Bush Tax Cut Checks Cut
President Bush headed to Philadelphia Thursday to kick off a monthlong, administration-wide effort to present the president as having acted aggressively to solve the nation's continuing economic woes.
He and other top administration officials plan to highlight what they argue will be the growth fostered by the $330 billion in tax cuts over 10 years that Congress passed in May
The president is first stopping at a federal check-processing center in Philadelphia to draw attention to the new child tax-credit checks that were created by the tax-cut law.
The first batch of more than 25 million checks — totaling $12 billion — is being mailed out on Friday and some of the checks are being printed at the federal Treasury Department service facility Mr. Bush was visiting.
Progress in Congress has been elusive on Bush-backed efforts to expand the child tax credits to more low-income families.
Later Thursday, Mr. Bush travels to Michigan, another critical Rust Belt swing state, for a second economic speech at a manufacturer of parts for the commercial aerospace and defense markets. Mr. Bush's visit to Beaver Aerospace and Defense in Livonia, Mich., was to focus on the tax cuts' benefits to small businesses.
The president was capping the day with a $2,000-a-plate evening campaign reception at a Ritz Carlton in nearby Dearborn, also a suburb of Detroit.
Three members of the president's economic team — Treasury Secretary John Snow, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao — are heading to Wisconsin and Minnesota next week for a two-day bus tour to tout the tax cuts.
Mr. Bush also is summoning his entire top economic team to meet with him in Crawford, Texas, during his monthlong stay there in August.
Recent polls have shown a softening of support for Mr. Bush's handling of the economy.
In a bit of good economic news, the number of American workers signing up for jobless benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in five months.
For the work week ending July 19, new applications for unemployment insurance dropped by a seasonally adjusted 29,000 to 386,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It marked the second week in a row that claims went down and represented the first time since the week ending Feb. 8 that claims dipped below 400,000, a level associated with a weak job market.
The claims figures were better than economists were expecting; they were forecasting claims to rise slightly.
Last month, the nation's unemployment rate hit a nine-year high of 6.4 percent. And last week, the administration announced that in part because of the weak economy the budget deficit will soar to record numbers in dollar terms — $455 billion this year and $475 billion in 2004.
Democrats have sharpened their attacks and key Democratic lawmakers planned a rebuttal of Mr. Bush's assertions about his economic policies on Thursday. They were given new ammunition last week when the administration estimated that deficits this year could hit $455 billion, far exceeding previous projections.