Cheney Presses Congress to Keep Tax Cuts
Tuesday February 17, 2004 4:01 AM
By RICHARD BENKE
Associated Press Writer
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Congress should make President Bush's tax cuts permanent and give judicial nominees the vote they deserve, Vice President Dick Cheney said at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising luncheon Monday.
As for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Cheney said, it's still too soon to rule out their existence, but Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on Iraq had to be removed in any case.
``There is no question that America did the right thing in Iraq,'' Cheney told 150 Republican contributors. About 100 of them paid an additional $1,000 each to be photographed with Cheney, bringing the fund-raising total to at least $200,000, although official figures were not immediately released.
``America has shown we are serious about removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction,'' he said. ``In Iraq, our survey group is still collecting data. The president has created a special commission to compare what our intelligence indicated before the war with what we've learned since, and it confirms much of what we thought before the war.
``We now know that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction.... We know he had the necessary infrastructure because we found the labs and the dual-use facilities that could be used for these chemical and biological agents,'' the vice president said. ``We know that he was developing the delivery systems - ballistic missiles - that had been prohibited by the United Nations.''
Cheney cited Saddam's history of using such weapons on his enemies and his own people, as well.
President Bush has said the country is presented a choice - ``either take the word of a madman or take an action to defend the American people,'' Cheney said.
``Faced with that choice, George W. Bush will defend America every time,'' he said.
While defense of America is paramount, Cheney said the economic well-being of the citizens is also a top priority after recession arose early in the Bush administration.
The tax cut was meant to jump-start the economy, he said.
``And now we have seen the results of the hard work of the American people and the sound policies of the administration - Americans took those (refunded tax) dollars and put them to work,'' he said, suggesting the money was put to far better use by the individuals than would have been done by the government.
``As you know, there are voices in the land who want to roll back the Bush tax cuts - sometimes I hear these voices on the evening news,'' he said. ``But in fact, the Bush tax cuts were exactly what this country needed. They've now set us on a path toward long-term growth and job creation.
``To keep us on that path, Congress needs to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. ... We will continue our pro-growth economic agenda so tat we can continue to create jobs,'' he said.
He said Bush has what it takes to be president - ``the finest qualities of character, conviction, personal integrity, good judgment, compassion and courage in times of testing for the nation.''
Cheney complained about congressional Democrats' filibusters preventing judicial nominees from receiving the vote they deserve, whether favorable or not. He said the filibuster was an abuse of the system and unfair to the nominee because it subjected them to a higher voting standard - the two-thirds needed to break the filibuster - than other nominees.
Cheney and his wife Lynn were introduced to the luncheon crowd by Sen. Pete Domenici, who said Cheney was ``one of the strongest and most influential vice presidents in our country's history.''
Also present were U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, R-N.M., former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley and former state GOP chairman John Dendahl and the Bush-Cheney regional chairman John Sanchez, the former Republican candidate for New Mexico governor, who oversees five states including the president's home state of Texas along with New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
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