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WASHINGTON - Breaking ranks, a small band of House Republicans declared their opposition to a troop buildup in Iraq on Wednesday, and President Bush appeared resigned to passage of a nonbinding measure disapproving of his decision. "I'm going to make it very clear to the members of Congress, starting now, that they need to fund our troops," the president said, looking past this week's debate toward congressional action next month on his request for nearly $100 billion for the military. Bush spoke at a White House news conference timed — coincidentally or not — for the hour that Republican critics...

"Kinder haben die Leute immer — People will always have children," assured Konrad Adenauer, the German Chancellor, in 1957. He was convinced that the future of the brave new pay-as-you-go social security system would not be undermined by demographic changes. Adenauer was as wrong as ever. Social security schemes around the developed world are facing a major crisis due to greater longevity, declining retirement ages and — lo and behold — below-replacement fertility rates. What the good statesman did not realize is how the new system would affect the incentives of individuals to work, to save, and to have children....

Wearied by war, Americans paused Wednesday night to listen to President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq — some responding with frustration, others with renewed hope and some with outright puzzlement. In a prime-time address to the nation, the president said he would boost the U.S. presence in Iraq to more than 150,000 troops, and said he had made a mistake by not ordering more troops there last year. "He's still apologizing for what's going on so far and almost apologizing in advance for what's going on afterwards," said Dave Berndt, 48, an office manager from...

There's growing support for President Bush on the hot-button issue of immigration, according to a CBS News poll. Most Americans say they approve of the immigration reform proposals the president outlined in a nationally televised address earlier this week. They're also somewhat optimistic that Congress will pass an immigration bill by year’s end. Sixty-two percent favor the president's plan to station up to 6,000 National Guard troops at the U.S.-Mexico border, while 32 percent are opposed. Six in 10 also approve of Mr. Bush's proposal for a guest worker program, which would let foreign workers stay in the United States...

Environmental groups sharply criticized the Bush administration's proposal to sell up to 85,000 acres of national forests in California to pay for rural schools, saying the loss of protected land in an already crowded state would be devastating. California would lose the most acreage of any state under the plan, which calls for the sale of more than 300,000 acres in 34 states. The list includes up to 500 parcels in 16 national forests located across the Golden State, with the Central Valley and Northern California potentially losing the most open space. The plan also lists possible, smaller, sales in...

The following radio ad was run yesterday in all vulnerable Congressional districts throughout America by the Democrat National Committee: "This week, President Bush brought his risky plan for Social Security to South Bend. A plan that would end Social Security guaranteed benefits and tie our retirement savings to the ups and downs of the stock market. How does President Bush plan to pay for this risky scheme. He plans to borrow $4.5 Trillion from foreign countries and then he will cut benefits by up to 40%. Cutting benefits and borrowing trillions from foreign countries will not solve Social Security problems,...

Bush Outlines High School Student Plans FALLS CHURCH, Va. - President Bush on Wednesday began his push to require high school students to take the math and reading tests now required of younger students under the No Child Left Behind law, the most ambitious item on the president's slate of second-term education proposals. "Testing is important," Bush said at J.E.B Stuart High School in this Washington suburb. "Testing at high school levels will help us become more competitive as the years go by. Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the...

President Bush cannot push his guest-worker program for illegal immigrants and new foreign workers and still win reforms to Social Security or the tax code, congressional opponents said yesterday. "There are a lot of ambitious plans, a lot of necessary reforms that need to take place, but this rush toward amnesty-light should not be one of the priorities," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, who called himself a friend and political ally of the president, but said Mr. Bush's immigration proposal would hurt his broader legislative agenda.

The "Purpose" in the President's "Purpose Driven Agenda" is his refusal to fulfill his presidential obligations to Americans. His father began the destruction of America, its sovereignty and borders with NAFTA, and George W. continues the process. Both Bush presidents adhere to the "immigration policy" expressed in Junior's now notorious comment while Texas governor: "Hell, if they'll cross Big Bend, we want 'em."Rather than "rest on our laurels," Americans in their golden years must fight for our children and grandchildren's years. How will we answer their query "Why didn't you do something?" What will history say about the Americans...

The Bush administration hopes to start moving the Central American Free Trade Agreement through Congress quickly this year, before lawmakers turn their focus to Social Security legislation. CAFTA, an ambitious trade pact with six Latin American nations, is shaping up as the most contentious trade measure on Capitol Hill since President Bush won trade promotion authority in summer 2002 by a single vote.

