IU reacts to State of the Union address

President Bush gave his annual State of the Union address Tuesday -- a day after Iowa's Democratic caucuses, and a week before New Hampshire's primaries.\nThe address was widely watched by students and faculty at IU who responded in different ways to the address.\n"He's (Bush) putting the best face on things," said IU Associate Professor of Economics Willard Witte, regarding Bush's comments on the recovering American economy. "In talking about how the economy is doing, he proposed quite a number of programs without being very specific about how he was going to pay for them." \nBush started out the night by thanking the men and women in the American military and addressed several issues regarding the war in Iraq, including his statement of the world as a "better and safer place" without Saddam Hussein.\nBush also commented on the U.S. economy, saying it is "growing stronger" despite the 2.6 million still unemployed. \nHe praised Americans for their faith in the economy and noted the pace of economic growth in the third-quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years, and home ownership rates were at their highest levels ever.\n"He said he was going to cut the deficit in half by 2008," Witte said. "Reducing the deficit in terms of proportion of economy (is possible), perhaps because the economy will be a lot bigger. \n"In the past couple years, presidents and Congress that don't believe in budgets or budget constraints are willing to spend money and not worry where it comes from. I think for the moment it's not destructive, but in the long run, it's unsustainable."\nBush took a conservative stance on several issues regarding personal values including the use of steroids by professional athletes, the promotion of abstinence to teens and the possibility of introducing an amendment barring same-sex marriages.\n"I was disappointed he chose to lift that up. What's really sad to me is it's the first sign of an amendment that has been proposed," Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender Student Support Services Office Coordinator Doug Bauder said of Bush's comments about same-sex marriage. "(If an amendment is passed) it's really going to be very alienating. It would be the first constitutional amendment that would discriminate against a group of people, and I dont think this is the time for that device to happen."\nBauder added: "I don't think marriage needs to be defined by the president. It's an institution that should be defending itself."\n-- Contact assistant copy chief Brittany Hite at bhite@indiana.edu.