From President Bush’s speech about his second term accomplishments and priorities:

I want to thank former Senator John Breaux from Louisiana for joining us. John, thanks for being here. I asked Breaux to help out on simplifying the tax code. It needs to be simplified, and — Looking forward to seeing your report.  But thanks for serving….

Our tax relief plan is working….

You know, some have questioned in Washington whether or not you can cut taxes and increase revenues for the Treasury. Well, I don’t know if you saw the report that came out — recently came out. It showed that the federal deficit is projected to be $94 billion less than previously expected. And that’s because revenues are catching up. And the reason revenues are catching up is because the tax cuts stimulated economic vitality and growth all across the country.  I laid out a goal for the Congress to work with the administration to cut the deficit in half by 2009, and we’re ahead of pace to realize that goal….

I told you about old Johnny Breaux and his tax reform. When Congress gets back, I think they ought to do two things. One, I think they ought to make the tax cuts we passed permanent.  And that includes getting rid of the death tax forever.  And as I mentioned, I’m looking forward to — to the tax simplification ideas. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s necessary. And John is a good man, and he’ll work with his fellow citizens on that panel, both Republicans and Democrats, to propose some interesting ideas for the administration and Congress to look at. It’s important. It’s a big idea, and it’s a necessary idea.