Editorial: Challenges confronting president

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2002 | 9 a.m.

President Bush spent much of his State of the Union address on Tuesday talking about the war on terrorism, a campaign that his administration has waged deftly so far. Osama bin Laden still hasn't been captured, but the success of the war effort has exceeded even the administration's own expectations, with the Taliban regime and the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan both having been routed. Still, there is a long way to go and the president was right to note that the battle against terrorism is just beginning. It also was encouraging that Bush on Tuesday warned Iran, Iraq and North Korea -- a collection of rogue states he aptly dubbed the "axis of evil" -- that the United States will not tolerate the sale and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction.

Bush's approval ratings in public opinion polls are stratospheric, due principally to his successful war on terrorism. But this President Bush knows that his father once had an incredibly high job performance rating in the Gulf War's afterglow. A sluggish economy, and reneging on his "no-new-taxes" pledge, tripped up the elder Bush, who was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992. So President Bush on Tuesday signaled that creating jobs will be his top domestic concern. Still, while there is near universal agreement on the president's military strategy in the war on terrorism, there is a sharp divide over domestic policy. Democrats have correctly pointed out that the president's economic stimulus package doesn't contain the right incentives to quickly get this economy out of a recession and that it is skewed to benefit the wealthy.

One of the largest problems confronting Bush is his 2000 campaign promise to cut taxes, a pledge that resulted in the passage of a 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut. At the time the pledge was made, Bush said we could have it all -- fewer taxes, and a budget surplus with enough money left over to pay for important programs, such as a prescription drug benefit for seniors. But that tax cut, which means fewer revenues, and the need for more military spending, now make it difficult for him to deliver on a prescription drug benefit. The president wants to pass a 10-year, $190 billion prescription drug program, but members of both parties in Congress note that it will take at least $300 billion to do it right.

George W. Bush is a conservative president -- some commentators have suggested that he may even eclipse Ronald Reagan. But Bush seems to understand the virtues of a strong government; it is essential to effectively fight the war against terrorism, both abroad and at home. The question mark that still hangs out there, though, is a big one: Will the president use some of the same passion he has shown for government's role in the war on terrorism and apply it to domestic policy, including an acknowledgement that the trend toward deregulation has been a failure? And while on Tuesday the president called for bipartisanship, this is a two-way street. Bush should work just as hard to get along with the Democratic-controlled Senate as he has with the Republican-led House if he'd like to see as much success domestically as he has had militarily.