OK a tough one. Robert W Bush is going mano a mano against J B DeLong



RWB returns after a walk in the park with the family


Social Policy

Mr. President, Republicans in the House and the Senate are outraged that the administration's Medicare staff thinks that last December's Medicare bill will cost much, much more than the $400 billion cap your staff promised them, isn't that right?

Well no actually that is not right at all. The $400 billion estimate is from the CBO which answers to congress not to me. later the treasury department staff (which is unlike CBO part of the executive branch) reported to me that they had different higher estimates. It's not like either the CBO or the treasury staff made a mistake let alone spun the numbers for political reasons. It is actually very difficult to forecast how much a new benefit will cost, at least for those of us who don't have crystal balls.

The main difference is that here in the executive branch they assumed that the program would be so attractive that all elligible senior citizens would sign up immediately. At the CBO, they assumed take up would be more similar to that of existing programs. A lot of money is at stake but it is very hard to know who is right.


[Follow up] Last week you said that that this was as much a surprise to you as to anyone else--that you had only learned of this large extra expense two weeks ago, isn't that right?

yes

[Follow up] That means that HHS Secretary "Tommy" Thompson, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and OMB Director Josh Bolten kept from you--for months--their staff's estimates of the costs of the Medicare bill you signed last December. Why do you think they did this?

Robert W Bush I guess they had the same doubts that I now have about the assumptions behind that number.

[Follow up] The president of the United States is not a mushroom--not something to be kept in the dark and fed compost, is he?

Robert W Bush No no I prefer pork rinds.

[Follow up] How many of those three--Thompson, Snow, and Bolten--will resign this week to spend more time with their families?

Robert W Bush None of them I hope. At least I haven't heard anything about it.

Military Service

Mr. President, all this fuss about your military service could be ended in an hour if you would--like all other presidents and candidates--release your military service records, isn't that right?

Robert W Bush That would be right in an ideal world but, as we both know, once the media get their teeth into something they (well ok you) won't let go. With the full records they could say "OK all cleared up now. Our concerns were baselss" or they could search and search for some unclear detail and keep the story going. Do you really think I really think they would choose the first course of action ?

[Follow up] As long as you don't release them, we all will infer that there is something in them that you regard as really damaging--much more damaging than the current accusations that you failed to fulfill your commitments and got your father to fix it with the Pentagon,isn't that right?

Robert W Bush I hope that no one will infer that, given the clear explanation I just gave of why I don't want to release them.

[Follow up] What is in your military records that you and your staff are so scared of?

Robert W Bush Look if we could figure out what strange detail the press is going to jump on, we could prepare an explanation. The records look fine to me, but I know that reporters aren't going to give up on a story just because they should. I have no idea what detail some reporter is going to blow out of proportions and frankly I don't care to find out.

[Follow up] Then I can announce that your military service records will be publicly released this afternoon?

Robert W Bush I think you need to turn up the volume on your earphone.


Mr. President, your staff has been handing around a strange, torn document that they say is a partial copy of your military record from 1972-73, isn't that right?

Robert W Bush My staff has been handing around a document with my social security number on it documenting my service in 1972 and 1973 yes.

[Follow up] This "torn document" shows you reporting for Air National Guard duty in Houston on 25 days from May 1972 through April 1973, isn't that right?

Robert W Bush I don't recall the exact number but that sounds about right.


[Follow up] But your superior officers in Houston said that you had "not been observed" at all during that year. Is this torn document a crude forgery?


Robert W Bush No of course it isn't a forgery. I think when you say officers you are incorrectly using the plural to refer to one officer. I was there in 1973. He was certainly there in 1973. I guess we never happened to be there on the same day. Remember Air National Guard is not a full time job. Well actually it would be enough if you remembered what you just said "25 days in 1972 and 1973." Even a dedicated officer might not be there on 25 particular days which are usually on weekends.

[Follow up] How is it possible that you could have been on base for 25 different days during a year in which your superior officers claimed that you had not been seen on base at all?

