The list of challenges United States President George W. Bush faces as he prepares to take the oath of office for the second time is endless.
The elections in Iraq to be held at the end of the month. The struggle against terrorism. A daring overhaul of social security. There are more.
“I’m rested and ready to continue to be your president,” Bush has often said.
Are his goals too ambitious?
Even some Republicans wonder, given that the president, whose inauguration is on Thursday, has just a year or so before he effectively becomes a lame duck. By Bush’s own account, he has 18 months to move his agenda through Congress.
All this does not take into consideration unexpected crises.
Bush's plans could “encounter a fairly substantial wall of opposition – both from the Democrats and from the circumstances he faces when he takes his hand off the Bible,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.
In the short term, Bush must prepare his inaugural and State of the Union speeches, appoint a new national intelligence director and submit his 2006 budget to Congress.
Bush must keep also close watch on Iraq’s election and on efforts to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after the recent Palestinian presidential elections.
For Bush, his second-term priorities are “to win the war on terror and do everything we can to protect our homeland” and then “continue to work to spread democracy”.
Domestically, he has suggested that his No. 1 goal is overhauling social security.
But his idea to set up voluntary private investment accounts for younger workers in exchange for reducing guaranteed benefits in the future is drawing strong opposition. Lining up against it are Democrats and the AARP, which represents 35 million older people, as well as Republicans who support private accounts but oppose benefit cuts.
The Social Security fight could be the biggest involving a domestic programme since the 1993-94 battle over the Clinton administration’s failed health care plan.
Bush has also has suggested rewriting income tax laws, limiting medical malpractice and class-action jury awards, allowing oil exploration in Alaska wildlife areas, and a “guest worker” immigration plan.
Bush pledges “to work to cut our deficit in half over the next five years,” yet in four years as president has not vetoed a single bill. He promises to send Congress a “tough budget” to put the government on a deficit-reduction path.
Partisan divide in Congress is wide. Consider how Senate Democrats hounded Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, over his role as White House counsel in developing terror-interrogation policies. Also, some Democrats delayed Congress’ formal electoral vote for Bush’s second-term victory to protest voting irregularities in Ohio.
On foreign affairs, there are many sceptics when it comes to US policy on Iraq and elsewhere. Bush must also deal with the nuclear aspirations of Iran and North Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Bush will be meeting next month, is consolidating power and moving Moscow away from democratic reforms, presenting a new challenge for Bush.
The US economic outlook is more upbeat. The continuing slide in the dollar or a new surge in oil prices could drive up interest rates and inflation but for now both seem subdued. The unemployment rate in America is down almost a percentage point over the past 18 months. The government and private forecasters expect the economic recovery to continue. The millions of job losses during the early part of Bush’s presidency have all but evaporated. The Labour Department said 2.2 million new jobs were created in 2004, bringing to just 122,000 the net loss of jobs so far in Bush’s first term.