Bush pushes second-term agenda
President: Deficit will be cut in half in five years
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS...h.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Monday he will submit a federal budget that will half the deficit in five years and maintain strict spending discipline.

"We will provide every tool and resource for our military, we will protect the homeland," Bush said. He said he would "maintain strict discipline in spending tax dollars."

In the 17th news conference of his presidency, Bush was pushing his second-term agenda.

Bush said he will submit a federal budget that will cut the deficit in half in five years and maintain strict spending discipline. His fiscal 2006 budget is due to Congress in February.

"We will submit a budget that fits the times. It will provide every tool and resource to the military, will protect the homeland, and meet other priorities of the government," he said.

With a growing number of lawmakers, including Republicans, voicing no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Bush defended his Pentagon chief.

"Beneath that rough and gruff no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military and the grief that war causes," Bush said, batting away criticism that Rumsfeld had not personally signed condolence letters to the families of troops who have died.

Rumsfeld agreed to Bush's request this month to stay in the Cabinet during the president's second term and has won repeated votes of confidence from the White House since.

Critics have raised questions about whether enough U.S. troops are in Iraq to bring security for the elections. More than 1,300 American troops have died since the war began in March 2003. Also, soldiers have complained about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

Rumsfeld agreed to Bush's request this month to stay in the Cabinet during the president's second term and has won repeated votes of confidence from the White House since.

Bush pointedly acknowledged that Iraqi troops are not ready to take over their country's security, and cautioned that next month's elections there are only the beginning of a long process toward democracy.

"I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free," Bush said.

"The elections in January are the beginning of a process and it is important for the American people to understand that," he said.

He said "I would call the results mixed" on a U.S. effort to put Iraqi security in the hands of its own people.

"When the heat got on, they left the battlefield -- that is unacceptable," he said. "We are under no illusion that this Iraqi force is not ready to fight in toto."

On Social Security, Bush said he recognized that there would be "difficult choices" but he wouldn't lay out specifics until Congress has a chance to address the issue.

"The first step in this process is for members of Congress to realize we have a problem," he said. Without any changes, Social Security would begin paying more in benefits than it takes in by 2018.

"The first step in this process is for members of Congress to realize we have a problem," he said.

Bush defended his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has had disagreements over the war on terror and, more recently, over the disputed elections in Ukraine.

"The relationship's an important relationship and I would call the relationship a good relationship," Bush said, adding that he's talked with Putin about getting Russia admitted to the World Trade Organization.

Bush also said he work toward giving both Russia and the United States equal access to nuclear storage sites.

Over the years, Bush has toned down criticism of Russia's campaign against separatist rebels in Chechnya, and Putin has acquiesced to U.S. troops being stationed in Central Asia, close to Moscow.

But earlier this month, Putin said he could not imagine how Iraqi elections that the Bush administration scheduled for January 30 could be held under "conditions of occupation by foreign forces," a reference to the United States.

Bush also defended his failed nomination of former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to be the Homeland Security secretary. The controversy over the nomination raised questions about the ability of the White House to fully vet its nominees.

"In retrospect he made the right decision to pull his name down," Bush said. "The lessons learned is continue to vet and ask questions."

Bush didn't tip his hand about who might be nominated to be the new national intelligence director -- a post created by the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in a half century that Bush signed into law last week.

The new law creates a national intelligence center and a powerful new position of national intelligence direction to oversee the nation's 15 separate intelligence agencies.

"I'm going to find somebody who knows something about intelligence," Bush said, "and capable and honest and ready to do the job."