President Bush has repeated his vow to work together with the new Democrat-controlled Congress on spending measures and education.
Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday some Democrats agree with him that balancing the budget is a top priority. He also called on Congress to reauthorize his "No Child Left Behind" Act, which establishes testing and benchmarks for measuring a student's progress.
Democrats say the former Republican-controlled Congress has not authorized the money needed to fully fund the law.
Meanwhile, in the Democrats' weekly response, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the southwestern state of Nevada spoke out against troop increases in Iraq that Mr. Bush is expected to announce in the coming week.
Reid called any such increases "a serious mistake." He called instead for phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq in the next four to six months.
