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Lou Dobbs Tonight
President Bush Goes to the Heartland to Sell Agenda; Silicon Valley Viewers Give Feedback On State Of The Union Speech; Pillowtex Plant Closure Changes Employee Lives; Bush Offered No New Ideas On Health Care In Speech
Aired February 01, 2006 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Wednesday, February 1, "The State of Our Union: The View Outside the Beltway."
Here now, Lou Dobbs.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody.
President Bush today traveled to the heartland, trying to sell his State of the Union speech to the American people. President Bush talked to a carefully selected audience in Nashville, Tennessee.
To find out what the majority of us think about last night's speech, we sent our correspondents all across the country from coast to coast. Our reporters are covering the issues that matter most to working middle class Americans from health care reform, to educational opportunity, to what is nothing less than an outright war on our middle class.
Tonight, we'll hear from a former adviser to four presidents, our distinguished panel of three the country's finest political commentators about their reactions to the president's speech, the prospects he offered, the problems he did not address.
The president's speech in Nashville today was even longer than his State of the Union Address. But once again, the president failed to address many of the issues that matter most.
There was plenty of talk about big issues and lofty principles, but there was little of substance for hard-pressed working Americans struggling to pay for even basic living expenses. Our economy is not creating high-paying jobs, and those who have jobs are watching their real wages decline.
Dana Bash reports from the White House -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, in Nashville today, the president did not change the substance of his State of the Union message, but he did seem to strike a bit of a different tone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): President Bush went to Nashville and delivered the message skittish Republicans had hoped to hear the night before.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People are uncertain, in spite of our strong union, because of war.
BASH: Free from the House Chamber and State of the Union formality, the more candid assessment at the Grand Ole Opry was delivered by a stunningly different, more folksy George W. Bush.
BUSH: But understand, there's an anxiety about a time of war. That's natural, it seems like to me.
BASH: The open question is whether the president's words and plans will ease that anxiety. A few modest initiatives packaged in the message on the wall behind him: Americans win when America leaves. It's a tough sell for a president whose own leadership standing is in question.
LEE MIRINGOFF, MARIST INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC OPINION: For people who are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, I don't think they got a lot of answers last night.
BASH: The president and his cabinet spent the day fleshing out familiar proposals, to tackle soaring health care costs with tax-free savings accounts and to use alternative technologies to over time, dramatically reduce dependence on Mideast oil.
BUSH: Four and a half million cars today are flex-fuel automobiles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And the cautious new agenda is based on initiatives Bush aides think they have a decent shot of getting past, but some GOP strategists today, Lou, said that they fear it's not going to have that much of a political impact. One saying that this State of the Union he fears could be like a snowstorm in April, lots of anticipation, lots of good visuals, but it could melt away fast -- Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you, Dana.
Dana Bash from the White House.
The president's State of the Union Address contained more than 5,000 words. But few of those words spoke directly to the issues that matter most to working middle class Americans.
Christine Romans is here now with the report -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, the words that the president studiously avoided last night are probably more telling about the state of our union than the wonders the president did use.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice over): Some things the president just couldn't bring himself to say, like "middle class." Well, the president said the word "middle" all right, six times. But he was referring to the Middle East. Middle class, not a mention.
He did tout job growth.
BUSH: America has created 4.6 million new jobs, more than Japan and the European Union combined.
ROMANS: But not high-paying jobs. You didn't find them in the president's speech, but they're hard it find in the economy, too.
Stagnant wages, historically low household savings, not a murmur from Mr. Bush on these issues. And record and rising deficit. Now that's a word the president did use.
BUSH: And stay on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009.
ROMANS: But not a word about the massive trade deficit, what many see as a growing embarrassment.
Another embarrassment in Washington, politicians for sale. The president mentioned earmark reform but didn't say that "L" word, "lobbyist," and only glancingly addressed the recent scandals in Washington.
No mention of the challenges of leftist anti-American movements growing in Latin America. And the president studiously avoided the word "illegal," as in illegal immigrants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Perhaps it's no surprise the president would steer clear of what many see are has weaknesses. No mention that under his watch, there's been the largest expansion of entitlement benefits in 40 years, the prescription drug plan that many states now say has been a disaster for seniors, a plan the White House pushed hard.
And he didn't say a word about Katrina. That is a word that many now find synonymous with federal ineptitude -- Lou.
DOBBS: Christine, thank you very much.
Christine Romans.
Well, David Gergen served as adviser to four former presidents, both Republican and Democrat. Joining us now with his assessment of the president's speech last night.
David, the president spoke a lot about the importance of leadership. Where is the leadership?
DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, after Christine's report, he's been almost demolished. The -- I tell you what, Lou, I thought it was a well-constructed speech and it was vigorously delivered. But it did not change the political landscape, in my judgment. You know, we know now that the ratings -- that a whole lot of people didn't watch. Of the last eight years on the Nielsens, it was the lowest of any, except for Clinton in the year 2000. So he had a small audience. And we also know from some of your overnight CNN polling that of those who did watch, the positive ratings were among his lowest since he was president.
