Bush Takes Economic Message to Missouri
54 minutes ago
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By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Shadowing Democrats through primary states, President Bush (news - web sites) highlighted upswings in the U.S. economy Monday at an engine plant in Missouri, a state he won in a tight contest in 2000 and has been tirelessly courting ever since.
"We're growing," Bush said during a brief stop in Missouri, his 15th presidential trip to the swing state. "The growth is good. New jobs are being created. Interest rates are low. Home ownership in America is at the highest levels ever."
The economy is growing because "we cut your taxes," he said.
Bush spoke inside SRC Automotive Inc., an employee-owned plant where 120 workers make and remanufacture engines and other parts for automobiles, boats and race cars. Cylinder heads, engine blocks, manifolds and carburetors were stacked on shelves; engines were suspended on chains behind a makeshift stage where Bush had a discussion with employees and businessmen.
Bush then drove a few miles to the Bass Pro Shops sporting goods store to shop for fishing gear. "Which way to the worms?" Bush asked reporters as he shook hands with several hundred shoppers inside.
As the president left the store, he rattled off his purchases: "I bought a reel. Some line. Two spinner baits. Some worms," he said.
Bush, who urged Congress to make the tax cuts permanent, said when lawmakers claim they're going to repeal the tax cuts, what they really mean is that they want to raise taxes and increase the size of the federal government.
The trip to America's heartland coincided with the release Monday of Bush's 2004 economic report, a document prepared by his Council of Economic Advisers. In the report, Bush said America has been able to surmount the bursting of the stock market bubble in early 2000 followed by the first recession in a decade, the terrorist attacks, two wars and corporate accounting scandals.
"Americans have responded to each challenge and now we have the results: renewed confidence, strong growth, new jobs and a mounting prosperity that will reach every corner of America," Bush wrote in the message to lawmakers.
In Springfield, Bush touted his job-creation plan, which includes making health care costs more affordable, reducing the burden of lawsuits, passing an energy bill, streamlining regulations and opening new markets for U.S. products.
Democrats, who have seized on the troubled job market to boost their election prospects, say the president's economic policies aren't working all that well.
"If President Bush's policies had put America on the right track, he wouldn't be forced into a desperate game of follow the leader," Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Monday. "The Democratic primaries and caucuses are drawing a record number of voters, a fact that apparently has Bush and his campaign nervous enough to play second fiddle in state after state."
Bush went to South Carolina on Feb. 5, two days after that state's Democratic primary. He's in Missouri, six days after this state's primary. In late January, he visited New Hampshire, two days after the primary.
Nationally, the jobless rate fell to 5.6 percent in January, the lowest level in more than two years, as employers stepped up hiring — but not fast enough to ally concerns about the prolonged job drought. Missouri's 5 percent unemployment rate in December was unchanged from November.
Different employment surveys paint contrasting pictures about the health of the economy, which has lost 2.2 million jobs since Bush took office. Factories have lost 3 million jobs in the last 42 straight months since a peak in July 2000.
The Labor Department (news - web sites) said last Friday companies added 112,000 new jobs in January — the fifth straight month of payroll increases and the largest in three years. Some 366,000 jobs were added in the past five months, it said. Analysts, however, are looking for monthly payroll gains of 300,000 or more to demonstrate that the sustained job growth is indeed under way.
For a more optimistic look at the nation's employment situation, some economists point to a survey of households, which counts self-employed and contract workers. That survey, which Bush likes to cite, shows that employment jumped by 496,000 in January.
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