Fact Sheet: Bush's Likely Agenda For Second Term

TAXES

• Bush pledged to work in a second term to get Congress to make permanent the $1.9 trillion in tax cuts over a decade that he won in his first term.
• Most of the reductions, including elimination of the estate tax, are schedule to end after 2010.
• The 10-year cost of extending all of Bush tax cuts has been put at more than $1 trillion.
• He also pledged to overhaul the tax code in a second term. His first step will be to appoint a commission to recommend the best way to revamp the tax system.
• He has not spelled out what alterations he would prefer, but some Republican conservatives are campaigning to scrap the current income tax and replace it with a national sales tax.

OIL-ENERGY

• At a time of soaring oil prices, Bush is expected to continue promoting new energy production and press Congress for laws that encourage development of traditional fossil energy sources - oil, coal and natural gas.
• He also is likely to renew his call for Congress to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalists strongly oppose drilling there.
• Look for a continued effort to make it easier to develop oil and gas on federal land. He will push Congress to require reliability standards for power lines and provide incentives for new power line construction. But he opposes enacting federal requirements for utilities to use renewable fuels, arguing that should be up to the states.
• Bush's hands-off policy on energy prices is expected to continue.
• He is likely to continue pumping oil into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve and reject calls to use the government oil except to counter a major supply disruption.

ENVIRONMENT

• Bush's top environmental priority is to rewrite air pollution laws and regulations. His agenda could be overshadowed by an international climate treaty taking effect without U.S. participation.
• He hopes finally to persuade Congress to pass his stalled "Clear Skies" plan for curtailing power plant pollution but not emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming.
• Tough court fights loom on his easing of rules that require older industrial plants and refineries to add pollution controls if they expand.
• Under court order, the EPA is due to introduce by March the first national cap on mercury emissions.
• Bush plans to cut spending on low-interest loans for local clean water projects and to seek more federal support for development of a hydrogen-fueled car.
• He also wants to overturn a Clinton-era ban on 58 million acres of roadless areas and allow logging and road-building in them unless governors petition the federal government to preserve them.
• He would keep Yellowstone National Park open to snowmobiling, despite a challenge in federal court.

Source: NBC 13 News. "Fact Sheet: Bush's Likely Agenda For Second Term." nbc13 04 11. 2004. NEWS. 11/17/2004 <http://www.nbc13.com/news/3889489/detail.html>

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