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President Bush Talks up Economy in Indiana
Aired September 05, 2003 - 15:44 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, money matters. That's what's on President Bush's mind today. He's in Indiana making speeches on the economy and raising funds for his re-election.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live from Indianapolis with the details now.
Hi, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well, within moments President Bush is going to be speaking before employees at the transportation and logistics company. And what he's going to be talking about is really the need for small business incentives. He's also going to be talking about the administration's effort to create more jobs. And to be sure, a clear signal that this is politically significant traveling with the president is his chief political adviser, Karl Rove.
Now this is the third time the president has taken a trip to the Midwest just within the last week. He won hands down Indiana by 16 percentage points over Gore but he is not taking anything for granted.
And, of course, the focus today is on the economy. There are some mixed signals here. We saw in July a 6.2 unemployment rate. It has gone down to 6.1 in August. But still, it's a jobless recovery. And the president is going to be giving somewhat of a pep talk. We're going to see this happen for the weeks and the months to come as he argues that his own economic plan is working, that it will continue to work. He is going to highlight a number of things including the need to limit lawsuit awards, also to expand domestic energy production, to promote free trade agreements, to hold Congressional spending, to pass Medicare reform, make tax cuts permanent.
And that, Kyra, perhaps his most controversial one. The president has managed to push through three different tax cuts since he has become president. And if he were to make those permanent, if he were to convince Congress to do so, that would be a very high bill. We're talking more than a trillion over 10 years. Still very questionable whether the Congress would go along with that. We've seen Democratic candidates who have said that they would outright repeal some of these tax cuts.
So that is the big question. The president again trying to convince the American people that yes, he is doing everything he can and with patience that these tax cuts are going to create more work -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux with the president there in Indianapolis, 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 September 5, 2003 - 15:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, money matters. That's what's on President Bush's mind today. He's in Indiana making speeches on the economy and raising funds for his re-election.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live from Indianapolis with the details now.
Hi, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well, within moments President Bush is going to be speaking before employees at the transportation and logistics company. And what he's going to be talking about is really the need for small business incentives. He's also going to be talking about the administration's effort to create more jobs. And to be sure, a clear signal that this is politically significant traveling with the president is his chief political adviser, Karl Rove.
Now this is the third time the president has taken a trip to the Midwest just within the last week. He won hands down Indiana by 16 percentage points over Gore but he is not taking anything for granted.
And, of course, the focus today is on the economy. There are some mixed signals here. We saw in July a 6.2 unemployment rate. It has gone down to 6.1 in August. But still, it's a jobless recovery. And the president is going to be giving somewhat of a pep talk. We're going to see this happen for the weeks and the months to come as he argues that his own economic plan is working, that it will continue to work. He is going to highlight a number of things including the need to limit lawsuit awards, also to expand domestic energy production, to promote free trade agreements, to hold Congressional spending, to pass Medicare reform, make tax cuts permanent.
And that, Kyra, perhaps his most controversial one. The president has managed to push through three different tax cuts since he has become president. And if he were to make those permanent, if he were to convince Congress to do so, that would be a very high bill. We're talking more than a trillion over 10 years. Still very questionable whether the Congress would go along with that. We've seen Democratic candidates who have said that they would outright repeal some of these tax cuts.
So that is the big question. The president again trying to convince the American people that yes, he is doing everything he can and with patience that these tax cuts are going to create more work -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux with the president there in Indianapolis, 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
