WASHINGTON -- A politically weakened President Bush implored a skeptical Congress Tuesday night to embrace his unpopular plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, saying it represents the best hope in a war America must not lose. "Give it a chance to work," he said.
Facing a political showdown with Democrats and Republicans alike, Bush was unyielding on Iraq in his annual State of the Union address. He also sought to revive his troubled presidency with proposals to expand health insurance coverage and to slash gasoline consumption by 20 percent in a decade.
Democrats -- and even some Republicans -- scoffed at his Iraq policy.
"We need a new direction," said freshman Sen. Jim Webb, picked by the Democrats to deliver their response to Bush. "The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military," said Webb, a Vietnam veteran opposed to Bush's invasion of Iraq. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., also took issue with Bush. "I can't tell you what the path to success is, but it's not what the president has put on the table," he said.
It was a night of political theater as Bush went before the first Democratic-controlled Congress in a dozen years with his lowest approval ratings in polls.
ADVERTISEMENT
Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to lead the House, sat over Bush's shoulder, next to Vice President Dick Cheney. Reaching out to the Democrats, Bush opened with a tribute to Pelosi and paused to shake her hand. He also asked for prayers for Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, hospitalized for more than a month after suffering a brain hemorrhage, and Republican Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood, suffering from cancer.
The speech audience included up to a dozen House and Senate members who have announced they are running for president or are considered possible contenders.
Bush divided his speech between domestic and foreign issues but the war was topic No. 1. He said the Iraq war had changed dramatically with the outbreak of sectarian warfare and reprisals.
"This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in," the president said.
"Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned and our own security at risk.
"Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle," the president said. "So let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory."
On domestic matters, Bush pressed Congress to help find ways to overhaul entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid before they impose huge problems for future generations.
"Somehow we have not found it in ourselves to act," he said. "So let us work together and do it now."
ADVERTISEMENT
On immigration, too, the president made a plea to lawmakers that he has made before. Members of his own party were the main obstacle to success in that area -- a fact Bush acknowledged even as he pressed for a better result now than Capitol Hill is run by Democrats more amenable to his ideas.
"Convictions run deep in this Capitol when it comes to immigration," he said. "Let us have a serious, civil and conclusive debate."
Bush said his energy proposals would cut American imports by the equivalent of 75 percent of the oil coming from the Middle East. His prescription, as always, relied primarily on market incentives and technological advances -- not government mandates.
Bush also called for changing the tax code to encourage more people not covered by medical insurance to buy a plan, and to discourage others from keeping the most costly health care plans.
Under Bush's proposal, employer-financed health care benefits would be considered taxable income after a deduction of $15,000 for families and $7,500 for individuals. Those buying their own plan would get the same deductions on their taxes.
The White House said 80 percent of workers with health insurance through their jobs would see a tax cut as a result of the change. But about 20 percent would see a tax increase -- those workers whose health insurance cost more than the standard deduction.
The administration sought to make Bush's energy initiatives -- in particular a 20 percent cut in gasoline usage by 2017 -- an eye-catching centerpiece of his address, the one major element not revealed until hours before the speech. "It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply, and the way forward is through technology," Bush said.
The cut would be achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the government mandates must be blended into the fuel supply. The rest would come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, a plan that Bush has proposed in the past but failed to win from Congress.
ADVERTISEMENT
Acknowledging that some would say such a drastic increase in alternative fuels is unrealistic, the White House argued that the new mandate -- which would need approval from Congress -- would spur investments in the industry and give technological research a boost.
While setting cutback goals, the president spurned appeals from environmentalists and some major corporations to impose mandatory ceilings on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of slowing climate change.
