Bush Proposes Budget; Bird Flu Outbreak in Britain
LEMON: Not a blank check from Iraq, but a pretty big one. That's what President Bush wants from you and the Democrat-controlled Congress. He sent his $2.9 trillion budget to Capitol Hill just hours ago. It fills up four big books. You can bet it will be taken apart line by line. And our Ed Henry is at the White House, where Mr. Bush has been huddling with his team. Hi, Ed. Very cold today there in Washington.</s>ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He is huddling indeed. It is very cold outside. But he was inside for his cabinet meeting today to unveil that budget. The president vowed that he'd continue -- he could continue heavy spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as spending here on the home front and not raise taxes but still somehow balance the budget by 2012. Now, as you can imagine, Democrats on the Hill are already skeptical about that, especially because the president wants to extend his tax cuts in addition to this spending. Now, with all these political charges flying around, it's easy to forget that this is real money. It's the taxpayer money our viewers are sending in to Washington. Where is that money going? Well, a big chunk of it, as you noted, Iraq and Afghanistan: $1 billion more this year on top of what has already been spent; $145 billion for those wars next year; $50 billion allocated for 2009 already, a couple of years out. All of this ballooning the costs of war to about $700 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan over the last few years, a staggering sum. And the budget chief, Rob Portman, told me a short time ago he realizes it's just a prediction. It could even go higher.</s>ROB PORTMAN, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: I'm not saying that this won't change. It will. We know that the commanders in the ground will change tactics and therefore, some of this will have to be altered. But at least it gives Congress the ability to take a careful look at a very specific proposal on war funding over the next six years.</s>E. HENRY: Now the other big place where viewers' tax money is going would be entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Rob Portman, in a briefing I just got out, pointed out in 1962, 26 percent of taxpayer money was going to those entitlement programs. Today it's about 53 percent of that entire $2.9 trillion budget. By 2040, the year 2040, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, as well as interest on the debt, will take over the entire budget. It wouldn't fund defense, homeland security, nothing else. Obviously, this Congress currently, the White House putting off some big problems. And as Rob Portman himself noted, there's going to have to either be massive spending decreases down the road or massive tax increases to somehow deal with that budget shortfall -- Don.</s>LEMON: All right, Ed. Where's your hat and your scarf, because it's really cold there?</s>HENRY: I need to get a hat. You're right.</s>LEMON: Yes, you do, my friend. Thanks, Ed Henry. And we want to tell you, coming up at the bottom of the hour, we're going to talk to our very own Candy Crowley about the politics in all of this budget talk. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour.</s>NGUYEN: In the meantime, it's curtains for thousands of turkeys, a red alarm for British farmers, but a mystery for U.K. health officials. Alphonso Van Marsh is in Holten, England, where a new bird flu outbreak has sparked an uproar and a determined investigation. Alphonso, what do you have? What's the latest?</s>ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That process continues, the culling of some 159,000 turkeys at this one farm behind me. It's one of Europe's biggest turkey producers. That comes as investigators try to figure out how that strain of the H1-N5 virus did make it to this farm. They want to know, was it possibly a wild bird that was infected that made its way into the farm or possible an employee, perhaps on his or her shoes, who perhaps had contact with an infected bird or the feces of an infected bird? Now this all comes as officials here are trying to get the public not to get too worried about this, reminding the public that the H5-N1 virus affects mostly birds, not humans. It's very difficult for humans to catch and contract the virus. And that said, they want people to know that bird sales, this shouldn't be affected. We talked to one of the local butchers here who says that he hasn't noticed any decrease in poultry sales. Lastly, to mention to you, in order to try to contain the virus, they've set up some zones out here. One of the zones, which covers much of the region, is encouraging poultry owners to keep their birds separate from wild birds. And in the smallest radius, which is about two miles, they're saying that all birds must be kept inside and all birds must be tested for H5-N1 -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: So with these precautions being taken, the fact that you say it really hasn't affected sales as of yet. Does that mean there's no public safety threat at this point?</s>VAN MARSH: Well, sadly, fears of bird flu, I should say, have come up so often that people are quite used to it. You've heard everybody from the United Nations' coordinator for bird flu to E.U. representatives to government ministers and the health ministry here reminding people that H5-N1 has been here in the area and it will be here for a number of years. And it is very difficult for humans to contact -- or to contract this virus from birds. So, in terms of public fears, people that say, well, you know, let's just wait and see. Let's see what people are doing. This culling process, as we mentioned, has started, government officials reminding the public that it is very, very hard to get this virus from birds themselves.</s>NGUYEN: Alphonso Van Marsh, reporting for us. We thank you.</s>LEMON: She told her doctor something was wrong. They said she just needed to lose weight. Well, 12 years later, her tumor was almost 100 pounds.</s>NGUYEN: Oh, my.</s>LEMON: Look at that. You will not believe this story, coming up.</s>JERAS: And you won't believe the cold wind chill temperatures across the Midwest, extending into the northeast. The latest on the Arctic blast. And our i-reporters helping us out to tell the story. They will shock you, these pictures and some will make you laugh. You won't want to miss it. NEWSROOM continues after a break.