SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
This week, the White House budget proposal met some opposition from Democrats. Distressing news about stress tests for the nation's banks. And President Obama met with his counterparts from Pakistan and Afghanistan. NPR's senior news analyst Dan Schorr joins us. Hello, Dan.
DANIEL SCHORR: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: And Dan, I noticed there were three numbers that kept bouncing around in the news this week, and let me ask you about them, if I could - 13.7 million, 74.6 billion, and finally 17 billion. So in turn, 13.7 million is…?
SCHORR: Thirteen-point-seven million, that's the number of people unemployed in a report on April. That is up six million in a past 12 months. Seventy-four-point-six billion dollars, that's the amount of capital the federal government has ordered 10 of the nation's big 19 banks to be able to raise.
SIMON: And let me ask you, finally, about the 17 billion.
SCHORR: That is the amount of money that President Obama wants to cut from his big budget.
SIMON: But - are even some of his own Democrats in favor of that?
SCHORR: That's right. He probably will have trouble, because these are programs that are being cut and they have their supporters in Congress.
SIMON: As you take a look at those numbers, and others, do you see any clear sign of when the recession might begin to lift?
SCHORR: I think that has to be answered in two ways. If you're talking about manufacturing and consumption, people buying things and we'll be able to get some improvement there, that may have begun to happen. I don't know if you say it's turning a corner or how you put it. But the most important part of this is the unemployment figures. They are what is called a lagging indicator. When other things have begun to look up, you'll find that employment will still continue to be low, and it may be three or four years before you can get employment in shape.
So the answer is on the whole you can say that things are getting worse at a slower pace.
SIMON: President Obama, to move into the foreign realm, met with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan this week, in fact at the same time. What do we know about the outcome of those meetings?
SCHORR: Well, the first thing, apparently, was the important thing, they managed to get the two together. They don't see each other very often, and apparently that was itself a big benefit. For the rest, it was putting a lot of pressure for the - both the government in Pakistan and the government in Afghanistan to really start doing something. And there was word that the Pakistani government has now promised that they're going to try to eliminate the insurgents from parts of the country that they are now occupying.
SIMON: As opposed to the former policy of kind of tolerating them…
SCHORR: As a former policy of saying they would do it but not doing very much.
SIMON: Of course President Karzai arrived at the White House just as U.S. forces were accused of having killed as many as 147…
SCHORR: Yes.
SIMON: …Afghan civilians during a bombing run in Western Afghanistan. Did that put the U.S. on the defensive?
SCHORR: Well, it certainly has to. Although military sources say that they believe that the Taliban itself may have been responsible for at least some of those. The real problem there is that because we don't have enough troops in Afghanistan, that they do a lot of their work from the air. And if you are working from the air in order to attack them, it is much more difficult to single out exactly who's who and who's who. So I think that they really have to work out some new kind of plan because clearly if we go on being blamed for -whether or not we did it, being blamed for the civilian casualties, it's not going help our cause very much.
SIMON: A report released this week from the CIA and the Office of National Intelligence says that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed about harsh interrogation methods in 2002. She was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee at the time. How do you see this playing (unintelligible)…
SCHORR: Well, as I far as I know, it's a longstanding practice, you know, when the CIA or the intelligence community is doing something they're not sure will go down well with Congress, then they go to Congress and they brief them on it. They don't want to be caught short on it. So presumably if Nancy Pelosi was briefed on it, and she apparently was - so was the Senate Intelligence Committee and people like that - I'm not sure if it…
SIMON: Those are a lot of Democrats. In other words, a lot of Democrats is what you're suggesting.
SCHORR: A lot - yes, there were a lot of Democrats who asked questions, and I'm not sure what the questions amount to. I think (unintelligible) if everybody would just level about what has happened, there wouldn't be such a big problem.
SIMON: Finally, Dan, Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers found to have used performance enhancing drugs and was suspended for 50 games. Now, I know you've kind of become a baseball fan recently.
SCHORR: Well, no.
SIMON: Well, by virtue of your family you've become a baseball fan.
SCHORR: No. Let me says this and get myself undoubtedly into a lot of trouble. We spoke of leveling.
SIMON: Yeah.
SCHORR: I do believe in leveling.
SIMON: Yeah.
SCHORR: I would propose that the use of performance enhancing drugs be legalized…
SIMON: Yeah.
SCHORR: …that the whole world know about it, and that the doctors have it on their records and all the rest of it. The worst part of this is turning baseball players into perjurers. I think if they are allowed to do it, and everybody knows they're doing it, then we can all relax.
SIMON: Dan, thanks very much.
SCHORR: My pleasure.
SIMON: And leave the cup at the door.
SCHORR: Yes.
(Soundbite of laughter)
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