Prez to VETO Expanding Child Health Insurance Program; Pentagon Asking for $200 Billion in War Money
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, more recalls of toxic toys made in communist China. And a new campaign to protect our children from dangerous imports. We'll have a special report. Also, a new showdown over drivers licenses for illegal aliens, this time in New York State. We'll have a lively debate between two state lawmakers on both sides of the argument. All that and much more straight ahead tonight.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS THIS WEEK, news, debate and opinion for Saturday, September 29th. Here now, Kitty Pilgrim.</s>PILGRIM: Good evening, everybody. The Bush White House and Congress tonight are on a collision course over children's health insurance. Senate Democrats and some Republicans defied a presidential veto threat. They voted for a big expansion in taxpayer- funded health insurance for children called SCHIP. Now afterwards, top Democrats held a news conference with some children who have benefited from SCHIP. Jessica Yellin reports from Capitol Hill.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush is vowing to veto the new children's health insurance bill, and Democrats are pleading with him to change his mind.</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is wrong, Mr. President. This is an issue of priorities. I believe we ought to invest in the children.</s>SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He will be vetoing health care for almost 4 million children. And he will be putting ideology, not children, first.</s>YELLIN: They're not alone. A handful of Republicans are breaking with the White House and Republican leadership to support this measure.</s>SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: It is very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for, my own personal president, on such an important bill.</s>SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: The administration is unfortunately claiming this bill does things that the bill simply does not do. It is sort of an SCHIP in wonderland.</s>YELLIN: The bill would continue coverage to more than 6 million children who are currently enrolled and pay for another 4 million children to join the program. It would be funded through a 61 cent per pack cigarette tax. Opponents say it will give coverage to too many kids who can afford private insurance. In other words, they say it is socialized medicine.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: They are using SCHIP as a Trojan horse to sneak government-run health care into the states.</s>YELLIN: But one of the senate's leading fiscal conservatives supports this bill. He says this is the wrong issue for a spending fight.</s>SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: This may be an opportunity for President Bush to learn a lesson that President Clinton learned on welfare reform, after we sent him three bills, he eventually signed one. But eventually right wins out.</s>YELLIN: Meantime, Democrats are gearing up for the president's veto and trying to gather enough votes to override it. (on camera): The final Senate vote was a slap in the face to President Bush. Eighteen Republicans broke with him to support the bill. But the White House has made it clear, that won't keep Mr. Bush from vetoing it. Jessica Yellin, CNN, Capitol Hill.</s>PILGRIM: The White House insists the president will carry out his threat to veto children's health bill. And White House press secretary Dana Perino says the bill would create a new entitlement program for higher income households. Elaine Quijano reports from the White House. Elaine, why is the White House so strongly opposed to bill that has won so much Republican support?</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in short, Kitty, White House officials say that their Republican colleagues, as well as Democrats, are just wrong on this. They say this bill amounts to bad policy in their view. Bush aides say that when you look at the fine print on this legislation, it does not fulfill in their opinion the original goal of SCHIP. And that was to serve the nation's poorest children. The complicated issue, Democrats, though, are really trying to turn up the political heat on President Bush. In fact on Friday they held an event that they called "an enrollment ceremony" to try to do just that. They surrounded themselves with children. Later in the day they issued a news release calling on the president to not "turn his back on children." But the White House spokeswoman Dana Perino promptly rejected any suggestion that's how a veto should be interpreted.</s>DANA PERINO, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is a policy difference here. It's not about who cares about children more than the other. It is a policy difference. The president is saying, let's take care of the neediest children first. Let's not put scarce federal dollars towards a program that was meant for the poorest children and let it creep up to middle-income families.</s>QUIJANO: Now at the same time when you take a step back there is a bigger picture here as well, if you will. This is a White House that has been really criticized quite roundly for its spending policies in the past. In fact, a prominent voice, a very influential voice, of course, former Fed Chairman Greenspan, in his new book, criticized President Bush, saying that his spending was essentially out of control in the past. Well, the White House is drawing the line on this very political issue. We'll see how it all plays out -- Kitty.</s>PILGRIM: How worried is the White House right now about Congress overriding the veto, Elaine?