I don't think Lance Armstrong supports Bush. Bush is dipping into Social Security btw: USING SOCIAL SECURITY
"I've said that the only reason we should use Social Security funds is in the case of an economic recession or war," Bush said.
It will be a long while before there is any certainty about whether the economy has bottomed out or is headed toward a recession. In the meantime, Bush said he was intent on getting Congress to follow his spending priorities, passing large increases for the military and for education and putting everything else on hold.
"If Congress goes off on a spending spree in other areas, it's going to create a competition for defense dollars," he said, adding later, "and there's going to be a battle."
By putting down a strong claim for military spending and also by hinting, even in a vague way, that Social Security may not be untouchable, Bush seemed to be pulling together the strands of an emerging strategy for what could be difficult fiscal times ahead. He spent much of the session on military issues, including announcing the nomination of Gen. Richard Myers to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
For all his talk about coming budget battles, the escalation of violence in the Middle East and his pending decision on whether to give some illegal aliens the right to work here, Bush appeared more relaxed yesterday than at any news conference during his seven months in the presidency.
INFORMAL ATMOSPHERE
Perhaps it was the informality of the atmosphere: a community hall that had clearly suffered some neglect over the years, tucked in the woods off a small road in this one-stoplight town near his ranch. Perhaps it was the scant attendance: There were barely enough people to fill two rows of folding chairs.
So Bush bantered about dragging reporters into the 100-degree heat of his adopted Texas town, and insisted that even if politics were getting nasty again in Washington, "It's a great tone here in Crawford.
"You know what they're interested in?" he asked reporters, talking about his neighbors here. "Their families, whether it's going to rain, interested in the price of fuel, they're worried about insurance rates -- they're not too bad in Texas.
"They're not worried about the partisan squabbling that has kind of sullied the Washington scene at times," Bush said.
In his comments yesterday, and in asides to elementary school students and reporters here in Crawford on Thursday, Bush appeared to be laying out his strategy for autumn. At its simplest, it boils down to this: Bush will battle for increased spending on the military and education, and he will argue that every other proposal must be decided after the military budget is set.
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