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American Morning
President Bullish on Economy in State of the Union Address
Aired January 21, 2004 - 08:51 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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president bullish on the economy in last night's State of the Union address. But how does that play on Wall Street this morning?
Andy Serwer has got that story.
He's minding your business.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I am. I want to talk a little bit about the president and what he said yesterday in terms of the economy. Just a couple bullet points here.
First of all, he talked about the tax cuts rejecting repeals to roll back the $1.7 trillion tax cuts. He talked about the $500 billion deficit, saying that he could cut it in half in five years. And he talked about the job recovery, saying that it's coming.
Basically, Jack, the president is like any other politician, trying to have his cake and eat it, too. He wants to have continuous spending programs on things like national security and maybe even the little trip to Mars. Meanwhile, he's got the deficit to deal with and tax cuts obviously very, very popular.
The Democrats, I think, can make a lot of hay about the jobs situation. But here's the thing in my mind. It's unassailable that the recession was mild and I think it's also unassailable that the economy is recovering somewhat. So that's going to be very difficult, I think, for the Democrats to deal with.
As far as Wall Street goes, I don't expect much reaction at all from the speech because there really weren't any fireworks or surprises.
CAFFERTY: Fair enough.
Who in their right mind would fire Jimmy Dean? The guy's older than dirt.
SERWER: You know, this is unbelievable, I think. Sara Lee owns Jimmy Dean Sausages. They bought the company 20 years ago. The country star -- there he is, my man. This guy founded the company in 1969. Now, apparently this week, Sara Lee is dropping him as the spokesman. A bad week for Deans, you might say.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: And... CAFFERTY: Howard and Jimmy.
SERWER: It's kind of interesting, a reporter for the "Chicago Sun-Times" called him up. He lives down near Richmond, Virginia. He's 75 years old. And he said yes, I'm kind of surprised. But he acknowledged, he said my face has so many wrinkles on it, it looks like 12 minutes of bad reception. So, you know, he's sort of saying here...
CAFFERTY: A little humor still coming from the Dean (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Yes, exactly. He's a pretty funny guy.
But we're looking probably for a new spokesman. What do you think, Hemmer? Kind of a more youthful, Bill Hemmer Sausages.
CAFFERTY: Yes, Bill Hemmer pork sausages, yes. There you go.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Address>
Aired January 21, 2004 - 08:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president bullish on the economy in last night's State of the Union address. But how does that play on Wall Street this morning?
Andy Serwer has got that story.
He's minding your business.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I am. I want to talk a little bit about the president and what he said yesterday in terms of the economy. Just a couple bullet points here.
First of all, he talked about the tax cuts rejecting repeals to roll back the $1.7 trillion tax cuts. He talked about the $500 billion deficit, saying that he could cut it in half in five years. And he talked about the job recovery, saying that it's coming.
Basically, Jack, the president is like any other politician, trying to have his cake and eat it, too. He wants to have continuous spending programs on things like national security and maybe even the little trip to Mars. Meanwhile, he's got the deficit to deal with and tax cuts obviously very, very popular.
The Democrats, I think, can make a lot of hay about the jobs situation. But here's the thing in my mind. It's unassailable that the recession was mild and I think it's also unassailable that the economy is recovering somewhat. So that's going to be very difficult, I think, for the Democrats to deal with.
As far as Wall Street goes, I don't expect much reaction at all from the speech because there really weren't any fireworks or surprises.
CAFFERTY: Fair enough.
Who in their right mind would fire Jimmy Dean? The guy's older than dirt.
SERWER: You know, this is unbelievable, I think. Sara Lee owns Jimmy Dean Sausages. They bought the company 20 years ago. The country star -- there he is, my man. This guy founded the company in 1969. Now, apparently this week, Sara Lee is dropping him as the spokesman. A bad week for Deans, you might say.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: And... CAFFERTY: Howard and Jimmy.
SERWER: It's kind of interesting, a reporter for the "Chicago Sun-Times" called him up. He lives down near Richmond, Virginia. He's 75 years old. And he said yes, I'm kind of surprised. But he acknowledged, he said my face has so many wrinkles on it, it looks like 12 minutes of bad reception. So, you know, he's sort of saying here...
CAFFERTY: A little humor still coming from the Dean (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Yes, exactly. He's a pretty funny guy.
But we're looking probably for a new spokesman. What do you think, Hemmer? Kind of a more youthful, Bill Hemmer Sausages.
CAFFERTY: Yes, Bill Hemmer pork sausages, yes. There you go.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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