Washington: Faced with a widely unpopular war in Iraq and a Democratic Congress, President Bush urged lawmakers to work with him to "achieve big things for the American people," in his State of the Union address.
"Our citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on, as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done," Bush said on Tuesday night.
"Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans, and help them to build a future of hope and opportunity - and this is the business before us tonight."
The President announced a raft of health care, energy and environmental proposals in the 50-minute speech, which began at 2100 hrs US time.
Poll numbers indicate he faces an uphill battle as voters 2-to-1 are dissatisfied with his leadership.
Bush said he wants to balance the federal budget without raising taxes.
"In the coming weeks, I will submit a budget that eliminates the federal deficit within the next five years."
Bush also said he wants to do away with earmarks attached to legislation, which in 2005 accounted for $18 billion in taxpayer money.
Cutting dependence on oil
The US should reduce gasoline consumption by 20 per cent over 10 years, he said.
The President's plan includes tightening fuel economy standards on automakers and producing 35 billion gallons of renewable fuel such as ethanol by 2017, he said.
One official has said the moves would be equivalent to taking 26 million vehicles off US roads.
"For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists - who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy," Bush said.
"It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply -- and the way forward is through technology."
Bush repeated his call for Congress to give him the power to set average fuel-economy standards for passenger cars, as his administration now does for light trucks.
The current standard of 27.5 miles per gallon was last raised in 1990.
The President has used his annual address to Congress to call for cleaner, greener energy in previous years.
In 2003, Bush proposed $1.2 billion in new spending on hydrogen fuel research and offered a 22 per cent increase in alternative fuel research money in 2006, when he declared the United States was "addicted to oil."
But in 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency conceded that emissions went up in the two years since Bush vowed to cut them by 18 per cent over 10 years.
The EPA blamed the increase on greater economic growth.
A 'broader struggle' on terrorism
The President addressed Iraq largely in the framework of a "broader struggle" against terrorism, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.
However, he warned Congress and the nation that the consequences of failure in the nearly four-year-old war "would be grievous and far reaching."
Iraq was a smaller part of the speech in part because Bush addressed the nation less than two weeks ago to announce that he was sending more than 21,000 additional troops to Baghdad and the country's western province of Anbar, Hadley said.
Bush said that enemies of the United States and its allies are "on the offense" and realise "that the days of comfortable sanctuary, easy movement, steady financing, and free-flowing communications are long over."
He also touched on the plan he announced earlier this month to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.
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"Our military commanders and I have carefully weighed the options. We discussed every possible approach. In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance of success," the excerpts of the speech read.
"Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq -- because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far reaching."
"The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. That is why it is important to work together so our nation can see this great effort through."
Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb, who will give the Democratic response to Bush's address, said at a briefing on Tuesday afternoon that the administration has no plan that has "an end point ... where the American military will be off the streets of Iraq."
"The difficulty many of us have had for a long time is that there is not a clearly understandable plan from the administration," Webb said.
Democrats chose Webb to deliver the response in part because he's a Vietnam veteran and former Republican secretary of the Navy whose Marine son is deployed in Iraq. His surprise victory over former Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia helped lock up Democratic control of the Senate.
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Tuesday afternoon that Bush "should have thought about the consequences of failure before he went into Iraq."
"We need to end this misadventure in Iraq," Dean said on CNN's The Situation Room.
"We need to do it carefully and thoughtfully - we can't bring the troops all home at once - but we need to go in the opposite direction from where the president wants to take the country," he said.
A healthier health care system
The President previewed his major health-care proposal in his weekend radio address: a proposed tax deduction for up to $15,000 in health insurance premiums, coupled with a tax penalty for premiums over that amount.
But the idea is already playing to mixed reviews, with many wondering how the plan - which would turn health benefits into taxable income - would extend coverage to tens of millions of people without health insurance.
"They're already having problems explaining it," one senior Republican strategist said of the White House. "The President is going to have to explain it very well."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the plan will "unleash market forces" to drive down costs for an estimated 100 million Americans.
"What you are likely to get is the kind of competition everybody expects everywhere else, and finally some hope in health care so that people can get service they want and maybe in a way they want," he told CNN's American Morning.
Democrats, however, charge that turning health benefits into taxable income will raise the taxes of millions of Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Bush's plan would hurt people who have health insurance.
"I think if we ask anyone in America today... if we oughta, in effect, punish people because they have great insurance, I don't think they'd agree with that," Reid said Tuesday.
Immigration reform
Bush took the opportunity to again push his idea of a temporary worker program and treat those who want to come to America "without animosity and without amnesty."
"We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis," he said.
Bush's temporary worker program would make it less likely that immigrants would try to "sneak in" across the border, in turn leaving "border agents free to chase down drug smugglers, and criminals, and terrorists," he said.
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