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American Morning

President Bush Sends Budget to Congress

Aired April 09, 2001 - 09:07   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also in Washington, President Bush is getting down to the details of his budget. A line-by-line spending plan is being unveiled this morning, and it's certain to add up to more debate in Congress.

National correspondent Bob Franken joining us now from Capitol Hill with a look at the Bush budget.

Good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And, yes, the -- the debate will go on, and here are the predictions: The Democrats will be saying over and over that this shows that, in fact, President Bush is beholden to big business, that this is a heartless budget. They will point to the fact it is only a 4-percent increase in spending.

During the period of time involved, by the way, is a $1.96- trillion budget. They will compare that to President Clinton's last budget which was over an 8 percent increase. The Democrats will be pointing to the many programs that are going to be cut. Particularly hard hit, the Agriculture Department and the Transportation Department.

You're seeing, by the way, the release of the budgets this morning at the government printing offices. This is one of the annual rituals in town where reporters, lobbyists, and other interested parties stand in line and jostle to get their hands on this budget, which, of course, goes hundreds of pages.

It becomes part of debate. It follows last week's debate over the much more generic budget and, of course, the Democrats prevailing in the Senate, to their satisfaction lowering tax cut that President Bush was proposing.

This budget now goes into that process. The Republicans will say that this is another example of President Bush and the GOP trying to put money back into the pockets of the American people to spend as they wish, as opposed to government programs.

It becomes part of this process that really doesn't get serious until the end of the congressional session, when the appropriators, the ones who really decide how the money is spent -- when they get together and make their decisions and come out with the appropriation bills, which, by the way, is the only reason that Congress is really here, according to the Constitution.

Now President Bush has made it clear through his spokespeople that he will veto anything that does not satisfy him and the budgetary requests that he is making. But this really a political document, which gets the debate started and gets the final spending plan really underway.

KAGAN: All right. Bob Franken on Capitol Hill. We'll discuss it with you later in the morning. Thank you.

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