Washington — President Bush, facing election-year criticism from Democrats, defended his tax-cutting policies Monday and blamed emerging federal budget deficits on the recession and America's war against terrorism.
He hinted at plans to dramatically increase spending on the military and defenses against terrorism.
"It makes sense to spend money necessary to win the war. It makes sense to spend money necessary to protect the homeland," the president said, calling those his top budget priorities.
According to congressional officials, Bush's $2 trillion budget, to be unveiled Feb. 4, is expected to propose about $730 billion for domestic and defense programs, excluding automatically paid benefits like Social Security. That is $24 billion, or 3.4 percent, above this year's levels.
The president pledged to resubmit his economic revival package along with the budget blueprint, which Democrats plan to hold up as evidence that Bush has failed on the economic front. After nearly five years of surpluses in Washington, the president said, "We may not balance the budget for this year."
White House officials said late last year that the costs of war and battling terrorism had made annual federal deficits likely for at least the next three years. But Bush's remarks Monday, in a rare public session with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, marked the first time he had publicly acknowledged the government's budget woes.
Both parties view the lagging economy as the key issue in November elections, when control of Congress and three dozen statehouses will be at stake.
Democrats blame vanishing budget surpluses on the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut Bush pushed through Congress last year. Republicans, led by the president, are seeking to portray critics of the package as partisan tax-raisers.
"I hope that when Congress comes back they will have listened to their constituents and that Congress will realize that America, like me, is tired of partisan bickering, that we ought to come together, we ought to unify around some sensible policy and try not to play politics with tax relief, or for that matter, economic stimulus packages," Bush said.
Some Democrats have sought to keep tax breaks for corporations and affluent individuals from taking effect. Bush says that position is akin to advocating tax hikes; Democrats strongly dispute the characterization.
"This is a partisan blame game and it has no place in the debate about the future of economic health of this country," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. "It is going to be hard for us to come together, like we need to do, and get this economy going."
Bush said he warned Americans last year that a war, recession or a national emergency might force the government to run deficits. "We're still at all three" the country is at war, in a recession and under the threat of more terrorist attacks, the president said.
The president's budget is expected to include at least a $20 billion boost over this year's $345 billion defense budget and increases of at least $15 billion for homeland defense efforts, like combatting bioterrorists.
To help pay for the increases, he will seek savings from other domestic programs, such as water projects and other home-district spending items, the Interior Department and some social service programs, officials say.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.