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American Morning

Interview with Senator Jon Corzine

Aired January 21, 2004 - 07:04   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So, how is the president's speech playing with Democrats this morning after?
Joining us this morning, New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine. He is the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Nice to see you, Senator. Thanks for being with us.

SEN. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Forty-five percent of the people who were polled directly after this speech, who watched the speech, gave it a very positive response. What was your take?

CORZINE: Well, I think the president, when he speaks about national security and homeland security, strikes at the heart of something that the Americans want to feel good about. I think he's on strong ground there. And so, he emphasized it for about three- quarters of the speech.

I think, unfortunately, the rhetoric doesn't match the reality. He spoke about internationalization and gave us a 20-nation list of countries, but fails to recognize or acknowledge that 90 percent of the costs, 90 percent of the troops, and certainly, sadly, 90 percent of the casualties are American.

Now, internationalization is about making sure that there is participation, a shared burden of the war in Iraq. I think he failed to talk honestly about the failures and our use and development of intelligence in front of the war.

And on domestic policy, I think talking about $250 million to community colleges, when we have eight and a half million unemployed Americans, four and a half million who have dropped out of the workforce while we are cutting overtime for eight million Americans, it's just -- I don't think it matches with the reality that the American people see.

O'BRIEN: There are some people who say this election will be won or lost on the economy and what kind of platform the candidates are able to come up with. Let's, first, listen to a sound byte from last night's speech -- what the president had to say about the economy.

CORZINE: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Exports are growing, productivity is high, and jobs are on the rise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: A laundry list of things that are improving. How do Democrats make this an issue when -- I'll give you the jobs thing, not that many -- 1,000 jobs were created last month? But how do you make this an issue when many things seem to be trending in the right direction?

CORZINE: I think people's lives are impacted about their feeling and sense of security in the workplace. Is that job going to be here? Am I going to be able to put my kids into college and afford it? Am I going to be able to pay for this health care? And that is such a demand in everybody's day-to-day life.

And I think on all of those fronts, economic security for the individual is not what it should be. And while it's great that GDP is growing from a lower level than what we would like to see it, that isn't really translating into individuals. It's translating into those that are doing well. Corporate profits are up, but those are the same people who are getting tax breaks.

The broad middle class in America is really challenged on the fundamental costs of living in society today, and I don't think the president addressed that.

Job training, which we fully support, is one of those things that works over 3 years, 4 years, 10 years, a decade period of time. And, really, the proposals the president laid down last night don't address this, and, in fact, they exacerbate a problem that we all know we have, very serious budget deficits. We're laying the problems on our children, and I don't think that's a good policy.

O'BRIEN: He also makes the argument, to some degree, of don't change horses mid-race. It's working. It might be working slowly, but there's a risk in the middle of a war on terror to changing leadership. How do Democrats overcome that, which I think is going to be a persuasive argument for some people, maybe even the people who are on the fence?

CORZINE: Well, I think it's hard for a president not to argue that he's done a reasonable job on all of these various fronts that were talked about. And I think that's what he did last night. In many ways, I thought it was a very defensive speech. It really wasn't, in my view, a vision. He left out his vision thing when he didn't talk about the space program.

There wasn't a lot of defining what he thought the future should look like, in my view. I think it was more of a rehash of what he has already put in place, and emphasizing, as you suggest, some of the things that he's already done. Making permanent the tax cuts, it maybe a good thing on child tax credit and marriage penalty, but a very bad idea when it undermines our ability to invest in education, to invest in our environment, and all of the kinds of things that, I think, the American people want, including their homeland security.

O'BRIEN: Senator Jon Corzine, nice to have you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

CORZINE: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: We sure appreciate it.

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 January 21, 2004 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So, how is the president's speech playing with Democrats this morning after?
Joining us this morning, New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine. He is the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Nice to see you, Senator. Thanks for being with us.

SEN. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Forty-five percent of the people who were polled directly after this speech, who watched the speech, gave it a very positive response. What was your take?

CORZINE: Well, I think the president, when he speaks about national security and homeland security, strikes at the heart of something that the Americans want to feel good about. I think he's on strong ground there. And so, he emphasized it for about three- quarters of the speech.

I think, unfortunately, the rhetoric doesn't match the reality. He spoke about internationalization and gave us a 20-nation list of countries, but fails to recognize or acknowledge that 90 percent of the costs, 90 percent of the troops, and certainly, sadly, 90 percent of the casualties are American.

Now, internationalization is about making sure that there is participation, a shared burden of the war in Iraq. I think he failed to talk honestly about the failures and our use and development of intelligence in front of the war.

And on domestic policy, I think talking about $250 million to community colleges, when we have eight and a half million unemployed Americans, four and a half million who have dropped out of the workforce while we are cutting overtime for eight million Americans, it's just -- I don't think it matches with the reality that the American people see.

O'BRIEN: There are some people who say this election will be won or lost on the economy and what kind of platform the candidates are able to come up with. Let's, first, listen to a sound byte from last night's speech -- what the president had to say about the economy.

CORZINE: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Exports are growing, productivity is high, and jobs are on the rise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: A laundry list of things that are improving. How do Democrats make this an issue when -- I'll give you the jobs thing, not that many -- 1,000 jobs were created last month? But how do you make this an issue when many things seem to be trending in the right direction?

CORZINE: I think people's lives are impacted about their feeling and sense of security in the workplace. Is that job going to be here? Am I going to be able to put my kids into college and afford it? Am I going to be able to pay for this health care? And that is such a demand in everybody's day-to-day life.

And I think on all of those fronts, economic security for the individual is not what it should be. And while it's great that GDP is growing from a lower level than what we would like to see it, that isn't really translating into individuals. It's translating into those that are doing well. Corporate profits are up, but those are the same people who are getting tax breaks.

The broad middle class in America is really challenged on the fundamental costs of living in society today, and I don't think the president addressed that.

Job training, which we fully support, is one of those things that works over 3 years, 4 years, 10 years, a decade period of time. And, really, the proposals the president laid down last night don't address this, and, in fact, they exacerbate a problem that we all know we have, very serious budget deficits. We're laying the problems on our children, and I don't think that's a good policy.

O'BRIEN: He also makes the argument, to some degree, of don't change horses mid-race. It's working. It might be working slowly, but there's a risk in the middle of a war on terror to changing leadership. How do Democrats overcome that, which I think is going to be a persuasive argument for some people, maybe even the people who are on the fence?

CORZINE: Well, I think it's hard for a president not to argue that he's done a reasonable job on all of these various fronts that were talked about. And I think that's what he did last night. In many ways, I thought it was a very defensive speech. It really wasn't, in my view, a vision. He left out his vision thing when he didn't talk about the space program.

There wasn't a lot of defining what he thought the future should look like, in my view. I think it was more of a rehash of what he has already put in place, and emphasizing, as you suggest, some of the things that he's already done. Making permanent the tax cuts, it maybe a good thing on child tax credit and marriage penalty, but a very bad idea when it undermines our ability to invest in education, to invest in our environment, and all of the kinds of things that, I think, the American people want, including their homeland security.

O'BRIEN: Senator Jon Corzine, nice to have you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

CORZINE: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: We sure appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.