Transcripts

President Bush Demands Congress Get Back To Budget Business

PAUL KANGAS: President Bush went on the offensive today with Congress poised tomorrow to try to override his veto of a health insurance program for children. Mr. Bush said Democrats haven't finished key spending legislation and he urged them to get to work. The president is threatening to veto many of those bills because they spend more than he wants. Darren Gersh looks at the details behind this budget battle.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Spending on education and health care accounts for half of the difference between the president and congressional Democrats -- about $11 billion of the $22 billion that separates the two sides. Budget analyst Brian Riedl says the increased spending Congress wants should be put into perspective.

BRIAN RIEDL, SR. BUDGET ANALYST, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Keep in mind that the president has already been very generous in health and education programs. Health programs have grown 46 percent under President Bush and education has grown 129 percent under President Bush.

GERSH: The biggest differences are over domestic programs. Democrats want to add $1.7 billion for state and local education, $1.6 billion for local law enforcement, $1.3 billion for community development block grants and $880 million in home heating oil assistance. Democrats also cut where the president wants to spend more, eliminating $1.2 billion for the millennium challenge corporation, which encourages reform in developing countries. Democrats also shifted more than $600 million from a reading program created by the president to other education programs. Brian Riedl says initiatives that trouble Democratic supporters are also under fire.

RIEDL: They are also cutting a program that is designed to police labor unions and make sure that they are holding up to their end of the laws.

GERSH: Amtrak also gets a $600 million boost under Democrats. The president calls all this spending excessive and is threatening to veto it. But the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' James Horney says, when adjusted for inflation and population growth, Democrats are more restrained than their Republican colleagues.

JAMES HORNEY, BUDGET ANALYST, CENTER ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITIES: The funding they are providing is less on average, than was provided in those same bills in fiscal years 2002 through 2006 and all of those bills were signed by the president.

GERSH: However the veto budget battle ends up, Congress and the president will almost surely agree to a hefty increase in Federal spending next year when they pass a supplemental spending bill for Iraq. Those bills are considered emergencies, but often include billions for domestic programs. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.