MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
In his interview with NPR today, President Bush responded to reports that Iran plans to expand its economic and military ties with Iraq.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: If Iran escalates its military action in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and/or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly. It makes common sense for the commander in chief to say to our troops and the Iraqi people and Iraqi government that we will help you defend yourself from people that want to sow discord and harm. And - so - we will do what it takes to protect our troops.
SIEGEL: The president also extended an olive branch to Iran, saying that he still believes the question of Iran's nuclear ambitions can be solved diplomatically. And he stressed that the administration is not angling to launch military action against Tehran. You can hear the president's comments about Iran and about Iraq in full elsewhere in today's show, and of course at our Web site, NPR.org.
BLOCK: In this part of the program, we're going to focus on what Mr. Bush had to say today about a range of domestic issues.
Speaking with NPR's senior correspondent Juan Williams, the president talked about health care, climate change, as well as the anger over something he failed to mentioned in his State of the Union address last week, Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing challenges New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents face in putting their lives back together.
JUAN WILLIAMS: Let's talk for a second about the State of the Union speech. You didn't mentioned Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans or the Gulf Coast. A lot of people from Louisiana, including David Vitter, the Republican senator, say they regret that. Do you?
President BUSH: Well, I gave a speech that I thought it was necessary to give. On the other hand, I have been talking a lot about Katrina and about the fact that I worked with the Congress to get about $110 billion sent down to both Mississippi and Louisiana to help them on their reconstruction efforts.
Obviously, there's more work to be done. Take the housing issue, for example. We have sent money down to the Louisiana folks, Louisiana recovery administration or authority, to fund their plan. And the money is there. And the money is available. And now it's up to the folks down there to get this plan implemented so people can start rebuilding their houses. If there's bureaucratic slowdowns in Washington, we got a man named Don Powell who's working to address them.
But no, our response to Katrina recovery has been very robust. And I appreciate the taxpayers of the United States helping the folks down there in Mississippi and Louisiana.
WILLIMAS: And also in the State of the Union, you talked about, quote here, "the serious challenge of global climate change." Were you talking about global warming there?
President BUSH: Absolutely. And it is a serious challenge. And one of the things that I am proud of is that this administration has done a lot on advancing new technologies that will enable us to do two things - strengthen our economy and at the same time be better stewards of the environment.
In 2002, I talked about an energy efficiency standard, which says new technologies will enable us to grow our economy and at the same time improve the environment, and we're meeting certain standards that I set for the country. And what kind of technologies? Well, if you're really interested in global warming and climate change, then it seems like to me that we ought to promote technologies to advance the development of safe nuclear power. It's a renewable source of energy and at the same time has no emissions to it.
But also we're advancing clean coal technologies. The goal is to have a zero emission coal fired plant. And then in the State of the Union, I talked about another aspect of economic security and environmental equality, and that is changing the habits or changing how we power our cars. And I want more people driving automobiles with, you know, ethanol, for example, or biodiesel.
And I believe the goal I set, which is a very bold goal of reducing gasoline usage by 20 percent in 10 years, is an attainable goal. But it's going to require the Congress funding the research and development initiatives that I had put in my budgets. And I expect them to do so.
WILLIAMS: By the way, in the speech you spoke about the Democrats. You said that, you congratulated the Democrat majority. And I noticed your prepared text said Democratic majority. I surely think that you know that for the Democrats, they think when you say Democrat, it's like fingernails on the black board. They don't like it.
President BUSH: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: They like you to say Democratic.
President BUSH: Well that was an oversight then. I mean, I'm not trying to needle - look, I went into the hall saying we can work together, and I was very sincere about it. I didn't even know I did it. And then I did, I don't mean to - I didn't mean to be putting fingernails on the board. I meant to be saying why don't we show the American people we can actually work together.
