President George W Bush heads this week to the electorally crucial state of Ohio to sell his tax-cut plan and tour a factory that made some of the Abrams tanks that fought in Iraq, the White House said this afternoon. <>
Mr Bush will tout his "jobs and growth" program in a speech in Canton, Ohio, and will follow it up with an address on national security at a tank factory in Lima, said spokesman Ari Fleischer.
In addition to its weight in presidential contests, Ohio is home to Senator George Voinovich, one of a handful of moderate members of Bush's Republican Party who have sought to cut the president's ambitious tax-reduction plan.
In recently approved budget blueprints, the Senate voted to cap the tax cuts at $350 billion over 10 years, well off Mr Bush's original request for some $726 billion. The House of Representatives approved a $550-billion- limit for the cuts.
The blueprints are guidelines that will be used in considering specific legislation for the tax cuts.
Mr Bush said last week that he wanted at least a $550-billion-dollar tax cut, which he says will revive the ailing US economy.
Mr Bush's 2004 re-election fight may hinge on the state of the US economy, which still suffers from languishing growth and stubborn unemployment two years after the US Congress approved a $1.65-trillion-dollar tax cut Bush said would help kick-start growth.
AFP