President Bush on Wednesday said Republicans would retain control of the House and Senate in the November elections because Democrats want to abandon Iraq and raise taxes.
“I believe we’re going to hold the House and the Senate because our philosophy is one that is forward-looking and optimistic,” he said at a Rose Garden news conference.
Making his deepest foray into the midterm election fight, Bush alluded to disagreements among Democrats about when to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said this week that troops should be brought home by the end of the year, while Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said such a timetable is unwise.
“There’s an interesting debate in the Democrat party about how quick to pull out of Iraq,” Bush said. “As these campaigns start approaching you’ll hear more people say, I suspect: ‘It’s a mistake, Bush shouldn’t have done what he did, pull out.’ ”
He added: “Pulling out of Iraq before we accomplish the mission will make the world a more dangerous place. It’s bad policy. I know it may sound good politically.”
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement saying that “Bush remains steadfast in his refusal to provide any sort of timetable for the American presence in Iraq.”
DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton added: “Bush continues to say that he will listen to his commanders about troop levels, but he keeps contradicting their own predictions and as recently as last month sent even more troops into Iraq.”
Bush said Democratic calls for withdrawal deadlines send a message to terrorists that “maybe America will lose its nerve.”
“The willingness of some to say that if we’re in power we’ll withdraw on a set timetable concerns people in Iraq, because they understand our coalition forces provide a sense of stability,” he said. “And I’m concerned that an enemy will hear the wrong message.” Asked whether he was worried the GOP would lose control of Congress in November, Bush reminded reporters that he once trailed Kerry by “double digits” in the 2004 presidential campaign, only to vanquish the Democrat in the end.
Without prompting, Bush also took a shot at Democrats for trying to repeal his tax cuts.
“The Democrat economic policy of raising people’s taxes isn’t going to work,” he said. “I know they’ll couch it in all kinds of language, but really what they’re saying is we’re going to raise your taxes.”
