Remember domestic policy?
After a month dominated by news about the Iraq war, President Bush yesterday weighed in on a handful of domestic issues. But changing the topic doesn't necessarily mean a break from controversy.
Bush was speaking to invitation-only audiences in Arizona and Southern California, ostensibly pitching the advantage of the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit that has been greeted skeptically by many seniors.
But Bush's speechwriters also threw in some brief comments on some of the hot-button domestic issues on the White House's agenda as Congress returns to Washington after Labor Day.
Immigration
Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush flew into the heart of the nation's volatile debate over illegal immigration Monday and defended his administration's efforts to control the nearby border with Mexico after a surge of criticism from across the political spectrum.
"Two weeks after the Democratic governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency along the border, Bush used a Medicare speech here to promise residents an increasingly robust federal campaign that will deploy more agents and provide more detention space to stop those trying to sneak into the country."
Baker also notes that Bush was not able to escape the war protests entirely.
"Hundreds of protesters lined his motorcade routes in Arizona and California, holding up signs such as 'Bush the Lying Turd' and 'Chicken George,' a reference to his refusal to meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who set up camp near his Texas ranch demanding an audience. A competing crowd gathered in California waving flags and signs such as 'Support Our President.'"
Peter Wallsten and Mark Z. Barabak write in the Los Angeles Times: "With increasingly fierce debates over border security exposing divisions in the Republican Party, President Bush on Monday endorsed a policy of strict border enforcement.
"His comments during appearances in California and Arizona were an apparent response to some state officials and conservatives in his own party who say the administration has failed to adequately address human trafficking from Mexico into the United States. . . .
"The president did not mention the emergency declarations, signed two weeks ago by Democratic Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Bill Richardson of New Mexico, that require the federal government to spend millions more combating human trafficking and, at the same time, paint the Bush administration as weak on immigration. Nor did he mention his own proposal for addressing the immigration crisis, one that is strongly opposed by many conservatives within his party: a guest worker program that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to work and live in the United States legally.
"Instead, Bush offered language apparently designed to appease [his] growing chorus of critics. . . . He did not, as he had in the past, discuss the benefits of immigration or the value that immigrants bring to the U.S. economy."
