WASHINGTON (CNN) - Tax cuts sought by President Bush will provide a big boost to the nation's economy, which is still feeling the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Sunday.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq was the latest event to hurt the U.S. economy, he told ABC's "This Week."

"Resolving that, I think, will be very beneficial for the economy. We're already seeing it in lower energy prices," Snow said.

Snow was making the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to push for Bush's tax-cut plan, a day after the president made his own appeal in his weekly radio address. The House approved a $550 billion tax-cut bill Friday, while the Senate is considering a $350 billion measure -- each over 10 years.

Snow, also a guest on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, predicted the larger cut would create more than 2 million jobs by 2005.

As of last month, there were 8.8 million unemployed in the United States, according to the Labor Department.

"The unemployment numbers [are] not where they should be, the economy is not growing as it should," Snow said, and cited the cuts as the medicine needed to heal the ailing economy.

Democrats have criticized the larger House measure sought by Bush as a boon to the wealthy that would increase the national deficit and force cutbacks in essential social services.

The centerpiece of the House bill is a reduction in taxes paid on stock dividends and capital gains. Each would be lowered to 15 percent for most taxpayers and to 5 percent for lower-income filers.

Congress passed two GOP-backed tax cuts, in 2001 and 2002.

"And if they [Congress] pass this one, I'm confident we're going to get back to the growth rates we need," Snow told ABC.

The 2001 cut helped jump start the economy, Snow said, but its impact was undercut by the Sept. 11 attacks, the effort against terrorism which required an investment in homeland security, the collapse of the stock market and corporate scandals -- "all of those external shocks to the economy."

"A soggy economy is what we've got today. We're in a recovery, but it's not as strong and robust as it should be. That's why the president is pushing this jobs-and-growth plan," Snow said.

The economy would have been in much worse trouble without the tax cuts, he said.

However, Snow's comments were blasted on ABC by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

"I don't know ... if there's a respectful way to say 'Hogwash,' but that's what it sounded like to me, because we need a new plan and a new direction," she said.

"I think the whole trickle-down is hogwash," Landrieu said. "We tried that and it didn't work. Americans want a president that will focus on tax relief as well as focusing on keeping America strong in the long run by keeping Social Security and education investments."

Landrieu continued, "Our mayors and governors, regardless of whether they're Democrats or Republicans, are hurting. They're going to have to raise taxes at a local level unless the president changes his direction. And we in the Senate, Democrats and some Republicans, are going to do what we can to get him to adjust his direction."

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told CNN that the Bush plan panders to the wealthy -- as his previous cuts did.

"There's really very little help for those working people in the plan," she said. Unlike the Democratic proposal, the Republican plan would not extend unemployment compensation benefits. "Why would we do more of the same [tax cuts] that George Bush has already tried and it's failed?"

"When the people take a look at this plan and they see that the people in our country -- the elite few who earn over a million dollars get back a hundred thousand a year, and the average family gets back a few hundred dollars a year -- they'll realize that this plan isn't fair," Boxer added.

But Snow told ABC the president's tax plan would create 450,000 jobs by the end of 2003, 1.5 million by the end of 2004 and would add about 1 percent a year to the gross domestic product in both years.

"It's pretty powerful jobs-and-growth medicine," he said.

Asked whether the president would support an extension of unemployment benefits beyond May 31, Snow said Bush would prefer to boost the economy by lowering tax rates and thereby increasing disposable income.

The growth rate for the gross domestic product for the first quarter this year was 1.6 percent, and Snow said it needs to be doubled, at least.

"The economy needs a boost and that's what this jobs program is all about," he said.

Snow, asked on CNN about the Treasury Department's role in Iraq, said a team is there, led by Peter McPherson, president of Michigan State University, who is a former deputy secretary of the Treasury and head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The team members, aided by representatives of the International Monetary Fund, are experts in financial and currency issues, Snow said.

"There is a lot of rebuilding to do with the financial institutions of the country," he added, above the $80 billion in initial funding sought by the Bush administration.

"What we're dealing with in Iraq are not two-and-a-half weeks of conflict, but two-and-a-half decades of misrule and mismanagement, and there's a major reconstruction product that has to go on there," Snow said.

"Just as in Afghanistan, the world came together to provide substantial assistance. I think there will be substantial assistance provided by other countries in the world," he said.

Iraq's oil revenue is expected to provide income to help the country rebuild, and the United States is pushing other nations to forgive Iraq's debts.

Iraq's central bank served primarily as a funding mechanism for Saddam Hussein's regime, Snow said. The nation had no national accounts or budget, and the financial teams are "starting from the ground up."

Asked about the State Department's accusation that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his family took about $1 billion from the country's central bank hours before the United States began bombing Iraq, Snow said, "We are very heavily engaged in tracing and tracking and apprehending that money."

He also said the Treasury team is investigating the discovery of large amounts of money in Baghdad, including $650 million recovered at one of Saddam's palaces.