Interview: (D) Virginia---Warner, Mark---Former Governor
>> mark warner left office in january as virginia’s most popular governor in a generation. he’s also a telecommunications mogul co-founding what became nextel communications. now he’s touted as the democratic party’s best hope for recapturing the white house in 2008. my first question would automatically be, are you running? and your first answer would be, well, we haven’t made that decision yet. but let me put it this way, do the democrats need a centrist and someone who can attract southern voters in order to win in 2008?
>> i think the democrats need candidates that can be competitive in more than 16 or 17 states, candidates that will lay out ideas about where the country ought to head. the democratic party needs to be more than just simply not president bush, bewlay out an alternative vision. and one of the things i will be doing this year is spending my time helping democratic candidates, gubernatorial candidates, and sharing some of the ideas of how we were able to get real results in a state that has traditionally been very republican.
>> how do you get real results in a state that’s traditionally republican? you were known as a businessman before going into politics. is that the secret, to take a corporate angle on it?
>> virginia was named under our administration the best-managed state in the country. we were very focused on getting results. and we had a major fiscal issue in the state. i went to the legislature and then to the people of virginia and tried to make it not a republican versus democrat issue, not a governor versus legislature issue. at the end of the day, we reached a compromise with the biggest tax reform effort in the nation in the last decade. that’s allowed us to have tremendous growth in our economy. it’s allowed us to make investments in education. but we did it in a way that tried to find that common ground. what ended up happening was good policy translated into good politics. i was able to help a great guy, my lieutenant governor, tim kaine, to get elected to succeed me in many ways because he ran on a record that was saying let’s stay focused on results, let’s move away from polarizing politics. let’s look at how we can give the people of virginia something they look for―core government services at a good value.
>> let’s talk about you. give me an example of a business-like approach to a major issue today. what would you say is the most pressing problem you’d like to solve if you were to run for president?
>> there are a host of issues. my concern is we have three or four issues that are like snowballs rolling down the hill at once. one is how do we keep america safe in a world that’s increasingly dangerous with america’s stature unfortunately diminished in the world oftentimes due to unilateral approaches from the president. how do we get our fiscal house in order with an aging society and deficits at the federal level and trade deficits at record levels.
>> do you raise taxes? you raised taxes in virginia, do you raise taxes to get our fiscal house in order?
>> one of the things you do as a democrat is show where you can make cuts in government spending. at the same time, do you as what we did in virginia, launch a major effort of re-examining operations of government on how you can find sustainable savings. i spent a career in high technology before elected governor. it took me nine months to get an answer in virginia how much the state spent on i.t. i know and we ended up putting in reforms saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year. i know that same approach, bottom-line results-focused approach on federal spending could also bring about spendings. the first thing is you have to tighten your belt and find sustainable savings.
>> unfortunately we have to leave it there. former virginia governor, mark warner.
>> thank you, michael.
>> coming up on “money & politics,” michigan governor jennifer granholm. she’ll be with us on what the auto industry’s woes mean to her state. stick around.
点击播报
Listen Money & Politics -- Mike (fast)
Immigration Laws -- Peter (slow)
Interview: Council of Economic Advisers---Slaughter, Matthew---Politician / Govt Official
hello, i’m michael mckee reporting today from washington. welcome to our new 5:00 eastern time edition of “money & politics.” general motors today selling control of its finance unit. general motors acceptance corporation, to an investment banking consortium for $7.4 billion. the deal will help g.m. stem losses that reached $10 billion in the last quarter. but the automaker is a long way from being out of the woods. on “money & politics” today, an interview with michigan governor, jennifer granholm, what her state is doing to prepare for a united auto workers strike that might cripple g.m. and a brief power failure that forced the evacuation of the capitol today didn’t short circuit one of the most contentious debates in the year. this fight is over the nation’s immigration laws, not between republicans and democrats, but between different wings of the republican party. peter cook has the latest.
>> over the weekend, senate majority leader bill frist said he hopes to have a final vote on immigration legislation by the end of the week but exactly what would be included in that bill at this point is unclear.
>> we have a job ahead of us to finish the bill by the end of the week.
>> for some supporters of comprehensive immigration legislation, the main task is convincing colleagues to support a guest worker program addressing the 11 million illegal immigrants already here.
>> if we deal with those in a generous way, how do we know this won’t happen again? what promise or assurance do we have that the system is tightened up so we don’t continue to have large numbers of people coming in illegally.
>> some favor following the house’s lead on focusing on border security first while president bush, joined by democrats, continues support for legislation that includes a guest worker program. a former republican congressman who backs the president says the progress the party has made with hispanics is at stake.
>> everything we know about the immigration issue says that hispanics listen to the debate up to a point and then start taking it personally. we run the risk of alienating the fastest growing pivotal group of voters in the country and probably not for one election or two but for a whole generation if we handle this issue improperly.
>> the current bill on the floor would not force illegal immigrants to go home first before participating in a guest worker program. toughening that section remains one potential area of compromise.
>> by the end of the week i think we’ll have the votes to report out a bill. maybe modify, do the will of the senate and get a bill.
>> senator sessions has a different view. he said he thinks there are not the votes or the momentum growing to pass the current bill by the end of this week. we could be headed for a filibuster, one potentially pitting republicans versus republicans.
