Bush Addresses Economy and Iraq, Maine Delegation Reacts

By Deirdre Fulton

Washington, D.C. – Republican Senators Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins lauded President Bush’s State of the Union remarks regarding the economy and health care but remained reserved on the president’s analysis of the situation in Iraq. Meanwhile, Democratic congressmen Michael Michaud and Thomas Allen criticized what they labeled as a disproportionate economic plan favoring the wealthy and said the president failed to outline a convincing case for war in Iraq.

“I don’t think he made his case,” Michaud said, claiming the president presented non-compelling evidence against Saddam Hussein during his speech Tuesday night in an attempt to draw attention away from the ailing economy.

Collins said she was “troubled” by the new evidence presented in the speech, but advised the administration to give the inspectors more time, more resources and more intelligence information before making a hasty decision about war.

“I’m still hopeful that we will be able to avoid war,” she said, a sentiment shared by the entire delegation.

The delegation also united in general praise of potential the health care reforms President Bush stressed in his speech Tuesday night.

“His proposals for health care have a great impact for Maine because Maine is faced with a growing number of uninsured families due to rising costs,” Collins said after the speech. In his speech, the president proposed adding $400 billion over the next decade “to reform and strengthen Medicare,” specifically mentioning prescription drug benefits.

Snowe, while also praising president’s focus on Medicare and prescription drug reform, stressed the importance of “comprehensive prescription coverage,” which she worried might be passed over in lieu of the president’s proposed Medicare reforms.

Snowe and Collins both responded enthusiastically to the president’s economic plan as a whole and specifically to his mention of help for small businesses. Collins noted the special importance of this measure to Maine, which she described as “a state of small businesses.”

“Small businesses now account for a full 100 percent of net new jobs in our economy, so I strongly support the President’s call for adoption of this legislation, so unceremoniously dropped from our stimulus plan a year ago,” Snowe, chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in a statement.

Michaud and Allen blasted the president’s economic plan as inadequate.

“This president has failed to address the economy,” Michaud said. “He is more concerned with giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people. If the president had to work, like I have, in the mills beside men and women who are struggling from day to day, then he might pay attention to it.”

In the long run, Michaud and Allen agreed, the president’s plan would fail to stimulate the economy and create new jobs.

Instead, Allen said, it will “explode the annual deficit, drive up the national debt and in the long run, slow down the economy.”

Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.