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For Bush, Victories Haven't Come Easily
By Janet Hook Times Staff WriterSun Jul 31, 7:55 AM ET
WASHINGTON Two days after he won election to a second term, President Bush told the nation he intended to spend the "political capital" he had amassed on ambitious goals: An overhaul of Social Security that would replace safety net guarantees with an "ownership society;" rewriting the Byzantine tax code; and revamping the legal system to crack down on medical malpractice lawsuits.
Six months into Bush's second term, none of those goals has been realized.
As Congress heads off for a monthlong recess, Republican leaders are talking up their legislative accomplishments especially a flurry of legislative activity last week in the rush to adjourn. But those bills fall short of the aims Bush set for his second term, and they show how hard the president now has to work to achieve even modest victories.
Bush overcame resistance in the House and won approval of a new trade agreement but only by the narrowest of margins, and after a difficult lobbying effort by top administration officials and the president.
Congress passed the first rewrite of national energy policy in a decade but only after Bush pushed for four years to get a bill, and experts said it would have little short-term effect on consumers.
Bush is expected to place his choice for United Nations ambassador, John R. Bolton, on the job in the coming days but only by exercising the president's little-used power to make appointments during a congressional recess.
And though Republicans finished work on a slew of bills last week, they have gotten nowhere on the issue that Bush has spent six months promoting across the country: restructuring Social Security...