</s>QUIJANO: Kitty, they're not that worried at this moment. Of course, it's never a good thing when you have that many Republicans -- prominent Republican senators coming out and saying that they don't agree with President Bush when it comes to this issue of health care funding for children. At the same time, they're not really backing down in any way, shape or form. They're not expressing any serious concern. In fact, a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto said, you know, the president is not standing alone on this. He dismissed that notion saying "we must not be very isolated because his veto is going to be sustained" -- Kitty.</s>PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Elaine Quijano. Thanks, Elaine. The Bush administration also is facing a tough fight over new funds to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon is asking for nearly $200 billion in new war funds for next year. That's almost a third more than the Pentagon's original request. Jamie McIntyre has our report.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The surge may or may not have turned things around in Iraq, but one thing is certain, it will help make 2008 the most expensive year yet in what the Bush administration calls the war on terror. The $190 billion request now includes an extra $42 billion, of which $6 billion will cover the higher pace of operations. And a whopping $11 billion would go to double the number of heavily armored MRAP vehicles on order, from 8,000 to 15,000. In delivering the news, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the price of the prolonged war is steep.</s>ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Mr. Chairman, I know that Iraq and other difficult choices America faces in this war on terror will continue to be a source of friction within the Congress, between the Congress and the president, and in the wider public debate.</s>MCINTYRE: Gates had already withstood a flurry of broadsides from committee chairman and ardent war critic Robert Byrd, who railed against the cost of what he called the nefarious infernal war in Iraq.</s>SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Such a long-term presence could cost well in excess of $2 trillion, $2 trillion -- yes, you heard me, $2 trillion. That's quite a burden that this president is leaving to our grandchildren.</s>MCINTYRE: In fact, if you add the $190 billion to what has been spent since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the total is more than $760 billion. And it's well on its way to $1 trillion. (on camera): The news the Pentagon would pump billions more into buying new and replacing old equipment sent defense stocks soaring on Wall Street as investors bought shares in companies that stand to gain if the Pentagon can't reduce its war-related spending any time soon -- Kitty. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>PILGRIM: The president will have a new top military adviser on Monday. He's Admiral Michael Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Unlike his two predecessors, Admiral Mullen was not in a top Pentagon job when the president decided to overthrow the Saddam Hussein's regime. Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned that one of the first things Admiral Michael Mullen plans to do after he takes office October 1st is to make a trip to the military academy at West Point. He wants to tell Army cadets he is worried.</s>ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: There is strain. We are stretched.</s>STARR: Sources close to Mullen say as incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior military adviser to the president, the admiral thinks it is time to tell the troops the top guys know there are problems. Mullen hinted at it during his confirmation hearings.</s>MULLEN: I do not take for granted the service of our people or their families and I worry about the toll this pace of operations is taking on them.</s>STARR: Aides say Mullen wants to use the trip to West Point to send a message to senior commanders they must own up to decisions they made about the war. Mullen's predecessor, General Peter Pace says he too made bad calls.</s>GEN. PETER PACE, FMR. CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: It's one of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi army, given the opportunity, would stand together.</s>STARR: In a recent interview with CNN, the top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, acknowledged more recent miscalculations.</s>GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: Did not pick up on some indicators on telltale signs on the start of the insurgency, if you will, of the establishment, the roots being put down by what became al Qaeda Iraq, by some of these other threats that have emerged.</s>STARR: But younger officers say after years of war, the problem is now much deeper than the reluctance to discuss past mistakes.</s>LT. COL. JOHN NAGL, U.S. ARMY: Young men and women I taught at West Point 10 years ago, who have now served in combat two and three times, are making the decision whether to stay in the Army for the long haul.</s>STARR (on camera): And whether the troops think it is worth it is one of Mullen's worries. Aides say he is concerned if combat- experienced troops start leaving, the U.S. military could lose one of its greatest advantages. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>PILGRIM: Still to come, rising anger over dangerous imports from communist China and other nations. Christine Romans will have the report -- Christine.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, many critics are saying that this nation's failed trade policies are to blame for the recent wave of recalls of dangerous products. We'll have that report coming up.</s>PILGRIM: Thanks, Christine. Also, you know him as Cliff from "Cheers." But now John Ratzenberger has a new role, he is trying to save what's left of our manufacturing industry. He is among my guests. Also, new moves to enforce our immigration laws. But are borders remain wide open to illegal aliens, drug traffickers, possibly even terrorists. Stay with us.