Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporters Notebook: Political Plays on Capitol Hill

Aired June 02, 2001 - 09:34   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Two men meeting in the Arizona desert this weekend are making Washington power brokers very nervous. Republican Senator John McCain is hosting the incoming Senate majority leader, Democrat Tom Daschle. And on the agenda, officially, at least, ribs and hiking.

As for speculation Daschle might try to talk the Arizona Republican into switching parties, a McCain spokesman says the senator has no plans to leave the GOP.

But we're going to get more of that perspective and a lot more going on Capitol Hill. CNN's Kate Snow standing by there on this very early Saturday morning. Morning, Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I want to tell you first off that I just spoke with Senator McCain's spokeswoman again this morning. There was a published report this morning in "The Washington Post" that indicates that Senator McCain is perhaps being urged to leave the party by some of his senior advisers. His spokesperson tells me those reports are false. She says, quote, "Senator McCain has directed no one to explore any options for him," and that simply he has not directed anyone to look into the possibility of leaving the party.

But certainly, Carol, that is the speculation here on Capitol Hill.

LIN: All right. Lots of our views -- viewers speculating on what's going on on Washington, Washington's Capitol Hill and at the White House. Miles O'Brien taking your e-mails.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I'm over here at the Smart Board, which doesn't indicate I'm smart enough to turn on my microphone on time, but that's another issue entirely.

Let's go to the e-mail. This one comes from -- I can't decipher that, something at AOL.com. "Do you really think that John McCain will jump to the Democratic Party?" And then a related one from Dale Friesen (ph), "How long will it be before another Senate party defection will reset the balance of power in Washington?"

Kate, all kinds of rumors regarding this on both sides of the aisle, right? SNOW: Right. Let me start by deflecting it from John McCain himself, Senator McCain telling CNN about a week ago, Miles, that he has no intention of becoming a Democrat, and he said he has no immediate plans -- immediate plans -- to become an independent, which, of course, is what Jim Jeffords did just a week ago.

There have been a lot of rumors, though, and in fact, Democrats have told us, Democratic aides, that they have been talking with John McCain. Democrats have also been talking with Lincoln Chafee, another Republican who's sort of middle ground, and they think may be on the edge.

So there's a lot of speculation, but so far no hard facts, Miles, to prove that anyone's going to be jumping any time soon.

O'BRIEN: Lack of hard facts never seems to stop Washington, of course, Kate.

Let's send it over to the White House for a moment. We have John King in today. It's good to have you with us again, John, it's been a while. Nice to see you on the Reporter's Notebook segment. You're invited to come back any time.

Tim Warner in Arlington, Virginia, has this for you. "How willing is the Bush administration to expend its political capital to pressure Israel to change its settlement policies?"

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the administration is working rather aggressively behind the scenes, though, a change in style. The president is not involved on a day to day basis. He's leaving this to the State Department and the diplomats. William Burns is the ambassador to Jordan. He is the administration's point man in the region right now. And the administration certainly putting pressure on Israel, saying that if there is to be any even short-term solution to the violence, more security cooperation, and a cease-fire, that Israel is going to have to take steps to stop building and stop expanding those settlements.

But right now, the focus mainly on trying to stop the killing, all these bombings, the latest one, of course, yesterday.

So the administration is working behind the scenes. The Palestinians would say not doing enough to curb Israeli settlements. The Israelis would say that they will con -- they will discuss the issue of settlements only after all this killing stops.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, John King.

We're also taking your telephone calls this morning, and we've got Joe from Georgia, and he's got a question about taxes. Morning, Joe.

CALLER: Ah, yes, thank you very much. John, on this new tax cut bill, is it not true that if I died in 2010, there would be no death tax for my family to pay? But if I live to 2011, would not the full death tax be reinstated? That doesn't seem to be fair at all. KING: There is some very interesting math done as part of this bill to make it fit within the constraints of the budget resolution. Most of the tax cuts are phased in over the next 10 years. The actual level of income at which the estate tax would affect you would start off relatively low and move up.

And then, you're right, the whole bill expires in 10 years unless a subsequent Congress and a subsequent president agree to continue those tax cuts. That was done to keep the price tag, said by the Republicans to be $1.35 trillion over 10 years, within the constraints of the budget resolution. If they had left those tax cuts in place, it would have blown the budget, if you will.

So future Congresses, whether it's two years, three years, five years, or eight or 10 years down the road, will have to consider whether to leave those tax cuts in place. The operating assumption here at the White House is, is that it will be very -- any Congress would be very reluctant to raise taxes, therefore that they will ultimately leave them in place. But that could require, especially if the economy slows, some significant decisions about cutting federal spending.

O'BRIEN: Kate Snow, you have something to add?

SNOW: Well, actually, John just said it, that the hope here in Capitol Hill is that from Republicans especially is that a future president will pick up where this leaves off, and even though they've set this window to phase out in 10 years, as a math trick, they hope that somebody else will pick up the ball and a future president and Congress would reinstate these tax cuts.

O'BRIEN: All right. We have a few other tax cut-type questions this morning. Lester Johnson, in Ingster (ph), Michigan, has this. "I've had several conversations with my family and co-workers concerning the Bush tax cut. What years does this tax cut affect, and why is the Treasury issuing $300 and $600 checks?"

SNOW: You want me to pick that up?

O'BRIEN: Sure...

KING: Fire away.

O'BRIEN: Fire away.

SNOW: Let me explain the checks to you. That's a one-time rebate, and it comes because of the math, because what they've done in this tax bill is, they've lowered the lowest bracket that covers everybody's income tax, the first amount that you earn is covered by a bracket that's now 15 percent, it's going to lower to 10 percent.

