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American Morning
President's Vacation and Partisan Politics at Work
Aired August 30, 2001 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The president's vacation and partisan politics at work.
CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace sets the stage for us this morning for the budget battles awaiting Mr. Bush's return from that month-long vacation.
Good morning, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Well, these will be President Bush's first budget negotiations with Congress, and negotiations that are already looking to be quite contentious because of a couple of reasons. The economy continues to be very sluggish, and news out today that U.S. consumer spending last month grew at the lowest rate in about nine months. And also, of course, the federal budget surplus shrinking, meaning there is less money to spend.
Well, the president yesterday in his speech there, you can see in San Antonio, Texas, trying to set up the debate. Mr. Bush saying, despite the slowing economy, he will continue to press Congress to fund his priorities. He is calling on lawmakers to take care of two important issues. First off the bat, he wants increases in spending, on education, he's also calling for increases on spending, on defense, and then other legislative priorities, including his so called faith- based initiative allowing religious groups to receive tax dollars to provide social services, and then to finish work on a patients' bill of rights.
The Democrats see this shrinking federal budget surplus, and they see a bit of an opening here. They are pressing the president to come forward and do some explaining. In a letter Democratic leader sent to Mr. Bush yesterday, they wrote -- and I'm quoting here -- "As Congress and the administration resume work on the budget, it is imperative that you provide specific guidance on how you intend to pay for the additional spending initiatives you are calling for."
Democrats have been saying, they believe the tax cut is too big and it's eating up too much of the surplus. They also the believe the president won't be able to keep his promise and not tap into the Social Security surplus to pay for additional government programs. Democrats have been calling for a meeting with the president, but White House officials telling us earlier today, that the president plans to meet with House and Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders next week and the week after that.
But in an interesting footnote, Leon, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office tells us, he has not yet formally invited to meet with the president. We'll keep you posted on that -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Kelly, what does that indicate about what the president's strategy is going to be here?
WALLACE: Well, you see, there seems to be a couple of strategic goals here for the president. Number one, he is trying to put some public pressure on lawmakers to deal with defense and education first. Very often in these budget negotiations, lawmakers wait to deal with those spending bills, dealing with education and defense until the very end to put off some of the biggest decisions. Also, he is trying to make sure that he has Republican support behind his initiatives.
And then there's this interesting thing we're seeing. We saw the president yesterday say, look, if the Democrats complaining about the size of the tax cut and if they want to roll back the tax cut, well, that amounts to a tax increase, and Mr. Bush says, that is exactly the wrong thing to do at a time of such a slowing economy. So it appears a couple of points from the president's speech yesterday -- Leon.
HARRIS: Interesting wordplay. Yesterday, discouraging words uttered in the press and by lots of critics for being away from White House for so long.
Any sense the White House is concerned about the criticism for the month-long vacation? Is there any plan to address that at all there?
WALLACE: Well, it did seem, Leon, that aides were a bit sensitive to this criticism, because you heard, over the several days when the president was away from Washington, White House aides continuing to say this is a working vacation, and they stressed that he traveled around the country, that he met with everyday Americans. They think it really benefited for him to get out of Washington, hear what people think, and then deal with issues this fall. So they feel he's in good shape, despite that criticism.
HARRIS: All right, see how the battles get under way.
Kelly Wallace at the White House, thanks. We'll see you later.
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