Today the president announces his plan for a vast new guestworker system, which would grant amnesty to millions of illegals currently in the United States, as well as import millions of new workers from abroad. (The president will also call for an increase in permanent legal immigration beyond the current rate of one million a year. I make the argument against amnesty in the cover story for the , but here I want to look at the basic assumption underlying the whole Bush plan: that there are jobs Americans simply won't do, so that the importation of foreigners is essential....

President Bush said yesterday he wants to reform immigration policy so that the Border Patrol will be "chasing crooks and thieves and drug-runners and terrorists," and not the thousands who cross the border every day to find work.     Mr. Bush has for months tried to drum up congressional support for his plan to give illegal aliens "temporary worker cards" that would allow them to legally hold jobs that U.S. businesses say they can't fill with American labor.     At his final formal press conference of the year, Mr. Bush said immigrants are pouring over the U.S. border, mostly from Mexico, to...

FOREIGN workers seeking permanent residency will no longer have to wait several years under a new system implemented by the Department of Labor (DOL), streamlining the labor certification system, reducing the processing time to 45-60 days. Last December 27, DOL issued its final rule on the new labor certification system, “Program Electronic Review Management” or “Perm,” The new regulations take effect on Mar. 28, 2005, with the same DOL unit, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) implementing it. Under Perm, employers must file a new ETA Form 9089, which can be filed electronically. “The current process has been criticized as being...

Bush Plan Could Imperil Tax Write-Off for New York By IAN URBINA December 27, 2004 As the Bush administration looks to revamp the tax code, New York officials say they are particularly worried about one idea being considered: eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes. If the president pursues this plan, New York State would lose about $37 billion per year in federal tax deductions, more than almost any other state, according to Internal Revenue Service data. The change would affect about 3.2 million households in New York, three-quarters of which are middle- and low-income, tax records indicate....

The Bush plan is...we win! Judson Cox October 11, 2004 John Kerry accuses the Bush administration of not having a plan in Iraq. He says Iraq is, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time." Sen. Kerry has a plan for fixing nearly every ill of American society; seldom does he tell us exactly what these plans are, but he assures us that he has plans and the President does not. President Bush's plan is simple. The plan is, we win. We invaded Iraq for a reason. Iraq is an important facet of the fight against Islamic...

WASHINGTON, May 23 — Following House approval overnight, the Senate on Friday passed a tax-cut bill that will mean fatter paychecks for many workers as of July 1 and include $400 refunds for each child in a family. Vice President Dick Cheney cast the deciding vote after the Senate was deadlocked at 50-50.

Fiscal Policy: The more we hear about the House and Senate alternatives to the Bush tax cut plan, the more we're convinced the House's approach is superior.In fact, there really isn't much of a choice. The Senate's $350 billion product is what you'd expect from a deeply divided body trying to propitiate all interests while satisfying none. It's a mishmash — and (in hiking some taxes to cut others, for example) a self-defeating mishmash at that.The $550 billion House plan, on the other hand, is a well-thought-out piece of legislation that improves on what the president came up with, whether...

Sen. Hillary Clinton called President Bush's homeland security plan a "myth" yesterday, charging that Americans are nearly as vulnerable to terrorism as they were before the Sept. 11 attacks. In her most scathing challenge to the President's domestic security efforts, Clinton said the White House has done little to prevent terrorism at home beyond "reorganizing existing bureaucracies." "Our vigilance has faded at the top, in the corridors of power in Washington ... where leaders are supposed to lead," she told a conference on homeland security at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on the West Side. "We are not prepared...

Presdient George W. Bush's economic growth plan could triple the size of a little known tax loophole that some small business owners are using to finance purchases of large SUV's.One of President Bushs proposed tax cuts would raise from $25,000.00 to $75.000.00 the amount small business owners can write off when buying an SUV for business purposes.Since the SUV loophole was first reported by the Detroit News last month, several consumer groups and lawmakers have raised concerns about the fairness of the provision.

<p>After all the gnashing of teeth, it turns out consumers turned in a positive performance during the holiday season. Retail sales increased more than 1 percent in December, yielding a near 5 percent pace over the past year.</p> <p>Consumer spending has been the backbone of our economy for the last two years. In that time, it has grown at about a 3 percent rate, despite the stock market collapse and the deep business-and-profits recession. This is a solid consumer performance — yet once again Democrats mistakenly insist on giving consumers a quick one-shot of adrenaline via temporary tax rebates. Wrong ailment, wrong cure.</p>