So, in my judgment, he didn't call for to do a lot of new things on the domestic front. He had a lot of rhetoric, but the proposals were quite modest. And on the foreign policy front, he didn't break a lot of new ground.
So I have to say, overall, Lou, that I felt that it was -- it was -- he did -- he clearly believes in it. I think it was a great leadership speech for his base. I think you have a lot of conservatives...
DOBBS: Who is his base, David Gergen?
GERGEN: It's conservatives.
DOBBS: Conservatives? Here's a president who's growing government at about 6 percent a year.
GERGEN: Right.
DOBBS: Running up record trade deficits, budget deficits. He is extending foreign policy in this country. He considers anything that would resist such a thing as isolationist. I mean, that isn't a conservative base, for crying out loud.
GERGEN: No. And listen, many his policies, the growth of government, are not conservative policies. But he has kept the support of the conservative movement, mostly by doing things like appointing Sam Alito. And those people are with him, and they're certainly with him on the foreign policy front, Lou. On Iraq and Iran and Hamas, I think you have to say he's got the conservatives with him on those issues.
DOBBS: What about the Democratic response, David?
GERGEN: Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia, gave a surprisingly effective speech in the sense that he at least joined the arguments. But the Democrats as a whole still have presented no more leadership than the president has on the big issues, such as energy and immigration and education and health care.
DOBBS: You mean the minor issues that confront all us in this country.
GERGEN: Yes, the minor issues.
I have to -- the most important thing about where we are politically right now is the political leadership of the country is not preparing us for the storms that are ahead. There are big storms coming. I thought the metaphor for where we are really came out of CNN last night when they pointed out that in New Orleans there's still about 170 miles of levees that haven't been repaired and the new hurricane season is only five months off. That, to me, is almost a metaphor of where the political leadership of the country has the country as the storms approach on all these fronts.
DOBBS: David Gergen, thank you very much.
GERGEN: Thank you.
DOBBS: Coming up next, overwhelmed by illegal immigration, completely ignored by Washington. The border town of Yuma, Arizona, its residents react to the president's address.
Also, poor marks for the president from those who hand out grades for a living. Our nation's educators blasting the president's education initiatives. Are they right or are they wrong?
And some Americans disgusted by the partisanship on display during the president's State of the Union Address. We'll have the view from outside the beltway as we continue here.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: A major ruling by the Mexican supreme court. It has issued a ruling that could lead to the extradition of dangerous Mexican criminals wanted for violent, high-profile crimes in the United States. The Mexican high court has ruled that a treaty signed by the United States and Mexico now takes precedence over Mexican law, which is a complete reversal of the position of the court up until this ruling.
This means Mexicans wanted in the United States for serious crimes will no longer be able to fight the extradition process, including cases that carry the death penalty in this country. The Mexican criminal suspects, such as the one wanted for the murder of Los Angeles County Deputy David March (ph), now can be extradited to the United States.
David March was killed on the streets of Los Angeles in 2002. His killer fled to Mexico.
In his State of the Union Address, President Bush missed an important opportunity to finally state his commitment to improving border security. He made no connection between the security of our borders and national security. Americans living on the Mexican border say they feel ignored by a president who has little understanding of just how lax our border security really is.
Casey Wian respects from Yuma, Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: Our nation needs orderly and secure borders.
(APPLAUSE)
BUSH: To meet this goal, we must have stronger immigration enforcement and border protection.
(APPLAUSE)
BUSH: And we must have a rational, humane guest worker program that rejects amnesty, allows temporary jobs for people who seek them legally, and reduces smuggling and crime at the border.
(APPLAUSE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Forty-one seconds, the only mention of the nation's border security crisis in an hour- long State of the Union speech.
MAYOR LARRY NELSON, YUMA, ARIZONA: He did not spend a lot of time. But on the other hand, everything, you know, that I've said that we need to do is exactly what he said.
WIAN: But for other Republicans in the border community of Yuma, Arizona, it was too little, too late.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He touched a little bit on the worker program and the border issues. Very lightly. I wish he'd talked a little more about specifics.
WIAN: Residents and government leaders here are tired of suffering the consequences of the federal government's failure to control the border and implement a practical solution for their shortage of legal farm labor.
RALPH OGDEN, YUMA COUNTY SHERIFF: I like what he said about we need a border that's secure and that's safe, and that no amnesty. But we do need a guest worker program. I'm hoping that Congress got the word today we all got to -- we all got to sit down and get this thing resolved.
WIAN: Ogden, a Democrat, is worried the president's plan to eliminate 140 inefficient federal programs could lead to cuts in border security. Instead, he wants more border patrol agents, technology, and money for local law enforcement to fight the rampant crime related to illegal immigration.
