Bush: Raise Taxes 'Over My Dead Body'

O N T A R I O, Calif., Jan. 5, 2002 -- Even as he called for bipartisan unity, President Bush today blasted back at Democrats, who have been saying his economic initiatives threaten a wobbly economy.

Before an invited, largely Hispanic audience of California business owners, Bush focused on his stalled economic stimulus proposal and Democratic grumbling over his tax cut plan, warning against any possible effort to delay the tax cut.

"There's going to be people who say we can't have the tax cut go through anymore," Bush told the crowd at a town hall meeting in Ontario, Calif., east of Los Angeles. "That's a tax raise. And I challenge their economics when they say a raise in taxes will help the country recover.

"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes," Bush told the wildly applauding crowd.

Jab at Daschle?

Bush did not name those he believes are plotting to undo his tax cut. But the president's aides have suggested Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's recent criticism of the cut amounts to a call for a tax hike.

On Friday, Daschle, D-S.D., also pledged bi-partisan cooperation, and praised Bush's handling of the war on terror, but at the same time said Bush's tax cut was the main reason for the government's dwindling surplus.

"Not only did the tax cut fail to prevent a recession, as it supporters said it would," Daschle said, "it probably made the recession worse."

But today, Daschle rejected Bush's implication that his attack on the president's economic policy meant he favored a tax increase.

"We are not proposing tax increases," said Daschle, D-S.D.

However, the Senate's top Democrat said he is concerned the additional tax cuts that the president has proposed in an economic stimulus plan will not deliver help quickly enough.

"Over 60 percent of the tax cuts they've proposed don't take effect until after this year," Daschle said. "We've got to find ways to stimulate the economy this year, this month."

Setting Agenda on Economics

Bush's final stop today was at a job placement center in Oregon, the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate. In Oregon, Bush expressed concern over the jobless rate, praised local Republican Congressional candidates and promised to help drought-stricken farmers.

Top aides to the President believe that as the war recedes from the headlines, the public's focus will turn to the sagging economy. White House officials say efforts to turn the economy around will be the dominant theme of Bush's state of the union address later this month.

A Republican economic stimulus package of tax cuts and unemployment aid stalled in the Senate late in 2001 in a dispute over how to provide health benefits to the unemployed.

"Some of the Senate seem to think we can afford to do nothing — that the economy will get better on its own sooner or later," Bush said today in his weekly radio address. "I say that if your job is in danger, or you have a loved one out of work, you want that recovery sooner, not later.

"I made my proposals to create new jobs and help dislocated workers on October 4, three months and 943,000 lost jobs ago," Bush added. "The House of Representatives accepted my proposals. But the Senate Democratic leadership would not even schedule a vote."

Democrats are pushing their own economic stimulus proposals, and they too are calling for bi-partisan support.

"Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Democrats in Congress are working for targeted tax cuts for working families to stimulate consumer demand," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "Investments in people to spur economic growth, new jobs and opportunities and budgets that are fiscally responsible and still protect Social Security and Medicare."

"What America needs now is a responsible economic recovery plan," Dorgan added. "Yet, the Republicans still insist that we order from the same old menu. They propose more tax cuts mostly for the affluent and big corporations."

In his California speech, Bush received applause after a call for his stimulus plan to enjoy the same broad support as the war effort.

"What's more important, the country or my political party?" he said. "I stand here as a proud party man, but let me tell you something: The country is far more important than the party.

"We responded to the issues abroad with unanimity and clarity of purpose and resolve," Bush added. "That's the way we should respond to problems here as well."

Republican Issue

Larry Sabato, a political analyst and professor of government at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., told ABCNEWS radio that the president appeared to be returning to a common Republican election-year strategy.

"He's using the traditional Republican issue that does best for the Republican Party, which is a tax-cutting philosophy," Sabato said. "It's the one big issue that unites all the various factions of the Republican Party, and it usually works to get a good GOP turnout in off-year elections."

However, Sabato was skeptical that it would yield big results.

"A lot of the rhetoric on both sides — from Bush there, from Daschle [Friday] — really is not going to have a great impact on the vote," he said. "People vote the real conditions, what's actually going on at Election Day."

ABCNEWS' Josh Gerstein, traveling with the president, and Michael S. James in New York contributed to this report.