Bush: Urgent pleas in his final State of the Union
by Mark Silva
MIAMI -- As President Bush prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address on Monday night, touting "great progress'' made during the past seven years, he will stress the urgency of the emergency tax relief that he is seeking as a "shot in the arm'' for the economy.
"While economic growth has slowed in recent months, the foundation for long-term growth remains solid,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address today offering a preivew of his address to a joint session of Congress at 9 pm EST on Monday. Yet he is asking Congress to enact the tax relief which leaders have approved, including tax rebates for Americans, "as soon as possible.''
Bush also will ask for action on an extension of the nation's intelligence surveillance laws, underscoring the continuing threat that terrorism poses and the urgency of acting.
For all the insistence of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the economic relief approved must be big enough "to make a difference'' and must be swift, the taxmen at Treasury say that May or June may be the soonest they are able to deliver any of these rebates.
And it is, perhaps, a measure of the president's limited influence in his remaining year -- with his party grappling over a nominee to replace him here in Florida in the first mega-state primary election of the season the day after the State of the Union address -- that Bush has chosen to highlight just two things today: Economic relief and terrorism surveillance.
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