Bush Takes Economic Message to New Hampshire

Bush Takes Economic Message to New Hampshire

Scott Stearns

President Bush is in New Hampshire to talk about the economy, two days after Democrats 1 wrapped-up their presidential primary in the key New England state.

Mr. Bush returned to a drab office park south of the state capital where he campaigned three years ago when running for the Republican nomination 2. He lost that New Hampshire primary by 18 points.

This time, Mr. Bush came back to the financial services firm Fidelity 3 Investments as an incumbent 4 with no serious challengers within the party and a victory in this week's largely over-looked Republican primary.

The president won 85 percent of the votes cast, but with no credible 5 opposition 6, most of the state's attention was focused on the Democratic primary where neighboring Senator John Kerry added to his momentum 7 from the Iowa caucus 8.

While President Bush has raised close to $200 million for this campaign, he has still not officially declared his candidacy, saying he is too focused on his job as president.

The "conversation on the economy" here was billed as a presidential event, not a political stop. As with all sitting presidents, that allows the campaign to split the cost of the trip with the government as it also includes a separate political fundraiser.

Introduced to a cheering crowd in Fidelity's company cafeteria, Mr. Bush spoke 9 only briefly 10 about this week's primaries. "It's nice to be back. I understand there has been some activity in the state of New Hampshire recently."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan deflected 12 questions about the timing 13 of this trip, saying Mr. Bush takes his message to people across the country. The economy is one of the president's highest priorities, Mr. McClellan says, and it's a high priority for the people of New Hampshire as well.

President Bush reminded the crowd that the recent recession began under President Clinton and got worse following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Times were tough. The people of New Hampshire know what I am talking about. When that recession came, it was awfully 14 hard for some people to be able to do their duty as a mom or a dad to put food on the table because their work wasn't steady. And they were worried about employment if they were working at all."

Democrats are challenging the president on the loss of almost three million jobs since he took office. Mr. Bush is responding by calling on Congress to make his record tax cuts permanent, because he says that will give businesses more money to hire more workers. "The economy is growing. People are finding work. There is an excitement in our economy. And the tax relief we passed made sense then. It makes sense now, and Congress needs to make this tax relief permanent."

Democrats say those tax cuts unfairly favor the rich and are driving-up huge federal deficits 16. With the conflict in Iraq fading as a political issue for now, both sides are focusing more on a struggling economy.

注释：

New Hampshire [nju: 5hAmpFiE] n. 新罕布什尔州，美国东北部一个州，位于佛蒙特和缅因之间。

wrap-up  v. 包装

primary [5praimEri] n. 初选，预选

drab [drAb] adj. 土褐色的，单调的

Fidelity Investments  富达投资集团，全球最大的独立基金管理集团。

incumbent [in5kQmbEnt] n. 任职者

neighboring [5neibEriN] adj. 邻近的

Iowa [5aiEwE] n. 爱荷华州，美国中西部的一州。

caucus [5kC:kEs] n. 政党核心会议

candidacy [5kAndidEsi] n. 候选人的地位，候选资格

bill [bil] vt. 用海报宣传

sitting [5sitiN] adj. 在任的

fundraiser [5fQnd7reizE] n. 筹款人

cafeteria [5kAfi5tiEriE] n. 自助餐厅

deflect 11 [dI5flekt] v. 偏离，使转向

employment [im5plCimEnt] n. 工作，职业

permanent [5pE:mEnEnt] adj. 永久的，持久的

make sense  有意义

favor [5feivE] vt. 有利于

drive-up v. 抬高，迫使……上升

deficit 15 [5defisit] n. 赤字，不足额

fade [feid] v. 减弱