what is the degree looking at the average weight and size of a 6-year-old and adults in the building?

What has happened unfortunately over the years is that through policies, whether they are district, state, local or what have you, many school officials may be not quite as responsive in addressing those things from a humanistic standpoint.

In other words if I have a student displaying certain characteristics one side of me wants to go and intervene on the student's behalf. The other side is saying, I may not be able to address this.

How does this look if this student is being what some people may consider restrained and it may not be a restraint, it's a physical removal in some situations or circumstances.

Unfortunately, that dilemma is somewhat compounded in certain environments. For example, if I have to remove a student in that manner that is throwing chairs or pulling down tables or putting other kids in jeopardy, may be looked at differently than let's say Suzanne, you had to remove that same student of that same ethnicity.

MALVEAUX: All right, OK, well, this is a very complicated issue. And clearly, you know, that some of the teachers feel like their hands are tied. Administrators as well, law enforcement. But this seems like an extreme way of handling a kindergartener who is out of control. But you bring up some very good points.

FLOUNNORY: I would tend to agree it does seem extreme on the outside looking in. The truth of the matter is I think we all have a responsibility when we have those types of behaviors to put the politics aside and do what we do as adults.

The bottom line is this is a 6-year-old. Why was the police called on a school disciplinary issue? Based upon the information that I have looked at and reviewed in this particular case, it did not seem that the level of intervention was consistent with the offense.

MALVEAUX: Mr. Flounnory, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

FLOUNNORY: You're quite welcome.

MALVEAUX: So what do you think? A 6-year-old in handcuffs. Watch me here on CNN for more on this story. Tweet me your feedback @suzannemalveaux. We're going to read your responses next hour. Like me on Facebook, suzannecnn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Australia is speeding up getting its troops out of Afghanistan. The Australian prime minister says the pullout could begin in the coming months. Almost all of the Aussie soldiers may be out by the country by the end of next year. Michael Holmes, our favorite Aussie -- yes.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: My people.

MALVEAUX: Yes, your people. Tell us the significance of this because, obviously, you know, what we're seeing in Afghanistan just within the last week or so, these explosions, things seem like they are still very volatile.

HOLMES: Yes. The area -- of course, a lot of nations have their own areas. And the Aussies have got a province called Uruzgan. And the area that they're in, it's much safer now than it used to be. I mean the Aussies have done a good job there. They're training people. The local military seems better trained and prepared. But, you know, like a lot of the country, the fear is that once the Aussies, in this case, or the ISAF troops generally around the country, go, there's a Taliban in waiting. And they will come back in and exert their influence. Will the military be well enough trained to hold against the counter insurgency or an insurgency, that's very much an unanswered question. But you have 1,500 Aussies there, 32 have been killed over the years, more than 200 wounded. It's not a popular war. There's an election coming up in Australia. Already you've got the opposition saying, is this a political decision? Are we doing what we did in our involvement in Vietnam and basically declare victory and leave. And, you know, leave a mess behind. So there is a big political discussion going on. But the majority of Australians, according to polls, want to end the involvement.

MALVEAUX: It was interesting, I was there after September 11th just last year and one of the things that these soldiers on the ground talk about is that it is such a tremendous job that they have to train the Afghans to take over their own security because a lot of these guys -- the majority of these guys, they can't read, they can't write, they don't know how to handle a weapon properly, that it is an overwhelming task. Is it beneficial for the Australians to pull out sooner because they think, you know what, if we continue to be there, we're not really going to succeed because the task is too big.

HOLMES: Yes, not achieving any more than they've already achieved. I think that's a -- that's a good reason (ph). You know, I've been there four times now and I've been out on patrols with Afghan soldiers and the last time was, fair enough, it was a year -- over a year ago now. But some of these guys were high, to be honest. A lot of them are using marijuana. A lot of them are very ill disciplined.

There are units within the Afghan -- ANA, the Afghan National Army, who are very disciplined, being well-trained by the Americans, very buttoned down. But there's a whole bunch of those regular army guys. You know, they're not up to it. This is not our military. It's not the Australian military. They're not up to it and they're very lackadaisical with their weapons discipline. Their heads aren't in the game. So it's very much an uphill battle to get a national army of hundreds of thousands that are disciplined to the way that we look at the army. You know, and I think, too, who's going to pay for that?

MALVEAUX: Right. Right. I mean that --

HOLMES: That costs tens of millions a year to run. They don't have the money.

MALVEAUX: It's an extremely expensive mission on all sides.

HOLMES: It is. It is.

MALVEAUX: Michael, thank you.

HOLMES: Good to see you.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you as well.

They used to say a picture worth 1,000 words. Well, now, FaceBook thinks that this picture is worth a billion bucks. We're going to take a look at why this could be a bad sign (ph).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Instagram, a tiny photo sharing company, basically hit the jackpot last week when FaceBook bought it for $1 billion. OK, so if you're one of the 30 million people who have downloaded Instagram to post your pics, you already know what it's about. It basically lets you doctor up your photos, make them look like old pictures, post them, share them. So, 10 figures for a photo app. Wow! Is that too much? Are we seeing the rise of another Internet bubble? Here's Dan Simon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): $1 billion for a 13- person company that makes a photo app for a smartphone. When FaceBook announced last week it was buying Instagram for 10 figures, the debate immediately started. Are we seeing the rise of another Internet bubble? No one perhaps can say for certain. But to answer that, it's worth comparing the two eras. Web 1.0 of the '90s, and today's rise of mobile and social media.