>> where are the democrats in all of this?
>> many of them largely supporting the president’s view on this but we are hearing some democrats opposing the bill. senator byron dorgan from north dakota, he spoke out on the floor today expressing concerns about the guest worker program and the possibility that immigrant workers would displace american workers.
>> we will keep an eye on it. peter cook, thank you. it has been 4 ½ years since 9/11 and today the only man charged in this country in connection with the attacks is one step closer to getting the death penalty. a jury in arlington, virginia, says zacharias moussaoui’s crimes make him eligible for the death penalty. they now move into the next phase of the trial, deciding whether to send him to death row. moussaoui is an admitted al qaeda operative and arrested in the weeks before the attacks in 2001. during his testimony last week, he claimed he was to fly a plane into the white house. also today, the supreme court letting stand a ruling that the bush administration says may force almost $3 billion in payments to hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients. the justices refusing to overturn a decision requiring the department of health and human services to make back payments to more than 600 hospitals for serving patients insured by medicare. gains in american markets after france’s alcatel agreed to buy lucent technologies in a $13.4 billion share swap. the company said they expect annual savings of $1.7 billion within three years from the combination, which they describe as a merger. the company, though, will be headquartered in paris, raising echoes of the dubai ports deal. to allay security concerns as the company comes under french control, lucent is forming a separate unit for classified government research and the company is nominating three former u.s. officials to the board of that unit―former defense secretary william perry, former c.i.a. director james woolsey and kenneth minehan, former director of the national security agency. a goldilocks economic report boosting stocks. the institute for supply management factory index unexpectedly fell to 55.2 last month. investors deciding the reading may ease pressure on the federal reserve to raise interest rates many more times. that might be premature. a measure of prices paid by manufacturers climbed to the highest since november with the biggest increase of order backlogs in two years suggesting production may accelerate in coming months. so which is it, slowing growth or accelerating inflation? matthew slaughter is a member of the president’s council of economic advisors and joins me from the white house. thank you very much for joining us today, mr. slaughter. let’s start with today’s i.s.m. report. it gives a mixed picture of the economy. manufacturing sailing along but not too strong, but maybe some price concerns. are there inflation concerns growing in the economy?
>> that’s an excellent question, michael, and, again, thank you for having me on this exciting day for you-all. price pressures in the economy given the recent increases in energy prices we have seen in the united states, that is one concern that many of us are watching closely. with that said, i think you were right that the report on, balance, was quite good. forh consecutive month, manufacturing activity in the united states expanded. employment increased, current output increase and as you pointed out, orders for future output in manufacturing showed growth for months ahead.
>> what’s the picture, here? is it one of an economy that is at trend? are we a little bit above growth, according to many analysts, is expected to be around 5% this quarter?
>> i think that’s right. the administration’s forecast, consistent with many other private sector forecasts for 2006 is, for g.d.p. growth to be 3.4%. that said, many of the initial readings on economic strength are stronger than that. for example, retail sales over both january and february indicated strong consumption growth for the first part of 2006.
>> where do you think that leaves us at this point? if you had to guess on the margin of error or the direction of error of your forecast, do you think we might be leaning towards a bit stronger growth in the u.s. these days?
>> at least initially it looks that way. for example, payroll employment growth, we forecast at 176,000 jobs per month for all of 2006. but for january and february, the rate of job creation was a little over 200,000 jobs per month. so, again, starting out for 2006, we seem to be stronger than the consensus forecast. and we’ll get more readings on that in the coming weeks and see how that plays out as the year progresses.
>> but you would, if we were to follow your forecast numbers, expect the economy to slow somewhat as the year continues?
>> i think that’s right. one of the dimensions in which we expect to see a slowing in the u.s. economy would be a bit of cooling off in the housing sector. a lot of the indicators for the housing sector in the u.s. economy have been quite strong in recent years and our forecast, consistent with private sector forecasts, is for a deceleration of the rate of growth of home prices and other dimensions offs activity in the houses sector.
>> we get the employment report on friday. best-guess estimate of economists surveyed by bloomberg, about 190,000 new jobs created. the real important thing seems to be where we’re going with incomes. last couple of months, income growth has accelerated. is that likely to continue with labor markets being tighter?
>> i think that’s right. the unemployment rate last month came in at 4.8% and that is quite low historically. that is one force that hopefully will be contributing to income growth for a lot of american households. the administration cares not just about the numberss of jobs but the kinds of jobs and supporting income growth is a major goal. we’ve seen indications in recent months that the rate of earnings growth is picking up and hopefully that will continue in months going forward.
>> i have just 30 seconds left. if we see income growth rise, will we see that come out of the height of company profit? or are we going to see prices rise, to return to our original question.
>> great question. i think it will partly depend on productivity performance and the productivity growth that american workers and companies together have been delivering has been great in recent years relative to historical standards so to the extent that productivity growth continues strong, real income gains can be enjoyed without putting too much pressure on corporate profit.
>> thank you very much, matthew slaughter, a member of the president’s council of economic advisors. also on “money & politics” today, judy woodruff talks to the grand old man of the conservative movement, william f. buckley. first, when we return, we’ll talk to the new man of the hour in the democratic party, former virginia governor mark warner. “money & politics” returns after this.