Then there was this statement...
BUSH: We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy, even though this economy could not function without them.
WIAN: That's an argument used by open border advocates who refuse to acknowledge a distinction between legal immigrants and illegal aliens.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WIAN: It seems the president is trying to please nearly everyone involved in the border security debate. It also seems like he's driving them even farther apart -- Lou.
DOBBS: Casey, thank you very much.
Casey Wian from Yuma, Arizona.
In our poll tonight, the question: Do you believe the president's continued confusion over illegal immigration and immigration and illegal alien and willing worker means there is no help for meaningful border security or immigration reform, yes or no?
Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We'll have the results later here in the broadcast.
Joining me now with their thoughts and reaction to the president's address, former White House political director Ed Rollins; "Wall Street Journal" columnist John Fund; Democratic political strategist and consultant, Hank Sheinkopf.
Good to have you with us.
Let's start with what the president had to say about immigration reform, John Fund, and border security. Are you surprised at the tact he took?
JOHN FUND, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I think his tone has changed. I think he recognizes that border security is something. There's also a national security component to it. We've had Uzbeks and various other people from foreign countries crossing who might have had ill intent against us.
But, Lou, you talked about the solution at the border. The people down there want a comprehensive solution. Dwight Eisenhower, that was the day when America's industrial heartland was really coming. Well, Dwight Eisenhower had a (INAUDIBLE) program. He had a guest worker program. And it reduced the number of arrests at the border from 900,000 down to 50,000 in less than five years.
So it can be done and they can work together, enforcement and a guest worker program. It has been done by Dwight Eisenhower.
DOBBS: OK. The president has an advocate here. John, I think that's terrific -- Ed.
ED ROLLINS, FMR. WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL DIRECTOR: The only votes on the Hill -- and they're only Republican votes, no Democrats are going to cooperate on this issue -- are for no border security. There is no possibility, I think, of the president getting his bill passed. There's too many people who think we had an amnesty program in the '80s, it didn't work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It did flop.
ROLLINS: It flopped. And people remember that. DOBBS: Hank? The Democrats -- you Democrats are just going to muck everything up again?
HANK SHEINKOPF, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Oh, I don't think that's the case, Lou. This is really something else. I think the border security will come confused with economic arguments and people who are out of work are going to look and say, wait a second. Whether they're right or not, they're going to say, look, my job's at risk, as well as my safety.
It comes to a very different kind of question. Democrats aren't going to touch that, get anywhere near it.
DOBBS: Not going to get anywhere near it, although our national security is inextricably, inextricably depended upon securing our borders. And anyone, whether left wing, right wing, or, god forbid, just simply rational, interested in the nation's welfare and the well- being of all of our people, know you have to do something on this issue.
SHEINKOPF: Well, this is -- a lot of this is politics, but to defend my party, frankly, we don't control the purse strings. The Republicans do. More money is needed for more border patrol agents.
DOBBS: But at the same time, the Republicans don't control the marketplace of ideas.
SHEINKOPF: True.
DOBBS: There are -- often Republicans are for free markets, except in the area of marketplace of ideas. But the Democrats have a responsibility here to be strong and powerful in their voice on this issue, don't you think?
SHEINKOPF: I think they certainly do, but I also believe that average Americans are getting disgusted not just with the Republicans but with Democrats as well.
DOBBS: Let's, if we may, hear a piece of sound from the president today talking, if you will, following up on his address last night on, we think, illegal immigration. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy even though this economy could not function without them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Now, that's a remarkable statement for a president of the United States to make. No one I've heard -- I mean, no one -- maybe you all have, has ever said immigrant are bad for this economy or this society.
ROLLINS: I don't think -- I don't think -- the president's rhetoric is wrong. The reality is, when people say "immigrants," they see illegal workers and they see illegal immigrants who've come in and created, in many case, crime waves.
You look at the prisons in California and Texas, people forget there's a lot of people coming across the border who don't come back and cut lawns and do the things that a lot of Americans may not want to do. They become criminals. And there's a real criminal element out there today, and that's what a lot of the law enforcement people are concerned about.
DOBBS: John.
FUND: Well, I'm from California, and the thing that drives people there crazy is, there are people who serve time in jail, they get released, and there's no immigration agent to escort them back across the border. That drives people crazy.
But, I have to tell you, when you talk about immigrants, I do know people who want to shut down legal immigration to this country. There are congressmen who literally want to have a moratorium on legal...
DOBBS: Name one.
FUND: Tom Tancredo. He has a bill on that effect.
DOBBS: To stop all immigration?
FUND: To cut it back to almost nothing.
SHEINKOPF: Well, that's wrong. That's absolutely wrong.
DOBBS: By the way, John, I don't think that's correct. And I will apologize to you if indeed it turns out you're correct.
FUND: Dramatically reduce legal immigration, a time out. Absolutely.
