Vice President Dick Cheney paid a visit to Wisconsin Friday, speaking to Wisconsinites about the state’s “strong” economy and the need for less government and expanded free trade to keep it that way.

Visiting Milwaukee, Green Bay and also stopping by the small blue-collar town of Wrightstown, Cheney spoke about the Bush Administration’s record, crediting the Bush tax cuts with adding 300,000 American jobs in March and creating an economic growth rate of 4.2 percent.

“The federal government’s job is not to manage or control the economy, but to remove obstacles standing in the way of faster growth,” Cheney said during a speech in Wrightstown. “The key to more jobs is not more government, but free enterprise, and low taxes, and spending discipline in Washington, D.C.”

Cheney claimed since Bush has taken office, more than 2.1 million Wisconsin taxpayers have seen their income taxes reduced and more than 440,000 small-business owners in the state have enjoyed a lower federal tax burden. He also argued Wisconsin families have benefited from the Bush tax cuts, saying more than 710,000 married Wisconsin couples are now relieved from the marriage penalty and more than 520,000 families here gained the child tax credit.

The vice president said to ensure that Wisconsin businesses and families continue to thrive, tax cuts made under Bush must be made permanent.

“Families and entrepreneurs need to be able to plan for the future. But under current law, many of the tax cuts we’ve enacted are set to expire a few years down the road. We need to remove that uncertainty. For the sake of jobs, and for the sake of American families, Congress needs to make the Bush tax cuts permanent,” he said.

Democrats, however, allege the vice president’s optimism about a healthy Wisconsin economy is unfounded.

“Under the Bush campaign, 83,000 jobs have been lost in Wisconsin,” Mike Pfohl, chair of Wisconsin College Democrats, said.

Pfohl also noted the economy’s effect on students.

“The Bush economy is not helping students,” he said, adding there are currently more college graduates who are unemployed than there are high-school dropouts in the United States.

Cheney did not directly address the situation in Iraq, though he testified before the 9/11 Commission with President Bush the day before his visit. Pfohl said the administration’s refusal to directly address progress in the war on terror reveals their policies have failed.

“I think it’s quite clear that Bush and Cheney are becoming a little desperate because the war is going poorly, the economy is going poorly,” he said, adding Bush’s refusal to visit Madison shows the president is afraid of confronting anti-war voters.

Cheney visits the state one month after President Bush made a similar stop in Appleton to speak on the economy. Although both trips are officially not part of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, many experts claim Wisconsin is being targeted by the administration to gain votes for the president in the fall.

Wisconsin is considered a swing state in the upcoming election due to the close contest here during the 2000 race. Although Gore won Wisconsin’s delegates, Bush lost the state by no more than 6,000 votes, or fewer than one vote per ward.