U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud of East Millinocket on Saturday used his experiences as a paper mill worker in Maine to deliver a sharply worded response to President Bush’s weekly radio address.

Maine’ junior congressman, speaking for the Democratic Party, asserted in his national speech that the Bush administration has put the interests of ordinary Americans behind those of wealthy corporations and cost the nation jobs.

“Sometimes I wonder if anyone in this administration has actually met any of the people they claim to be working for – people like the hardworking, struggling families I represent in northern Maine,” Michaud said in his response, broadcast on hundreds of network stations.

“I wonder if they personally know anyone who punches a clock every morning and runs a machine all day, people who love their families, live up to their responsibilities, follow all the rules and still wake up one day without a job, without a pension, unable to pay for their health care or their children’s college education,” he said.

Michaud questioned Bush’s claim of job growth, noting that 1,000 new American jobs were created in December, whereas “during the Clinton administration the economy added about 1,000 jobs every three hours.”

Michaud criticized Bush for leaving out many of Maine’s neediest residents in three straight years of federal tax cuts. He focused much of his talk on job creation, which has been sluggish despite a revived economy.

He told the nation about the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket and the mass layoffs when the paper mills closed last year with little warning.

“If the people in this administration actually knew these Americans,” Michaud said of average working families, “surely they would do better by them. It is a simple question of priorities. I believe that, as a nation, our most important priorities must be ensuring the safety of our country and expanding opportunity for all Americans.

“What makes America great,” he continued, “is not just the possibility of individual wealth, but our commitment to our commonwealth – a commitment to jobs that provide dignity and decent wages.”

Michaud was asked by leadership if he would deliver the response. He said Saturday he didn’t ask why, but assumed it was because he has been talking about jobs since being elected to the House in 2002.

His background as a millworker for 30 years also draws a stark contrast with the president, whose family summers in Maine, and gives his message an authenticity that other representatives don’t share, Michaud said.

“I was just thrilled to do it,” Michaud said, “and extremely pleased and delighted to be asked, particularly being a freshman from the 2nd District. It’s definitely an honor. If you look at my background compared to other members of Congress, I think I am in a unique situation to deliver that message. Anytime you can speak from the heart, it makes a big difference.”

Michaud recorded his response from a Presque Isle radio station. He and his staff wrote most of the text.

“It’s what I’ve been saying all along,” he said.

Bush’s radio address on Saturday served as a warm-up to his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, in which he plans to update Americans on the war on terror, the economy and new initiatives he will pursue in the months leading up to his re-election bid.

The president framed his tax cut policy far differently from Michaud, asserting that the sweeping tax cuts have “helped turn our economy around [and] cut taxes for everyone who pays income taxes.”

While Bush noted that the child care credit was doubled, Michaud was unimpressed.

“Some of the people in greatest need in northern Maine were wholly excluded from the child tax credit – the one piece of the bill that was supposed to help working families – because they don’t make enough money.”

An estimated 21,000 working Maine families, “who pay taxes but struggle to pay the bills, were left out in the cold” under Bush’s tax relief plans, Michaud said.

Michaud served 14 years in the Maine House and eight in the Senate. He was elected Maine Senate president in 2000 and ran for the U.S. House in 2002 after being barred from a fifth term as senator under the state’s term limits law.