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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Budget in the Red
Aired July 16, 2003 - 07:52 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush White House appears to have set a record it would rather not have.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Yes, bad news for the White House.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, we talked about it yesterday morning that the budget deficit was...
O'BRIEN: And good morning.
SERWER: Good morning to you, before we jump right in.
We talked about it yesterday. The budget deficit was supposed to come in around 450 billion; in fact, 455 billion, Soledad, and a lot of sterm (ph) and drong (ph) in Washington going back and forth, the Democrats and Republicans.
What does it mean for Americans? Let me just tick it off a little bit here. It probably means higher interest rates, because the government is going to have to pay the debt back. Don't expect any more tax cuts, right? Probably going to get your taxes raised at some point, particularly at the state level. Also -- but there's an interesting point here. Josh Bolton (ph), who works for the White House, saying that the war on terror is more important than balancing the budget, so keep that in mind.
Let's look at how the budget deficit compares historically, though, with other presidencies. We talked about this a little bit. We want to keep this up for a second, because as a percent of the economy -- we keep going back to this -- as a percent of GDP, the Reagan years, 6.7 percent. But you can see the 455 billion higher by orders of magnitude really. I mean, 200 billion more than these other administrations.
So, it really is a lot of money, and you're going to be hearing a lot about this. You guys were talking about it potentially being a major campaign issue, and I think you're absolutely right on that.
O'BRIEN: Alan Greenspan was testifying before Congress, and it didn't go very smoothly for him.
SERWER: Well, you know, Democrats are starting to get more and more riled up about the economy, because you know, he is very measured, talks about things back and forth, but we're really making some headway. And, you know, Senator Bernie -- excuse me -- Representative Bernie Sanders from Vermont decided to jump in and really got a little perturbed. Let's see if we can listen in to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BERNARD SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I think you just don't know what's going on in the real world. And I would urge you, come with me to Vermont, meet real people. The country clubs and the cocktail parties are not real America. The millionaires and billionaires are the exception to the rule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERWER: I think I should point out that Representative Sanders is a very left-wing member of the House, but other representatives are also rather upset.
And, you know, again, he's trying to say the economy is recovering, but hold your horses, wait, let it go. Again, that measured stuff we always hear from him. And, you know, when you have this joblessness continuing, it starts to wear a little bit thin.
O'BRIEN: What we heard from Congressman Sanders, is that pretty much what the other elected officials were saying? I mean, he was pretty angry and he was pretty confrontational. Was that reflected in what other folks were saying?
SERWER: Well, I think it was more or less partisan, Soledad. I think the Republicans are still supporting him, and also a lot of moderate Democrats are still very much on his side.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer, nice to see you, thanks.
SERWER: Nice to see 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 July 16, 2003 - 07:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush White House appears to have set a record it would rather not have.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Yes, bad news for the White House.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, we talked about it yesterday morning that the budget deficit was...
O'BRIEN: And good morning.
SERWER: Good morning to you, before we jump right in.
We talked about it yesterday. The budget deficit was supposed to come in around 450 billion; in fact, 455 billion, Soledad, and a lot of sterm (ph) and drong (ph) in Washington going back and forth, the Democrats and Republicans.
What does it mean for Americans? Let me just tick it off a little bit here. It probably means higher interest rates, because the government is going to have to pay the debt back. Don't expect any more tax cuts, right? Probably going to get your taxes raised at some point, particularly at the state level. Also -- but there's an interesting point here. Josh Bolton (ph), who works for the White House, saying that the war on terror is more important than balancing the budget, so keep that in mind.
Let's look at how the budget deficit compares historically, though, with other presidencies. We talked about this a little bit. We want to keep this up for a second, because as a percent of the economy -- we keep going back to this -- as a percent of GDP, the Reagan years, 6.7 percent. But you can see the 455 billion higher by orders of magnitude really. I mean, 200 billion more than these other administrations.
So, it really is a lot of money, and you're going to be hearing a lot about this. You guys were talking about it potentially being a major campaign issue, and I think you're absolutely right on that.
O'BRIEN: Alan Greenspan was testifying before Congress, and it didn't go very smoothly for him.
SERWER: Well, you know, Democrats are starting to get more and more riled up about the economy, because you know, he is very measured, talks about things back and forth, but we're really making some headway. And, you know, Senator Bernie -- excuse me -- Representative Bernie Sanders from Vermont decided to jump in and really got a little perturbed. Let's see if we can listen in to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BERNARD SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I think you just don't know what's going on in the real world. And I would urge you, come with me to Vermont, meet real people. The country clubs and the cocktail parties are not real America. The millionaires and billionaires are the exception to the rule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERWER: I think I should point out that Representative Sanders is a very left-wing member of the House, but other representatives are also rather upset.
And, you know, again, he's trying to say the economy is recovering, but hold your horses, wait, let it go. Again, that measured stuff we always hear from him. And, you know, when you have this joblessness continuing, it starts to wear a little bit thin.
O'BRIEN: What we heard from Congressman Sanders, is that pretty much what the other elected officials were saying? I mean, he was pretty angry and he was pretty confrontational. Was that reflected in what other folks were saying?
SERWER: Well, I think it was more or less partisan, Soledad. I think the Republicans are still supporting him, and also a lot of moderate Democrats are still very much on his side.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer, nice to see you, thanks.
SERWER: Nice to see 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.
