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Democrats Take Issue With Points of Address
Aired January 29, 2003 - 13:24 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the day after the State of the Union speech. Time for a little Wednesday morning quarterbacking. Lots of that going on on Capitol Hill, as we speak.
Watching it all for us, CNN's Jonathan Karl. Jonathan, what's the latest, as senators line up to -- I guess critique would be one way to describe it?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. What you see now is on the floor of the United States Senate, the top leaders coming out, giving their kind of post-game analysis of what the president had to say. Not surprising from Democrats, some very strong criticism of what the president had to say in the way of his domestic agenda.
Also some on Iraq, but certainly on the domestic agenda. There you see the Senate floor right now going on -- that is Kit Bond of Missouri, giving his take on all of this.
But just a short while ago, we heard from Tom Daschle, who was especially critical of the president on the domestic situation, on his handling of the economy, on his economic stimulus plan, and his tax cut. Listen to what he had to say about the tax cut, and its impact on the education budget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: The Bush administration has proposed the smallest education budget in seven years. Despite continued enrollment -- record enrollment in America's public schools, despite new testing requirements and other mandates and new law, despite the worst state budget crisis in 50 years, crises that are forcing many states to cut education budgets, despite looming teacher shortage crises, despite growing problems with overcrowded and obsolete school buildings, despite the fact that higher education is slipping farther and farther out of reach for more families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: But, Miles, Democrats did find some things to actually like about the president's speech on the domestic front. Some of the things that have -- will have some Democratic support.
First and foremost, that proposal on AIDS, fighting AIDS in Africa, $10 billion. It is a lot of money, but it is something that Democrats think is a very positive step, and will have strong and widespread support in the Congress on both sides of the aisle. Also, the $1.2 billion proposal to support research into hydrogen powered cars. This is something Democrats themselves have been pushing for, you saw a big applause for it last night, and you will see support as it goes through the Congress, and also the money that was talked about for drug treatment programs.
Democrats will say that's not enough, but it's a good start. They like to hear the president talking about those issues.
But as far as what Democrats oppose, much bigger issues here. One, that big $600 billion-plus tax plan that the president has proposed. Democrats find almost nothing to like in that plan. They don't like to talk about changes in the Medicare system that would require some seniors to go into managed care programs in exchange for prescription drug benefits.
Democrats do not like that idea, and you have a lot of second guessing here from Democrats, of course, on the issue of the war, and on whether or not we need to go in, the United States needs to go into this war soon. Many Democrats up here -- many top Democrats are saying that the inspectors should be given more time. The U.N. needs to be on board, our allies need to be on board.
Miles, on that question, Ted Kennedy is out. We expect to hear from him on the floor of the Senate today with a proposal that would require the president to come back to the Congress to get authorization before going to war against Iraq. It's a very controversial proposal because, as you know, last fall, the Congress voted to give the president the authorization, but Kennedy is saying a lot has changed since then, and he thinks the president should come back and get authorization yet again -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The plot just gets thicker, Jonathan.
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 January 29, 2003 - 13:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the day after the State of the Union speech. Time for a little Wednesday morning quarterbacking. Lots of that going on on Capitol Hill, as we speak.
Watching it all for us, CNN's Jonathan Karl. Jonathan, what's the latest, as senators line up to -- I guess critique would be one way to describe it?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. What you see now is on the floor of the United States Senate, the top leaders coming out, giving their kind of post-game analysis of what the president had to say. Not surprising from Democrats, some very strong criticism of what the president had to say in the way of his domestic agenda.
Also some on Iraq, but certainly on the domestic agenda. There you see the Senate floor right now going on -- that is Kit Bond of Missouri, giving his take on all of this.
But just a short while ago, we heard from Tom Daschle, who was especially critical of the president on the domestic situation, on his handling of the economy, on his economic stimulus plan, and his tax cut. Listen to what he had to say about the tax cut, and its impact on the education budget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: The Bush administration has proposed the smallest education budget in seven years. Despite continued enrollment -- record enrollment in America's public schools, despite new testing requirements and other mandates and new law, despite the worst state budget crisis in 50 years, crises that are forcing many states to cut education budgets, despite looming teacher shortage crises, despite growing problems with overcrowded and obsolete school buildings, despite the fact that higher education is slipping farther and farther out of reach for more families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: But, Miles, Democrats did find some things to actually like about the president's speech on the domestic front. Some of the things that have -- will have some Democratic support.
First and foremost, that proposal on AIDS, fighting AIDS in Africa, $10 billion. It is a lot of money, but it is something that Democrats think is a very positive step, and will have strong and widespread support in the Congress on both sides of the aisle. Also, the $1.2 billion proposal to support research into hydrogen powered cars. This is something Democrats themselves have been pushing for, you saw a big applause for it last night, and you will see support as it goes through the Congress, and also the money that was talked about for drug treatment programs.
Democrats will say that's not enough, but it's a good start. They like to hear the president talking about those issues.
But as far as what Democrats oppose, much bigger issues here. One, that big $600 billion-plus tax plan that the president has proposed. Democrats find almost nothing to like in that plan. They don't like to talk about changes in the Medicare system that would require some seniors to go into managed care programs in exchange for prescription drug benefits.
Democrats do not like that idea, and you have a lot of second guessing here from Democrats, of course, on the issue of the war, and on whether or not we need to go in, the United States needs to go into this war soon. Many Democrats up here -- many top Democrats are saying that the inspectors should be given more time. The U.N. needs to be on board, our allies need to be on board.
Miles, on that question, Ted Kennedy is out. We expect to hear from him on the floor of the Senate today with a proposal that would require the president to come back to the Congress to get authorization before going to war against Iraq. It's a very controversial proposal because, as you know, last fall, the Congress voted to give the president the authorization, but Kennedy is saying a lot has changed since then, and he thinks the president should come back and get authorization yet again -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The plot just gets thicker, Jonathan.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