DOBBS: I thought I was pretty much aware of every piece immigration legislation and anti-illegal immigration.
FUND: I'll send you the bill number.
DOBBS: You got it.
ROLLINS: If anything, we should expand I mean, we allow a million illegals to come in a year. It's been that way for about 50, 60 years. We need to expand that base.
DOBBS: But this is, as everyone says, it is a country of immigrants.
ROLLINS: Right.
DOBBS: But for the president of the United States to stand up and say people talking about immigrants, it's insane for a leader on an issue that's so obviously important for him to want amnesty and a guest worker program to deliberately, I think it's fair it say, confuse immigration and illegal immigration at a time when such an important issue...
FUND: It's not illegal immigration. It's illegal aliens. It's people breaking the law.
DOBBS: Absolutely.
FUND: I don't even think we should attach the word "immigration" to that concept.
DOBBS: Well...
ROLLINS: The other key word is the "amnesty." If there is any amnesty thought process going on in the White House, they're going to lose their Republican base.
DOBBS: We will be back in just a moment.
Just ahead, another State of the Union Address. Another new education initiative. Educators, what do they think? Well, they're tired of all of the talk. They want action. That special report coming up.
And the president's new pitch for so-called free trade. Victims of this nation's failed trade agreements and trade policies are speaking out. They're next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: President Bush last night addressed how to improve our nation's schools, particularly the teaching of mathematics and science. But while students in countries such as Japan are excelling in math and science, their American counterparts are doing absolutely dismally.
Bill Tucker has the story from Denver, Colorado.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Bush barely received passing grades for his remarks on education from the teachers gathered to listen to his speech.
KIM URSETTA, DENVER EDUCATION ASSN.: And I guess I would give him a C, with a significant decline.
RON BRADY, PRESIDENT, COLORADO EDUCATION ASSN.: I will say that I would give the president a C. I can't give him a high grade like an A or a B, but I think that he has placed a lot of emphasis on his education initiative. I just believe it's been misguided and misdirected.
BRENNA ISAACS, AURORA EDUCATION ASSN.: I'm afraid I'd have to give the president a D. And my reason being that everything that he talked about, a secure nation, an economy that's growing, innovation and creativity, for me all begins where we begin educating students.
TUCKER: In the language of No Child Left Behind, the president failed to show adequate yearly progress.
Why weren't they impressed?
URSETTA: I thought it was pretty ambiguous. We really have no idea how he is going to get us to that place where we are more competitive.
ISAACS: And I didn't hear the getting us there. I heard something less than -- than specifics about how we will progress to address the goals of No Child Left Behind.
TUCKER: Lack of detail and no follow-through.
BRADY: The president has been interested in the last months to have a good conversation about high school reform. Yet, he didn't mention anything at all about it, other than he said that we were going to have additional resources to keep kids in school.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And what about those improving scores, Lou? The teachers that we spoke with here in Colorado who all happen to be Democrats would have liked to have heard more about them from the president, as well as maybe receive a little acknowledgement for the students and the teachers who've worked so hard to raise those scores -- Lou.
DOBBS: All of the teachers were Democrats, Bill Tucker?
TUCKER: All of the teachers we spoke with last night were Democrats. Amazing they gave him the passing scores.
DOBBS: Absolutely, showing some sense of equity there. And we thank you very much, Bill Tucker, as we continue to expand our sample in education.
Still ahead here, the president on the road and selling his speech and his agenda. Is America buying?
And Americans looking for answers from our nation's lawmakers. They're getting tired of the deep divide in partisan politics. That special report.
And the president seemingly can't get enough of our nation's free trade agreements. We'll talk with American workers whose careers have been ruined by so-called free trade.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: President Bush today went to Nashville in the first of a series of visits to the heartland trying to sell his State of the Union speech and agenda.
Dana Bash reports now from the White House -- Dana.
BASH: Well, Lou, in Nashville, the president struck a tone that some Republicans wish he had done more of when he had America's attention last night in the State of the Union. He acknowledged a little bit more of the pessimism in this country, saying people are uncertain, that he understands that there is an anxiety about the war and the economy.
Now, tomorrow, Lou, the president is back out on the road. He's going to Minnesota to push what the White House is calling his competitiveness agenda, modest initiatives for innovation, research and development and education in the areas of math and science.
Now, this is all wrapped up in this tour in a message that we saw behind the president today, we'll probably see tomorrow. They're calling it "America Wins When America Leads" -- Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, thank you very much.
Dana Bash from the White House.
The president's address has become a spectacle of stage craft and carefully planned partisan bursts of applause. The political parties of course are deeply divided, and that's not playing well in the rest of America outside the beltway.
Peter Viles reports now from Silicon Valley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Silicon Valley, folks are serious about problem-solving. Carl Guardino and his neighbors listened intently, even taking notes on the president's speech. But then came a moment when the president and the Congress just lost this crowd.
BUSH: Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security.
