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CNN Live At Daybreak
What Nation is Up Against
Aired September 09, 2003 - 05:06 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, top Pentagon officials face some tough questions on the Bush administration's Iraq policy. They testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Congress is expected to approve the extra $87 billion the president wants to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, but Democratic law makers are demanding the president spell out some details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: This may not be Vietnam, but boy it sure smells like it. And every time I see bills coming down for the money, it's costing like Vietnam, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: That $87 billion price tag will increase the federal deficit.
Our senior White House correspondent John King explains what the nation is up against.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Selling his new war budget also means selling a record federal deficit. The administration was already projecting a deficit of $475 billion next year and now says paying for the war in Iraq will add at least $50 billion more in red ink, a record deficit of at least $525 billion, as Mr. Bush campaigns for reelection.
One part of the White House sales pitch is to invoke the memories of two years ago this week and assert that Iraq is now central to the war on terrorism.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Afghanistan and in Iraq, we gave ultimatums to terror regimes. Those regimes chose defiance and those regimes are no more.
KING: The new $87 billion budget request envisions a lengthy and expensive stay for U.S. troops in Iraq. $51 billion is for military operations there and $20 billion for Iraq's reconstruction. The remaining $16 billion is for Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terrorism, the vice president makes clear is far from over.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good defense is not enough. The problem with terrorist organizations is that even if you build defenses that are 99 percent successful, the one percent can kill you.
KING (on camera): And as the administration's estimate for the federal budget deficit went up, its estimate for revenues from Iraqi oil sales went down, to $12 billion next year and $20 billion a year for the two years after that, hardly an insignificant sum, but nowhere near enough to pay the mounting costs of Iraq's reconstruction.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 September 9, 2003 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, top Pentagon officials face some tough questions on the Bush administration's Iraq policy. They testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Congress is expected to approve the extra $87 billion the president wants to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, but Democratic law makers are demanding the president spell out some details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: This may not be Vietnam, but boy it sure smells like it. And every time I see bills coming down for the money, it's costing like Vietnam, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: That $87 billion price tag will increase the federal deficit.
Our senior White House correspondent John King explains what the nation is up against.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Selling his new war budget also means selling a record federal deficit. The administration was already projecting a deficit of $475 billion next year and now says paying for the war in Iraq will add at least $50 billion more in red ink, a record deficit of at least $525 billion, as Mr. Bush campaigns for reelection.
One part of the White House sales pitch is to invoke the memories of two years ago this week and assert that Iraq is now central to the war on terrorism.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Afghanistan and in Iraq, we gave ultimatums to terror regimes. Those regimes chose defiance and those regimes are no more.
KING: The new $87 billion budget request envisions a lengthy and expensive stay for U.S. troops in Iraq. $51 billion is for military operations there and $20 billion for Iraq's reconstruction. The remaining $16 billion is for Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terrorism, the vice president makes clear is far from over.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good defense is not enough. The problem with terrorist organizations is that even if you build defenses that are 99 percent successful, the one percent can kill you.
KING (on camera): And as the administration's estimate for the federal budget deficit went up, its estimate for revenues from Iraqi oil sales went down, to $12 billion next year and $20 billion a year for the two years after that, hardly an insignificant sum, but nowhere near enough to pay the mounting costs of Iraq's reconstruction.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
