Bush Criticizes Democrats on Tax Cuts
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By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush (news - web sites) took a swipe at Democratic candidates who want to roll back the tax cuts he enacted, declaring Saturday that the reductions have fueled a broad economic recovery.
AP Photo
In his weekly radio address, Bush cited a litany of improving economic figures: rising home ownership, business investment, manufacturing, stock-market wealth.
He gave credit to the three tax cuts, totaling $1.7 trillion over 10 years, that he pushed through Congress. "Tax relief has got this economy going again, and tax relief will keep it moving forward," Bush said.
"We can continue on the path to prosperity and new jobs — a path marked by a pro-growth agenda that has cut taxes on paychecks for 109 million American taxpayers — or we can reverse the course by raising taxes on hardworking Americans," Bush said. "The choice is clear."
The president focused on tax cuts at the end of a week when the issue took center stage in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Howard Dean (news - web sites) and Dick Gephardt (news - web sites) say they would erase all of Bush's tax cuts if elected, although Dean hinted this week he was considering a new proposal to reduce the tax burden on the middle class.
Another Democratic candidate, John Kerry (news - web sites), argues that only Bush's tax cuts targeted to the wealthy should be repealed. Kerry said in a campaign ad that began airing Friday, "It's right to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and invest in our kids."
In a response to Bush's radio address, Kerry cited a critical new account of Bush's economic policies by Bush's former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill.
In O'Neill's version of events, related in a new book, "The Price of Loyalty," President Bush was so disengaged during Cabinet meetings that he was like a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people."
"In his radio address President Bush had the audacity to tell the nation that his tax cuts for the wealthy `got this economy going again.' It's just more proof that President Bush's former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was right," Kerry said in a statement released in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was campaigning.
"As this Bush-league, jobless recovery continues, George Bush looks at the economy like `a blind man in a room full of deaf people.'"
The exchange is certain to preview a central debate in the election: whether Bush's tax cuts helped power an economic recovery or were simply a budget-busting boon for the rich.
Bush said he would renew his request that Congress make all his tax cuts permanent. Some of those cuts came with built-in expiration dates.
"Now is not the time to turn our backs on America's families and workers and entrepreneurs by letting much-needed tax relief expire," Bush said.
Bush's radio address aired as he spent a long weekend on his central Texas ranch. He returned there Friday afternoon, less than a week after finishing a nine-day vacation on the ranch.
Bush flies to Monterrey, Mexico for a summit of Western Hemisphere leaders on Monday. |