(APPLAUSE)
VILES: Partisan posturing doesn't cut it here.
CARL GUARDINO, SILICON VALLEY LEADERSHIP GROUP: We really just want bipartisan solutions that move Americans forward. Solutions aren't right or left, they're forward. And so when we hear things that seem overly partisan, it just doesn't work in Silicon Valley.
VILES: Bruce Cabral is a civil engineer and he found it laughable.
BRUCE CABRAL, CIVIL ENGINEER: That's the stuff you do laugh at. It's like, why you are doing this? I mean, why do they act this way at that level? And it's embarrassing. And like Carl was saying, you know, we just want good decisions, whether it's right or left, you know, for the economy, for the American people. And it gets silly when you see it at this level.
VILE: This group of neighbors, none them Bush voters, praised parts the speech, notably the president's ideas on education and energy, but they left hungry for more details.
CABRAL: My best friend is going to be shipping off it Iraq in a month. There were some things I was looking for. I think naively, I was hoping he'd start off with, you know, some really meaty thing about Iraq and the plan to get out of there now. And I didn't see that.
VILES: Also missing, a sense of real unity in a State of the Union speech.
FRANK TENG, ENERGY ANALYST: He only mentioned bipartisanship maybe once or twice in this speech, you know, an active, actual reference to it and saying we have to move forward together.
JANA MORSE, FORMER SCHOOL TEACHER: Well, his previous speech was, I'm a uniter, not a divider. He really didn't go back to that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VILES: It really is eye-opening to spend time with a group of people like this, people who are very serious, Lou, about the problems facing this country and serious about solutions. And they are not amused in the slightest by the partisanship they see in our nation's Capitol -- Lou.
DOBBS: And I don't think many people, certainly, are amused by what is transpiring in terms of partisanship, both parties seemingly hell bent on preserving that partisan divide. Thank you very much, Peter Viles, from Silicon Valley.
Ed Rollins, John Fund, Hank Sheinkopf, David Gergen are all back with us now to discuss -- let's start with that partisan divide, Hank. Democrats and Republicans -- that picture of Senator Clinton grinning and applauding on the failure of the Social Security initiative, smart politics?
SHEINKOPF: Not necessarily. What the president's doing in this rhetoric is almost trying to set him up as a victim. He's the right guy trying to do the right thing. Watch the Democrats crash down on us, and while offering no specifics on anything else which gives him room, frankly, to defend himself on either side.
So it's a good communication strategy for him. Democrats bashing him as the president, not such a good idea. Why? They should have learned something from what happened to President Clinton. When you bash the president, the person who's the president, you bash the office. You make it less effective and less powerful and useful. Not good.
DOBBS: You agree, David Gergen?
GERGEN: I do. The worst moment of the night for the Democrats was when they stood up and, in fact, laughed at the president. I think that it was a bad signal that we saw in Silicon Valley. But, you know, this is true on both sides now, Lou.
You know, the president's team basically is playing a 51, 52 percent game. They're trying to be president with the base. That's what they're going for. They're trying to revive themselves in the base.
This was a speech aimed at the base. He's not trying to be president of all the people. And I think you wind up with both parties are sticking a -- you know, putting a stick in the other party's eye.
DOBBS: You know, when the president, John Fund does not want to be president of all of the people, or feel he's compelled not to be, we've got a problem, don't we?
FUND: Well, the parties are equally divided. That means they're going to fight more tenaciously for the power than ever before. There always used to be a tradition in this country. You had a party that led with ideas, and brought a significant part of the other party with them -- Lyndon Johnson on civil rights, Ronald Reagan on tax cuts.
Now you've got Bush trying for 52 percent of the vote for president and this week, 90 percent of Democrats voting against Sam Alito who's clearly qualified? This is poisonous partisanship because the power is at stake and both sides are afraid to let the other side have it.
ROLLINS: Two moments last night where there was not partisanship last night. One was the appreciation for Sandra Day O'Connor, who was the ultimate middle of the roader, but it was a genuine applause line across Democrats and Republicans.
And the second was that family of that young man who gave his life for his country, which was a very touching moment. And it's kind of sad that you -- that those are the only points in the State of the Union speech that you can find common ground.
DOBBS: And the reaction, the follow-on today, in which the president of the United States is talking about the war in Iraq and the war on terror as if there are two choices. One, we continue wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, carry out those current policies on the war on terror; or we become isolationists.
They're referring to free trade, talking about a level playing field when this country's run up 30 years of consecutive trade deficit. We've lost millions of manufacturing jobs and saying that anything that does -- anyone who does not accept that policy is a protectionist.
FUND: You know, it's a paradox. We have now more means of communicating ideas than ever before in our history, and yet the choices offered to voters are more simplistic than ever. This is bizarre.
SHEINKOPF: This is setting up the dichotomy of severe partisanship for his own use later when he can sort out of his positions ...
