(1) Bush Is Scaling Back the Economic Agenda; & (2) Reelection Honeymoon With Voters Eludes Bush, Polls Say.
The Bush administration has decided to delay by at least a year efforts to make wholesale changes to the U.S. tax code that just weeks ago were identified as a key and immediate goal of President Bush's second term, the Washington Post reports (immediate meaning a Bush administration goal by the end of 2005).
Citing White House economists, Republican tax aides in Congress and outside administration advisers, the Post says administration officials have determined "they have their hands full with Bush's pledge to overhaul Social Security and a budget plan that will demand politically painful cuts to non-defense spending."
Separately, the Los Angeles Times notes that Mr. Bush prepares to start his second term with the lowest approval ratings of any just-elected sitting president since World War II, a fact blamed on public discontent over the war in Iraq.
A Gallup survey conducted for CNN and USA Today puts Bush's approval rating at 49% — close to his preelection numbers. That's 10 to 20 points lower than every elected sitting president at this stage since just after World War II, according to Gallup, which has been tabulating such data since Harry S. Truman won a full term in 1948.
Bush's Gallup rating echoed a survey published last week by ABC News and the Washington Post, which put his approval rating at 48%. That poll also found that 56% of Americans believed the Iraq war was not worth fighting. Time magazine also put Bush's overall approval at 49%.
According to the Times, one person who met with Bush the same day a U.S. military mess tent was bombed in Iraq described the president as "distraught."
The Times says the ability of Mr. Bush to reverse the sagging opinion numbers through his inaugural address and the State of the Union speech will help determine whether he can regain popular momentum needed to enact changes to Social Security, the liability tort system and other areas.
(Cited sources and wsj.)
Citing White House economists, Republican tax aides in Congress and outside administration advisers, the Post says administration officials have determined "they have their hands full with Bush's pledge to overhaul Social Security and a budget plan that will demand politically painful cuts to non-defense spending."
Separately, the Los Angeles Times notes that Mr. Bush prepares to start his second term with the lowest approval ratings of any just-elected sitting president since World War II, a fact blamed on public discontent over the war in Iraq.
A Gallup survey conducted for CNN and USA Today puts Bush's approval rating at 49% — close to his preelection numbers. That's 10 to 20 points lower than every elected sitting president at this stage since just after World War II, according to Gallup, which has been tabulating such data since Harry S. Truman won a full term in 1948.
Bush's Gallup rating echoed a survey published last week by ABC News and the Washington Post, which put his approval rating at 48%. That poll also found that 56% of Americans believed the Iraq war was not worth fighting. Time magazine also put Bush's overall approval at 49%.
According to the Times, one person who met with Bush the same day a U.S. military mess tent was bombed in Iraq described the president as "distraught."
The Times says the ability of Mr. Bush to reverse the sagging opinion numbers through his inaugural address and the State of the Union speech will help determine whether he can regain popular momentum needed to enact changes to Social Security, the liability tort system and other areas.
(Cited sources and wsj.)
posted by Sid Cottingham | 5:30 PM
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