Bush marks Labor Day with call for nuclear energy, lower taxes -

PINEY POINT, United States (AFP) - US
President George W. Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President George W. Bush marked Labor Day with a call for lower taxes and expanding nuclear power to ease US dependence on foreign oil.
"So to make sure that we're the economic leader of the world, we've got to keep taxes low," Bush said in a speech at a maritime training center here.
"We ought to make the tax relief permanent," he said.
In May, the US Congress renewed for two years a package of tax cuts supported by the president.
Bush also urged more use of nuclear power, calling it a safe and clean alternative to fossil fuels.
"In my judgment, this country ought to continue to expand nuclear power if we want to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy," he said. "Nuclear power is safe, nuclear power is clean, and nuclear power is renewable."
Bush also championed the use of ethanol as an US-made alternative to gasoline.
There have been no new nuclear power plants built in the United States since a 1979 accident at Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. The country's 20-some plants produce about 20 percent of US electricity, much less than coal.
In the United States, Labor Day traditionally marks the unofficial end of summer and the start of intense campaigning before the November elections.
Bush and Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Elaine Chao touted the strength of the US economy on Labor Day, citing the country's unemployment rate of 4.7 percent.
Union leaders, however, said that living standards were slipping amid rising health care costs and reduced pensions.
"We're in a health care crisis deeper than anyone could have imagined. And many working people worry whether they can ever retire," John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the country's largest grouping of unions, said in a statement