Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

New & Old Issues in the New Year

Aired December 26, 2002 - 13:13   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Iraq is just one issue President Bush is chewing on right now, as he prepares for a long weekend at his Texas ranch.
Our White House correspondent Dana Bash joins us to talk about the decision Mr. Bush will face in 2003.

Dana, obviously, the State of the Union address coming up, and war talk, of course, involved in that speech.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question about it. And in the short term, at least, this month, President Bush in terms of Iraq will be using this month to kind of build the body of evidence against Iraq.

They're going to continue to make -- to put pressure on the U.N. inspectors, weapons inspectors, to have more aggressive searchers.

They're going to continue to try to interview Iraqi scientists, to try to get them out of Iraq, to get more information from them, and it's all kind of moving toward January 27th, which is when a final U.N. report on what the weapons inspectors find is due with the U.N. And that's what they're moving toward.

Of course, as you've been talking about, North Korea is heating up, they're continuing to kind of focus diplomatically on North Korea, trying to get the allies in the region to put pressure on that country to stop its nuclear program, but earlier today on CNN, Mohammed Al- Baradei, who is the IAEA head, said that he is probably going to take that -- this issue to the U.N. Security Council.

So President Bush is going to be dealing with potentially both North Korea and Iraq in the U.N. in the coming months.

PHILLIPS: And of course, talking about the economy, a lot of new economic advisers in the house.

BASH: No question about it. That's another issue that the president we know will try to hit hard as he comes back in January, as the new Congress comes back. He does have this new economic team. He is going to have to get his new Treasury Secretary John Snow in place, get him confirmed, and we're also told that he is going to probably in January unveil a new economic stimulus package, some $300 billion to try to aid Americans as this economy starts to get better, but the president doesn't want to take any chances.

He learned, we know from some problems that his father had in his re-election bid, that you can't take any chances with the economy. You can certainly expect the Democrats to come back and say that President Bush, with his economic stimulus plan, is only focusing on the wealthy and that he's not doing enough for Americans who, they say, really need it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS Talking about needing things. Health care, another top issue for the president to deal with next year.

BASH: No question about it, and now he's got Senator Dr. Bill Frist as the new Senate majority leader. His focus has always been primarily on health care issues, and presumably, he will keep that focus as the new Senate comes into place.

One top issue that President Bush and the Democrats both wanted last year, but didn't get to is the prescription drug benefit for Medicare. You can be sure that both Republicans and Democrats will try again to try to get something passed, but there are serious partisan differences in how to approach that issue. So we can see that certainly being another fight this year.

Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 26, 2002 - 13:13   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Iraq is just one issue President Bush is chewing on right now, as he prepares for a long weekend at his Texas ranch.
Our White House correspondent Dana Bash joins us to talk about the decision Mr. Bush will face in 2003.

Dana, obviously, the State of the Union address coming up, and war talk, of course, involved in that speech.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question about it. And in the short term, at least, this month, President Bush in terms of Iraq will be using this month to kind of build the body of evidence against Iraq.

They're going to continue to make -- to put pressure on the U.N. inspectors, weapons inspectors, to have more aggressive searchers.

They're going to continue to try to interview Iraqi scientists, to try to get them out of Iraq, to get more information from them, and it's all kind of moving toward January 27th, which is when a final U.N. report on what the weapons inspectors find is due with the U.N. And that's what they're moving toward.

Of course, as you've been talking about, North Korea is heating up, they're continuing to kind of focus diplomatically on North Korea, trying to get the allies in the region to put pressure on that country to stop its nuclear program, but earlier today on CNN, Mohammed Al- Baradei, who is the IAEA head, said that he is probably going to take that -- this issue to the U.N. Security Council.

So President Bush is going to be dealing with potentially both North Korea and Iraq in the U.N. in the coming months.

PHILLIPS: And of course, talking about the economy, a lot of new economic advisers in the house.

BASH: No question about it. That's another issue that the president we know will try to hit hard as he comes back in January, as the new Congress comes back. He does have this new economic team. He is going to have to get his new Treasury Secretary John Snow in place, get him confirmed, and we're also told that he is going to probably in January unveil a new economic stimulus package, some $300 billion to try to aid Americans as this economy starts to get better, but the president doesn't want to take any chances.

He learned, we know from some problems that his father had in his re-election bid, that you can't take any chances with the economy. You can certainly expect the Democrats to come back and say that President Bush, with his economic stimulus plan, is only focusing on the wealthy and that he's not doing enough for Americans who, they say, really need it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS Talking about needing things. Health care, another top issue for the president to deal with next year.

BASH: No question about it, and now he's got Senator Dr. Bill Frist as the new Senate majority leader. His focus has always been primarily on health care issues, and presumably, he will keep that focus as the new Senate comes into place.

One top issue that President Bush and the Democrats both wanted last year, but didn't get to is the prescription drug benefit for Medicare. You can be sure that both Republicans and Democrats will try again to try to get something passed, but there are serious partisan differences in how to approach that issue. So we can see that certainly being another fight this year.

Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com