KARA SWISHER, EDITOR, ALL THINGS DIGITAL: Oh, it's much different. These companies are smaller, they're cheaper to run, they have substantive ideas, and they have substantive growth in a way that the others didn't.

SIMON: Kara Swisher is the editor of the influential tech blog All Things Digital.

SWISHER: I used to say they're not laughable companies right now. I haven't like laughed out loud at a company, a start-up that I've read about yet.

SIMON: In other words, we haven't seen a pets.com this time around. The dotcom failure that went from IPO to liquidation in nine months. Or how about a GeoCities? Remember them? Yahoo! bought the web hosting service for $3.6 billion in early 1999 and shut it down 10 months later.

There's a whole list of them. From eToys, to broadcast.com, to the ballyhooed Time Warner/AOL merger and divorce. The fact is, today's climate doesn't seem to have any comparable failures and many companies that do seem to have astoundingly high valuations, says Swisher, are built on solid business plans.

SWISHER: A lot of these companies really do have really interesting growth opportunities, interesting revenue opportunities, and other things that make them more substantive companies. The valuations have just gotten out of hand. And that's not quite -- so it's not quite a bubble, it's bubblish. But it's not a bubble.

And as for FaceBook's purchase of Instagram, many industry veterans actually see it as a smart move.

JEFF FLUHR, CEO & FOUNDER, SPREECAST: It fills a key strategic gap for FaceBook, which is mobile photo sharing. SIMON: Jeff Fluhr is the CEO and founder of Spreecast, a social video platform that lets people broadcast together. He knows a thing or two about acquisitions. Before this he founded the website StubHub before selling it to eBay. It's now one of eBay's flagship brands.

FLUHR: We all know that photo sharing was a huge part of the rise of FaceBook. One of the things that made FaceBook really sticky was photo sharing on the web. And getting that right on mobile is a key strategic imperative for FaceBook and something that they hadn't quite nailed yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Dan Simon joins us from San Francisco.

Dan, I tell you, I'm going to work on an app. I don't know what it's going to take there, but that is unbelievable. Just a billion dollars. I think all of us are working on some apps. But is this some sign that there could be a bubble that's about to burst here?

SIMON: You know, it's a great question, but, you know, sometimes it's tough to tell that you're in a bubble until it actually bursts, like what we saw with the housing market a couple of years ago. But one thing is for certain, if you start seeing more of these kinds of companies being sold for enormous sums of money before they can demonstrate that they can make revenue, that could be a tell-tale sign, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Dan Simon, thank you. Great report.

Taxes due today. Yes, that's right. Not a good day. But to ease the pain, there's some restaurants and retailers, they're offering discounts, even freebies. We're going to tell you where to find them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Ready or not, taxes due today. About 99 million returns have been filed with the IRS so far. So if you don't have an extension, you've only got a couple of hours to get it done. Coincidentally, today is also what they call Tax Freedom Day. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, tell us what Tax Freedom Day is. Explain this to me.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. When I heard it I thought what?

MALVEAUX: Yes.

KOSIK: So what Tax Freedom Day is, is actually the day of the year where you've earned enough money on average to cover what you have to pay Uncle Sam next year. Meaning, for the year 2012 return. So it means everything that you earn after today, guess what, it's yours to keep. So it took taxpayers 107 day this year to cover their taxes. That winds up being more than three months of your hard earned money going straight to the government. Now, Tax Freedom Day has been arriving a bit later in recent years and that's because of rising incomes, which actually means that you owe more in taxes. Now this year's Tax Freedom Day, Suzanne, it's actually coming four days later than last year, but at least it came.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes. All right.

Something else to celebrate, though, is the fact that maybe there's some freebies. Some businesses are taking advantage or pity on us because we have to pay our taxes here.

KOSIK: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: What have we got out there, Alison?

KOSIK: So leave it up to businesses to find a tax day tie-in to bring in new business for themselves. So I picked out a few favorites here and there's plenty of free food to go around with these deals, like at Arby's, P.F. Chang's. Many more. They're giving away food, they're giving discounts.

Even Office Depot is taking five pounds of free shredding, so that's good. You can take all of those tax documents that you didn't use to the shredder there for free.

If you're stressed out, are you a stressed out procrastinator, if you are, you can go to Hydromassage. It's offering free massages.

And who doesn't like a little tax day humor. Bruegger's Bagels put its big bagel bundle on sale for, get this, $10.40. You know, like the tax form. So that's about a $5 discount. There you go, your discounts and specials of the day.

MALVEAUX: Can I still get my massage even if I filed an extension? I'm not really paying anything today. I still want my massage.

KOSIK: Sure. Why not. That's right, you're the one that's not paying -- that's right, you're the one getting the extension. I forgot.

MALVEAUX: Yes, that's right.

KOSIK: Well, good for you. Go get your massage. You deserve it.

MALVEAUX: My massage and I'm going out to dinner. All right.

KOSIK: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Alison, thank you very much. Good to see you.

KOSIK: You got it.