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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (25524)	1/21/2004 12:02:42 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 793673

Tim, To borrow from a Xmas tune..."it's the most wonderful time of the (election) year." If it were not for heat applied by voters the Bush Adm would not at long last notice there are American lifeforms beyond corporate boardrooms: Bush Promotes JOB INITIATIVES in Ohio Wednesday, 21-Jan-2004 8:20AM Story from AP / JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- President Bush promoted his job-creation and worker-training goals Wednesday in Ohio -- a state hit hard by manufacturing losses and one that is key to his 2004 campaign. Hours after his State of the Union speech, Bush touted his proposal for new job-training grants channeled through community colleges at one of the state's fastest growing community colleges. He called for $250 million for programs to match workers and employers during his speech at Owens Community College. "There's no better place to do that than the community college system," he said. In addition to offering classes that help workers learn a new skill, community colleges often work with businesses to train their workers to use computer software or other skills. "It's what we're all about," said Terry Thomas, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, which represents 23 technical and community colleges. But he added that there has been little funding for work force development, so any money from the government would help. Owens Community College has seen its enrollment increase for 26 consecutive semesters. It now has about 40,000 full- and part-time students at its campuses in Toledo and Findlay. Job training and counterterrorism proposals were among several plans Bush said Tuesday night that he would offer in his 2005 budget -- a blueprint to be released Feb. 2 that will be constrained by record deficits expected to approach $500 billion this year. Even as Democrats scrapped among themselves over who would oppose him in November, the president's State of the Union address touted his administration's successes: the toppling and capture of Saddam Hussein, the revival of economic growth, and the passage of major tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug benefit. "America this evening is a nation called to great responsibilities," Bush said in his 54-minute address Tuesday evening. "And we are rising to meet them." The address contained few major new proposals, underlining the limitations of a budget burdened by deficits and a campaign year in which far-reaching legislative accomplishments probably will be hard to come by. After calling last week for a resumption of human flights to the moon and eventually sending astronauts to Mars and beyond, Bush didn't mention space exploration in his speech. From Congress to the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire, where next week's presidential primary will be held, Democrats balked. They said Bush had ignored the job losses, ballooning budget deficits, diplomatic reversals and growing ranks of Americans without health insurance that have characterized his administration. Bush touted a cluster of issues sure to energize conservative voters who are the core of the Republican Party. He said he would support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman if courts struck down a law mandating that. He asked lawmakers to renew expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act that strengthen the investigative reach of law enforcement agencies, double funds for abstinence education and codify his administration's award of federal grants to religious charities. He also took a swipe at Democrats who have challenged the path he took in Iraq, who have said his tax cuts were an unnecessary boon to the rich and that his Medicare expansion and education initiatives were inadequate. He said the nation needed to stay the course against terrorism and admonished those who would "turn back to the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat to us." "We have not come all this way -- through tragedy and trial and war -- only to falter and leave our work unfinished," the president said. By far, the most expensive proposal in his speech was one he has made repeatedly: Making his already enacted cuts in personal income and other taxes permanent. That has a price tag estimated at $2 trillion, and an uncertain fate in Congress, considering projections for year after year of huge budget deficits. Bush also called for more money -- likely to be relatively small amounts -- for spreading democratic institutions abroad, helping students performing poorly in math in reading, training prisoners for future employment and testing for drugs in schools. He proposed tax breaks to help low-income people afford health care, and renewed his call to let people divert part of their Social Security taxes into retirement accounts whose investment they would control. Congress is unlikely to touch an overhaul of politically sensitive Social Security at least until next year, after the elections. Associated Press Writer Alan Fram contributed to this report from Washington.