In his final State of the Union address, President Bush says there is no doubt that the “surge” of U.S. troops in Iraq is working, and that al Qaeda “will be defeated.”
“Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, and this enemy will be defeated,� Mr. Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery.
Mr. Bush also will focus on gnawing recession fears in his final State of the Union address. He said that Americans are troubled about their economic future and prodded Congress to urgently approve a $150-billion rescue plan.
With his approval rating near its all-time low and less than a year remaining in his presidency, Mr. Bush lacked the political clout to push bold ideas before a hostile, Democratic-led Congress. Offering modest new plans, Mr. Bush proposed a $300 million “grants for kids” program to help poor children in struggling public schools pay for the cost of attending a private school or a better public school outside their district.
State Of The UnionWatch President Bush’s last State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET live on your local CBS affiliate and on CBSNews.com.
According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, three out of four Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Those numbers mean the time for bold proposals has passed for Mr. Bush and his last State Of the Union address will be his most modest, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.
The White House urged lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, to resist any temptation to enlarge the economic-stimulus plan that he and House leaders agreed on last week. “At kitchen tables across our country, there is concern about our economic future,” the president said. “In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth.”
Excerpts of his prepared text were released in advance by the White House.
On two issues that were centerpieces of State of the Union addresses past - Social Security and immigration - Mr. Bush passed the buck back to Congress, which had ignored the president’s earlier proposals. Contending that entitlement spending is “growing faster than we can afford,” he said, “I ask members of Congress to offer your proposals and come up with a bipartisan solution to save these vital programs for our children and grandchildren.”
But as CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer reports, everywhere you turn the Democrats were very, very skeptical.
“We talked to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, today and we said the president is planning to challenge you on immigration and she said ‘poor baby.’ That was a direct quote,” Schieffer said. “She said ‘look, it’s his own party that abandoned him on immigration, we can’t help.’”
A major challenge for Mr. Bush in his address to Congress was simply being heard when many Americans already are looking beyond him to the next president.
“His goal tonight is to lay out his agenda for the coming year. and to communicate to congress and American people the governing philosophy that has guided his previous seven years and will continue to guide the year forward,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said in an interview with CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
His speech came hours before Florida’s presidential primary election and just eight days before Super Tuesday when voters in more than 20 states go to the polls on the biggest day of the primary campaign. Republicans running for president rarely mention Mr. Bush, preferring to focus on conservative hero Ronald Reagan instead.
As for the Democrats, presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “Tonight is a red-letter night in American history. It is the last time George Bush will give the State of the Union. Next year it will be a Democratic president giving it.”
Mr. Bush, calling for bipartisan cooperation in Congress, said, “Let us show them that Republicans and Democrats can compete for votes and cooperate for results at the same time.”
In Iraq, he said, U.S. adversaries have been hit hard, though “they are not yet defeated and we can still expect tough fighting ahead.”
The address came one year after Mr. Bush, defying the wishes of Congress and rising anti-war sentiment in the country, ordered a major troop buildup in Iraq. The increase has helped quell violence, but there is no end in sight to the U.S. troop commitment, which Bush says will extend beyond his presidency. There are 158,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, a number that is expected to drop to 135,000 by July. There are 28,000 in Afghanistan, the highest number of the war, which began there in October 2001. The Iraq war began in March 2003.
Mr. Bush did not announce any troop withdrawals Monday night. The White House said that would depend on the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad. Congress, despite repeated attempts, has been unable to force troop withdrawals or deadlines for pullbacks, and Iraq has receded as an issue in Washington.
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