LA Mayor Derides White House In Spanish-Language Speech
By Michael R. Blood, AP Political Writer - February 1, 2006LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a nationally televised Spanish-language speech, faulted the White House Tuesday for policies he said pushed more Americans into poverty and failed to address a crisis in education.
"America can do better," the mayor said in response to President Bush's State of the Union address.
"Under this administration, 4 million people have fallen from the working class into the ranks of the poor," the mayor said. "Six million children are on the verge of failing out of school and 11 million Americans can't read a bus schedule or fill out a job application."
"I'm worried that too many hardworking Americans are earning less and losing faith. And I'm concerned that we're not investing enough in our children," he said in the address carried on the Univivision network. Excerpts of his remarks were also released before the speech.
Villaraigosa, the first Hispanic to lead Los Angeles in more than a century, was selected by Democratic leaders in Congress to deliver remarks aimed at the nation's Spanish speakers. Hispanics are the nation's largest minority group.
Although mayor of Los Angeles is a nonpartisan office, Villaraigosa is a longtime Democrat and former speaker of the California Assembly.
His speech was broadly critical of the White House on issues from the national debt to job training, but at the same time he appealed for unity to address those problems.
"Above all, Democrats want to unite this country again," he said. "We are all in this together."
Villaraigosa was one of two Democrats selected to provide the party's official response to Bush's speech. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was chosen to deliver a Democratic response in English.
Villaraigosa, a national co-chair of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 Democratic presidential campaign, is no friend of the White House. In a speech in Washington last week, he criticized the level of federal aid for the poor and tax cuts for the wealthy.
In his remarks Tuesday, Villaraigosa, the son of a Mexican immigrant, referred to his hardscrabble youth and his single mother's efforts to hold her family together. There is an obligation to help those less fortunate, he said.
He also noted that 39 percent of the nation's Latinos don't have access to health insurance.
"We can't be a healthy nation if we don't face this challenge once and for all,'' he said.
With his election last year, Villaraigosa became one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic politicians. Spanish, however, is his second language; he spoke English growing up. | 
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