American Duties 1 of 11

Leading into the New Year, this site is going to highlight some of Bush's thinking each day. This information has been made possible thanks to an address that he gave at the Eisenhower Building on Monday. Here's a recap of accomplishments in 2004 that he stated in his address:

The United States grew in prosperity, enhanced our security and served the cause of freedom and peace.

Nation's entrepreneurs generated more than 2 million jobs in this year alone contributing to a solid footing that was gained in our economy.

Signed new legislation that continues and will work towards the essential reorganization of our government by improving the nation's intelligence operations making our intelligence enterprise more unified, coordinated and effective than ever before and the American people more secure as a result.

Our country became safer because of the historic changes that occurred in the world in places like Afghanistan.

Brought the first presidential election in the 5,000-year history of Afghanistan making the government of President Hamid Karzai a steadfast ally in the war on terror.

America and our coalition put a strategy in place to aid the rise of a stable democracy in Iraq.

And people in uniform and our military families made many sacrifices for our country and served proudly.

Bush pointed out what he will do for the future:

Reform systems that were created to meet the needs of another era like the outdated tax code, which will soon have a citizens panel to recommend ways of transformation.

Work with the new Congress to make health care more accessible and affordable, to reform the legal system, to raise standards of achievement in public schools, especially our high schools, and to fix the Social Security system for our children and our grandchildren.

Submit a budget that fits the times.

Provide every tool and resource for our military. Protect the homeland and meet other priorities of the government.

Draft a budget that will maintain strict discipline in the spending of tax dollars and keep our commitment to cutting the deficit in half over five years.

Continue to work towards a functioning democracy in Iraq

Bush has a lot to be proud of this year especially since he kept the White House under his rule. He clearly won the election because he had the popular vote and the electoral votes needed to be President. I believe I speak for all Americans when I say, we hope that all of your tasks for the future are completed or at least we hope significant progress are made in those areas that you wish to focus in on.

And now, in the following days...we will follow 10 areas that Bush answered questions on when he was at the Eisenhower Building on Monday. When we finish, the New Year will be here. All the accomplishments of 2004 will become a thing of the past and the future will become a top priority for the Bush administration.