ROLLINS: Well, the sad part is the only place that's really partisan in American today -- and you understand the business as well as I do -- is the Congress. It's the most partisan place. The country's not partisan anymore. There's a lot of young people today who are looking for a center, they're looking for ideas, they're looking for solutions.
SHEINKOPF: They're looking for leadership.
ROLLINS: They're looking for leadership.
DOBBS: David Gergen, I'm just a sucker and a chump, but I still believe we ought to look to the Oval Office for a leader who can rise above partisan politics, rise up and inspire people once a year. I'll settle for once a year.
GERGEN: Well, what a good nostalgia you have, Lou. But, you know, the truth is, it was only a few years ago that Reagan, as a man of the right, tried to be president of all the people. And it was not very long before that when Lyndon Johnson on civil rights did try to be president of all of the people, a southerner, you know, coming out of a very conservative background.
And both of them took a lot of risks. That's the tradition that's produced the most results for the country. It's what got us through world wars and it's worth trying to restore it. It's worth fighting to restore that tradition.
DOBBS: We'll be back with our panel in just a moment. And a reminder to vote in our poll tonight.
Do you believe the president's continued confusion over the worlds illegal immigration and immigration and illegal alien and willing worker means that there is no hope for meaningful border security or immigration reform? Yes or no. Cast your vote at loudobbs.com.
Thousands of hard working Americans who have lost their jobs to cheap foreign labor markets took little comfort from the president's speech last night. As we reported, President Bush talked about the need for open markets on a level playing field. But he offered absolutely no solutions for achieving those goals.
Lisa Sylvester reports from Kannapolis, North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This heap of rubble was the Pilowtex plant, a 116-year-old company known for its towels and bed sheets. When the plant closed in 2003, it was the largest mass layoff in North Carolina's history. RICHARD JENKINS, FMR. HR MANAGER, PILLOWTEX: Some of them didn't even have a high school education. Some them had never worked anywhere except the textile industry.
SYLVESTER: These are seven former employees, Democrats and Republicans, whose jobs were exported overseas. We asked them to watch the president's speech focusing on trade and globalization.
BUSH: With open markets and a level playing field, no one can outproduce or outcompete the American worker.
SHELIAH WOOD, HR REP, SHAW INDUSTRIES: When he said that no one could really outproduce the American people, I agree with that wholeheartedly.
SYLVESTER: The group has faith in the American worker, but less so in the system.
DAVID BAILEY, INFORMATION SYSTEMS TECHNICIAN: Competition from overseas? I don't believe we have a level playing field. When CEOs cut their overhead by outsourcing to fill their own pockets, that's against the American worker. And we're seeing so much of that.
JORGE ACEVDO, STUDENT, A/C AND REFRIGERATION: I mean, I don't understand. I mean, to me they're not doing enough to keep the jobs over here.
SYLVESTER: The president talks of kitchen table issues but they are living them, worries of health care and concern for former co- workers who lost their homes. They have all returned to school. Leonard Johnson will get his Associate's electronics degree this year. His last graduation was in 1965.
LEONARD JOHNSON, STUDENT, ENGINEERING: It seems strange to go back to school when most of the people in your classroom with you are teenagers or in their real early 20s.
SYLVESTER: Sandra Green went to work at the factory before finishing high school. She agrees with the president to stay competitive means returning to the classroom.
SANDRA GREEN, STUDENT, OFFICE SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY: And now I'm in my fifth semester of college and I'm making As and Bs, and I can type. And I've always admired people who could type.
SYLVESTER: They liked what they heard in the president's speech, but they know it's just a promise and they have learned promises to the American worker can be broken.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: And these were. Back out here at the Pillowtex plant, and the former workers, now students at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, they have a real sense that the politicians are working on behalf of big business. The campaign giving, the lobbying -- they say all of this has got to change. As one the workers put it to me as we were leaving last night, she said go back to Washington and tell those politicians to straighten up and fly right -- Lou.
DOBBS: You tell 'em, Lisa. And we hope they'll listen to you. Lisa Sylvester, thank you very much from Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Still ahead here, American health care in crisis. Our special report coming up.
And war on the middle class. One American in danger in losing his job to cheap foreign labor shares his reaction to the president's address.
Stay with us as we continue with those stories and a great deal more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BUSH: President Bush last night failed to address some of the key middle-class issues and concerns about the state of this country's health care system. President Bush announced no new proposals to help insure the 46 million Americans now without health care coverage. And he vowed to strengthen health saving accounts that will primarily benefit well-off Americans with existing health insurance. Kitty Pilgrim reports tonight from Cleveland, Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russell Redman and Jim Chandler are having a bite at the Yours Truly Coffee Shop in Cleveland. They're reviewing the headlines.
RUSSELL REDMAN, OHIO RESIDENT: We were just talking about health issues, personal health issues when you walked up. It's a big problem. The people that don't have health insurance. And are they going to fix it? And they've been talking about fixing this through a couple of administrations and they haven't gotten it done yet.
