Former President George W. Bush delivered a rare public speech Tuesday, in which he called for lower taxes and lower spending to get the ailing US economy back on track — a plan completely opposed to the one supported by President Obama.

Bush was speaking at the New York Historical Society at a George W. Bush Presidential Center’s conference on “Tax Policies For Four Percent Growth.”

“I don’t think it’s good for our country to undermine our president and I don’t intend to do so,” the former president said, explaining his decision to stay out of the media spotlight since leaving office.

The speech came as the White House said that taxes for America’s highest earners have fallen sharply since 1995 — ahead of a speech by Obama on fairness in the tax code that is a key part of his campaign for re-election.

The White House estimated the 400 highest income households in the country, who all earned more than $110 million, paid an average of 18.1 percent of their income in federal taxes in 2007, well down for 29.9 percent those households paid in 1995.

Obama travels to Florida on Tuesday where he will urge support for the Buffett Rule, named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, that calls for people making more than $1 million a year to pay more in tax than middle-class families.

But Bush said the best remedy for economic growth was leaving capital in the hands of job creators, according to Forbes magazine.

He also lamented the fact that the tax cuts he instituted while in office, and set to expire on Dec. 31, 2012, had his name attached to them.

“I wish they weren’t called the ‘Bush tax cuts,'” he said, noting they would be less likely to be raised if they were named after somebody else.

He explained that the US should have a singular focus on private sector growth to turn the economy around.

“The pie grows, the debt relative to the pie shrinks and with fiscal discipline you can solve your deficits,” he told the audience.

Asked whether he missed being president, Bush acknowledged that it did have some advantages.

“I really don’t,” he said, before noting that “it was really inconvenient having to stop at stop lights [on the way to the event]. I guess I miss that.”

(Source: Newscore)