2004 State of the Union Address
The 2004 State of the Union Address was given by the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, on January 20, 2004, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 108th United States Congress. It was Bush's third State of the Union Address and his fourth speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, accompanied by Dick Cheney, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.
Date
The speech was given 28 months after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[1]
Topics[edit]
War on Terror[edit]
President Bush begins by saying that the greatest responsibility of the government is to protect all Americans from terroristic threats.[1] He also highlighted that several years had passed since the terrorist attacks on September the 11th. While several years had passed "without an attack on American soil",[1] it did not mean that all of the danger was in the past. After September 11, attacks continued around the world in Bali, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and other major regions of the world.[1] The President also focuses on how enemies of the United States are constantly plotting attacks of some form or another. The Patriot Act was mentioned as a point of emphasis for giving the United States Department of Homeland Security all of the necessary resources to find criminals and locate possible attack scenarios.[2] One of the recurring themes of the speech was that "America is on the offensive"[1] and is constantly on the hunt for members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. President Bush then proceeded to discuss how American allies helped to convince several countries to eliminate weapons of mass destruction.
Troops in the Middle East[edit]
President Bush talks about the evolution of the Iraqi people since the American intervention and overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He talked about how the Iraqis have started down the road of complete independence. They slowly accepted responsibility for organizing their own security once the Americans decide to withdraw, whenever that may be.[1] He also talks about how democracy is slowly taking shape in Iraq thanks to Americans always having a desire to do what is considered "right".[1] At one point during the speech, the President gave thanks to the troops and families of troops stationed all across the world and assured that they would have every resource necessary to succeed overseas. He also reaffirmed that as long as the Middle East continued to be a place where American resentment was present, America would have a presence there, working to transform the area into one of peace towards the United States.
Economy[edit]
The primary emphasis of the President's portion of his speech on the economy was geared towards the accomplishments of the American people. He thanks the American people for giving tax relief to help stimulate the economy.[1] He also continued to use the personal pronoun "you" when talking about American successes in areas like cutting taxes for small businesses, phasing out the estate tax, and lowering taxes for all citizens who pay income taxes.[2] He ends the economic talk by stating that the economy is always changing, as is the technology, and how new jobs and skills are needed constantly.[1]
Education[edit]
President Bush's main focus of the talks on education were the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act. He again used the pronoun "you" when talking about the recent successes in education. The President also stated that since 2001, a 36 percent increase in funding for schools took place, as well as an elevation in standards and communication between schools and parents.[1] He followed by saying that the days of shuffling kids along without knowing if they understood what was necessary were over as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act.[1]
Democratic Party response[edit]
Democrats opposed President Bush's foreign policies.[3] They believed that America could only go so far on its own and needed to rely on other countries to "meet common dangers".[3] They accused the President of being too radical in going to war with Iraq, as well as dropping the cost of war on the American people by taxing them more than necessary.[3] Democrats also supported removing troops from the Middle East, whereas President Bush wanted to leave them there to have a presence in an area seen as dangerous by the American government. Democrats also wanted to increase the inspection rate of cargo going in and out of airports and harbors across the country to increase civil liberties, something which President Bush opposed.[3] The tax cuts that the President had made were heavily opposed by Democrats, as well.[3] They also said that the President did not hold up his end of the deal in the No Child Left Behind Act.