PILGRIM: The new Medicare program gets negative review
JOSEPH NAHRA, OHIO RESIDENT: I thought this new proposal for the drug things was so complicated, I don't know how anybody could understand that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do know of people who are just devastated by it.
PILGRIM: Some are upset, new proposals such as the medical savings plan, doesn't cover the nation's 46 million uninsured.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see that applying to them a great deal.
PILGRIM: One of the president's proposal, helping small businesses get some of the same types of health insurance discounts large businesses enjoy. Toy store Playmatters has 30 employees. Health coverage for young employees is relatively affordable. But for older workers, it's out of sight.
MICHAEL ZIEGEHNAGEN, OWNER, PLAYMATES: We actually have two staff members who are in their 50s and premiums for a family coverage is close to $12,000 a year. If we were to absorb the total cost of that premium, it isn't is an unabsorbable amount for a small business.
PILGRIM: At Cleveland's West Side Market, Jade Hall is on Medicaid along with her 8-month-old baby. She talks of people who are uninsured.
JADE HALL: A lot of people really don't have it and the people that need it can't get it.
PILGRIM: John Kuzman is a veteran of the Korean War.
JOHN KUZMAN, OHIO RESIDENT: The 20 percent that Medicare doesn't cover, it costs me $250 a month. Now that's a lot of money for somebody who's supposedly retired.
PILGRIM: And a day after the president's speech, Carol Fontaine is fed up with Congress.
CAROLE FONTAINE, OHIO RESIDENT: They're set. Congress is set for the rest of their lives. Their doctor's bills are covered but not for the normal middle class or the lower class people. It's horrible.
PILGRIM (on camera): The feeling about the speech here was very mixed. Some liked it. Some didn't. The feeling about health care coverage was uniform. Too many people don't have it. Those who do have coverage pay higher and higher prices every year. Lou.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much. Kitty Pilgrim from Cleveland, Ohio. Hank, your thoughts?
SHEINKOPF: The speech -- in the area of health care as akin to nothing else, nothing new that was said that made sense to people who need the most relief the quickest.
DOBBS: How about the savings accounts?
SHEINKOPF: This is nonsense. How can you ask people who are under tremendous stress to pay for their mortgages, pay for their children's education, pay the cost of living every day and increase petroleum cost, to then somehow find 10 grand, or whatever the amount is, to put into a health savings account. That's ridiculous.
FUND: It could be 1,000 it could be 2,000. The key is not that they're for everyone but that they inject an element of competition which will help bring costs down. Right now we don't have that, over half the health care budget is paid for by government. They drive costs up. Health care is the only part of our economy other than education, where we constantly see technology driving costs up. It makes no sense. We need competition. So the key is not that they're for everyone but they'll help bring costs down overall.
DOBBS: Ed?
ROLLINS: The problem is there were some expectations the president had something new. One of the things that was leaked out of the White House for several days and there was nothing new. I think anybody who is expecting something new I think is disappointed.
DOBBS: David.
GERGEN: Not that it was nothing new but it was almost a dismissive part of the speech. We had a speech of 51 minutes with two and a half minutes on health care when it is so central to most people in the country.
There is one principle on which I think the president is right. And that is, we need incentives for people to look after their own health better in order to bring health care costs down. The great benefit of the health savings accounts is it encourages you to look after yourself. Better nutrition and exercise and the rest and you save money doing that. That's smart.
The trouble is these things are not affordable by most people and the government will not step in to help them. The government is going to have to do far more to help people get insurance and get into these health savings accounts if we are going to solve this problem. So far, it's a lot of rhetoric. Very little delivery.
DOBBS: And tectonic shift that is taking place around all of this and that is globalization. Other countries, our principle competitors, subsidizing, either principally through national health care plans, the employees who are working for barely subsistence wages.
FUND: We can be smarter. In Virginia if you are self-employed and you want to buy a health-insurance policy it costs you 45 percent less than New York. Why? We have to look at reasons there are differences between the states.
A lot of that is the failure to have competition and loaded up with mandates. You have to cover plastic surgery. You have to cover transplants.
DOBBS: Forgive me.
ROLLINS: The dilemma is going back to the partisan game we played. Hillary tried to put a national health care system in, Senator Clinton. Republicans were totally opposed to it. The Republicans, anything they've tried to put forward is like a Band-Aid. No one wants to touch this issue today and I see no action for the next several years.
SHEINKOPF: What is distressing on this partisanship is the failure of leadership to come up with serious plans.
DOBBS: And I think there's another thing in addition on to -- in addition to partisanship. I think most people watching what Washington is doing, whether it's Congress, the Senate or the White House, Republican or Democrat, most of us plain don't trust what anybody is saying.
Gentlemen, we'll be back in just a moment. But coming up at much to the hour here on CNN, "THE SITUATION ROOM," and Wolf Blitzer. Wolf, what are you working on?
