Capitol Hill
29 January 2008
Reaction to President Bush's State of the Union address is predictably along partisan lines. Members of his Republican Party praised his leadership and the goals he proposed on domestic and foreign issues, while majority Democrats criticized him on the same issues. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill.
Because the main themes of the address were known well in advance of the president's appearance, reaction began to roll in hours before he spoke to a joint session of Congress.
Even before the address, Senate Democrat Robert Byrd took aim at the president's assertion that, although Americans are concerned about the economy, they can be confident about long-term economic prospects.
Pointing to the president's call for Congress to make permanent tax cuts passed during his time in office, Byrd said the president presided over sharply increased deficits and debt while, as Byrd put it, "[squandering] billions of dollars every week in Iraq."
In his address, President Bush said defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida forces fighting American and NATO troops in Afghanistan remains critical to U.S. security, noting the deployment of an additional 3,200 U.S. Marines there.
But Democratic House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton says the added forces fall far short of numbers needed for a long-term strategy for Afghanistan.
The president's final State of the Union address came with his public approval ratings still in the 30 percent range, and with the economy now a top concern.
Tuesday, the House of Representatives is to debate the $150 billion economic stimulus package agreed to by the White House and House Democrats and Republicans, a measure the president warned should not be delayed or derailed.
But his other priorities face uphill battles, including a permanent revision of anti-terrorist electronic surveillance legislation, and free trade agreements for Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
Some key fiscally-conservative Republicans expressed disappointment with President Bush's pledge to take steps to limit lawmaker's ability to designate millions of additional dollars in legislation for special projects benefiting their own districts - known as earmarks - saying much more needs to be done to bring this spending under control.