WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Bush's next-to-last State of the Union address provided little to cheer conservatives or liberals, highlighting the difficult position he is in as his presidency begins to approach its end.
While speaking to both chambers of Congress and assorted government officials Jan. 23, a chastened Bush offered a handful of domestic-policy proposals and spent time defending his plan to send more American troops in a last-ditch effort to stabilize Iraq.
But he barely mentioned many of the hot-button social issues important to his core of religious conservative supporters. And the Democrats who now control both chambers of Congress seemed to signal that virtually all of Bush's agenda will face stiff opposition as long as Iraq remains the nation's No. 1 concern.
“We are not the first to come here with government divided and uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our differences and achieve big things for the American people. 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,” he said, to bipartisan applause.
But when Bush's speech turned to his revised strategy in the Iraq war, the dearth of applause was also bipartisan.
“So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy. The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security, we must,” he said, to applause mainly from Republican leaders.
Democrats and some Republicans in the House chamber also seemed cold to any references to his plan to send an additional 20,000 American troops in a last-ditch effort to stabilize Iraq.
“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in,” he 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. So let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory.”
After that line, some Republicans and the vast majority of Democrats, including newly elevated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), sat in stony silence.
Afterward, Democratic leaders almost immediately dismissed Bush's boldest domestic-policy proposal of the night — a plan to extend health-care coverage — as inadequate and unworkable.
The plan would couple a combination of tax breaks and hikes for individuals and companies purchasing private health insurance with grants for states providing more ambitious health-care plans. The states would pay for those plans by cutting funding for charity hospitals and health-care clinics.
Some Republicans seemed to question the proposal as well.
“I believe the President has begun a very important debate about how to best increase coverage to individuals without insurance,” said Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) following the speech. However, he added, “[t]he devil is always in the details and I question if the tax code is the right vehicle for expanding insurance options.”
Bush's domestic proposal that Congress seemed to greet with the most enthusiasm was one regarding the environment.
“Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years,” Bush said to a standing ovation.
To reach that goal, he suggested a combination of continued technological advancements in environmentally friendly vehicles — such as gasoline-electric hybrid cars — and new fuel sources, such as ethanol.
He also suggested further increasing federal requirements for fuel efficiency in automobiles.
One Bush policy that is likely to enjoy more Democratic support than it did in the previous Republican-dominated Congress is his immigration-reform proposal. When he briefly mentioned it again, Democrats led the applause in the chamber.
However, other issues important to culturally conservative voters were almost completely absent from Bush's speech. He made no mention of abortion rights, same-sex marriage or so-called liberal “judicial activism” as he has in past State of the Union speeches.
That left the head of one prominent religious conservative group nonplussed.
“[A] strong union is inseparable from the foundation of strong families,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, in a statement released shortly after the speech. The group also released a video version of Perkins' response via its website and the popular video-distributing Internet site YouTube.com.
“I applaud the president's leadership. He refused to surrender his role of commander-in-chief to the new majority. However, I believe the president failed to challenge the new majority to advance core family and cultural issues, issues that many in the new majority campaigned on last year. These same issues will motivate pro-family Americans to rally around an administration that needs support.”
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