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Bush Economic Forum Wraps Up

Aired August 13, 2002 - 14:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you have been watching CNN, you know President Bush has been studying the pluses and the minuses of the U.S. economy today at Baylor University, not far from his Texas ranch. And his conclusion here, -- and we are quoting -- "Times are kind of tough, but he is terribly optimistic about the future."
CNN's Fred Katayama is live in Waco -- Fred.

FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made a rare joint public appearance today here at the economic forum in Waco, Texas. The president listened to proposals to prop up the economy from a series of eight panels. The president really didn't respond as much to the panelists, but broke into a 30-minute speech. The president rejected $5.1 billion in homeland security money, arguing much of it is not targeted for emergency purposes. He used it as an occasion to lash out at Congress saying Congress must restrain spending for the long term.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I made my opposition clear. We were pretty plainspoken about this supplemental, but those who wrote the bill designed it so I have to spend all five of the extra billion dollars or spend none of it. That's how they wrote the supplemental. Those are the rules they placed upon my administration. I understand their position, and today, they are going to learn mine. We will spend none of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATAYAMA: The president was optimistic about the economic outlook. The president said that its strengths outweigh its weaknesses, pointing to robust consumer spending. On other matters, the president said -- called for the reformation of medical malpractice. He said frivolous lawsuits keep driving up the cost of health care.

On financial matters, the president said the tax cuts that he initiated should be made permanent. Later on this afternoon, his -- the president's men and women, the cabinet officials, will be coming out here before the press probably to put a positive spin on the day's events, and the president's speech.

Perhaps it is not the most appropriate place to do this, this is the gym of Baylor University. The team's mascot and the sports team are called the Bears -- Carol, back to you.

LIN: Good analogy there. Let's hope for some bull action soon.

Listen, Fred, all this information that the president had gathered, it was supposed to be this listening session so that he could listen in on ordinary Americans. Fourteen hours of discussion today, where is all this information going to go?

KATAYAMA: Well, the president actually visited four of the eight panels. He visited for about 20 minutes each, and he said that later on, he would read the summaries of those panel, think about it, and then act upon it, in his words, to create more jobs for Americans. The panelists, however, there really wasn't much vocal opposition. I couldn't hear any at all of the four that I monitored. The Democrats had criticized this event as a PR exercise. They say -- they note that many of the participants are Republican backers, people who had supported the Bush campaign.

We had senior executives of many of the blue chip corporations, such John Chambers of Cisco Systems. At the same time, we also had some blue collar workers appearing as well, a UPS truck driver among them -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Fred Katayama reporting live from Baylor University, the home of the Bears.

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