In a continuing battle over the economy, President George W. Bush called on Congress Monday to abandon "partisan bickering" to pass an economic stimulus plan derailed by the Democrats last month.
"Americans, like me, are tired of partisan bickering," Bush told reporters before a meeting with his economic advisers and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. The meeting was the first order of business after he returned to Washington from a 12-day holiday break in Texas.
"I'm making good progress in winning the war in Afghanistan, and we've got to make good progress about helping people find work," he said. "And so the question I'm going to ask and the question I hope Congress asks is how best to create jobs."
Bush called on Congress to "unify around some sensible policy and not try to play politics with tax relief or, for that matter, economic stimulus packages." It would be "a disaster" to raise taxes amid the current recession, he said, referring to calls by Democrats to slow the implementation of his 10-year, 1.35-trillion-dollar tax cut policy.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who fired an opening salvo of the election-year battle last week, blamed a looming budget deficit on the tax cut, saying this policy only made the economy worse.
Deriding the Democratic strategy of linking his tax cut to the current recession, Bush said, "Somebody must be reading a different kind of economics textbook here in Washington."
But he conceded that the federal budget, his first budget to be submitted later this year, may not be balanced.
He said he had told the American people that the nation might have to run deficits in times of war, in times of a national emergency, or in times of a recession. "We're still in all three," he said.
Bush said he would include the stimulus plan in the upcoming budget blueprint, adding that the plan combined "good features" from the points of view of both the Republicans and the Democrats.
The Republic majority in the House of Representatives approved the package but the Democrats-controlled Senate did not schedule a vote before recessing last month, saying Bush's proposals relied too strongly on business tax cuts without doing enough for unemployed workers.
Analysts say that the debate over the economy will undoubtedly
dominate Washington politics in a year marked by crucial mid-term elections, which could sway the balance of power on Capitol Hill.
Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the Senate and Republicans hold a slim lead in the House.Also, recent polls show that the recession has replaced war-related topics as the most concerned issue in the US.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2002)