There's a lot of politics in Washington, in my judgment needless politics. And it's almost like if George Bush is for it, we're against it. And I - and if he's against it, we're for it. And the American people don't like that. And I'm going to tell you some big issues we need to work on. One is entitlements. Your grandchildren are going to grow up with a Social Security System that's broke unless we do something about it.
Now I don't understand how hard that is. I mean it's - the solution can be done. But it requires a lot of political, you know, capital to be spent. And there's distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case. And I work hard to try to elevate it.
So the idea that somehow I was trying to needle the Democrats is just, you know, it probably tells us, even those words, you know, kind of - I'm not that good at pronouncing words anyway, Juan.
WILLIAMS: That's all right. Mr. President, you're bringing out a new budget next week, and I presume you're going to have healthcare, health insurance plan in it. To pay for some of the plans, some people who don't pay taxes on their health insurance plan now will have to pay taxes. Isn't that a tax increase for them?
President BUSH: No, really, what it is, it's a writing of the tax code. We got a tax code today that says if you get your insurance from a large employer, for example, you - it's a part of your - it's a non-taxable event. And yet if you're an individual like Juan Williams out there as an independent contractor and you buy your own health insurance, you're at a tax disadvantage.
And so I'm asking the Congress to reform the tax code to treat everybody fairly. And in my judgment such a plan will encourage and enable more individuals to be able to buy health insurance, which will help us deal with the uninsured.
WILLIAMS: Will the budget be balanced through spending restraint or taxes?
President BUSH: The budget is going to be balanced by keeping taxes low. We're not going to raise taxes. And as a result of keeping taxes low, the economy is doing just fine. And when the economy is doing well, it yields a certain level of tax revenues that we can live with, and then making sure that we constrain federal spending.
And you do that by setting priorities, and our priority's got to be this global war on terror and supporting our troops and protecting the homeland, and that's what our budget will say. And we can balance the budget within five years. And that's going to be - that's good for the country.
And in so doing we're dealing with the short-term deficits, but we also got to deal with the long-term deficits inherent in, for example, programs like Social Security and Medicare.
WILLIAMS: So some people would say well, if you believe in spending restraint, why haven't you vetoed one bill, you know, on appropriations?
President BUSH: Because the United States Congress that was controlled by Republicans exercised spending restraint. Now, I didn't particularly like - now, the size of the pie is what I requested. It's some of the pieces of the pie that I didn't particularly care for, but that's why the president needs a line-item veto.
And that's why Congress has got to reform the earmark process. What the American people need to understand is that sometimes special projects get put into bills without ever having seen the light of the day. In other words, they don't get voted on, they just show up.
And we need transparency in the earmark process and expose the process to hearings and votes so that the American people will know that any project was fully heard on the floor of the House and the Senate.
WILLIAMS: Mr. President, you've talked about Harry Truman and the challenges that President Truman faced during his time here. He wasn't popular toward the end of his presidency, but history ended up judging him very well. Is that your hope now?
President BUSH: Well, you know, Juan, my hope is that we see improvement in Baghdad. My vision is dealing with the problems at hand. I've got a lot on my agenda and believe we're going to get a lot done. You know, at home, we want the economy to remain strong and we want our children educated. That's why I'm pushing for a revival of, a re-authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.
And abroad, I'm not only working with a great team to deal with Iraq, but we're dealing with Iran, Middle Eastern peace, North Korea. And there are a lot of issues we're dealing with.
My own view is that history will take care of itself. History has a long reach to it. I told people that last year I read three analyses of Washington's administration and my attitude is if they're still writing about the first president, the 43rd doesn't need to worry about it. And so, the other thing is that that I think it's very important for people, for a president to make decisions based upon principles. You know, you can be popular, but you may be wrong.
And I would rather, when all is said and done, get back home and look in the mirror and say I didn't compromise the principles that are etched into my soul in order to be a popular guy. What I want to do is solve problems for the American people and yield the peace that we all want.
