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CNN Live At Daybreak

Spending Now Just Means Bills Later For Taxpayers

Aired November 28, 2001 - 05:48   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The September 11 attacks have prompted a lot of changes in this country, including many at the nation's capital, where some say it's become open season on your tax dollars.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider has some perspectives on the changes afoot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just look at the way Congress is dealing with the economic stimulus bill. Before September 11, legislatures had to worry about scoring. Before you could propose new spending or a tax cut, you had to figure out how to pay for it. No more.

JAMES ALBERTINE, AMERICAN LEAGUE OF LOBBYISTS: Before the events of 9-11, everybody was talking about budget surpluses. They were talking about the fact that we have to pay for any kind -- any changes in our tax policy. And nobody's talking about that any longer.

SCHNEIDER: It's back to the future.

ROBERT MCINTYRE, CITIZENS FOR TAX JUSTICE: All of a sudden now, spend the social security trust fund, borrow, borrow, borrow. It's pretty strange. It's sort of like the 1980s all over again.

SCHNEIDER: Who rewrote the rules? Listen to what President Bush said just five days before September 11.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have repeatedly said the only time to use social security money is in times of war, times of recession or times of severe emergency.

SCHNEIDER: We've got war, recession and a severe emergency. So the legislative process has turned into -- well, ask the president of the American League of Lobbyists.

ALBERTINE: It is a free for all, and so every lobbyist who has any kind of small issue that they have to deal with, a technical issue that they have to deal with, is making an attempt to get it into this bill.

SCHNEIDER: Lobbyists are under the gun. They know, sooner or later, somebody is going to have to pay the bills. ALBERTINE: When the Congress wakes up to that reality, we are no longer going to have the opportunity to be considering $100 billion, $200 billion tax bills, and that's the whole issue here, Bill -- the fact that this may be the last chance.

SCHNEIDER: Something else changed as a result of September 11. Nobody's paying attention to what Congress is doing, which may suit the lobbyists just fine.

MCINTYRE: I think the corporate lobbyists hoped it would be invisible, because people would be distracted.

SCHNEIDER: But lobbyists still complain that they have trouble getting access to members of Congress, what with security restrictions and so many House and Senate offices having been closed. It's bad for democracy, they say.

ALBERTINE: I would hate to get to a point that the only time to see a member of Congress is at his or her fundraiser.

SCHNEIDER: To which their critics respond, tough noogies (ph).

MCINTYRE: I think people still have phone numbers. They can get a hold of them, and I am sure the corporate lobbyists know the phone numbers too.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Democrats say no stimulus deal is better than a deal they see as full of payoffs to powerful corporate interests. But President Bush wants a deal, and that's another new rule since September 11. A president with soaring approval ratings usually gets what he wants.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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