http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/08/ ... rce001.cfm

Published: Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Commerce chief backs Bush plan
During a visit in Everett, Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says the president's immigration reforms are crucial to the economy.

By Jerry Cornfield
Herald Writer


EVERETT - The nation's surging economy can absorb the costs of the Iraq war and should not be the reason used by Congress to set an "artificial timetable to cut and run" from that country, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez told the Herald on Tuesday.

But the economy cannot sustain its current rate of growth without the labor of undocumented workers, which is a reason for legislators to reform immigration laws, he said.

"We do need to import labor to fill jobs that Americans are not available or not willing to do," he said.

Gutierrez's comments came in a phone interview following appearances in Everett and Seattle.

At the Everett Events Center, Gutierrez addressed 100 people at a fundraising event for Mike McGavick, the Republican seeking to unseat incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

Gutierrez described a booming economy abetted by the tax cuts and trade policies engineered by the Bush Administration.

There have been 13 quarters of growth, unemployment is at its lowest in three decades, household income is up and productivity is at an all-time high, he said.

"The American people have the right to know. They should be very proud of what they've accomplished," he said.

"The challenge is how do we keep the growth going" in the face of politicians who oppose tax relief and seek protectionist trade policies, he said.

He praised Congress for extending the president's slate of tax cuts and criticized those who recently voted against a bill to reduce the estate tax and increase the minimum wage. Cantwell voted against that bill, citing a provision she claimed would hurt some of the state's minimum-wage workers.

He did not discuss immigration or the Iraq war while in Everett.

But in the interview, he spoke of President Bush's support for a comprehensive bill to improve border security, establish a guest-worker program and provide a path for citizenship for the millions of undocumented children and adults now living in this country.

House and Senate members have thus far failed to agree on a bill to achieve those goals.

President Bush will be firm in trying to foment action by Congress when members return after Labor Day, said Gutierrez, a Cuban native who was appointed to his post in 2005.

Gutierrez is the first of four Republican stalwarts stumping for McGavick in Washington in the coming week.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao will be in Puyallup on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., will be in Vancouver, Wash., on Friday and the president's wife, Laura Bush, will headline events in Bellevue and Kennewick on Aug. 30.

Gutierrez's arrival drew Bob and Carole Rae of Mill Creek and a half dozen other Democrats protesting the Bush administration's effort to redesign Social Security.

Bob Rae, 76, and Carole Rae, 72, each said they oppose privatizing the federal program because it will deplete the supply of future revenues for their children and grandchildren.

"It is a total robbery," Bob Rae said.

When McGavick arrived, he spoke briefly with Carole Rae.

"I would never cut your Social Security," he told her.

After he walked off, she said she didn't believe him.

"Oh, baloney, I know differently," she said.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.