by Mark Silva
“These are tough economic times,” President Bush said today, on the eve of Tax Day.
“Our fellow citizens will be paying taxes during a time of economic uncertainty,” Bush said at a meeting of his Cabinet in the White House.
“This administration anticipated these times,” Bush maintains — noting that more than tax returns will be in the mail this year. The government also will disburse more than $100 billion in tax rebates to more than 130 million households.
“We worked with Congress to pass a pro-growth package that incensed businesses to invest; a pro-growth package that will be sending some of your taxpayers’ money back to you,” Bush said in a public statement at the meeting. “That’s going to be an important part of making sure this economy begins to recover in a way that will add confidence and hope.”
The White House doesn’t have much confidence, however, in its ability to enact the Colombia Free Trade Agreement which has fallen hostage to the presidential camapign under way. Democratic leaders have derailed a timeframe for the agreement’s passage.
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“There’s big disappointment around this table about the action the speaker took on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement,” Bush said. “This free trade agreement is good for American workers and it’s good for American consumers. And this free trade agreement is in our national interests. Yet that bill is dead unless the speaker schedules a definite vote.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) maintains that House leaders simply have placed the agreement on a time schedule that will enable proper debate rather than fast-track approval.
Bush also is calling on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, for a longer-term guarantee of renewed economic prosperity.
To which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) responds today: “President Bush’s ideological approach to the economy simply has not and will not work. And his call for more tax breaks for multimillionaires and special interests demonstrates that he is completely out of touch with working Americans struggling to make ends meet…. Middle-class families are looking for real solutions – not the same economic ideas that got us into this mess in the first place.”
(Bush at Cabinet today. AP Photo by Gerald Herbert)