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Lou.
We're following a developing story out of West Virginia right now. We're going to tell you why the governor of that state has called for the complete shutdown of the state's coal mines. Also, dress codes and free speech. Did Capitol Hill police do the right thing removing war protester Cindy Sheehan from the State of the Union audience?
And why rolling the dice on modern medicine could help you beat a common addiction. It's all ahead. Lots more coming up, Lou, right at the top of the hour on "THE SITUATION ROOM."
And just ahead here, the war on the middle class. We'll be headed to Washington State for one working family's reaction to the president's State of the Union view. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: President Bush last night, once again, failed working men and women in this country -- little mention of the issues that most concern them, and sometimes overwhelm them. Katharine Barrett reports from Renton, Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHARINE BARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight the Kraft (ph) family is deeply thankful. They have two good jobs. Still, the future feels uncertain. Carol (ph) is a registered nurse. Chuck, a machinist at Boeing for 20 years. Over meat and potatoes after the president's speech, table talk swings from soccer to second- grade crushes and finally the State of the Union.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not too impressed by that speech. It didn't seem to be a real impact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing new. We will achieve success. How?
BARRETT: While watching the president speak, Chuck Kraft can barely contain his frustration. A Democrat, he never voted for Bush.
BUSH: In a dynamic world economy, we're seeing new competitors like China and India and this creates uncertainty, which makes it easier to feed people's fears. Tonight I will set out a better path, an agenda for a nation that competes with confidence. An agenda that will raise standards of living.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't compete with Chinese, with the buck 50 an hour.
BUSH: No one can outproduce or outcompete the American worker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corporate greed can. Compete globally, how? Keep my taxes. Give me health care. Give my kids low interest student loans.
BARRETT: Kraft is the second generation to work with his hands. Grateful for his $33 an hour, a pension and health care and proud of the blue-collar job that helps support a family of five. He is mindful that he's better off than many manufacturing workers, even many union members at Boeing.
Kraft says his aircraft parts shop his slipped from three shifts to one in the past two years, while work has shifted to Turkey. Boeing does try to reassign such workers. Kraft has also seen colleagues travel to China to train workers there in Boeing's production process.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't blame the Chinese people. They're very high-skilled work force. I mean it's a scary, scary situation. What happens if somehow something happens and China's no longer a friend? How are we going to produce our hardware?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BARRETT: And Boeing of course is a very successful global competitor. It sells more than 70 percent of its planes outside the United States and it added more than 7,000 jobs here last year. Still, many workers fear the president's brand of competitiveness may not be enough to secure those jobs -- Lou.
DOBBS: A feeling not confined to Renton, Washington, Katharine Barrett, thank you very much.
Still ahead, the results of our poll and final thoughts from our panel. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The results of our poll tonight. Overwhelming, 95 percent of you say the president's continued confusion over illegal immigration and immigration, illegal alien and willing worker, means there's no hope for meaningful border security or immigration reform. Final thoughts now from our panelists. Let's start with you, David Gergen.
GERGEN: Lou, the president deserved credit for putting his finger last night on math and science, trying to get more a lot more teachers into high schools. That's a good step forward. But overall, the political leadership of the country is simply not preparing us for the storms that are sweeping in on us, whether it's on this issue of the assault on the middle class, immigration or the other questions. You know, last night on CNN, reported that are there miles and miles of levees in New Orleans not being repaired and hurricane season's five months off. That's the state of the country right now, it's a metaphor for the country.
DOBBS: Hank Sheinkopf.
SHEINKOPF: We are seeing tremendous rhetoric, preparation for battle that's going to happen between Republicans and Democrats. Not enough to talk about real specifics that will take this country out of problems it now faces.
DOBBS: John Fund?
FUND: I feel compassion for the adults that have portrayed on this program. We didn't see a lot of kids. They are being short- changed by an educational system which is failing it educate them and not giving them the basic skills where they can't even get a low- paying job. We need to stop that and we need to solve the education problem.
DOBBS: Ed Rollins, you have the last word.
ROLLINS: In fairness to the president, I thought the first half of the speech, where he defended the efforts of our troops was very, very critical, to them especially. And I think he probably articulated as well as anything. The second part of the speech is what any Democrat or Republicans could give, was a lot of promises, a lot of rhetoric.
DOBBS: And let's hope that, as we proceed toward the next State of the Union address a year hence, that we'll find ourselves all a year better off, irrespective of our partisan beliefs, our commitment to that non-ideological, nonpartisan reality. We thank you, all, for being with us tonight.
We want to thank our panelists and we want you to join us tomorrow as well, when former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy will join us with the very latest on the Able Danger controversy, and I'll be talking with the author of "Generation Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Time to be Young." We hope you'll be with us. For all of us here, thanks for watching. Good night from New York. "THE SITUATION ROOM" starts right now with Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
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