Politics with Juan Williams: Budget, Iraq Intel Battles

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

With us now to discuss the budget bill and the rest of the week's political news is NPR senior correspondent and regular DAY TO DAY contributor Juan Williams. He joins us every Friday, and today he's at member station KERA in Dallas, Texas.

Hi, Juan.

JUAN WILLIAMS reporting:

Hi, Madeleine.

BRAND: So the budget measure passed by a squeaky two votes, 217-to-215. Why such a narrow victory for the Republicans?

WILLIAMS: Well, Madeleine, it was a narrow victory, as you point out, because literally you had to have concessions made in terms of things like whether or not to open Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge to oil-drilling, and then cuts in terms of food stamps, Medicare, student lunch programs. A lot of these things put in place to assuage the moderates in the Republican Party so that you get the Republicans holding unity and able to pass the vote. Now yesterday, before the budget vote, there was a spending bill vote in which actually the Republican leadership lost, and the Republican leadership was on the verge of losing control of this Congress. Questions about whether or not Tom DeLay's indictment, his absence from the leadership, has resulted in the Republicans breaking into two factions, moderates who are concerned about social spending--especially things like No Child Left Behind, Pell grants for education, health-care spending--vs. conservative Republicans who are concerned about the increasing size of the deficit.

BRAND: Now the Democrats lost a big point that they had been fighting against and that was an extension of the tax cuts. Democrats say that'll benefit some of the richest people in America.

WILLIAMS: Right. And so what you have in the Senate is no extension of tax cuts passed in '03 that were--that are now set to expire in '08. The tax cuts would have been on capital gains, dividends, and what you see here is, again, in the aftermath of Katrina, a sort of changed political dynamic in which you have more and more people saying now where is the emphasis in terms of our spending, in terms of our tax policy, and, you know, the president and the Congress had been saying, `What you have here is a rising tide will lift all boats if you pass our tax cuts.' That it's all that's been saving us in terms of getting us out of that recession. But what you're hearing now is a whole different story, and I think it's in large part because of Katrina.

BRAND: And then we have Iraq where there is a lot of controversy on both sides of the aisle about that. Yesterday, Democratic Congressman John Murtha--he was a staunch hawk for many years--called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops. The White House is hitting back hard. What's going on there?

WILLIAMS: Not only the White House. You have Congress--Republicans in the Congress hitting back hard and charging him with doing nothing more than surrender, being a voice for al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Really, sort of ballistic, Madeleine. And I think that what you have here is a real sense of change, again, in the weather in Washington, with regard to the war. You have in the Congress now for the first time people really doubting where we are going, and you saw that earlier in the week with a vote that said, you know, explicitly that they want the president to report--the administration, I should say--every three months on progress in the war and with the expectation that US troops should begin leaving Iraq in 2006. Democrats actually wanting to set timetables for some kind of withdrawal. Republicans were able to hold that back. But what you see here is a sea change in terms of attitude. Whereas previously, there was all sorts of deference given to the president, and the administration policy, now there's the sense that between public opinion and questions about exit strategy or absence of exit strategy, I think there's people just patience warn out, warn thin, and people looking for a way out.

BRAND: Well, you know, yesterday on this program, John Dickerson of Slate said it's really not going to be a big deal until a major Republican comes out and says that we need to bring the troops home.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know what? I think Murtha is pretty close because he is known as the hawk among Democrats on Capitol Hill in the Congress, and so what you have here now is a man who's a former Marine, a Vietnam--you know, celebrated decorated Vietnam veteran, coming out sort of, you know, heart of America. I just think they're going to have a hard time demonizing him. You have people right now expressing doubts privately that are growing louder and louder, Madeleine. I don't see this one changing or reversing track. I think this is gaining momentum, and one that's going to run over the White House.

BRAND: NPR senior correspondent and regular DAY TO DAY contributor Juan Williams joins us this week from member station KERA in Dallas, and, Juan, have a great weekend.

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Madeleine. You, too.

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