Issuing a bipartisan call “to achieve big things for the American people” at home and an appeal for patience with his new strategy for the war in Iraq, a weakened President Bush faced a doubting, Democratic-controlled Congress on Tuesday night in a subdued State of the Union address.
The president, confronting growing criticism of the war and finding his political power constrained, delivered new health-care initiatives aimed at making insurance more affordable and new energy initiatives intended to cut American gasoline consumption by 20 percent in a decade, framing independence from foreign oil as a question of national security.
While avoiding mention of congressional resolutions that leaders in both parties are pressing to oppose his controversial deployment of additional troops in Iraq, the president did offer to create “a special advisory council on the war on terror,” inviting leaders of both parties to confer with him.
And, after saving direct discussion of Iraq for the second half of a 49-minute address to a joint session of Congress and the nation, Bush attempted to bolster his case that success in Iraq is central to combating terrorism worldwide, calling “the consequences of failure … grievous and far-reaching.”
As he pleaded for patience with his new strategy in a nearly 4-year-old war, the president returned to a familiar refrain, invoking the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a reminder of the greater war Americans still face.
“Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle,” Bush said of the war in Iraq. “Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory. …
“Whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure,” the president said in the still-roiling wake of midterm elections that cost his party control of Congress. “Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work.”
Bush, facing a resistant Congress for the remaining two years of his presidency, has made a bipartisan appeal to the new leaders to join him in addressing important matters for Americans: health care, energy, education and immigration. Calling for a balanced federal budget by 2012, Bush also urged both parties to help him “fix” Social Security and Medicare.
And, standing before the first woman to lead the House of Representatives, Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Bush professed pride in being the first president to open a State of the Union address with the words “Madame Speaker.”
“We can work through our differences and achieve big things for the American people,” Bush said. “Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on–as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.”
Yet Bush, confronting growing criticism for the war from both parties, will face trouble focusing Congress on new initiatives while debate over the war in Iraq intensifies–a rift apparent as Bush spoke of success in Iraq and Vice President Dick Cheney rose for applause while Pelosi remained seated.
“The pall over the room was Iraq,” said Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). “The president’s logic is flawed. … This entire enterprise has been flawed.
“Moving forward, how can we make sure that our troops have a strategy that stabilizes Iraq but starts bringing them home?”
The fervor of the war debate was voiced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a veteran of the Vietnam War, father of a Marine in Iraq and former secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, delivering the Democratic Party’s televised response to Bush.
“The war’s costs to our nation have been staggering. The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought,” said Webb, whose November election victory helped put the Senate in the control of Democrats. “We need a new direction,” said Webb, calling for “a proper conclusion” to the war.
Truman-like approval ratings
Bush, who entered his second term with a self-declared reservoir of “political capital” to spend, now sits midway through with lower public approval of his performance than any mid-second-term president since Harry Truman.
“We go into this process with no illusions about the atmosphere in which we’re operating,” said Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president.
Bush offered new initiatives in health care and energy conservation, while seeking new support for an immigration plan that he has promoted without success since his first term and renewal of education reforms won during his first year.
The health plan includes a new, standard tax deduction for anyone with health insurance–exempting the first $7,500 of an individual’s income and the first $15,000 of family income from federal taxes.
The energy plan–dubbed “20 in 10”–calls for a 20 percent reduction in gas consumption by 2017. Bush proposes to achieve this largely with promotion of alternative fuel sources but also with tougher fuel economy standards for cars.
The president is framing energy independence as an imperative of national security.
“For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil,” he said. “And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy.”
While courting bipartisan cooperation with this new Congress, the president is pressing education reforms that many Democrats will oppose and immigration reforms that many Republicans will resist.
In education, Bush is calling on Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind Act whose passage he won in 2001, demanding testing of students to ensure that public schools are making “adequate yearly progress”–which many educators complain forces teachers to teach for the tests.
Bush also is reviving a call for tuition vouchers for students in failing public schools to attend private schools–“Promise Scholarships”–which Democrats adamantly oppose.
On immigration, the president and former Texas governor is seeking a law that enables millions of undocumented workers already living in the U.S. to remain and eventually seek citizenship. The Senate embraced Bush’s plan last year, but it died in the House, where conservative Republicans opposed it.
“Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America,” Bush said.
Not until near the end of the speech did the president make any direct mention of the issue on many minds–and foremost on the public’s mind, according to opinion polls.
`Debates are essential’
Bush already had spelled out a new war strategy in a televised address two weeks before, announcing the deployment of 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. That troop increase has prompted Democrats to launch a congressional resolution in protest, while several Republican senators have sponsored a critical resolution of their own.
“Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces great questions,” the president said. “Yet one question has surely been settled–that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy. …
“The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is still at work in the world,” he said, “and so long as that is the case, America is still a nation at war.”
The president had no intention to “break any new ground on Iraq,” according to Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser. Instead, Bush hoped to underscore the importance of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
“The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others,” he said.
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mdsilva@tribune.com
