President Bush predicted Wednesday that voters will shrug off a Republican sex scandal and vote next month to prevent Democrats from raising taxes and weakening national security.
“I still stand by my prediction we’ll have a Republican speaker and Republican leader of the Senate,” Bush told reporters in a Rose Garden press conference. “We’ll maintain control because we’re on the right side of the economic issue and the security issue.”
Bush said these issues are more important that a scandal over former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned last month amid allegations he sent salacious computer messages to congressional pages.
“I think the elections will be decided by security and the economy — I really do,” Bush said. “This Foley issue bothers a lot of people, including me. But I think when [voters] get in that booth, they’re going to be thinking about how best to secure the country from attack and how best to keep the economy growing.”
Bush was particularly eager to credit his tax cuts as having stimulated economic activity and swollen federal tax revenues.
“We have now achieved our goal of cutting the federal budget deficit in half, and we’ve done it three years ahead of schedule,” he said. “The Democrats will raise taxes.”
Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton countered: “The hallmarks of the Bush economy are sluggish job growth, record deficits and stagnating wages.”
On the issue of national security, Bush promised to continue reminding voters that Democrats have voted against programs to detain suspected terrorists for interrogation and eavesdrop on al-Qaida phone conversations. He also emphasized that Democrats have called for specific timetables to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, a strategy Bush called “cut and run.”
“But they don’t say, ‘Cut and run,’ ” a reporter said of Democrats.
