WASHINGTON – President Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested dispatching American troops to enforce quarantines in areas with outbreaks of the killer virus.
Bush touched on a number of his short-term priorities in a White House news conference Tuesday in the Rose Garden.
Bush said aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.
“The president ought to have all … assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant,” Bush said.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president’s suggestion an “extraordinarily draconian measure” that would be unnecessary if the nation had the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals such as Tamiflu, and did not allow the degradation of the public health system.
“The translation of this is martial law in the United States,” Redlener said.
On other topics:
* Bush acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that his plan to restructure Social Security, once his top second-term domestic priority, is nearly dead because he has been unable to build public support for it. “There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term” for dealing with Social Security, Bush said.
Earlier this year, in the face of Democratic opposition to his Social Security agenda, Bush campaigned tirelessly throughout the United States, trying to build support for his proposal to allow younger workers to create personal retirement accounts with a portion of their Social Security payroll deductions. But the effort never took off.
* On Katrina, Bush said the federal effort to help evacuees and local communities remains uneven.
He praised his administration’s success at handing out $2,000 in immediate cash assistance to some storm victims and in resolving bureaucratic hurdles that impeded the removal of the Gulf Coast’s huge piles of debris. But he said the government could “probably do a better job” arranging for temporary housing for displaced people and needed to be up to the task of retraining people to fill new jobs.
* Bush said the White House has begun the search for a replacement for Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, who plans to retire in January, but he hasn’t seen names yet.
* On the Patriot Act, Bush said. “The Patriot Act is getting results. … Parts of it are set to expire. Congress needs to recognize that terrorist threats won’t expire. And so they need to send me a bill that reauthorizes the Patriot Act.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
