President to offer economic vision in speech

BILLINGS, Montana (CNN) -- In what is being billed as a major policy address, President Bush will try Tuesday to offer a "more cogent and coherent" explanation of his economic vision -- one that weaves together his tax, energy and trade policies, presidential aides said Monday.

The speech will frame the tax-cut debate in ways that reinforce the president's push for long-term tax relief, aides said. The White House fears the clamor in the Senate to cut taxes immediately by about $60 billion is getting ahead of Bush's proposal to cut taxes for the next 10 years by $1.6 trillion.

"People are not going to decide to buy a house or start a new business based on a one-year tax cut," said one aide. "They need long-term confidence to make long-term decisions."

In a speech to be given in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the president will embrace the move to provide an immediate tax cut but not at the expense of swift consideration of his overall tax plan, one aide said. "Short-term relief is good but this is a long-term problem that needs long-term solutions."

The other purpose of the speech is to address criticism that Bush has occasionally been too pessimistic about the state of the economy.

Aides said the president wants to link his push for tax cuts to issues the president believes will affect economic growth --- boosting domestic energy supplies and expanding free trade.

The president's current stump speech summarizes the spending priorities in his budget, extols his plans to pay down debt and makes a case for a 10-year, across-the-board tax cut. In the speech, Bush touts increases in education and defense spending as priorities and criticizes Congress for resisting his efforts to hold overall domestic discretionary spending growth to 4 percent.

In the Michigan speech, the president will try to reach beyond these topics and explain the importance of tax cuts, increasing domestic energy production and expanding free trade. The three fit together, the president will say, because they will all shield businesses and consumers from economic hardships, according to aides.

White House officials said the president will argue that lower taxes will boost long-term spending power and confidence, larger energy supplies will shield consumers and businesses from price fluctuations, and expanded markets will give businesses access to new consumers.

"The whole speech is designed to tie all three legs of the president's economic philosophy together," a senior adviser said. "We wanted to present it in a more cogent and coherent way."

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