Americans should be optimistic about a US economy that is responding to tax cuts, President George W. Bush said, taking credit for policies he said are producing jobs.
"The American economy continues on a solid path of recovery," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Because of tax relief, all workers will get to keep more of what they earn, and small businesses will be able to create more jobs."
Bush is peppering speeches with optimism about the economy after spending the first 34 months of his term blaming job losses, stock market declines and a recession on terrorist acts, war and corporate scandals.
A series of positive economic indicators, including economic growth at an 8.2 percent rate in the third quarter and four consecutive months of job growth may give him a boost heading into next year's re-election campaign.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index's 21 percent rise this year, plus the growth in jobs and manufacturing, have boosted Bush's poll ratings.
Approval of his handling of the economy rose to 50 percent after Thanksgiving from 45 percent before the holiday, while disapproval fell to 48 percent from 51 percent, the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center said.
Voters split over Bush's "handling of the situation in Iraq," with 49 percent approving, and 48 percent disapproving, in the four days after the president's surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq. The Annenberg survey had a 3 percentage-point error margin.
The economy added 57,000 jobs and unemployment fell to 5.9 percent in November, the Labor Department said yesterday.
The payroll rise suggested companies are adding just enough workers to meet demand after the economy grew last quarter at its fastest pace in 19 years.
In the Democratic radio address, US Representative Darlene Hooley of Oregon said "there can be no real recovery without the creation of more jobs."
Noting that 9 million Americans remain unemployed, Hooley said "three years of unprecedented job loss have made it clear:
The economic policies of this administration and the Republicans in Congress are not putting people back to work."
Hooley called on Congress to act before the end of the year to extend unemployment insurance coverage to the almost 1.5 million Americans who have run through their benefits.
"There may be no better way to boost the economy," Hooley said. "Families will spend this money right away on necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care."
Bush, in his radio address yesterday and speeches over the last week, credited tax cuts of more than US$1.7 trillion over the last three years with stimulating an economy that was heading into recession when he took office.
He's also calling on Congress to take other steps he says will help the economy, such as banning frivolous lawsuits, and passing new incentives to encourage companies to drill for oil and energy sources in the US.
He's touting a six-point plan that also includes reducing government regulation, reducing trade barriers and making permanent the tax cuts, which are slated to phase in and out over the next eight years before expiring in 2011.
"By moving forward on this agenda, we can build on the great progress our economy is making," Bush said.
Many of those proposals, especially those involving energy exploration and restrictions on lawsuits, have been rejected by Congress.
Bush has run into difficulties in other areas, such as trade. This week he rescinded tariffs on imported steel to avoid US$2.2 billion in retaliatory sanctions by the Europe and Asia that were authorized by the WTO.
He faces pressure from Congress to impose new sanctions on Chinese imports and the administration is publicly pressuring China and Japan to let the financial markets set the value of their currencies even as the value of the US dollar plummets.
The US currency reached a record low against the euro on Friday on concern interest rates will remain below those available in other major economies in coming months because job growth was slower than projected.
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