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American Morning

Cost of War on Terror

Aired September 09, 2003 - 07:04   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: Now to the impact of the budget request for Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House says the additional $87 billion it is seeking will put the deficit at a record half- trillion dollars. That is not sitting well with many lawmakers.
CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash is live for us at the White House this morning.

Dana -- good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And there certainly was no shortage of criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday about this request, saying that it is shockingly large and it is proof they said that the administration did not plan well enough for the post-war situation we are seeing right now.

But no one said that the president wasn't going to get this money. Most said that this probably would pass Congress.

However, there is political heat that the White House is facing, as you mentioned, about what it means for the deficit. Let's take a look at some of the numbers.

The White House had projected that the deficit would be $475 billion. Now, a White House official told reporters that because of this $87 billion request, the administration is estimating it at $525 billion or more. And that means for the White House that they will have to answer lots of questions from Democrats as to how they are going to cut that deficit down and what it means.

But the White House says is that they still believe they can cut the deficit in half in five years, but they're going to have to do so by limiting congressional spending, and that means some attacks from Democrats saying that they are prioritizing incorrectly, that they are going to have to cut some key domestic priorities.

But, Soledad, in that $87 billion there is also the question of how much is going to be spent on Iraq reconstruction. We have some numbers for you there as well.

The estimated cost from the administration is that reconstruction will cost a total of $50 to $75 billion, but the White House requested only 20 billion from Congress as a part of their budget request they're going to send up. So, that leaves $30 to $55 billion that they are going to have to find from Iraq and other international sources.

Now, an administration official says that they hope to fund some of that from Iraq's assets, but some of what they hoped to fund all of this with was some of the oil revenues coming from Iraq. And before the war, some administration officials had estimated that in the tens of billions of dollars. But what they are saying now is that, for instance, next year they only estimate to get some $12 billion from Iraqi oil assets.

And so, the administration official told us late yesterday that basically what they are going to have to do is make it clear to their friends and allies that they need help, that the administration needs help in reconstruction of Iraq, because what the U.S. is asking for is only 20 billion, which, as you saw, is just a fraction of what it may cost down the road to rebuild that country -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Dana Bash for us at the White House this morning. Dana, thanks.

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 9, 2003 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the impact of the budget request for Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House says the additional $87 billion it is seeking will put the deficit at a record half- trillion dollars. That is not sitting well with many lawmakers.
CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash is live for us at the White House this morning.

Dana -- good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And there certainly was no shortage of criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday about this request, saying that it is shockingly large and it is proof they said that the administration did not plan well enough for the post-war situation we are seeing right now.

But no one said that the president wasn't going to get this money. Most said that this probably would pass Congress.

However, there is political heat that the White House is facing, as you mentioned, about what it means for the deficit. Let's take a look at some of the numbers.

The White House had projected that the deficit would be $475 billion. Now, a White House official told reporters that because of this $87 billion request, the administration is estimating it at $525 billion or more. And that means for the White House that they will have to answer lots of questions from Democrats as to how they are going to cut that deficit down and what it means.

But the White House says is that they still believe they can cut the deficit in half in five years, but they're going to have to do so by limiting congressional spending, and that means some attacks from Democrats saying that they are prioritizing incorrectly, that they are going to have to cut some key domestic priorities.

But, Soledad, in that $87 billion there is also the question of how much is going to be spent on Iraq reconstruction. We have some numbers for you there as well.

The estimated cost from the administration is that reconstruction will cost a total of $50 to $75 billion, but the White House requested only 20 billion from Congress as a part of their budget request they're going to send up. So, that leaves $30 to $55 billion that they are going to have to find from Iraq and other international sources.

Now, an administration official says that they hope to fund some of that from Iraq's assets, but some of what they hoped to fund all of this with was some of the oil revenues coming from Iraq. And before the war, some administration officials had estimated that in the tens of billions of dollars. But what they are saying now is that, for instance, next year they only estimate to get some $12 billion from Iraqi oil assets.

And so, the administration official told us late yesterday that basically what they are going to have to do is make it clear to their friends and allies that they need help, that the administration needs help in reconstruction of Iraq, because what the U.S. is asking for is only 20 billion, which, as you saw, is just a fraction of what it may cost down the road to rebuild that country -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Dana Bash for us at the White House this morning. Dana, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.