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BREAKING NEWS: Bush Takes Responsibility

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Anonymous:
Today Pres. Bush asked if his visit to the hurricane zone would count toward the service time he still needs for the National Guard?

Deborah:
Bush was asked his opinion on Roe vs. Wade.
 
He answered, "I don't care how those people got out of New Orleans, as long as they got out."

Anonymous:
hahahaha

Anonymous:

--- Quote ---On 2005-09-16 18:15:00, Deborah wrote:

"Bush was asked his opinion on Roe vs. Wade.

 
He answered, "I don't care how those people got out of New Orleans, as long as they got out."

 "

--- End quote ---


Excellent! LOL

Anonymous:
Bush Rules Out Tax Hike to Fund Recovery
Sep 16

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. "You bet it will cost money, but I'm confident we can handle it," he said.

"It's going to cost whatever it's going to cost, and we're going to be wise about the money we spend," Bush said a day after laying out an expensive plan for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast without spelling out how he would pay for it.

Bush spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours after attending a prayer service in memory of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Addressing religious and political leaders at the National Cathedral, the president vowed to help rebuild the region with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice that exist there.

"As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," Bush said at the cathedral. Polls suggest a majority of Americans believe the president should have responded quicker to Katrina. High percentages of blacks tell pollsters they believe race played a role in the slow response by all levels of government.

Opening the news conference at the White House Friday afternoon, Bush thanked Putin for sending supplies to the Katrina relief effort, saying the gesture would help "lift the spirits" of hurricane victims. The Russian said that Katrina provided "serious lessons" for Russia and other countries. Putin did not specifically mention the criticism of relief efforts in the Gulf Coast.

Also Friday, White House officials said taxpayers at home will pay the bill for the massive reconstruction program and that this will mean a deeper budget deficit.

Bush said it's important that government quickly fix the region's infrastructure to give people hope. Asked who would pay for the work and how it would impact the nation's rising debt, Bush said he was confident the United States could pay for reconstruction "and our other priorities."

He said that means "cutting unnecessary spending" and maintaining economic growth, "which means we should not raise taxes."

Bush also said he wants Congress to consider changing the law to allow the military to step in immediately if a catastrophic disaster occurs again. "It's important for us to learn from the storm what could have been done better," he said. Under fire, the White House has accused state and city officials of not authorizing federal involvement quickly enough, although critics say the administration didn't need approval to act.

In his address to the nation Thursday night from the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, Bush said the recovery effort would be one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen and promised that the federal government would pay for most of it.

"There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," he said.

The government failed to respond adequately, with agencies that lacked coordination and were overwhelmed by Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans, Bush said. Dogged by criticism that Washington's response to the hurricane was slow and inadequate, Bush said the nation has "every right to expect" more effective federal action in a time of emergency.

The hurricane killed hundreds of people across five states, forced major evacuations and caused untold property damage.

On Friday, Al Hubbard, chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, said the disaster costs _ estimated at $200 billion and beyond _ are "coming from the American taxpayer." He acknowledged the costs would swell the deficit _ projected at $333 billion for the current year before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

Some fiscal conservatives are expressing alarm at the prospect of such massive federal outlays without cutting other spending.

"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Allen said the administration had not identified any budget cuts to offset the disaster expense. Congress already has approved $62 billion for the disaster, but that is expected to run out next month.

In the cathedral, several dozen evacuees and first responders, all from New Orleans, filled one side wing. The president and his wife, Laura, sat solemnly in a front pew along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne.

Before Bush's remarks, Bishop T.D. Jakes, head of 30,000-member Potter's House church in Dallas, delivered a powerful sermon in which he called upon Americans to "dare to discuss the unmentionable issues that confront us" and to not rest until the poor are raised to an acceptable living standard.

"Katrina, perhaps, she has done something to this nation that needed to be done," Jakes said. "We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering, that continues past the ghetto on our way to the Mardi Gras."

Bush, faced with continuing questions about whether help would have been sent more quickly to the storm zone if most victims had not been poor and black, echoed those themes in brief remarks that were rich with religious references.

"Some of the greatest hardships fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle, the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor," he said. "As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency and one day Americans will look back at the response to Hurricane Katrina and say that our country grew not only in prosperity but in character and justice."

Claude Allen, the president's domestic policy adviser, said two of the main storm relief proposals Bush made in his Thursday speech were aimed at addressing the region's poverty: the $5,000 grants for worker training, education and child care and an Urban Homesteading Act in which surplus federal property would be turned over to low-income citizens to build homes.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press

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