Hotline After Dark -- Can We Spare Some Change?

"World News" led with Pres. Obama's budget proposal and featured a taped interview with ex-FLOTUS Laura Bush. "Evening News" led with Obama's budget proposal. "Nightly News" led with Obama's budget proposal.

Pres. Obama's budget proposal continued to be the talk of the TV.

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "The main headline: President proposes dramatic change of course for the United States. Subhead: The cost of popular programs bring sticker shock. ... It's important to remember that President Obama campaigned on these reforms. He did get the country's support. And he's now following through on the reforms. I don't think people quite understood, when they elected him, how much they would cost cumulatively. That was not clear until we really got this budget" ("AC 360," CNN, 2/26).

Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R): "I'm afraid it is actually dangerous. I don't think people in this country generally understand that we face, not just a short-term economic strain right now with a potential of falling into a more severe recession, but also a risk that if we continue to borrow excessively that the world may decide that the dollar isn't worth very much. ... We could have a kind of economic collapse which would wipe out the savings of middle class Americans and put us in a very long-term, depressed situation. ... It's the wrong course for us to take as a nation" ("Hannity," FNC, 2/26).

Ex-Clinton Labor Sec. Robert Reich: "Finally, we have a budget that actually, instead of a top-down supply side economics trickle-down budget, is a bottom-up, grassroots, help-the-actual-public budget for a change" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/26).

After the jump, more on the budget, troop withdrawals from Iraq and Laura Bush's first interview since leaving the WH.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

CNN's Bash: "Anybody out there who was wondering what the election really meant in terms of change in Washington, this budget is Exhibit A. It certainly has very different spending priorities and a different view about the role of government" ("Situation Room," 2/26).

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "The president used the word 'honest.' That's astonishing. Look, all budgets are fiction. This one is fantasia."

NPR's Liasson, in response: "While every budget, yes, is fiction, and this budget has plenty of it, there also are some things that he has done that are more honest, that are more transparent. ... All in all, I think this is a big budget. It certainly signals a radical change in government, a new direction. But it's not 100 percent phony" ("Special Report," FNC, 2/26).

And OMB Dir. Peter Orszag made the TV rounds to discuss the budget.

Orszag, asked if $3.66T is a number he can actually grasp: "Obviously, it's a big number. We have to realize we're facing two very serious challenges. One is the economic crisis we face. That was the focus of the recovery act. And the second is we've got these large deficits going out over time, and we do need to get them down as we emerge from the recession."

Orszag, asked if this is about redistributing wealth in this country: "No, I think this is fully consistent with what the president campaigned on. We do face these structural deficits in out years, and we also need to make some key investments in energy, in education and health care. We are asking for, I guess, a greater sense of shared responsibility" ("NewsHour," PBS, 2/26).

Orszag, asked when the economy is going to bottom out: "Somewhere toward the end of this year or early next year. That's consistent with what Chairman Bernanke was also saying yesterday" ("Situation Room," CNN, 2/26).

Orszag, on what the budget says about the Obama admin.'s values and agenda: "First, it is honest. It doesn't play the budget games that have been played in the past and just pretend that things disappear from the budget overnight. Second, it gets the deficit down over time to a sustainable level. And third, it invests in key areas including energy, education, and healthcare. And the latter one, healthcare, is absolutely essential to our longer-term deficit picture, because healthcare costs are at the core of our long-term fiscal problems" ("Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC, 2/26).

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU

In a speech at NC's Camp Lejeune later today, Obama is expected to announce a plan to pull all U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by Aug.'10.

CNN's Ware: "It's a middle-ground policy, isn't it? ... It's more than the 16 months he promised on the campaign trail. It's less than the 23 months that the generals had asked for. What I would say is that, as long as this is based upon what's happening on the ground, this is a relatively sound strategy" ("AC 360," 2/26).

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH): "I think he is going in the right direction. ... I don't think that`s enough. I think you cannot leave 50,000 troops there and call it a withdrawal. But it's a step in the right direction and I think that ought to be supported" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 2/26).

FNC's Barnes: "I'm encouraged that President Obama is leaving those 50,000 troops there that Senator Feingold and some other liberal Democrats are complaining about. I think that's the good news in what he is announcing. On the other hand, I don't know ... the reason for him announcing this pullout" ("Special Report," 2/26).

Gergen: "What strikes me is that, in contrast to the way President Obama is so bold and audacious on the domestic side, he's being quite cautious in foreign policy. He was presented with three options by the Joint Chiefs for Iraq, to pull out most of the combat troops within 16 months, 19 months, or 23 months. ... He chose the middle option, just as he's done in Afghanistan. Instead of going bold, he's gone with a more conservative 17,000 troops" ("AC 360," CNN, 2/26).

REKINDLING THE PAST

ABC's Karl spoke to ex-FLOTUS Laura Bush in an exclusive interview about life outside the WH. Part of the interview aired on "World News."

L. Bush, on getting settled into their new home in Dallas: "We just spent the first night there last week. ... We're all unpacked and George has actually made a trip to the hardware store to pick up night lights so we can find our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night."

Karl: "Before he left the White House, he said that the first thing he was going to do the next day was to get up, make you coffee. Did he keep his promise?"

L. Bush: "He did that. He has brought me coffee every single morning since."

Karl: "I remember when you came into the White House, he had to give up his e-mail. Has he gotten the e-mail back?"

L. Bush: "He's on everything. He has blackberry, he's reading from a Kindle, the new book he had that Vice President Cheney gave him for Christmas."

Karl: "The president famously said the one thing he did not look forward to was your cooking. So, how's that coming?"

L. Bush: "He hasn't had to have my cooking. Our friends have been terrific. They bring over huge amounts of food so we can ask people over and have dinner parties. We have very little furniture. A friend loaned me a kitchen table."

L. Bush, asked if she watched Obama's address to Congress: "I didn't watch the State of the Union. I actually forgot totally about it."

L. Bush, on Obama expressing concerns about being isolated: "It is very isolating, and that's difficult. And that's one of the great things that we both have liked about moving back, and that is literally being able to walk in a neighborhood again. George walked up and down the street of our street in our new neighborhood and met the neighbors the other day. In fact, I came driving back in the car and saw him out on his bicycle riding up and down the street to meet the neighbors" (ABC, 2/26).