The Laurinburg Exchange
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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State of the Union offers economic stimulus

By Scott Witten/Editor

Hoping to ease Americans' fears about a recession, President George Bush used part of his final State of the Union to talk about how he planned to stimulate the economy.

He urged Congress to act quickly on a $150 billion economic stimulus package.

"In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth. But in the short run, we can all see that growth is slowing," the president said Monday.

Rep. Robin Hayes said Bush's proposal was a good start.

"The main thing I was looking for tonight was future plans related to jobs and the economy," Scotland County's representative in Congress said. "Although I would like to see more provisions directed specifically at rural communities, I think we have taken a good step with the bipartisan stimulus package."

Hayes and his fellow House Republicans want to get the proposal to a vote this week and the Senate hopes to have the package approved and on the president's desk by Feb. 15.

While those plans could fall victim to desires by Senate Democrats to add support for unemployment benefits and food stamps - items that got left out of the House version - the administration is stressing the need for speed given the recent economic news.

"We need to look for every opportunity to keep our economy moving forward, and I hope the Senate will move quickly on this initial stimulus bill," Hayes said.

But Larry Kissell, a Democrat, who plans to run against Hayes in the 8th District, called the president's program too little and too late.

"At times I thought I was watching a first-term president laying out his plans for his term," Kissell said after the speech. "Not a man who has been there for seven years."

Kissell said Bush and the Republicans had control of Congress and failed to move on the initiatives that Bush brought up Monday night.

"It is interesting that the president did not veto a single financial bill," he said. "Now all of a sudden he has discovered earmarks - a favorite thing of special interest. I wish he had discovered it sooner before we added on three trillion dollars in debt."

In his speech, Bush also said he wants to make permanent his first-term tax cuts, which are due to expire in 2010. He will call for housing reform, better health care and veterans' care, alternative energy development and renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law.

The domestic section of Bush's speech also laid out his ideas on climate change, faith-based programs and stem cell research.

Iraq

On the foreign policy front, Bush emphasized that progress was being made in Iraq and repeated that troop withdrawals will happen when they won't undermine Iraq's success.

Bush said failure in Iraq would embolden extremists, strengthen Iran, and give terrorists a base from which to launch new attack.

Bush said the addition of U.S. forces in Iraq brought about dramatic improvements in security.

The president said al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq and vowed to defeat the terrorist organization.

Bush also cautioned that there will be tough fighting ahead. The president said U.S. forces are shifting from leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.