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American Morning

Bush Budget Released Today

Aired April 09, 2001 - 10:07   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Bush has another bottom line to focus on today. His budget blueprint will now pass to the political scrutiny of Congress. Just minutes ago, the White House released its spending plan, totaling $1.96 trillion and measuring some four inches thick.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve is in Washington. Let's go back to her now for the latest -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, I think it's more than four inches thick, and I'll tell you, this is a great upper body workout just to be lifting this thing up and down, a real tome. As you mentioned, the budget that was released this morning by the Government Printing Office calls for $1.96 trillion in federal spending. It would cap discretionary spending outside of Social Security and Medicare at four percent and it allows for a tax cut of $1.6 trillion, that, of course, what the president has been calling for.

President Bush spoke about the budget in a cabinet meeting just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No pork. This budget funds our needs without the fat. It also represents a new way of doing business in Washington and a new way of thinking. The budget puts the taxpayers first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Bob Franken up on Capitol Hill has been poring over this tome and has a few things to say -- Bob, the president this morning said that this budget reflected his compassionate conservatism. He talked about increases in certain programs. What's being cut here, however?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, an awful lot is being cut, a lot of domestic programs outside the realm of education. Just as one example, one of the Clinton programs, one of the hallmarks of the Clinton administration had been the community policing effort, where 100,000 policemen with federal funding were to be put on the streets of the United States. Money is being cut for that. Substituted for that, the placement of police in schools. It's this type of thing. The president called this, as you pointed out, compassionate conservatism. It's really, Jeanne, the start of passionate lobbying. As a matter of fact, this annual event, the release of the budget, is oftentimes called the Lobbyist Preservation Act of 2001.

MESERVE: ... Bob, that are being hard hit by this budget?

FRANKEN: Well, programs that are being hard hit include the agriculture department. They include a number of the programs, social programs including international programs. One of them that's very interesting, and we had heard about this, is going to be a cutback in money that was aimed at ending nuclear proliferation. Now, people might say that's not really a social program, but the critics of this, the people who are the doves in this so-called argument over nuclear proliferation, would say that it is quite an important social program when you work toward trying to end annihilation.

Of course, on the other side, the administration would say that this is a program that had really gone awry, that it will be replaced with other programs that are more effective in the nuclear field.

MESERVE: Bob, while Congress has been discussing the budget, there's been a lot of conversation about the reliability of budget projections. How does this budget deal with the current economic situation and the outlook?

FRANKEN: Well, as a matter of fact, what you get is a fairly rosy prediction. When you look at this budget, the same things are turning around. Things are getting better. The one thing to remember always, a big flaw when it comes to projecting a budget is that budget projections are always one thing, they're always raw.

MESERVE: Bob Franken on Capitol Hill, thanks so much. And now we're going to send it back to Atlanta.

HARRIS: All right, thanks, Jeanne.

KAGAN: Jeanne, thanks a lot.

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