Bush to push for permanent tax cuts
President says he wants Congress to make his tax breaks permanent.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - President Bush said Thursday he would call on Congress to make permanent his tax cuts in his State of the Union address next week.

"We'll talk about fiscal policy in my State of the Union, talk about the Congress to be wise about how we spend the people's money and to make the tax cuts permanent," Bush told reporters during a new conference.

President Bush
President Bush

Bush said the U.S. economy is growing and strong, but that the global economy is becoming more competitive.

"I will talk about initiatives to make sure our health care and education and energy (policy) recognizes the realities of the world in which we live today and anticipates the problems of the world tomorrow so that we can remain competitive," the president said.

Reduced taxes and healthcare costs are expected to be a focus of the economic proposals Bush makes when delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday. (Full story.)

Budget concerns

Commenting on the federal deficit, Bush said he is fully prepared to use a veto if Congress overspends.

On Thursday the Congressional Budget Office said it expects the fiscal 2006 budget deficit to widen to $337 billion. That's a bigger gap than the $314 billion estimate the CBO made in August.

The CBO's forecast doesn't include funds the Bush administration may request for financing Gulf Coast recovery or the war in Iraq.

The president said there is a lot of work to do to eliminate overspending and that there is a need for earmark reform, referring to spending items that are slipped into appropriations bills without appropriate congressional oversight.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.