Strength in Union

President Bush declared to Congress and the nation that
“the state of our union is confident and strong” in a
televised speech that outlined the president’s plans for his
second term.

Bush’s State of the Union address focused heavily on his
plans to overhaul Social Security and spread democracy across the
globe.

Warning that Social Security would go bankrupt within 40 years,
the president urged Congress to “pass reforms that solve the
financial problems of Social Security once and for all.”

Bush outlined his proposal to privatize Social Security,
dramatically overhauling the program to allow workers under age 55
to form their own “voluntary personal retirement
accounts” that would serve as “nest eggs.”

Though the president urged that “our children’s
financial security is more important than partisan politics,”
his assertion that the program ““ a long-time stronghold of
the Democratic party ““ would go bankrupt initiated loud moans
of disagreement from the Democrats in attendance. The president
raised his voice and continued.

During the Democratic response, which immediately followed the
president’s speech, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada expressed doubt in the reliability of the president’s
proposed overhaul, accusing Bush of playing “Social Security
roulette.”

Though the loud response from the Democrats was unusual at a
State of the Union speech, the hullabaloo did not surprise Mark
Peterson, chairman of the UCLA Department of Public Policy.

“When the president says things that are at such variance
with the truth, it is natural for the Democrats to have a sharp
response,” Peterson said.

Bush went on to call for responsible federal spending, a vital
component of the president’s plan to cut the deficit in half
by 2009.

“Taxpayer dollars must be spent wisely, or not at
all,” Bush said, adding that his proposed budget would cut
150 government programs that are not achieving significant
results.

Bush also discussed his plan to form a bipartisan committee that
would revamp the federal income tax code from an “archaic,
incoherent tax code” to one that will be “pro-growth,
easy to understand and fair for all.”

In an effort to allow more Americans to afford a college
education, Bush also pledged to increase the size of Pell
Grants.

The second half of Bush’s speech focused on foreign
policy, with special attention paid to plans of spreading democracy
worldwide, which he said is a powerful tactic in battling
terrorism.

“The peace we seek will only be achieved by eliminating
the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of
murder,” Bush said. “If whole regions of the world
remain in despair and grow in hatred, they will be the recruiting
grounds for terror and that terror will stalk America and other
free nations for decades.”

Though Democrats have recently called for a clear exit strategy
in Iraq, a task they say the president has yet to accomplish, Bush
refused to set a date for a significant troop withdrawal.

“We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq
because that would embolden the terrorists and make them believe
they can wait us out,” Bush said. “We are in Iraq to
achieve a result: a country that is democratic, representative of
all its people, at peace with its neighbors and able to defend
itself.”

Though House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California
commended Sunday’s election in Iraq, she said she was not
satisfied with Bush’s response.

“We all know that the United States cannot stay in Iraq
indefinitely and continue to be viewed as an occupying
force,” Pelosi said. “We have never heard a clear plan
from this administration for ending our presence in Iraq, and we
did not hear one tonight.”

The most emotional moment of the night came when Safia Taleb
al-Suhail, an Iraqi human rights advocate, and Janet Norwood, the
mother of a Marine killed in Fallujah, reached for each other
across a row of chairs to meet in a tearful and symbolic embrace
during the speech.