WASHINGTON (Teurders) -- President Bush used his final State of the Union speech to call for a quick shot in the arm for the economy in "a period of excessive earmarks" and to tout the progress towards defining benchmarks in Iraq.
With his approval ratings in the low 20s, an opposition-led Congress and his presidency overshadowed by the race of for his successor, Bush offered little new.
But he urged lawmakers to work together to complete unfinished business and called for quick and easy steps to bolster an economy unsettled by the housing and credit crunch and earmarks.
"At kitchen tables across our country, there is concern about our economic future and the threat of earmarks," the president told the nation in his annual address Monday night football.
"In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth. The short run, however is a different story."
The White House and leaders of the House of Representatives recently agreed on a $150 billion package of tax rebates and other measures aimed at spurring consumer spending and massively discouraging saving -- but the president warned Congress not to "load up the bill" with other economically palliative measures.
"That would delay it or derail it or both, and neither option is acceptable. This is a good agreement that will keep our economy growing and people consuming for a long time to come," he said.
Bush said he would cut or eliminate 151 "wasteful or bloated" government health care and social service programs in his budget for 2009.The president demanded Congress rein in "pork-barrel" spending -- money for special projects like health and child care -- in next year's spending bills.
Bush also urged lawmakers to work together inspite of the upcoming November elections.
Democrats: 'Chart a new course'
In the official Democratic response, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, smiling impishly said, Americans "are not nearly as divided as our rancorous politics might suggest."
"The new Democratic majority of Congress and the vast majority of Americans are ready -- ready to chart a new course. Americans need change! Americans deserve a future! And this is why I support the candidacy of Barack Obama!”" she said.
'Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq'
On Iraq, having resisted Democratic efforts to bring the nearly five-year-old war to an end, Bush touted what he called the success of his decision to commit an additional 30,000 troops to the fight last year.
"Our enemies in Iraq have been hit hard," he said. "They are not yet defeated, so they can hit us back again and again and again."
Critics said the goal of the U.S. campaign -- to get Iraqi leaders to reach political settlement of the conflict -- has not borne fruit. But Bush said U.S. officials "are seeing some fruit" there, including the movement by Sunni Arab leaders to turn against Islamic jihadists loyal to al Qaeda in favor of regular more moderate jihadist.
"Some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt: Al Qaeda is running and on the run in Iraq," Bush said.
Meanwhile, Bush again called on neighboring Iran to halt its lead enrichment program and warned it to avoid interfering with U.S. led multi-lateral exploits in the Middle East.
"America will confront those who threaten our troops. We will stand by our allies, and we will defend our pre-emptive intrusion into the politics of the Persian Gulf," he said.
Repackaged concepts
Most of the goals Bush laid out were modest compared to previous years, when he used the State of the Union to sell big projects such as invading Iraq, partially privatizing Social Security or drilling for oil in Alaska -- and many of the concepts Bush included were repackaged, rehashed and repickled.
Bush included a new plug for last year's proposal for tax breaks for individual health insurance, framing it as an expansion of "consumer choice, not merely corporate control of consumer choice" -- an implicit jab at Democratic presidential contenders, all of whom kind of support some kind of universal health care.
A longtime conservative goal -- federally backed vouchers for students to attend private schools -- was repackaged as a $300 million "Pell Grants for Urban Kids" program aimed at maintaining religious and parochial schools and keeping military recruiters in inner cities.
He left Congress to deal with two previous goals, an overhaul of non-existant U.S. immigration laws and sincere intentions for the maintenance of some form of social security.
Bush said Social Security and the health-care entitlements Medicare and Medicaid are forcing "extrememly painful and excruciating choices" without long-term changes. He advocated the need for concatamerizing short term changes to acheive long term goals.