WILLIAMS: When you look at the quality of intelligence you're getting about the nuclear program in Iran right now, do you think it's better than the quality of intelligence you were getting about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
President BUSH: No question that there is a certain skepticism about intelligence. We all thought that there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we all being not only the administration, but members from both political parties in the Congress. The previous administration felt that the intelligence indicated there were weapons of mass destruction. The international community - in other words, I just want you to know that there was a universal belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including critics of Iraq like the French, who voted for 14-41 in the Security Council.
And, therefore, when it turned out not to be true, there is a certain skepticism about intel. And, however, the skepticism about intel, while it needs to be tempered by, you know, by an analysis of statements and or other fragments of intelligence. What I'm trying to say is that I take the Iranian nuclear threat very seriously, even though the intel on Iraq was not what it would thought to be. And we have to.
So how do you solve the problem on intel? Well, you get more human intelligence. You constantly reevaluate the system itself and make sure that these really fine souls that work for the different intelligence agencies are given the tools they need. And so I'm like a lot of Americans who say well, if you weren't right in Iraq, how you know it's right in Iran? And so, we're constantly evaluating and answering this legitimate question by always working to get as good intelligence as we can.
WILLIAMS: And Negroponte's departure, did it concern you? Do you feel like the CIA and all these intelligence agents are doing a better job now?
President BUSH: Well, I think they understand the lessons of Iraq and, you know, we put the Silverman-Rob Commission together and wanted to make - look, you president needs the best intelligence. This is a war against a group of killers who still want to come and kill us that is going to require accurate intelligence to give us the data necessary to act to protect Americans before the attack. And therefore, we're all pulling for good intelligence.
WILLIAMS: Right.
President BUSH: And Negroponte is much needed in the State Department. He's one of these public servants who brings a lot of skills and a lot of, really, you know - and a lot of good judgment. And I asked him to go to State Department to help Condi and found that, you know, a very suitable replacement, a guy named Mike McConnel. And the change of personnel really does not - is not a reflection upon whether or not the intel is getting or worse. The change of personnel is putting our best players in the best positions as we enter into the final two years of the administration.
WILLIAMS: One last thing, Mr. President, with the Democrats - you asked the Democrats on a bipartisan basis to form an advisory council to monitor the war, work with you. They haven't responded at all. What do you take from that?
President BUSH: Well, I'm going to have to keep working with them and explain that my notion is to put in place a, you know, a consulting-type group that will be able to talk about the war on terror in general. In other words, I don't want that a lot of these folks aren't happy we're in Iraq to begin with, and understand that. And then they're - they don't believe we're going to succeed in Iraq. And I understand that, too. I think what some might be afraid of is I'm trying to get them into Iraq-type situation where they're forced to say something they don't want to say. I don't know -
WILLIAMS: If they would be co-opted by cooperating or working -
President BUSH: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that may be part of the issue. My purpose really is to - listen, we want to consult in Iraq and we will continue to do so, and we'll be very much involved with the members of Congress - don't get me wrong. But the greater purpose is to help this country succeed in the ideological struggle that we're going to be in today and tomorrow and the next days. I mean, this is what I'm describing to the American people, is this war on terror's going to take a while and Iraq is just a part of it.
And I guess - you know, my work - I think it's important for me to continue to reach out to the Democrats, and will, and Republicans, for that matter, and explain the strategies and the way forward, but also to explain to them that presidents and Congresses will be dealing with this ideological struggle for quite a while. And therefore it makes sense to work together now to help not only us succeed, but help them succeed.
WILLIAMS: Mr. President, I want to say thank you from National Public Radio.
President BUSH: Juan, thank you, buddy.
WILLIAMS: Glad you're here. I appreciate it.
President BUSH: Yes, sir.
SIEGEL: President Bush speaking with NPR's senior correspondent Juan Williams earlier today in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. You can download the interview and read the full transcript at our Web site, NPR.org.
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