And that change means that anybody who makes, as a single person, over $6,000, as a married couple over $12,000, is going to get the full amount of that rebate check just because of the way that that lowering of the bracket works. There's -- you know, you're not going to owe as much next year, so they're going to give you a little kickback up front.

So that's the most immediate effect. And then they shift all of the rest of the brackets over the next 10 years -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's shift gears, shall we? This is a story that caused a little bit of handwriting in media circles because there's some criticism over the fact of the way it was covered.

"With all the hoopla about Jenna and Barbara" -- those are the Bush daughters -- "attempting to purchase alcohol, I think we miss the even bigger question. Where were the Secret Service agents during this process? I would think that if two young girls enter a restaurant with a detail of Secret Service agents in tow, someone would have recognized them for who they are and this whole issue would not have occurred."

That comes from James D. Floyd, he's a CPA, by the way, in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

John, you want to take that?

KING: Well, it certainly appears, because the police were called, that the restaurant owner or someone in the restaurant did recognize the girls, obviously. The arrangement with the Secret Service is this. They are not there to baby sit the Bush girls. These are two 19-year-old girls, they are adults, they can make their own decisions.

What the Secret Service does is follows them, but because they are adults, keeps at a safe distance. They are there to keep a view of them, to make sure if any dangerous situation arose, they could quickly intervene if necessary. They are not there, though, to police the minute-by-minute actions of the Bush daughters, and the Secret Service says that's not its responsibility. These two girls are adults.

O'BRIEN: All right. And let's do another one. This one comes from -- goes back to Kate Snow, from Russell Kay in Shrub Oak, New York. "Why do the Democrats need to discuss power sharing arrangements with Republican leaders in the Senate now that it isn't evenly divided?"

SNOW: Well, actually they don't call it power sharing any more. If you talk to Democrats, they say, We're going to be in control as of Tuesday close of business, Wednesday morning, that's sort of the deal that Jim Jeffords made. He said, I'll be out and I'll be switching parties effective June 5 or whenever the tax cut reaches -- the tax bill reaches the president, whichever is later. Well, June 5 appears to be the later. So anyway, Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, the switch-over takes effect. They're working with the Republicans because this is a tenuous situation. They've got 50, the Republicans have 49, and there's one independent.

Republicans point out that it's not technically a majority. If you think about it, 50 senators of 100 is not technically a majority. They say it's a plurality. So technically, according to Republicans, he's not really the -- Daschle is not really the majority leader.

But they're going to work together on this. Senator Daschle has pledged to try to do that. He said he wants to make this a bipartisan system, so he, you know, he wants to work at the reorganization with his Republican colleagues. They've been having, by the way, Miles, staff-level discussions all week trying to figure this out. But so far no compromise on how the committees are going to be structured, how it's all going to play out.

But again, the Democrats set to take over next Wednesday.

O'BRIEN: And John King, let's talk about that Daschle-McCain meeting. I suspect the White House would love to have a little fly on the wall there, if they could arrange that. How much concern is there where you stand over this whole meeting?

KING: Well, there was a great deal of concern when the White House learned about it yesterday, and we're told the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, who used to work on Capitol Hill, immediately called up to some friends in Senator McCain's office and was assured that this is a social gathering.

Yes, the two leaders will discuss the agenda for the Senate once the Democrats take charge. Yes, Senator McCain has some plans that are very different from this president, especially on the issue of the patients' bill of right.s He was very critical of the president's tax cut.

So in the short term, the White House confident that Senator McCain is not about to switch parties. But let's not forget the history here. These two men are rivals, Senator McCain and President Bush. The White House doesn't necessarily trust Senator McCain. They believe he likes to grab some attention. The senior staff here particularly doesn't like McCain's political staff. They believe all this talk of running in 2004 as an independent comes not from the senator himself but from the political staff, a continued rivalry, if you will.

But Senator McCain was supposed to come here and meet President Bush for dinner on the very day Senator Jeffords announced his defection from the Republican Party, plans being made here to rearrange, reschedule that dinner, perhaps as early as this week. A very tense relationship, a rivalry.

Nobody here believes the senator is quite ready to leave the Republican Party, but they're certainly nervous, and they would view an independent presidential campaign by Senator McCain, and again the senator says he has no plans to do so, but that would be viewed here as a very serious threat.

O'BRIEN: All right. Dale Friesen is back with one more question for both of you. "What is the average day like for a White House correspondent?" And we'll put Capitol Hill correspondent on there as well. "Are the hours long? And what's the food like?"

SNOW: John, I'll let you start. O'BRIEN: How's the White House...

KING: It depends -- it depends where you are at any given moment. The average day, you're out of bed at 6:00 in the morning if not a little earlier on some days, depending on what time you start here. You can go 12, 14, 16, sometimes during that episode in the Clinton administration we prefer not to discuss any more, 20 hours a day.

What is the food like? Again, that depends. We travel quite a bit on this beat. Sometimes it's great, often it's not so great. The hours are long, but it's our choice. We could easily be doing something else. We choose to do this because we love it.

O'BRIEN: Kate?

SNOW: Well, the hours aren't quite as long, maybe, on Capitol Hill. It depends on the day, though. We often come out here to do live shots at 7:00 a.m., which means we're up at, you know, 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. But again, we love what we do. And the food here on Capitol Hill, by the way, is pretty good. They've got a really good -- their really nice dining service right inside the Capitol behind me.

O'BRIEN: A few perks there. All right, long hours, little bit of heartburn, but the price of fame and fortune.

Folks, thank you very much. Kate Snow, Capitol Hill, John King at the White House, thanks, as always, for taking your questions. And we appreciate your questions, some good ones today from all of you. We appreciate it.

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