[ OUR OPINION ]
Speech signals start of
presidential campaignPRESIDENT Bush spoke to his political base in his State of the Union address to Congress at the risk of alienating moderates with legitimate concerns about his aggressive foreign policy and rising budget deficits. His speech, scheduled the day after the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, was an invitation for Democrats to reach for those moderates in the months leading up to the November election.
THE ISSUE
President Bush defended military action in Iraq and proposed various measures to revive the economy in his State of the Union address.
No one disagrees with the president's assertion that the capture of Saddam Hussein has made the world "a better and safer place," but questions remain about the pre-emptive U.S. action that led to the assault on Saddam's regime in Iraq. In last year's State of the Union address, Bush said military action was necessary to prevent Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons have not been found, and Bush awkwardly referred in Tuesday night's speech to Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities" as having been "identified" by U.S. inspectors.
Most Americans remain generally supportive of U.S. policy in Iraq, although many mistakenly accept the Bush administration's implication that it is part of the war against terrorism. No evidence linking al-Qaida to the Saddam regime has surfaced, and Osama bin Laden remains at large in the northern mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan.
On the home front, Bush proposed making permanent the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts, approved during his presidency as a temporary stimulus to the economy. Economic indicators have been on the rise in recent months, but jobs growth has not. The number of manufacturing jobs has plunged by 2.6 million since Bush took office. To combat the problem the president proposed a "jobs for the 21st century program" to train people for jobs in other sectors.
Bush denounced gay marriage, and he called for limiting medical malpractice awards and eliminating inheritance taxes. He also proposed federal aid for drug testing in schools, saying such tests have been "effective" in reducing illicit drug usage among teenagers. In fact, a nationwide survey has shown school drug testing to be ineffective.
Voters remain most concerned about the nation's economy, and the Bush administration's fiscal policies are subject to scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal, normally supportive of Bush, editorialized on Tuesday that his has been "the most profligate administration since the 1960s," acting in concert with "Congress's drunken spending sailors."
Bush promised in his speech to reduce discretionary spending to less than 4 percent. Discretionary spending has increased by an annual average of 8.2 percent during Bush's presidency, compared with 2.5 percent a year during the Clinton administration, the Journal noted.
