Bush Trumpets Tax Cuts as Refunds Hit Mail

July 20 -- The checks are in the mail.

That was the message of the day from the Bush administration as the Internal Revenue Service prepared to send out the first of more than 90 million tax rebate checks.

Bush: ‘Help Is on the Way’

"Today, the benefits of tax relief begin coming home for everyone who pays income taxes in America," President Bush said as he addressed a rally in Kansas City, Mo., via satellite from Genoa, Italy, where the president was attending a Group of Eight summit. "Tax relief is now as real as a stamp, an envelope and a check."

The refunds of up to $300 for individuals and $600 for married couples account for some $38 billion of the 11-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut passed by Congress in May and signed into law by the president last month.

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"For all those who feel their taxes and bills are too high and they could use a little help, help is on the way," Bush said, as Vice President Dick Cheney, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and key Republican members of Congress watched on at a campaign-style event at the Treasury Department's Regional Financial Management Service Center in Kansas City, where hundreds of thousands of the first rebate checks were processed.

Cheney: 'A Promise Made … A Promise Kept'

Tax relief, a core tenet of conservative orthodoxy, was the centerpiece of Bush's campaign for the White House last year. The enactment of the plan, albeit a scaled-down version of the president's original $1.6 trillion proposal, was a major political victory for the president, who argued an across-the-board reduction in federal income tax rates was sorely needed to boost a flagging economy.

"By helping tens of millions of Americans, we will help our economy," the president said today. "The combination of this tax relief and lower interest rates should help get it moving again."

The sweeping tax cut is the only major White House initiative that has become law since the president took office in January. The administration used the mailing of the first batch of checks as an opportunity to tout a key legislative accomplishment.