Bush: Economic recovery will take time
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush said Saturday that it will take time for the impact of his administration's attempts to revive the economy to become apparent.
Bush said during his weekly Presidential Radio Address that government efforts like the recent $250 billion bank bailout plan will help the struggling economy, but their "full impact" will not be readily apparent.
"The federal government has responded to this crisis with systematic and aggressive measures to protect the financial security of the American people," the president said. "These actions will take more time to have their full impact. But they are big enough and bold enough to work."
Bush also defended his administration's controversial efforts to buy shares in U.S. banks to help shore up the country's economic system.
"As a strong believer in free markets, I would oppose such measures under ordinary circumstances. But these are no ordinary circumstances," Bush said. "Had the government not acted, the hole in our financial system would have grown larger, families and businesses would have had an even tougher time getting loans, and ultimately the government would have been forced to respond with even more drastic and costly measures later on."
Emanuel: Democrats want to help workers
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel said Saturday that his fellow Democrats want to help the working class in the United States.
The congressman from Illinois said during the weekly Democratic Radio Address that by helping U.S. workers, Democratic leaders like U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama will fix the struggling economy, a release from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said.
"Democrats know the middle class is struggling. That's why Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats want to target tax cuts to 95 percent of working Americans," Emanuel said. "We believe that the way to make even more Americans wealthy is to target our economic policies to the middle class -- the families who drive this economy."
The House official also took time to slam President George Bush and Obama's electoral rival, Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain, during his radio broadcast.
"Republicans like President Bush and Senator McCain have a different view. They believe a few investors drive our economy," Emanuel said. "That's why the Bush tax cuts showered billions on a select few. You know what happened next: the prosperity never trickled down. But the pain caused by rising costs and smaller paychecks certainly did."
Pelosi: Funding holding back Democrats
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Democrats could control more than 250 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives next year with better funding, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says.
The Democratic representative from California said that while she expects her party to win additional House seats next year, she is convinced Democrats could expand their congressional reach with additional funding, The Hill reported.
"I have many more races I could win if I had endless money, but I budgeted for a certain amount," Pelosi said Thursday. "We're right on target for that."
Pelosi said due to financial limitations, her party would be focusing its funds on a limited number of congressional races.
The House speaker also said she and her fellow House Democrats are seeking a second economic stimulus package and called on Bush to support such attempts to aid the struggling economy.
"We have to convince the president, President Bush, that such a stimulus package -- we're calling it a recovery package -- is needed, because so far he has not been favorably inclined toward it," she said.
Report: N. Korean diplomats await news
SEOUL, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A top North Korean source Saturday discounted reports that North Korean diplomats abroad have been told to stay near their embassies to await important news.
"I've not heard anything of importance from the embassies in Beijing or New York. I do not think anything of importance is happening," said Kim Myong Chol, who heads the Center for U.S.-North Korea Peace.
Reports in Japan's Yomiuri newspaper that an important announcement is forthcoming from Pyongyang prompted speculation Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died, or that Pyongyang is severing its fragile ties with South Korea.
Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University, said the announcement may not be about Kim's health, The Daily Telegraph reported.
"If he was dead," Shigemura said, "the North Koreans would have sealed the borders and not be letting anyone in or out, just as they did when his father, Kim Il-sung, died."
Thousands pay respects to Austria's Haider
KLAGENFURT, Austria, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Thousands of people attended a memorial service Saturday for right-wing Austrian leader Jorg Haider, who died in a car crash last weekend, officials said.
The service for the late leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Future of Austria was attended by Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
Critics say local authorities in the Austrian state of Carinthia are giving Haider a send-off fit for a hero, even though many have labeled him a neo-Nazi, and police say he was drunk at the time of his high-speed crash, the BBC said.
Reports that such high-profile European right-wingers as Alessandra Mussolini and Jean-Marie Le Pen were coming to the funeral in the city of Klagenfurt proved unfounded, Deutsche Welle reported.
There has also been uneasiness among some Austrians that the country's political establishment have given Haider, 58, too much post-mortem praise. Haider caused much divisiveness in Austria and Europe thanks to his controversial anti-immigration policies and his labeling of refugees as "criminals." He was also well known for praising wartime Nazi SS officers, the BBC said.
