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By SARA FRITZ, Times Staff WriterThe State of the Union speech outlines a re-election bid stressing domestic themes, such as health and jobs.
WASHINGTON - President Bush, outlining his case for re-election in an upbeat State of the Union speech, sought Tuesday night to pre-empt the Democrats on two important issues: rising health care costs and persistent unemployment.
Bush's attention to these issues was widely viewed as a signal that over the next year the president plans to return to the centrist themes that helped to get him elected in 2000.
Perhaps the single item that most clearly demonstrated a more moderate course for Bush was his hesitance to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage at this time. He called, instead, on "activist judges" to recognize that Americans are opposed to gay marriage.
Bush said the state of the union is "confident and strong," adding: "We have not come all this way through tragedy and trial and war only to falter and leave our work unfinished."
Polls show that health care and unemployment are overriding concerns of the American electorate. All the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination have criticized the president for failing to do more on both fronts.
Florida's Democratic Sen. Bob Graham said Bush's emphasis on domestic matters was obviously intended to shore up his weaknesses, as reflected in the polls.
"It's apparent that President Bush needs to bolster his record on domestic issues if he hopes to win a second term, given that Americans are struggling through a jobless recovery and that he has done so little to expand access to health insurance," Graham said.
Normally, Bush reserves national security issues for the end of his State of the Union speeches because he believes it gives them special emphasis, according to aides. But in this speech, he wound up on a domestic note.
At the same time, Bush asserted - contrary to Democratic candidate Howard Dean's oft-repeated view - that his war on terror and the U.S. invasion of Iraq have made the world a safer place.
"Because of American leadership and resolve, the world is changing for the better," Bush said.
Yet he cautioned it would be "understandable, comforting - and false" for Americans to conclude that the United States need not fear a terrorist attack similar to Sept. 11, 2001.
The speech not only laid out what Bush advisers have said will be the president's rationale for his re-election, it was scheduled so that Bush could upstage continuing news coverage of Monday night's Iowa Democratic caucuses.
During most of his first term, Bush has focused on fighting terrorism and making more than $500-billion in tax cuts through the current fiscal year, as sought by his conservative supporters.
While the president credited his tax cuts with stimulating job growth, he called for a new $250-million program of job-training grants channeled through community colleges to help American workers prepare for new occupations created by a changing economy.
"America's growing economy is also a changing economy," he said. "As technology transforms the way almost every job is done, America becomes more productive, and workers need new skills. We must respond by helping more Americans gain skills to find good jobs in our new economy."
Democrats have made job creation the primary issue in their campaign to defeat Bush in November. While the economy's ability to create new jobs has improved in recent months, AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney notes it has fallen short of the 300,000 jobs-per-month goal that the president set when he proposed tax cuts.
Bush's program for reducing health care costs and increasing coverage for the 43.6-million uninsured Americans included a variety of old ideas adding up to $500-million.
These included a limit on medical malpractice awards, a refundable tax credit to cover health insurance costs for lower income Americans and a 100 percent tax deduction on premiums for catastrophic health care coverage purchased through the health savings account created last year by Congress.
"Our goal is to ensure that Americans can choose and afford private health care coverage that best fits their individual needs," Bush said. "To make insurance more affordable, Congress must act to address rapidly rising health care costs."
All the leading Democratic contenders for president have proposals to increase health insurance coverage, beginning with children. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., for example, would offer tax credits to help families with their premiums.
Some past critics of Bush's health care proposals were cautiously optimistic about his pledge to improve health care coverage for Americans.
"The president's decision to focus on health care in the coming year is long overdue," says Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "It occurs after health care costs and the number of uninsured America skyrocketed during his watch. It is high time for the president to make health care security a top national priority."
But Graham noted the money Bush seeks for expanding access to health care might be too little.
"Given the scope of the problem," he said, "that won't make a dent."
Bush also called on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, to renew the controversial Patriot Act, to increase the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, to set aside $23-million for school drug testing and to hold next year's increase in government spending to 4 percent.
He also proposed a four-year, $300-million program to help convicted criminals with job training and other services that are designed to keep them from returning to jail.
"America is the land of second chances and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life," he said.
If Congress tries to change the Medicare drug bill passed last year, he threatened to veto the legislation. Democrats want to create a more generous benefit.
One previously announced new program was also a part of the president's State of the Union report - a program to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers. The program would allow foreign workers into the United States to take jobs that Americans do not want, and it would be open to those who are already working here illegally.
Although Bush did not call for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he said one might eventually be necessary.
"If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people," he said, "the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process."
Some administration officials had said that the president was going to propose federal funding for counseling of heterosexual married couples. That line was dropped from the speech, however, apparently because some conservative Republicans argued that marriage counseling should not be a task undertaken by the government.
Republicans were pleased with the president's speech.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, said he had outlined priorities that are "in step with those of the American people."