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American Morning

Capitol Hill Gears Up for Demonstrations, Celebrations

Aired April 15, 2002 - 08:47   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, Capitol Hill is expected to be the scene of a massive pro-Israel rally. Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather, including some members of Congress, where bipartisan support for Israel remains strong. With more on that, and all things congressional, let's turn to correspondents Kate Snow and Jonathan Karl, who join us this morning not quite from under the dome, but nearby, from the site of today's demonstration. Good morning to both of you.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Karl, I am going to start with you this morning. Exactly what is the status of the support among members of Congress for Israel?

KARL: Well, this rally that is going to be held here on Capitol Hill will be facing a very receptive audience. This Congress has always been decidedly pro-Israel, but perhaps now more than ever. And yesterday, you had the strongest criticism yet, or possibly the strongest criticism coming from Congress of the Bush administration's policy of pressuring Israel to withdraw from the recently occupied territories. It came from Joe Lieberman, down at the Democratic convention in Florida. Lieberman said that by pressuring Israel, the U.S. -- quote -- "is really muddying our moral clarity." And it -- what's happening here is that the administration risks "losing the high ground in compromising our war on terrorism."

What was interesting is this came from Lieberman at a political rally. Lieberman, obviously, may run against President Bush in two years. So, it was a politically charged statement, but it is a statement that is shared predominantly by conservative Republicans here on Capitol Hill that are very uneasy about the U.S. pressuring Israel, many of whom -- many members of Congress have privately told me, and some publicly, that they believe it was a mistake for Powell to meet with Yasser Arafat, and if Powell comes back empty-handed, Paula, it is going to be very interesting up here because you have got a number of resolutions working their way through the Congress that will come to the floor, that would literally take away money, any money the U.S. is giving the Palestinian Authority, and formally declare Yasser Arafat's organization a terrorist organization. So this is a solidly pro-Israel Congress, no doubt about that. ZAHN: All right. We'll be counting on you to keep us apprised of how that demonstration unfolds.

Kate Snow, let's move to the issue of tax day. Yes, indeed, it is tax day today, isn't it? I guess the Republicans have decided that it is a perfect day to make a stand for permanent tax cuts. What will their message be today?

SNOW: Yes. They're going to be having a rally, actually, here a little bit later on this morning. About 45 minutes from now, that gets underway, sort of behind us over there. And then beyond that, more than 20 different events around the country, Paula, all celebrating tax day, but also looking towards what you mentioned, a bill that is going to come up later this week on the House floor that says make that tax cut that they passed last year a permanent tax cut, make it extend forever. Now those 20 events, here's my favorite one. Out in California, two congressmen are going to take massage therapists and go to a post office in California. They say they want to help people with their stress on tax day. But really, the political message here is they're pushing for this extension of the tax cuts, making them permanent. Why are they doing that? Two reasons, really.

One, they know that last year's tax cut was really popular. People loved it, and they figure if they can get some more political weight out of it, well, might as well keep pushing it. And then number two, you make something permanent, it doesn't cost you anything up front. They already passed the big dollar figure for the tax cut last year. If they make it permanent, it doesn't hit until 10 years from now, when the costs would finally hit, and they would start losing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. There was some talk among Republicans, I am told, of maybe just making one piece of the tax cut permanent, maybe the estate tax, what some people call the death tax. And then they went back to their members, and they polled them, and said, does anybody think we should just do part or do you want do the whole thing? Everybody said, let's do the whole thing. It's so popular. They don't care how much it costs 10 years from now, the Republicans figure the economy will grow within that period of time and that will make it worth the cost that it costs about ten years from now.

ZAHN: Well, you two have your hands full. Tax day celebrations, pro-Israel demonstrations, let's come back to Karl for a moment to talk about another hot issue on the Hill, and that is the prospect of drilling in ANWR. Now, I would love for you to take us inside some of these closed doors and help us better understand the kind of arm twisting that's going on now to convince members of Congress this is the right way to go.

KARL: This has been good, actually. You've got, obviously, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a big priority of the Bush Administration, a big Republican priority on Capitol Hill. But right now, it simply doesn't have the votes to pass. The issue will come to the floor in the Senate this week. And what's happening is a lot of backroom deals on things that have absolutely nothing to do with oil, nothing to do with Alaska. The latest gambit by the Republicans is to try to tie in aid for the steel industry, and the reason is they know that U.S. steel, there are a number of senators undecided on the ANWR issue or against ANWR, from states like West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, states with a lot of steel. So what they have done, they've come up with this scheme. In Alaska, if you would actually have drilling for oil, the oil companies would be paying royalties for the right to drill at the ANWR. The proposal on the table now from the Republicans is to put that money into the pockets of the steel companies to bail out their pension systems, which are in trouble. So this is something that is very hard for steel state senators to turn down. There is a couple other things. One is they are saying is that if you have a pipeline to take the oil from ANWR, they're having incentives to make sure that the steel used to build that pipeline will be U.S. steel. And finally, they're allowing -- they would allow some of the oil to be sold to Israel. Right now, no Alaskan oil can be sold outside of the United States. They would have an exception for Israel. Again, a bid to get more support. Right now, they still don't have the votes, but who knows. It will be an interesting week.

ZAHN: Hey, Jonathan, will you apologize to your mother for my using your last name as your first there? You, Kate, Jonathan Karl -- Kate, very quickly, do you think -- I know you're back from Ohio, James Traficant is going to end up resigning?

SNOW: Well, I was out in Ohio all last week. He said on Friday, Paula, in a statement he is not going to resign, he made it really clear. He rebuffed what Dick Gephardt had said, he called for his immediate resignation. Traficant said no way, I'm not getting out of here. He said, in fact, he is going to run as an independent, not a Democrat of a Republican, but an independent for his seat again, which raises the big question, is he going to show up here this week, and will he vote, Paula, because here is something really interesting -- the House rules say that somebody who is convicted of a felony that bears a two-year sentence or more, like Traficant, can continue to vote. It says they should refrain from voting, but it doesn't say that he can't vote. So, he may show up here this week, and I am told by a lot of aides that if he does that, Paula, he may risk having somebody stand up and try to expel him from Congress -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, it is a colorful beat, isn't it, to follow James Traficant around. All right, thank you, Kate Snow so much, and Jonathan Karl as well. Good luck with all of the celebrations and demonstrations going on today. Appreciate your time this morning.

SNOW: Sure.

KARL: Thanks, Paula.

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