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CNN Live Saturday

Will Congress Stick to President Bush's Spending Caps?

Aired May 05, 2001 - 17:05   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Getting out the Hispanic vote is one thing, but this week, getting out the vote in Congress was a lot harder than anyone expected it might be, due to a little snafu. We're talking, of course, about that big budget vote, of course, which, like the country's energy concerns, dominated much of the political discourse.

Joining us now from Washington to talk a little bit about this is Dante Chinni, political reporter for "The Christian Science Monitor."

Mr. Chinni, thanks for joining us again. Good to see you again.

DANTE CHINNI, "THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Good to see you.

FRAZIER: Tuesday is the date that we're all watching now, the ratification of the budget.

CHINNI: Right, the snafu we were talking about, they somehow lost the last two pages of the budget agreement. I suppose these things can happen. I mean, everybody has problems with copiers, right, but Tuesday will be the day, supposedly, it goes to the House, which means Wednesday it will go through the Senate and arrive on President Bush's desk, I would imagine, Wednesday evening or Thursday.

FRAZIER: Which all sounds pretty pro forma. Is there anything interesting about to happen?

CHINNI: The passing of the budget itself is interesting, but what we have to do, and what voters should know, is that this is a skeleton that's being put on the president's desk, and we're saying we're going to put meat on the bones.

And the battle now begins as to how much meat goes on the bones. I mean, the White House would like to keep this pretty lean, and I think that what you're going to have from Congress is some people that want to buff up this budget a little bit and put some more meat on it and maybe, even though we have agreed to spending caps, supposedly, between the White House and the Congress, don't be surprised to see those things rise.

Last year, the budget agreement called for $600 billion in spending, and you ended up with something like $635 billion in spending. So, that's going to be the fight now. FRAZIER: And from where you are, watching the White House, how do you think President Bush will react to that if it's not exactly as he proposed it?

CHINNI: It's tough. You talk to Republicans this week, and there was an interesting idea that in some ways, they're a little worried. They want to keep spending down, and their fear is that Bush will never veto spending bills coming from a Republican Congress.

I mean, I don't think they're rooting to have Democrats back in Congress, but it would be much easier for him to veto things and say, I'm calling for more austere times than it is to veto a Republican budget. So, it's going to be tougher for him, I think.

FRAZIER: Right, a lot of talk, as we mentioned in the introduction to you, about energy. What do you think about the president's stress on energy supply rather than demand for energy?

CHINNI: Well, it's -- what I think is going to catch people's eye with this is he's calling for a lot more increase in supply and building the power plants we need, I think one every week for the next 20 years or something like that, and this is all well and good.

But I think what's going to catch people's eye is the fact that Dick Cheney said something this week or Vice President Cheney said something this week about not worrying so much about conservation; conservation is an idea out of the 70s.

I think he said something to that effect, and I think comprehensive energy policy, most people would think, would deal with both ends of that equation, and I think in response to what Dick Cheney say, George Bush came out later in the week and had some things to say about how the government in California, government officers are going to try to raise the thermostats a little bit, even called them, I think, to send fewer e-mails. It was an interesting mix of things to try to keep that down a little bit.

FRAZIER: Right, keep the lights down in California.

CHINNI: That's right.

FRAZIER: Is he pretty much abandoning this idea of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? It looks like he's had to climb down from that.

CHINNI: He has, and then, it was odd this week, Dick Cheney was saying that he thought it was still a critical element to look for supply everywhere, including the wildlife refuge in Alaska. And they're -- when you -- the word on the Hill is there is not a lot of support for this.

In fact, there is no support and it is basically dead. You wonder how far they're going to push this. I mean, Bush's strategy in general is to push things as far as he possibly can and then compromise when he needs to, but the train may have already left the station on this one. It's going to be hard for him to reopen ANWR, I think.

FRAZIER: Was it you telling us that even if they drill it absolutely dry, it's only six months worth of supply for America's energy needs?

CHINNI: Right, it's six to eight months worth of supply, but remember, that's fueling everything that we'd want from it. But you know, Again, when you compare that to saying we're going to drill in ANWR but we're not very concerned about conservation. people want the president to talk about we're all in this together, let's all keep the lights a little lower, let's all raise the thermostats. I think they want him to say something like that.

FRAZIER: Right, one last question on a totally different topic, much, much lighter: The president is delighted to be welcoming little baseball players to the White House lawn. What do you make of all of that?

CHINNI: Well, there is no doubt that the president -- I did a story on this week -- is actually a big fan of baseball. He is a purist. He is a true purist, when you talk to people. So part of this is love for the game.

But don't -- don't miss anything here when you invite a bunch of kids over with bats and gloves over to chase a ball around the White House lawn. Don't be surprised is there are a few photographs taken or if -- he's invited Bob Costas and the San Diego Chicken to entertain people.

Look, this is politics. It's baseball, he loves baseball, but this is Washington. There's always a little bit of politics involved in everything.

FRAZIER: How is that right field fence? How far away is the wrought iron for those little batters?

CHINNI: That's right. The question is do any kids show up with agents looking for contracts with the publicity they're going to get here.

FRAZIER: That's the new real baseball, not the pure baseball.

CHINNI: That's right.

FRAZIER: Dante Chinni, thank you for joining us again. Good to see you.

CHINNI: Thanks.

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