Bush to hold cabinet meeting
2004-11-04 09:05
Washington - His second term secured, President George W Bush is reaching out and asking the 55 million people who voted to oust him from office to get behind the ambitious agenda he's laid out for the next four years.
The work of making good on a raft of tough-to-keep campaign promises begins on Thursday, when Bush sits down with his cabinet for their first such meeting since August 2.
In a quietly jubilant victory speech on Wednesday that came a full 21 hours after the polls closed, Bush outlined the goals he plans to start work on immediately and pursue in the next four years, a period he termed "a season of hope."
He pledged to keep up the fight against terrorism, press for stable democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, simplify the tax code, allow younger workers to invest some of their Social Security withholdings in the stock market, continue to raise accountability standards in public schools and "uphold our deepest values and family and faith."
'I will work to earn it'
Other items include reforms to the nation's intelligence community, halving the record $413bn deficit, expanding health care coverage, a constitutional ban on gay marriage and moving "this goodhearted nation toward a culture of life."
"Reaching these goals will require the broad support of Americans," Bush said, as he asked Senator John Kerry's disappointed supporters to back him although many of his proposals are anathema the opponents of his re-election.
"I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust," he said. "When we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."
Bush also has pledged a full-court press with congress, where a continued Republican lock on both houses makes getting his wishes granted easier, but not guaranteed for a lame-duck president.
He gets his mandate
The disputed 2000 election left Bush without a mandate, but he governed as if he had one. The White House made clear on Wednesday that it believes that mandate did not elude Bush this time, when he became the first presidential candidate since 1988 to win a majority of the popular vote, 51 percent.
"President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation's future and the nation responded by giving him a mandate," vice-president Dick Cheney said, introducing Bush.
Even before the election, aides started work on a new budget, and the administration is preparing to ask congress for up to $75bn more to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and operations against terrorism.
The figure indicates the wars' costs, particularly to battle the intensified Iraqi insurgency, are far exceeding expectations laid out early this year.
- AP