Bush calls for $60 billion in tax cuts

10/06/2001

By David Jackson
The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – President Bush spent Friday dealing with counterterrorism problems both economic and diplomatic.

After his spokesman rebuked Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for accusing the United States of "appeasing" Arab nations, Mr. Bush pitched a $60 billion tax cut to stave off a recession resulting from the events of Sept. 11.

"The terrorists attacked us, but they did not diminish our spirit, nor did they undermine the fundamentals of our economy," Mr. Bush said.

Before heading to Camp David for the weekend, Mr. Bush also met with the president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The president, Eduard Shevardnadze, later questioned whether the United States would mount an all-out military assault on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which is thought to be harboring Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the terrorist attacks.

"I don't think that the United States is going to have, you know, a massive strike," Mr. Shevardnadze said, adding that he supported Mr. Bush's counterterrorism coalition.

In his only public appearance of the day, Mr. Bush spent two minutes in the Rose Garden saying that tax cuts are a key part of an economic recovery package.

He offered his $60 billion tax cut plan the same day that the Labor Department reported an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, a number expected to rise given layoffs stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Bush has signed off on a variety of spending programs for unemployed workers, measures supported by congressional Democrats. Some congressional Republicans have urged him to play up the idea of more tax cuts, something Mr. Bush did as Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill stood at his side.

"We've spent money, and that'll have a simulative effect of some kind," Mr. Bush said. "But to make sure that the economy gets the boost it needs, Congress ought to come together quickly and accept the ideas that I've just laid out."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., saying excessive tax cuts would lead to huge budget deficits, said "some of the more extreme voices in the Congress are now pressuring the administration to take a more divisive approach to the stimulus legislation."

"We must resist those partisan influences and continue to take the best ideas advanced by both parties and come to agreement on the best plan for America's future," Mr. Daschle said.

Mr. Bush also confronted a rare public breach with longtime ally Israel after Mr. Sharon warned the United States not to "appease" Arab countries as Israel's expense as it seeks to build an international coalition to battle terrorism.

The White House protested his comments via the State Department, the American embassy in Israel, the National Security Council, and presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"Israel can have no better or stronger friend than the United States and [no] better friend than President Bush," Mr. Fleischer said.

Mr. Sharon's office later issued a conciliatory statement in support of the U.S. war on terrorism.

The State Department also released an updated list of 25 international terrorist organizations.

Officials said there is no way to know when any military action might start. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew back to Washington after completing a tour of Middle East and Central Asian countries.