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CNN Live Saturday
Budget Battle to Continue in Congress This Week
Aired May 05, 2001 - 13:03 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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Comair, the regional airline, says that it will accept a proposed settlement with striking pilots. The plan comes from the National Mediation Board. Details were not released, but the proposal now goes to the pilots union for a vote. Pilots walked off the job 40 days ago, at a cost to the airline of $4 million per day.
Because of that strike, last month Comair laid off about 2,000 workers -- about half of its work force. That was a contributing factor in the April unemployment figures; those figures, the worst single month in a decade, rising 2/10 of 1 percent to 4.5 percent.
The financial markets actually rallied on the news in the belief that it would spur the Federal Reserve to drop interest rates yet again. Still, the rise in unemployment not the kind of news the Bush administration wants to hear, especially when it raises the specter of a possible recession.
CNN's Kelly Wallace is joining us once again from the White House with the view from there -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donna, certainly not the kind of news any White House wants to hear. But as you know, President Bush and his top aides have been talking for months about the slowing economy, and also about the need for a tax, which they say would give a boost to the economy. And so then, it was really no surprise that yesterday, when asked about the new unemployment numbers, Mr. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, once again sounded the call for tax cuts.
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ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president continues to be concerned about the strength of the economy and the slowness in the economy. He believes that the best way to protect the economy and get it moving again is for Congress to take prompt action to pass the budget and the put this tax cut into place, especially on a retroactive fashion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Well, the president's budget blueprint was supposed to be voted on early Friday morning in the House of Representatives. But, after some pages were missing in the final resolution, the vote was put off until this week. Republicans are just blaming it on a simple copying error, but Democrats are saying that they have some problems because they say that the final deal was supposed to including $1.25 trillion over 10 years in tax cuts, as well as a $100 billion immediate tax cut which would come this year and next year.
Well, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee is accusing the Republicans of not committing to any immediate stimulus this year because, he charges, the Republicans are trying to secure as big of a reduction as possible in the top income tax rate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really incredibly ironic; they sold this package as stimulus, they said it was needed to strengthen the economy. Now they've changed the language so that we might have no stimulus at all this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: A bit confusing, I know, but the debate likely to continue. Again, the House of Representatives and the Senate expected to vote on the president's budget blueprint this week.
Important to note, though, that once that blueprint does pass both houses then, really, the real tough work begins on the makeup of this tax cut -- how much of it will across-the-board, how much will income tax rates be slashed. So, Donna, expect a lot more debate in the weeks ahead.
Back to you.
KELLEY: Hey Kelly, along with the copiers that don't work and the language on the tax stimulus and all these other things that have happened along here, do we see that there could be possibly even a delay in getting this budget passed as they continue to try and hammer it out?
WALLACE: Well, it sort of depends on whom you talk to. Republicans say, no, they don't expect there to be any more of a delay than this coming week when, I think, it's going to be Tuesday in the House of Representatives and then Wednesday in the Senate. They don't believe this delay is going to impact final passage of the president's budget blueprint.
But if you talk to some Democrats, they seem definitely concerned about the final language, and they want to make sure that this $100 billion being billed as an immediate tax stimulus actually will get to taxpayers this year and next. So Democrats say there could be some questions, that it is not a done deal; Republicans disagree.
Back to you.
KELLEY: OK Kelly, thanks; Kelly Wallace at the White House.
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