Make cuts permanent, president urges
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- President Bush traveled yesterday to a plastic pipe factory in Kentucky's largest city to push his campaign claims that tax cuts have helped the nation's economy and their repeal would stop the recovery in its tracks.
Bush made his trip before the Democratic presidential contenders participated in a forum last night in Los Angeles, where they were expected to pound him again for the loss of American jobs. The president was scheduled to make a stop in North Carolina, home of one of the Democratic candidates, Senator John Edwards, but a snowstorm there forced the cancellation of that part of the trip.
Both Kentucky and North Carolina have been hit hard by job losses, and the administration has argued that making the tax cuts permanent would lead to the creation of more jobs.
The leading Democratic contenders, Edwards and Senator John F. Kerry, however, have called for repealing some of the tax cuts -- those for the affluent -- that the president pushed through Congress.
"It doesn't make any sense not to make the tax cuts permanent," Bush told workers at
For the first time, Bush indicated he would settle for Congress making permanent the tax cuts due to expire next year -- the child tax credit and tax breaks for married couples and for low-income people in the 10 percent bracket.
"I would like Congress to make all tax cuts permanent," he added. "But [at] the very minimum -- the very minimum -- they need to listen to the stories up here on the stage and make those set to expire in 2005 permanent for the sake of our economy, for the sake of American families, for the sake of small business owners, and for the sake of job creation."
With 2.3 million jobs lost since he took office, Bush has focused intensely on the subject, discussing the economy on about half the trips he has made outside Washington so far this year.
Bush has used the trips to tout his six-point plan to strengthen the economy, but key aspects of that plan face an uncertain future in a Congress deeply divided along party lines in this election year. Some of the president's critics question whether his plan would actually create jobs. And the president has threatened to veto the one piece of legislation members of both parties say would create jobs, the transportation bill.
"It makes no sense," said Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat who is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "I don't understand it at all. I have not heard of anything that would create jobs so directly as this. I've never heard anybody say this isn't a jobs bill. That's what this is."
But Bush, under pressure from conservative members of his party who are upset about the level of government spending, has said he will veto the massive transportation bill if it calls for spending more than $256 billion to repair the nation's highways.
The Senate charged past the veto threat, approving a version that calls for spending $318 billion. Members of the House have debated spending even more.
Even though the transportation bill would create jobs, Bush does not mention it when he talks about expanding employment. Instead, he urges Congress, besides keeping the tax cuts, to pass his energy bill and cap jury damage awards in medical liability cases.
Robert Reich, who was labor secretary during the Clinton administration, predicted the president's proposals would not foster job creation. "Some of them might actually destroy jobs," Reich said. "In the short term, it makes a lot of sense for the government to do what it does well, and that's invest in public works projects. That puts people to work."
Senate Democrats have already blocked a Bush-backed plan to cap jury awards in medical liability lawsuits, which the president says would lower health care costs and enable more businesses to thrive.
Another major aspect of the president's six-point plan, his energy proposal, has been shaved down, with tax breaks for fuel companies stripped out to attract Democratic support. But House Republicans, who passed another version of the bill last year, are less enthusiastic about the slimmed-down proposal.
After the factory visit in Louisville, Bush attended a campaign fund-raiser, where he raised $1.2 million at a luncheon. Donors paid $2,000 per plate.
