Bush Begins Economic Campaign, Urges Unity
By Sandra Sobieraj
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, January 5, 2002; 2:38 PM
ONTARIO, Calif. –– President Bush entered the heated election-year war of words over the recession, telling California workers Saturday that Democrats who criticize his tax cuts are tax-raisers in disguise. With a shout, he declared: "Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes!"
Bush claimed "incredible progress" in the three-month-old war on terrorism, praising a spirit of unity among the American people. "It's time to take the spirit of unity that has been prevalent in fighting the war and bring it to Washington, D.C.," he said.
Last month, Bush and the Democrat-controlled Senate deadlocked on how to revive the economy. The bitter fight was over how much money to provide for tax cuts versus unemployment and health insurance aid. "This economic debate is troubling me," Bush said.
"There are troubling signs that the old way is beginning to creep in to the people's minds in Washington. After all it's an election year," Bush said. "But America is better than that. We're better than that."
One day after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle fired the opening salvo in Washington, Bush headed to the West Coast to fire back, first to this California GOP stronghold. Later, he was touring a job center in Portland, Ore.
Anyone who doesn't like the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut he enacted last summer must want to raise taxes instead, Bush said, although Daschle has not actually called for a tax increase.
"There's going to be people who say we can't have the tax cut go through any more. That's a tax raise. I challenge their economics when they say raising taxes will help the country recover," Bush said.
"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes!" The call invited comparison to his father's famous 1988 promise: "Read my lips – no new taxes." The former president was heavily criticized after later agreeing to a tax increase.
Bush was careful not to criticize Daschle by name and the president did not respond when one man in the hand-picked Republican audience asked Bush about making "Tommy Daschle go to his room for being bad."
Indeed, despite his sharp words for Democrats, Bush said bipartisanship should rule the day, particularly in the economic debate.
"The old way is, what's more important, the country or my political party?" Bush told about 2,000 people at a town-hall meeting east of Los Angeles. "I stand here as a proud party man, but let me tell you something, the country is far more important."
Bush said the terrorist attacks set back an economy that was already hurting. "The attacks affected the confidence of the American people. It affected our psychology," the president said, adding that he saw signs of recovery.
The answer, he said, was in creating more jobs with his proposed corporate tax breaks.
In a speech Friday, Daschle blamed Bush's tax cut last year for looming budget deficits and the recession that has cost millions of Americans their jobs.
Bush derided the Democratic strategy of linking his tax cut to the recession. "I don't know what economic text book they're reading," he cracked.
The administration wants voters to see Democrats, particularly those who control the Senate, as do-nothing obstructionists who are keeping the economy down.
The Republican majority in the House approved a version of Bush's plan but Senate leaders did not schedule a vote before recessing for the holidays last month.
"I made my proposals to create new jobs and help dislocated workers on October the 4th, three months and 943,000 lost jobs ago," Bush said in his radio speech Saturday.
"Some in the Senate seem to think we can afford to do nothing, that the economy will get better on its own, sooner or later," he added. "... We need a plan to lengthen unemployment benefits, we need a plan to shorten the recession. The Senate should act on both. America's workers cannot afford more delay."
Senate Democrats replied in their Saturday radio broadcast. The GOP tax cuts were implemented and "now, just a few short months later, our economy is in trouble," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "Budget surpluses have turned to budget deficits once again."
Taking pains to assert strong Democratic support for the president's anti-terrorism campaign, for which Bush enjoys record high voter approval, Dorgan summarized Bush's domestic agenda by quoting Will Rogers during the Great Depression:
"The unemployed here ain't eating regular, but we will get around to them as soon as we get everybody else fixed up OK."
Meanwhile, a Congressional Budget Office report that studied the various economic stimulus plans gave the highest grade to so-called payroll and sales tax "holidays" that have drawn bipartisan support in the Senate.
Several proposals supported by Bush, including a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, had less "bang for the buck," the CBO report said.
The GOP-written stimulus bill stalled in the Senate offered jobless Americans an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits and some help paying for health insurance.
The GOP legislation also included corporate tax breaks, which Democrats said were too generous, and tax rebates for lower wage earners who did not receive checks last summer.
Democrats favor similar rebates and Daschle included them Friday as he suggested new efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill.
© 2002 The Associated Press
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