President asks Congress to give Iraq policy 'a chance to work'

President Bush used his sixth State of the Union address last week to ask Congress to give his Iraq policy "a chance to work." Mr. Bush said his plan to increase troop levels is the best hope in a war the US must not lose.

While he addressed domestic issues in the address, the war in Iraq and anti-terrorism efforts were a key focus. On domestic matters, he pressed Congress to help find ways to overhaul entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. Bush called for changing the tax code to encourage more people not covered by medical insurance to buy a plan, and to discourage others from keeping the most costly health care plans.

Under Mr. Bush's proposal, employer-financed health care benefits would be considered taxable income after a deduction of $15,000 for families and $7,500 dollars for individuals. Those buying their own plan would get the same deductions on their taxes.

His second proposal calls for states to get federal funding to help provide coverage for those without insurance. Mr. Bush says states providing private coverage should also provide it to ``the poor and the sick.'' The president also reached out to Democrats. He opened with a tribute to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and shook her hand.

He noted that the Congress has changed, but that its responsibilities have not. Democrats, however, are calling on President Bush to bring a diplomatic end to the Iraq war. Freshman Senator Jim Webb delivered his party's response to the president's State of the Union address.

Webb is calling for a new direction. He says Mr. Bush has abused the public's trust and welfare by taking the country into war "recklessly." He also said the president has mismanaged the war effort and that the US is now caught up in disarray that was "predictable, and predicted."

Webb says there needs to be a shift toward ``regionally based diplomacy'' that will allow US troops to leave Iraq. He also said the health of the US economy must be judged not only on its performance on Wall Street, but also on its impact of the average American family on Main Street.

Among the guests in the chamber for Tuesday night's speech was former US House Speaker Jim Wright of Fort Worth who was invited by the fellow Democrat who now holds the job. Wright was Speaker in the late 1980's.The Fort Worth Democrat swore in Nancy Pelosi after she won a special election to Congress in 1987.

Wright left Congress in 1989 during an ethics investigation. Also among the guests was the wife of a Border Patrol agent from the El Paso area who's serving a federal sentence for a border shooting. The invitation to Monica Ramos came from California Representative Dana Rohrabacher.

Former agent Ignacio Ramos is appealing his convictions related to the 2005 shooting of a Mexican drug dealer who was fleeing. Backers of Ramos want him pardoned. Prosecutors have defended the case. Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo was invited by first lady Laura Bush to sit with her during the speech.

Mutombo became an American citizen last year. Mutombo is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, previously known as Zaire. Mrs. Bush also invited Marine Sgt. Aubrey McDade, Jr.,an Iraq veteran who has served two tours and recipient of the Navy Cross.

The White House says he spent some of his youth in Fort Worth and Houston. McDade is stationed in South Carolina. A New York construction worker who jumped onto the tracks in a subway station to save a man who had fallen from a seizure was invited. So were Wesley Autrey's two daughters.

And a service member who placed himself in harm's way in Iraq was also on the guest list. Navy Petty Officer First Class Corey Firman volunteered for more than 30 convoys in Iraq and was subjected to more than 180 incidents of hostile fire.

BBC