John Nichols (The Nation): State of the Union: Disapproval of Bush

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BLOG | Posted 01/23/2007 @ 1:26pm
State of the Union: Disapproval of Bush

President Bush will use tonight's State of the Union address to make what White House Press Secretary Tony Snow refers to as "bold proposals" designed to appeal to Democrats.

In one of the more remarkable admissions ever by a presidential spokesman regarding the surreal nature of the administration in which he serves, Snow suggested that Bush's speech would be a departure from past State of the Union remarks in that it would "reflect a little bit of the political reality.''

Reality is good. And it makes sense for Bush to reach out to Democrats as, for the first time since he assumed the presidency in 2001, the Republican chief executive will be addressing a Congress that is completely controlled by members of the opposition party. But Bush's ridiculously doctrinaire proposals to send more US troops into the Iraq quagmire, undermine the health benefits of unionized workers and renew his exceptionally unpopular and ineffectual No Child Left Behind education initiative are unlikely to resonate with even the most conservative Democrats.

In fact, the key player in Congress on health care issues, Congressman Pete Stark, the California Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, has said that Bush's proposal to tax existing health benefits is so ludicrous that it is unlikely to be seriously considered by Congress. "The president's so-called health care proposal won't help the uninsured, most of whom have limited incomes and are already in low tax brackets," explains Stark. "But it will hurt middle-income Americans, whose employers will shift even more cost and risk to their employees.''

Even more significantly, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, Louisiana Congressman Jim McCrery, says he's hearing complaints from conservative members of his caucus who object to Bush's health plan not because it will undermine existing benefits but because it represents a tax increase. ......(more)

The rest is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=159757