Bush lands at Boeing Field on way to fund-raiser

Seattle Times staff and news services

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Air Force One landed at Boeing Field around 3:30, and the presidential motorcade left shortly afterward. Bush made no statement.

Bush was expected to meet with company officials and employees at Boeing, and he may have something to say about European government subsidies for Boeing's nemesis, Airbus.

Bush and rival John Kerry are both in the Northwest. Kerry, flanked by rock star and actor John Bon Jovi, drew a crowd estimated at 30,000 for a stump speech at a Portland riverfront park.

Bush was attending a small business conference in Beaverton, Ore., where he surrounded himself with small business owners and touted his economic policies.

Bush acknowledged Oregon's high jobless rate, but said the economy was recovering in the Northwest and nationwide.

He took a jab at Kerry, who earlier in the day, speaking to a small group in Springfield, Ore., had called for rolling back tax breaks for the rich in order to pay for health care and education.

"Here's a fellow who has made $2.2 trillion in new promises, and we still have September and October to go," Bush said. "When you start running up those tax rates on individuals, the people who start paying are small businesses."

Outside the school, about 300 people protested Bush's handling of the Iraq war and of the economy. They were separated from the school by a chainlink fence with razor wire on top and by police wearing helmets and carrying batons.

Meanwhile, in Springfield, Kerry seized on a Congressional Budget Office study showing that one-third of the benefit from Bush tax cuts went to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, shifting more of the tax burden to middle-income taxpayers.

"Government is not supposed to make choices that favor just the powerful special interests, the people with the money who can go to Washington and have access average people can't have,'' Kerry said.
 
Kerry has promised to roll back tax cuts for households making more than $200,000.

Earlier today, Bush announced $15 million in federal funding to dredge and deepen a 100-mile stretch of the Columbia River to make room for larger vessels.

Recent polls have shown Kerry ahead in Washington and Oregon by a growing margin.

A Republican hasn't won the presidential vote in Washington since 1984. Most GOP candidates since then hardly could be bothered to try.

A fund-raiser is the only thing on Bush's agenda in Puget Sound. He will be in Medina at corporate executive Gary Reed's house. The campaign hopes to raise $1.75 million there.

So far this year, state donors have given Bush more than $2.7 million, according to the latest figures available. That puts Washington 20th on the list of most lucrative states for Bush campaign cash.

Washington has also been a major source for the Democrats, and Kerry is scheduled to return to Seattle later this month.