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American Morning

Americans Want More Details on Bush's Economic Plans

Aired January 30, 2002 - 08:53   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So how did the president's State of the Union play in Peoria? Well, we can't tell you, but we are going to take you to the nation's heartland, not all that far from Peoria, to a company that has been doing a brisk business since the attacks of September 11th.

CNN's Leon Harris has been talking to employees at J.C. Schultz Enterprises. It's an American flag manufacturer in St. Charles, Illinois. He joins us now. Hey, how's it going?

LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.

Yeah, that J.C. Schultz Enterprises here, as you said, has been doing a booming business here. They call themselves -- they are proud to be one of the top five flag makers here in the United States. And you would imagine that in a place like this, all the workers would naturally be very patriotic.

Well, we haven't had any shortage of patriotism, but there has been a very (AUDIO GAP) what happened last night and what people heard in the State of the Union address. Steve has been talking with me a few seconds ago here. You tell us about the speech, and what you heard.

STEVE, J.C. SCHULTZ ENTERPRISES: Well, basically, I just felt that it was like, basically scripted, with all the standing ovations and the clapping, and every time he paused to say something, everyone would get up and clap, it was just basically like, when are you going to get to the real point. It was like...

HARRIS: Well, what for you was the real point?

STEVE: The unemployment, the unemployment and finding jobs and health care for people who are unemployed and laid off right now. Basically, I was unemployed for about 2.5 months recently until I got the job here at J.C. Schultz. And it's just basically that, with the tax cuts and all the other things, everyone wants to know, how is he going to do the jobs, and what jobs is he planning to open? I know he is saying warehouses and everything and like that, but what other jobs are there out there for other people who are being laid off right now? It was just like -- I don't know. It just seemed like he was saying what he wanted everybody to hear.

HARRIS: Do you mean that you don't think he was sincere when you say that?

STEVE: I don't know, because he gives a little quirk, and then everyone would stand up and clap, and give him a little standing ovation, then he would give a little smile and quirk, then he would say something else. It just made me feel like, you know, is he really serious or is someone else feeding him these lines? Basically -- I don't know. I'm not really into politics that much, but as far as what I can see, he did basically explain how he was going to open up the jobs on the farms, and the warehouses, and basically that's where I've been working at for the last couple of years now, and everything.

HARRIS: Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Sounds to me like you know enough about politics, you know as much as some of the people I talk to regularly.

Now, Bonnie, we talked earlier. You were not satisfied with what you heard last night. Why?

BONNIE, J.C. SCHULTZ ENTERPRISES: Because I think that he addressed everything that's on the minds of all Americans, but he didn't give us any solutions.

HARRIS: But you told me a while ago you thought he should have even mentioned the Enron situation. Why do you think that?

BONNIE: Because Republicans, top officials in the Republican party were involved in that, yet they're not available for questioning. They don't have to account for anything, and it's just unfair that a company as large as that, filed bankruptcy, affects thousands of lives, people losing their money, losing their retirement, and yet we can't get our questions answered regarding this.

HARRIS: All right. A lot of people would disagree with you on that, thinking, now is not the time. Not at the State of the Union address to talk about that sort of thing. But he did go on to talk about other issues, like the economy. Were you satisfied with what you heard about that?

BONNIE: Well, I didn't hear any solutions. I think it's very noble to bring up everything that we need, social security, health insurance. But -- unemployment. But what will our solutions be? You can't keep giving back taxes to the American public, the working public now, because we have a million Americans out of work right now, and not be able to fund some of these issues. We have to help these people get back to work. He didn't say how he was going to create jobs. We need jobs for these people.

HARRIS: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

Anderson, as you can see, people here are not necessarily saying that they don't think that President Bush is up to the task, or that they didn't like exactly what they heard. A lot of them are just telling us, and what we heard Bonnie here say, the wanted more details, that sort of thing. But we are going to talk to other people as well later throughout the morning and get some other reactions, too. Back to you in the studio in New York.

COOPER: Well Leon, President Bush, according to the ABC poll, has an 83 percent approval rating. I guess the two people there aren't part of that 83 percent, huh?

HARRIS: Well, I don't know. Because, you know, when we talked to them off camera, none of these people have said that they don't like President Bush. None of them have said they don't like the way that he's prosecuting the war, for instance. They all agree with that, they all think that he's doing a fantastic job with that. I haven't heard one person disagree with that. And I think that's where a lot of the approval ratings and the numbers that we've been seeing are coming from. It's just that some are saying, okay, that's true, but now that we're getting past that point where we have to be just blindly patriotic, now's the time to start talking about some details.

COOPER: All right. Leon Harris, thanks very much. In St. Charles, Illinois. We'll check back in with you a little bit later on.

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