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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wake-Up Call: President Bush Headed for Houston
Aired February 04, 2003 - 06:37 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The president will be at the memorial service, but of course, he'll have to push that sadness aside to talk about possible war.
Our White House reporter Dana Bash is on the phone for another morning "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, that's right. The president leaves just in a couple of hours for Houston. We're told by the White House he will, of course, make a speech, but he will also have some private time with the families.
And you know, yesterday he gave probably a preview of what he's going to say today, when he said, "America's journey to space will go on." That's probably -- we're probably going to hear some of the same themes this morning.
You know, Carol, also yesterday the president met for 45 minutes with Sean O'Keefe. There you see him. He's the NASA administrator. It was a private meeting; it was closed to us. But we're told by the White House the president talked to him about morale at NASA, and he also said that he is very eager to get the space program up and running again as soon as possible.
COSTELLO: Well, Dana, everyone is wondering if that would include more money for the space program.
BASH: Well, as it happens, yesterday the president sent his budget for 2004 up to Capitol Hill, and it was printed before, you know, Saturday's tragedy, but in that budget, he has about a 3 percent increase for overall spending for NASA. Now, that's just 1 percent over inflation, and it's lower than the overall spending increases in general that he put into his budget. But it does include about $700 million more than last year for the shuttle program.
But the other thing, Carol, that was interesting, in that budget, along with the budget came some remarks from the president's budget director, which said, look, you've got to be more efficient in how you spend money. And he said, there's no clear measurable relationship between the investments in the space shuttle and improvements in the shuttle's overall flight safety and condition, which is interesting to note. COSTELLO: Yes. Well, it will be interesting to see how the budget turns out in the end. Dana Bash, thanks for waking up early. We'll let you get on down to the Washington bureau.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 4, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The president will be at the memorial service, but of course, he'll have to push that sadness aside to talk about possible war.
Our White House reporter Dana Bash is on the phone for another morning "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, that's right. The president leaves just in a couple of hours for Houston. We're told by the White House he will, of course, make a speech, but he will also have some private time with the families.
And you know, yesterday he gave probably a preview of what he's going to say today, when he said, "America's journey to space will go on." That's probably -- we're probably going to hear some of the same themes this morning.
You know, Carol, also yesterday the president met for 45 minutes with Sean O'Keefe. There you see him. He's the NASA administrator. It was a private meeting; it was closed to us. But we're told by the White House the president talked to him about morale at NASA, and he also said that he is very eager to get the space program up and running again as soon as possible.
COSTELLO: Well, Dana, everyone is wondering if that would include more money for the space program.
BASH: Well, as it happens, yesterday the president sent his budget for 2004 up to Capitol Hill, and it was printed before, you know, Saturday's tragedy, but in that budget, he has about a 3 percent increase for overall spending for NASA. Now, that's just 1 percent over inflation, and it's lower than the overall spending increases in general that he put into his budget. But it does include about $700 million more than last year for the shuttle program.
But the other thing, Carol, that was interesting, in that budget, along with the budget came some remarks from the president's budget director, which said, look, you've got to be more efficient in how you spend money. And he said, there's no clear measurable relationship between the investments in the space shuttle and improvements in the shuttle's overall flight safety and condition, which is interesting to note. COSTELLO: Yes. Well, it will be interesting to see how the budget turns out in the end. Dana Bash, thanks for waking up early. We'll let you get on down to the Washington bureau.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