Robert W Bush There you go again using the plural for the singular.
Also I just answered that question.

[Follow up] Mr. President, do you know who created this "torn document" and who inserted it into your personnel file?

Robert W Bush I assume the file was created by a National guard clerk typist in 1973 just as it seems. Mr Lloyd found it and put it in my file as he is glad to remind anyone who bothers to ask.

National Security

Mr. President, your CIA chief, George Tenet, has said in a speech at Georgetown University that the CIA never believed that Saddam Hussein posed a major or immediate threat to America--that it would Saddam more than five years to acquire nuclear weapons, isn't that what CIA chief Tenet said?

Robert W Bush Well to be exact he said that the CIA said that Iraq was not an imminent threat just as I did Before the war. Also he said that it would take Iraq 5 years if they did not get their hands on bomb grade fissionable material. That's a big if.

[Follow up] Your Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that it is not at all clear, if we had known then what we know now, that the case was strong enough to support an attack on Iraq, isn't that right?

Robert W Bush As everyone knows, Colin Powell has always been very reluctant to go to war. Arguing for more time for diplomacy is basically the job description of the Secretary of State. I'm not sure why he said he might not have advised me to invade Iraq. I'm sure he remembers that he never advised me to invade Iraq. Actually, of course, I know he refused to mention that detail because he is a team player.

[Follow up] In light of these conclusions by your chief advisors, are you sorry that you did not give Hans Blix and the U.N. weapons inspectors more time in Iraq?


Robert W Bush I don't see what purpose could possibly have been served by giving them more time.

[Follow up] But more time would have allowed them to definitively establish what we know now--that Saddam Hussein did not possess significant quantities of weapons of mass destruction, and did not pose a threat to America. Wouldn't that have allowed us to follow other paths with Saddam Hussein, and wouldn't that have kept 500 brave American soldiers from being killed and 10,000 from being wounded--many of them in ways that will mark them for the rest of their lives?

Robert W Bush I don't think they could have definitively established that. In fact we still don't have final proof that there are no WMD hidden anywhere in Iraq.

If we had followed other paths, Iraq would still be suffering under the tyranny of a monster. How many Iraqis can you find who argue that it would have been better if we had left Saddam Hussein in power ?

[Follow up] Mr. President, if the CIA never believed that Saddam Hussein posed a major or immediate threat to America, and never believed that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were friends rather than enemies, what was the real reason for our invasion of Iraq?

Robert W Bush Your question is very odd. I don't see where you get "rather than enemies". Al Qaeda and Saddam's Iraq were certainly not enemies. More than 10 years ago they reached a non aggression agreement which, at the very least, each side has respected since. Remember the Molotof Ribbentrof pact was supposed to be just a non aggression pact. We suspect that the Saddam Hussein Osama Bin Laden pact had secret protocols too.

Mr. President, it is now more than six months since some of your senior White House aides leaked classified information about the identity of U.S. agents, and so outraged all current and former CIA and other intelligence community members,isn't that right?

Robert W Bush Robert Novak claimed to be quoting two administration sources. That's all I know so far.

[Follow up] You have sat passively by, taking no personal steps to establish the identity of the leakers of classified information, apparently happy to have them continue to serve you. Isn't that right?

Robert W Bush That's completely unfair. The justice department is hot on the tail of the leakers. I personally have made clear how much I deplore their crime.

[Follow up] Doesn't this inaction and appearance of unconcern on your part undermine trust in the White House on the part of those who work for our intelligence services?

Robert W Bush Clearly in this case I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. If I intervened in the investigation I would, correctly, be accused of meddling. Since I, quite properly, leave the professionals freedom of action I am accused of "inaction and the appearance of unconcern".

[Follow up] What steps are you going to take to regain the trust of those brave and dedicated men and women who work in our intelligence services?


Robert W Bush I an confident that I have the trust of the brave and dedicated men and women who work in our intelligence services. an think of no better way to keep that trust than to continue to allow the dedicated prosecuters at Jusctice continue to work with the grand jury which they have empanelled.
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