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Scott Stearns
President Bush and his Democratic opponents continue their election-year battle over the economy. Mr. Bush says Democrats want to raise taxes. Democrats say there is a growing "credibility gap" between what the Bush administration says and what it does.
President Bush says his record tax cuts are helping strengthen the U.S. economy and create more jobs. In his weekly radio address, he says that recovery is threatened by Democrats who want to raise taxes.
"Some politicians in Washington see this new challenge, and they want to respond in old, ineffective ways," he said. "They want to increase federal taxes - yet punishing families and small businesses is not a job-creation strategy."
The president did not mention by name his likely Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. But Mr. Bush did respond to one of Senator Kerry's accusations that the White House is letting too many American jobs go overseas.
The president said restricting trade would threaten millions of U.S. jobs that depend on exports.
"These tired, old policies of tax-and-spend, and economic isolationism, are a recipe for economic disaster. There's a better way to help our workers and help our economy," the president said.
The president wants Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, and open more free trade agreements with other countries. He is calling on Congress to reduce regulations on small businesses and enact legal reforms to cut down on frivolous lawsuits.
Mr. Bush says his so-called No Child Left Behind education reforms are bringing higher standards to every public school in America to better prepare for higher-skilled jobs.
In the Democratic radio address, Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy said there is "a widening credibility gap" between what the Bush administration says and what it does.
"Facts don't lie. The Bush administration and the Republican Congress are giving schools only two-thirds of the funds they were promised," senator Kennedy said.
Senator Kennedy, who is actively involved in Senator Kerry's presidential bid, has been one of the administrations' harshest critics over the war in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.
"On no issue has the truth been a greater casualty than the war in Iraq. . . . No president who takes our country to war like that deserves to be re-elected," he said.
Senator Kennedy also criticized the president's economic plan for failing to create the one-point-seven million new jobs projected for last year. The U.S. economy lost 400,000 jobs in 2003.
The increasingly sharp rhetoric of the president's weekly radio address and the Democratic response reflects a presidential campaign that has turned highly partisan eight months before Election Day.
注释：
credibility [7kredi5biliti] n. 可靠性
federal [5fedErEl] adj. 联邦的
punishing [5pQniFiN] adj.辛苦的
accusation [Akju(:)5zeiFEn] n. 责备
isolationism [aisE5leiFEniz(E)m] n.（国际事务中的）孤立主义
enact [i5nAkt] vt. 颁布
frivolous [5frivElEs] adj. 无关紧要的
lawsuit [5lC:su:t] n. 诉讼
harsh [hB:F] adj. 苛刻的
destruction [dis5trQkFEn] n. 摧毁
rhetoric [5retErik] n. 修辞法有效并有说服力地使用语言方面的技巧
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